BookMarks

A Conversation With Photographer Harry Gruyaert

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Harry Gruyaert.

Harry Gruyaert is a mystery to me.

I wonder…HOW does he get such miraculous, beautifully atmospheric Photographs, over and over, again? It doesn’t matter what time of day,

Los Angeles, California, USA, 1981. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos. I came across a print of this work in June and realized that I hadn’t done a deep dive into Harry Gruyaert’s work. Well? It’s summer. Into the pool!  Three months later, I’m still immersed in the sheer joy of looking. Click any Photo for full size.

or night it is.

Launderette. Town of Antwerp, Flanders Region, Belgium 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

What the weather is,

Ostende, Belgium, 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

or even what’s going on.

Commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo, 1981, Village in the Province of Brabant, Belgium. Photo By Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

And, he’s been doing it for going on 50 years now.

His Photographs will make you stop and wonder- What’s going on here?

Rue Royale, 1981. Brussels, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Or, marvel at the almost magical combination of elements coming together in a split second of time,

Parade, 1988.Flanders region, Province of Brabant, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

any time,

Galway, Ireland, 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

any where.

National Communist party congress, Trivandrum, India, 1989. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

But, the biggest mystery of all, for me, is WHY is he still so relatively little known in the USA?

His name is heard nowhere nearly as often as his fellow contemporary Masters of color Photography- William Eggleston, Saul Leiter, Stephen Shore, and the rest. As I write this, there are only TWO books of his work in print here (see BookMarks at the end). Yet, I find, his work has a richness and subtlety, those gorgeous colors he’s legendary for, all in the service of a mystery, like an untitled still from a movie (sorry, Cindy), that brings me back to have another look, again and again. His work can stand right alongside that of his peers, and it will hold its own alongside any of them. Even beyond contemporary Photography, Harry Gruyaert’s work, also, speaks to the lover of Painting in me. His is that rarest of work that touches some of the same nerves that Edward Hopper is, perhaps, most renowned for- the insular loneliness that defines modern life.

Covered market, Bairritz, France, 2000. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1941, he joined Magnum Photos in 1981, as admittedly, and somewhat controversially, the first and only, non-PhotoJournalist in the legendary group. 37 years later, he’s still a member, and is it only a coincidence that the current roster may be the most diverse in its 71 year history? Still going strong, 2018 is turning out to be a big year for Harry. First, the Harry Gruyaert – Retrospective at FOMU Foto Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, from March 9th to June 9th, 2018, while the feature length documentary, Harry Gruyaert Photographer, premiered this summer. Meanwhile, this past Saturday, September 8th, saw the opening of his new show at Antwerp’s renowned Gallery Fifty One. The show is titled Roots, and features work Mr. Gruyaert created in his native Belgium, where his “roots” are.

I’m thrilled to say I had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Gruyaert in France after he just returned home from attending the opening of Roots, and in a far ranging interview, I was fortunate to ask him every question I could think of that I have yet to see asked of him thus far. What follows is not a blow by blow biography. It’s meant to fill in the gaps in what’s been written about Harry Gruyaert thus far. And so, it’s meant to intrigue, to inspire you to delve further into his long and rich career. I quickly discovered that he is not one to mince words. Hold on to your seats, and prepare to meet a living legend, who’s bursting with passion in his mid-70s. Ladies and gentlemen, my conversation with Harry Gruyaert on September 11th, 2018…

Before I could get a word out, he said…

Harry Gruyaert- I liked what you did on Saul Leiter, so…

Kenn Sava- Oh, you did? Thank you very much. It’s interesting…I notice there’s a couple of things you seem to have in common with Saul. Early on, his father, also, was adamantly against his becoming a Photographer, and eventually disinherited him. He was also really loved Pierre Bonnard, as I mentioned. I note that you are as well. Saul who was known for his color work, did most of his intimate work in black & white, as you have.

Pierre Bonnard, View of the Old Port, Saint-Tropez, 1911, oil on canvas, seen at The Met.

Pierre Bonnard is not somebody who comes up all that often, I’ve had him come up twice with such great Photographers recently. What is it about Bonnard that particularly speaks to you?

Pierre Bonnard, The House of Misia Sert, 1906, Oil on canvas.

HG- It’s extremely sensual, you know. It’s amazing. His cropping is really amazing. I really like so much the feeling he has towards his life, and his wife. It’s quite amazing.

Town of Jaisalmer, State of Rajasthan, India, 1976. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos. I couldn’t resist pairing this with Bonnard’s House above, without any input from Mr. Gruyaert. The more I look at them, the more I find coincidentally in common. Down to the animals just inside each door.

A funny thing about Saul Leiter. When I arrived in Paris in April, 1962, I went to Elle Magazine, which is a fashion magazine, and I showed my work to the art director, Peter Knapp, and he said, “Oh, you are the little Saul Leiter. “ I had no idea who Saul Leiter was. It took me 40 years to realize who was Saul Leiter, and strangely enough in the last Paris Photo, my work was hanging next to his in the booth of Gallery Fifty One, run by Roger Szmulewicz, and  believe it or not, who walks by as I was standing in the booth ? Peter Knapp ! It’s amazing. So I asked him, “Why did you tell me that all those years ago?” He said, “It’s because of the way you work with color, obviously.” I really find it exciting  when things like that happen. 

KS- So, his work had no influence on you. You weren’t aware of it.

HG- No. No. I found out much later when his first Steidl book came out and when I saw his show at the Foundation Cartier-Bresson in Paris, which was only a couple of years ago.

KS- This has been a big year for you with the FOMU Retrospective, the Documentary Harry Gruyaert Photographer, and now the Gallery Fifty One show, Roots, I wanted to congratulate you on all of that.

Harry Gruyaert, in the red slacks facing the camera, at the opening for his new show, Harry Gruyaert: Roots, September 8th. Photo by Gallery Fifty One..

HG- Thank you. 

KS- I came across your work in the Magnum Square Print sale and realized I hadn’t done a deep dive into your career. Part of the reason is there aren’t a lot of books of your work in print here. The Retrospective, with the red cover, and East/West being two. It seems that you’re slowly reissuing your books, right?

HG- Sure. You know I accumulated so much work. And the good thing about making books now, is that you have much more control than before. The quality of printing is much better and my new books look better than the ones I published before.

Moscow, Russia, USSR, 1989. From East in the 2 volume set, East/West. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- East/West is a fascinating book in that regard. I’m interested in why you chose to group the two books together. I know you’ve said many times you’re not a journalist, but looking at this work now from so many years later, it almost has a journalistic feel to it- A commentary about the materialism in America and the fall of the USSR at the time you were taking the pictures. Was that any part of the intention in issuing them together now in a slipcase? 

Freemont Street. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 1982. From West in East/West. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- Yes, that was part of the idea of publishing these two series of pictures together. Don’t forget, I’m a documentary Photographer, and in that sense I feel quite close to somebody like Cartier Bresson whose work is always about a particular place at a particular time. We have both travelled a lot and taken pictures in many different countries and share that same openness to different world and different cultures. Though I am a great admirer of american photographers, I sometimes feel that the work they have done in the states is more interesting than their work in other countries. I don’t know why that is. 

KS- You were involved with Henri Cartier-Bresson and I read the story of him asking you to color his prints. For everyone who wasn’t able to know him, what would you like them to know about him? Is there any one thing that particularly stands out?

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hyeres, France, 1932

HG- (Laughs)…Oh boy. I was very lucky to have known him. He was very provocative. He was full of energy. Very provocative, and at the same time, he wanted to be a zen buddhist. (Laughs) Very interesting person. Complex. It’s such a lesson that he gave up Photography and went back to his old passion, Painting and Drawing, when he felt he had nothing more to say through photography. It was not on the level of what he did before, but it’s such a lesson. Then, he’d come and ask you, “What do you think of my Painting or Drawing?” He started all over again, questionning himself instead of relying on his reputation.

Shaded streets of the medina (old district), Near “Jemma el Fna” square, Marrakech, Morocco, 1986. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- That’s quite a compliment to you that he’d ask you to Paint his prints. 

HG- It all started when he came to see my first show about Morocco at the Delpire Galerie in Paris. My C. prints were far from perfect and he started making comments. He took bits of paper or little objects and put them on my prints to explain to me what he meant.Amazing. Then he sent me his book about Andre Lhote, who was his teacher in Painting and  called me up two weeks later, and said «  I have a suggestion to make.I will send a couple of my prints and I will send you a big box of pastels and you can try and color them.” I said, “Henri, it’s nice to think about it, but I’m not a Painter. I can’t even make a drawing.”

He had a problem with color photography. He felt it was only used for commercial reasons and was not really interested. And I think he really didn’t like the fact that many Magnum Photographers moved to color because that’s what magazines were asking for when they were better doing black & white. But some became very good magazine photographers and were very successful. 

In 2017, 174 Harry Gruyaert Photographs were on view in 11 stations of the Paris Metro at the invitation of RATP, the Paris public transport operator. Seen here are two images from his beach series, “Rivages,” (shores, or “Edges” as it’s called here), images that speak of the insignificance of man in the scope of nature, the Artist has said, while at the same time, showing a sense of humor, particularly on the left. Seen here in a still from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary.

KS- Was there a single moment or an event that got you first interested in Photography?

HG-Different things…I wanted to travel. I went to an exhibition in ’58 at the World’s Fair in Brussels. I saw the different pavilions : America, Russia, Japan, India… I was looking at the globe which I had at home. And I thought, I want to go to all these places. And I was also interested in fashion. I loved  Fashion magazines which were much better at the time, like Harper’s Bazar and Vogue, and photographers like Avedon and Irving Penn. And there were all these beautiful girls…

KS- So, it came out of your desire to travel.

Still from Harry Gruyaert Photographer.

HG- To travel, to discover things…I was always interested in Paintings. I always went to Museums. 

I never even thought about doing anything else. I was Director of Photography for a couple of television Film. I had a big admiration for the directors of photography who worked with  Italians film directors like Antonioni, I through they were really fantastic. I could have made a profession out of that, but I wanted to do my own stuff, my own Films and it meant working with a large crew of people and you needed a lot of money. The good thing about photography is that you can work on your own. If the digital small cameras of the quality we have now had existed at the time, things might have been different.

KS- When I look at your work I see elements of both- they seem like stills from a movie but then when it comes to printing, it’s some of the same techniques that come to bear that Painters would use, so you’ve almost married the two. Do you see it that way at all?

HG- Yeah, sure. The funny thing is that the directors I know in Paris, I’m friendly with some of them, have told me they’ve been inspired by some of my photographs…So it’s wonderful that it works both ways. 

Edward Hopper, New York Movie, 1939, Oil on canvas.

KS- I’ve read a couple of your interviews over time talking about Edward Hopper. I think in one interview you said you didn’t really look at his work early on, but you can kind of see what people say when they talk about the similarities in the loneliness and isolation in your work. Since it didn’t come from Hopper, that sense that is in some of your work, where do you think that came from? Those isolated figures, that sense of loneliness and isolation that occurs in your work? 

Trans-Europe-Express, 1981. Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- I don’t really know. It’s not the person that interests me most. It’s the person in its environment. To me, all the elements are important. I don’t have any particular intention. It’s just what I see.

Bay of the Somme River in the town of Fort Mahon, Picardie, France, 1991. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

I think humans have such a great idea about ourselves but nature is so much more powerful.

The Flemish House, by George Simenon. Cover Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Talking about loneliness in the city…A funny thing that came up. Do you know (Georges) Simenon, the Belgian Writer of detective stories ? Inspector Maigret is the name of the detective. They translated them into english and they had trouble finding covers for them. Peter Galassi said to them, “Look at Harry’s work. I think you can find something there.” So, the guy from the publishing company sent me some lay-outs and I didn’t think it could work because the cover is vertical and 90% of my work is horizontal. But, the way he cropped it, it was really quite interesting and I asked him to print the full frame image on the back cover. 

The full frame source Photo for the cover. Bar, Antwerp, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Then, Penguin Books in London picked it up. Believe it or not, we’ve done 65 covers.

KS- You’ve done 65 covers for them?

HG- Yes. Just from my archive. My archives are not only Magnum, only a small percentage is Magnum. So, she comes to Paris and looks through mainly my old work. When I did my show at FOMU at Antwerp, there was a big wall with all the covers of the books and small pictures of the full frame.

The strange thing is Simenon is Belgian. He’s from Liege. I’m from Antwerp. I met his son and he showed me some Photographs that Simenon did himself, and you find this kind of thing of a small figure in an urban landscape. With a certain lonelieness. Which you find often in my work. It’s really quite funny.

KS- You’ve spoken about a number of the places you’ve worked- Moscow, Belgium, California & the American West. How do you feel about New York?

It’s a small world. New York City. USA, 1996. The 23rd Street Subway station, across from the Met Life Building. It’s immediately recognizable to me because it’s in my neighborhood. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- Extremely exciting. I’ve done lots of work in New York. The first time I came to New York was in ’68. I was friends with people like Gordon Matta-Clark. All those Artists were important to me, in terms of the energy, in terms of what they were doing. 

National Road 1,near Mechelen, Antwerp Province, Belgium, 1988

Pop Art taught me to look at a certain banality with interest, a visual interest and a certain sense of humor.That changed the nature of the work I was doing in Belgium at the time.  In the beginning it was only in black & white. For two years, I didn’t see any color there. But Pop Art taught me to look at things in a different way and then I started to work in color.

So for two years there I only shot black & white.

Near Bruges, Belgium, 1975. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- I don’t really consider Robert Rauschenberg a Pop Artist but he was obviously very important at that time, and since. Has he had any influence on you at all?

Robert Rauschenberg, Black Market, 1961, seen at MoMA’s Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends show, 2017.

HG- Oh, I love his work. I mean the personality… the openness, trying other things. There’s more sensuality in Rauschenberg. It’s more fun as well. 

KS- In looking at someone like Robert Rauschenberg, and there’s others, too, who were Painters, but also were Photographers, it seems to me that their Photography doesn’t get any attention at all. Have you seen Rauschenberg’s Photography, and if so, what do you think of it?

Robert Rauschenberg, Anchor, from Studies for Chinese Summerhall, China, 1983. Photo by Graphicstudio, USF.

HG- Oh, sure. It’s interesting. Sometimes it takes time to discover things. So many Photographers are being discovered…look at Saul Leiter.

Excerpts from T.V. Shots, Photos taken between 1969 and the early 1970s. From the publisher- “Gruyaert’s break from television wasn’t all peaceful, though: his first serious body of work contained photographs of distorted TV images. By following events such as the 1972 Munich Olympics from home, he created a distressed parody of the current-affairs photo-story. The work caused controversy, both for its disrespectful assault on the culture of television and for its radical challenge (both formally and in terms of content) to the conventions of press photography. Gruyaert views it as the closest thing to journalistic photography he has ever made.” Photos by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos, as seen in the 2007 Steidl book of the same name.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, someone said. This is NOT by Harry Gruyaert. NYC Subway ad for Maniac, September, 2018

KS- Speaking of that…another Photographer who is also a Painter, is William Eggleston. You were able to see the legendary 1976 show at MoMA, Photographs by William Eggleston, and you spoke about being impressed with his dye-transfer prints. I’m wondering- What did you think of his work when you first saw it?

HG- It was amazing to see that, especially the quality of the printing. The first book is one of his best and one of my favorites. 

KS- So you think William Eggleston’s Guide would be among his best work?

HG- Sure. Yes. Definitely. There are other good things too. But the problem now is that publishers want to publish too many books. Some are good, some are not so good. Banality can be interesting, but sometimes, it’s just banal!

KS- In the Gallery Fifty One show you have 41 works in black & white and 19 works in color, though they are large. I notice there seems to be more surrealism in the black & white works, where it’s more subtle in the color work. Does that seem to be the case for you?

Belgium, Hofstade, Carnival (Superimposition), 1975, is included in the Gallery Fifty One show. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum

HG- Black and white and color are two different approaches. I took pictures of my daughters in black & white because I felt I got closer to them. Shooting in black and white I feel less preoccupied by the way people dress, the background or things that could distract me. I concentrate on the human quality of the person. Color is more complex. With color, the color really has to be the main thing…the most important thing…

A normally very busy street deserted by citizens for the first meal of the day. During the Ramadan. Cairo. Egypt, 1987. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- It’s said that Roots was, at one point, basically a “farewell” to Beligum, after your difficulties with your father…

HG- That was not so much the problem as the lack of a cultural environment.

“Midi” train station district, Brussels, Belgium, 1981, is included in the Gallery Fifty One show. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- But, it seems that you’ve made peace with Belgium. Have you done work in Belgium since Roots? 

HG- I do all the time. At the show I gave Roger (Gallery Fifty One’s Director) about 15 prints I did very recently, to show whoever’s interested that things change. Nothing stays the same. The colors are different now. The mentality’s different. Belgium is more like the rest of Europe, I guess…the same clothing…the same advertisements. It’s actually much more colorful, but in a more capitalistic driven way. It’s more fashionable somehow, and It’s more alike. Before, in Holland and Belgium, which are very near to each other, things were very different in the color aspect and all that. And now, things have become much more the same, like in the States.

KS- So you were saying that some of the American Photographers influenced you more than the Europeans. Who were those American Photographers who influenced you?

HG- (Lee) Friedlander, definitely. (Irving) Penn, (Richard) Avedon. Helen Levitt is wonderful, sure, Bruce Davidson and others…

Stephen Shore, Merced River, Yosemite Park, CA, 1974, Seen at the Stephen Shore Retrospective at MoMA, 2018

When I look at Stephen Shore’s work, I have the feeling that I am traveling with him. It’s really important in Photography to get to the person and have the feeling of being with him. That’s really important. Stephen Shore, but other Photographers as well. It’s physical. It’s the experience they have that appeals to me. It’s a physical thing. That’s why I don’t care much for conceptual work. It comes from the brain. For me, it has to come more from the stomach. It’s physical. It’s experience, which someone has at a given time, and through the experience I get contact with the person who did it.

A visitor spends quality time with Rembrandt(s). At The Met, February, 2015.

To me, Art is…When I look at Rembrandt, I’m with Rembrandt. When I look at Bonnard, I’m with Bonnard. When I look at conceptual work, I’m with the brain of somebody. If they have to write a lot of stuff before we’re able to understand what it’s all about, I’m not interested in the exhibition. I have to first look at the work and it should mean something. It has to appeal to me visually. 

KS- Have there been any Directors or Painters that have spoken to you more recently?  Anyone that’s come along since Antonioni, Magritte? Anything that’s more contemporary? Anything that you’ve really been impressed with?

HG- Recently? I’m a movie fan. I go to movies all the time. In the past I went to the cinema every day. I learned more from movies than anywhere else…movies and paintings…

About Antonioni. What’s really interesting…In 2009, 10 Magnum Photographers had a show at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, exploring  the relationship between still Photography and Film. My part was to show how much I was inspired by Film, and mainly, by Antonioni. So, I did a projection, which lasts about 25 minutes, with extracts of his movies – l’Avventura, The Eclipse and the Red Desert –  and some of my Photographs next to them.

Province de Brabant, Belgium, 1981. One of my personal favorite Harry Gruyaert Photos reminds me of the scene in Antonioni’s La Notte when Jeanne Moreau sits in the car in the rain. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

There are three Antonioni Films I was limited to1. So, I was able to use certain things. …. But, when they saw the thing produced, the review were very happy about it.

KS- I would love to see that. You have a new book, Rivages about to come out, (to be released in the USA as Edges later this year). I’ve read that you’ve been enjoying using today’s technology to make better prints. Are you also involved with the selecting of the images for the books and the way they are sequenced, or does somebody else do that?

HG- Completely. It’s team work. I’m the first person, obviously. I’ve been working with the same people the past 4 or 5 books. It’s like teamwork. 

The English edition of Rivages (Edges) is coming out at the end of September. The French edition is earlier. I’m very happy with them. The printing and everything. 

KS- So, you’re selecting the images for the books. 

HG- Sure. There’s some discussions, obviously…yeah, teamwork.

KS- Are you working on another version of Morocco?

HG- No plans for the moment, but everything is sold out. 

I want to do a book about street photography in the different cities I’ve been to. You know like New York, Brussels, or whatever And also a book on India and Egypt, a book about my industrial work, about airport, about my daughters… So many things… I also want to redo It’s not about cars, which was first published with  Roger Smulewicz of Gallery 512, but in a larger and more complete version. 

KS- Was Luigi Ghirri an influence?

HG- I discovered him later. I like some of his work…I think lots of his …He’s more of an intellectual. He has a real concept, I think. And I’m kind of… I think more in terms of color and I don’t think that’s his main interest. We have a very different approach

KS- There’s a couple of images that kind of remind me of yours. The shot of Versailles from the distance…

HG- Those are the ones I prefer. 

Still from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary showing the Artist on the corner of West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue.

KS- What did you think of the final documentary, Harry Gruyert Photographer? Did you have a chance to see it?

HG- Sure.

KS- What was your reaction? Were you pleased with it?

HG- I’m pleased with it. It’s not my Film. Well, it’s the Film of the director. It became very personal. You know, the thing is my father had about 25 hours of family films. The director knew that and he used a lot of that in the Film, comparing what my father did and what I did, and talking about my upbringing, so it became a very family kind of Film, which is fine, I think it’s a bit over done…it’s his Film.

Harry Gruyaert in action in Times Square, NYC. He has spoken about how taking Photos is like a “dance” for him, which is obvious, here, in this shot from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary website. While other Photographers bring full Hollywood movie making gear to bear in making their Photos look “cinematic.” Mr. Gruyaert does it the old fashioned way, as you can see.

KS- Are there any plans to release it in America? Are we going to get to see it over here?

HG- Who knows. It’s just the beginning. 

Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium.

KS- You just returned form Gallery Fifty One and the opening of your show in Antwerp. How did you feel about the show? How did the installation look to you?

HG- We tried something I had never done before. We set two screens, one on top of the other, very close. On one we showed black and white photographs and on the other color photographs.

Installation view of Roots at Gallery Fifty One showing dual video monitors. Photo by Gallery Fifty One.

Sometimes the relationship between them worked, sometimes it did not. But it was an an interesting experience. There’s much more black and white stuff (included in the show) than I have ever showed. The color photographs are the ones published in the new edition of Roots.

The Gruyaert family at dinner in a peaceful moment. Harry’s father, left, worked for the AGFA Film Company. His feelings about his son becoming a Photographer have been written about elsewhere. Still from Harry Gruyaert Photographer.

KS- Did your father ever come to accept you being a Photographer? Did he come to appreciate your work at all?

HG- Oh yes. He became very proud. (laughs) Once I was vice-president of Magnum, that was it for him. I think it was more about my position at Magnum than about my work.. 

KS- No one’s ever mentioned that anywhere. They always talk about how adamant he was against your becoming a Photographer. They never mention that he did finally come to accept it. Unlike Saul Leiter, who’s father disinherited him. So, at least, that’s good to hear.

HG- No, no no. My father was very proud at the end. He was. Whenever he would tell others how great his son was, it was special for him.

Our conversation ended there. A few days later in an email, Harry added this-

“I am just a photographer. If people look at my work and think it’s art, I am happy about it. But it is not for me to decide.”

Count me in that group of “people.”

While the mystery in Harry Gruyaert’s work will enthrall me for years to come, I hope the mystery surrounding his lack of recognition here will be history in the near future. After all, I’d rather leave the mystery writing to Simenon.

BookMarks– Morocco is Harry Gruyaert’s most renowned book, winning the 1975 Kodak Prize. As he said, it’s been out of print since the last French edition, Maroc, published by Textuel in 2013. At the moment, two books are in print in the USA, Harry Gruyaert, with a red cover, a retrospective, published by Thames & Hudson in 2015, is likely to remain the most comprehensive overview of his work for the foreseeable future, particularly because, as he said, it has the Artist’s direct involvement.

It’s gorgeous, in my view, and the place to start exploring Harry Gruyaert’s work and achievement among books currently in print in the USA.

Harry Gruyaert: East/West, a two volume set in a slipcase, contains East, Photos taken in Moscow near the very end of the USSR in 1989, and West, Photos taken in the American West (including Los Angeles and Las Vegas) in 1981, was published in 2017 by Thames & Hudson. It’s a fascinating look at both places decades ago, and intentionally, or not, provides a powerful visual contrast between capitalism and communism.

East/West

Equally compelling is how much Mr. Gruyaert’s color palette changes between the two bodies of work.

Just released by Editions Xavier Barral this past May (2018) is the new edition of Harry Gruyaert – Roots, a book “about” the Artist’s relationship with his native country, Belgium. It adds over 20 additional Photos to the 2012 edition, which quickly went out of print. As the Artist said in the conversation, he finds today’s printing far superior to what he was able to achieve in the past, making this the edition to get.

Coming soon will be Edges (or Rivages in French), another new edition of an out of print beautiful collection. In visual poetry, Mr. Gruyaert explores the relationship of man to nature, the land to the sea, and the earth to the sky in 144 pages. Soon to be published by Thames & Hudson.

While I recommend starting with the red Retrospective, all of these books are excellent and recommended.

Cover image cropped from an original by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

And, for lovers of detective novels, Harry’s images appear as covers on 65 Simenon novels published by, and available in the USA through, Penguin Books.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “I Should Watch T.V.” by David Byrne & St. Vincent from “Love This Giant.” Lyrics, here. Video, here-

My thanks to Harry Gruyaert and Gallery Fifty One.

My prior Posts on Photography may be found here.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
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  1. In 2009 the Cinematheque Francaise presented Images to Come, an exhibition exploring Magnum photographer’s take on the relationship between cinema and photograhy. The works are displayed alongside still from L’Avventura, The Eclipse and the Red Desert. ↩
  2. Harry Gruyaert: It’s Not About Cars, published by Gallery Fifty One in 2017. ↩

PhotoBooks Take The L.E.S.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Report card from the future. Snapshots From the first LES Fotobookfair…

Welcome to the L.E.S.!

Outside Foley Gallery, left. Those boxes are not PhotoBooks waiting for eager buyers. They are, in fact, full of Chinese Restaurant menus, soon to wind up on all of our doorsteps. Click any Photo for full size.

Where? 

Manhattan’s Lower East Side has, to some extent, inherited the mantel of creativity that moved…no…was forced from the West Village to the East Village, and then to the LES due to rising rents. Yes, some of it moved to the 718- Brooklyn, The Bronx & Queens, and some to New Jersey, but the LES has been more than holding its own with a thriving gallery scene, The New Museum, the I.C.P. (International Center of Photography) and countless Artist-led initiatives and collaborations. 

At the entrance. Kris Graves, in the Murakami T, enjoys a conversation with a visitor, while his wife discusses a book at the +Kris Graves Projects table on July 21st.

The newest of these is a collaboration between Michael Foley of Foley Gallery and Photographer Kris Graves and his publishing arm, Kris Graves Projects.  Over the weekend of July 21-22 they mounted the first ever L.E.S. Fotobookfair. No less than 10 Publishers were represented displaying a very impressive selection of books. The exhibitors were-

Aint-Bad
Corey Persia
Conveyor Arts
Drittel Books
Gnomic Book
+KGP (Kris Graves Projects)
Puritan Capital
RITA Books
Roman Nvmerals
TBW Books
TIS Books
Zatara Press

And, host Foley Gallery, which presented “The Exhibition Lab Exhibition” installed surrounding the tables wonderfully complementing both the quality and the range of the books on display.

Jennifer Baumann, Hoe Bowl, 2018, part of Foley Gallery’s “The Exhibition Lab Exhibition”

I asked host long time gallerist and faculty member of the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography, Michael Foley, how the idea for the FotoBook Fair came about. He said, “I’ve known Kris for a while now and I know that making photography and publishing photography are two great passions of his. I was impressed with the amount of titles he releases each year and how dedicated he is to getting the work of fellow photographers out there. I love doing events at the gallery…so I suggested we try one here if he felt he could get 10 publishers here. And so he did. He came up with the idea of a “Reading Room” which would give visitors a place to unwind and spend time with the books that they were interested in. Amazingly enough, the Reading Room was silent for the most part with people thumbing through the titles. Each publisher positioned a few of their titles back there, so it really became a library! He also was able to create a lecture series in a very intimate setting. The fair, the reading room and the talks all worked together and supported one another throughout the weekend.”

“The LES Book Fair, provides a more intimate setting, where the financial stakes are a little bit lower for the publishers and visitors can easily meet every one of them and probably look at every book at the fair! You won’t get lost here and you will probably find a few interesting titles to pick up and most importantly, you can take your time looking and looking again.” Organizer Kris Graves added, “(Michael) Foley and I have been thinking of working together on a project like this for a year or so. Michael reached out to me about two months ago and we put it together pretty last minute.”

It didn’t feel that way.

Mr. Graves was a veritable blur while I was there. Such is life when you wear as many hats as he does, with grace and ease. Here, he was Photographer & Artist- represented by his stunning new book “A Bleak Reality,” which opens up to a 20 by 24 inch spread of his series of Photos of eight locations where young black men were murdered by police officers between 2014 and 2016, each one captured on video. Seen so large, their presence is lifelike. Images from “A Bleak Reality” introduced me to Kris’ work at The Photography Show/AIPAD earlier this year.

Kris Graves, A Bleak Reality, 2018.

Wearing his publisher’s hat, +KGP (Kris Graves Projects), he told me that so far this year he has done 18 projects!?! (And I thought my 23 2018 pieces in 24 weeks was crazy, and I’m not making them into actual books!) The volumes that haven’t as yet sold out were gloriously on display. Wearing his co-host hat, he introduced speakers for the lectures and discussions in the reading room. Finally, wearing his book fair “manager” hat, he was regularly checking in with the other exhibitors and speaking to visitors. Given how busy Mr. Graves was, his table was in excellent hands, being co-staffed by his lovely and knowledgeable wife, Sarah. In the midst of all of this, he found time to direct me to the beautiful new book, El Libro Supremo De La Suerte, by Rose Marie Cromwell, at the TIS Books table. 

The first thing that struck me about it, something that became a theme with virtually every book at every table I looked at, was the exceptionally high quality of the production. It didn’t take long to realize that every single person involved in these projects cares deeply about the end product. As I moved throughout the fair, I heard all kinds of discussions about the finer points of bookmaking- here the endpapers are well glued, or not well glued…which countries have the best bookbinders…how different bookmakers pack their books for shipment, and the ins and out of having books made in various parts of the world, including the USA. I was even startled to learn that for those publishers who sell through that huge online retailer, notorious for not packing their books (they often just put them in a box with no padding or protection), keep any books that are returned by the customer for being received damaged!

Call me crazy (sorry, you won’t be first), but for a book junky like me, to hear people who live and breathe this stuff, particularly the Artists who’s books these are, discuss these details was enthralling. And reassuring. This care and attention to detail is one of the pleasures of buying physical books from smaller publishers, in addition, of course, to getting the chance to see work from a wider range of Artists. That passion, and the fruits of their labors, was gloriously on display. And the track was fast.

Photographer & Publisher Jason Koxvold, facing with his arms on the table, and Photographer Shane Rocheleau, right, discuss the finer points of their terrific new books at the Gnomic Book table.

Next to TIS was Gnomic Book who were showing three very impressive new books. Two by Photographer & publisher, Jason Koxvold, and one by Photographer Shane Rocheleau.

Knives by Jason Koxvold. Kinda hard to miss.

At Gnomic, VERY hard to miss with its stunning bright orange cover and eye-stopping title in bold black type, Knives by Jason Koxvold, a Photographer, creative director and an award winning Filmmaker, was one of the two books (along with Kris Graves’ new A Bleak Reality) I went specifically to see. After all, it’s not often a PhotoBook gets its own tote bag (sold separately). As I looked through it, it struck me that Knives is one of those books that contains a world, in this case an insular community that’s grown up around the Schrade knife factory, part of a 150 year old tradition that backboned its Hudson River Valley community, until it moved to China in 2004, within its covers. Knives documents a world that’s been slipping away. In its portraits, subjects look out at the camera (or not) with a look on their face of not knowing what’s happening, but feeling it happening. Nothing needs to be said. It’s all written on their faces.

At the Fair, Mr. Koxvold was debuting a “companion” book to Knives in the form of a hand-made limited edition of 25 titled You were right all along, or, Y.W.R.A, as it’s also known, a book that “can be thought of as connective tissue between several different projects, made at a unique historical intersection in the United States as we bear witness to the decline of capitalism, the rise of almost constant mass shootings, mistrust of the institutions that have held the country together, and the swollen, invisible power of the military industrial complex,” per the publisher, all tied in, like Knives, to the story of Schrade Knives.

YAMOTFABAATA (or You are the Masters of the Fish and the Birds and all the Animals, from the Book of Genesis) by Shane Rocheleau, just published by Gnomic Book, a beautiful creation. I shot it at an angle to show off its nice gold edges, carrying over the gold on the font, and mimicking the gold edges of bibles.

Shane Rocheleau’s YAMOTFABAATA, or You Are The Masters Of The Fish And Birds And All The Animals, was the surprise of the LES Fotobook Fair for yours truly  A gorgeously produced first book 3 years in the making ostensibly “about white masculinity,” (something it shares with “Knives”- both are centered on masculinity, and in both books white masculinity), Mr. Rocheleau’s with a strong autobiographical thread included. (My Q&A with Shane Rocheleau is here.)

My Dad, from YAMOTFABAATA by Shane Rocheleau.

Its a soul searching book, one that looks inward and outward, all the way to the power of nature, for its “answers.” Some of the images were included in the Artist’s A Glorious Victory series, but here, they’re added to a number of others to form one of those rare cohesive groups that takes a PhotoBook to a different level. Mr. Rocheleau, (like Jason Koxvold), is an accomplished Filmmaker, and it’s obvious when looking through YAMOTFABAATA. The work strikes me not so much cinematic, but rather a movie playing in the mind’s eye, as the terrifically sequenced succession of images take a cumulative toll. The air is mournful. There is a sense of loss, or impending loss. Old ways die hard. In the portraits, many subjects have no eyes- well, we can’t see them. They’e looking away, possibly looking inside. Nature is present, reaching into our world at random times to show us who’s the real boss. The result is one of the finest first PhotoBooks I’ve seen so far this year. 

Being one of the Artists on hand at the BookFair, I asked Mr. Rocheleau how the Fair experience was for him. “I really enjoyed hanging out with all the publishers, some of whom are old friends, and answering and asking questions about work.  The visitors were engaged, and it was great meeting new people.  My publisher, Gnomic Book, did quite well and is excited about the next one!  All in all, I had a great experience.” Jason Koxvold added, “We had a great experience at the LES Fotobook Fair – it was wonderful to make new friends and discover new work. Several people have told us that our work can only really be experienced in person, so an intimate book fair is a great place to let readers spend time with the books, and it was also the perfect place to start taking pre-orders for Romke Hoogwaerts’ new book, Vreugdevuur Scheveningen. I’d absolutely do it again.”

Will Glaser of “Aint-Bad” displays some fancy sleight of hand with their stickers while a full range of their books impresses on the table. Curator’s Choice is the bluish-silver book in the front, just to the right of center.

Up from Savannah, GA, “Ain’t-Bad” is a particularly interesting multi-threat organization that both publishes and promotes new photography. After Kris showed me a copy of their new Curator’s Choice, I immediately ordered it. It’s actually issue No. 12 of their Anti-Bad Magazine, this issue with the stated goal “to put the best contemporary Photography directly in front the eyes of the curators.” Fifteen curators in all showing thirty-one Photographers. Aint-Bad’s Will Glaser was on hand to discuss the impressive range of titles they’ve published, which included a fascinating collection of 7 years of Photo based collage work by Anthony Gerace, titled And Another Thing…, and  On The Periphery, by Sinziana Velicescu, a beautiful look at the man made landscape in and around Southern California that struck me as an echo of the early work of the great Lewis Baltz of The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California, 1974, albeit in color. In addition to being a meditation on what man has done to and with nature in California, it also brings an element of humor which makes it continually fun to look through. Safely back in Savannah, I asked Mr. Glaser how the show went for him and “Aint-Bad.” He said, “As a previous resident of NYC, I was quickly reminded how amazing the Photography community is in New York. Thanks to the Foley Gallery and Kris Graves, the LES Book Fair was (not only) an amazing place to be, but it showed how a well organized and diverse book fair can bring practitioners of a solitary art form together.”

Kerrry Kolenut, Untitled 01-04 (from Rearview Series), 2018, seen as part of Foley Gallery’s “The Exhibition Lab Exhibition”

 Kris Graves’ A Bleak Reality is the newest of those 18 2018 titles by Kris Graves Projects. Its large size and beautiful printing work together to really make the you feel you are right there, in the midst of the spaces it depicts- the places where the 8 black men were murdered by police officers between 2014 and 2016.

Michael Brown, Ferguson, (12:00pm), taken in 2016, 2018, Photo by Kris Graves, Kris Graves Projects

I asked Kris to tell me about this project, in his words, since the text in the book is by Thomas Chatterton Williams. He said, A Bleak Reality was finished over the course of two long weeks in September 2016. It was released online on Vanity Fair’s Hive blog soon after. The New York locations felt dangerous, but I had an assistant so it went well. I am pretty comfortable traveling alone, the other locations weren’t a big deal. I had to remember that these were all normal places, not usually dangerous. I was shocked by how normal all the scenes felt.”

Walter Scott, Charleston 9:30am, 2018, taken in 2016, by Kris Graves. Photo by Kris Graves/Kris Graves Projects.

While all of these places could, literally, be anywhere. This scene really is. It’s downright chilling in its seeming innocence, and so, brought the series to a powerful conclusion in the Hive online piece. This innocent, peaceful, lovely park already hides a deep, dark secret of what happened under that tree. Already, a few years have passed and there’s no sign, or remembrance, of what happened here. My mind went back to Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel, Here (Pantheon Graphic Novels), a book about the history of the corner of one room over hundreds of thousands of years and everything that happened there over the millennia. Having spent the better part of the past year looking at the work of the so-called “New Topographics”, this image, Walter Scott, Charleston 9:30am, suddenly struck me as, both, the ultimate culminating “New Topographic” image, a most horrible possible conclusion to the “movement.” Having seen it, I can’t get it out of my mind. Of it, Thomas Chatterton Williams writes in A Bleak Reality–

“Walter Scott was killed in an empty field in an unremarkable suburb north of Charleston. It is nerve-racking to walk into that field, because it is difficult to tell if it is private or public property. It feels terrible to walk in the same line of fire as Scott did in order to make the photographs. The photo shoot was not a long one.”

Unlike the other locations, the only building is in the distance, behind a fence. It’s as if everything in the scene has been stripped away to a bare stage, where the murder takes place. There’s nothing to distract the viewer from thinking about what happened here. A Bleak Reality is highly recommended, and with only 150 copies printed, I wouldn’t wait long to get one. As I write this, virtually every other book of Kris Graves’ work has sold out.

Making history. Kris Graves signs A Bleak Reality. Mr. Graves is really good about making sure as many of his publications as possible get signed by the Artists. It’s a really nice touch buyers and collectors appreciate.

The LES FotoBook Fair also shows how in touch Mr. Graves is with the larger Photo community Will Glaser spoke of. This manifests itself in the talented roster of Artists Kris Graves Projects has published and in the group of publishers he was able to attract to join him and Michael Foley in presenting such an auspicious event.

“Looking forward to the next one,” was the recurring theme I heard from almost everyone I asked about the show. Me, too.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

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Behind Closed Doors With Saul Leiter

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*unless otherwise credited)

One of the few good things about being out on a rainy day is that I use the opportunity to look around and see if I can see a “Saul Leiter.” Maybe the rain is being reflected off the pavement glistening in some unusual shade of neon, or a bright red umbrella will slice through the grey air unexpectedly, or I’ll see shapes abstracted through a misty cab window and try to figure out what they are…the possibilities are seemingly endless…

Outside the galleries…July, 2018.

Given how popular Saul Leiter has become, I doubt I’m the only one who does this.

Street Scene, 1959, by Saul Leiter, seen at the Howard Greenberg Gallery Viewing Room. Saul Leiter started out to be a Painter. To my eyes, works like these brilliantly walk the line between abstraction and realism, showing how abstraction is all around us in the “real world,” in ways, perhaps, only Ernst Haas was doing at the time, among Photographers. Meanwhile the “New York School” of Abstract Expressionists, including his friend, Richard Pousette-Dart, was revolutionizing Painting.

Of course, Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was able to make great Photos in any light, and included among them, he struck me as having a unique way with inclemency. It’s just one way that he’s impacted the way I see the world. For those who love Saul Leiter’s work, too much of it is never enough. So, the chance to see more is an event. Recently, two such chances appeared- a show at Howard Greenberg Gallery, which was accompanied by the release of a new Steidl book, both titled In My Room.

Self-Portrait with Inez. The first Photo in the book and the only time the Artist appears in it. *Photo courtesy the Saul Leiter Foundation and Steidl.

They center around a body of work that almost no one saw during the Artist’s lifetime, a collection of “intimate” Photographs taken of his female friends, often in various stages of dressing/undress. The show adds a second body of seldom seen work, Saul Leiter’s “Painted Nudes,” works that consist of black & white prints from the “intimate” series that he then hand Painted. First shown in the U.S. in 2014, to date they are the only body of Saul Leiter’s Paintings we’ve gotten to see. Having only seen them in the book “Saul Leiter: Painted Nudes,” which was released in 2015, this was my first time seeing some of them in person.

Inez, c.1947. One of the earlier works in this show.

Saul Leiter took thousands of nude Photographs of his friends and lovers between about 1947 through the early 1970s. Perhaps the first thing that’s interesting about them is they’re in black & white, though he worked exclusively in color during most of that period. Why are these then in black & white? The best theory I’ve heard is that he was able to develop and print them in his home darkroom, and could, therefore, keep them private. As a result, almost no one saw them. One of the few who did was his former art director at Harper’s Bazaar, Henry Wolf, who wanted to publish a selection of them as a book in the 1970’s. It didn’t come to pass then. By this point, Saul Leiter had fallen into eclipse. A total eclipse that had him completely out of the view of the public.

“I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way. Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything1.”

He got his wish, but It wasn’t always so.

The great Photographer Edward Steichen, then Director of Photography at MoMA2, included 5 works by Saul Leiter in his 1953 group show, Always the Young Stranger, the title a line borrowed from Carl Sandburg, who the show was intended as a 75th Birthday tribute to. He subsequently went on to a long career in fashion working for some of the most renowned publications of the time, until one day, he walked away, fed up with the micro-management that had crept into his shoots. He was rarely seen again until Steidl released the instant classic, Saul Leiter: Early Color, in 2006, launching the Saul Leiter renaissance. Now in its 8th edition, Early Color was followed by Early Black & White, in 2014, a year after Saul Leiter passed away, a week short of his 90th birthday. Now, In My Room brings Henry Wolf’s idea full circle. It’s dedicated to him.

Saul Leiter: In My Room, just published by Steidl. 148 pages, 81 images.

Saul Leiter is often referred to as “a pioneer of color Photography.” What, exactly, do they mean? Apparently he, too, was puzzled. “I’m supposed to be a pioneer in color. I didn’t know I was a pioneer….,” he told Time Magazine, in 2013. Fascinated by the history of color in Photography, I’ve spent most of this year researching it, which may help me understand what they mean. The story of color in Fine Art Photography is one that has only gradually, and relatively recently, been coming more to light. So entrenched has black & white Photography been in the Art world, that it seems that many Photographers kept their color work to themselves, when it wasn’t commissioned for magazines. It makes me wonder- if color film had been invented first, would black & white still have dominated? Maybe in media where color printing/reproducing technology hadn’t yet been invented, but in the world of Art? I wonder. In the world of Painting, even going back to ancient times, the Artist was working in color. Interestingly, Drawings (which are most often in pencil, and hence, in black & white) are often seen and still treated as “preliminary works” to something more “finished,” even when they ARE the final work. A preference for black & white imagery exists nowhere else in the world of Art besides the place it held in Photography until the 1970s.

New York City, USA, 1953. It’s got to be by Saul Leiter…right?

Meanwhile, Steichen in Color Portraits, Fashion & Experiments by Edward Steichen shows the aforementioned Edward Steichen’s color images from 1908!, on. Jacques-Henri Lartigue began making color images in 1912. Ansel Adams was making color images in the 1940’s, as was Keld Helmer-Petersen, who’s book Keld Helmer-Petersen: 122 Colour Photographs: Books on Books No. 14, released in 1948, will astound lovers of William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. Eliot Porter was making them in the 1950’s…And then there is Ernst Haas. It was Ernst Haas, and NOT William Eggleston who was given the FIRST show of color Photographs ever at MoMA in 1962, a full 14 years before Photographs by William Eggleston!, and its classic accompanying catalog William Eggleston’s Guide, finally marked the beginning of the acceptance of color Photography into the world of Fine Art Photography. Haas’ abstract works of the 1950’s on were seen in the terrific Steidl book, Ernst Haas: Color Correction: 1952–1986, that reveals another side of the Artist, one who loved abstraction, that stands in contrast to the somewhat staid image many had, and still have, of Ernst Haas. In fact, the image just above is not by Saul Leiter. It’s New York City, USA, 1953, by Ernst Haas, from Color Correction! There are, no doubt, others who will still come to light, as Fred Herzog, who also took color Photos of Vancouver in the 1950’s, has more recently (Mr. Herzog is an admirer of Saul Leiter’s). Helen Levitt Photographed NYC in color in 1958-9, but, unfortunately, most of those images were lost in a fire. She later went back out and shot the images included in the terrific book, Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt.” So? Saul Leiter was one of the first Photographers to take color Photographs on the streets in NYC, and so, he is a pioneer, though he is not a “street Photographer” like Robert Frank or Garry Winogrand3. His was an Artist’s eye, and that’s on view in all of his work, inside and outside of his Apartment, in Photography and in Painting, and, in my view, has a difference effect than street Photography does.

“They’re people who are driven by the notion…they sacrifice everything for success. I didn’t feel that way. I attached more importance to the idea that there might be someone who might love me and who I might love4.”

Both works are titled Soames, c.1960 featuring his long time lover and partner, the Artist Soames Bantry. Perhaps as close as Saul Leiter got to finding that person. A number of these images take advantage of furnishings, windows, or items in the apartment. Here both shots feature the same mirror.

I had those words in my mind as I walked through “In My Room” at Howard Greenberg. I’m not sure there’s really any other way to look at these images. Yes, we see them as “Fine Art” now, but back then they were among the most personal images Saul Leiter ever created, and his statement, above, speaks as much to what may have been one his mind in creating them as anything else I’ve read does. In the new Steidl book, the images are not captioned or dated, and the subject is not identified. And so, the book becomes a sort of scrapbook of intimate moments Saul Leiter shared with these women- lovers, and friends who felt comfortable being nude with him.

Installation view of In My Room.

As such, they’re intimate beyond the nudity. The women, obviously, feel free to be themselves while the Artist approaches taking their pictures in ways that will look familiar to those who know his color work, where it often feels like he is almost eavesdropping on his subject. Here, and in the book, it feels as if he is always watching them. But, it’s not mutual. by my count of the images in the book, out of 81, only in 14 do the women make eye contact with him, in 18 they appear to be asleep, and in a further 11 they’re awake but lying down. In 44 they are nude or topless. Abstraction plays a lesser role here compared with his more familiar color work, but it’s here in the unusual camera angles he uses, and in seeing his subject through doors, furniture, or in mirrors. But posing is never going on here. The natural postures are striking, completely unlike anything you’d find in texts about Drawing or Painting from live models. This is particularly fascinating given that Saul Leiter was, also, a Painter who revered Vermeer5.

Pierre Bonnard, Mirror on the Wash Stand, 1908, Oil on canvas. Early on, Bonnard was a founding member of the avant-garde group Les Nabis. *Unknown Photographer.

Roger Szmulewicz, Director of Gallery Fifty-One, Antwerp, who have represented Saul Leiter, and now his Foundation, since at least 2008 (Howard Greenberg Gallery, who have been showing Saul Leiter since at least 2006, is the other representative of the Saul Leiter Foundation), said, “The influence of his Painting on his Photographs is made apparent when the two are present side by side6.” As they are in this show, though the Paintings are not his “pure” Paintings, but created on existing Photographs. When I look at these works side by side (the Photos and the “Painted Nudes”), it is possible to see the influence of another of his favorite Painters, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). Saul Leiter was 24 when Bonnard passed away. There was a posthumous exhibition of Bonnard’s work at MoMA in 1948 with over 150 items, 2 years after Saul Leiter moved to NYC from Pittsburgh to become a Painter, so it’s possible he saw it. Interestingly, these “intimate works” seem to begin around 1947, shortly after he began taking Photographs.

Snow Scene, 1960

Saul Leiter’s color work is renowned for the astonishing way he uses color, but it seems to me that it’s equally impressive for his breaking of the “rules of composition.” His subject will be seen off center, or not complying with the “rule of thirds,” or be in shadows (even partially obscured as above), behind or visible through an object, window or mirror in the foreground. Sometimes, these foreground hindrances act as “curtains,” perhaps, a distant echo of Vermeer’s use of curtains.

Kathy, 1952.. Inscribed on the back- “In the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.”

Most intriguingly for me, Saul Leiter, like William Eggleston, Henri-Cartier Bresson and others, is another great Photographer who was also a Painter. My opinion is that being a Painter played an important role in the impact of their Photography, and is very possibly a reason why their work “looks different” from many other Photographers. When I see a Leiter or an Eggleston, it often feels to me that they are doing things they don’t do with Paint. Focusing on a detail that would seem to be too slight or unimportant for a whole Painting, or capturing a fleeting moment when light, setting and people are aligned for a split second. Or, in his “intimate” indoor work, capturing postures that are rarely seen in Paintings, perhaps, because they can’t be held long enough.

Barbara, 1950, left, Soames, c. 1960, top right, Untitled, 1950s, bottom right.

Saul Leiter is not often thought of as a portraitist, but he did them over his long career7. The portraits included here are beautiful, typically different but wonderfully evocative.

Inez, c.1947.

The lighting in these works is the natural light coming in through the large windows or the electrical lights in his apartment. No flash or extra lights.

All in all, the “intimate” series presents a remarkable tour de force of possibilities, of living in the moment, and of working creatively with whatever that moment presents to you, which is, of course, exactly what we see him capturing outside on the street in Early Color, but minus the personal element, which is entirely absent there. Those subjects are not connected, either to each other or to the Photographer. Here they are.

Barbara and Bettina, c.1950.

We’re told going in that these women are lovers and friends of Saul Leiter, though it might be hard to see that in these works. The Artist appears with one of the women in only two Photos (one in the show, and one in the book). There is no interaction beyond an occasional glance. There is comfort, obviously, but nothing is being done together. There is affection, but no romance or anything more. And so, when all is said and done, the overriding feeling I come away with is a sense of isolation on the part of the subject and the Photographer.

Inez, c.1947, left. Inez c.1947 above, right, and Self Portrait with Inez, c.1947, bottom right.

To outsiders, these Photos show the relaxed, natural beauty of his friends, in studies and portraits of them in the moment, and moment to moment.  Though they are “intimate,” no love or physical intimacy is taking place in them. Maybe it already has, or is about to, and what we’re seeing in a number of these works is the moments after, or before. A number of the Photos in the show are not in the book. Whatever the case may be, since he knew these women, they are momentos of intimacy, and possibly, momentos of moments where that search for “someone who could love me” was close at hand, proof that it WAS possible to find.

Then, there were the “Painted Nudes.”

A selection of works from the “Painted Nudes” group. All of these works are gouache, casein and watercolor on silver gelatin paper.

The “Painted Nudes” are often revelations. They look like nothing else I’ve seen. Here and there one might spot a passage reminiscent of Degas, but the brushwork, and the choice of color, is daring…free and exciting, at times reminiscent of his beloved Pierre Bonnard (particularly his lateSelf Portrait, 1939-42), but always wholly in his own style. The paint bursts with energy…motion…even when the woman is lying at rest. Seeing some of them for the first time, I wondered why the great Richard Pousette-Dart steered Saul Leiter to Photography. Not that I’m questioning the judgement of the most overlooked Abstract Expressionist, not enough of Saul Leiter’s Painting has been placed before the public to form any full sense of his talent and the scope of his achievement.

Untitled, 1970s-90s

Of Painting, Saul Leiter said, “I sometimes thought that maybe I would have been a better photographer if I were not a painter. And then sometimes I thought that maybe if I were not wasting my time doing photography maybe I’d be a better painter. But, in the end, I did both. I enjoy taking a brush and making a mark. Then making another mark. It’s a little bit almost like jazz, you know? You don’t know what you’re going to do8.”

Untitled, 1987. Unprecedented. About as abstract as anything the Abstract Expressionists were doing, but with a Photo added.

Of the group on view at Howard Greenberg, I find the best of these works to be terrific and they left me longing to see Saul Leiter’s “other” Paintings that are not done on top of Photographs. They may well be yet another body of Saul Leiter’s work that has gone under-appreciated for too long. Wouldn’t that be something if Saul Leiter turned out to be a great Photographer AND a great Painter?

Untitled, 1970s-90s.

At the moment, Saul Leiter has rapidly been ascending to his rightful place as one of the Master Photographers of the 20th Century. Having been forgotten for decades of his life, it now seems highly unlikely the world will forget Saul Leiter again.

BookMarks-

Steidl’s series of books share the same book design as Early Color, which was done by Martin Harrison. If it ain’t broke…

“Saul Leiter: Early Color” is the place to start exploring the work of Saul Leiter. Just reissued in its 8th edition, in my view, it is one of the “must have” PhotoBooks released thus far this century. For a wider view of his work, pairing “Early Color,” with Steidl’s “Saul Leiter: Early Black and White” provides a good overview of his non-commercial Photography- at least as far as his large body of his work has been reintroduced to us thus far, especially while the latter is still in print. To supplement these, “Saul Leiter – All About Saul Leiter (Japanese and English Edition),” the catalog for a Retrospective in Japan last year, is a gorgeous, small, 300 page volume. Rumor has it that it is to be released in the USA later this year, but the original edition was named one of the 3 best PhotoBooks of the year by no less than Photographer Todd Hido. Two other retrospectives of note are much harder to find, especially at cheaper prices- Saul Leiter (Retrospektive/Retrospective published in 2012 by Kehrer Verlag is a 300 page volume that’s a full 9 by 10 inches. Second, there is the catalog for the show at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation they co-published with Steidl in 2008, simply titled Saul Leiter. At 150 pages it’s a smaller retrospective, but benefits from a beautiful Steidl production. Finally, Saul Leiter: In My Room offers the best look we’re likely to get at Saul Leiter’s “intimate” work and nudes. Just published by Steidl, it includes 81 Photos, with only a few previously seen in Early Black & White. It’s far and away the most intimate and personal collection of Saul Leiter’s work. For the rest of us, who didn’t know these women, it’s something of a classic of the unguarded moment, filled with marvelously unconventional poses and compositions. It fills out our picture of Saul Leiter’s accomplishment, adding a very personal group of works that held a very special place in his life to those, largely impersonal work seen previously. It is another book that will surprise and enthrall his growing number of fans. Finally, Painted Nudes, published by Sylph Editions in 2015 is something of a sleeper. To date, it is the only book length collection of his Painting thus far released. Consisting of  black & white prints of nudes from the “intimate” series the Artist then hand Painted, as I said above, it leaves me yearning to see more of his Painting.

Regarding Ernst Haas, Color Correction is out of print and fine copies are trading for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market. However, if you look hard, there’s a little known French edition that’s still in print and available for about $60. I’ve compared them and they contain the same images, the same number of pages, but the introduction and the essay are in French. Steidl is about to release a new book, Ernst Haas: Abstrakt, which will include 118 of his abstract images and so is certainly a book anyone interested in Mr. Haas should check out.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “In My Room,” by the Beach Boys, which they wrote during the time Saul Leiter was taking his “intimate” Photos, as performed by the amazing Jacob Collier -an Artist who created this entire recording in his room!

My thanks to Monika Condrea and Steidl.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

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  1. “Saul Leiter,” 2008 Co-published by Steidl and the Foundation Henri-Cartier Bresson ↩
  2. from 1947-61, when he was succeeded by John Szarkowski, who went on to be a major shaper of the world of modern Fine Art Photography, and who he selected for the post. ↩
  3. Saul Leiter is barely mentioned in Joel Meyerowitz & Colin Westerbeck’s Bystander: A History of Street Photography,” Joel Meyerowitz is, also, a Photographer who worked with color early on, beginning in 1962. ↩
  4. Saul Leiter quoted in the introductory video on saulleiterfoundation.org ↩
  5. “My favorite Painter is Vermeer,” Saul Leiter: I just want to be left alone, Published 2015, Interview with Sebastian Piras in 2009 ↩
  6. “Saul Leiter Photographs and Works on Paper, Gallery Fifty-One, P.3 ↩
  7. Including a fascinating series of Diane Arbus in 1970, in her own space, that (not nude) have an intimacy akin to that seen in these works. ↩
  8. School of Visual Arts interview, 2013 ↩

Three Years of NighthawkNYC!

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

July 15th, 2018 marks the third Anniversary of NighthawkNYC.com. Almost 200 pieces in (24 full length pieces thus far in 2018 alone!), I feel like a largely different person today- wholly as a result of this site. I’m not talking about the full time job it became early on, one that swallowed my “life” such as it was whole, in one gulp. I’m talking about all the learning that’s happened from assimilating all I’ve seen, read, and heard. It’s time to pause and reflect.

Art Heaven. “Hey, man. Question- How do you get all of those empty gallery shots?” The answer? Patience. That’s right. I pick my spot and wait until I get it. Just go when it’s not likely to be packed! This one of the Grand Staircase at The Met in February might be my favorite. It makes it feel like it’s open just for me.

First, and foremost, my thanks to all of you who take the time to read these pages. Over three years, I’ve heard from many of you, and I appreciate your taking the time to write, offer feedback, comments and support.

Two generations of Magnum Photos. The legendary Susan Meiselas, left, a former Magnum Photos President, and the creating-her-own-legend-as-we-speak, Bieke Depoorter, right, one of Magnum’s newer members, at Aperture, June 15, 2018.

Thanks to the Artists who have taken their valuable time to speak with me as I work on these pieces, and then after to give me their feedback. 

The great Sanle Sory, all the way from Burkina Faso, graciously poses for me at the opening of the terrific show of his studio portraits from the 1960s to the 80s at Yossi Milo Gallery on April 26. He’s every bit as nice as he is talented. And that’s saying something.

After long thought and discussions, I recently added a Paypal Donation button, accessible by clicking the white box at the upper right of the screen to help defray expenses and keep this site ad-free and independent. I want NighthawkNYC to be about Art, Music and Life, and having written for a national Music magazine for 4 years, I relish the independence I now have. Being independent means I get to write about shows that speak to me, and hopefully others, shows that I feel are important.

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room, at David Zwirner, December, 2017. I waited over 2 hours on a frigid day to spend the 60 seconds visitors were permitted in this space. Hmmm…

It also comes with responsibility. As you may have noticed, I don’t write about shows I don’t like, or that don’t speak to me. Why? I don’t believe in being negative. It’s very hard to survive as an Artist or Musician in 2018. I prefer to revisit things that don’t speak to me now in the future and reassess. I’ve discovered a lot of great Artists that way. Part of my goal with this site is to give those who don’t have a chance to see these shows a sense of what they were like. Of course, given the sheer volume of shows going on in Manhattan (let alone the rest of the City and now New Jersey), there’s just no way I can cover all of them. I have to be selective. While I have included Artists who are not “big names” yet but are doing great and/or important work that I feel deserve to be better known, I’d like to ramp this up going forward. I’m always looking for “candidates.”

Photography has taught me to open my eyes and look more carefully at the world around me.

Looking back over these 3 years, it’s obvious that the amount of coverage I’ve given to Painting has been on the decline, while Photography has, almost, taken over. Two years running, I have had the most extensive coverage of The Photography Show/AIPAD anywhere. (2017, here. 2018, here). What can I say? It’s a symptom of my seeing fewer and fewer Painting shows in the galleries that speak to me. Painting remains my favorite Artform, so this pains me very much. On the other hand, given that there are more cameras in the world than people, that people are living and working longer, that Photographic technology has been growing and evolving as never before in this century, it’s all combined to create an almost perfect storm, putting us, it seems to me, in a “golden age” of Photography. A big part of what’s created this moment is that Photography is (often) best seen in PhotoBooks and not on gallery or museum walls.

Dashwood Books in SoHo carries nothing but PhotoBooks.

This has led to an unprecedented explosion of PhotoBooks from famous and unknown Photographers and PhotoBook publishers big, small and D.I.Y. Somewhat remarkably, this is a movement that has almost entirely resisted electronic books (eBooks) in favor of good ole physical books. In fact, the publishers I spoke to at AIPAD this year UNANIMOUSLY told me they have NO intention of going to eBooks! This has brought an unprecedented number of Photographers into the consciousness of the world at large, whereas in the past, great Photographers (like Saul Leiter, Fred Herzog and many others) worked for much of their lives completely ignored. It is now possible to see more Photographs by more Photographers in a visit to a good bookstore than it is to ANY museum or gallery in the world. This is more than a publishing revolution. It’s an indication that the way Artists reach their public is changing, something that could have huge ramifications for the Art World as a whole. Buckle up! It’s going to be utterly fascinating to see how this plays out.

10:26pm at the world famous Strand Bookstore’s Art Book Department. 4 minutes before closing. The last one out, again. I’m here an average of 4 times a week. Some weeks more.

And so, as you may have also noticed, books have come more and more to the fore. I’ve always mentioned them. In response to requests I’ve gotten for recommendations of places to start delving into an Artist, I decided to devote a section at the end of the piece I call “BookMarks” to recommended books. Of course, many Artists have extensive bibliographies (and then there’s Picasso…or Daido Moriyama), so it’s often hard to decide where to start. I decided to share my thoughts since I generally look at as many books as I can find on an Artist I’m writing about, and I wind up living with a good many of them (cough). As far as I know, I was the first one to bring to public attention that Chris Ware’e superb book Monograph comes in a limited, signed, edition. Even the publisher, Rizzoli, made no mention of it. I heard from a number of you who were subsequently able to get a copy. Though “BookMarks” is new, I want to thank Monika Condrea and Steidl, the world’s premier PhotoBook publisher, for their support, and the Guggenheim Museum for their support of my Chinese Contemporary Art & Danh Vo pieces.

Amerika the Stoker, 1993-94, by my late friend, Tim Rollins & K.O.S. seen in American Landscape at Lehmann Maupin in May, 2018.

Three years later, in addition to being fortunate enough to have seen so many amazing shows, meeting so many Artists and speaking to so many art lovers, gallerists and scholars, as it was when I started NHNYC, the main joy for me remains learning- discovering someone new and great I didn’t previously know and/or discovering a new great work by, enlightening fact about, or gaining a new insight into an Artist I do know.

Her shirt reads “Something good is worth finding.” It could be my mantra.

In mulling it all over? If there’s one thing I have learned it’s that there’s A LOT to learn, see, explore and even enjoy. Three years in? As the song, “The Rhythm Changes” says, I’m still here, but I’ve only scratched the surface. 

“Are we there yet?”

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “The Rhythm Changes,” by Kamasi Washington & Patrice Quinn from The Epic. genius.com commenter, Crown_of_the_Barren-Synod said of this track, “While our opinions, beliefs, physical characteristics and even our personality can change with time there is still some being- our self- which transcends all of these characteristics and their transience.”

Special Thanks to Kitty for research assistance.
Special Thanks to Sv for pushing me to begin, and since, for her support.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

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Yoko Ono: With All Due Respect

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

A new occasional series. Last year, I ran “Words to Live By By Man Ray,” which featured selections from the wonderful book, “Man Ray: Writings on Art,” by this unique, multitalented Artist. This year, I’m going to feature examples from the book, “Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube,” the catalog for a 2016 retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon (macLYON), France, newly released in the USA. This is the most up to date and comprehensive look at Yoko Ono’s multifaceted career yet released. As such, it’s a terrific place to meditate on her achievement. 

A large and important 50+ year oeuvre deserves a beautiful, large book. Mind the binding, though.

As time has gone on, I’ve gotten further and further away from the Music side of my passion in these pages, but it doesn’t take any Musical background to know that Yoko Ono was (and might still be in some quarters) one of the most loathed figures in the entire history of popular Music since her name first became well known in the late 1960’s, as the partner of John Lennon. As the world was to find out over these intervening 50 years, NOTHING stops her. Now, as we approach the 60 year mark of her career, as the millennium has progressed, the public has been coming around to appreciating her Art and her Music.

I’ve made no secret of my admiration for Yoko in these pages. I realize that her Music is a tough nut for many to crack, but even if you want to leave that side of her work aside, in my view, her Art (and total achievement) remains under appreciated.

How is this possible, Nighthawk? She’s incredibly famous, incredibly rich (I imagine), a legend, and has been the subject of the traveling retrospective, “YES Yoko Ono” which toured the USA and Japan in 2000-01, and at MoMA, where she was only the 10th woman given a one-woman show by 20151, as well as having numerous gallery shows. What I’m talking about is her accomplishment. Her place in the history of the Art of our time.  

Yoko Ono is one of the most important Artists of the second half of the 20th Century. Her accomplishment is staggering, as Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, shows. Yes, staggering. And, wonderful…beautiful. As time goes on, I firmly believe her stock is only going to rise in the eyes of “Art History.”

I’m going to delve into exactly what I mean and attempt to back this big statement up with examples in future installments, but for this one, I want to start at the beginning…the first page in this huge 500 page, 10 pound book, who’s title, “Lumiere de L’aube,” translates as “Light of Dawn.”

Yoko Ono, age 2, with her father, Yeisuke, and mother, Isoko, in 1935.

The book begins with Yoko’s revealing Introduction. Opposite this photo of her family  from 1935, she has written the following-

The two page Introduction by Yoko Ono in Lumiere de L’aube.

I will say for now, that if I chose one word to sum of her work, it would be “alive.” Ms. Ono’s work is, almost always, fully alive.

I wonder if ANY Art could accomplish, or has accomplished, more than that.

———————————————————————————–

BookMarks (a series that looks at books relevant to each Post)- Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, by Thierry Raspail, was published by Somogy Art Publishers, in a bilingual English/French edition on June 1, 2018, with texts by the Artist, Annie Claustres, Mathie Copeland, Stephane Davet, Jon Hendricks, Emma Lavigne and Olivier Lussac, and countless new and historic Photos. It augments, and updates, the two prior standard references to her work, Y E S, cowritten with Alexandra Monroe (one of the chief curators of the brilliant Guggenheim Museum Chinese Contemporary Art Retrospective, 2017-18, which I wrote about here), in 2000, the catalog for her traveling retrospective that year, and Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1971, the catalog for her MoMA show in 2015, and supplements her own books, Grapefruit, Instruction Paintings, Memories of John Lennon, and Acorn, among them. I’d recommend her books before getting to the retrospectives. In my view, Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, is the best place to get an overview. Given its French origin, it may be hard to find. MoMA’s Bookstore is where I got my copy.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Born in a Prison,” by Yoko Ono, from the album John Lennon: Some Time in New York City, 1972. It includes the lyrics-

“Wood becomes a flute when it’s loved
Reach for yourself and your battered mates
Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken
Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate.”*

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

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  1. By my, unofficial, count. There doesn’t seem to be an “official” list. My list is-
    Louise Bourgeois 1982
    Lee Krasner 1984
    Helen Frankenthaler 1989
    Lee Bontecou 2004
    Elizabeth Murray 2006
    Marina Abramovic 2010
    Cindy Sherman 2012
    Isa Genzken 2013-14
    Bjork Opened 3/8/2015
    Yoko Ono Opened 5/17/2015
    Adrian Piper 2018 (Currently up on the whole 6th Floor)
    If you know of any I’ve missed, please let me know.

    Yoko put on a “conceptual show,” also called One Woman Show, at MoMA for 2 weeks in December, 1971. “Put on” being the operative term. It was conceptual, and as such, it didn’t really happen, ↩

Stephen Shore: Beneath The Surfaces

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (except El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas, July 5, 1975 )

Let’s play “Curriculum Vitae Roulette.”

First, make a list of ages going down the left side of the page. Next, write down some amazing feats, then slice them up individually, put them in a hat and mix them up.

No cheating! Blindfold, please. Begin!

Pull them out one at a time and lay them in a row going down, one next to each age. Repeat step 5 until the hat is empty. We’ll start with a given- the birth year. Let’s say…”Born 1947.” Ok. Let’s see what we have.

Born- 1947
Age 6- Gets a gift of a darkroom kit. Proceeds to develop and print his family photos.
Age 8- Gets a 35mm camera. “I started photographing seriously. Before that, my real interest was darkroom work,” he would later say.
Age 10- Receives a copy of Walker Evans’ American Photographs, the catalog for Walker’s legendary 1938 MoMA show, perhaps, the first important American PhotoBook, which has a powerful and lasting impact on him. He would later call Evans “a kindred spirit1.”

Our subject. Self Portrait, 1957. He was ten. TEN!! Click any Photo for full size. (See- “A Note About Glare In My Photos” in this footnote-2.

Age 11- Has a Leica and a Nikon. Begins doing street photography.
Age 14- 1962- Legendary Photographer, then Director of Photography at MoMA, Edward Steichen, acquires 3 of his Photographs for MoMA. They ask him what his personal philosophy is. “None,” he replies. “I’m only 14.”
Age 15- First article about his Photography is published.

Angry Young Man With A Camera, U.S. Camera Magazine, 1963.

Age 16 & 17- Takes Photos like these-

Untitled, New York, 1964. A forerunner of similar images to come in the next decade, and beyond.

Untitled, 1965. I can’t look at this without thinking of Richard Estes’ now classic reflections from the 1970’s, like Central Savings.

Age 17- Meets Andy Warhol and begins to frequent, and Photograph, Warhol’s Factory. Of how this came about, he later said- “I made a film Elevator, which is shown in this gallery (see below), and it was shown the same night that Andy Warhol showed a film called The Life of Juanita Castro, and I had the opportunity then to meet him. And I asked if I could come to the Factory and take pictures. He said, “yes3.”

Ivy Nicholson, Chuck Wein, Peter Knoll, Danny Fields and Andy Warhol, the Factory, New York, 1965-67. I spent an evening hanging out with Ivy Nicholson, left in the white, in the early 2000’s. After a few drinks, she sold me one of her CD’s.

Age 24- 1971- First living photographer to have a one-man show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ok…I’m ROFLAICGU! (Rolling on the floor laughing, and I can’t get up!) Yeah…I know. Dumb exercise. NO ONE would believe that could actually happen, right?

But…Um? It did. It really did. ALL of it4! To ONE person. That’s actually the short list of the early life and career of Master Photographer Stephen Shore. REALLY!

Once I got over the staggering accomplishments Stephen Shore achieved by age 24, which I’m not sure I still have (bearing in mind that William Eggleston didn’t start seriously taking Photographs until he was 185!), I could start actually beginning to assess what the man’s achieved, and is still achieving. The former was gloriously on display in MoMA’s retrospective. The latter was, also, gloriously on display at 303 Gallery on West 21st Street earlier this year, in two shows simply titled Stephen Shore. In between, and every day since, there’s his Instagram page which is a veritable one Artist iPhone Photo Museum, that’s amended daily. As he passes age 70, Stephen Shore is one of the most respected, and influential, Photographers of our time.

He got there the hard way- by continually forging his own way, even though those often lay outside of the “accepted mainstream,” like color Photography was in the world of “Fine Art Photography” in 1972 when he started using it, as he has relentlessly sought new ways to solve “Photographic problems.”

Stephen Shore at MoMA was a terrific chance to get the big picture. Taking full advantage of its very generous six month run, I learned more than I have from any Photography show since William Eggleston: The Democratic Forest at David Zwirner in late 2016 led to a deep dive into the world of contemporary Photography.

Many, even most, of those familiar with his work know American Surfaces” or Uncommon Places long considered his classics, (the resulting PhotoBooks of each were cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger’s The Photobook: A History, Volume II). They may not be familiar with his earlier, or later work. Over such a long career, it’s impossible to cover everything Mr. Shore has done, but MoMA has done an exemplary job of hitting a good many of the high notes along the way, including many of his most familiar Photographs surrounded by a good many that are not so well known. Along the way, it seemed to me, the show manages to tie his many and varied projects into a running thread. For an Artist who’s work has continued to evolve for going on 60 years, that’s an accomplishment, and for work that some may look at and not understand, it’s a valuable insight, and perhaps a “way in.”

The first room features Stephen Shore’s earliest work, arranged counterclockwise. Which means that after you enter the gallery, to the right, you are presented with the latest works in the room, and you work your way to the earliest, on the left. Shouldn’t it have been the other way around? In the center of the room, Mr. Shore’s 16mm film, Elevator, 1964, the film Andy Warhol saw that led to him Photographing the Factory, is featured.

Fittingly, the first room begins with early work, and ends with his Photographs of Warhol’s Factory, while his short film, Elevator, 1964, plays in the middle of the gallery. It’s the film Warhol saw the led to Stephen Shore being invited to Photograph at the Factory. He would spend large parts of the next three years, from 1965-67 documenting it. It’s only recently that Stephen Shore has chosen to exhibit his Warhol/Factory work. “I rejected my Factory period for a long time. For so many of the others involved, it was the pinnacle of their lives. For me it just wasn’t. It was the beginning6.”

Marcel Duchamp, 1966, Photographed at Warhol’s Factory. With its evocative lighting, this unusual portrait was the final work displayed in the first gallery, though it’s actually the first Photograph viewers see after entering the show.

Lately, he’s seemed to come to terms with this work, as was seen in the 2016 Phaidon collection he was involved with, “Factory:Andy Warhol Stephen Shore.” Though different from all that came after that Stephen Shore has done, to my eyes, this is not only historically important work that documents the Factory as well as it has been. Each image brings unique elements- particularly the arrangement of the figures. Through it all, there is an intimacy on view that only a personal knowledge of the subjects can bring. It’s work that belies the youth of its creator and it more than holds its own as an historically important body of work that also holds up as Stephen Shore’s first “mature” body of work. At 17.

Detail of July 22-23, 1969, 1969. Stephen Shore Photographed a friend every 30 minutes for 24 hours. Even while his friend slept.

From there, Stephen Shore looked for new realms to explore, new problems to solve. He explored Conceptual and Serial Photography, which we see in the second gallery. The great Painter and Photographer, Ed Ruscha, had broken ground with his book Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963, a series of Photographs Mr. Ruscha took of gas stations from L.A. to Oklahoma City, which, influenced Stephen Shore deeply. As I walked through the rest of the show, I couldn’t escape the feeling that Conceptual and Serial Photography continues to influence his work- to this day. Ever since, most of the work he has done has been in series, whether in personal projects or commissions.

“Mick-a-Matic” Camera. Believe it or not, Stephen Shore used a Mick-a-Matic in 1971  to take his first color Photos, (some on view at MoMA, in the All The Meat You Can Eat section). He used it to get a “snapshot” feel, a pursuit he continued using a Rollei 35mm camera in his first landmark series, American Surfaces, in 1972-73.

In the 3rd gallery, we re-visit a show that Mr. Shore curated called All The Meat You Can Eat, 1971. On display were examples of the vernacular uses of Photography, with a few shots by Stephen Shore (apparently taken with the  “Mick-a-Matic”), but most taken by others. About it, he said, “I was just fascinated by how photography was used. I was interested, also, in the meaning conveyed by how it was used—that we see a snapshot differently than we see an art photograph, that we see an advertisement differently than we see a postcard7.” It was around this time that he became interested in color Photography. “Because postcards and snapshots, in 1971, were all in color, I had to begin examining color photography. In fact, most photography that an average person encountered at the time was color. While art photography, the photography that would be found in galleries, was almost always in black and white. That convention bothered me8.” Regarding his interest in the snapshot, he spoke about a certain quality that some of them had- “…it’s very hard to find the quality of the unmediated image(3. As quoted here. I amended the quote to “unmediated” with the input of Mr. Shore.].” All of this combined to lead him further down the road of Conceptualism, though with a better camera (a Rollei 35mm), and take him, literally on the road.

Installation view of 219 images from the over 300 that comprise American Surfaces as displayed in the 4th gallery at MoMA, recreating how they were first displayed.

He returned with American Surfaces, 1972-73. In keeping true to the snapshot model, he even sent his film to Kodak in New Jersey for processing, like every other snap shooter at the time was doing9. “It began as a road trip. My idea was to keep a visual diary of meals I ate, people I met, televisions I watched, motel rooms I slept in, toilets I used, as well as the towns I would drive through, and, through this visual diary and series of repeated subjects, build a kind of cultural picture of the country at the time10.”  The resulting series of over 300 35mm prints are in the familiar 3 1/16 by 4 5/8 inch snapshot size, though it’s debatable how many of them have that “unmediated” feel. Looking at them now, is a fascinating example of the impact of the passing of time. While the series was met with less than stellar reviews, most notably from the legendary head of MoMA’s Photo Department, John Szarkowski, The Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the entire series. It’s already hard for us to see them as they looked in 1973, but it’s not hard to find the innumerable examples of influence of this series in the work of others since…like in countless people’s social media feeds of every meal they eat, every place they visit, etc, etc. 40-odd years later? Stephen Shore has said that he found Robert Frank’s The Americans “too pointed11. That certainly cannot be said of American Surfaces, though the influence of Walker Evans, Ed Ruscha and Bernd and Hilla Becher, along with Andy Warhol, are to be found, if anything, it’s remarkably open.

Excerpts from American Surfaces, 1972-73, Stephen Shore’s now a classic groundbreaking first series, a visual diary of a road trip . Taken with a 35mm Rollei camera.

Mr. Szarkowski’s criticism of whether the semi-automatic Rollei had created the results, rather than Mr. Shore’s abilities, led the Artist to double down on his intentions. Realizing he couldn’t make 8 x 10 prints from the small negatives without too much grain, he decided to go on another road trip, with bigger cameras. He tried a 4 x 5 camera made famous by press Photographers like Weegee before settling on an 8 x 10 inch camera, which required a large tripod and for the Photographer to shoot under a black hood. The results were worth it. Uncommon Places retains every bit of its majesty and mystery. Though it reprises many of the themes familiar from American Surfaces- meals, motel rooms, architecture, and portraits, the results have a magic that have more than held up since Aperture first published them in 1982. They remain THE series people are referring to when they say something “looks like a Stephen Shore.”

U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973. Ahh…the wide open spaces…that only an 8 x 10inch camera can provide.

Both American Surfaces and Uncommon Places are personal and impersonal at the same time. Personal because these are his trips. These are the meals he ate, the rooms he slept in, the people he met, the places he saw. Impersonal because the Artist himself is not seen, nor do we get any indication of what meaning any of these places, people or things have for him. In that sense, they are different from most tourist’s snapshots. The shots of places are like the Paris of Atget, or many of Walker Evans shots of America. The difference I see between American Surfaces and Uncommon Places is the former is marked by Photos that say “look at this,” whereas the latter creates “a little world that a viewer can move their attention through without (his) directing it12.”

Lookout Hotel, Ogunquit, Maine, July 16, 1974, 1974.

It’s up to the viewer to piece them together- individually and as a group, like William Eggleston’s “Los Alamos,” 1965-74, which is also a travelogue of sorts, who’s period partially overlaps.

Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, 8/13/79, 1979. The only work in the show to hang on a wall by itself would seem to lie at the heart of the show.

Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, 8/13/79, 1979, strikes me as a bit of a rosetta stone when looking at much of Stephen Shore’s work. Intriguingly, it hangs on a wall by itself at something of the heart of the show. At first glance, it appears to be a fairly ordinary landscape view with some folks (perhaps a family) frolicking on the beach in the mid foreground. “…what I realized is that it renders the world in such detail that I don’t have to move into something close to make it clear in a picture. I can let it be a small part of a larger, more complex picture. And so, rather than the picture being, in a way, a view through my eyes, it becomes something else. It becomes a complex world where the viewer can move their attention13.”

The gallery of Print on Demand books, with a row of iPads displaying Stephen Shore’s Instagram page, right.

He demonstrates this in the gallery to its left, in a room full of hanging books, print-on-demand titles he created in the early 2000’s. Of the 20 books hanging in this gallery, one is devoted to Merced River.

The complete contents of Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, 8/13/79, 1979, one of the print on demand books seen above.

In it, the Artist presents the master image as a series of sectioned images, showing us that each one could be a stand alone Photograph. While each proves fascinating on its own, for me, most interesting is the bottom left Photograph, in which we see a side view of the scene Ansel Adams shows us in his famous Photographs, Monolith, Face of Half Dome, 1927, and Moon And Half Dome, 1960.  Stephen Shore was one of the Artists included in the ground breaking 1975 exhibition titled New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, at the George Eastman House in Rochester. Mr Shore, along with Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Joe Deal and 4 other American Photographers were shown turning away from the classic landscapes of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston’s time and showing the American Landscape as it now existed- altered by man.

This gallery of landscapes taken in the Montana, Texas, Upstate New York and Scotland was something of a beautiful revelation. Complete with landscapes hanging in mid-air.

There’s a “calmness” that overrides almost everything I’ve seen by Stephen Shore. There’s very little “action.” Even in his commissioned Photographs of the New  York Yankees in Spring Training, not much is going on. Players sit in a group, or stand at the plate, motionless. What we’re almost always given to look at is a “surface” of some kind. But, what strikes me about Stephen Shore’s work is that it almost always leaves me pondering what’s under that surface.

Gallatin County, Montana, April 18, 1981. The second time I met him, I asked Stephen Shore about Painters he liked. He replied, “Anselm Kiefer.” Then added, “I don’t think of Painters when I’m working.” That doesn’t stop me from thinking about them. Looking at this work, I’m reminded of Van Gogh’s immortal Wheatfield With Crows. Minus the crows.

Gallatin County, Montana, August 2, 1983. Again in the gallery that I came to call “The Hall of Landscapes,” this one struck me as being a non-“New Topographic” landscape, and so is rare in his work. Here, there is no evidence of man altering the landscape. Instead, we see an image almost split in two between land and sky, though it’s hard to tell exactly how far off the crest of the hill is, and so it reminds me of Holden Street, North Adams, Massachusetts, July 13, 1974, from Uncommon Places, as a work in which distance and perspective are key elements. Along with the peaceful beauty.

I met Stephen Shore twice during the show’s very generous six and a half month run. I asked him how he felt about the show. “I’m thrilled,” he replied. Well, that might not sounds like an earth-shaking, newsworthy response. But, then I thought about Stephen Shore’s career, and how the initial reaction to his work was not always positive (see below). At MoMA, all these years later, with glories around every corner in every gallery, he’s been “proven right,” so to speak. The show is an unmitigated triumph.

The central gallery devoted to his book, The Nature of Photographs, about looking at Photographic prints, features his work and the work of others he uses as examples in the book, like Thomas Struth, center.

Add to that, he’s been the Director of the Photography Program at Bard College since 1982, as well as the author of the highly respected primer on looking at Photographs, The Nature of Photographs,  which was first published in 1998 (See the “BookMarks” section at the end for my recommended Stephen Shore books…though you really can’t go wrong.). His influence on other Photographers is everywhere and already incalculable, and seems likely to continue indefinitely. There’s certainly a lot in 2018 for Stephen Shore to be “thrilled” about.

3 Stereoscopic viewers each containing 10 different Stereo Photographs Stephen Shore took in 1974 with a Studio-Realist 3-D camera.

Stephen Shore’s Instagram page, January 6, 2018.

Stephen Shore has been posting virtually daily on Instagram since 2014. Of his approach, and some of the comments he’s received he wrote this on February 18, 2018-

  • stephen.shore “Shore seems intent on proving that anyone can photograph as well as he can, and I must admit he’s building an airtight case. The specific concept behind this exhibit is not readily apparent to me, which would make me feel old-fogeyish as all get-out if I weren’t still young enough to not give a fuck.” This is from a review (in the Village Voice) of a show of mine in 1972. This is how some people viewed the very work of mine that you now respect and perhaps view as “iconic” at the time it was made. It sounds very much like the criticism I’m hearing today – except you all are more polite and respectful. Every now and then I write about my use of Instagram and this seems like an appropriate time. Some photographers refer to their feed as their “gallery”; they see it as a means to make public their best work. There are also well known photographers who have an assistant go into their archives and post one of their best known images each day. My own approach is to post almost every day a picture I made with my phone with Instagram in mind. I see the pictures as a kind of visual jotting – similar to the way Walker Evans used the Polaroid SX-70 camera when he was about the same age as I am now. I’m definitely not defining how Instagram should be used, just stating my intentions. I want to thank all of you for taking the time to express your views. You might find this article of interest: http://stephenshore.net/press/Photograph_Dec_17.pdf

(One of) Stephen Shore’s iPhones. When I met him in January, as seen below,, he was holding a different one. Still, this one was most likely used for his Instagram page. Your results may differ.

While countless social media feeds now look eerily similar to American Surfaces when he first showed them in the fall of 1972, the show was “totally baffling then to almost everyone who saw it14.” Now, Stephen Shore uses Instagram in his own way, and after 4 years of doing so, with an iPhone, its influence can be seen in his other new work. In addition to the MoMA show, 2018 began with a show of new work by Stephen Shore at Cheslea’s 303 Gallery, his long time dealer. On view were recent Photographs taken with his new Hassleblad Digital  X1D camera, which features a touchscreen, much like an iPhone.

Stephen Shore arrives at the opening of his show at 303 Gallery, January 11, 2018. Moments later, this room was packed.

His recent work may look familar to anyone who’s seen his Instagram page. Mr. Shore explained that while he was out walking his dogs he did a lot of looking at the ground. He became interested in “details” he’d see of the ground or the street. More surfaces, yes, but looking through his past, pre-Instagram work, reveals the occasional image similar to these. Using the 50 megapixel Hasselblad X1D Medium Format Mirrorless Digital Camera, he’s able to take images that he can print at sizes of 5 feet, that are, he says, “more highly resolved than work from my 8 x 10 camera15.”

New York, New York, May 19, 2017, seen at 303 Gallery, January, 2018.

I find the results enthralling. Some of the 9 works on view at 303 reminded me of Aaron Siskind, but in the level of detail Mr. Shore brings to bear, they’re completely and entirely something else. Seeing details printed in such a scale presented a small world, where only an occasionally recognizable object, like a matchstick, would give a sense of scale.

New York, New York, May 19. 2017, left, and London, England, June 9, 2017, right, both seen at 303 Gallery, January, 2018.

New York, New York, May 19.2017, seen at 303 Gallery, January, 2018.

New York, New York, May 19.2017 seen at 303 Gallery, January, 2018.

New York, New York, May 20.2017, seen at 303 Gallery, January, 2018.

Without that familiar object, some almost look like a Photograph of the Earth, or some other planet, seen from space. In these works, he’s gotten closer to the surface than ever, about as close to it as possible.

Detail of New York, New York, May 19, 2017. Kinda, sorta looks like North America, no?

For most of his career he seemed to be striving to make big scenes big, possibly to have the impact of being there. These seems to be striving to also make small scenes big. In his latest work, he brings the viewer so close it’s almost as if he’s trying to see under the surface.

Back over at MoMA, there is a small room of works in which he has actually gone under the surface.

Ashkelon, Israel, 1996, at MoMA.

In 1990s Stephen Shore became fascinated by archeology. After reading extensively on the subject, he undertook projects at excavation sites, beginning with some ancient sites in Israel. Once again, as in a good deal of his earlier and later work, the images are without people. What he shows us here are ancient objects dug out from under the surface. In this case Stephen Shore shows us the surface and what literally lives under it. What we see are the remnants of human activity, life…their presence. In this case the remnants of a lost civilization.

Beitin, West Bank, January 13, 2010, at MoMA.  It almost looks like the side of a large hill, with eons of geological strata facing us, with the current civilization on top, though it’s most likely a flat road or open space leading to the town in the distance.

While thousands of years have past since humans created and used these objects and places, in Ashkelon, Israel, and the other sites he Photographed, are they really all that different from what he shows us in American Surfaces, from 46 years ago? I’m sure a good number of those places are gone now, too. The main difference is that American culture is still here. What lies on the surface eventually gets covered over or is lost to time. One day there may be archeological digs going on here. “American Surfaces” is an unintentional piece of our cultural past, as are any vintage Photographs. In its case, it’s an artfully done series of over 300 works that taken together gives us a bigger sense of our culture in 1972. Much of the same can be said for Uncommon Places, since it continues many of the same themes. The larger 8 x 10 format is, perhaps, shown to best effect in the landscapes. In these, we see the effect that humans have had on the land- constructing buildings of various kinds, or otherwise modifying the land- the very crux of what was meant by “New Topographics,” Photographs of the man-altered landscapes.

“Lately I’ve been paper thin
So, why can’t I fly?
Why can’t I move with the wind on a whim?”*

Photographs are two dimensional representations on the surface of Photographic paper, of course. There is no “going underneath” the surface of a Photograph. Stephen Shore has long been something of an Archeologist Photographer, showing us our world as he finds it, a world teaming with evidence and artifacts of human presence, and so the resulting Photographs are often packed with so much information the temptation arrises to ponder what it “means,” what lies “under” the surface.

El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas, July 5, 1975 from Uncommon Places. This is one image I’ve literally spent hours looking at and thinking about. MoMA Photograph, and included in the Nature of Photographs section of the show.

Until, I came across this that he, himself, said. “…I was fascinated by what the world looks like when you pay attention to it, and I’m still interested in this act of attention. And so the pictures are reflective of the condition of a self, paying attention.”

Remember that game we played in the beginning? Stephen Shore’s real life C.V., now approaching book length, gets even more impressive every day. Exploring it serves to show me that one of the great lessons, and examples, of both shows is that over such a long and fruitful career, Stephen Shore has continually resisted repeating himself. There are other Photographers who have made a career out of attempting Uncommon Places-style work, but Mr. Shore has relentlessly moved forward, seeking new Photographic problems to solve and continuing to evolve as an Artist. Think about how few Artists have been able to do this. Among Musicians,  The Beatles, weren’t able to last more than 10 years before they broke up, and even among individual Musicians or Artists there are very few who have a similar track record. When considering Stephen Shore’s ongoing accomplishment, I look over this already long piece and the first thing I think about is how much I’ve left out. But, the joy of delving deeply into any great Artist’s work is that of discovery. I don’t claim to have “discovered” all that there is to discover in Stephen Shore’s work in 6 months. Particularly because- He’s going to surprise me, again, tomorrow.

BookMarks- (A series that looks at books related to the subject of this Post.)-

A copy of the Phaidon edition of Stephen Shore’s The Nature of Photographs: A Primer.

PhotoBooks have been a big part of Stephen Shore’s career. If you want to explore Stephen Shore’s work, the excellent Aperture Foundation has 2 books available that are both essential, in my view. Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, updates the original 1982 Aperture classic, Uncommon Places, (now out of print with first edition/first printing copies selling for about $900.00 at the moment). I recommend the Aperture’s 2015 update, Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, which lists for $65.00, because Mr. Shore added 20 rediscovered images, in what is now, as Aperture says, the “definitive edition,” of this unique and endlessly influential series.

Second, last year, Aperture released Stephen Shore: Selected Works, 1973-1981, which was one of my choices for the PhotoBook of the Year. Though a bit too large (note all the white space around the Photos), the concept of this book is brilliant. Aperture explains- “Over the past five years, Shore has scanned hundreds of negatives shot between 1973 and 1981. In this volume, Aperture has invited an international group of fifteen photographers, curators, authors, and cultural figures to select ten images apiece from this rarely seen cache of images. Each portfolio offers an idiosyncratic and revealing commentary on why this body of work continues to astound; how it has impacted the work of new generations of photography and the medium at large; and proposes new insight on Shore’s unique vision of America as transmuted in this totemic series.” Check out the list of the 15 contributors- Wes Anderson, Quentin Bajac, David Campany, Paul Graham, Guido Guidi, Takashi Homma, An-My Lê, Michael Lesy, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Francine Prose, Ed Ruscha, Britt Salvesen, Taryn Simon, Thomas Struth, Lynne Tillman.

American Surfaces, first released in 1999 with 77 Photographs, was reissued in an expanded, 300 Photograph edition, in 2005 by Phaidon, that came in a reproduction of a 1970’s Kodak film processing bag. it’s currently available (without the nifty bag) in a very good paperback edition that lists for 39.95, and is still essential for anyone interested contemporary Photography.

Stephen Shore has been Director of the Photography Program at Bard College, NY, since 1982, and The Nature of Photographs: A Primer, first published in 1998, and now republished by Phaidon, is as close as we have to his “textbook” on the subject. Not a “how to take great Photos” book, it’s more a study of looking at the end result- prints. Mr. Shore believes that aspiring Photographers should spend at least some time working with film, and that includes its end product- the print. As the world of Photography becomes more and more digital, and fewer Photographers have experience working with film and printing in a darkroom, this book becomes an ever-more valuable document from a master of the darkroom for over 64 years. In it, Mr. Shore talks about “the physical and formal attributes of a Photographic print that form the tools a Photographer uses to define and interpret…content,” such as flatness, frame, time and focus, each accompanied by classic images, the choice of which is fascinating on its own. Rembrandt never wrote a book about “The Art of the Print.” Ansel Adams did in the 1960s. Stephen Shore has for our time.

Finally, an under the radar book I recommend is Winslow Arizona: Stephen Shore (English and Japanese Edition),” 2014, published by Amana. It’s a collection of Photographs Mr. Shore took in one day in 2013 in the titular town he had first seen in 1972. The series was created for for a slideshow which was recreated at MoMA. I find it a beautiful collection of first rate later Stephen Shore images. Being that the entire collection was taken in one day may be intimidating for some who aspire to become Photographic Artists, it’s remarkable for the rest of us.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Surface” by Bonobo
*- Stephen Shore at MoMA is my NoteWorthy Show for May, 2018.
My thanks to Stephen Shore.
My previous Posts about Photography are here.

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  1. MoMA Catalog, P.92 ↩
  2. “A Note About Glare in my Photos- Yes, I know. It’s annoying. It makes it very hard to see the Art or the Photo being displayed. I try very hard to minimize it in my Photos, even leaving out works where the glare is insurmountable (this was an especially BIG problem with MoMA’s great Frank Lloyd Wright show. For a while I thought I’d have no Photos to run of it.). Most galleries and museums don’t glaze their Art with non-reflective acrylic. For one thing, it’s quite expensive. For another, lighting in museums, particularly, is often less than ideal in spite of the efforts of some of the world’s best museum staffs. This is almost always an issue for any Art with glass or acrylic in front of it. Time and again I’ve pointed this out to curators who, much to my surprise, have actually agreed with me. Um? Then why isn’t it better? Add to this the proximity of other Art that is lit, and this is a problem for me in preparing these Posts. But? It’s also a problem for any show visitor. WHOEVER goes to the show is going to experience it- THIS is what they are going to see. So…I’ve thought about this problem long and hard in regard to the Photos I Post here. What I’ve decided, for better or worse, is that instead of using Photos of the Art from galleries or other sources, I’m running Photos of the Art as it actually appears in the show because this is how show attendees would most likely see it. My purpose is to give a sense of what the show was like and what it was about. To this end? I think this makes the most sense. In the “Self Portrait” Stephen Shore took at age 10, the glare was insurmountable, particularly in the large dark area to the lower left. I tried over numerous visits to minimize the glare, even trying different cameras, but given the yellow room, the bright lights and the proximity of the other frames reflected in it, it was just not possible. I decided that the reflections seem to auger the work to come in Mr. Shore’s illustrious future, and to “let it be.” ↩
  3. MoMA Exhibiton AudioGuide https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/45/706 ↩
  4. References for the list- UO Interview, and P.2 Tony Hiss/John Szarkowski stephenshore.net ↩
  5. Thomas Weski, William Eggleston: From Black and White to Color, P. 177 ↩
  6. wallpaper July 26, 2007  https://wallpaper.com/art/Stephen-Shore-interview ↩
  7. MoMA Exhibition AudioGuide https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/45/715 ↩
  8. MoMA Exhibition AudioGuide https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/45/715 ↩
  9. The first edition of the 2005 expanded version of “American Surfaces,” even comes in a recreation of a 1972 Kodak film processing bag. ↩
  10. MoMA Audio Guide ↩
  11. http://issuemagazine.com/a-ground-neutral-and-replete/8/#/ ↩
  12. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/sky-arts-ignition-doug-aitken-source ↩
  13. MoMA Exhibition AudioGuide https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/45/709 ↩
  14. https://newrepublic.com/article/115243/stephen-shore-photography-american-surfaces-uncommon-places ↩
  15. Source for this paragraph is a video Stephen Shore made about the X1D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BplS1MmZXk ↩

William Eggleston’s Secret Lab

Set the Way Back Machine to December, 2016, when William Eggleston: The Democratic Forest was at David Zwirner Gallery, 537 West 20th Street, where all the trouble began. I had one of those “Dubliners” moments, where James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus has an epiphany and his life (and the story) is forever altered.

My life hasn’t been the same since.

A signed copy of the catalog for the 2016 show, William Eggleston: The Democratic Forest: Selected Works, with William Eggleston’s characteristically vibrant signature, is all that remains to remind me…

As I walked through that show, revisiting the classic images on view (a total of 40, many in a larger size that I still haven’t gotten used to), I left with an overpowering realization that I needed to do a deep dive into the world of contemporary Photography, to catch up on it, Post-Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” 1958 (though Mr. Frank is still with us, of course, and still releasing great books with Steidl. Long may he wave!), and see what’s been going on. I also wanted to do this to gain some perspective on William Eggleston’s place in Photography and his accomplishment to date.

Henri Cartier-Bresson has his cryptic “decisive moment.” Robert Capa has “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Eggleston has his own quote that will keep us guessing indefinitely.

Yes, I knew that famous quote, and William Eggleston’s work, but not in depth. Steidl’s 10 volume set of “William Eggleston: The Democratic Forest,” containing 1,010 images from this body of work, released concurrently with the show, was a sizable step towards addressing that. Never before (or since) had such a large body of color work been published in one set. Add to it the unrelenting quality of the images, and Mr. Eggleston’s extraordinary eye, and you’re face to face with a landmark body of work. From there, I went back to his prior Steidl sets, William Eggleston: Chromes, 2011, and Los Alamos Revisited, 2012, both of which contain his earliest color work (the former his early slides, the latter his early prints). At this point, there was no denying William Eggleston’s exceptional importance in the world of Photography, being one of the few to bring a new way of seeing to the world.

The question became- “Who else is important?” I’ve explored some of the others I’ve discovered in these pages since Mr. Eggleston’s David Zwirner show, this past year and a half, including 4 article looks at The Photography Shows, AIPAD, in 2017 and 2018. How times have changed here at NHNYC. William Eggleston: The Democratic Forest didn’t even get a full article to itself! The spark that started a bonfire. The journey continues.

On the road, again. William Eggleston’s Los Alamos was shot on the road, over trips he took across the country between 1966 and 1974. When he, and his friend the curator Walter Hopps hit Los Alamos, NM, scene of the Atomic Bomb development in WW II, the Photographer commented about wanting “his own secret lab.” Click and photo for full size.

So, after literally hundreds of Photo shows seen, countless PhotoBooks perused and too many bought in the interim, here I was, once again, on the precipice of another William Eggleston show. This one at no less than The Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring the recently promised gift of one of the seven Portfolios of “Los Alamos,” never previously seen as a set in NYC, containing the Artist’s earliest color print work. A sense of trepidation filled me- What new havoc would Mr. Eggleston wreck upon me now?

Untitled, 1967-74, Gelatin silver print. Perhaps a touch of the lingering influence of Henri Cartier-Bresson here?

I didn’t have to wait long to find out. As I approached the show’s entrance, I realized The Met had decided to give us more. This monumental show of one of the landmark bodies of color Photography begins with two walls of William Eggleston’s comparatively little known black & white work(!), flanking each side of the show’s entrance  containing a total of 11 black & white Photographs created between 1959 and 1974 mounted on mustard walls! 11 Photographs might not sound like many but their subjects and styles are so varied they present a fascinating capsule look at where his work was before he turned to color film.

I’ve seen some of his black & white work in the two Steidl books centered on it1, to feel they are an overlooked realm of his work that deserves a closer look. But, such is the all-encompassing power of his color work that it has garnered only occasional attention.

William Eggleston fell asleep reading Cartier-Bresson’s Les Europeans, Paris, 1964, shown here in this Photo by his wife, Rosa, as seen in William Eggleston: From Black and White to Color, P. 176. (Not in the exhibition. )

Early on, William Eggleston was captivated by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He so worried about copying him that during a trip to Paris in 1964, where the French master lived and worked for many years, he didn’t take a single Photograph. Returning home, he realized that “foreign land” surrounded him right there in Memphis (including the new shopping malls and strip malls that were sprouting like weeds) and he set about Photographing it. That is what we see in these 11 black & white shots- a great Artist stepping beyond influences and beginning to trust his own vision. In the shots with human subjects, the influence of Cartier-Bresson’s infamous “Decisive Moment” would seem to be there, but he’s putting his own stamp on it. By the early 1970’s he was on his way.

Untitled, 1967-74, Gelatin silver print. Light & dark…day & night…this is one of the most “different” images by William Eggleston I’ve seen.

Moving beyond the images with people, some others show a fascination with a wider view, courtesy of a wide-angle lens, in landscapes where it’s hard to discern details of the scene (above). In these people-less works, compositionally, they’re still fascinating and still “democratic,” the term he used recurringly connoting nothing being more important than anything else in the frame. But, overall, they lack the laser focus that permeates Los Alamos, and much of what has followed.

Untitled, 1967-74, Gelatin silver print. This begins to call to mind any number of William Eggleston’s later color Photos, like Los Alamos.

The revelation from these earlier black & white Photos, for me, is they emphasize the Artist’s gift for composition (including a penchant for Photographing from unusual angles). But this really shouldn’t be a surprise. Like Cartier-Bresson and that other great master of early color Photography, Saul Leiter, William Eggleston is also a Painter. Turning to color film, however, he would also have to find his way. “I’d assumed that I could do in color what I could do in black and white, and I got a swift harsh lesson. All bones bared. But it had to be,” he’s quoted on a wall. The stage having been set, the main event beckoned.

Only SEVEN sets of this large 5 volume set were released in 2002, along with 3 Artist’s Proofs. This extraordinarily rare complete set, in, apparently, pristine condition, is a promised gift to The Met, who is showing the 75 Dye-transfer prints it contains, (15 per box) complete, for the first time ever, in NYC, along with 13 others from the extended series.

Walter Hopps’ Introduction to Los Alamos as it appears in the Steidl set. Photo courtesy of Steidl.

The first selection was shown at Museum Ludwig, Cologne in 20022, when this Portfolio was released, along with a catalog for the show, also titled, Los Alamos. The Portfolio consists of 75 dye transfer prints, in 5 boxes of 15, perhaps the most revered type of color print, as they possess a larger color gamut and tonal scale than any other process. Since Kodak stopped making the materials  for this process, they are rarely created today3 These images were known to me to now through Steidl’s three volume set,  Los Alamos Revisited, where they are supplemented by other images from the series. In the “Editorial Note” at the end of Volume 3, Gerhard Steidl says “Los Alamos is presented in its entirety in this three volume set,” though there are far fewer than the 2,200 images Mr. Hopps says was created, above. As good as Steidl’s books are, no book can match seeing a dye transfer print in person.

The first wall of William Eggleston: Los Alamos.

Along the show’s first wall, the second print is the image Mr. Hopps refers to as being William Eggleston’s first color Photograph.

Untitled, 1965, Dye-Transfer print, as are all the Photos that follow.

This man in this incredibly odd image, that would seem to be as far away from “Art” as one could imagine, is not pushing a shopping cart into a row of them. He’s pushing color Photography into the world of Fine Art Photography. Interestingly, 53 years later, for such a famous Photograph, seeing it in person in a dye-transfer print, it’s not a shot that screams with color, as so many others in Los Alamos do. It’s subtle relative to many of the others in the Portfolio. The colors emerge from shadows. Glimpses of light in a grey world. What strikes me are the subtle shades of silver in the carts- some of which are in the light, some are in shade. Then there’s the shadows. They echo the two figures we see, but the woman in the sunglasses isn’t one of them. They are the Photographer and the shopping cart man. The shadows are, almost, black and white images, something I’ve yet to see someone point out. As part of the “grey world” they wonderfully echo the black & white world he’s left behind in the “new world” of color Photography William Eggleston had embarked upon.

It almost looks like a black & white Photo. Detail of the left center showing William Eggleston, left shadow, taking the photo of the cart worker, on the right.

He would never go back.

Memphis, 1971-74

Memphis, 1965-68

William Eggleston began his career working in isolation “that was almost inconceivable.” “Photography wasn’t even born yet,” he said later. He even had no knowledge of the controversy the appearance of The Americans caused4. Going back before The Americans, it must be said that it seems to me that it’s hard to speak about ANY American Photographer of the 20th (or 21st) centuries without mentioning Walker Evans, though he did very little color work, and late in his career. It’s hard NOT to see the influence of Walker Evans everywhere in work created after his FSA works of the 1930’s. That includes the work of William Eggleston. I say that not to diminish his accomplishment by any means. I say it because almost every Artist in the western world has been influenced by someone who came before him or her. William Eggleston’s work has a rawness to it, akin to extremely proficient snapshots that I also see in some of Walker Evans’ work. William Eggleston knew the work of Walker Evans before he embarked on the work shown at The Met, but he proves himself over and over to be among the few who’s own vision is strong enough to overcome “echoes” of any influence. This was first seen in his controversial at the time, now landmark 1976 MoMA show Photographs by William Eggleston5,” and in much of what he’s shown us since.

Greenwood, 1971-74

Memphis, 1971-74

Santa Monica, 1974

Speaking of the continuum of influence, it’s hard to walk around this show and not see each image as a jumping off point for the work of so many others. Yet, the big mystery in them- “What do they mean?”- is only answered until you look at them again.

Mississippi, upper right and upper left, Memphis, lower left and lower right, all 1971-74

Part of their “charm” is how the cars, furniture, objects, and places look dated to us now. That’s inevitable with Photography as time goes on. Then, of course, there’s the power of his colors to seduce the eye like few others can.

Louisiana, 1971-74

While I’m eternally pondering the “What is he saying?” question myself, I always come back to studying, and admiring, his compositions. Their balance, or their off kilterness…in both cases, manage to retain interest.

Mississippi, 1971-74. Balance. Well? Almost. But, that’s life, right?

Greenwood, upper left,  Memphis, upper right, both 1971-74, Untitled (Bottle on Cement Porch), lower left, and Untitled (White Phone and Vacuum Cleaner, lower right, both 1965-74.

Images like the group of four above spawn countless “I could do that” comments. While I don’t deny the possibility someone could, what’s overlooked is the time and the context. These were taken over 45 years ago, when no one was “doing that.” When seen in the context of the history of Photography, they were, therefore, unprecedented, particularly in color. And yes, today? Countless people, and Photographers, are trying to “do that,” though we’re still waiting for the “next William Eggleston” to reveal him or herself, and so am I.

Louisiana, 1971-74

What to make of this image, with its carefully considered composition, shot from a low angle? I don’t know and my efforts at gaining insights reached a dead end. Ostensibly it’s here because it’s part of the complete portfolio, and as such, it’s now in The Met’s Permanent Collection. Though taken over a generation ago, it remains disturbing and offensive, and puzzling. In a 2004 interview in The Guardian, Sean O’Hagan quoted William Eggleston saying, “A picture is what it is, and I’ve never noticed that it helps to talk about them, or answer specific questions about them, much less volunteer information in words. It wouldn’t make any sense to explain them. Kind of diminishes them. People always want to know when something was taken, where it was taken, and, God knows, why it was taken. I mean, they’re right there, whatever they are.” As a result, I can’t help but think it calls into question the whole sense of “detachment” that exists in all of these works. At this point, it seems these questions are going to remain indefinitely.

The last wall at The Met includes the image taken during the plane trip home, far right, as if to put a “bow” on the project.

My current feeling about Louisiana, 1971-74, and the series as a whole, is that these are glimpses of America, moments that passed in front of the Photographer and his camera, that may, or may not, be gone forever, but will remain frozen in time. Taken as a whole, it’s as compelling a portrait of America as Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, (perhaps an inspiration for Mr. Eggleston), is, in my view, albeit in a completely different way. While Jack Kerouac inspired a generation of “Beatniks,” and countless others, Mr. Eggleston has inspired two generations of Photographers, and counting. In Los Alamos we see the mundane, the beautiful, the ugly, and the never noticed before, all seen by a man possessing one of the most singular eyes in Contemporary Art. If not in Art. Period.

Yes, William Eggleston went to “war with the obvious.” And he imposed his will upon it.

————————————

BookMarks- (A new feature regarding Art and/or PhotoBooks related to this Post). If you want to begin to explore the work of William Eggleston, William Eggleston’s Guide, published by MoMA is the place to start. After that, you really can’t go wrong with any Eggleston book published by Steidl or Twin Palms Publishers, though I would recommend considering William Eggleston: Los Alamos Revisited, next.

If you find yourself taken by Los Alamos, I highly recommend Steidl’s 3 volume box set.” Produced by William Eggleston, The Eggleston Artistic Trust and Gerhard Steidl, given the involvement of the Artist, it’s highly unlikely to be surpassed as a definitive document of this landmark series. The production is first rate in all respects. At Steidl’s booth at The Photography Show/AIPAD this year there was some question around how much longer copies of Los Alamos Revisited would be available. Released in 2012, I wouldn’t wait long to get one. Steidl’s previous William Eggleston Box set, Chromes, released the year before, is now out of print. The asking price for the cheapest USED copy known to me at the moment is $1,500.00.

*- Soundtrack for this Post are “Inventions & Sinfonias” by Johann Sebastian Bach as performed by Glenn Gould. Mr. Eggleston is, also, a Pianist, who recently released his first CD, William Eggleston: Musik (Vinyl). He lists J.S. Bach as his favorite composer. Something we agree on.

Update 5/22/18- Rewatching the fascinating documentary, The Colorful Mr. Eggleston, I saw what sure looks like one of the other sets of “Los Alamos.” At the 7 minute mark, Mr. Eggleston is speaking at what looks to be the Eggleston Artistic Trust, and behind him to the right, there are five similarly color boxes sitting on a shelf next to a “Coke” sign.

William Eggleston speaking in The Colorful Mr. Eggleston, with what looks to be a set of Los Alamos on the shelf behind him. Walker Evans, also, Photographed, and collected, Coke signs.

My thanks to Monika Condrea and Steidl for their assistance.

My previous Posts on Photography are here. 
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  1. William Eggleston: From Black and White to Color, and William Eggleston: Black and White the latter to be expanded in a reissue later this year. At that time it will serve as the best resource on his black & white work. ↩
  2. The show then traveled through Europe before making 3 stops in the USA until it finally closed in January, 2005. ↩
  3. More recently, the Eggleston Artistic Trust has begun producing larger (often 45 x 65 inch) pigment prints, which were shown in that 2016 David Zwirner show. Personally, I greatly prefer the original sizes in almost every case. ↩
  4. William Eggleston: From Black and White To Color, P.183 ↩
  5. Immortalized by the show’s catalog, William Eggleston’s Guide,” 1976, one of the first essential books of color Photography, still in print. ↩

“What Walking Looks Like” – Q&A With Jeanine Michna-Bales UPDATED

If ever there was a series of Photographs that could be termed “monumental,” Jeanine Michna-Bales’ “Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad,” 2002-16, is one in my view. Fourteen years in the making, ten of those spent doing research into the Underground Railroad, (a field that due to the life and death nature of it for all involved, very little is known about even 150 some years later)..Three years scouting locations and taking Photographs. It’s only fitting the resulting project is now a touring exhibition from the Mid-America Arts Alliance that’s currently scheduled to run through 2024! Viewers, including yours truly, who saw some of these works on view at The Photography Show (AIPAD), earlier this year, were captivated by them. I recently called the Artist one of my two AIPAD “Discoveries,” and heard from any number of other show attendees who concurred. 

“Resting Place. Church Hill, Mississippi, 2015” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales. Click any image for full size.

Given how much there is to say about this 14 year project, I felt my initial look at it at AIPAD only scratched the surface. After the auspicious beginnings of the traveling exhibition over the past year, and considering how many more viewers will be discovering Jeanine Michna-Bales and “Through Darkness to Light”over the next eight years, I’m sure many will want more information about it and the Artist. Luckily, Jeanine has agreed to do a Q & A, only the second I’ve done here at NighthawkNYC in almost 3 years. 

Just back from being invited to speak at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in conjunction with the Sally Mann Retrospective currently on view there, I asked Jeanine questions about “Through Darkness to Light” I haven’t seen answered anywhere as yet, and I also asked her about the two fascinating projects she started during the intervening fourteen years- “Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America circa 1960,” 2013-date, and “Frack-tured: Seismic Activity in the Barnett Shale,” 2015-date. Taken as a group, the three projects show a common thread in her work thus far- While the events at the heart of her projects are in the past, many of the actual places lost, remaining evidence scarce, Jeanine Michna-Bales, through years of research, dedication and hard work, manages to recreate in her work convincing, and often beautiful, works that put the viewer in those places and times. Why? Perhaps she’ll tell us below. For my part, I’m reminded of what George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it1.”

Jeanine, who is represented by PDNB Gallery, Dallas, and Arnika Dawkins Gallery in Atlanta, also kindly supplied Photos to go along with a few I took at AIPAD, and this one-

Jeanine Michna-Bales in front of some of the fruits of over a decade’s work, the extraordinary night Photography of “Through Darkness to Light,” at AIPAD, April 7, 2018.

Kenn Sava (KS)- Let’s start at the start. Where did the idea for “Through Darkness To Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad” come from?

Jeanine Michna-Bales (JMB)- Part of my practice as an artist is to write 3 pages long hand each day. Or try to anyway. Sometimes trying to balance my time between my family and career gets difficult. Most days I do manage to write ‘my pages’.

I am usually exploring why I am interested in a particular topic, flushing out an artist statement, looking at a topic from different viewpoints, etc. What is it that resonates with me? What information from that topic is applicable to today?

I also enjoy taking walks to help clear my mind. Always have. I had just finished a project documenting the locations where I had taken these walks. So, I already had the thought in my mind of what walking looks like.

“Devil’s Backbone. Lewis County, Tennessee, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Growing up in Indiana, the Underground Railroad was part of our curriculum in grade school. I remember being fascinated with the topic and trying to comprehend that someone would have to go through this journey in order to be free.

I like to think that “Through Darkness to Light” chose me. In 2002, the idea just showed up on the pages one day and wouldn’t let go of me. I kept coming back to the thought of what a journey out of slavery would look like. I spent years trying to research locations. I started before the U.S. Congress Freedom Trail Initiatives, where they were funding research to identify locations and narratives. Also, prior to the National Freedom Center in Cincinnati. So, there wasn’t a whole lot of information out there. I would research and get nowhere and then put the idea away and go back to my day job as an advertising agency art director. But, it wouldn’t let me go. I kept coming back to the idea over and over again. Finally, in 2008 or 2009 my step-dad suggested that I visit the Indiana Historical Society library. There was a librarian there who had been interested in the Underground Railroad. Anytime she came across anything that referenced it, she would make a photocopy and notation on how to find it and put it into a clipping file. She had clippings from period newspapers, to historical ones, to recent ones. Thesis papers. Books. And tons of information. I copied everything and brought it home. It took me months to go through and organize. But, it was the catalyst that gave me those first few locations to photograph.

Often, I would not be able to find locations or details. The amount of information I was going through was tremendous. I was searching for narratives in order to add their voices into the project, as well as give me a good idea of what to photograph. But, I would always manage to have the information given to me by someone.

The project won a 2014 CENTER Santa Fe Choice Award and some images from the series were a part of the group exhibition for the award winners. The woman whose work was on display next to mine invited her uncle to the show. He lives in Santa Fe. We ended up talking because he was intrigued by the images from “Through Darkness to Light.” I had been looking for a missing link in the path through Indiana for several years. As we got to talking, it turns out that he is the ancestor of abolitionist William Beard whose house I had been searching for. He was able to look up the address for me and send it to me.

Another time, I was out photographing around midnight in the Georgetown District of Madison, Indiana. The district was home to George DeBaptiste and other conductors on the Underground Railroad (UGRR). A woman came out of her house to walk her dog. She wanted to know what I was doing and I explained it to her. She was in the process of trying to get a monument built to highlight the history of the UGRR in the area. She had been in contact with numerous historians and was able to pass along their contact information and make introductions for me, as well.

I can’t count how many times things like this happened over the course of the 14 years working on the project. I definitely had help along the way.

“From Whence We Came. Following Robinson Road, Mississippi, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- After the initial idea, how long was it before you realized that it would be the huge undertaking it turned out to be?

JMB- I don’t think it really dawned on me how big the undertaking was until I started to actually capture some of the images for the series. I initially had about nine photographs to show when I took the project to three photo reviews: PhotoNOLA in December of 2013, FotoFest in Spring of 2014 and Review Santa Fe in the summer of 2014. It took me 3.5 years to capture all of the images. I drove out the warranty of our new car during that time.

I’d say that I am extremely well versed in what not to do and am still learning what to do. My background is in large format photography: 4×5 field camera with sheet film. This was my first time using a digital system. I used the Canon system because their tilt/shift lenses mimic the movements of the 4×5 camera. The digital sensors of the camera weren’t quite capable of capturing what I was envisioning. So, I had quite a time trying to figure out ways to work around the camera’s limitations in order to create the images that I thought would best tell the narrative. Digital cameras are known for generating noise under low light situations. I was trying to show a large depth of field at night. Not a good combination for crystal clear images. Each time the next generation of camera was released (twice), I traded in my old one. And each time, the technology was much better. I still wish I had the last camera when I started the project.

Logistically, covering all of the terrain was difficult. I would scope out possible locations during the day. Then, stay up all night or almost all night to photograph. I quickly figured out that about 3 days was my maximum time that I could function. Then, I would head back home and regroup. Spend time with my family. Do more research and then head back out. I tried to keep the images so that they tracked logically in relation to time: i.e. each station was still operating at the same time, season-wise (didn’t want to shoot something in the fall and have the next image be in the summer), etc.

Oftentimes, I wouldn’t have the information that I needed until I was able to actually get to a historical society or library in a given town. Or talk to local homeowners, etc. In the notes of the book, information is given that discusses details of why I photographed places even if I was unable to find written documentation that they were an actual part of Railroad. The UGRR was word-of-mouth because it was illegal to help. I kept that in mind while piecing together this route that someone could possibly have taken.

“Off the Beaten Path. Along the Yockanookany River, Mississippi, 2014,” as seen at AIPAD.

I also visited local libraries, state libraries, historical societies, national/state parks, and contacted various historians. Any books that I saw (in my own library or while at the library), I referenced their bibliographies looking for other sources of information. Currently, I’d say about 1/16 of the historical research is online at throughdarknesstolight.com. I am in the process of going back through all of my materials with the intention of putting as much of it online as possible. Some of the period pieces belong to specific libraries and collections. So, cost may become an issue as far as posting some of the items. But, I am adding to and updating the bibliography section that was pulled together from the publication and traveling exhibition of the series. The traveling exhibition has been extended through March 2024 and has about 8 more slots available for venues to book the show.

KS-Given the secret nature of the Underground Railroad, how hard was it to undercover the stories and details, all these years later, you wanted for your Photographs to tell the story?

JMB- Finding a lot of the details was quite difficult over the years. Keeping records was a great risk for those helping as well as for those escaping. So, there simply isn’t a lot of documentation that exists. Largely, the Railroad ran via word-of-mouth. I tried to keep this in mind while working on the series and find as much documentation as possible to support local oral histories. 

A lot of the details and locations were pulled straight from narratives and reminiscences. In the north, different accounts referenced working with other station masters and often told tales of ‘cat and mouse’ games with local law enforcement officers, like Wright Rhea. He was the sheriff of Jefferson County, Indiana and used his office to capture many fugitive slaves.

In the end, is the documented route a known route that someone actually used to escape slavery? We simply don’t know. It is very possible. I made sure that each station or stop along the way was logistically feasible: i.e. stations in operation at the same time, geographically nearby, etc. From what I have learned, I don’t think that any specific route was used in the exact same order over and over again. That would have led to the capture of too many freedom-seekers.

I chose a first-person viewpoint to help us all understand that it was the freedom-seekers themselves that were making this tremendously difficult journey in search of a better life. They had some help along the way once they had to made it to the north. However the majority of the time, they were on their own. And they were in possession of amazing amounts fortitude, determination and sheer will.

“A Safe Place to Regroup. House of Levi Coffin, who was unofficially dubbed the president of the Underground Railroad, Fountain City (formerly Newport), Indiana, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- What were you the most surprised to learn?

The Underground Railroad was America’s first civil rights movement. It blurred racial, religious, socio-economic and gender lines. And united a diverse group of people in the common cause of finding a way to abolish slavery within the United States. One thing leads to another and many of the voices that spoke out against slavery ultimately tried to introduce a civil rights bill.

“Keep Going. Crossing the Tennessee River, Colbert County, Alabama, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- You mentioned heading off to Washington DC and doing some research at the Library of Congress while you’re there. Are you still researching the Underground Railroad?

JMB- “Through Darkness to Light” is finished. Although, I do still keep up with books and information as they come out. I just ordered a copy of “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” by Zora Neale Hurston.

I was asked to give a talk at the National Gallery of Art on Through Darkness to Light with artist Clarissa Sligh. Our talk was entitled “The Evidence of Things Seen and Unseen” and was held in conjunction with the exhibition “A Thousand Crossings” by Sally Mann (Update- June 26, 2018- I just received the full transcript of Jeanine’s remarks at the National Gallery. It has been appended to the bottom of this Q&A).

“A Brief Respite. Abolitionist William Beard’s house, Union County, Indiana, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- Given how many miles the Underground Railroad covered, how did you decide on what to Photograph? Was it largely due to access to the remaining sites?

The UGRR encompassed countless, constantly changing routes. The documented route that I photographed was pieced together directly from the research for the project: i.e narratives, etc. Sometimes, what was planned didn’t necessarily end up what was photographed. Oftentimes, buildings had been torn down, were updated and lost their 19th century character, or simply they didn’t fit into the ‘look’ that was developing for the series.

For instance, “Approaching the Seminary” is a view of a corn field. The school house for the Union Literary Institute had been heavily damaged by a tornado. The school taught African Americans at a time when it was illegal to do so. Agriculture was a main component of their curriculum. And I also had come across a narrative of freedom-seekers being hidden in a corn field overnight because the station they had left was being watched by fugitive slave catchers, as well as the station they were headed to. The UGRR conductors were unsure of the property owner’s loyalties. But, they took a chance and were able to keep the fleeing slaves safe. 

“Within Reach. Crossing the St. Clair River to Canada just south of Port Huron, Michigan, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- “Through Darkness” has been on quite a journey, itself, as a traveling exhibition, with much more to come, looking at the schedule of venues on your site. If you could summarize the experience for you so far, what’s been the takeaway from it being in so many places?

JMB- The traveling exhibition launched in Evanston, Illinois in January of 2017 followed by other solo and group shows around the country. I have traveled to quite a few of the venues for artist talks and book signings. For me, the conversations resulting from the work is why I decided to become a full-time artist. A lot of those conversations are complicated and can be uncomfortable at times. These are topics that have been ‘brushed under the rug’ for years. And we are just now starting to address the lingering aspect of not having face-to-face dialogues with people who have different backgrounds or beliefs from our own. We are a deeply divided country right now. And have been in the past as well. How do we use our history to find a common ground? Can we all sit down and talk with each other? Not attack, belittle or try to persuade someone to our viewpoint. But, truly listen. And, I hope, ultimately have empathy for our fellow humans. It might be a lofty goal. But, I feel that change starts slowly – one conversation at a time.

Is there any one image in particular that stands out, perhaps due to it’s meaning for you, or the story of the Underground Railroad, or for what you had to go through to get it?

There are quite a few images that have special meaning to me in regards to the ‘help’ that I received along the way. There were so many times during the project that I would run into a dead end and not be able to find the information that I needed. As I mentioned above, I ran into William Beard’s descendent at an award show exhibition. There were many serendipitous moments throughout the series. Every time I would arrive to photograph at a location, a Cardinal would be there, as if letting me know this was the right location to take an image. 

When I was out on the road photographing, I would scope out possible locations during the day and return at night to take the images. This left little time for sleep. When I was in Natchez, Mississippi, I had been out on several trips recently and was already tired. On the second night after staying out until 3:30am I headed back to my hotel to grab a cat nap. I planned to get up at 5am before sunrise to go photograph again. At the last minute, I decided I was too tired and turned off my alarm. At around 5am, the TV in the hotel room spontaneously turned on. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening. I turned it off and crawled back into bed. About 10 minutes later it turned on again. I got up and thought to myself, “Oh, alright, I’ll go out and photograph.” I ended up taking one of my favorite images that day “Moonlight over the Mississippi”.

I could mention other things that happened like this throughout the time that I worked on the series. And that is why I feel that the project chose me more than I chose to work on it.

“Freedom. Canadian soil, Sarnia, Ontario, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- How close do you feel “Through Darkness” came to realizing your initial vision, or did it wind up being something completely different from it?

JMB- The initial thought was, ‘what would it look like escaping from slavery to freedom?’. I had started to research the series. I visited the Levi Coffin house in Indiana and took some images of the hiding places in the house during the daytime. I also took some images of a plantation during the day. I was completely disappointed in the results. But, the project wouldn’t let go. I kept researching and writing about what kept drawing me back to the topic. And then several years later, I was visiting my husband’s family in Tennessee and was out photographing at night in the woods. And I took the image “Through the Underbrush”. Once I saw that image, I knew that was the way that the series needed to be portrayed. It pointed directly to the research because the freedom-seekers moved under the cover of darkness. Darkness lent the images that sense of uncertainty and foreboding. Feelings, I imagine, one would be feeling on such a journey. And darkness also gave rise to the title of the series as well. And then I kept finding references to it in various period writings, especially an amazing passage from one of Frederick Douglass’s speeches in England. I now close my talks with his words.

“Approaching the Seminary. Near Spartanburg, Indiana, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- Without giving away your secrets, could you speak a little about what went into getting these beautiful nocturnal Photographs?

JMB- From a technique called stacking – based on the fact that digital noise is generated randomly, where you take several images of the same scene and them stack them together at different opacities in Photoshop – to literally cloning out each little speck of noise and dust in each image. The latter would take me about 3 weeks at 8 hours a day for each image. Luckily, I didn’t have too many images that had that much noise in them. I was able to trade the initial camera I was using in for the next generation and the technology had drastically improved. I also learned to never set my ISO above 400. And I tried to keep it between 100 and 200. So, I ended up with longer exposures which I think lend that painterly quality to some of the images. I also quickly figured out that there is virtually no light in the woods on a new moon night. So, I did end up using some light painting in order to get any information to register on the light sensor. Light painting is a technique where while the camera shutter is open during a long exposure, you are able to ‘paint’ the scene with light. I have a pretty good collection of various lights that I can use now. The technique is a lot of trial and error because objects in the foreground will be much brighter than objects in the background. Since, it was a digital system, I could view ‘test’ images and be able to ‘paint’ better on the next capture. 

“Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom. Just across the Ohio River, Indiana, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- Of the images from the series I’ve seen, “Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom” continues to captivate me. Why did you choose that particular spot? Was it the beauty of the roots, or is there something more relevant to it?

JMB- There were a system of safe houses that ran up from Eagle Hollow to Ryker’s Ridge and then up into one of three main routes through Indiana: western, central or eastern. In the image “Over the Hills” you are standing in Kentucky, a border state – and for all intents and purposes a southern state. The blue hills you see in the background are Indiana. You can also see more of that scene in the panoramic image “The River Jordan”. The land at the Ohio River is low and flat, but rises steadily up over the hills or mountains into the main part of Indiana. Ryker’s Ridge has a gorge or cut that goes from the top down to the river’s edge. Most of the year it is a dry creek bed. But, in the spring with the snow pack melting water rushes down into the Ohio River causing erosion along the edges. I was hiking through the bottom portion of this area with my Mom looking for a location to photograph. And we stumbled on the roots of the trees. Some of the places were big enough that someone could crawl into them and curl up and hide. The exposed roots symbolized so much and they became “Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom”.

Excerpts from “Through Darkness to Light” as seen at Arnika Dawkins Gallery’s booth at AIPAD, 2018. Contemporary testimonials, quotes (like this one from Harriet Tubman) and songs are an integral part of the the project.

KS- You’ve released a book that includes contributions from former Ambassador Andrew Young, historian Fergus Bordewich, Eric Jackson, head of the Black Studies Department at Northern Kentucky University and Robert Darden, a professor and author, that would indicate the book, and the project, walking the line between Art and history. What was the experience of working with them like?

Working with the contributors was amazing. They each had their own research and viewpoints to contribute to the project. I did want the book to cross over into different areas of interest and not just be a Fine Art book. The essays give us a glimpse of the United States in the mid-1800s. And are necessary for us to understand the back and forth of the north and south that lead us to the Civil War. “Through Darkness to Light” is a visual essay meant to grab the viewer and thrust them into the journey. Sometimes, pictures can speak louder than words.

Fergus Bordewich has written many books on the historical United States. His book “Bound for Canaan” is a well-written, resource-rich view into the UGRR. So, I approached him for the essay that would lay the groundwork for the existence of the UGRR in the U.S.

I came across Dr. Eric Jackson’s name when I found an article he had written in “Traces”, the magazine for the Indiana Historical Society. In his essay for the book, he was able to highlight several escapes from slavery. Especially, one from the region.

Singing and spirituals were such a part of the research I was digging through, I knew that topic had to be addressed. I heard an interview of Professor Darden on NPR and he agreed to contribute to the book.

Trying to get the project in front of Ambassador Young was a long, interesting process over the course of two years. I eventually was able to speak with him via telephone thanks to his assistant. I recorded the conversation and that transcript was reworked into the foreword for the book. He recited song lyrics, even singing some, from memory. He discussed their relevance to today. And it all tied back to the songs and spirituals from slavery times. The conversation couldn’t have been scripted better. 

“Over the Hills. North Trimble County, Kentucky, 2014” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

KS- You’ve now released a limited edition set of prints. How did you decide which prints to include in the limited edition out of the 81?

As for almost everything with the series, the research informed the narrative. I pulled 12 images together, along with 12 quotes from UGRR participants that give us the best sense of what a journey to freedom may have been like.

KS- As “Through Darkness” took so long to complete, you began two other projects, “Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America,” 2013-, and “Frack-Tured Land: Seismic Activity in the Barnett Shale, 2015-, along the way. With “Through Darkness,” all three focus on giving the viewer a sense of the direct experience of their subject- what it was like to be on the Underground Railroad…The effects of fracking…What it was like to live in a period of heightened nuclear tension. All three show us the past as “warning” of the future. In each case, you have undertaken extensive research of the subject, where other Artists might not. Why? What do you feel it adds to your work? Is it hard to walk the line between historic fact and Art, even after the fact, like with the Underground Railroad?

JMB- Yes, I extended my stay in Washington D.C. a few days in order to do some research at the Library of Congress for two other projects. One I started in 2013 is called “Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America, circa 1960.” I was freelancing for a local magazine in 2013 when an assignment came in to photograph a backyard ‘bomb’ shelter in Dallas.

“Interior Entrance. Public shelter, Paris, Texas, 2013,” from “Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

I asked to come along on the shoot. And I was dumbfounded with how I felt after climbing down that ladder and stepping into this space. All of the fallacies were just glaring us in the face: i.e. hand-crank for clean air, only expecting to spend 7 days below ground, you had to go outside the blast door to use the ‘toilet’, etc. I went back and photographed that space and embarked on a tour of U.S. fallout shelters and the project entitled “Fallout”. How could/can photographs convey such a sense of panic, fear, and even resignation? The government was pulling reports studying fallout patterns, casualty statistics, etc. They knew that the shelters were useless. But, they had to keep the population calm.

“Capacity 105. Public Shelter, Power Plant, Weatherford, Texas, 2,’ from “Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Thousands of fallout shelters were left behind by the Cold War generation. Many remain intact, but are hidden, underground and unseen. I believe, in many ways, these spaces may be viewed as a warning to us today. Referencing declassified information from the Cuban Missile Crisis, I have been working since 2013 on a series that gives voice to these unique architectural spaces that were built throughout the U.S. in the 1950s and ‘60s. Spaces that one can step into and feel how terrified most Americans actually were at the thought of a nuclear holocaust. The images will ultimately highlight the Cold War experience through shelter spaces in 14 cities.

Found documents from the period overlaid on some of the images offer a chilling insight into the psychological effects of the Cold War on government officials and ordinary citizens. These period documents play an important role by serving as a kind of ‘interview’ with those who lived through this experience but are no longer here to bear witness. The juxtaposition of shelter spaces that have remained virtually untouched except by the effects of time, and found text like casualty statistics helps us understand that Civil Defense was only a way to maintain some semblance of order with the threat of nuclear war hanging over Americans’ heads day in and day out. Most major cities only had enough shelter space for roughly 40% of their daytime population. With the advent of faster technology to deliver nuclear warheads in the 60’s and later, the remaining populace would face dire circumstances if they survived at all.

“Survival Chances. Indianapolis Civil Defense Headquarters, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2016.” Photo courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Fast forward to December 22, 2016 when President Elect Donald Trump and Present Vladimir Putin both declared that they were going to increase their respective countries nuclear arsenals. Hearing this we might actually think that we had stepped back in time to the height of the Cold War.

 

Popular Mechanics Magazine, February, 2018. “The good news is, if you make it through the blast and the shock wave, you are now in a survivable situation.” Keyword= “IF.”

In light of these announcements and other recent developments, it is more vital than ever to view our uncertain present through the lens of the past. If you take away the fact that one of the announcements was made via Twitter, the names and the date, you’d think we were back in the 1960s. Have we not learned anything from our past? Why does history need to come full circle? I think these fallout shelters and all of the pamphlets and government studies sit as a warning to us today. Don’t make the same mistakes. Evolve. Learn. And use the past to find a better way to navigate the future.

“Earthquake Epicenter: 2.3 magnitude at 7:37 am on January 6, 2015 Tower Village Apartments; Irving, Texas,” 2015, from “Frack-tured: Seismic Activity in The Barnett Shale.” One of seven earthquakes that occurred on the same day. Photo and caption courtesy of Jeanine Michna-Bales.

The reason I chose to photograph “Frack-tured: Seismic Activity in The Barnett Shale” was because we had moved from San Francisco, California to Dallas, Texas in 2004. We had earthquake insurance in California. And initially didn’t have it in Dallas. We do now. I was sitting at my desk working, when all of a sudden our house shifted back on its foundation (pier and beam foundation) about an inch or so and then slammed back into place again. The desk drawers were rattling like crazy. I went to get online to see what was going on. My initial thought was that it was an earthquake. But, we weren’t supposed to be having them here. The web was so jammed that I was unable to access any sites to see if it was an earthquake for about 45 mins.

“Location of the Old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Irving, Texas.”
One of five earthquakes in the same day. The previous day had seven and the day after had three.

Once I was able to confirm that it indeed was an earthquake, I started to dig into what was going on. That’s when I learned that the Dallas-Ft. Worth area had no earthquakes on record until 10 hit the area within roughly a 24-hour period surrounding Halloween in 2008. And that clusters of earthquakes had been hitting 3 major areas around the DFW metroplex since then. This was 2015. And that became the year with the most earthquakes on record over 100 and magnitudes and frequencies were increasing. Why wasn’t I aware of this? Why was all of this information hidden? What was causing the earthquakes? Nothing in Texas is built to seismic standards, nor retrofitted. What are the implications of that?

I wanted people to be aware that we had been thrust into an active earthquake zone by the oil and gas companies. We are one of 17 areas within 8 states that are experiencing induced or manmade earthquakes. Scientists have linked this seismic activity to wastewater injection wells as far away as 50km and some say even further.

Jeanine Michna-Bales, “Artist’s timeline of earthquake data” pulled from the U.S. Geological Survey (earthquake.usgs.gov) and Earquaketrack.com. Not “Art” per se, rather one byproduct of her research. In an email to me on June 3rd, Jeanine told me that she had just updated this chart to include a 3.5 magnitude quake that occurred on May 21st, while she was in Washington. Click here for full size.

And another project that I have been researching for a few years and that I plan to start image capture on this fall is about the National Woman’s Party and their 1916 western campaign. Hundreds of women were sent west to the 11 states where women had the right to vote, asking to put aside all political agendas except for women’s suffrage. I am attempting to get the project ready for the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment in August of 2020.

I think my research process informs my projects from their titles, down to what and how I choose to capture the images. The research validates the images. And the images are ways to get complicated, disturbing, confusing, and relevant information out into the world. The visuals draw you into the narrative and make you start to learn more. This starts conversations. And the dialogue is what I am most interested in. Can we have an open discussion in mixed company about racial profiling and the prison industrial complex? Can we discuss our countries nuclear policy? How does this align with other countries that have nuclear warheads? What are the alternatives to fossil fuels? Is contamination, air and water, earthquakes, etc. worth independence from foreign oil? Can we actively and passionately explore other energy options? Questions spark discussions. And face-to-face conversations are what we are missing nowadays. I think they can lead to empathy and understanding. And we need to have more of them each and every day.

My projects walk the line between fine art and documentary. In my mind, the two are closely linked. I like to think that if I document a given project in a visually compelling way, then people will be drawn into the series. I want them to ask questions and want to learn more about the ‘who, what, where, when and why’. Are these topics relevant to contemporary society? I want the work to start conversations. Our society, and societies in general, has a tendency to come full circle in relation to history. The pendulum swings back and forth. I hope my work helps us make a more informed path for our collective future.

KS- Why did you decide to become an Artist? Who were your influences? Do you paint or draw?

JMB- I have always been interested in art. Over the years, art classes were some of my favorite ones. I used to be able to draw and paint pretty well. I’m not one of the naturally gifted people out there. So, without practice the skill diminishes.

My becoming an artist has been a long, winding journey. My former career was in advertising as an art director. Basically, the skills I learned from that job have served me well when I finally decided to take the leap of faith and become a full-time artist. I still thoroughly enjoy coming up with the concept for a new project. I use my word lists to come up with titles and descriptions. I am able to design and produce my own promotional materials. I am somewhat comfortable talking in front of crowds. However, I do still get nervous and tongue-tied.

While I was in advertising, we always joked around about the fact that what we were doing wasn’t ‘brain surgery’. Translation: our work wasn’t particularly important, unless of course, you were the client. There was something missing for me. I started to photograph projects on the side as a creative outlet. Some of this earlier work is in the archive section of my website. Again, I still felt like something was missing. But, I had no idea what that something was. Now, as I look back, I understand that my projects didn’t have a purpose. They were lacking a narrative, one that supports a broader purpose for being. The projects weren’t asking questions and starting conversations.

Fast forward to the late 1990s and early 2000s. I started writing, long hand, three pages a day. This is how I determine what topics I am drawn to and why. I can flush out artist statements and other things. Sometimes just by showing up to the page, I am rewarded with ideas. Such was the case back in 2002 when the idea for “Through Darkness to Light” materialized from the tip of my pen. It took 14 years, but I think I have managed to do the idea a bit of justice. Get the work out into the world. And get people talking. Because, as I mentioned before, change occurs slowly, one conversation at a time.

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BookMarks- As mentioned in the Q & A, “Through Darkness to Light” is accompanied by a beautiful book of the same name published by the Princeton Architectural Press with 192 pages, 100 color illustrations, and 13 black & white illustrations, ISBN 9781616895655. Signed copies, and/or the Limited Edition Portfolio, may be obtained through Arnika Dawkins Gallery or PDNB Gallery.

For further information- Jeanine has 2 comprehensive websites, one for her Photography including all of her projects, and a separate site dedicated to “Through Darkness to Light,” which includes fruits of her research, resources for educators and an extensive Underground Railroad Bibliography. It also includes the schedule for the traveling exhibition of “Through Darkness to Light,” here.

*- Soundtrack or this Post is “Safe House,” by Senses Fail from “The Fire.”

My thanks to Jeanine Michna-Bales. 

————————————————————

UPDATED- July 20, 2018-

Here is the video of Jeanine and Clarissa Sligh’s remarks at at “The Evidence of Things Seen and Unseen,” on May 20, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, which was presented in conjunction with the Sally Mann Retrospective currently on view there. A transcript follows.

Here is the unedited transcript of Jeanine’s talk I received from the National Gallery-

“Hello, everyone. Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. So this project basically took me 14 years to complete. I did have, at the time when I started it, a job in advertising– like Sarah had mentioned, my degree. And I guess I was researching on the side. And it was before the Freedom Trail Initiatives, and so a lot of the information was very difficult to find.

So I was lucky enough to kind of stumble on a treasure trove at the Indiana Historical Society, where there was one librarian who had been working there for years and years and years. And any time she came across any information on the Underground Railroad, whether it was a newspaper clipping from the time period or something more recent, she would make a photocopy of it and stick it into this clippings file folder. And so when I stumbled on that, I was extremely excited to find some of the information.

So I have, I guess, a lot of quotes from the participants because all of the people that were part of this journey have all passed away. And so, I wanted to bring their voices and their thoughts into the project. And so, you’ll see throughout the book and the slides different quotes from people. So this is actually from Frederick Douglass. And he’s trying to give us a sense of what slavery would have been like.

And he states that he could think “No better exposure of slavery can be made than is made by the laws of the states in which slavery exists. If more than seven slaves together are found in any road without a white person, 20 lashes apiece. For visiting a plantation without a pass, 10 lashes. For letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, 39 lashes for the first offense, and for the second, shall have cut off from his head one ear.

For keeping or carrying a club, 39 lashes. For having any article for sale without a ticket from his master, 10 lashes. For traveling in any other than the most usual and accustomed road when going alone to any place, 40 lashes. For traveling in the night without a pass, 40 lashes.”

He further states, “I’m afraid you do not understand the awful character of these lashes. You must bring it before your mind, a human being in a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a heavy whip knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet– and for these trifles.

For being found in another person’s quarters, 40 lashes. For hunting with dogs in the woods, 30 lashes. For being on horseback without the written permission of his master, 25 lashes. For riding or going abroad in the night or riding horses in the daytime without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek with the letter R, or otherwise punished such punishment, not extending to life, or so as to render him unfit for labor.” All of these laws referred to, you can still find in writing coming from Bravard’s Digest, Hayward’s Manual, Virginia Revised Code, Prince’s Digest, Missouri Laws, and the Mississippi Revised Code.

I wanted to go over some of the research that I did. Basically the entire project was informed by the research. Like I said, spent a long time on it, and that kind of gave me the framework of this series. And it informed the title, as well. So I found that fugitives would travel roughly 20 miles per night. So these are some of the maps that I was consulting to try to figure out stations that existed and then also tried to figure out what stations were nearby that they could have gone through within that amount of distance.

I read many, many, many first-person narratives. And the WPA in the 1930s actually went back and interviewed former slaves. And they put out these books. And they divided them by states from where they were living. I also consulted many other books in different historical societies and other such sources.

And it was the very heavy reading to do. Often times, I would have to put it down and go play with my dog or hang out with my son just to get the images that I had been reading about out of my head. This is kind of, maybe– I don’t know– an 8th or a 16th of the library that I built up while I was doing all the research.

So I would take some of those clipping files that I mentioned and put them into binders. And so I have little stickies kind of referencing where they were and if they were irrelevant along the path. And some of them are pulled from masters theses. I’m getting them from writing different historians and asking if they can share some of their research. So yeah, it was a logistical puzzle to put together.

I did consult a lot of period sources. So on the left is a handwritten minutes page from the Neil’s Creek Anti- Slavery Society. And they were in southern Indiana. And basically, their constitution is what you’re seeing up there. And their goal was to be the total abolition of slavery.

On the right, actually, it’s a pledge from J. Pearce. And so, at the time, it was illegal to help people escape slavery. And he was proclaiming publicly by signing this pledge– he signed his name to it– and then he wrote out that he

And he was proclaiming publicly by signing this pledge– he signed his name to it– and then he wrote out that he

was going to help. And then on the back also above his name, you’ll notice that there’s a cipher there. So they were actually encoding messages.

This is the Free Labor Advocate and Slavery Chronicle. So there was an area in Indiana kind of on the Ohio border. And it was a Quaker stronghold. And a lot of the people that had decided to live there had moved from Tennessee and North Carolina. So they had witnessed the atrocities of slavery firsthand. They were adamantly opposed to it.

What you’re seeing are some ads that are in that newspaper. And they’re actually free labor goods stories. So they were purchasing produce, cotton, and other things that were not made with slave labor.

This is the documented route that I settled on to photograph. It was changing constantly as I was going through the process, trying to find locations. Did the Underground Railroad exist in the South? Not so much.

So I kind of pieced together a route that I thought somebody could have possibly taken in the South using those first-person narratives about where they would have stopped. I did find that people would run away in protest just for a day or a week or something and go to the neighboring plantation and then return back. So I figured that they would adopt that philosophy if they were running permanently.

So it goes from Louisiana, across Louisiana, up through Mississippi, the corner of Alabama. Then you’re in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and finally ending in Sarnia, Ontario. Detroit was actually dubbed “Midnight.” So slave catchers, if they didn’t catch anybody within the first couple hundred miles, they would just go to Detroit and wait. I can’t imagine getting that far and getting caught in the end.

This is the first image in the series. And it’s entitled Decision to Leave– Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River in Louisiana. And it was taken in 2013. Frederick Douglass states, “No man can tell the intense agony which was felt by the slave when wavering on the point of making his escape. All that he has is at stake. And even that which he has not is at stake also. The life which he has may be lost. And the liberty which he seeks may not be granted.”

Southern Pine Forest Following El Camino Real, La Salle Parish, Louisiana, 2014. Stopover, Frogmore Plantation, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, 2014. John Little, who is a former slave says, “‘Tisn’t he who has stood and looked on that can tell you what slavery is. ‘Tis he who has endured.”

Moonlight Over the Mississippi, Tensas Parish, Louisiana, 2014. And Frederick Douglass again states, “Brothers and sisters we were by blood, but slavery had made us strangers. I heard the words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ and knew they must mean something, but slavery robbed these terms of their true meaning.”

On the left is Sunken Trace, Claiborne County, Mississippi, 2015. And on the right, Determining True North in the

Rain Along the Southern Part of the Old Natchez Trace, Mississippi, 2014. And this is the account of the escape of Reverend Jacob Cummings. A local grocer heard that the Smiths were mistreating their slaves. He showed Cummings a map of Lake Erie, spoke with him about Ohio and Indiana, taught him to find the North Star and determine direction by moss on the tree, and encouraged him to make a run for it. In July 1839, Cummings fled. And he was successful.

Cypress Swamp, Middle Mississippi, 2014. The Censor, which is an anti-slavery weekly– and this is from February 26, 1868, “The conveyance most used on the southern section is known as the foot and walker line– the passengers running their own trains, steering by the North Star, and swimming rivers when no boat could be borrowed.”

Keep Going, Crossing the Tennessee River, Colbert County, Alabama, 2014. Frederick Douglas says, “A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of ‘Oh Canaan, sweet Canaan, I am bound for the land of Canaan’ something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the North. And the North was our Canaan.

Devil’s Backbone, Lewis County, Tennessee, 2014. William, who was a slave and also a half brother to a United States senator, says “The man I called Master was my half brother. My mother was a better woman than his, and I was the smartest boy of the two. But while he had a right smart chance at school, I was whipped if I asked the name of the letters that spelled the name of the god that made us both of one blood.”

Fleeing the Torches, Warren County, Kentucky, 2014. Harriet Tubman says, “I had reasoned this out in my mind. There was one of two things I had a right to– liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for my liberty as long as strength lasted. And when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”

Hidden Passage, Mammoth Cave, Barren County, Kentucky, 2014. Documents show that passengers of the Underground Railroad pass through the cities surrounding Mammoth Cave, including Cave City, Glasgow, and Munfordville. For where they could safely cross the Green River, there weren’t a lot of areas that they could get across there. While there is no evidence that the cave itself was used by the Underground Railroad, the most accurate map of the system was drawn by Stephen Bishop, who was a slave and cave guide. And he gave tours in the 1840s and 1850s.

When I actually contacted– it’s a national park now– the National Park Service to get access to photograph, they initially denied my request. And when I kept giving them more and more information that I was finding about the paths around the cave, they finally agreed that they just simply did not know and that it was OK for me to come in

and photograph, as long as I let everybody know that I wasn’t sure, so.

Over the Hills, North Trimble County, Kentucky, 2014. So basically, this is literally the dividing line between the North and the South that you’re looking at. You’re standing in Kentucky, which is a border state. They had plantations, so part of the South. Those blue hills that you see in the background, that is actually Indiana. So you’re looking at a free state. They actually called the Ohio River that separated Kentucky and Indiana and the states going east the River Jordan. And that was their goal, was to get across it.

Eagle Hollow from Hunter’s Bottom. Just Across the Ohio River, Indiana, 2014. At Eagle Hollow, part of a network of Underground Railroad stations that shepherded slaves northward through Indiana, Chapman Harris, a free man, reverend, and blacksmith, signaled safe crossing to fugitives waiting on the Kentucky shore of the Ohio River with hammer strokes on his anvil.

John H. Tibbets, he is actually a member of the Neil’s Creek Anti-Slavery Society that I showed you that book at the beginning with the Constitution. His first assignment on the Underground Railroad, he later wrote a book entitled his Reminiscences. And this is an excerpt from that. “After dark, I drove to the place agreed upon to meet in a piece of woods one mile from the town of work. I had been at the pointed place but a very short time when Mr. George DeBaptiste sang out, here’s $10,000 from Hunter’s Bottom tonight. A good slave at that time would fetch from $1,000 up. We loaded them in and started with the cargo of human charges towards the North Star.”

On the left, Nightlight. Passing into Fayette County, Indiana, 2014. On the right, Friend or Foe? Station Just Outside Metamora, Indiana, 2014. A Brief Respite. Abolitionist William Beard’s House, Union County, Indiana, 2014.

I kept coming across in my research reference to the Henry County Female Anti-Slavery Society in Indiana. And it was actually off of my path. And so I kept ignoring it. And it kept popping up, and I kept ignoring it.

So finally, I decided to pull it out and look at the original minutes book that was handwritten, like the one that I showed you earlier. And I found that members of the Henry County Female Anti-Slavery Society were taking up donations to buy 127 yards of free-labor cotton in order to sew garments, vests, coats, pants, dresses, shirts, and socks. Two thirds of the garments were directed to Salem, Union County, care of William Beard.

Another interesting part about this is that I was having trouble finding the original address of William Beard’s house. And this work was up on display in Santa Fe. And another woman had her work up as well in the awards show. And her uncle, who was a lawyer, came to the show.

And we started discussing the series and the work. And he said, oh, I grew up in Indiana. My ancestors are from there. Well, it turns out he was William Beard’s ancestor. And so he was able to look back through his family

records and send me the address so that I could go photograph the house. I had a lot of synchronistic moments like that during the series.

On the left is A Safe Place to Regroup. House of Levi Coffin, who is unofficially dubbed the president of the Underground Railroad, Fountain City, formerly Newport, Indiana, 2014. Levi Coffin wrote, “The dictates of humanity came in opposition to the law of the land, and we ignored the law.”

On the right is Approaching the Seminary. Near Spartanburg, Indiana, 2014. Article 8 of the seminary, it’s the Union Literary Institute Constitution. And it states “Differences in government, discipline, and privileges will not be made with regard to color, rank, or wealth.” So they were giving agricultural skills to African Americans and also teaching them how to read. And that was against the law at that time, but they did not care.

On the Safest Route. James and Rachel Sillivin cabin, Pennville, formerly Camden, Indiana, 2014. Several documents from the mid-1980s to the present indicate that Eliza Harris stayed at this location during her flight northward. Her crossing of the Ohio River would become one of the best known escapes due to her representation in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Dirt Road. Outside Coldwater, Michigan, 2014. Within Reach. Crossing the St. Clair River to Canada just south of Port Huron, Michigan, 2014. English writer, William Cowper, wrote, “Slaves cannot breathe in England and Canada. If their lungs receive our air, that moment, they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall.”

And the last image in the series is Freedom. Canadian soil, Sarnia, Ontario, 2014. Harriet Tubman says, “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields. And I felt like I was in heaven.”

And Frederick Douglass gave a speech at Finsbury Chapel in Moorfields, England, May 12, 1846. So as he spoke and how he wished, I hope that we can all come through the darkness into the light together. And this is what he said during that speech.

“Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree. It must die under it.

All the slaveholder asks of me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach in favor of slavery. He does not ask anyone to do that. He would not say that slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. The slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway shut down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will and having no one to reprove or rebuke him.

Slavery shrinks from the light. It hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its should be reproved. To tear off the mask from this abominable system, to expose it to the light of heaven, ay, to the heat of the sun, that it may burn and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to this country. I want the slaveholder surrounded as by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring down in letters of light.”

Thank you.”

END

My thanks to Isabella Bulkeley of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
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  1. George Santayana, “Reason in Common Sense,” Vol 1, 1905, P.284 ↩