Photography

It’s funny the coincidental concatenation of things. I bought a new camera recently and have since come across all manner of interesting photography tidbits.

Take for example an exhibition about to open at the Tate Modern called, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera. The exhibit focuses on what’s probably my favorite type of photography, “pictures made on the sly, without the explicit permission of the people depicted.” Some highlights:


New York (Couple Kissing, Girl Staring at Camera, Tortilla Factory), by Garry Winogrand, 1969


A young man called Amos Gexella looks back towards safety while perched on the sixth-floor balcony of a building in downtown Johannesburg, 4 August 1975. An estimated 2,000 onlookers yelled: "Jump! Jump!" Two hours later, Amos rolled off the parapet and fell to his death.


The master, Walker Evans, Street Scene, New York, 1928. But you can't talk about Evans and not mention what I consider his masterwork, Many Are Called.



Mandatory for anyone even remotely interested in photography.

Then I came across an article from The Guardian about Bruce Davidson and was blown away by the accompanying photograph.


'Beautiful Cathy was always there, always sad' ... the Brooklyn Gang. Photograph: Bruce Davidson/Steidl

But it just kept coming. In the mail I got the new Art Institute Member Magazine with an amazing Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph on the cover announcing an upcoming exhibition.



I could leave it at that, but I feel as if I was cheating if I didn't mention two of my favorite photography books that cover the same styles and themes, Weegee's World and Stanley Kubrick: Drama & Shadows: