Re: studio cameras circa 1950s

Jack,

I don't think that you were off-tangent with your interesting assessment of
the role of the 35mm camera in history and with respect to historical
moments. Even the poem you quoted by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) has some
(small) photographic relevance. (I couldn't help myself on this one -
sorry!) In September, 1844, WHF Talbot (inventor of negative/positive
photography), made a series of views of Abbotsford, the residence of Sir
Walter Scott. The photographs were published by subscription in 1845, in a
small volume, entitled, 'Sun Pictures in Scotland.' The publication wasn't a
great success (see http://www.foxtalbot.arts.gla.ac.uk for Talbot's
correspondence). Photohistorians don't seem to think much of Talbot's
photographic efforts here either. But I guess Talbot was paying a kind of
homage to Scott . I was fascinated to learn that Scott's poem was used by
the House on Un-American Activities - even from this distance (Australia).

And I heartily agree about the value of passion.
Thanks Jack!

Catherine

From: "Jack Fulton":

> And to add to Bob's erudite summary and to bring that oh-so-political
> note to the discussion w/out an intent to foment.
> In those early 60's, w/dead Kennedy's (63 & 68), Martin Luther King
> (68), Malcolm X (65), Kent State (70) and all after the 1950's left
> us with J. Edgar Hoover, the 'hunt' for Communists by the House Un-
> American Activities Committee (have you seen the recent film, Good
> Night and Good Luck?) photography rose to prominence due, singularly
> to the 35mm journalist. One could watch television to see one's
> brother killed in Viet Nam. The Zapruder film of JFK being
> assassinated played over and over like a loop. Riots in Watts (65) &
> Detroit (67) and civil rights marches in 63 and 65 (Selma to
> Montgomery) were documented and shown in newspapers and magazines.
> These were considered "truths" and felt "immediate", if not
> spontaneous. Perhaps even more than the "decisive moment" as
> expressed by Cartier Bresson. Sometime in the above period (forget
> the year) the New York Times published a b/w image on the front page
> and Time magazine switched to color on the inside. Virtually all of
> this work was 35mm.
> It is interesting that the "reality" of that time has been usurped,
> or superseded, by the notion of the camera 'lying' due to bias of the
> photographer. Digital has now aided in what one might call
> interpretation of reality. Reality will become a modality seen as a
> fictional truth, or, in other words, interpretation of an event might
> actually be more interesting than a record of it. One might say this
> is illustration but it won't be that either.
> Anyway, I'm wandering off tangent and will finish with the Sir
> Walter Scott poem the House on Un-American Activities tacked on to a
> report from a conference on world peace in 1949.
> Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
> Who never to himself hath said,
> This is my own, my native land!
> Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd
> As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
> From wandering on a foreign strand?
> If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
> For him no minstrel raptures swell;
> High though his titles, proud his name,
> Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,--
> Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
> The wretch, concentred all in self,
> Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
> And, doubly dying, shall go down
> To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
> Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.
> --Scott
>
> Yes, passion. That is what is lacking today. Maybe it is a
> reflection of the loss of the 35mm camera to the digital one and the
> discontinuance of b/w silver-gelatin papers (virtually).
>
> Jack
Received on 05/29/06-03:28:19 AM Z