Feb 2004
Hi Volks,
My hero, the greatest photographer of our time, is dead! Died in a car crash too which apparently ranks him along side Steve McQueen (according to one overcome obituary writer)! Anyway, I guess everyone in the game is gonna say something so I might as well put my tuppence worth in as well. There is of course, no "greatest photographer" but many very good photographers, and a few that somehow became virtually household names. Mr Newton´s work was done with an unwavering conviction and consummate skill, for a very long time and he rocked the establishment with his boldness like no other had done before, during, and maybe will be able to emulate in the future. Anyone that tries to do so will be spotted and dealt with forthwith! So there!
Remember the old adage:"A good photographer steals, but doesn´t copy". By that, I understand we can all take a lesson from a master, but don´t try to copy his or her work. Whatever you personally may think of his work, the point is: find the theme you are passionate about and don´t be wishy washy about it. This, curiously, is also the thinking behind the enormously successful Becher school of photography and their accolytes.
I´ve seen a number of HN´s shows and hope I can also get to Berlin to see something of the 1000 photos which he recently donated as a gesture of good will to the city of his birth (that he had to flee from before the outbreak of WW2). Less well known are his landscapes, which he turned to more and more in recent years saying he has had quite enough of naked women! I was lucky enough to see a private collection of very recent landscapes; darkly mysterious and almost unnervingly "erotic" (this is a stupid word by the way).
On the "home" front it´s winter (see the now obligatory winter landscape: a frozen lake shot near where I live), I´m flat out teaching again, and working towards the exhibition of the "Five Years Postcards To you Lot" with everything being translated into German (damn, they´re gonna find out what I´ve said about them...oops), and the usual dreadful weather which means the normally treacherous cobbled streets are now often covered by ice as well, and....err, just wanted to complain that I´ve fallen off my bike a few times too many now, but always on the left side maybe subconsciously defensive because the cameras are always on my right side???
Also from the "believe it or not" files: My 18 month old daughter has started taking photos! Not kidding (nice pun huh?). For months now she´s been toddling around with my Olympus mju, and when she´s not trying to brain Miss Daisy with it (that´s the cat), she holds it up to the middle of her face. Yesterday she discovered the magic silver button, so it was only fair that I showed her how to slide the cover open well, that was it. After poking the lens to make a nice smudgy soft focus effect she held it to her face and pushed the button. No doubt still dazed by the flash, but unfazed, she immediately turned it around the other way and trotted about blazing away. Ok, she´s just copying, and all kids do that...I know, but still...!
Tips for beginners next month?
Proud but worried Dad.