[LargeFormat] Camaraderie

[rstein]

David,

    I can understand your admiration for yourself as a photographer - I have
experienced much the same emotion after a superb evening in the darkroom.
That is an evening when there are more prints in the out tray that in the
plastic rubbish bin. When the box of 50 sheets of paper has not resulted in
200 test prints and a scream of frustration.

    But what I was really wondring was who inspired you. Ole Tjugen cited
some of the great artists as visual seed - and some of the great
photographers for their grasp of the chemical art. I was glad to see Julia
Cameron got a guernsey there in the end.

    For me I think it would be August Sander. I am continually enthralled by
his sheer artistry in delinieating his subject. I cannot say if it is
objective - I do not know enough of the personalities of most of his
subjects. But the tonal representation of classes and divisions of the
German people of his time are truly inspiring to me. Much of my costume work
tries to attain to this.

     For my money his portrait of the conditore at work with his bowl and
spoon is the greatest picture I have seen.

     I would second him with Arnold Newman. Different subjects - different
lighting. But devastatingly good.

    One thing both of these photographers were good at - they knew how to go
out and buy a road map and put it in the post. This was good....

     Uncle Dick