“untitled at the moment”

Seeing that the Impassioned Eye was already taken from Cartier-Bresson’s film, Stieglitz’ people had to settle with The Eloquent Eye.  Stieglitz began making images at the beginning of the 20th Century to document the New York that was in transition.  His goal was to make photography a work of art.  An early member of the Pictoralist movement, Stieglitz started the Photo Secession, a group of photographers who he felt were the best at that time.  Soon after came the publication of his magazine Camera Work and the opening of his gallery at 291 5th Ave.

The gallery originally showcased work from European painters and artists.  Picasso was awarded his first US show there.  Soon, the gallery focus solely on American artists and within that group only one photographer, Paul Strand.  A new face emerged in the group, a face of a woman by the name of Georgia O’Keefe.  Stieglitz fell for O’Keefe and eventually they married.

Stieglitz picked his camera up again and began making pictures of O’Keefe.  Through the images of O’Keefe, Stieglitz’ goal was to make a composite portrait of one person…every mood…every body part.

The bookstore at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has the best selection of photography books north of NYC.  Often times they receive remainder and overstock books from various publishers and you are able to get new books at deep discounts.  As a big photo book collector, I usually visit the store at least once a month.
Yesterday as I poked around the bookstore, I was able to track down a copy of Andre Kertesz: The Polaroids.  After the death of his wife, Kertesz became depressed and was at a point in which he never thought he’d pick a camera up again.  These images are all mostly still life images with the NYC skyline as his backdrop.  Each image is touching, full of love and carefully arranged.

The images in this book are all made with a Polaroid SX-70 camera.  This, in my opinion, was the best camera ever to come off a Polaroid assembly line.

The production value of the documentary Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye rivaled the previous documentary I watched on Kertesz.  This 72 minute story explores the life of one of the most influential photographers  who helped shape the world of documentary and photojournalistic photography.  Using the camera and his eye to capture the ‘decisive moment’, Cartier-Bresson was able to tell stories with a single image.  He stated that the foundation of many of these images were based on geometry and structure.  When flipping through stacks of prints on his desk he then said, “I’ve never been able to enlarge a photo…I’m just interested in the shot.”

For someone who traveled the globe roaming the streets in the name of photography, Cartier-Bresson was a private person and looked rather camera-shy as he spoke.  One thing I noticed in the film was when he would play classical music in his apartment, his eyes would follow the beats and rhythm of the music and it seemed to bring a pulse of energy into his body.

Later in life, he put down his camera and began to draw again.  This is what he would do until his death in 2004.

“Photos are like a stab of the knife…paintings are meditation.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson

This morning I watched, Master’s of Photography: Andre Kertesz, a documentary about The Father of 35mm Photography.  Hungarian born, then re-born in the artistic scenes of Paris, Kertesz began making pictures of his brother and his friends in the countrysides of Hungary as a young man.  After serving in World War I, he decided to follow his passion into photography.  Dubbed The Photographer’s Photographer, he began to capture the human condition of Paris and its surroundings.  Eventually he migrated to New York where he freelanced for some of the popular fashion magazines but had trouble capturing New York as he saw Paris.  He said, “often I would bring my Leica with me to take the photos I wanted to see.”

A meaningful quote that I took from this documentary was when he said, “have respect for yourself and then the material and subject you are shooting.”

On January 22nd, the MFA will play host to a lecture by painter Eric Fischl.  Fischl’s paintings are reminiscent of the work of Edward Hopper.  I think of them as well-lit romantic contemporary visions of women and couples.  I have found inspiration in my own work through his imagery.  I plan on attending this event.

Just checked out the film I Am Legend starring Will Smith today.  Based on an apocalyptic view from the effects of a man-made virus, this story tracks one mans mission to find the cure and revive the infected.  I’m well aware that there are viruses in the world that kill off millions of people every year.  Have you ever stopped to think what if something like this happened for real.

I had my final mentor meeting with Abelardo Morell this morning. I brought him the 75 final prints I plan to show at my 2nd MFA residency in January. He seemed to be very pleased with my progress and continued to give me excellent advice.

One thing he brought up again was the “classical” theme that appears in my work. He said that in order to make it fresh, I might want to make a strange version of the classical image. A few of my newer prints included the use of shadows and reflections. He suggested viewing the mirror-distorted images that André Kertész made in the 1930’s (pictured here).

Now I need to finish up my readings and prepare for the holidays.

I came across this image I took last month in The Louvre in Paris.  A crowd of people with cameras in a partitioned-off section of the museum can only lead to one conclusion:  The Mona Lisa.

I hate the snow and cold weather.  The lecture I planned on attending this evening has been can canceled.

This Thursday, December 13th at 7:00pm, The Photographic Resource Center will be hosting a lecture by photographer Ralph Gibson. I wrote about Gibson’s work in a prior blog (here) when I went to an exhibition of his in Arizona. Gibson’s prints are known for their high contrast blacks and whites, limiting the tones of gray in the picture. The images above of a female torso with a shadow of a window blind cast upon her is one of my favorites.