America in Pictures: The photojournalism of Life magazine

 Via BBC

Post categories: bbc four, documentary, presenter

Rankin | 11:00 UK time, Thursday, 1 December 2011

I have always been a big fan of Life magazine.

For decades, Life was arguably the most important magazine in America.
It led the way with photojournalism, which had had a profound impact on the printed depiction of American society.

Rankin: photographer and presenter of America In Pictures

An American institution, the peaks and troughs of the magazine reflected the rises and falls of the country.

Only when television and celebrity culture took full force did Life finally depart for good.

Filming America in Pictures for BBC Four was a fantastic experience.

Meeting five of Life's photographers was incredibly inspiring, especially Bill Eppridge.
I was struck by his photographs - in particular, of Senator Robert F Kennedy's assassination.

We both choked up as he described the scene: the busboy who went from shaking Kennedy's hand to cradling his head as he was dying in his arms. It was very moving.

I also worked with one of my favourite directors, Jack Cocker, as part of this documentary.
Great at directing film... I wish I could say the same of his sense of direction!

Driving the crew home one rainy evening from a clam bake, he managed to get us completely lost. We eventually arrived home at 2am, with a 6am call time the next day.

Some of the photographers who worked on the magazine were, and still are, the most influential in the world.

Heroes to many, and certainly to me, they captured the most significant moments in American history, each in their individual style.

Of all the Life photographers, I was most influenced by W Eugene Smith.

In the autumn of 1986, I went to see his exhibition at the Barbican.

I was so awed by the show that, before starting my career in publishing, I had my heart set on being a documentary photographer.

W Eugene Smith has been referred to as the originator of the photographic essay, and you'll see in the programme that like many Life photographers, he would spend weeks immersing himself in the lifestyles of his subjects.

This wasn't reportage from the outside looking in, but straight from the inside, raw and beautifully intense, showing how individual lives created the patchwork of American society.

Working in the field, the Life photographers were repeatedly put in danger, and exposed to instances of life and death.

Hungry for - and committed to - truth, they prioritised the image over salary and personal safety.
Would I react the same way in those situations?

As a portrait and fashion photographer, the biggest hazard I face is changing light bulbs in my studio!

Those photographers would go to any length to get the shot, taking advantage of literally any opportunities they could.

Although the Life photographers loved and respected the magazine, they were not afraid to assert their beliefs and artistic vision, even if it meant going against the editors' wishes.

In fact, this rebellious behaviour gave the magazine its identity, truth and diversity of opinion. I really identify with this.

Photographers don't seem to have the same artistic free reign these days, and looking at the work of Life, that seems a shame.

Rankin is the presenter of America In Pictures.
America In Pictures is on Thursday, 1 December at 9pm on BBC Four.
For further programme times, please visit the upcoming episodes page.


Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.


Related: America in Pictures: the Story of Life Magazine, BBC Four, vidoe preview

"To see, and to show, is the mission now undertaken by a new kind of publication”

Life photographer Bill Eppridge, 2011

Via Hunger TV

Life
A picture’s worth is often only realised through the eye of time – yet the photographers of Life knowingly captured history in seconds. Life’s second incarnation – its first was as a magazine dedicated to light entertainment and humour – was launched by American publisher Henry Luce. Henry had pedigree, having already founded Time and Fortune. A staunch anti-communist, he was far from blindly conservative. He was trying to change the world with his political theories and intent on revealing the truth, with little worry about – as is the habit of press barons – rubbing some people up the wrong way. “Show me a man who claims he is objective and I’ll show you a man with illusions,” he once said.

Life was the first photojournalism magazine of its kind in America, and couldn’t have arrived on newsstands at a more appropriate time. It was 1936, and America was trudging through the Great Depression, nervously witnessing Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini settling into their European thrones. Henry purchased the magazine for $92,000 – he was paying for the name more than anything else – and on November 23rd 1936, the first issue was launched. Its purpose? “To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things – machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see our work – our paintings, towers and discoveries… Thus to see, and to be shown, is now the will and new expectancy of half of humankind. To see, and to show, is the mission now undertaken by a new kind of publication.”

Read the full story, and interviews with five Life photographers – Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson – in Issue One of The Hunger, on sale now.

America In Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine, part of BBC Four’s American Season, is shown at 9pm on 1 December 2011

JOHN LOENGARD: DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Henri Cartier-Bresson sketching in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1987

New book and show is an ode to the art form and its history

  The Albuquerque Journal North

November 25, 2011

By Kate McGraw

For the Journal

   

Anyone intuiting that famed photographer John Loengard chose the name “Age of Silver” for his new book and show opening today at Monroe Gallery because it referred to a development process for photographs would be ... entirely correct.

“Any lens can form an image, but the way to make the picture permanent was a mystery for centuries,” Loengard said in an email interview. “In the 1830s two men, independently, discovered that using the chemistry of silver was the solution. Television, of course, is electronic photography, but silver remained the basis of still photography until the start of the 21st century. I wanted to pay tribute to silver and to a few of those who have made fabulous use of it.”

His new book is an ode to the art form  to which Loengard has dedicated his life. The exhibition of photographs opens with a reception and book signing today and continues through Jan. 29.

“I hope my enthusiasm for my subjects comes through. I got interested in photography when I was 11 years old, so I’ve spent 66 years taking pictures,” Loengard said. “Some of these photographers were my idols; some are my colleagues. I’ve edited the work of others, and I’ve hired some to take pictures. I’m immersed in photography. It’s a human occupation that I love.”

Loengard was born in New York City in 1934 and received his first assignment from LIFE magazine in 1956, while still an undergraduate at Harvard. He joined the magazine’s staff in 1961 and in 1978 was instrumental in its re-birth as a monthly, serving as picture editor until 1987.

Under Loengard’s guidance in 1986, LIFE received the first award for “Excellence in photography” given by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In 1996, Loengard received a Lifetime Achievement Award “in recognition of his multifaceted contributions to photojournalism” from Photographic Administrators, Inc.

Richard Avedon, New York, NY 1994

 In “Age of Silver,” Loengard has focused his lens on some of the most important photographers of the last half-century, including Annie Leibovitz, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Sebastiao Salgado, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Harry Benson and others. Loengard caught them at home and in the studio, posed portraits and candid shots of the artists at work and at rest. It is the work of 40 years. 

Alfred Eisenstaedt holds his negative of VJ-day celebrants New York City, 1992

“Photographers already knew it but, suddenly in the 1970s, everyone else began to consider photography an art,” he said. “Magazines started to treat photographers as artists — Ansel Adams was on the cover of Time in 1979. In the 1980s and early 1990s, I photographed a number of photographers because they had a new book or were old enough to be finishing their careers and worthy enough to notice. Working on assignment, as I did for half these pictures, had an advantage. A subject would understand why a publication like LIFE, in its great wisdom, had recognized his or her importance. We all like to be noticed. They showed themselves to the camera with an energy that might be missing otherwise. It was not vanity; they’d been asked to show themselves off.”

Far from an attempt to put forth a singular definition of modern photographic practice, this beautifully printed book instead presents evidence of the unique vision and extremely personal style of every artist pictured.

Loengard has published a half-dozen books, including “Pictures Under Discussion,” which won the Ansel Adams Award for book photography in 1987; “Celebrating the Negative,” and “Georgia O’Keeffe at Ghost Ranch.”

His book “LIFE Photographers: What They Saw” was named one of the year’s top 10 books for 1998 by The New York Times. Loengard wrote an extensive introduction for the major book “The Great LIFE Photographers,” published in 2004. “As I See It,” a monograph of his photography, was published by Vendome Press in 2005. “Image and Imagination,” a book of photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe paired by O’Keeffe paintings, was published by Chronicle Books in 2008.

His interest in O’Keeffe originally was sparked by the fact that she had been married to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but he grew interested in the artist herself, especially her calm attraction to the camera.

“When I photographed the painter Georgia O’Keeffe, in 1966, the fact that she was the widow of the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz was what intrigued me most,” he said. “Of course, she didn’t want to talk about him — except, maybe, a funny story about being in charge of the Stieglitz family laundry during summers in the Adirondacks at Lake George — but she had learned how she looked to the camera from the scads of photographs he’d taken of her. She was the most perfect model I have ever photographed.”

Georgia O'Keeffe on roof, Abiquiu, 1967

 Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

“Time flies,” Sidney Monroe said. “We keep thinking we’re new, but all of a sudden we realize we’re 10 years old.” He said they regard the Loengard exhibition as a perfect celebration of 10 years in Santa Fe.

 If you go:

WHAT: “Age of Silver,” photographs and book by John Loengard

WHEN: Today through Jan. 29 WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar

CONTACT: 505-992-0800; monroegallery.com  

 

"Things To Be Thankful For"

Via Joe McNally's Blog:


"I’m thankful Ernst Haas made a book called The Creation. At the end of a tough day in the field, just looking at it is like taking a shower....


I’m thankful I’ve been around long enough to have known Eisie, Gordon, Carl, and Mr. Mili. And to still know John Loengard, Ralph Morse, Jim Stanfield, David Douglas Duncan, Neil Leifer, Walter, Johnny I, and so many, many legends who have taken up a camera over time. Their work is the bedrock on which we all stand."


We add:   Thank you to all photographers.

NYPD orders officers not to interfere with press

Breaking News Via the Associated Press:

Nov 23, 6:53 PM EST

NYPD orders officers not to interfere with press

By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Police Department's commissioner on Wednesday sent an internal message to officers ordering them not to unreasonably interfere with media access during news coverage and warning those who do will be subject to disciplinary action, after several journalists were arrested covering Occupy Wall Street demonstrations last week.

Read full article here.

Related: Columbia University School of Journalism letter to Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD

"Thanksgiving Table With Turkey": The Carbro Process

(Photo by Richard (Dick) C. Miller )

"Daughter Linda At Thanksgiving Table With Turkey, Saturday Eve". Dick shot this image of his daughter Linda as a one-shot Carbro print that was built into the final cover for the Post. Dick did this by making multiple shots and carbros of various items such as the turkey, cranberry sauce and tableware, cutting and pasting the images together and re-shooting and reprinting the final carbro. Because that image became the first photograph to displace Norman Rockwell on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, when Dick told Paul Hesse, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to sell the Post a cover, Paul said that Dick was lying, since he believed that it was impossible to sell the Post a photograph. But Dick wasn't lying and it became a cover in 1941, launching Dick's commercial carreer.

The Carbro Process by Paul Martineau

Over a decade before the 1935 introduction of Kodachrome colour film by Eastman Kodak, a subtractive colour process was developed that made it possible to create vivid prints from black & white negatives. The tricolour carbro transfer printing process - or carbro - demanded strict technical control but produced highly-saturated and permanent colour prints.

BECAUSE OF its complexity and high expense (some practitioners reported a finished print took about 10 hours to produce at a cost of $125), the carbro process was rarely the province of the amateur. By 1937, full colour illustrations made from direct colour prints were being used regularly in the big subscription magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House Beautiful. Colour photography in the form of carbro prints was also being shown in museums and in popular touring exhibitions. In the United States, photographers Anton Bruehl, Nickolas Muray, Paul Outerbridge, Edward Steichen, and H.I. Williams, among others, became identified with the quality and artistry of their carbro prints through a participation in these publications and exhibitions. The demand for colour advertising photography was such that a few of the top photographers regularly commanded prices ranging from $300 to $1000 per print. Continue reading here.

Happy 75th Birthday, Life Magazine

Life Magazine was first published 75 years ago tomorrow, November 23.


The magazine, once criticised as being "for people who can't read," became an instant hit in 1936 and went on to feature defining images of the Second World War, natural disasters, the lives of Hollywood movie stars and the turbulent events of the 1960s. At its peak in the 1940s it sold 13.5 million copies a week.

The magazine was last published in 2007 and it is now a website. The website editors looked back over more than 2,200 cover photographs to chose their 75 favourites, which included portraits of Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe and a notoriously racy cover of Sophia Loren.

The magazine's place in the history of  photojournalism is considered its most important contribution to publishing.

The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time   

The 75 Best LIFE photographs

The Connecticut Post: Ridgefield man brought LIFE magazine to life

Related: Visit Monroe Gallery of Photography to view original prints by Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Bill Eppridge, Carl Mydans, and many other great LIFE photographers.

The Sports Photography of Neil Leifer

NEWSEUM
Concourse level
On exhibit through August 12, 2012



WASHINGTON — Experience some of the greatest moments in sports history through the lens of legendary sports photographer, Neil Leifer.

The exhibit, "Photo Finish: The Sports Photography of Neil Leifer," includes 50 images from the prolific career of a man who began taking pictures as a teenager and went on to become one of the most celebrated sports photographers in history.

The exhibit opens Nov. 18 and features Leifer's best-known photos, including one of the most famous sports photographs of all time: boxer Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston after knocking him out in the first round of their 1965 title fight.

Each photograph in the exhibit is accompanied by the story behind the image, told in Leifer's own words. The exhibit also includes an original Newseum-produced video in which the photographer talks about his photos and his subjects.

This exhibit was created in collaboration with Sports Illustrated.

Slide show here

"We are alarmed at the arrests of working news professionals..."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

City Hall

Commissioner Raymond Kelly

NYPD
1 Police Plaza
 
November 18, 2011

Dear Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly:

As faculty members of the Columbia University GraduateSchool of Journalism, we are alarmed at the arrests of working news professionals during the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, and deeply concerned that the NYPD blocked reporters' and photographers' access to Zuccotti Park during the recent eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment.

The NYPD has had a distinguished track record in cooperating with news professionals in the coverage of demonstrations in New York City. For this reason we are greatly disappointed by what appears to be a pattern of arrests of credentialed journalists over the last two months, most recently a reporter and a photographer from The Associated Press, a reporter from The Daily News and a photographer from DNAInfo, all arrested at the Trinity Church lot during a demonstration on November 15.

We are equally troubled by the consistent blocking of reporters' access to the Zuccotti Park eviction earlier that morning. Numerous journalists attempting to monitor the actions of police and protestors, and to capture images of an important news event, have reported how they were forced away from the scene and prevented from doing their jobs.

We are particularly disturbed that at least one journalist reportedly had his press credentials seized by officers, and some other journalists have reported themselves or colleagues being physically assaulted by police. Such intimidation is in flagrant violation of the First Amendment and runs counter to the best traditions of New York City.

The First Amendment guarantee of a free press has long been understood to embrace a robust presence for news professionals reporting on public protests, among other events. In the case of Occupy Wall Street, both the protests themselves and the actions of police are matters of intense local, national and international public interest. The arrests of credentialed journalists and the blocking of news access to the clearing of Zuccotti Park impeded journalists' ability to gather independent information, and substantially curtailed the public's right to assess the actions of public officials and protestors alike. This is a blunt infringement on the First Amendment and does not contribute to public safety.

As Occupy Wall Street and related protests continue, we urge you to ensure that working journalists receive the full respect and support of the NYPD, included unfettered access to cover events as they unfold. Charges against journalists arrested in recent actions should be dismissed, and the circumstances of the arrests of news professionals should be fully investigated. We urge that commanders and rank-and-file officers be reminded of, and held accountable for, their Constitutional responsibility to protect and respect the First Amendment rights and privileges of journalists covering this important and ongoing story.

Sincerely,

Emily Bell, Professor of Professional Practice; Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Helen Benedict, Professor

June Cross, Associate Professor

John Dinges, Lowell Cabot Professor of Journalism

Josh Friedman, Director, Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism in the Americas

Todd Gitlin, Professor and Chair, PhD Program

Bill Grueskin, Dean of Academic Affairs; Professor of Professional Practice

LynnNell Hancock, H. Gordon Garbedian Professor of Journalism; Director, Spencer Fellowship Program

Michael Hoyt, Executive Editor, Columbia Journalism Review

Marguerite Holloway, Professor and Director, Science and Environmental Journalism

Judith Matloff, Adjunct Professor

Arlene Morgan, Associate Dean, Prizes and Programs

Victor Navasky, George T. Delacorte Professor in Magazine Journalism

Edward Schumacher-Matos, James Madison Visiting Professor

Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Paula Span, Adjunct Professor

Alisa Solomon, Associate Professor; Director, Arts Concentration, M.A. Program

Duy Linh Tu, Professor of Professional Practice; Coordinator, Digital Media Program

Andie Tucher, Associate Professor; Director, Ph.D. Program

Betsy West, Associate Professor of Professional Practice

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

2950 Broadway New York, NY 10027

www.journalism.columbia.edu

JOHN LOENGARD EXHIBITION CELEBRATES "AGE OF SILVER"

John Loengard: Henri Cartier-Bresson sketching in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1987

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by John Loengard celebrating his new book, "Age of Silver", an ode to the art form to which he dedicated his life. The exhibition opens with a reception and book signing on Friday, November 25 from 5 to 7 PM. The exhibition continues through January 29, 2011. Signed copies of the new book will be available throughout the exhibit.


La Lettre de la Photographie: John Loengard  Age Of Silver

Life: John Loengard's 'Age of Silver'

David Schonauer's "The Big Picture": Books: Loengard’s Ode to the Age of Silver

Wall Street Journal Gift Guide: Photography Books