The Online Photographer

This panther brooch (brooch, n., an ornament fastened to clothing with a hinged pin and catch) by Cartier is for sale at M.S. Rau Antiques for $38,500, coincidentally just about exactly the median household annual income in the village nearest where I live.

• The great British author Virginia Woolf was a photographer—here's an article featuring her snapshots of the Bloomsbury Group.

• The most popular book by our friend John Camp a.k.a. John Sandford is Storm Prey (2010) according to Goodreads. It's #20 in the Lucas Davenport Series. I just met a local guy who could hardly believe I know John—he fixed me with an intent stare and said, "he's one of my guys. I read ev-er-y-thing he writes."

• Canon has introduced a new mirrorless camera. The new M50 has a 24-MP sensor, an electronic viewfinder, and is the first camera in the Canon's M series to include 4K video. It costs $899 with its compact 15–45mm kit lens and is available in white. It is said to be targeted to beginners.

• This is a snapshot no lover of photography (well, none who knows who these guys are, anyway) will fail to appreciate—William Klein and Daido Moriyama snapping pictures of each other at Akio Nagasawa Gallery in Tokyo, on Instagram.

• If you ever in a past life enjoyed smoking those funny marryjehoochie cigarettes, Master KK's latest "Up the Box" (NSFW, n.b.) will make you laugh and groovealong. Includes some super-rare tracks. You might enjoy it even if you are not, um, high. (And please, I know I've opened the door, but let's not discuss illegal substances in the squeaky-clean TOP Comments section. Thenk-yew, the Ed.)

• Yesterday saw the introduction of the Sony A7III, the third iteration of the basic level of the highly popular A7 series. B&H Explora has posted the launch. Sony typically does not stint in letting its best technologies trickle down, and the A7III loads into the sub-$2k (barely) basic A7 camera many of the advances of the A9 and A7RIII. It is not yet available for pre-order.

Provenance unknown, from a show called Gathered: Snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Gift and Works by Carmen Winant and Luke Stettner, an exhibition from late 2016 that celebrated the gift of more than 200 amateur photographs from the collection of Peter J. Cohen to the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art. Although the body had its identity elided, doubtless the missing head was clipped out in order to be treasured in a locket or honored in miniature frame, so no need to mourn the headlessness of the anonymous subject.

• Speaking of detachable heads, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, one of the most remarkable masterpieces in Western literature, is celebrating (if that's the right word) its bicentennial this year. It was published on January 1, 1818. (The link is to the 1818 first edition text.) The book and myth is incredibly rich; it resonates with meanings that range from from slavery, to feminism, to the usurpation of God, to the heartlessness of science, to the emotion of revenge, to the experience of crushing loss and the longing for the dead to rise—Mary Shelley in her life was devastated by the loss of successive children, and she outlived most of her illustrious parents and her even more illustrious circle of friends that included her husband the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

• The China Institute at 100 Washington Street in Manhattan will for most of this year be showing Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer's Lens:

Art of the Mountain will consist of three sections: Revered Mountains of China will introduce the geography, history, legends, and culture that are associated with Chinese mountains and will include photographs by Hou Heliang, Kang Songbai and Kang Liang, Li Daguang, Lin Maozhao, Li Xueliang, Lu Hao, Zhang Anlu, Xiao Chao, Yan Shi, Wang Jing, Zhang Jiaxuan, Zhang Huajie, and Zheng Congli. Landscape Aesthetics in Photography will present Wang Wusheng’s photography of Mount Huangshan, also known as Yellow Mountain, to reflect the renowned Chinese landscape painting aesthetic and its influence. New Landscape Photography includes the works of Hong Lei, Lin Ran, Lu Yanpeng, Shao Wenhuan, Taca Sui, Xiao Xuan’an, Yan Changjiang, Yang Yongliang, Yao Lu, Zeng Han, Gao Hui, and Feng Yan, who express their thoughts on the role of mountains in society.

Mike
(Thanks to Ned Bunnell)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Steve Rosenblum: "I first read "Frankenstein" as part of an undergraduate literature course on science fiction taught by Prof. Eric Rabkin at the University of Michigan in 1971 or 1972. It was a rigorous, wonderful course and I think that Eric may still be teaching it. "Frankenstein" was the first reading for the course. I had low expectations of it, and was totally entrhalled by what a wonderful book it is, as well as the amazing story of Mary Shelley, its writing, and the interlocking lives of Mary, Lord Byron, and her husband the poet Shelley. It is nothing like the movie made in the 1930's. Speaking of movies, I also highly recommend "Young Frankenstein" to anyone who hasn't seen it. IMHO the funniest movie ever made."

John Camp: "And Mary Shelley's circle also included John Polidori, Byron's personal physician. She, Percy Shelley, Byron and Polidori one night agreed to write 'ghost stories.' Hers eventually evolved into Frankenstein. Polidori's, published a year after Frankenstein, was called 'The Vampyre,' and is generally acknowledged to be the first vampire story and the model for the character Dracula (the Dracula story itself was written 70 or 80 years later by another guy.) The stories by the two famous writers didn't amount to much."

Geoff Wittig: "The 'Art of the Mountain' show sounds fabulous. While my ignorance of Chinese art and photography are profound, my understanding is that photographs and especially paintings of the iconic Yellow Mountain region of China are perhaps analogues to heroic 'Western' art in American culture. To my eye, archetypal Western landscape paintings by Bierstadt and Moran are very similar in their heroic motif to Ansel Adams' equally dramatic photographs. Traditional Chinese painting by contrast tends to be more gestural, suggestive and subtle. So too are the Chinese mountain photographs I'm familiar with. Wang Wusheng's lovely 2005 photo book Celestial Realm: The Yellow Mountains of China is full of delicate, moody fog-draped images. And it's still available new. Just sayin'.

"On an unrelated matter, is it just me, or is Canon's M50 the ugliest mirrorless camera we've seen yet? Fujifilm's X-T2 is a lovely piece of photo jewelry; Panasonic and Olympus mirrorless cameras look purposeful. But Canon's M50 and M5 are photo-Edsels. Lumpy, inelegant and dull. Maybe it works great, but it's so homely I'd be embarrassed to pull it out to take a shot. 'Course, it could just be me."

cdembrey (partial comment): "For me the most interesting recent announcement was Canon's new flash. From my POV, seen one camera and you've seen them all—YMMV."

Ken Tanaka: "I was delighted to see one of Peter Cohen’s found photos in this story! A good friend of mine, Peter has amassed one of the largest and richest collections of anonymous and found photographs anywhere. That’s how he enjoys photography. And it turns out he’s not alone, as there’s a very lively community of similar collectors out there. In recent years Peter has opened his collection to museum curators (The Met, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Columbus Museum of Art, et al) who have created some very unique and memorable shows from the collection. In 2011, for example, Michal Raz-Russo here at the Art Institute of Chicago created a show titled 'The Three Graces' after she and Peter noticed that so many of the snaps contained three women. In 2015, Mia Fineman, an associate curator at The Met, published a cute book titled Snapshots of Dangerous Women with images also mined from Peter’s collection.

"Yet another example of how photography and photographs can be enjoyed and used toward creative objectives...without using a camera."

This is a sign o' the times they are a-changin', if I can mashup a Prince song title with a Dylan song title. Apple Syracuse is hosting "Photo Walks"—mini-workshops meant to "Explore the world around you and level up your iPhone photography skills on an inspiring photo walk. We'll take you to new places, show you how to create stunning shots, experiment with the latest accessories, and share our best photography and editing tips." There's one called "Developing Your Style," and another is "Framing Architecture and Details." The rest include "Capturing Action and Video," "Manipulating Light and Shadow," and "Portraits and People."

All of them caution participants to "Wear comfortable shoes and bring only what you need—including a fully charged device"...which, come to think of it, is advice I should should tape to my computer, if not my forehead.

Are other Apple stores doing this?

Can't be bad for future photographers. Good on Apple Syracuse for reaching out.

Mike
(Thanks to Gordon Lewis)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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KeithB: "They are doing it in Albuquerque."

Check out the most mispronounced word in America....

I could fault Babbel magazine for not including sound files of how these words are actually pronounced, but then, I often can't provide extras I wish I could because I lack the technical savvy or the capability in the template to do so, so people in glass houses, etc.

For football fans
Rats, I meant to post this on New Year's Eve, which was the actual 50th anniversary: a link to a great article by David Davis about an iconic sports photograph. The event was "The Ice Bowl," the legendary NFL Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys played on New Year's Eve 1967, when the temperature was –13°F (–25°C) at game time and the wind was blowing. The teams were playing for the right to face the AFL Champion in Superbowl II. The game was decided in dramatic fashion as quarterback Bart Starr engineered a final drive and took the Packers 67 yards downfield to the Dallas 1 yard line. While team photographer Vernon Biever went to try to capture Coach Vince Lombardi's reaction to the final play, he sent his oldest son and assistant, 16-year-old high school junior John J. Biever, to photograph the decisive play.

Using his father's Nikkormat and a 135mm Tokina lens, young John Biever got the shot and then some. The resulting photograph showing Bart Starr executing a successful quarterback sneak to win the game in the final seconds (in the photo, Starr is number 15 at the bottom of the pile) marks a pivotal point in American sports, symbolic of the Packers' successes just as their sensational dominance was helping football to overtake baseball as the most popular sport in the United States. (See the photograph at the link.)

Great shot, great story, great article, and a nice photographic diversion if you're enjoying the end of the football season this year.

Mike
(I regret so say I lost track of the name of the reader who passed this link along to me. But thanks!)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Jim A: "Wow, great story on the Bievers and 'The Ice Bowl.' It reminded me of Butters. It's not that Butters doesn't feel the cold, it's just unimportant. The ball is all that matters. He's a little like Bart Starr in that way.  :-)  "

Chuck Albertson: "I remember watching that game from end to end when I was a kid. Jerry Kramer flattened Jethro Pugh, and Starr slid through for the win.

"Also the last NFL game I watched. It was the quintessental football game; everything since has been derivative."

Mike replies: Now that's a football fan. Kinda like believing that photography came to an end when Kodak reformulated Tri-X in 2007. Er...wait, never mind, forget I mentioned that!

• Mystery man: Without doing any searching, can you guess who this fellow is? Hints: he was born in 1885, and his son was an epochal musician who was virtually synonymous with a particular well-known musical style, deeply venerated in the country of his birth and beloved worldwide. (We've obscured the last name in this JPEG.) For the answer, read on.

• Annoyed at Adobe? What Michael Reichmann called "the Photoshop tax" seems to some people to be getting more onerous. With the latest shift in Lightroom to a CC (Creative Cloud) monthly subscription model, it's not hard to foresee a future in which you're consigned to storing your own archive not on your own hard drive (or not only on your own hard drive), but on the amorphous "cloud." Where, of course, your pictures will be safe in perpetuity, we say sarcastically.

Should you happen to be thinking of jumping ship, Greg Scoblete at PDN Online has a survey of "14 Great Image Editing Programs for Still Photographers." (We've been thinking of switching to Capture One ourselves. Not easy, though: we've been using Photoshop for nearly a quarter of a century*.)

• Next up: Next Friday's "Baker's Dozen" post here at TOP will present 13 smartphone photos submitted by readers. I've already received several hundred entries, and there are many gems. To give you a leg up (but do not send these yet) our next "Call for Work" will be for "a picture taken with a Leica lens." Acceptable will be pictures taken with any Leica-branded lenses, from a classic 1920s collapsible uncoated Elmar, to an early 1.5-MP original Digilux pic, to a Mandler-designed, Solms-built Summicron, to a Panny/Leica, to one of the stupendous Leica S lenses, to an R lens adapted to a Canon DSLR, to a macro shot taken with a reversed Focotar. You may submit JPEGs, or digisnaps of physical prints. Points for creativity! And presentation. And you're welcome to include a portrait of your lens itself, although it's not necessary.

The only other requirement will be to tell us something—at least one thing—about your lens: its history, or how you got it, or how much you like it, or what other people have said about it, or who designed it, or who used to own it, or anything else interesting and fascinating—not all those things, just something or other. Again, please do NOT submit these until the call for work appears in the coming week! You'll need to know the subject line for your email or we will certainly lose it in our Brobdingnagian email stack.

• The cavalry to the rescue: Speaking of image processing software, some good news. DxO has purchased the orphaned Nik Collection and is promising to continue to develop it. As you probably remember, Nik was acquired by Google in 2012 because it coveted Snapseed for mobile devices and because it wanted to encourage photographers to use Google+. Later, Google made the rest of the Nik suite available for free, which we all liked, and then discontinued it, which we didn't. Pessimism about Nik's future was justified at that point, so DxO coming to the rescue at this late date, like the cavalry coming over the hill with bugles blaring at the absolute last minute in an old Western, is welcome news. DxO has already integrated U Point into DxO PhotoLab, and will most likely continue to integrate the useful old Nik plugins into its software. (Maybe we should switch to DxO OpticsPro instead of Capture One.)

Sheryl, Christian mom, hates rap, 5 kids

• Doggone: See if you recognize anyone you know in these ten common types. If you really like these, you can follow your nose (and the links) for more (lots more). Ten was enough for us, but they're pretty amusing.

• Die Welt ist seltsam: The picture at the top of this post is a rare surviving photograph of Captain Norval Sinclair Marley, a white British Jamaican of Syrian Jewish heritage. His son, Nesta Robert, had his first and middle names switched around by a passport official who thought "Nesta" was a feminine name, making him Robert Nesta Marley, known the world over as Bob.

Norval Marley, who might or might not have been an actual Captain, was 41 years older than his black Jamaican wife Cedella, Bob’s mother, who he married when she was 18. Norval provided for Bob but seldom saw him. He died in 1955 at the age of 70 when Bob was ten years old.

• On the lens front—sortakinda—there's a big controversy in the art world about that Leonardo (da Vinci, not DiCaprio) that's scheduled to be auctioned off this month. It's been causing a lot of excitement among people who thrill to the news of large sums of money being spent, because it's the last Leonardo in private hands and is expected to sell for approximately the GNP of a small, impoverished African nation. Paintings of saviors of the world shared something of a mannerism in Renaissance Italy in that the savior was often depicted holding an orb, representing the world He saved; Leonardo's orb, like those of numerous other painters, appears to be glass, but he didn't paint it with the image refracting through it the correct way. That's odd in that Leonardo—prototype of "The Renaissance Man"—was a famously fastidious observer and also one of the world's leading experts on optics at the time. Leonardo's most recent biographer, the admirable Walter Isaacson, has chimed in on the issue. (As an aside, a book dealer and voracious reader we knew once told us that Walter's biography of Ben Franklin was the best book he had ever read.) We can't know the truth, but the issue is creating a lot of chatter.

• Follow TOP on Twitter! @TheOnlinePhotog. We only bug you very occasionally.

• Lightning fast: Canon Camera has announced a one business day turnaround for equipment repairs for CPS Platinum and Cinema members. (Gold and Silver level members will have to wait a little longer, but not much longer.) In the event your equipment can't be repaired that fast, CPS will send you a loaner until the repair is finished.

CPS, for those who might not know, is Canon Professional Services, the professional support arm of Canon. Not just anyone can join; entry criteria are strict and you must apply and pass muster. But CPS (and NPS) are among the reasons why professionals prefer to go with the big dogs. When a problem arises, you just call Canon's 24/7 professional hotline (the hotlines are based in the same continent you are.) One business day turnaround is said to be the fastest ever guaranteed to professional customers.

• Unsettling: The always delightful cartoon xkcd, one of cartoon-maven Ctein's favorites, weighs in on the lifespan of digital assets. We dasn't pilfer it to reproduce here, lest lawyers be unleashed on us, but you should see it. Will today's equivalent of that tattered old carte up top of Ziggy's granddad survive?

UPDATE: Not only does xkcd not send lawyers to hunt you, they encourage bloggers to embed the cartoons. Here you go.

• Sony Q: Dan Watson at HuffPost says that the Sony A9 is really the A7III. We might agree, except that soon there will doubtless be an A7III. Some people don't like how these cameras handle, but we're not amongst 'em. They're very nice little cameras that handle fine.

Michael Marten, Porthcawl, Glamorgan, 17 May 2007.
Low water 12 noon, high water 8 pm.

• Prince of Tides: British photographer Michael Marten has produced a dazzling document of the miracle of tides, certain to be an eye-opener for those who have never lived near an ocean. We're told the book is sold out, sad to say. We loved it—a simple idea that was doubtless very difficult to reify and is visually extremely rich. Wonderful project. Do not miss.

• Nine decades: Re Leica lenses, William Fagan of Macfilos compared pictures from a very old Leica and a very new Leica made 90 years apart. His findings might surprise you.

• Best (for now): DxOmark, the French software ninjas who evaluate sensors, have declared the Hasselblad X1D to have the best medium-format sensor, granting the camera its first published sensor rating above 100. (DxO doesn't evaluate the system, just the sensor. Its ratings, although suspect in some quarters, are scientifically sound.) The once iconic Swedish company Hasselblad is now owned by the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI. [UPDATE: Note that DxO doesn't evaluate Fuji cameras and, for no good reason, failed to test the Pentax 645Z.]

• Selfie fatigue: Many millennials (members of the generation that reached maturity early in the 21st century) remember Bill Nye the Science Guy. Apparently many of them bug him to take their picture with him; watching the trailer for his new movie, we were startled to hear him say, "I was asked to talk about selfie fatigue...I'm pretty sure it shortens your life." Does it? He should know, he's a science guy. Now we know why we seldom take selfies. (We use the editorial "we" in Around the Web posts, as you no doubt have noticed. However there is no one in here but us chickens.)

• Don't Kodak St. Peter: So if you get too many selfies taken and the inevitable happens, take your camera with you, but remember to take the photographic advice of the venerable Mark Twain:

"Upon arrival in heaven, do not speak to St. Peter until spoken to. It is not your place to begin. You can ask him for his autograph, there is no harm in that. But be careful, and don't remark that it is one of the penalties of greatness; he has heard that before. Don't try to Kodak him—Hell is full of people who have made that mistake. And leave your dog outside. Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and the dog would go in."

—Mark Twain, quoted at the end of Ken Burns' American Lives profile of him. (We transcribed this, so the punctuation might not be correct. The emphasis is ours. In any event, we believe the quote itself is a pastiche, most likely all drawn from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. In it, we hear Sam Clemens's own weariness about being "Kodaked," not that much different from Bill Nye's.)

That's it for TOP for this, the 44th week of the year. If there were too many links in this to chew in one sitting, take a bite and come back over the weekend for more; Yr. Hmbl. Ed. will be fighting burnout by staying away for two whole days, a formerly unfamiliar habit known as "taking the weekend off." I still moderate comments all weekend though. Blogging for a living, much like what Mark Twain said of old age, is not for the faint of heart.

Listen to some Bob Marley over the weekend (maybe this, on this! Ha! Snuck vinyl in again, at the last minute!), and join us again on Monday. All are welcome, always.

Mike
(Thanks to Rich Szmyd, Jim Bullard, a commenter named John, xkcd, Nick Hartmann, Gordon Brown, and other friends o' TOP.)

*But still hardly know anything about it.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Robert: "Aperture met most of my needs and I expected it to keep making progress. What a disappointment when it was abandoned. When it was developed it seems as though it was key to re-establishing Apple but the landing of the iPhone led to a new future. As an ex IT person, iCloud and its equivalents all go against my nature i.e. letting it drift off forever or maybe never around the World, out of my control. LR therefore seemed like a good alternative but monthly payments also go against my nature. It would be good if the discussion of alternatives could continue."

Mike replies: I was very interested in Aperture when it came out, but I had been through the Apple-as-Lucy-holding-the-football thing before with their software, and I resisted switching to it because I was afraid it would end up discontinued. And sure enough. Apple is not good about protecting its users who adopt its software. Once burned, twice shy.

We should, indeed, discuss this subject in a different post, one dedicated to the topic. It's a hazard of blogging that important topics often come up piecemeal, and good, informative comments about a certain subject are made but then get lost in the shuffle. It has happened twice in the past few days—the subject of slide/neg rephotography with pixel-shift cameras came up under the A7RIII post, and the subject of LR-replacement editing software came up under this one.

I will start specific threads about both these topics next week, so we can discuss each of them more thoroughly.

Phil: "About that xkcd #1909: go to the source and see the alt-text! Right now! Go here and hover your mouse over the cartoon. I'm not just saying this because I'm a librarian. Really, I'm not.  ;-)  "

GKFroehlich: "Did not know the person in the photo at the top of the post, but the hint 'born in 1885,' and the fact that he's sitting on horseback, made me sure it was Dave Brubeck's father. He was a cattle rancher in northern California, and was also born in 1885 (or 1884, according to some sources). Now I shall go listen to a few Marley tunes, and a few Brubeck tunes...."

Mike replies: Good guess.

Dave Brubeck got a somewhat suspect reputation back in the day because he was a) not black in a field in which many of the very top people were, b) too popular in a field in which many of the top people weren't, and c) suspiciously often the favorite jazz musician of preppies and white Ivy League types back in that quaint time when racism still existed in the USA (satire alert). But he's seriously great and I absolutely love him.

If you still have a way of playing CDs, or a way of ripping them to your hard drive, he perfect introduction to Brubeck and one of the outstanding music bargains on all of Amazon is this 5-CD set for only $17.90. It includes two of Brubeck's best records (the evergreen bestseller Time Out and the even better Time Further Out) and the other three are excellent. Did I mention it's only $17.90 for five outstanding CDs? The sound quality is superb to boot.

Steve Higgins: "Re 'Acceptable will be pictures taken with any Leica-branded lenses,' does that include the one on the front of my Lumix LF1, presumably the same as the one on the Leica C (type 112)?"

Mike replies: Yes, because it's branded Leica, that is, it says "Leica" on the front.

Photo by Peter Turnley

• I've been helping my friend Peter Turnley promote his Cuba workshops, which Peter likes because he gets high-quality participants from TOP. Since I last posted about it many places have been reserved, although there are spaces left for every workshop. Up next is the New Year's workshop. Officially called the New Year in Havana and Viñales Photography Workshop, it runs from December 30th 2017 to January 5th 2018. The full price of $5,250 includes the hotel in Havana, air travel round trip from Fort Lauderdale to Havana, visas, three local guides, transportation in Cuba, several group meals, a daily photographic itinerary, and critique sessions led by Peter. The workshop takes place in Havana, with a day trip to Viñales. A price reduction is available in case you want to arrange your own air travel to Havana.

TOP reader Ray Wallace writes, "I took part in a Peter Turnley workshop in Cuba last year (March). Simply stated, it was the best photographic week of my life. Peter is a joy to work with, offers guidance artfully and tactfully, and is immensely skilled at conveying to workshop participants the importance of truly connecting with subjects instead of simply slapping the shutter button. I enjoyed working with him so immensely that I asked him, and he graciously agreed, to present a lecture on the campus of Indiana University Southeast." (The lecture took place last October third. Dr. Wallace is the Chancellor of the University.)

There are several places left, but be sure to sign up soon.

Leonardo's Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) is on a worldwide tour
before returning to to Christie's in New York, where it will be
auctioned at an evening sale on November 15th.

• A girl named Camera: In 1977, American tennis great Arthur Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer and graphic designer. In 1986 the couple adopted a daughter, naming her Camera after her mother's profession. Other great photography-related baby names: Berenice, Dorothea, and Lisette for girls, and Ansel, Fox, and Walker for boys.

• Keeping the crew awake: Ever wonder how to hire a crew for a "high production" photo shoot? Julia Hanley of Wonderful Machine lays it all bare in a recent post at Rob Haggart's aPhotoEditor blog called "Expert Advice: Hiring Crew for Photo Shoots." When she once lost a booked assistant to a scheduling conflict, for example, Julia says "my first move was to ask the remaining assistant if he had any recommendations for locals whom he'd worked with previously. I sometimes take this approach because the remaining assistant will usually recommend someone they're used to working with, making the shoot run smoother." One of the potentially most difficult aspects of coordinating a crew, she writes, is catering. For one thing, she needs to know right from the start if anyone on the crew or among the talent has any food allergies or dietary restrictions. "I also like to keep the meals light so that the crew isn’t falling asleep halfway through the day. Another crucial trick to keep people awake is to have lots of fresh hot coffee (or cold brews) on set at all times!"

Fresh hot coffee, mmm. And you were wondering how I was going to work dogs, nimble sports cars, vinyl records, or coffee into today's post? Never a problemo. I've been doing this a while, you know.

William Phelps Eno, inventor of the stop sign. This is not a
mugshot, but a French driver's license c. 1912.

• Fading reds: You probably don't know who this man is, yet the things he invented affect your life almost every day. He is William Phelps Eno, an early campaigner for traffic regulations from the days when there were none. Among other things, Eno invented the stop sign, the one-way street, and the traffic circle or roundabout (or at least the protocols for how they're used by motorized traffic).

He was first smitten with his passion for "rules of the road" when, at the age of nine, he and his mother were trapped in a seemingly insoluble tangle of horse-drawn carriages on the streets of New York City. "That very first traffic jam (many years before the motor car came into use) will always remain in my memory," he wrote in 1909. "There were only about a dozen horses and carriages involved, and all that was needed was a little order to keep the traffic moving. Yet nobody knew exactly what to do; neither the drivers nor the police knew anything about the control of traffic."

I realize the above reads like it's a deft lampoon, but it is all true.

Eno's eventual proposals—after he grew up, that would be—were logical and rational:

1. We must have concise, simple and just rules, easily understood, obeyed and enforced under legal enactment.
2. These rules must be so placed and circulated that there can be no excuse for not knowing them.
3. The police must be empowered and ordered to enforce them, and men should be trained for that purpose.

No one had thought of it before.

Stop signs were originally yellow, according to Ryan Felton at Jalopnik, because red paint pigments couldn't stand up to the sun and rain without fading. California solved the problem of fading pigments first, by using porcelain enamel. The octagonal shape was adopted at a conclave of official traffic-control mugwumps in 1923.

Oh, and by the way: William Phelps Eno, the father of traffic regulation, never learned how to drive. The French driver's license pictured above, issued to Eno in 1912 by A. Bertillon, the Préfecture de Police in Nancy, France, was honorary.

The new 2017 Leica Thambar-M 90 mm ƒ/2.2
will ship in November

• Leica to revive 1935 Thambar: Speaking of old stuff, this is new. Leica is making a modern replica of its own "Thambar" lens type that dates from 1935. From the veritable press release—from, Ja, Leica—"While modern lenses typically strive to achieve the highest levels of sharpness and clarity, the Thambar-M 90mm ƒ/2.2 is all about 'the look.' The Thambar lens is known for its ability to capture portraits with a signature aesthetic that cannot be reproduced in basic digital post processing."  The new lens will cost $6,495, which seems like a lot to pay for an unsharp lens, even one with 'the look,' until you consider that the old original lenses run from $4,000 to $8,000 depending on vintage and condition.

Thorsten Overgaard has samples of both, and lots of information on Thambars, in this roundup of Leica short telephoto primes. (You may have to dig around in that a bit.)

• What?! Oh no: I passed a Porsche SUV (that very concept already a sign of cultural decrepitude) in the parking lot of the grocery story yesterday, and squinted to read the small silver badge on the side: Diesel. Oh yes—the maker of the canonical nimble sports car has degenerated to producing diesel trucks for public consumption. I am hurt in my heart. To paraphrase Julius Caesar: "et tu, Porsche?"

• A very interesting show catalog: Arbus Friedlander Winogrand: New Documents 1967 is an exceptionally interesting exercise, at least for those of us who are into the history of photography (and love photobooks). Many big high-ticket museum shows feature printed catalogs in the form of deluxe books, which serve as both a record of the exhibition and also a means of bringing the show to those who can't attend in person. But one of the most important shows of the 1960s in New York never had a catalog. It was John Szarkowski's "New Documents" show at the Museum of Modern Art, which introduced three major figures of the second half of the 20th century in American photography, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander. 

Now, on the 50th anniversary of the show, a catalog for it has finally been issued. I haven't seen it yet, but it's a tantalizing concept: it promises to both commemorate the show, finally, but also to take a thoughtful retrospective look at it and put it in historical context. The first review on Amazon is by Paul De Zan, who is also a TOP reader; Paul succinctly nailed it. I'd quote his short review, but whenever you write a review on Amazon, Amazon owns your words. (Did you know that?) I'll try to get this. The book, I mean, not Paul's review.

• America's loser President (SNAFU of the week thus far: He promised $25,000 from his own pocket to the father of a dead soldier—something he didn't have to do in the first place—and then reneged) apparently believes that the Auguste Renoir painting on his private jet is real, whereas art experts are pretty certain it's fake. But it looks like a Renoir, and hey, it's signed. Proof enough. Regarding that $25k, the White House is now saying the check's in the mail.

• Not censored: "The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen." That's a quote from Tommy Smothers, half of the '60s folk singer / comedy duo The Smothers Brothers. And, assuming you know who Tommy Smothers is, here is your weird factoid for the week: Tommy Smothers played guitar on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's song "Give Peace a Chance."

• Apropos yesterday's post, LensRentals really does things right: the Sony/Zeiss 24mm ƒ/1.8 ZA Sonnar arrived today in a neat little package. On the end you're supposed to open, the packing tape is printed with the words: "RELEASE THE HAPPY! OPEN HERE!" and on the wrong side, the packing tape reads "YEAH...NOT THE HAPPY SIDE. TRY AGAIN." And inside, with the pre-addressed return label, what do you find but...a piece of tape, in case you don't have your own packing tape to reseal the package.

Each time I rent something from these people they have found a way to make it easier to do. How long can that go on?

• Adobe has unveiled an online ("CC") subscription version of Lightroom, Lightroom CC, rebranding regular ol' Lightroom, which has been updated, as "Lightroom Classic CC." DPReview breaks it all down for you. Why can't life just get simpler instead of incessantly more complicated?

• The not-so-fresh face of a new breakout musical star belongs to none other than 77-year-old photographer William Eggleston. The Memphis photography great, who just two years ago published his magnum opus (and who I'm told is popular among both the old and the young), has released an album of music called, well, Musik. (Tim Vine joke: "So I went down to the local music shop. I said, can you teach me how to read music? He said, why? I said, because I keep pronouncing it MUSS-ick.") "The material on the new 'Musik' collection mostly comes from the late '80s and early '90s," relates the Commercial Appeal website, "a point at which the usually technology-adverse [sic—I think the writer means averse] photographer became fascinated with a new synthesizer, the Korg OW/1 FD Pro. The instrument had 88 piano-like keys, the ability to emulate the sound of any instrument, and a four-track sequencer offering Eggleston a grand palette of musical colors.

"Eggleston would ultimately create a mass of improvised symphonic pieces and interpretations of standards, totaling some 49 floppy discs, with more than 60 hours of material, which [producer Tom] Lunt then compiled and edited into the 13-tracks and nearly 60 minutes found on 'Musik.'"

"Mr. Eggleston," adds Boomkat, "often says that he feels that music is his first calling, as much a part of him, at least, as his photography." Hmm.

Here's how the Germans really really pronounce 'Musik.' [This link didn't work on my phone or tablet, but works on the computer. It's just a German guy saying "musik."] I would pre-order it on vinyl, of course.

• Do not click on this unless you have six minutes to waste: Work Fails. (Caution: NSFW language.) The one at 5:10 left me fairly gobsmacked. Think of how much work that one's going to take to clean up, assuming those boxes were all organized on the shelves. Or even if they weren't.

Good thing nobody ever sees what goes on behind the scenes here at TOP!

That's it for us for the 42nd week of the year 2017, a year which has sped by improbably quickly so far. That means: ten more weeks to go in 2017. If you enjoy our shenanigans and you possess a shred of mercy in your heart, you will naturally remember to click on the links below to do any shopping you need to do during those ten weeks!  :-)  And bless you for that. It costs you nada, but drips a dab of gold into my coffers every single time you do it. A coffer, by the bye, is a strongbox or treasure-chest. Mine is far from full, but I like to keep the bottom covered, at least, with no bare spots showing.

Hope you have a good weekend. I have to take a couple of days off next week, but I will post a "classic" (translation: old) TOP article or two on both Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully ones you haven't seen or don't remember. Comments will remain open, but won't be posted until later in the week. Please come back Monday!

And thank you.

Mike
(Thanks to many friends, correspondents, and tipsters)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Dawoud Bey: "It never occurred to me that this mysterious phone number that kept popping up on my phone was the Foundation."

• Congratulations to photographer Dawoud Bey, who has just been awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, AKA the "genius grant." Dawoud is what some of us might call a "real" photographer rather than an art-world hothouse flower, which is encouraging to others who are "just" photographers. Do note two important things, however—he is tremendously articulate and able to talk a good game, and he works from organizing ideas or concepts. And let that be a lesson to thee.

He's quoted by The Chicago Tribune (he lives in Chicago) saying the award will allow him to use his time to best effect: "I have more ideas than time, and this allows me to focus intently." As a MacArthur Fellow, he will receive $625,000 "as an investment in his potential," paid out over five years with no strings attached. Bey, a professor of art and Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago (encouraging to all you photography teachers, too), is represented in New York City by Mary Boone Gallery, in San Francisco by Rena Bransten Gallery, and in Chicago by Stephen Daiter Gallery. Well deserved.

• Trivia, Dept.: Actor Tom Hanks is obsessed with typewriters, and owns more than 300 of them. But when he wrote a book he didn't write it on a typewriter...even though the book is partly about typewriters.

I understand. If I were rich like Tom, I would collect 1970s and '80s turntables, but I'm sure I would still listen mostly to music files on the computer like I'm doing right now.

• A print of this photograph of Audrey Hepburn from the actress's own personal collection was estimated to sell for between two and three thousand British pounds when it was offered in an online auction at Christies.com recently. The photograph is by Philippe Halsman. The print sold for a whopping £18,750, obviously greatly exceeding its estimate.

It's a beautiful picture. Halsman was a well-known international photographer in his day who also wrote for hobbyists. One thing he was famous for were his lighthearted pictures of famous people jumping—remarkably, his Jump Book from 1959 is still in print, in a facsimile edition by Damiani.

The success of this picture at auction illustrates a key tenet of marketing: you'll have better luck if what you're selling appeals to two distinct audiences. In this case, photography collectors in general and fans of Philippe Halsman in particular are one group, and fans of celebrities in general and Audrey Hepburn in particular are the other. A tenet to keep in mind; there might be some way you could apply it to your own marketing one day.

• Trivia Dept. #2: In the comic strip Dilbert, Dilbert's dad is missing, having abandoned the family during a visit to the mall many years earlier. They went to an all-you-can eat restaurant...where "Dadbert" has stayed ever since, refusing to leave until he's satisfied that he's eaten all he can. Bah-dum-pah.

Oh, and by the way, Scott Adams is crazy*. But mostly in a good way.

Photo by Mark Crabtree

• Congratulations to TOP reader Mark Crabtree, a longtime documentary photographer of life in West Virginia, for having some of his pictures featured on Lenscratch's States Project. Nice going, Mark, and nice work.

• And speaking of TOP readers published around the Web, Mike Plews inherited his father's army footlocker, and in it he discovered a tin box containing 300 Kodachrome slides, most presumably taken by his father, Ronald R. Plews, on duty in Korea during the Korean War. "If properly stored, Kodachrome doesn't fade. These pictures look like they were taken yesterday." Boomer Café has published a number of the pictures. Mike's short notes are very nicely written.

Maybe someday your child or grandchild will find your 60- or 80-year-old hard drives in a tin box in an old footlocker, and just think of the memories**.

A photo by Dina Litovsky from Wired's "Female
Photographers Matter Now More Than Ever"

• A few weeks ago we were talking about you women photographers, and one thing I ran across while scouting the Web on that subject was a short but sweet portfolio at Wired called "Female Photographers Matter Now More Than Ever." A nice sampling that shows women working in all kinds of ways, including as combat photographers. The picture above, rich as a Medieval tapestry or a Grecian frieze, is by Dina Litovsky.

• Another rich (ha!) portfolio at Wired is Lauren Greenfield's "America's Obscene Wealth, In Pictures." Why is wealth less picturesque than poverty? I think it's because in news and information at sufficient remove, as in fiction, stress enhances interest. (In novels, people love reading about situations they wouldn't want to live through.)

• Fellow lens nut—er, wait, photographer—John Lehet continues to love the Voigländer Apo-Lanthar 65mm ƒ/2 Aspherical Macro lens. He says it seldom comes off his Sony A7RII. Meanwhile, my main lens, the Fujifilm XF 23mm ƒ/1.4, which has lately had its thunder stolen by the smaller, snout-nosed ƒ/2 version, has been given a boost by the sensor in the Fujifilm X-T2 that just arrived here at TOP Rural World Headquarters. And a great lens got better.

(If you're wondering why all these links go to Amazon, it's because B&H is still closed for the Succos holiday, which is a veeeeery looooong holiday. I can't wait for them to open again and will alert you as soon as they do. Follow us on Twitter @TheOnlinePhotog for all our updates.)

• Read, weep: Life is going on as if everything is normal, but Americans should be very wary about many recent developments. David Uberti on Splinter reports that a recent legal settlement, widely overlooked, should have set many huge red flags a-waving. ABC paid off a libel lawsuit resulting from its story about "pink slime" in the meat industry, despite having a good chance of winning its case in court. "The rich are leveraging legal means to silence journalism [says Jonathan Peters, a media law professor at the University of Georgia and press freedom correspondent for the Columbia Journalism Review], and ABC's settlement 'sends the message that filing flimsy claims against the press is a worthwhile enterprise.'"

Meanwhile, The New Yorker reported one of the most shocking stories I've read yet stemming from the mortal agonies of the old United States. The story is about predatory "guardians" taking over old peoples' lives and legally stealing all their belongings. Naked greed and immoral predation made personal in the way that murder by knife is more personal than bombs dropped from planes, even if it affects fewer people. Rachel Aviv reports. The account has a putatively happy ending, except that it happened at all. What's that old aphorism about how they came knocking on the door to take you away?*** Very apropos. If you are sixty or older, READ THE ARTICLE this weekend. Seriously.

• In a recent upload on Instagram, his platform of choice, friend o' TOP and former Pentax USA President Ned Bunnell schools snappers on the best way to get the best from smartphone cameras. He recommends the Lightroom Mobile and Pro Camera apps, and his commenters mention additional options.

David Hurn's famous publicity shot of Sean Connery as James Bond
actually shows the actor holding an air pistol.

• Welsh photography luminary David Hurn (also the co-author of one of our favorite books of advice for photographers) has for many years asked new members of Magnum as well as other up-and-coming photographers around the world if they'd like to swap prints. "Everyone always willingly agrees; they select their favorite Hurn image and vice versa." His collection of swapped prints now numbers over 700, and includes pictures from many of the greatest names of 20th-century photojournalism. A show called "Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection," is at National Museum Cardiff, Wales, and will run until the 11th of March, 2018. Online, there's a fantastic (if somewhat complicated) presentation of the show called "Swapper" that combines excellent text, some of David Hurn's own pictures along with portraits of him and other photographers, and examples of the prints he swapped for over the years. (If you get confused, here's a hint: keep scrolling down.) Take some time with this one. It's a treat.

• Our friends at Rivendell Bicycle Works are clearly becoming a film camera cult. Just the thing for people who like delightful anachronisms like Bosco Bars (quite similar to the albatross bars Grant supplied for Gruesome, my own bike. See this old post for more about Gruesome and how the noble albatross relates to bicycles). If you don't have a bike but want one, start saving now for a Rivendell next Spring. They run a little dear.

• Life in the woodlands: Speaking of running a little dear, last weekend my friend Eric got a rare chance to go deer hunting and sat patiently in a blind for four hours, but didn't even see a deer. Later that evening, driving to town, he had a close call and only narrowly managed to avoid hitting a deer with his car. Such is life Upstate.

Rare find: Paul Laidlaw and the Auguste Bertsch Chambre Automatique

• In Britain, the TV show "Antiques Road Trip" on BBC One sends antiques experts out scouting for bargains, which are then auctioned. The biggest difference in value between the purchase price and the auction sale price wins. A buyer named Paul Laidlaw found what he thought was an early subminiature camera, which he bought for £60. "Photographic experts confirmed Paul’s 19th century find was one of Auguste Bertsch's extremely rare Chambre Automatique cameras—essentially a camera combined with microscope." The auctioneer upped the bids in £1,000 increments, an Antiques Road Show first, and the Chambre Automatique ended up selling to a collector in Switzerland for £20,000, a record for the show.

• This edition of "Around the Web" is long on pictures and short on gear, so, to address that shortcoming, a link to the World's First Phodographer—a dog with a heart rate monitor that triggers a camera around his neck whenever he gets excited. Good thing Butters doesn't have one of those, or I'd be inundated with pictures.

At least we know who owns the copyright to the shots! Wow.

-

A factotum—Latin for "do everything"—was a
type device with a blank space in the center where
various other type ornaments could be inserted.

-

Well, time to bring this one to a close. The dogs are begging to be fed and I have to do my errands before the stores close and the Mennonites stop selling vegetables for the day.

Thanks to the readers and friends (mostly, our readers are friends and our friends are readers, but you know what I mean) who drew our attention to some of the above.

Great big thanks to JC and GW (they know who they are), who made generous donations to TOP this past week to help us stay merrily afloat in this hostile world. Greatly appreciated, as are all of you who donate and subscribe. And thanks to everyone who read anything here this week, for reading. Last but not least, a thank-you to Stephen Scharf for his ongoing Fuji GFX review.

Thus ends week 41 of the year 2017. We will now attempt that trick that wage- and salary-earners take so much for granted (we are using the editorial "we" now, you will perceive)—the one called "taking the weekend off." Wish us luck, because even when we're taking time off we seldom take much time off.

Which is what we get for doing work that doesn't seem like work.

Thanks for being with us this week and please join us again on Monday, as we (you, us, and me, all three) embark on week 42.

Yr. Hmbl. Ed.

*I'm not disparaging mentally ill people. Chapter One of the linked book is titled "The Time I Was Crazy," and discusses the author's brushes with, well, craziness. Using that word.

**Sarcasm alert.

***Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr,
der protestieren konnte.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

—Martin Niemöller

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Kusandha: "For any of your reader's in the NYC area, there is a show of Lauren Greenfield's work at ICP right now—I found it quite interesting and educational."

Bill Tyler: "Rachel Aviv's story is strongly reminiscent of what happened to the parents of one of our friends. They bled the victims dry in a form of legalized larceny. These so-called guardians are nothing but bloodsucking monsters."

Stan B. (partial comment): "Kudos to Dawoud Bey—well done!"

Dave Levingston: "I read the New Yorker story about court-appointed supposed 'guardians' last night and it upset me so much I had trouble sleeping, which seldom happens with me. In this one instance it seems I actually still am a target audience. Infuriating."

Kristine Hinrichs: "Speaking of women photographers you might be interested in the recent Milwaukee PBS documentary on Dickey Chapelle, the first female combat photographer to die in action (very early in Vietnam Nam). It is quite a story."

Ade: "The Swaps exhibition is highly recommended to readers anywhere in the vicinity of South Wales or the West of England. The Museum is actually down the road from my workplace, so I've already enjoyed three lunchtime visits, including a curator's talk, and will be back again this Friday for a talk by David Hurn. It's an extremely rare opportunity for those of us outside a major city like London to view prints by the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Martine Franck, Robert Frank, Martin Parr, Dorothea Lange and others, as well as Hurn himself—to say nothing of the works by lesser-known but equally talented photographers, such as Hurn's former student Tish Murtha.

"But, hopefully, this opportunity will become decreasingly rare as not only has Hurn bequeathed his collection to the National Museum, but it's being used as the foundation for their new dedicated photography gallery. While we have some excellent independent spaces in Cardiff, this is an important—and overdue—addition to the city's arts scene. I'm already salivating at the prospect of the Museum's 'Three Miners' print by Eugene Smith eventually going back on display (although not just yet—their next exhibition will have a timely focus on women photographers)."

Mark Jennings: "Thanks, Mike, for presenting Mark Crabtree's fine work. As an old timer here in West Virginia told me, 'There's not too much else to do up here [in mountainous, rural WV]. We hunt, we fish, we make music.'

"The people here follow those wholeheartedly, and living that life right along with them and expressing its spirit are a corps of equally sincere documentarians and fine artists like Mark.

"Here more than most places I have been I've found a lack of self-consciousness in the practice of traditional—and sometimes picturesque—arts. Mountains, distance and attitude still protect some of the old ways from the poisons of doubt and ambition. Twenty-five years ago my first introduction was some friends' dinner at their precociously off-the-grid, pre-Civil-War log home. The guest of honor was a burly, bearded and quiet man of about 35. After the food all trooped to the living room. The quiet guest slid a banjo out of a case under his chair, tuned it briefly, and then without introduction or apology poured out a transfixing 45-minute cornucopia of works. It was stunning. That, I think, was one of the Hammonds, from Pocahontas County, with whom my friends were on good terms.

"This is the world Mark Crabtree has inhabited and worked with for so long. Go, Mark! Go West Virginia!"

I somehow missed this when it came out—an excellent short account of Steve Sasson and the invention of the digital camera. Written by James Estrin, who has done some wonderful reporting over the years.

NYT, so it might be behind a paywall for you. For the record, I recommend subscribing to The New York Times and the The Guardian for their photographic content. Consider them the modern replacement of the photography magazines that you used to subscribe to but probably no longer do. Both do an excellent job of covering the current scene and of publishing relevant photos in many genres. You do have to poke around in both a bit to find the gems, but it's usually worth the hunt.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Lee Rust: "I work in Rochester and often take my lunch break in the café at the nearby George Eastman Museum. Most GEM staff members eat there too, so I often catch sight of the Museum director standing at the service counter or seated with others. I know what he looks like because I'm a member and often see his photo in the program magazine.

"Early last year, I noticed that the Museum Director was suddenly paying a lot of attention to me...smiling, waving and occasionally saying hello as he passed. I was puzzled, but flattered. What a nice guy! Eventually it dawned on me that he was mistaking me for somebody else, so one day I approached him and he immediately reached out to shake my hand and exclaim with a big smile, 'Hello, Steve, it's so good to see you!' It turned out that Steve Sasson had just been named to the Museum board of directors and the Director had not yet had an opportunity to hang out with Sasson and really get to know him. Steve and I are both big, tall and blond old guys, just a year apart in age and apparently similar enough in appearance to confuse the Museum Director in the out-of-context café setting. The Director was momentarily flustered, but quickly recovered and thanked me for my support of the Museum. Thereafter, whenever I've seen him around GEM, there is often a slight flicker of recognition but he doesn't wave to me any more. Later I noticed the real Steve having lunch in the café and realized how similar we actually are in height, bearing and facial features.

"It was fun being an honorary Steve Sasson, if only for a little while."

From The Guardian—

The story seemed a little too good to be true. Handsome young Brazilian surfer recovers from a leukemia scare and devotes himself to combat photography to give his life meaning. His pictures are picked up by major outlets; he establishes friendships and connections throughout the world; and he becomes something of a minor celebrity.

Unfortunately, the pictures of "him" are of someone else, and many of "his" pictures were stolen from other photographers, sometimes doctored or flipped. "The scale of the deception, which emerged in recent days, has sent shockwaves through Brazilian photographic circles," notes Guardian writer Dom Phillips from Rio de Janeiro.

On the Internet, as the old cartoon said, no one knows you're a dog. At least he wasn't impersonating a surgeon....

Mike
(Thanks to Mim and to Chuck)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

The real thing. Or so you think.
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John Camp: "I know that later tonight, as a former journalist, I'm going to feel a little like an a-hole for saying this, but basically, Martins' photos are as good as anyone else's. Maybe even better. They were taken without anyone stupidly risking their life for, essentially, an ephemeral photograph that nobody will look at for more than a few seconds.

"I'm currently reading a war photographer's memoir (It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario) which begins with a terrifying episode when she and three other journalists were kidnapped and beaten by Qaddafi thugs during the uprising in Libya. They were finally set free, after intercession by western news organizations, but Addario escaped rape and death by what appears to me to be a gnat's eyelash. She is not only a fine photographer, she's also a good writer, and she gets the fear and chaos across in a very visceral way. Addario has been given both a MacArthur 'Genius Grant' and a Pulitzer Prize for her work, but as prominent as she is, I went through the entire book without recognizing a single image, and furthermore, I've seen so many images like them that I was completely untouched by what I was seeing.

"I was touched by her travails, but of course, she wouldn't have suffered them if she hadn't been there. And ultimately, what did risking her life tell us? Well, really almost nothing. Can you remember photographs from Libya? Can you even remember the issues? Most of what now happens in war zones is thoroughly covered by residents with their cell phones, both images and text, and is competently reported by western governments through their intelligence services. We learned far more of what was actually occurring in Libya from Washington and London that we did from reporters and photographers on the ground. After reading through the Libya sequence in Addario's book, I didn't conclude that here was a hard-working photographer bringing critical information to the West; I concluded that she was a little stupid, or so caught up with her own ego that she'd begun to imagine that she was bullet-proof.

"So here comes Martins with really excellent war photos. They're fake, of course, but we don't know that when we first see them, and they are as effective at transmitting the horror of a distant war as any photographs actually taken on the scene. Of the millions of people who have seen those photos, I doubt that any more of the few will ever be aware that they were fakes. Fewer will really care. The money spent on reporters and photographers in war zones would be better spent, IMHO, on relief for the victims of those wars.

"I have sort of formulated an idea of what is important to people—and what is important is what is local, what you can touch, what you know about, what you can check out yourself. We have in our local newspaper today a photo of a black bear that came down from the mountains and is hanging around in the yards of some foothills residents. That's fairly important to local people who live in similar areas—warnings not to mess with the bears, how to deal with such occurrences, and so on.

"The further you get from a scene, the less attention we pay. Photography of the Civil Rights movement in the '60s had terrific impact, and recently, that of the Charlottesburg riots had a similar political effect..because those events happened here, in the U.S. Some Vietnam War photos had heavy impact in the U.S.—the Viet Cong soldier being executed by the Vietnamese general, the image of the little girl who was badly burned by napalm, both of which strongly affected American opinion about the war—because hundreds of thousands of Americans were there. But war photos are essentially like war cartoons—they carry impact, but that's about all. You could have long conversations about the brutality of war, based on those two photos, but really, would they help you determine anything about the righteousness of a particular war? Both of the Vietnam photos could have been endlessly duplicated, had there been photographers there to take them, with the perpetrators being Viet Cong.

"So why should people risk their lives for such ephemeral, and often misleading, portrayals of war? My answer, more and more, is that they shouldn't. I have a much different view of pencil reporting, but that's not what we're talking about."

Graham Byrnes: "I know we're not supposed to comment on other comments here, but could I just congratulate John Camp for having the courge to say something unexpected, at risk of being seen as an 'a-hole.' No, I don't agree 100%, but that's for another time or place or not at all  :-)  "

Bill C: "I have to respectfully disagree with John Camp's post. In one sense I'm not qualified for a meaningful opinion, as an amateur photographer and not a person with any journalistic background. But the value I apply to the work of journalists and photographers who cover conflict is much higher, and much less cynical, than Mr. Camp's. Yes, we as a society have become too desensitized to the horror of war, it is too far detached from the typical Western civilian experience. But with many friends who are veterans of foreign conflict I know that the reality is harsh, cold, and deadly, and we can never turn away from it. The citizen photographer with their camera phone can certainly lend to the dialogue, but not in the manner that a professional photographer can. The trained, experienced eye gives us more focus (pun not intended) and guides us to the substance of the conflict. They can cut out the visual noise in a way that a citizen in the midst of some tragedy with a 28mm lens simply cannot afford to curate for us. Indeed, it is clear that the continued devaluation of the professional photographer journalist will continue to impact the value of the visual message we receive, even as the volume of the message gets turned up."

Steve Caddy: "The same thing happened here in Australia with a barrister who was exposed only after seven years of successfully practicing law. John Camp's comment really got me thinking. If 'local' is what matters, then the impact of photography is determined as much by who (where) the audience is as where the photographer is. That's an interesting thought that touches on who/where the commission comes from as well as who/where the photographer comes from or goes to. On the other hand, it's hard for me to find or know the context of locals on the ground. I do put a certain amount of trust in photography published by the New York Times, the BBC, the Economist and other larger, more established institutions with strong journalistic traditions. Maybe that's misplaced, but I still do.

"Another dimension is that of the long term PJ. Andrew Quilty's ongoing and sensitive coverage of Afghanistan via Instagram has expanded my perception of that country and the conflict there—because I can relate to him as someone from my world, because he stays with the country and shares his growing familiarity and impressions, and because over time I get to know both him and his subject better. It's a much longer story. When I do see pieces that feature his work, I read those pieces with the context of what I've seen in the months before."

Jacob: "As a former photojournalist, I agree with John Camp's comment. I've been saying (for quite some time) that in modern culture, the risk in no way reflects or legitimizes the momentary reward."

"Situation Normal, All F**ed Up": a slang expression originating in the Marine Corps during WWII, according to Wikipedia. And of course it never rests:

• EU threatens to fine Canon approximately $2.9 billion: Canon stock took a hit last week when the EU threatened to fine it 10% of annual revenue over malfeasance in the purchase of Toshiba's medical unit. And 10% of a lot is...a lot. Here's the story.

• Monkey business ruins photographer: I swear, humans are just such damn monkeys some of the time it drives me crazy. Remember David Slater's world-famous picture of the grinning black macaque? Well, according to The Guardian, "Slater has been embroiled in years of arcane legal wrangling over the nature of authorship" rather than profiting from his pictures. He's almost broke and says he's trying to get a job...as a tennis pro.

I could swear I heard a story once about a famous studio photographer who would direct the setup of still lifes, let his assistants get it perfect, come into the studio, approve the image on the ground glass...and walk out of the studio again, leaving his assistants to make the actual exposures. Guess he wouldn't have owned those pictures in today's climate.

Moral: if somebody (or something) else presses the shutter button, shhh! Don't finger yourself.

• Nikon smacks own forehead: The Nikon D750 has been recalled for the third time for the same issue. D'oh! 

...I'm sure there are more examples, but these will do. In other words: all is normal, same as ever.

Mike
(Thanks to Nic M., Michael Perini, and several other readers)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Art in LA: "OK, so who owns the image when you ask a stranger to take a picture of you and your family when you're traveling?"

Mike replies: Exactly. Which reminds me of another possibly apocryphal story featuring Richard Avedon: a couple asked him to take their picture at a tourist attraction. When asked later if he told them who he was, he said something like "If I told them who I was I would have had to charge them twenty thousand dollars."

Dave New: "Those assistants were hired, and thus were making images under a contract that likely specified that all copyright reverted to the studio. That's perfectly legal (at least in the US). When I take pictures at the company department picnic, and I'm on company time, I wouldn't presume that I own copyright in those photos, either. Even Ansel Adams waited until he was off the clock from his government photography job to make his historical landscape pictures, in which he maintained copyright."

Joe Kashi (partial comment): "The 'monkey business' case legally verges on harassment of the photographer, in my humble opinion, and arguably might be sanctionable against someone on the other side."

Monkey See: "I have way more respect for the monkeys in these photos than I do for PETA. What ever your point of view may be regarding the welfare of animals—PETA's charter and purpose is to improve their treatment. Every single second of every day there are absolutely horrible things happening to animals (and humans, by the way), all over the planet. We are going through what has been called the Sixth Extinction with thousands of species being annihilated each year due to human activity, and what does PETA spend its limited resources on? Suing a freelance photographer who is obviously an animal lover (he flew all the way to Indonesia to take photos of monkeys, for God's sake) over the idea of whether a monkey can own a copyright, taking the case through the Federal court of appeals, and impoverishing the poor photographer. Perhaps the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees they wasted on this stupidity might have been used to, say, help prevent monkeys from being eaten? Rhinos from going extinct due to poachers? They are spending money on this rhetorical legal crap? I'm sorry, but, 'ethical' shouldn't be part of their name. Ridiculous!"

• It worked, Canon: In recent years the "Digital Rebel" has gotten quite confusing by becoming a mini-marque of its own, like the Prius brand from Toyota. The lineup is confusing and difficult to differentiate for non-aficionados, not only because of variations within the tier but because of the succession of updates.

So the story is that Canon has created a "new tier" in between the entry level and mid-range cameras, the first new camera in the new tier being the 77D. The thing is, it's not actually very new...as Bryan Carnathan helpfully untangles it for everyone in an extensive review at The-Digital-Picture, it's essentially the successor to the Rebel T6s, "containing a superset of the features found in the Rebel T7i." Canon is "breaking this camera out of the Rebel lineup for better differentiation," Bryan says. Like a sheepdog cutting a single ewe out of the flock.

But you know what? It's working. The 77D has gotten a lot of attention around the Web.

And rightfully so...those who haven't paid any attention for a while will be pleased to discover what the lower-end Canons currently have to offer. A lot.

Photo by Marie Cosindas

• Marie Cosindas 1923–2017: When I was "coming of age in photography"—my serious interest ignited in 1980 when I was asked to do a family portrait for some relatives—the name Marie Cosindas was one that most people knew. When acceptance of color photography in the art world was in its infancy she became known for her sensitive, classical color work. She seemed to be included in every survey and overview and brought up in any discussion of color photographers in the '70s and into the '80s.

Marie died in Boston on May 25th at the age of 93.

The New York Times obituary ends with a wonderful quote, something she said to the Christian Science Monitor in 1979: "I want to evoke the mystery of color itself. I photograph late in the day, the time Rembrandt favored for painting, so that the subtlest hues surface. They are as complex as any person, perhaps more so. It’s that lyricism, that mystery of color itself—that’s my signature."

Bill Jay, Marie Cosindas with John Szarkowski
at George Eastman House, 1990

• Kenneth Tanaka's highrise muse: Our friend Ken Tanaka wrote a comment the other day in which he admitted that among his "muses" in photography is his view. Which should come as no surprise to those who remember his TOP Print Sale, which featured a view from his view. He lives in a high-rise in downtown Chicago, Illinois.

For those of you from other countries who might not have been there, Chicago is a magnificent city today. It was long known as the "Second City," because it was second in size to New York City (now third, having been overtaken by Los Angeles). It's a northern city on the banks of America's "inland sea," Lake Michigan. Because of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the city had to be rebuilt during a particularly dynamic time in the history of the U.S., and became known for innovative architecture and progressive city planning. I think it's fair to say that the city of Chicago is another of Ken's muses...I keep pestering him to publish a book of his work called "Ken Tanaka's Chicago" and market it locally in the city.

But I digress. On June third, Ken wrote, "My view is my frequent 'muse.' In my current process of moving and re-imagining my website I decided it's time to just come out of that closet and show some of that work. See the 'From Here' gallery. Lots more coming."

I personally think it's going to be interesting to see the great variety of different pictures that can be made from the top of one building. I'll bet the variety is going to be dynamic.

• 'She have a nice button': Do you Instagram? Some guy named Chris is in a fair amount of trouble with his girlfriend Ashley for "liking" a picture taken from, um, behind of a person known as "Emrata." Ashley wants to know why Chris would "like" it. Heterosexual males might make the best sleuths* in solving that mystery. Moral: maybe don't always "like" what you like.

• The progress of the Nikon's-in-trouble meme: Human beings evolved to evaluate information based on quantity—how many times they hear something—as much as the quality of the source. And the more alarming or sensational the information is the more we sit up and take note. If there were sabre-toothed tigers over there, you needed to know it. This property of our "lizard brains" has been exploited by advertisers and demagogues, distorting our assumptions and our politics. But the flip side of this, which the Internet is uniquely situated to exploit, is that sometimes an idea that has a particular appeal for some mysterious reason will take on a life of its own. The idea that aliens would arrive in space ships that looked like saucers, for instance, had an incredibly innocuous beginning, an almost offhand mention from a single source. But the idea caught on. Or the idea that you should drink eight glasses of water a day—not true, never true, and there isn't the slightest bit of evidence to back up the claim. It's a so-called "old wives' tale." But it caught on, and it's widely repeated.

But rumors, when they concern companies just as when they concern individuals, are not harmless. Everybody knows the camera industry has been contracting in recent years (the peak was 2012) after more than a decade of furious growth, and one idea that seems to have caught on is that Nikon is in trouble. Well, we don't know, do we? The most recent meme, ignited in recent days, is that the Japanese government has asked Fuji to step in to bail out Nikon. Why? A magazine apparently said so. I might just point out that the articles that started the "sh*tstorm"—their word—here in the English-speaking U.S. comes from a site with the word "rumors" in its very name, and it's one that partisan for, well, Fuji. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It might be true. Or it might not. I think I'll wait till Thom Hogan weighs in. He keeps a close eye on Nikon. Thom's not always right, but he admits it when he isn't, and he's tended to fall on the side of caution about these sensationalistic stories in the past. When he says it's true, then I'll consider believing it.

[Note: See D. Hufford's remarks on this issue in the Comments section. He lives in Japan, reads Japanese, and has looked around for news reports there. Many thanks to him for going to the trouble. —Ed.]

• Canon full-frame mirrorless coming: Speaking of Thom, a rumor he does believe in enough to repeat is that bear-sleeping-in-the-woods** Canon, stung by Sony's (and Leica's) success with full-frame mirrorless, will dip a paw into that honeypot, thank you very much. He says "Canon is targeting a full frame EF mount mirrorless camera for 2018, probably for Photokina." So if you're a Canon DSLR user and have been thinking about a Sony A7 or A9 series camera, you might want to hold off.

....Although TOP will just gently point out that news of a coming FF Canon mirrorless would be the perfect rumor to create FUD*** in the minds of Canon DSLR users tempted to defect from Canon by Sony's new flagship A9.

Just sayin'.  

Photo by Cecilia Wessels. Full picture here.

• A new definition of 'nonchalant': This picture (click to see the full frame) has been making the viral rounds recently. It was taken by the wife of Theunis Wessels as he cut the grass in their backyard...despite the obvious presence of a nearby tornado. According to the story in The Washington Post, the tornado was larger and thus more distant than it looks, but still, if you see a shark, you come in from swimming, right? At least most people would. The picture illustrates two old photographers' aphorisms: the value of being there, and the idea that you never know when you'll see new pictures in places you're very familiar with.

Even your own backyard.

• Issues with the Panasonic GX8: Just so you know, the Panasonic GX8 is on sale again: you get $200 off plus a free 12–60mm zoom lens. No, not the superduper new Leica-branded one; the slower one. Predictably, these free incentive lenses are also for sale, new or newish, for very cheap prices, on eBay: as low as $250, which is half off the new price. So, oddly, the lens is a better deal than the camera, because the glut of unwanted lenses makes it harder to buy the kit and sell off the lens. It's tough to recommend the otherwise appealing 14–42mm, for instance, when you can get the more capable 12–60mm for the same price.

I love this camera.

Incidentally, my used GX8 went back to the seller. I could not make the Dual I.S. play nice with my zoom; I didn't track down the problem past that.  I suspect it was just a 'sample' issue.

I might write soon on the subject of tracking down problems with equipment and techniques. It's something I've been doing since my earliest darkroom days, when a cheap triplet enlarging lens helpfully announced that it was badly decentered by leaving one corner of every enlargement flagrantly blurry. Later, as the Summer lab manager for the Corcoran's darkrooms, I was grateful, in retrospect, for the education it gave me in enlarger lenses and alignment. Thirty-five years later and I'm still tracking down problems. But I'll stop now, and save that topic for a later date.

• Rumors of its death exaggerated: And finally, speaking of Panasonic, we heard from them, and no, the GX85 is not being discontinued, despite the body-only option being listed as "discontinued" at B&H Photo. Panasonic tells us they just aren't "marketing" the body-only option at the moment, in favor of the high-value, great-bargain kits currently on offer.

Mike
(Thanks to John Camp, Gordon Lewis, Stephen Scharf, Hugh Crawford, and numerous tipsters and friends)

*I learned the word "sleuth," meaning detective, from the Hardy Boys Mysteries, which were antique even when I was a boy. Turns out it's short for sleuthhound, another word for bloodhound.
**The old joke is, "Where does a bear sleep in the woods?", the answer being, "Anywhere it wants to."
***Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP/Yale Spring Photo Book Offer
(Ends June 30th or when supplies run out)

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Featured Comments from:

Bill Mitchell: "Thank you for the update on dear little Marie Cosindas, a true force of nature. Some interesting facts: 'Princess, with Doves' and 'Sailors, Key West' [two of her most famous pictures—there are more here —Ed.] were made in a house of ill-repute in that naughty town. When asked what she was doing there, Marie would just grin and change the subject.

"She once taught at Ansel Adams' Yosemite workshop, and was forever pissed at him because he never paid her.

"Because she worked in Polaroid, in order to reproduce her images they had to be copied and printed in another medium. She insisted on the best, which was Kodak's dye transfer process. But she was so demanding, that almost of the commercial dye printers refused to work with her!"

Mike adds: Here is Marie's most famous book, the one that was in every photo library in the '80s.

Stephen Scharf: "As a professional scientist and a hardcore data-driven kind of guy, I think to be fully accurate, it's important to point out there are rumor sites for virtually all the major brands, not just FujiRumors. It's also salient to point out that FujiRumors has, historically, had quite a high 'accuracy' rate, measured as 'percent of rumors turning out to be true.' FujiRumors founder/moderator Patrick deVino is fully transparrent about the 'rumors' posted and tracks and reports the site's rumor 'accuracy' quarterly or thereabouts. For the last coupla three years or so, Fujirumors accuracy has been ~90% or so. For example, for the entirety of 2016, 91% of rumors reported have turned out to be accurate. So, yes, while the site has the word 'rumors' in the name, statistically speaking, the 'confidence intervals' for FujiRumors has turned out to be purdy dang good. For those interested in the results for Q1, 2017, the link is here.

"I fully agree, though, that it would be useful to see when and if Thom Hogan weighs in."

D. Hufford: "Yes, we'll have to wait and see about the Nikon rumor. Since that would likely be rather big business news here in Japan, it should be easy to find. Oddly enough, a quick search of Google News (Japanese) gives me no results concerning this. In fact, searching for Nikon and Fujifilm together gave me no results dated later than April. Even a search in English finds nothing except foreign reports from camera/tech sites with no links to reliable sources. Guess that's why it's still called a rumor."

World Press Photo throws up its hands and gives up: After much careful (and admirable) deliberation on the matter of rectitude and accuracy in photojournalism, a beleaguered World Press Photo has decided to defend its values by offering an outlet to all those who want to manipulate their digital images. After fighting hard for reportorial accuracy, WPP has realized it's probably a loosing [sic] battle. Not only has it relaxed its hard-line requirements for regular news photographs in sensible ways in a new Code of Ethics, but it will begin a new, separate contest a year from now in which the regular rules of photojournalism will be abandoned. This strikes us as sensible: it's like the editorial page of a newspaper—a steam vent. Should have the effect of making it easier for people to conform to the ethical guidelines for the traditional awards. Good move, WPP, probably, but still, good luck with that.

Somebody gotta feed them hogs

Hey, want to see a hundred thousand pictures of my great-grandfather? Norm Macdonald on photography.

Quote o' the Day Epoch: "We've moved into an age where the ubiquity and complexity of toolsets outpace the ability to leverage them tastefully." —Stanford Design Fellow Jayson Mayden, in an article noting that many people never learn how to operate many of the controls on the complex devices they buy. The article at the Washington Post last March was called "Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software." It should be more widely acknowledged that useful, effective simplicity is incredibly difficult to engineer. (I'd say "nobody should know that better than people who use high-end cameras," but that would sound snarky.)

Highly anticipated Hasselblad X1D still high anticipated: n/t.

Expensive processing: Owa Odighizuwa, a defensive end for the New York Giants, was fined $12,154 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct after he pretended he was taking a photo of safety Langdon Collins after Collins returned an interception for a touchdown. Celebrations are not allowed. For that price, it's too bad he didn't actually get to keep the shot.

TOP (tastefully) sells out: As long as you're going to be buying schtuff from Amazon anyway, please start here! As an experiment for the month of November, I'm adding Amazon's sporty new "Native" ads to our posts. Featured Comments will appear below the ads as normal. Although this might appear to be crass commercialism, actually it's...well, crass commercialism. But you know how it is—if you want to keep doing what you like to do, you gotta crack the nut and keep the enterprise humming. I'm going to be picking the items myself, though, to avoid ads for things like tampons, patio furniture, wrench sets, or books about the occult, not that I'd mind if you bought any of those things through the Search Bar. Let me know a) how this works for you, b) whether you find it annoying or interesting or whatever else (if you don't like it, I hope you'll just ignore it*), and c) if you have suggestions for other things I should feature.

(By the bye and not so by the way, this is about the hundredth thing I've tried to make money with the blog. A few of them even work.)

Photo by Chad Hunt

Parade of cuteness: I'm going to be missing the parade of cuteness that used to appear on the doorstep of my old downtown Waukesha house on this day every year. One of the bad things about living in the country: no trick-or-treaters. I lived on one of the best streets in Waukesha and we were a heavy-traffic neighborhood for trick-or-treaters, even some from out of town (city kids with no place to trick-or-treat in their own neighborhoods. Some people didn't like that, but I loved it—kids are kids and should get to be kids, no matter where they live).

Not the next best thing, but a nice idea for a project, is a photographer I found through Popular Photography, Chad Hunt, who sets up a mini-studio on his front porch every year and makes portraits of the kiddos in their costumes. Nice idea. Here's Chad's website, and hey...

...Happy Halloween!

Mike

*"That's it, I'm leaving!" says cranky guy who never once contributed a dime...who won't even actually leave.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Kostas: "The ads are fine. The only problem for me is that they are for the US site. It's a shame that Amazon still haven't found a way to redirect people to the right site based on their location. At least it will serve as a reminder for me to use your UK Amazon link which I have bookmarked but sometimes forget to use."

I always look forward to being mentioned (and usually genially slagged, which I don't mind), on Blake Andrews' blog. The latest entry is equal parts amusing and yet also, curiously, useful—it's his "Photo-Flo Chart" (a flow chart, the joke being that Kodak Photo-Flo was is a surfactant you add to rinse water to prevent water spots when developing film. But then, if you own a photo vest, a fedora, and a light meter, you already knew that). It answers the question, "Which photography style is right for you?"

It's funny. Yet it also kinda works, which is a little scary.

Check it out and see what kind of photographs you should be taking.

Mike
(Thanks to Simon Robinson)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Larry Gebhardt: "It worked. So much for my illusions of being a unique individual."

Mike replies: You are a unique individual—just like everybody else! (I know everyone already knows that joke, but I couldn't resist.)

Gene Spesard: "Well, I got to 'Favorite Adams?' and realized it was spelled wrong and Morticia wasn't an option."

Richard: "Ha! Try it in reverse. Pick the Green Box with the type of photography that you would like to do, and then back your way out, taking note of all the reasons you are not good at it."

Crabby Umbo: "Two 'stingy brim' Fedoras (one felt, one straw), two Porkpies (both felt), one Fez (with a martini glass printed on it, no less). Three meters (one Minolta, two Sekonics). One photo vest that was a gift, and that I cannot wear, because it crosses the line into total geekdom. It's just too much. I consider the triumvirate of geekdom to be: Tilley hat, beard, photo vest. If you're wearing all of these, just give up.... Hell of a funny chart tho'...."

Fred: "After using the photo-flow chart it appears that I either have multiple personalities or the one that I have is a little shaky. It looks like long term psychotherapy or...oh wait, there is great light outside right now. Gotta go."

Rudy Van Gelder by James Estrin

"Nothing is simple and everything is complex": You might recall that during our Christmas song countdown last year one of the songs featured was a Coleman Hawkins' jazz rendition of "Greensleeves," and in that post I linked to a rare photograph of Rudy Van Gelder's legendary home studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. Very sorry to report that Rudy Van Gelder left this world a short time ago, on August 25th, age 91. If you're not a jazz listener, try Sonny Rollins' "Saxophone Colossus" for a sample of what Van Gelder could do back then. He was miles ahead of his time during the '50s and '60s when he played an essential role in documenting the music's greatest era.

Blogging back: I wrote about reader/photographer Dave Levingston's visit to TOP Rural Headquarters, and now Dave has returned the favor on his own blog. (Warning: other material at Dave's site is not workplace/school safe.) Dave's picture of me in the parlor of La Belle Vie is better than the picture of him I took of him in the same spot. (Have you ever done that? It's an interesting exercise: walk around with another photographer and try to take the same shots. The differences in what you each come up with can be very interesting.)

At the World's Best Photography Magazine: Alex Webb's Mexico. And here's Sally Mann and Cy Twombly. Here's how you get to the page with the photography articles: at the New York Times website, go to the "sections" list under the main title header. Click on the word "ALL" at the far right-hand side. When the complete list of sections appears, click "Photography." The current lead article might fill your page; scroll down for more articles. At the bottom of the thumbnails, click "View More Recent Posts" (um, ambiguity alert) for older articles. This actually doesn't cover the whole range of articles pertinent to photography; it doesn't include obituaries, for instance. But it's a good start. The NYT has particularly rich coverage of photography and it's almost always possible to find something interesting. The only problem is that I'm never confident that I'm aware of everything there is.

As for Alex Webb, here's the book. And here's Sally's book.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Lorenzo C.: "Rudy Van Gelder/jazz! Sonny Rollins/Saxophone Colossus! Alex Webb/Kodachrome!

"Three awesome, classic people/things in one post!!!"

Chuck Albertson: "Agree that the New York Times Lens blog is always worth checking out, but isn't it behind the Times paywall? I pay (subscribe to the 'Weekender' print edition Fri-Sun, which gives you full-time access to the digital edition), but many people can't afford it."

Mike replies: Oh dear, I forgot entirely about that. Very sorry not to have mentioned it. Thanks Chuck.

Michael Matthews: "Rudy Van Gelder was so far beyond his contemporaries in talent and skill that his name on the back of an LP was a selling point. When I was a high school kid in the mid to late '50s in that celebrated poverty pocket known as West Virginia, money was scarce. If I had put together enough cash to buy an album and there were, say, three of equal interest I would turn to the back of the album sleeve and check where it was recorded and by whom. (We had no opportunity to listen before making the commitment.) If Rudy Van Gelder was listed as the recording engineer on one there was no question: that was the choice."

david stock: "I highly recommend seeing Alex Webb's Mexico photos on the walls at the Aperture Gallery in NYC. Just went to the opening tonight, and was stunned all over again. Masterful, almost impossible images, beautiful large prints. Didn't study the book yet, but it looks well crafted."

Thom Hogan is clearly not the leading independent Nikon expert, either on the English-speaking Internet or in the whole world outside of Japan. I will be careful to specify that in all future references to him.  :-)

Always scrupulous,

Mike the Ed.
(Thanks to Paul Braverman)

P.S. If this post mystifies you, see here. And will someone please tell Thom he spelled my name wrong?

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Miserere (partial comment): "Mike, I have to...comment, just to let you know that you have the most adequate, ever-so-slightly above average photography blog North of the Orinoco and West of the Danube. At least in the non-Spanish speaking blogsphere. Your prose barely stumbles along, and your love of photography comes across blatantly lukewarm, with your posts being of such appropriate length that I'm always left wanting neither more nor less words, but sometimes the opposite. I hope to not have insulted you with my torrential non-comment on your photography blogging abilities. You are doing an OK job, and I wouldn't want to not persuade you to consider not discontinuing your work. Yours in vanilla, —Miserere."

Mike replies: You have not not not persuaded me. Thanks.

Source.

These seem pretty easily applicable to being a photographer, too.

Perhaps the only one that doesn't make immediate sense is no. 5; being a comedian, Louie challenges himself to throw out his best jokes and forces himself to start over. Applied to photography it would mean, whatever your fallback is, your go-to, your "usual tricks" in my teacher Frank DiPerna's words, throw those out from time to time and force yourself to...well, see no. 1, "Try new things."

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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