Bird Photography

 I first became aware of photography by birds when I acquired a well-used copy of Pigeon Heroes by Marion B. Cothren, with a copyright date of 1944.

The book's foreward carries impressive credentials:

and here is the relevant passage from Page 14:

This picture is from Page 16:

We always have a few pigeons hanging around our back porch, attracted by spilled birdseed from a feeder there.  I haven't yet seen any pigeons toting cameras, but I'll try to pay closer attention.

* * *

 Bird photography first took off in 1907 thanks to the efforts of a German pharmacist who had some previous experience with delivering prescriptions using carrier pigeons.  His success in this accomplishment was particularly impressive given the fact that the primary photographic medium of the time consisted of glass plates coated with a light-sensitive emulsion.  In fact, doubts about the feasibility of such an endeavor resulted in a rejection of the initial patent application.  That was overcome by the submission of certified images from the bird-borne cameras.

 

All the warring parties in both WWI and WWII took an interest in developing the potential of bird photography for intelligence gathering.  In the post-war years the CIA developed a pigeon-based program, but the results of that effort remain classified except for a stuffed pigeon with camera in the agency museum.

Loose lips sink ships.

As might be expected, bird photography has been significantly advanced by computerized miniaturization of the photographic gear.  That is well-illustrated on Youtube by a BBC production featuring eagles, hawks and falcons outfitted with video cameras which transmit their images by microwave.

 All of the above is well-documented in the Pigeon Photography wikipedia article.

Miyatake's Camera

 Toyo Miyatake, a skilled and successful photographer, was one of ten thousand Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II in the Manzanar concentration camp in central California.  Anyone of Japanese ancestry was forbidden to possess a camera at the time. Miyatake, however, did manage to include an old shutter and lens among the small amount of belongings his family was allowed to take to the camp.

With the help of other craftsmen among the camp's prisoners Miyatake put together a wooden bodied camera from found materials, including a piece of drain pipe to which the shutter and lens were attached to allow focusing.  Film holders, a ground glass, film and processing chemicals were smuggled in.  When it was all assembled, Miyatake set about surreptitiously recording the daily life of the Manzanar community in a body of work ultimately comprising over a thousand images.

Toyo Miyatake, High school students on school grounds, Eastern Sierras and barracks in background, ca. 1942–45 (Aperture #251)

Miyatake's story was nicely told in a 2023 article by Ken Chen in the #251 edition of Aperture.  There are also numerous videos available on the subject, including Episode 3 of the 10 Camps, 10 Stories series on Youtube. There is a PBS short featuring Miyatake's son,  How Tōyō Miyatake Handcrafted His Camera in Manzanar.  

In fact, Miyatake's story has been told many times over the years, but it seems that it needs retelling even more these days.

Toyo Miyatake (portrait by Ansel Adams)

 * * *

The history of WWII Japanese Internment is documented with great thoroughness at the Densho site.  See, for instance, Manzanar Children’s Village: Japanese American Orphans in a WWII Concentration Camp.

Connecting The Dots

Carl Van Vechten-1934

I was able recently to dispel a little of my ignorance about music with the help of Angela Davis and her history of early Blues performers, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. The book also included a reference to the writing and photography of Carl Van Vechten who compiled a vast catalog of images of performers and creators in all the arts who were attracted to New York - and particularly to Harlem - beginning in the 1920s.

 

Celebrity photography has never held much interest for me, but the sheer volume of Van Vechten's accomplishment demands attention. He managed for several decades to make portraits of just about anyone who achieved fame on stage, in films or in recordings, often as they were just beginning their careers. Here are four by Van Vechten on the way up in the 1940s and '50s at Wikipedia:

Harry Belafonte

Marlon Brando

Truman Capote

Lena Horne

There are many big collections of Van Vechten's work in museums and university archives; the Library of Congress houses 1,388 of his portraits.  The biography page on the LOC site also contains some information about Van Vechten's gear and techniques:

In the early 1930s, Miguel Covarrubias introduced Van Vechten to the 35mm Leica camera. He began photographing his large circle of friends and acquaintances. His earlier career as a writer and his wife's experience as an actress provided him with access to both fledgling artists and the established cultural figures of the time. Some of his subjects from this period include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Alfred A. Knopf, Bessie Smith, and Gertrude Stein.

Van Vechten's portraits are frequently busts or half-length poses, in front of bold backdrops. Dancers were usually photographed on stage. Van Vechten did his own darkroom work, but frequently used an assistant to help set up lights for the portrait sittings.

*  *  *

Miguel and Rose

Since I could only summon up some vague memories of Miguel Covarrubias I googled the name and easily turned up a lot about his life as an artist and writer.  I discovered that he had written a well-received book about Bali that included photographs by his wife, Rose.  Best known by her adopted stage name, Rosa Rolanda, she was multi-talented like her husband and found success in dancing, choreography, and painting as well as photography.  

Rosa was a skilled photographer and it is apparent in the portraits she made - especially those of her friend Frida Kahlo - that she had a  talent for making people feel comfortable in front of her camera.

Rosa Rolanda's charm and performance skills frequently put her in front of the cameras of some of the most highly regarded photographers of the time, including Man Ray, Steichen, and Weston.

by Man Ray

 

by Edward Steichen

by Edward Weston

I always thought the picture by Weston was one of the best he ever made, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the sitter was Rosa Rolanda.  Now, I am looking forward to getting to know her photography.

Rose Covarrubias with Leica (World-Telegram staff photo)

A leftie?  I don't think so.  I am pretty sure this shot has been flipped left to right based on the watch and the index finger poised over the topdeck shutter release.   Also, with the left eye looking through the finder, the nose would be completely behind the camera body.    (World-Telegram staff photo)

Another "What is that camera?"

These pictures are part of the exhibit about Albuquerque's Special Collections Library.  They are printed from a large group of negatives in the Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives.

 The relevant clues are the camera shape, the controls on the top deck, the black lens barrel and the dates in the captions and in the Albuquerque Tribune article.

What is your guess?

Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron

 

An article in the New York Times about an exhibition of the work of Julia Margaret Cameron at the Morgan Library & Museum was a nice excuse to look again at her work.  The reviewer is Arthur Lebow, who wrote an exhaustive biography of Diane Arbus.

Cameron has always been one of my guides to good portraiture.  It seems amazing she was able to produce such outstanding images so early after the invention of photography, and with such primitive equipment and techniques.

I think that the modern day appeal of Cameron's portraits rests largely on her posing techniques in which her sitters were placed very close to the camera and dressed simply in a way that minimizes the distraction of period styles.

There is a good selection of Cameron's work in Masters of Photography by Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. I have the first edition which was published in 1958.  Looking for the book on Amazon I found that there is a new edition.  The listing includes a long statement asserting that the contents are now in the public domain, which seems rather curious.  Perhaps the original publisher just abandoned the copyright?

Wikipedia has quite a thorough biography of Cameron and her career in photography which only began around the age of 48 when her daughter gifted her a camera.

Classic

 I only watched a bit of this PBS Masterpiece episode, but the beginning was interesting.

The scene shifted around quickly and I had some difficulty identifying the camera.  When she advanced the film and cocked the shutter with that lever, though, it was clearly revealed as a Zeiss Ikon Tenax I.

From Wikipedia:

The Tenax I is a 24x24 mm fixed lens camera by Zeiss Ikon launched in 1939.

The Tenax I was actually launched after the Tenax II. Like the Tenax II, it is a 24×24mm square-format camera taking over 50 exposures on a standard 135 film (35 mm), with a rapid-advance lever next to the lens. But it is a much simpler camera, with a completely different body, no rangefinder, a simple folding viewfinder on the top plate, and a Compur leaf shutter to 1/300". Most of them are equipped with a Zeiss Novar 3.5 cm f/3.5 lens. A smaller number have a Carl Zeiss Jena 3.5 cm f/2.8 Tessar.

Production began in 1938, and it was nearly halted in 1941. There was limited production during the rest of the war.

Spring Bloom

The yearly spectacle of blooming Yerba Mansa along the Rio Grande is something I always look forward to  It came along right on schedule this year at the beginning of June following some nice Spring rains.

Last year a little patch of Yerba Mansa I planted in our yard bloomed at the same time as those in the riverside forest.  That planting is spreading and looks healthy, but this year there are no blooms, or even buds. I'm wondering now if the lack of blooms is related to the fact that the plant is genetically incapable of self pollination. Perhaps I just need to provide a companion that is not directly related to my planting

There is some doubt about the origin of the plant's common name.  Yerba Mansa literally translated means Tame Herb, but what that might refer to is not obvious. An alternate name, Dragon Tail, would seem to be derived from the conical structure which bears the tiny flowers.

Yerba Mansa was used for medicinal purposes by all the indigenous people in the plant's western habitats. It would be interesting to know what names it was known by among  those people.