Notecards from Magnum
靜 [Photos] 2011. 10. 4. 13:16
Ellitott Erwitt's limited T-shirt and notecards of him(with his sigunature) and Robert Capa from Magnum
&
Vivian Maier's photography book
I recieved these packages together today.
Those notecard sets are given free due to delivery delay from Magnum.
&
Vivian Maier's photography book
I recieved these packages together today.
Those notecard sets are given free due to delivery delay from Magnum.
This package made my day today! :)
Vivian Maier's photos amazed me today although I know there are bunch of more fascinating images by her.
First I am surprised how she handled this TLR camera since the images from viewing screen are always reversed from right and left side. When I used my Rolleiord first time last month, it was not easy to frame what I want due to this revresed image on the screen.
Images of ladies in front of the Hotel Savoy gave me quite vintage style feeling of 60's or 70's probably. I can tell that her main subjects are people in the New York CIty, the New Yorkers although she took some photos of buildings and landscape of New York at her time. Senior couples with grey hairs wearing Boston style glasses and an old lady staring at her camera make me smile as well.
Working as a nanny basically let her do her basic needs for life but also allowed her to emersed her life into her photography world. This is an amazing story discovered by a young man living in Chicago who found bunch of films from auction. Her photographic works reveal normal New Yorkers life as well as her story.
When I look at the photos of herself taken in front of mirrors, I can imagine her characters/personalities which seems to be very opinionated and stubborn as well as artistic and warm-hearted inside. According to this book, Jeff Goldstein and his collegues who are developing her films and scanning them to digitize all the images into their archives stated "She dressed in oversized coats and broad-brimmed felt hats, and had a penchant for instilling wonder in the children she care for, presenting them, for instance, with dead snakes for their inspection, and accompanying them on adventures in the city." In my opinion, street photograph would be difficult to continue for a long time without passion about what one likes and affection about people.
It is also enjoyable to recognize the place where she might have been to from her photographic works. One day she probably walked along the Broadway down to lower manhattan district. Sometimes she was walking away from the main avenue to take the small street to take people's pictures pass by the Empire State Building as well as seen in this booklet.
In this book, they quoted Susan Sontag's statement, "every portrait of another person is a 'self-portrait' of the photographer." Then I see her portrait works as reflections of her own self. To me, all her images are kind of her avatars created inside her.
Susan Sontag's words are quite true to me since sometimes whenever I took other people's photos in the street, I discovered myself from the subjects based on universal chronicles of people's life. That way I found out more fundamental truth revealing from people's daily life. One of my photography friends told me that street photography is the starting point of entire photographic genres. Well, this could be a debatable point since street photography seems to me that it is kind of a documentary work.
This arguement can be possible since there is no limitations or any common rules on the street photography. I guess this type of photography is one of the most liberal artistic genres in history(many people may disagree).
A photographer, Chris Rainier said, "at some point photography becomes autobiographical. In order to create better photos, we need to go out and to develop who we are." His words stayed in my mind for a while and I think Vivian Maier is the one who best fit to this Chris' words.
Vivian Maier's photos amazed me today although I know there are bunch of more fascinating images by her.
First I am surprised how she handled this TLR camera since the images from viewing screen are always reversed from right and left side. When I used my Rolleiord first time last month, it was not easy to frame what I want due to this revresed image on the screen.
Images of ladies in front of the Hotel Savoy gave me quite vintage style feeling of 60's or 70's probably. I can tell that her main subjects are people in the New York CIty, the New Yorkers although she took some photos of buildings and landscape of New York at her time. Senior couples with grey hairs wearing Boston style glasses and an old lady staring at her camera make me smile as well.
Working as a nanny basically let her do her basic needs for life but also allowed her to emersed her life into her photography world. This is an amazing story discovered by a young man living in Chicago who found bunch of films from auction. Her photographic works reveal normal New Yorkers life as well as her story.
When I look at the photos of herself taken in front of mirrors, I can imagine her characters/personalities which seems to be very opinionated and stubborn as well as artistic and warm-hearted inside. According to this book, Jeff Goldstein and his collegues who are developing her films and scanning them to digitize all the images into their archives stated "She dressed in oversized coats and broad-brimmed felt hats, and had a penchant for instilling wonder in the children she care for, presenting them, for instance, with dead snakes for their inspection, and accompanying them on adventures in the city." In my opinion, street photograph would be difficult to continue for a long time without passion about what one likes and affection about people.
It is also enjoyable to recognize the place where she might have been to from her photographic works. One day she probably walked along the Broadway down to lower manhattan district. Sometimes she was walking away from the main avenue to take the small street to take people's pictures pass by the Empire State Building as well as seen in this booklet.
In this book, they quoted Susan Sontag's statement, "every portrait of another person is a 'self-portrait' of the photographer." Then I see her portrait works as reflections of her own self. To me, all her images are kind of her avatars created inside her.
Susan Sontag's words are quite true to me since sometimes whenever I took other people's photos in the street, I discovered myself from the subjects based on universal chronicles of people's life. That way I found out more fundamental truth revealing from people's daily life. One of my photography friends told me that street photography is the starting point of entire photographic genres. Well, this could be a debatable point since street photography seems to me that it is kind of a documentary work.
This arguement can be possible since there is no limitations or any common rules on the street photography. I guess this type of photography is one of the most liberal artistic genres in history(many people may disagree).
A photographer, Chris Rainier said, "at some point photography becomes autobiographical. In order to create better photos, we need to go out and to develop who we are." His words stayed in my mind for a while and I think Vivian Maier is the one who best fit to this Chris' words.
Now I am waiting for her main photobook to be released in the late November.
