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Fair Color

Back down in San Diego for a few days covering the San Diego County Fair. Last day is July 5th.

Robert Frank

PHOTOGRAPHER:Robert Frank San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
A contact sheet of some of Robert Frank's 1955 photographs includes his shot of riders on a segregated New Orleans trolley, second row from top, far right.


Nice blurb in the Los Angeles Times about photographer Robert Frank's exhibit. The exhibit, at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, celebrates the 50th anniversary of his book "The Americans."


Frank's work was panned at the time. Part of the criticism had to do with his style. He broke the rules: he blurred images, did some strange cropping, shot in low-light situations. Popular Photography magazine described, at the time, the work as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness."

With time Frank's work came to be recognized as a masterpiece, and has influenced generations of photographers. (This is a mixed blessing, as more often than not a blurry muddy photograph is just a blurry, muddy picture).

The S.F. exhibit includes lots of contact sheets and work prints. Looking at the contact sheets gives a glimpse into the mind of the photographer. On the proofs you see the the iconic image (often circled with a grease pencil) -- but you also see the images that were taken just before and after the 'iconic' moment. You can see how Frank worked the situation.

You can also start to understand the editing process: It's mind boggling to realize that Frank made more than 27,000 exposures as he crisscrossed the US in 1955, of which 83 made it into the book. One might argue that the editing process is more important than the actual photography. It's certainly more grueling, time-consuming, and above all crucial to the success of the body of work.

That's not to undervalue the importance of a good eye in shooting: Frank's 27,000 images were on film. In this age of digital photography it's possible to make 27,000 captures in a very short time. But even if those images are tack sharp, perfectly exposed with no grain, I'm pretty sure it'd be impossible to find 83 images worth looking at.

Impromptu

Invited to a small gathering with some friends in Venice Beach on a holiday weekend. The family of four decided to walk along the boardwalk and to the beach. I tagged along, one camera, one lens, one roll of delta 3200 black and white film. Impromptu family session. Gritty, grainy, fun.

Flipped

When a couple or more photographers get together you can be relatively sure that photos of each other will be taken. Not just of each other but of each other taking the photo of the other. Why? Because that’s what we do. Because we’re insecure and we like to hide behind our cameras. Because, like you, we’re uncomfortable when someone points a camera at us. So we duck behind our cameras and fire back. Plus, it’s our way of flipping the other photographer off. Photographer Daniel Milnor photographed photographing me with his Flip.

Happy

Venice Beach, CA

Whatever

I met up with Leonard at a bus stop here in Pasadena. He was headed east.

Thought interrupted: “Oh man, there goes the 31 bus.”

Great for me, bad for Leonard. I get to make a few pictures. He is a captive subject. So he tells me this story about his tattoos: Once I get to the tat store, the guy asks, “you know what you want?” and I say, “whatever.”