Diana & Nikon

I have been wanting to read Diana & Nikon, Janet Malcolm's book about photography, for a long time.  The essays on photography  originally appeared in the New Yorker, and the collected articles were made into a book in 1980.

The book is not available in the branch library closest to me and I was about ready to buy it online.  The prices for Malcolm's book on Amazon seemed a bit steep, so I did a search to see what the options might be.  I was pleased to find a downloadable copy available at no cost on the Internet Archive website.  It is the expanded version published by Aperture in 1997 which contains five additional essays not in the original.

I've read just the first chapter so far, and it is excellent.  Malcolm casts a critical eye on several books about Stieglitz, Weston and Adams and comes up with quite a few stories about those pioneer modernists that I had not seen before.  As described in an Aperture article on Malcolm's photography writing, she had a decided preference for the fomalist style, but her knowledge and opinions about photography developed very substantially in the years she wrote for the New Yorker.

It is hard to find good writing about photography these days.  I can't think of anyone of Malcolm's stature being published now in the sources I used to look to. I think it is about five years since the NY Times stopped running the regular column by Teju Cole.  There are reviews of major exhibitions like the recent blockbuster show in New York of Diane Arbus' life work, but none show the depth of knowledge of Malcolm and some of her contemporaries like John Szarkowski, whose books can also be found in the Internet Archive.

Finding Meaning in Photographs

 Photographs are made with a purpose in mind, though the intent or meaning may not be fully articulated at the time of exposure.  The meaning attributed to the resultant image may only emerge when it is processed or edited, or perhaps only after it is seen in the context of other images. In fact, meaning in photography or in any artistic expression is ultimately the product of social interaction, and it may change over time.

For amateur photographers like me who are blog authors, the construction of meaning is a central task.  The photographs displayed in blog posts, though often from a single roll film, are often the product of multiple sessions, often with little direct connections.  The challenge then is to come up with some unifying meaning which imbues the product with some appearance of intentionality.

A convenient unifying theme for me and other bloggers centers on the medium and gear used in the production of the pictures in a blog post.  The pictures are evaluated partially in terms of how they express the characteristic capabilities of the camera, the film or the processing. Here, for example is such a picture.

My Hat -- Argus A2F

I think it likely that an observer's first question on looking at the picture of my hat is why such an image was made and exhibited. Well, my answer is that the image displays very good sharpness from a camera which historically has gotten little respect since its appearance in the 1930s.  ( For me, the image also has some relevance as an example of pareidolia.)

Another convenient point of departure for identifying unifying meaning  is a focus on formalist features.  One can always talk about compositional elements and how they come together in a photograph or a group of pictures.  Line, mass, tonality and balance all contribute to a sense of meaning which is essentially visual and perhaps not easily articulated because of a common disconnect between visual perception and explanatory processes.

There are times of course when even amateurs undertake a photographic exercise with the intention of communicating specific meanings.  Portraiture is one example of that in which an attempt is being made to portray the subject's essential physical characteristics, or perhaps link them to perceived personality traits.  A similar process may be the basis for a broader view of a subject with a natural history or cultural focus. An example of that was my effort to assemble a portrait of a community through the pictures I made in New York's Chinatown in the late 1960s.

The construction of meaning through social interaction is apparent in blog posts and in pictures posted on photo sharing sites in the fact that provision is made for image-specific comments.  While the hope is most frequently that positive evaluations may be expressed, there is also an opportunity to recognize or clarify the fundamental intent or meaning behind the offered images.

I can never discuss the topic of this post without reference to the writings of Terry Barrett.  The wikipedia article on Barrett provides a very good overview of his long career a an art critic, though there is little mention of his focus on photography, expressed so well in his book, Criticizing Photographs.

I have not found anything that surpasses Barrett's book in terms of depth and thoroughness.  I'll appreciate suggestions.

Medium Format

 Of my twin-lens cameras the one I enjoy shooting the most is the Yashica-Mat.  It has a very bright finder, a fine lens and it is light in weight.  When I decided to use the camera recently I thought I would maximize the advantage of the big negatives with some 100-speed film.  However, when I looked in the refrigerator film drawer I found that the closest to that I could get was an ancient roll of Ilford SFX 200.

I decided to give the film an extra stop of exposure to compensate for the sixteen years it had gone past its expiration date.  That seemed to be about the right match for the HC110b processing, judging by the results.  

I started off by documenting a bit of an ordeal we are currently experiencing.  The street that runs by the south side of our house in the process of repaving.  The work starts off noisily about 6AM daily; that has been going on for about three weeks, and it looks like the job is about halfway to completion.

The upside is that it is pretty interesting to watch the big machinery being operated close-up.  Also, the early start of the workday is understandable given the near-100 degree temperatures we have had recently.  (Some shots through that window with my little Lumix digital camera are posted on my other blog.)

I finished off the roll during a couple walks through Old Town.

Plein Air

South Plaza

I made several shots of this gorgeous 1948 Chevrolet, but could not quite capture the excellence of the restoration.

I think I would be very uncomfortable driving around in such a car, fearful of damaging such a perfect and expensive project.

A Nikon Lightweight

I have done several repairs on my Nikon EM to keep it going.  I like the camera because of its small size, light weight, and the fact that it accepts any of my Nikon lenses.  The-aperture-priority-only feature is not a problem as it is my preferred mode for any of my slr cameras.  I shot a roll of Kentmere 100 in the camera over the course of a week recently in Old Town and in the nearby Sawmill neighborhood.  The meter worked fine throughout, and I thought the Series E 1.8/50mm lens and the film delivered nice results.

La Plaza Vieja

Cervantes in repose

Sawmill Tower

I got out early on my three-wheeler to beat the heat and that got me to the Sawmill neighborhood just as the Flamenco School was about to open.

National Institute of Flemenco

The yearly Festival Flamenco just concluded here; it is an event that attracts performers and enthusiasts from all over the world, and it has grown steadily in popularity.  I was actually happier when it was of more modest proportions.  The prices for most of the Festival events have gotten beyond what I am prepared to support.  However, there are opportunities to enjoy Flamenco throughout the year and many are very affordable and even free.  The Spanish Broom group often shows up around Old Town and they offer performances at no charge, relying instead on donations through their website.

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.