And now, after a five-year absence, here we are again as though nothing has happened. In truth, nothing much has. We suspended the series primarily because blogging turned out to be a horrible way of reaching people. Though we get intermittent readers, most of the people who stopped by were other bloggers, doing so, in…
WITHIN this website, on any number of occasions, we have held discussions on the merits of color versus black and white photography. I won’t repeat those here, or even bother to link to them (because I can’t be arsed to look them up). Instead, I will post below some photos from FSA photographer Louise Rosskam,…
Farm Service Administration (FSA) photographer Edwin Rosskam is not as widely known as some of the FSA’s other artists. However, his work (and that of his wife, Louise Rosskam) needs to be known and preserved. Rather than waste a great deal of space detailing Rosskam’s history, I’ll let his own words speak for him :…
As a photographer and editor, I’ve recently become distressed by those few photographers who insist on taking photographs that don’t conform to common photographic practice. That is to say, these frondeurs ignore 180 years of tradition and insist on taking shots that are unique, having little or no banality to speak of. I don’t understand…
“Everyday at a quarter past three I open up a can of tuna and set it on the table. I cut two thick slices of bread that has already begun to stale and put them on a white china plate already set out on the table, and slide it next to the can of tuna.…
The one comment that people always make, when I tell them I’m a street photographer, is, “I don’t think I could ever work up the nerve to photograph people like that.” Often, that statement is followed up with, “Don’t they ever get mad at you?” Since I first started taking candid photos in the street…
The text is by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), from Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, first published in January 1990, when the famed author was 85 year old. It is a simple, profound wisdom, and my favorite of his works, along with Green Eggs and Ham which is one of the first books I taught…
After my recent “discovery” of Ashley Stevenson, I’ve been thinking a lot about Ed Sheeran’s song “The A Team.” Coincidentally, which is to say, in the Universe’s divine, randomized, perfect organization, I’ve also been mounting my life’s portfolio of street photography and encountered the photo, shown below, of a young woman who was seemingly living…
Helen Levitt’s 1970s color photos resonate with a distinctive color palette, full of blue, turquoise, green and red hues. Her shots are of people, alive in their environment, rich in the structure of “ordinariness,” and not simply adornments found in a grey-hued urban landscape. Like Joel Meyerwitz, Levitt waits for those normal gestures that mark…
This following piece has been inspired by many a discussion with Bill on the subject of photography and all the idiosyncrasies that occur repeatedly it seems, as a result of those trying to define the pursuit of photography. My reasons for writing this particular piece are two-fold: I am deeply passionate about photography. I’m fortunate enough…
Raw, Naked Art 