From: epona (acolyta@napc.com)
Date: 09/03/02-09:32:53 AM Z
Yes, I was lucky to be a student of his and am familiar with a lot of his work.
He is very conscious of making his subjects feel as comfortable as possible,
doing long shoots. After a time of being in front of the 8x10, the initial
"mask" begins to drop and the real person comes through. I love the picture of
his wife in the bathtub, and also the portraits of her and her three sisters. He
took one photo of the four of them every year for many years, maybe twenty. It's
a neat documentation of change and time.
Cheers,
Christine
William Marsh wrote:
> Has anyone seen Nicholas Nixon's fairly early work, taking people
> pictures with an 8x10? They were "candid" and in close. Also amazing.
>
> Bill
>
> Carl Weese wrote:
> >
> > > Carl, let me suggest that when you say you "know" what the small camera
> > > "is for," you err. I don't think in fact ANYONE knows what ANY camera
> > > "is for." That's what the excitement is about.
> >
> > Of course some genius may come along and invent something really and truly
> > new to do with a camera of any size. I'm waiting. I'll steal from her right
> > away. And then make it my own.
> >
> > >
> > > As for invisibility... That's a lot harder for a man than for a woman.
> >
> > That's actually a matter of craft--the invisibility. But that's not the
> > right word. My former point was the lack of threatening presence:
> > invisibility is literally impossible but practically you can do an amazingly
> > good imitation. It's a learned technique. As you know, I'm not exactly
> > small. But my partner has pointed out that at particular times when I was
> > totally immersed in a small camera project, I'd gotten so into the manner of
> > my shooting 24/7 that she'd lose me at the grocery store. Couldn't find me,
> > while looking right there. How many other six foot four people was I hiding
> > among?....Tina just came and looked over my shoulder at the computer screen,
> > and said, "yes, it used to drive me crazy the way you'd disappear at the
> > supermarket in west philly" (that would be 1971). It was a craft skill that
> > I'd carefully practiced for years. It helps you make good pictures. Snapping
> > away in a crowd is, I suppose, a way to be invisible, but what will you get?
> > Snaps of a crowd.
> >
> > I spent my entire adolescence, which would be the decade of the sixties,
> > taking pictures in NYC nearly every minute I wasn't in school. Times Square,
> > The Village, whatever. As I grew out of adolescence I realized how boring
> > all that was, even though the pix were selling like hotcakes (and for about
> > that much money) as stock through Black Star. Strange to take a psychology
> > class as an undergrad and find the textbook illustrated with some of your
> > own pictures. Hey, I got forty bucks for that! You have to move on. When I
> > realized I was making good pictures, pictures that would not sell as stock,
> > I knew I'd grown up, at least a little, as an artist.
> >
> > ---Carl
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." -Albert Einstein
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