I caught up to this today and glad I did! Thanks, M. I appreciated what you wrote about the presentation. Wish I could have been there. IMO, Matt Black is doing exceptional work along the lines of the FSA. The longevity and the accuracy of his work speak volumes to this country's story. Yes, there are others, no doubt. But Matt's work will always be at the top of my thought process.
For me, documentary photography is a chronicle of day-to-day life in a warts-and-all manner. Don't shy away from the beauty or the ugly. Put history and time into context.
In that vein, I'm starting to work on a photo book related to the first year of the pandemic, a time in which I walked almost 3,000 miles in and around Alexandria, Va. (with a couple of trips into DC and NYC). I really (emphasis on really) documented that time, especially over the first six months, and am now cutting down the 2,000+ images — 95% of which were shot with an iPhone — into a more manageable number. It's been fascinating to relive that time.
It seems to me that the name of the Lange exhibition at our National Gallery of Art - "Seeing People - is an apt definition of documentary photography. Dorothea Lange has significantly influenced my photography and, reminded now of her by your appreciated post here, I realize even how I try to "see" people in a similar manner, much preferring raw and real to contrived and posed.
In the first picture, of Dorothea, sitting on the roof of the sedan, it looks as though she's holding a Graflex Super D, camera. I just sold one of those yesterday, at auction. Dorothea, must not have been very tall. The Super D is a good sized camera, but in that picture, it looks damn near as big as she is. The Super D is a very serious camera.
I did a deep dive on Arthur Rothstein. You might like his book Documentary Phtography. Roy Stryker's work for Standard Oil, which he did after he left the government, is an interesting post script for the idea of the FSA, but corporate. Roy Stryker USA 1943-1950 is a book about what he did there.
I've been thinking about about this lately and will send you an email with more details but in short, Alice Zoo has written something for her newsletter, Interloper, on the ethics of documentary work through the lens of a critique of the film May December, which is worth reading also: https://interloper.substack.com/p/on-may-december?r=3p32c&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I caught up to this today and glad I did! Thanks, M. I appreciated what you wrote about the presentation. Wish I could have been there. IMO, Matt Black is doing exceptional work along the lines of the FSA. The longevity and the accuracy of his work speak volumes to this country's story. Yes, there are others, no doubt. But Matt's work will always be at the top of my thought process.
For me, documentary photography is a chronicle of day-to-day life in a warts-and-all manner. Don't shy away from the beauty or the ugly. Put history and time into context.
In that vein, I'm starting to work on a photo book related to the first year of the pandemic, a time in which I walked almost 3,000 miles in and around Alexandria, Va. (with a couple of trips into DC and NYC). I really (emphasis on really) documented that time, especially over the first six months, and am now cutting down the 2,000+ images — 95% of which were shot with an iPhone — into a more manageable number. It's been fascinating to relive that time.
It seems to me that the name of the Lange exhibition at our National Gallery of Art - "Seeing People - is an apt definition of documentary photography. Dorothea Lange has significantly influenced my photography and, reminded now of her by your appreciated post here, I realize even how I try to "see" people in a similar manner, much preferring raw and real to contrived and posed.
Wow, what a wonderful piece, I really enjoyed reading this and your take on documentary photography.
In the first picture, of Dorothea, sitting on the roof of the sedan, it looks as though she's holding a Graflex Super D, camera. I just sold one of those yesterday, at auction. Dorothea, must not have been very tall. The Super D is a good sized camera, but in that picture, it looks damn near as big as she is. The Super D is a very serious camera.
Ohh I wish I could go.
I wish I had known about that talk - thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. I guess I’ll be making a trip to NGA sooner than later!
Really appreciating the comments on this post. Please keep the recommendations coming.
I did a deep dive on Arthur Rothstein. You might like his book Documentary Phtography. Roy Stryker's work for Standard Oil, which he did after he left the government, is an interesting post script for the idea of the FSA, but corporate. Roy Stryker USA 1943-1950 is a book about what he did there.
I've been thinking about about this lately and will send you an email with more details but in short, Alice Zoo has written something for her newsletter, Interloper, on the ethics of documentary work through the lens of a critique of the film May December, which is worth reading also: https://interloper.substack.com/p/on-may-december?r=3p32c&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post