The most requested photo in the Library of Congress

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Huss

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is Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother
http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/

And guess what? it's out of focus. I just saw a large print of it at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. The mother's face is completely out of focus while her children's heads behind her are sharp.

The point of this? Even though Lange used a Graflex camera, technicalities mean nothing if you have a boring image. Those who pore of spec sheets, DxO results, comparo tests etc, get over it.

Migrant Mother was taken in 1936....
 
sepiareverb said:
Recently went through some photographs there, now one just downloads a copy for their device.
Click to expand...

Of course, documentation for HABS, HAER, and HALS is still done with large format silver negatives and will be for the foreseeable future. The reasons are simple: stability and ease of access.

Regarding technicalities and great images, no it doesn't matter much that the mother isn't in perfect focus. I'm not sure what that has to do with spec sheets, though.
 
Yes, it's a great photo. I have a copy of it on the wall of the hallway at home. Downloaded from the LOC website, cleaned up in Lightroom and printed on good fiber inkjet paper it looks very nice displayed with several other FSA photos by Marion Post Walcott, Walker Evans and Russell Lee. I'm sort of a Walker Evans fanatic so his work makes up the bulk of the display.

There are some great photos available from LOC downloads but many of them show signs of heavy handling over the years--scratches, smudges, stains, etc., on the negatives or original prints. Thus the need for a "clean up" to get them back as close as possible to their original state as much as possible. The original technical deficiencies don't distract at all, IMO. In fact they add to the emotional content of the photos.
 
Huss said:
is Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother
http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/

And guess what? it's out of focus. I just saw a large print of it at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. The mother's face is completely out of focus while her children's heads behind her are sharp.

The point of this? Even though Lange used a Graflex camera, technicalities mean nothing if you have a boring image. Those who pore of spec sheets, DxO results, comparo tests etc, get over it.

Migrant Mother was taken in 1936....
Click to expand...

I believe the shot was made with a 35mm, probably a Leica.

The contact sheet containing this famous photograph has been published more than once. Surprisingly, the mother is not unhappy in all of the shots.
 
Graybeard said:
I believe the shot was made with a 35mm, probably a Leica.

The contact sheet containing this famous photograph has been published more than once. Surprisingly, the mother is not unhappy in all of the shots.
Click to expand...

Click on the link and look at the scan. It's a 4x5 negative.
 
The photos of soldiers struggling on the Normandy beaches by Robert Capa show motion blur and other technical problems. But are very emotional images.
 
Huss said:
is Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother
http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/

And guess what? it's out of focus. I just saw a large print of it at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. The mother's face is completely out of focus while her children's heads behind her are sharp.

The point of this? Even though Lange used a Graflex camera, technicalities mean nothing if you have a boring image. Those who pore of spec sheets, DxO results, comparo tests etc, get over it.

Migrant Mother was taken in 1936....
Click to expand...

There are several other photographs, you can see the slight mis-focus better here:

https://cphmag.com/migrant-mother/
 
zuiko85 said:
The photos of soldiers struggling on the Normandy beaches by Robert Capa show motion blur and other technical problems. But are very emotional images.
Click to expand...

The Magnum Contact Sheets book includes these images, and a surprising story. I'll paraphrase from memory because I don't have the book handy: The agency was very eager to process the film so they turned the heat up too high in the drying cabinet and separated the emulsion from the backing. This ruined a majority of Capa's shots, and the few that were salvageable were still damaged--hence the blurriness.

I don't mean to sound like I disagree with you! Just want to share a fun little anecdote. And, if anything, I think the magnitude of the technical problems are MORE indicative of the power of his images. Their resonance is totally undiminished by a mistake that would have made a lesser photograph totally unusable.
 
LCSmith said:
Regarding technicalities and great images, no it doesn't matter much that the mother isn't in perfect focus. I'm not sure what that has to do with spec sheets, though.
Click to expand...

The point being an out of focus shot would rate terribly on spec sheets.
This shows that that doesn't matter. I know most of us know this already but it's worth reminding others who worry about BS like microcontrast , dynamic range etc etc
 
Huss said:
The point being an out of focus shot would rate terribly on spec sheets.
This shows that that doesn't matter. I know most of us know this already but it's worth reminding others who worry about BS like microcontrast , dynamic range etc etc
Click to expand...

I see what you mean. Thank you for the explanation.

One thinks of the ancient distinction between aesthetics and callistics, or what is formally beautiful (e.g. a nice-looking vase) vs. what is personally beautiful (i.e. relational).
 
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