A TERRIFIC PHOTOGRAPHER...BUT WHO IS HE?

I just had the weirdest experience! I just spent hours writing what I thought would be my best blog post ever. I was so proud of it that I was going to let it stay up all weekend so readers would have time to re-read it over and over again, and reflect on it. I imagined dads reading it to their kids and the kids being forever changed by it and growing up to be President and all that. I bit my lip the whole time I was writing. Anyway, when it was almost finished, I came to a depressing realization. I just couldn't bear to give it away for free.

I'm determined that, even if it's objectively bad, and even if I only get paid in back issues of some obscure magazine, that I'm going to sell this thing. I've gotta do it, just to say that I did it.

So that leaves me with an unexpected space to fill, and I'm too sleepy to think. Fortunately I have something really neat to share, and here it is...four of the best photos that I've seen lately. The only problem is that I can't remember who did them or even how I discovered them. I hope you like them. I'm not sure if they're even enlargeable.

FACES TO HANG ON THE WALL

I'm always interested to see what cartoonists hang on their walls. Usually it's cartoons and paintings. Sometimes it's music and film posters or, if the walls are dominated by the cartoonist's significant other, stately pictures of roses or horse-drawn carriages. My walls are mostly masks and cartoon cels.  The rest tend to be faces, why I don't know.  Here's a few that I either have framed up on the wall or am thinking about putting up.

This is a nice picture to end with, isn't it?  This is my all-time favorite picture of a dog, the towering Mount Everest of dog photos.

Thanks to Mike F. for turning me on to Julie Newmar and the "She May Be a Bag of Trouble" poster. Thanks to John K for the Mortimer Snerd photo.

EDWIN SMITH, PHOTOGRAPHER

Edwin Smith was an English photographer who did most of the pictures he's famous for in the 1950s. I don't think any of his photos are well-known. He's renowned instead for the consistency of his work. Almost every major picture he took was thought provoking in some way. You won't get a sense of what I'm talking about if you look at the small versions. Be sure to click to enlarge.

Seen large the wrought iron gazebo above is awe inspiring. Imagine a building that large which serves no purpose except to enclose an area and make us aware of the space inside. Our senses are so adjusted that we find space itself beautiful when it's presented to us in the right way. The builder added swirling vine shapes to remind us how profound the simplest things in nature are.


Here's (above) a back room in a country church. The irregular slate floors and white, chalky walls enclose the space perfectly. The window admits diffused light into the room. It's a great window because its design elements of mathematical, intellectual purity co-exist with the primitive, textured, irregular walls that surround it. People are like that -- intellectually sophisticated and primitive at the same time. Even the furniture speaks about this dual nature of ours. Without using words or arguments the room forces us to think about who we are and how we fit into the world.
Here (above) are Roman-type sculptures and buildings in a garden setting. It's a Utopian vision of high human ideals co-existing with nature. A book trying to make the same point would risk skepticism by the reader. Art makes the point wordlessly and it sticks. Visual art is like music. It bypasses intellectual barriers and carries its argument directly to the viewer's mind. Artists have it in their power to change the world every bit as much as novelists and philosophers.

PHOTOS BY THE YOUNG HALSMAN

I know what you're thinking: "Why did he put up this picture of Monroe (above)? It's well done but everybody's familiar with it already!" Well yes it is familiar and that's exactly why it's worth writing about.

The picture is by Philipe Halsman. Halsman took the classic, most seen pictures of dozens of Hollywood celebrities. He knew how to flatter the subject, how to distill the essence of what they want to project to the public, and get it on film. For comparison here's a picture of Marilyn taken by somebody else (below).

What a difference! The color picture is sultry, pure and simple. The black & white Halsman begins with sultry but adds innocent, feminine and makes Monroe look young. Boy, Halsman gave his clients their money's worth! Plain old sultry just wasn't good enough!

Here (above) is Halsman's Jimmy Durante. Compare it to the picture done by someone else, below. Again, a big difference! Halsman gets across the idea that Jimmy is an entertainer, that he has a big nose and that he's a nice guy. He looks old but it doesn't seem to matter. You find yourself thinking that it's amazing that he can project so much energy at his age.

Here (above) is the other guy's picture of Durante. The smile is forced and the impression you get is of that of an old man who's to be pitied for his age.

The lesson I draw from this is that planning means everything when you take a picture. You have to know what it is that you want to emphasize and, equally important, know what you want to de-emphasize. Of course Halsman is a genius and it never hurts to have a genius behind the lens.

I thought you might like to see some of the pictures Halsman took when he was young. In those days he was interested in making bold, expressionist statements. These are great pictures and if Halsman had never done anything else he'd still be worth remembering. The amazing thing is that he went on to even greater achievement with the celebrity portraits.

Who'd have thought that a back could be so interesting? The back BTW, belongs to Winston Churchill.

I wonder who this (above) is? The picture has a great expressionist quality.

These (above) are almost surreal! Ahh! refreshed at the fountain of Halsman!

MAYBE WE SHOULD SNEAK BIAS INTO NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHY

Don't you think that news photos would be more interesting if they contained an emotional bias? I'll use these old pictures of Betty Davis to make my point. Imagine that a local girl has just won a science fair. Would it be wrong to portray her as slutty (above) with the graphic implication that she slept with someone to get the medal? OK, OK, it would be wrong but surely there's a parallel universe where it would be right. Things are more fun that way.

Here's a woman (above) whose husband just died when she took his picture near the edge of the Grand Canyon. Was his fall accidental? The picture lets us know what the photographer thinks.


Here (above) are two contestants for a beauty contest. Maybe the photographer has a favorite. What's wrong with that? Newspapers need to be more interesting. We have to figure out a way to make bias work. Maybe we should do biased photo essays recapping the events of a case after the court decides it.