Guardian Newspaper Series: Photographer Steve Schapiro's Best Shot

My Best Shot

Andrew Pulver

©The Guardian, Thursday 4 November 2010

STEVE SCHAPIRO

In 1964, I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York to shoot René Magritte. There he was inside, sitting on a bench. His wife and dog were with him, and they were surrounded by his pictures. I was doing Magritte, one of my favourite artists, for Life magazine and I only had an hour and half; but for each photograph, Magritte decided to become part of, or connected to, one of his works.

There was a painting of a big rock with a castle, so Magritte lay down on a bench in front of it, with his head on his hat; my photograph then looked like he was dreaming the picture. The one above works because Magritte actually resembles the protagonists in many of his pictures, especially the ones wearing that trademark hat. The challenge – always – is how to make a picture special. If you're working with someone imaginative, an artist operating at Magritte's level, it can turn into a collaboration. In this case, it definitely did. We were all in high spirits. We didn't talk much: our relationship was basically based on smiling. We did another shot of Magritte and this painting, with a hand coming in from the side holding Magritte's bowler hat over his head. It added our own surreal touch.

This was all done with natural light. I prefer that: when you don't have long, some of the energy between you and the subject can be lost if you start fiddling with lights.

At the time, most of Life was in black and white. I do feel it conveys emotion more strongly than colour. When you work for magazines, you often experience this kind of collaborative energy on a shoot. You become very close, but you may never see that person again. I didn't have any contact with Magritte after this, but I was extremely happy to have taken his picture.


Born: New York, 1934.

Studied: With Eugene Smith.
Influences: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Eugene Smith, Walker Evans.
High point: "Working with charis-matic individuals: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Laurence Olivier, Samuel Beckett."
Top tip: "Look at the picture you're going to take, then see how you can make it better."

More of Steve Schapiro's photography here.

More of The Guardian's "Best Shots" here.

Related:  REVIEW: "For anyone interested in the history of this mixed bag of a nation, "American Edge" the museum-quality Steve Schapiro photography exhibition at Monroe Gallery is not to be missed."

REMINDER: HELP SAVE ELLIS ISLAND THIS SUNDAY, NOV. 7

Stephen Wilkes: Corridor #9, Island 3, Ellis Island

On Sunday, November 7, join the Save Ellis Island Foundation for a very special tour and talk with Stephen Wilkes.


Included will be an illustrated presentation by renowned photographer Stephen Wilkes, who will discuss his work and the personal project that involved photographing the south side of Ellis Island...the inspiration for his poignant book "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom".

For the very first time, since the book was published, Stephen Wilkes visits Ellis Island to present his work, taking us on a journey to our collective past. The event begins at 10:00 am, starting with a fabulous brunch followed by Stephen's presentation and finally a emotional and inspirational walking tour of the unrestored south side Hospital Buildings.

More information and details here.

ELECTION DAY 2010 - PART TWO

Byron Rollins: "Dewey Defeats Truman" ©AP

"Dewey Defeats Truman" was a famously incorrect banner headline on the front page of the first edition of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948. Incumbent United States President Harry S. Truman, who had been expected to lose to Republican challenger and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential race, won the election. A delighted Truman was photographed at St. Louis Union Station holding a copy of his premature political obituary. Only a limited number of the papers are believed to still exist. During the day, the Tribune issued a several editions that began to back off from proclaiming a winner. The headline is a cautionary tale for journalists about the dangers of being first to break a story without being certain of its accuracy. It is also a caution about allowing editorial preference to cloud judgment; the Tribune had been strongly against Truman throughout the campaign.


The story by reporter Arthur Sears Henning also reported Republican control of the House of Representatives and Senate that would work with President Dewey. Henning wrote "Dewey and Warren won a sweeping victory in the presidential election yesterday. The early returns showed the Republican ticket leading Truman and Vice President Alben W. Barkley pretty consistently in the western and southern states" and added that "indications were that the complete returns would disclose that Dewey won the presidency by an overwhelming majority of the electoral vote." As it turned out, Truman won the electoral vote by a 303-189 majority over Dewey and Strom Thurmond (though a swing of just a few thousand votes in Ohio, Illinois, and California would have produced a Dewey victory), and the Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate. Truman was handed a copy of the paper and displayed it to a crowd of well-wishers from his train in St. Louis, Missouri.

In later years, the publishers of the Tribune were able to laugh about the blunder. As the 25th anniversary of the 1948 election approached, the Tribune had planned to give Truman a plaque containing a replica of the erroneous banner headline. However, Truman died on December 26, 1972, before the gift could be bestowed.

deweydefeatstruman.com

Related: Election Day, 2010

Looking Back At The Great 'Life' Photographers

Looking Back At The Great 'Life' Photographers

©National Public Radio
by Claire O'Neill

LIFE really has an unfair advantage when it comes to curating art books. Because, at least in the photography category, they have one of the most extensive, impressive archives from which to cull. For decades the pages of Life were home to the best photographers; and it was just about every amateur photographer's aspiration to be in those pages.

Some of the photos you've seen: Like the sailor kissing the nurse on V-J Day in Times Square. Others you may not know, but can instantly appreciate: Kennedy and baby Caroline, Jackie Robinson rounding third base at the World Series, Picasso painting with light — and in a bathtub.

So add The Great Life Photographers to your list of holiday gift books. The paperback edition of the 2004 visual encyclopedia was released in October and contains 600 pages of Life's best photography. Daunted by the prospect of making an even smaller edit, I asked Barbara Baker Burrows, director of photography at Life books to pick some of her favorites. Her edit and commentary constitute this gallery. But you can see more Life classics on their website.

Alfred Eisenstaedt: Children at a puppet theater, Paris, 1963

Margaret Bourke-White: At the time of the Louisville Flood, 1936

Ralph Morse: Jackie Robinson rounding Third base during World series against the Yankees, 1955

See the slide show here.


Credit: From 'The Great Life Photographers'/Time Inc./Selected and with commentary by Barbara Baker Burrows, Director of Photography

Not the Image I’m usually drawn to…

We would like to share what we found to be a very thoughtful post by Heidi Straube on an aresting image in the current Carl Mydans exhibition.

Not the Image I’m usually drawn to…

October 30, 2010 by heidistraubephotographer


Yesterday I went to the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They’re showing a collection of work by Carl Mydans, a photojournalist who worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, and for Life Magazine during World War II and beyond. The images are all striking….(see some of them here on the Monroe Gallery website.)


The image I was most drawn to is not found on the Monroe Gallery website…I wish it were, because it’s powerful and I’d love for you to see it.

Carl Mydans: A French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation is shaved by vindictive neighbors in a village near Marseilles, August, 1944

It’s a picture from World War II time period. Taken in France, a woman is sitting in a chair having her hair shaved off by another woman, with other women and a man looking on, the women laughing meanly. Apparently they suspect the woman in the chair to be a German spy, and this is their way of handling it.

It’s not the kind of picture that I’m usually drawn to…but what caught my attention in this image was the man in the picture and his expression. He is looking over at the photographer, and the expression on his face is…guilty? embarrassed? He’s been caught between the enjoyment that can be felt when you’re part of a group, belonging…and knowing that this isn’t really a good thing to do. And you see the connection between him and the photographer as he sees himself in the middle of this.

This is the beauty of Carl Mydan’s work and that of other photographers that I admire. A picture that would be powerful because of its subject matter (although not necessarily unusual, as many events like this have been documented in images), has one more element in it that reflects the complexity of human emotions and actions, the reflection of all of us in life, elevating it to that aspect of fine art that I look for, connect with, and aspire to myself.

In this image, Carl Mydans reminds us that things are not always clean and simple. I see in it a reflection of the challenges we meet often in our lives, of having to makes choices that may be confusing to us and require us to dig deeply to make sure that we’re acting in alignment with our values.

Perhaps the man in the image was only feeling badly for that one instant in time when the picture was shot…and then went right back to the jeering. Even so, Carl Mydans captured an instant of emotional recognition, and it is masterful.

By the way, Carl Mydans died in 2004, and there are only two prints made by him of this image known to exist at this time. All prints in this collection were printed and signed by Mydans. My understanding is that his estate does not appear to be interested in actively continuing to print his work; the negatives are now in selected institutions.

©Heidi Straube

The Inner Path of Photography

The exhibition, Carl Mydans: The Early Years", continues through November 21.

ELECTION DAY 2010

Steve Schapiro: "Vote", Selma March, 1965

gelatin silver print

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

George Silk: Children in Halloween costumes running together, Westport, CT, 1960

George Silk: Halloween, Westport, CT, 1960

George Silk became interested in the aesthetic possibilities of the distortions produced in race-finish cameras when he covered the 1959 Kentucky Derby. Photo-timers had been in use since 1951 for athletics, and at the Olympics in 1952 and 1956. Photographs made in these cameras stretched or foreshortened the figures leaving only a tiny vertical slit of the film in focus at the exact finish line. Silk had a portable version made, using a phonograph motor to drive the film past the slit which replaced a conventional shutter. The image produced by the slit conveyed the intensely private moment of the athlete straining in his endeavour to win. The slit camera pictures were quite abstract — Silk said: 'I was thrilled when the prints showed strength, speed, design — originality.' For the tryouts story in Life, 18 July 1960, Managing Editor, Edward K. Thompson ran the slit-camera images as large illustrations alongside straight shots of the winners.

Silk had first tried out his slit camera by photographing his children and their friends dressed in Halloween costumes. A sequence of these colour images appeared as 'Spectacle of Spooks to be wary of on Halloween' in the October 31, 1960 issue of Life.

George Silk  was lovably cantankerous, a larger than life character who would break into `Waltzing Matilda’ at the slightest excuse,” said Bobbi Baker Burrows, a senior Life photo editor, in his 2004 obituary.


In December, 1972, he was in Nepal, shooting an assignment on Himalayan game parks when he received news that the magazine had folded.


According to the 1977 book “That Was the Life,” Silk replied by saying “your message ... badly garbled. Please send one-half million dollars additional expenses.”

HAPPY WORLD SERIES

The World series starts tonight, and over the decades the baseball championship has produced many memorable and iconic sports photographs.

Nat Fein: The Babe Bows Out

I Like to Watch, the Blog of Writer and Editor David Schonauer, has a terrific post about how some of those photographs are made, and how one in particular was "lost" for years.

"Tonight is the opening game of the 2010 World Series, and in honor of that I thought we would take a look at what many people consider to be the greatest baseball picture ever taken, Nat Fein's photo of Babe Ruth biding farewell to fans at Yankee Stadium. the house that he built." Read the full post here.

Ralph Morse: Babe Ruth's Farewell

Related: 50 years Ago Jackie Robinson Steals Home

2010 ANNUAL LUCIE AWARDS

The Lucie Awards is the annual gala ceremony honoring the greatest achievements in photography, and this year the award take place in New York on October 27.  The photography community from countries around the globe will pay tribute to the most outstanding photography achievements presented at the Gala Awards ceremony. Each year, the Advisory Board nominates deserving individuals across a variety of categories who will be honored during the Lucie Awards ceremony. Once the nominations have been received, the votes are tallied and an honoree in each category is identified. The honorees are pre-announced months before the Lucie Awards. See the honorees here.

This year, the Eddie Adams Workshop will receive the Visionary Award.


The following awards are given during the Lucie Awards:

Lifetime Achievement (an individual who has dedicated his/her entire life to the photographic craft).

Humanitarian (an individual whose works in the photographic field has advanced the well-being of humanity, and/or provided substantial awareness and assistance to causes and communities).

Visionary (an individual who has made a unique contribution to photography and the preservation of the art form either through education or the creation of a viable photography-related platform or institution).

Spotlight (an individual, organization or corporation whose endeavors have significantly changed the landscape of photography).

Outstanding Achievement Awards are given to individuals who have made a significant contribution in the following areas:

Advertising

Documentary

Fashion

Fine Art

Photojournalism

Portraiture

Sports

Support Category Awards are also given to individuals and organizations who are an integral part of crafting an image. These nominees are submitted by members and voted on by the Photography Advisory Board. The six awards are:
Print Advertising Campaign of the Year - Awarded to Advertising Agencies
Fashion Layout of the Year - Awarded to Magazine Publishers
Curator/Exhibition of the Year - Awarded to Curators
Book Publisher of the Year - Awarded to Book Publishers
Picture Editor of the Year - Awarded to Picture Editors
Photography Magazine of the Year - Awarded to Magazine Publishers

19 Lucie Awards are given out during the ceremony. The Visionary Award and Humanitarian Award are given out every other year.

INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS COMPETITION WINNERS

The top three winners of the IPA competition are announced during the Lucie Awards. Those top three awards are:

International Photographer of the Year awarded to a professional photographer.

Discovery of the Year awarded to a non-professional, amateur or student photographer.

Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year awarded to either a professional or non-professional photographer. This award is given to the photographer whose story behind the images are as compelling as the images themselves.
For more information about IPA, please click here.


Monroe Gallery of Photography is proud to attend this year's ceremonies and congratulates all of the 2010 Lucie Awards nominees and winners.

Related: Eddie Adams photographs at Monroe Gallery.

CARL MYDANS: KOREA

Carl Mydans: Korean mother carries her baby and worldly goods while fleeing fighting, Seoul, Korea, 1951



In 1947, Carl Mydans and his reporter-wife Shelly became Time-Life's bureau chiefs in Tokyo, and they remained in the Pacific area for the next several years. Carl Mydans was present during a 1948 earthquake in Fukui, Japan, and also covered conflicts leading up to the Korean War, and the war itself in 1950 and 1951.

We came across an excellent article by Brian in Jeollanam-do describing the recent anniversary of the Yŏsu Rebellion.

"Tuesday, October 19th, marked the anniversary of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," written in English also as the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident" or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," one of several bloody exchanges in Jeollanam-do last century, and one whose background serves to foreshadow the violence of the Korean War two years later. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in South Jeolla province, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in hundreds or thousands of deaths, depending on the source.

Here's an excerpt from a 1948 report by Carl Mydans---the man who took some of those photographs for Life---that appeared in Time magazine:

"When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.'"

Read the full Blog here.

Carl Mydans: Exhausted Marine catching a nap while sitting on a cart full of ammunition, Korea, 1951

American corpsman carrying a wounded GI from Jeep to a medical station, Kwan-Ni, Korea, 1950

Related: Carl Mydans: The Early Years Oct. 1 - Nov. 21
 
Previously posted: October 20 is the anniversary of the day General Douglas MacArthur set foot in The Philippines
 
Remembering Carl Mydans