John Collier,Jr

Abstract

After sending off a portfolio of his pictures to the headquarters of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, DC, John Collier, Jr, became so preoccupied with just trying to survive in photography that he forgot about his submission. As weeks turned into months, he bounced from one photography job to another. Collier felt that he had hit rock bottom in 1941 working as a printer for Gabriel Milan's, ‘a very cut-throat photography company in San Francisco’. Then one day his labour in the laboratory was interrupted by a telephone call from Washington. ‘I was called out of my little dungeon where I was tinting goldtoned baby portraits and picked up the phone and couldn't hear what the man said, having a life-long hearing difficulty’. Collier handed the receiver over to the nearest person, who happened to be his boss, to relay the message. ‘There's a crazy guy in Washington, DC, who wants to pay you $2,300 a year. You'd better take it because I'm going to fire you’. A shocked and elated Collier took the receiver, and confirmed his acceptance with a simple ‘Yes’. Although Collier did not hear anything that Roy Stryker, Head of the Historic Section, said in reply, he immediately prepared to leave for the nation's capital, and became what turned out to be the last photographer hired for the greatest documentary project the world has ever known. ‘This was the climax of the concern that I had to do something about direct analysis and observation, about what was going on around me at the time of the Great Depression’. ¹     

Lewis Hine

Abstract

‘I'm afraid, Mr Hine, that you haven't the broad sociological background required,’ said a distinguished adviser when Lewis W. Hine announced his decision to give up teaching at the Ethical Culture School and set up as a ‘social’ photographer. ‘Nonsense,’ retorted Arthur Kellogg, ‘it's wonderful to find a photographer who has any sociological background’.     

Harry Callahan

Abstract

In a fellowship application addressed to New York's Museum of Modern Art at the end of January 1946, Harry Callahan wrote:

My project could only be to photograph as I felt and desired; to regulate a pleasant form of living; to get up in the morning — free, to feel the trees, the grass, the water, sky or buildings, people — everything that affects us; and to photograph that which I saw and have always felt. This, I know, is not a definite project because life itself is not definite, but it could be the part of a lifetime project to help keep photography alive for me and with the hope that it would be alive for someone else.¹     

The London Diorama

Abstract

A Month in London, or Some of its Modern Wonder described¹ is as evocative a title for a book as one could wish for, and when I saw it was dated 1832, it was irresistible. It turned out to be a piece of thinly disguised fiction, so beloved in that age which felt that serious instruction, particularly for the young, must be sugar coated. An American tourist treats two young English relatives to a month's sightseeing in London. A chance acquaintance, named Mr Finsbury (and, most appropriately, living there), appears before the end of the Introduction, and volunteers to take them on the rounds. One particular adventure starts with a ride on George Shillibeer's three-horse Omnibus.     

Danny Lyon's family album

Abstract

The modest appearance of I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt: A Child's Journey Back in Space and Time (1989), by Danny Lyon belies its true portent.¹ As an experimental photo story, developed from purely photographic models, this book opens up whole new horizons.     

Early scottish photographic exhibitions

Abstract

There is that nerve-shredding time after the finalization of a text before, and immediately after, publication, when the author wonders what new photographs, correspondence, or other invaluable materials will rise up from unknown sources to mock his or her temporary certainties. So far, no one has yet come forward with another print of Camille Silvy's River Scene, France, or La Vallée de l'Huisne, from 1858 to disturb the (admittedly open) conclusions of my book on the photograph.¹ There is, however, new material to add. Pointed in the right direction by Sara Stevenson of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, I recently read some fascinating documents in the Scottish Record Office. Deposited on indefinite loan there by the Edinburgh Photo graphic Society in 1979 are the papers of the Photographic Society of Scotland (founded 1856, dissolved 1873). Bundies of hundreds of letters, invoices, and other papers document some of the early Edinburgh exhibitions more amply and significantly than any other photographic exhibitions of the time, so far as I am aware.² I concentrate here on the exhibition held in the Winter of 1858/59, at which Silvy's River Scene, France (1858) was first shown.     

Alfred Stieglitz's apples

Abstract

I have long been astonished by the silliness of Stieglitz's photographs of women with apples, despite the desperate attempts to suggest that somehow they prove him as American as apple pie. Coming across Erika and Fritz Kempe's Die Kunst der Camera im Jugendstil (Frankfurt: Umschau 1986), an excellent piece of pictorialist sourcehunting, I suddenly realized from Theodor and Oskar Hofmeister's ‘Apfelemte’ (1897) that Stieglitz was drawing upon a stock subject from German genre painting (see pl. 129). The inanities of O'Keeffe with a basket of apples next to her head and Engelhard awkwardly clutching apples to her body are just two attempts by Stieglitz to submit the two Georgias to generic fantasy.     

Reviews

Harry Woolf, ed.: Science as a Cultural Force. Schumacher, Joseph: Antike Medizin. Die naturphilosophischen Grundlagen der Medizin in der griechischen Antike. H. Grégoire, Le Livre de I'Occident.     

LES EMPLOYES A I'HEURE DE LA RATIONALISATION

L'auteur présente ici quelques résultats d'une étude sociologique effectuée auprés du personnel d'un important établissement administratif, profondément engagé dans I'application des principes d'organisation scientifique du travail. Un des objectifs de cette recherche était de déterminer dans quelle mesure la rationalisation du travail administratif modifie les attitudes et les comportements au travail traditionnels en milieu ?employé ? Sont successivement analysés les attitudes du personnel à l' égard du travail, de 1'autorité, de la promotion, ainsi que le mode de relation avec l'organisation et la façon dont est perçu le s-tatut de la profession.

L'organisation sur laquelle porte I' étude est fortement centralisée. La direction manifeste un souci marqué de se situcr a l' ávant-garde, tant sur le plan de la technique administrative que sur celui des pratiques de ?relations humaines?. La plupart des employés sont affectés á des tâches simples, répétitives, dont I'exécution ne laisse pas de place à I'initiative. Les possibilités de promotion sont limitées, mais une complète séé;curite est assurée au personnel sur tous les plans. En dépit d'une apparente satisfaction, ces employés (en majorité feminins et agés de moins de trente-cinq ans) se montrent peu intégrés à I'organisation : ils ont tendance à dévaloriser la plupart des aspects de la vie professionnelle auxquels les travailleurs non-manuels se montrent traditionnellement attachés (les relations hiérarchiques, la promotion, le statut de la profession) et à se désintéresser de tout se qui ne concerne pas la stricte exécution du travail quotidien (fonctionnement et vie de 'entreprise aussi bien qu' activités syndicates). Leur adaptation, de type ? apathique ?, n'est pas sans rappeler celle que I'on a I'habitude d'observer en usine parmi les catégories d'ouvriers peu qualifiés.

Ce mode d'adaptation du personnel crée des problèmes au niveau de l'entreprise clle-même: la capacité d'adaptation au changement que I'révolution technologique requiert de plus en plus des organisations se trouve directement affectée par une attitude générate de non-participation du personnel; la cooperation de celui-ci est en effet indispensable au succés des réorganisations de complexité et d'ampleur sans cesse accrues auxquelles les entreprises sont amenées à procéder à un rythme accéiéré par rapport au passé.

I semble que les effets négatifs sur le personnel auxquels la rationalisation donne le plus souvent lieu, soient davantage imputables au rôle assigné à l'individu, au mode de relation qu'on lui impose avec son travail comme avec son entourage et I'ensemble de I'organisation, qu'à I'évolution technologique en soi.

Le problème de l'apathie ne peut être résolu que dans la mesure o[ugrave]une double action est entreprise au niveau de l'organisation et au niveau des hommes. Des structures nouvelles doivent être mises en place, qui permettent de réintroduce une intérddpendance des fonctions et des invididus (job-enlargment) et de confier aux subordonnés une partie des responsabilités habituellement concentrées sur l'encadrement. Dans le mêae temps, une action continue de formation et de perfectionnement doit être entreprise afin que les hommes soient en mesure d'assumer ces responsabilites     

The Dysfunctional Leica

Abstract

Winding up the estate of somebody is a sad task, only sustained by the hope of unexpected finds or definitive proof of one's preconceived opinions. There is no difference in this between one's own grandmother and a contemporary like Lucia Moholy. While executing this task I naturally came across various documents that shifted my vague assumptions about this versatile woman in different directions. I saw photographs from her private life that enlightened me about her social relations but, in the end, I was disappointed at not havlng been able to get closer to a person I thought I knew quite well, even if from a certain distance.¹     

Walker Evans' American Photographs

Abstract

It is an article of faith among photographers and scholars that Walker Evans' American Photographs is a sequence of pictures rather than a simple collection or anthology; that is to say that the photographs should be looked at in the order in which they are given. Indeed the book is often spoken of as innovative and influential in precisely that respect (among others). Some years ago I set out to learn more about the origin of Evans' sequence in the context of a broader investigation of American Photographs.¹ That study (which remained unpublished) has now been superseded in many ways by Alan Trachtenberg's insightful discussion in the book Reading American Photographs, which appeared in 1989.² Nevertheless some of my original material remains useful and I offer it here largely intact, with only a small number of revisions and additions.     

Calotype portraits of Elizabeth Rigby by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

Abstract

Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake, is described in the Dictionary of National Biography as a ‘typical English “grande dame”, serene and easy in manner, intellectual and courageous, impervious to bores, highly esteemed, and looked up to in the best society in London’¹. Wife of Sir Charles Eastlake, artist, connoisseur, and Director of the National Gallery in London, she is remembered by posterity primarily as her husband's companion and confidante. Elizabeth's own accomplishments were considerable, however, and she had established a reputation as a formidable blue-stocking before she married Eastlake at the age of 39.     

Talbot's broom and Swift's broomstick

Abstract

In 1986 I made an attempt to interpret Talbot's famous picture, The Open Door (1844) as emblematic of Reason (the bridle of the passions), Truth (the lantern of illumination), and Spirit (the broom that sweeps the threshold clean).¹ More recently, I was stimulated by Larry Schaafs account of the variants of the image to think a little further on the subject.² The earlier version of 1841, which is without bridle or lantern and with a more worn-looking broomstick than the one in The Open Door, was given the title of The Soliloquy of the Broom by Talbot's mother, Lady Elisabeth. Following her suggestion, The Open Door might be retitled ‘The Colloquy of the Broom with the Bridle and the Lantern’. To do this would leave the picture where it probably most properly belongs — in the emblematic tradition.     

Brothers' group photograph

Abstract

One of the earliest examples of a composite print of a group was made by 0. G. Rejlander. In a lecture to the South London Photographic Society in 1863 he explained:

My first attempt at ‘double printing’ as some call it, was exhibited in London in 1855. It was named in the catalogue Groupe Printed from Three Negatives. That plan I hit upon through sheer vexation, because I could not get a gentleman's figure in focus, though he was close behind a sofa on which two ladies were seated.¹     

Reminiscence of a teacher and a researcher

Abstract

The names of previous after-dinner speakers at this conference read like a Who is Who of Quantum Optics and Photonics research. When the organizers of this conference asked me to present an after-dinner talk I felt honored by the invitation, but also humbled by joining such a distinguished company. This fact gives me a “Leitmotiv” for my present talk, because being humbled by, and feeling inferior to, all the brilliant minds one encounters in one's career is a necessary occurrence, which most of the younger listeners in this audience have either experienced or will experience. I have witnessed these feelings as advisor to students at MIT. Many of them fear that everything worth doing has already been done. There is a simple answer to this. Do not get discouraged, work harder and you will also make a respectable contribution to science or engineering.     

“Optimizing the Interaction Between the Food and Drug Administration and the Industry” The Need for Cooperation for the “Public Good”

Abstract

It is a pleasure for me to be a speaker at this conference, to share the podium with a friend and former colleague, Merve Schumate, of the FDA and also to have the opportunity to appear for the first time with Dr. Parariello of Wyeth Laboratories. The title for this morning's session, “Optimizing the Interaction Between the Food and Drug Administration and the Industry”, is an interesting one. As I was preparing my remarks, I wondered if they would be different if I was giving this talk to an FDA seminar at the agency or at the Public Citizen Litigation Group, Nader's organization. If I was talking to Dr. Sidney Wolf of the Litigation Group, I m sure that his optimization plan between FDA and the Industry would be tied to the concept of having open files, everything in writing and memoranda for all meetings. I feel fairly certain that Dr. Wolf would wish to have the opportunity to have either himself or one of his colleagues attend any of the meetings that they thought worthy of their time and effort. Now if I was an FDA reviewer and was talking about optimizing the interaction, I would see Industry representatives submitting well researched NDA files and supplements. These Industry representives would quickly understand and appreciate the wisdom of my request for additional studies, more data for the NDA, and the use of certain terms and concepts in relationship to labeling and promotional activities. They would find my suggestion of a patient package insert to be extremely helpful. On the other hand, if I were to become one of Dr. Papariello's researchers, I'm sure that I would see optimization of the system occur when my explanation to the FDA reviewer was quickly understood, all my views on the relationship of the data to the study submitted were accepted without question, and the agency looked most favorably on everything that was submitted to support the application.     

A non-linear transmission of Euclid's Elements in a medieval Hebrew calendrical treatise

In this article I present the unique partial transmission of Euclid's Elements in the medieval Hebrew calendrical treatise Yesod 'Olam (The Foundation of the World), which was composed by Isaac Israeli in 14th-century Toledo. After a short introduction of Yesod 'Olam, I discuss the role of mathematics, as understood by Israeli, in the study of astronomy and the Jewish calendar. I then provide a mapping of the Elements found in Yesod 'Olam and demonstrate Israeli's peculiar rendition of this seminal Greek work through four examples. Finally, I show that Israeli's transmission of the Elements is lexically independent of earlier known Hebrew versions of the text.     

The Magna Brava exhibition and symposium

Abstract

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is a distinctive building, very much an architectural punctuation mark in the neo-classical symmetry of Edinburgh' s eighteenthcentury New Town. The top two floors of the red sandstone gothic fantasy, designed in 1890 by the prolific Edinburgh architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, house a comprehensive collection built up by gift and purchase over more than a century. It has some of the most familiar Scottish portraits in the world: Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth; Sir Walter Scott by Raeburn; Prince Charles Edward Stuart by Antonio David and works by Van Dyck and Gainsborough. Modern artists such as Avigdor Arikha, David Mach, Stephen Conroy and John Bellany also feature significantly in capturing the faces of Scots who have played eminent roles in every major area of the country's history.     

Eduard Steichen and Maurice Maeterlinck

Abstract

Eduard Steichen (1879-1973) met the Belgian Symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck in 1901, when Steichen was in Europe. Steichen's goal there was to photograph painters and writers whom he personally admired,¹ including Maeterlinck whom Steichen photographed in 1901. Maeterlinck attended Steichen's first one-man exhibition at Maison des Artistes in 1902 and looked favourably on the young artist's work. Maeterlinck and Steichen discussed photography at the time. Steichen thought that Maeterlinck's comments were ‘more considered than any [he] had heard before’ and ‘wondered whether he would put down some of his thoughts’² to be included with reproductions of Steichen's photographs in Camera Work. Steichen felt emphatically that his best photographs should be reproduced with Maeterlinck's statement, and he told Alfred Stieglitz as much.³ The connection between Maeterlinck and Steichen has not gone unnoticed     

The composite image

Abstract

Some studies of art have the power to take the reader down a strange and unfamiliar road from which, on looking back, the whole history of art is seen from a new and revealing point of view. Others are merely useful compilations of information about a particular subject which are good to have if no other studies exist, but otherwise not note~orthy. An example of the former is William M. Ivins, Jr's, Prints and Visual Communication. An example of the latter is, I regret to say, Dawn Ades' Photomontage.