The days of wine and roses and...photographs

Dogman

Dogman

Veteran
Local time
3:26 PM
Joined
Oct 12, 2007
Messages
4,333
While staggering down memory lane yesterday I tripped over a real treasure (at least IMO). I'm a fan of vernacular architecture, new topographics, documentary style and photos from and of the 1960s and 1970s--my "glory days". If your cup of tea includes any of these subjects, give this a look:

Artists - Joseph Bellows Gallery

Joseph Bellows Gallery was established in 1998. The gallery maintains an inventory of important vintage and contemporary photographs, with a special interest in American work from the 1970s. The gallery's program features rotating solo and group exhibitions of both 20th Century and contemporary...
www.josephbellows.com www.josephbellows.com

I've not had time to look at everything but I'm over the rainbow about what I've seen thus far.




.....................
 
Just a personal observation prompted by these collections.

For the last few years I’ve been exploring other genres, thinking I’d move on from people and especially candid people photography. You know, the privacy and invasiveness issues and all that. But looking at these galleries and all the different subjects, I am most deeply moved by the people pictures. Giacomelli’s landscapes are the exception, but of the rest it’s by far the humanness that resonates with me.

What do you all find compelling in this collection?
 
Last edited:
Dogman said:
While staggering down memory lane yesterday I tripped over a real treasure (at least IMO). I'm a fan of vernacular architecture, new topographics, documentary style and photos from and of the 1960s and 1970s--my "glory days". If your cup of tea includes any of these subjects, give this a look:

Artists - Joseph Bellows Gallery

Joseph Bellows Gallery was established in 1998. The gallery maintains an inventory of important vintage and contemporary photographs, with a special interest in American work from the 1970s. The gallery's program features rotating solo and group exhibitions of both 20th Century and contemporary...
www.josephbellows.com www.josephbellows.com

I've not had time to look at everything but I'm over the rainbow about what I've seen thus far.




.....................
Click to expand...
Great link. I studied under Charles Swedlund.
 
Dogman said:
While staggering down memory lane yesterday I tripped over a real treasure (at least IMO). I'm a fan of vernacular architecture, new topographics, documentary style and photos from and of the 1960s and 1970s--my "glory days". If your cup of tea includes any of these subjects, give this a look:

Artists - Joseph Bellows Gallery

Joseph Bellows Gallery was established in 1998. The gallery maintains an inventory of important vintage and contemporary photographs, with a special interest in American work from the 1970s. The gallery's program features rotating solo and group exhibitions of both 20th Century and contemporary...
www.josephbellows.com www.josephbellows.com

I've not had time to look at everything but I'm over the rainbow about what I've seen thus far.




.....................
Click to expand...
That's quite something... thank you very much.
 
I still haven't seen all the photos by all the photographers on this site. But, thus far, the ones I find the most compelling are the vernacular architecture and new topographics style landscapes. I've always been a Lewis Baltz fan as well as a fan of many of George Tice's photos. IIRC Baltz and Joe Deal, represented here as well, were included in the original new topographics exhibit and book. By the way, Tice died just a week or so ago. I find these representations of human artifacts to be incredibly important. Pretty? No but important as a visual reminder of who we are.

I'm not dismissing the humanist photography. The people pictures are just as important as the artifact photos. I'm just more drawn to the images of places and what we have built or destroyed over time. I guess it's because I spent the early years of my photography making photos of people to the exclusion of "things". Today I'm trying to see the objects of human creation as being ripe subjects.
 
Dogman said:
I still haven't seen all the photos by all the photographers on this site. But, thus far, the ones I find the most compelling are the vernacular architecture and new topographics style landscapes. I've always been a Lewis Baltz fan as well as a fan of many of George Tice's photos. IIRC Baltz and Joe Deal, represented here as well, were included in the original new topographics exhibit and book. By the way, Tice died just a week or so ago. I find these representations of human artifacts to be incredibly important. Pretty? No but important as a visual reminder of who we are.

I'm not dismissing the humanist photography. The people pictures are just as important as the artifact photos. I'm just more drawn to the images of places and what we have built or destroyed over time. I guess it's because I spent the early years of my photography making photos of people to the exclusion of "things". Today I'm trying to see the objects of human creation as being ripe subjects.
Click to expand...
Interesting to hear what your process has been. Mine has been the reverse, although I don't see my subject matter in either/or terms (and I'm sure you don't, as well). For me it's been a process of moving from the documentation of human artifacts as a record of our impact on the land, to documenting the source of those artifacts, the humans themselves. Portraiture can have a lot to say about how a subject perceives his/her place in the world, and what sort of relationship with the world that might be. Think of Avedon's In the American West.
What I have learned is that making an incisive, intelligent portrait is a damned lot harder than shooting a weathered barn.
 
I guess I'm just overloaded with portraits. Avedon opened a floodgate of photo portraits that gets more and more obtuse with time. I'm sorta turned off by the look of portraits with people staring at the camera, looking angry or seductive or however else they wanna be portrayed. My ideal people photos are the candid, unposed, kinda sloppy ones. Caught at a moment when they are themselves, not aware they are being photographed.
 
Dogman said:
I guess I'm just overloaded with portraits. Avedon opened a floodgate of photo portraits that gets more and more obtuse with time. I'm sorta turned off by the look of portraits with people staring at the camera, looking angry or seductive or however else they wanna be portrayed. My ideal people photos are the candid, unposed, kinda sloppy ones. Caught at a moment when they are themselves, not aware they are being photographed.
Click to expand...
Actually, you've described what I try to accomplish: aware of being photographed, but still being themselves. It's a difficult balance!
 
Interesting collections, worthwhile to spend time to go through. Thanks for the link.
My first thought, immediate, without to go deep into the subject is that I (we?) was so young in those days...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom