towards less obscure....
a book i took out of the library today (great photographers--a time-life book, published in 1971) says this about the photo to the right:'[clarence h.] white's preference for unassuming subjects is seen in this view of his home town, newark, ohio. with meticulous care, he creates a still life of geometric patterns, exaggerating the foreground for effect and cropping the width of the print to accentuate the tall, skinny telephone poles.'
ummm....for some reason, there still seems to be very little recognition of the obvious japonisme in photographs, even when they are readily acknowledged in woodblock prints.
clarence h. white learned his style from arthur wesley dow; while the japanese prints themselves were hitting europe, it was dow who brought the design philosophy to americans.
gertrude kasebier studied with dow as well, and, obviously, in the same place.
as did margaret jordan patterson.
isn't it fascinating to note that what is so obvious to many of us now could have been so obscure as recently as 1971.
there will be a lot more on this, some wonderful photos.
blueinall
Labels: arthur wesley dow, clarence h white, gertrude kasebier, hiroshige ando, margaret jordan patterson, photography
posted by lotusgreen at 7:04 PM
4 Comments:
You are right- never thought about that. I rather suspect that you have written or are writing a book on this elegant topic. You know altogether too much to be innocent of academia. :)
i like Margaret Jordan Patterson's works which prevailed in the quiet atmosphere not silence, the upper one reminds me the Irish landscape.
yeah, you said that before princess--i have harlequin a long response when he asked the same question and i'm going to try to find it for you....
i love her stuff too, hp, and it's interesting how so many places look like each other in these.
here it is:
to tell you the truth, there are several reasons why i would not want to do a book:
1. if it were to be published, someone would need to write to the owner of every single image to get written permission to reprint it. and usually that will cost money.
that alone is enough reason to not do it, in my opinion.
2. i am not a famous expert on this subject, so that is even more reason why no publisher would put out the money for the permissions, let alone to pay me something.
3. i think the fun might go out of it for me if someone were standing over my shoulder telling me how i should do it! that's what editors and publishers do! (i know. i was one ;^)
Post a Comment
hi, and thanks so much for stopping by. i spend all too much time thinking my own thoughts about this stuff, so please tell me yours. i thrive on the exchange!
<< Home