For Assignment 1: My Neighbourhood I chose to photograph my home town Grimsby/Cleethorpes, concentrating on the seaside resort. I found inspiration in a book that I read whilst studying for Photography 2: Landscape: Joel Meyerowitz's Cape Light and have continued to dip into it and have reread his interview with Bruce MacDonald. At the time I recoded my thoughts in my blog and have reproduced that blog entry here. I have also referred to the book in my self appraisal for Assignment 1:
http://mikespwdplearninglog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Assignment%201
When I first looked through this book my initial impression that these were not my taste in photography. At first they reminded me of a faded 70s look that I didn't appreciate. However, the more I looked through them the more I came to appreciate them. Not all have that faded look and many are in fact rich and saturated which is what I prefer. Some are sharp right through in the Ansel Adams mode whereas others are soft and pastel with a painterly feel to them, perhaps more reminiscent of the portraitists from the early years of the 20th century. When I visited Ansel Adams' exhibition in Greenwich 'Photography from the Mountains to the Sea' I was interested to see that a few of the images there were also taken at Cape Cod. In fact 'Churches', taken in Truro, Cape Cod reminded me very much of some Meyerowitz's images of clapboard buildings. In this book, I liked the way that he has taken several images of the same scene at different times of day and in different lighting. It is amazing how the view changes. One example of this is the Bay/Sky series taken on the beach at Provincetown. I also like the way that he has used longer exposures to introduce movement into some images such as Cocktail Party taken at Wellfleet where most of the figures have sight movement blue but the girl who seems to be the main focus of the shot has stood totally still and is pin sharp. Another example is the picture of washing drying on a Clothes line in Provincetown. It is obviously a windy day and, although everything else in the image is pin sharp the exposure was long enough to create movement blur in the washing.
In his forward to the book, Clifford S Ackley (associate curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) tells us that many of the images have a frankly poetic or romantic flavour. He goes on to say that Joel Meyerowitz explores the different light of Cape Cod and often took the same scene in different conditions. He tells us that he successfully made the jump from monochrome street photography to early colour landscapes. He also moved from 35mm to a large 8x10 field camera.
The book then moves on to record a conversation between Meyerowitz and Bruce MacDonald (Dean of the Museum School and a personal friend). In his brief introduction to this conversation (a format chosen rather than a more formal introduction) MacDonald says that all of Joel's work is characterised by a balance of craft and feeling. Craft includes deft manipulation of camera and darkroom equipment, interaction with subjects and aesthetic judgements about shape, colour, picture edge, sequencing and all the other aspects of seeing photographically. Feeling is the emotional response to experience. He says of Meyerowitz that he has the courage or fearlessness to allow the sensation of experience, especially visual experience, to flow through him at much higher amperage than most of us. He has become so sensitive that vision itself is now his subject.
At the beginning of the conversation between then, MacDonald explores Joel's early life and career. We learn of his Bronx upbringing and how his father taught him to box in order to be able to look after himself on the streets. He relates how this upbringing helped his early career as a street photographer. The conversation moves on to why Meyerowitz is now using colour and 8x10 format. He says that he wanted to see and experience more feelings from a photograph and he wanted larger images that would more fully describe things and with greater cohesion. Slow-speed colour film provided that. When asked what inspires him to take a photograph, he replies that it is instinctive. He suggests that sometimes he can be standing in front of something so entranced that he almost forgets to press the shutter until he tries to tear himself away. It's at that breakaway moment, when he wants to move with the camera that he realises; Stay! You're being spoken to - answer!"
MacDonald asks him about the difference between black and white and colour. Joel tells us that colour is responsive to the full spectrum of light, whereas black and white is sensitive to a much narrower wavelength, similar to the rods and cones in our eyes and why at night we only see in shades of black and grey but with a long enough exposure the camera will record all colours as seen in Project 27. He goes on to say that black and white expresses light as a matter of intensity; there is no meaning attached to the light. Colour makes everything more interesting and he even suggests that light itself is a subject. He tells us that his work on Cape Cod is about light. MacDonald suggests that compared to his monochrome work, these images have a simplicity. "Less is more", he says. The conversation regarding his inspiration continues and we learn that the images are all about colour, light and shapes and come from within. This is comparable with Adams' comment in Examples that "Professional work depends on assignments from without, whereas creative work stems from assignments from within." Another of Adams' comments concurs with Meyerowitz, when he says "I can only say that I photograph what appears aesthetically beautiful and what I can visualise as a photograph worth creating for myself and, I hope, for others." In other words Ansel Adams' work also comes from within. Joel also tells us that when he sees the image upside down on the ground glass focusing screen, he sees a different image and this inspires him to take the shot.
Meyerowitz is asked who influenced him. His first influence and the man who made him resign as an art director, buy a camera and go out on the streets was Robert Frank. He then mentions people he met on the streets of New York and worked alongside. People such as Lee Friedlander, Dianne Arbus and especially Garry Winogrand. He reserves special mention, though, for his meetings with Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Truly inspirational images and a fascinating read.
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