Re: William Mortensen Style

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From: Richard Knoppow (dickburk@ix.netcom.com)
Date: 12/07/01-03:00:29 PM Z


At 03:18 PM 12/07/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Sandy King wrote:
>
>> Some of you may find this site interesting.
>>
>> William Mortensen styled Photography by Owen Phairis
>>
>> http://www.pictorialism.com/
>
>Sandy, Mortensen being a particular interest of mine, I actually got
>Netscape out of the barn and went to that website. It was the slowest
>download I ever had (tho an admittedly slow modem & all), for what?
>
>For the UGLIEST website I ever saw, for "art" that's like a guy who cuts
>off his ear & says he's painting like Van Gogh. At least what I could
>manage to download, would give Mortensen a bad name. As for the "secret
>formulas" -- they're widely published, in Post-Factory, as well as in Luis
>Nadeau's encyclopedia -- in PSA journal in past years. Among others I'm
>sure, those just come immediately to mind.
>
>The one thing the Phairis guy did that was clever was get the
>"pictorialism" URL... sorry about that.
>
>Judy
>
  I agree with Judy that there is not much on the above web site. A Google
search turned up a large number of sites with material on Mortensen, some
of which is pretty interesting. A long article at:
http://thescreamonline.com/photo/photo08-01/mortensen/ is worth reading.
Part one is probably still on the site somewhere. A group of Mortensen
images appears on the same site at:
http://www.thescreamonline.com/photo/photo06-01/mortensen/mortensen_images.h
tml

  I have never been sure whether to take Mortensen seriously but my
tendency is to do so. I think the zeitgeist of the period in which he
worked must be taken into consideration in judging his stuff. Its clear
that no matter how much one may criticize it for its kitchyness it has some
quality than his many imitators have never been able to duplicate.
  
  As far as "secret formulas" go, there were lots of magic developers,
etc., proposed in the 1930s especially for fine grain. Most have nothing at
all to recommend them, and are the result of alchemy rather than chemistry.
Champlin's formulas are a good example. Mortensen's assistant, George
Dunham, is supposed to have done much of his lab work and also is supposed
to have written most of Mortensen's books.
  
  Mortensen did extensive art work on his photographs. In a few cases its
hard to tell if there is actually a photograph under the work.
  
  

----
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com


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