The Online Photographer

Regarding yesterday, Geoff did feel a little sheepish that the Bruce Davidson book, Circus, has gone out of print already. It's partially my fault, because I've had that review in the queue for a month. I blame Steidl, too, whose distribution is starting to seem a little suspicious to me—like somebody somewhere is playing games, or there's a power struggle going on somehow, or—something. Maybe they just have production irregularities or problems with the pipelines. I don't know. But it seems I get jerked around a lot with Steidl titles going in and out, and in and out of print all the time.

Bruce Davidson is a photographer you should know about, if you don't already, unless his social documentary style is just too far from your own visual interests. I can see how that might be. He's on my list of "100 Photographers You Should Know About," though. I think the best place to start is probably England/Scotland 1960. (It's a Steidl book too, so please don't blame me if it goes away tomorrow and then comes back again next week.) Some of Davidson's work is too "project-oriented" for my taste, in the words of one of our readers, like an (over-) extended magazine assignment. And I have to admit that I never clicked with his "big and important" book, East 100th Street. It's always been a bit too blacks-by-a-white-guy to me (see if you can find Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective in your local library for a far more engaging look at  black communities and culture in New York City and elsewhere—that one would make my all-time top ten list of favorite photo books). I feel that some percentage of the pictures in East 100th Street have a clinically over-descriptive quality that lend the subjects something of the feel of stuffed fauna in a museum diorama. It's funny (as in funny-peculiar) that would be true, too, because most of Bruce Davidson's 35mm work has the appealing grabshot quality of life caught on the fly, the aesthetic of the "casual-but-intense glance" that I personally like so much.

England/Scotland 1960 is more wide-ranging and lyrical that some of Davidson's more focussed, project-oriented books...which, oddly, makes it more consistent in feel to me. Bear in mind that I have a tendency to like minor masterpieces as well or better than more ambitious and politically relevant ones; I like Cannery Row better than East of Eden and First Love and Sketches from a Hunter's Album better than Fathers and Sons—and Sherwood Anderson better than F. Scott Fitzgerald—and I suspect my affection for England/Scotland 1960 is another, similar case. So beware of that.

But it's a very fine book, easy to like. Given what day it is today, I sure wish it were called "England/Scotland/Ireland 1960." Alas, no Éire. But Happy St. Pat's to all you Irish, and all you honorary Irish.

I also like Bruce Davidson: Portraits a lot. It's out of print too, like nearly everything.

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Making its way around the photo-blogosphere (I heard about it from Jason Anderson at Canon Blogger who heard about it from David Hobby at Strobist) is a terrific Talks@Google video of Joe McNally giving one of the presentations on which his current book is based.

Joe McNally

I have to admit I don't like watching video. Video just means I have to turn the music off, which I find almost physically uncomfortable; I work at my desk, of course, but what I'm really doing here—what keeps me chained to the leg of the desk—is music. I can do without it for 22 minutes a day to watch Jon Stewart (although sometimes—mea culpa—I skip the author interview), but that's about my limit. Voluntarily turning off the music for an hour and ten minutes is like going without a sufficient amount of air for that long. I'd much rather read something than have to sit still for the same information to go by on a video.

The Joe McNally video, however, was worth turning off the jazz. It's one of those "windows into the world of photography" that you find every so often (another is "At Close Range," about Joel Sartore). It's a great talk, even if most of McNally's laugh lines don't get laughs from the Google wonks. (The lines are still very funny. I laughed a number of times when the non-virtual audience didn't.) There's a whole lot of insight here—earned insight. Lots to look at, lots to think about. Worth giving up your air for an hour.

It's eloquent when he asks his audience things like, "Anybody remember Ozzie Smith?" and the response is silence. Right there is one of the problems of being an assignment location photographer—news doesn't stay news. (Nobody ever forgot Ozzie Smith who ever saw him.)

Here's the book. It's called The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters (New Riders Press, 2008). The video version makes you sit in an audience, but it's a lot cheaper.

Some photo enthusiasts like the tech stuff; they want to know every detail of how pictures were made, as if the tech stuff is either the secret or the point. (Not.) Me, I like to look at pictures. The Moment It Clicks splits the difference; call it a guided tour of a thirty-year career in photography and you're not far off. Hardcore techies won't find every nut and bolt. But there's more than nuts and bolts to living a life as a top-dawg pj—and a whole lot more to the pictures, really.

Is there anybody out there who wouldn't a) learn something from, and b) enjoy the hell out of this book? I'm not seeing it.

Anybody read it? I'd love to hear what you think.

I remember so many of these pictures.

_______________________

Mike  (Thanks to Jason)

Featured Comment by Gerry Morgan: "The day this book arrived, I started dipping into it late at night, always planning to just read another couple of pages and then put it down. I finally got to bed at 2 a.m. having read it from cover to cover but in completely chaotic order. Since then, I've dipped into it so often that I've effectively read it through at least once again. It strikes a wonderful balance between being an instructional manual, a collection of photos, and a great read. I started watching the YouTube video but turned it off after ten minutes because it was all taken from the book. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I like being able to access this type of material randomly and the book is perfect for that."

Featured Comment by Stan Banos: "Interesting to see how he managed to integrate  his commercial assignments with his personal interests, relate how he took time off to shoot the 9/11 portraits and then have to reestablish his commercial cred—only to have someone ask if he shot any 'personal work.' "

Featured Comment by Scott Jones: "Even my wife who is not a photographer read this book almost cover to cover. She loved the stories and distinctions and creativity displayed. Great read...."

Featured Comment by Stephen: "One of the best books (of any kind) I've read in a while. It's also probably the only book I've ever read that's really inspired me in my photography, especially to pick up and do some personal projects. I was wondering if or when it'd come up on TOP...."