Due to work and other responsibilities, I have not paid much attention to photography in say the past fifteen to twenty years. My generation grew up with Life and Look and Eugene Smith, Vietnam managed our consciousness for a while. Poverty and race in the South forced the world into another picture. So where are we today? Any Smiths still out there? As I look through my book collection and even personal photographs of the time, a certain grittiness appears. Store fronts and people of another time, often run down and missing Photoshop. Today I see colors I never see in life, scenes that appear a bit unreal, and just maybe that is the idea. I have to say without Adobe's products I would never have attempted to scan the hundreds of black and whites and color slides as dust and that darn agitation is such a pita. If only the chemical darkroom were this easy - but I still love the contrast of Tri x shot with a Leica. I put my 3F to sleep though.
So who's out there doing social photography today? Names? Browsing Jonathan Green's 'American Photography,' the chapter 'The Americans: Politics and Alienation' brought back a conflict that seems to never end even as it changed.
from book:
'Port Gibson, Mississippi; in front of the Highschool September 1955'
"Kids: What are you doing here? Are you from New York?
Me: I'm just taking pictures.
Kids: Why?
Me: For myself - just to see.
Kids: He must be a communist. He looks like one. Why don't you go to the other side of town and watch the ******* play?"
Robert Frank, 'The Lines of my Hand,' 1972
"Stare. It's the way to educate your eyes. Pry, Listen, Eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." Walker Evans
So who's out there doing social photography today? Names? Browsing Jonathan Green's 'American Photography,' the chapter 'The Americans: Politics and Alienation' brought back a conflict that seems to never end even as it changed.
from book:
'Port Gibson, Mississippi; in front of the Highschool September 1955'
"Kids: What are you doing here? Are you from New York?
Me: I'm just taking pictures.
Kids: Why?
Me: For myself - just to see.
Kids: He must be a communist. He looks like one. Why don't you go to the other side of town and watch the ******* play?"
Robert Frank, 'The Lines of my Hand,' 1972
"Stare. It's the way to educate your eyes. Pry, Listen, Eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." Walker Evans