I was thinking about my trip to New York just before the bottom fell out.  I had gone on business but made time to visit the outstanding Dorothea Lange exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.  I wrote about it a little while back, but now it seems so long ago. At the time we were just talking about Covid-19, and not really doing anything about it.  The trains were packed and so were the streets and restaurants. It was a different time.

One of the things that struck me as I walked to my destinations was how many young film photographers were out and about making photographs with film. I didn’t bring a camera with me this time as the schedule was pretty compressed, but now I wished I had. The good news is that I was able to stop and chat with a few folks. Tim and the others I spoke with were truly committed to the black and white analog experience. They were all 35mm shooters, but that’s not surprising given the environment; they were using Leica rangefinders and small older SLRs like the Pentax.

What is surprising is that during my limited excursion I didn’t see one digital camera being used on the street. Not one! Warmed my heart. Now I know this is a very small sampling and most likely was an anomaly.  Still it was very encouraging and reinforced what I have heard about young people’s interest in film for all the right reasons we know.

Film will never be cheap again and neither will paper. Digital is just too convenient for most and that’s the problem. But we know that in the case of film, and especially black and white film, convenient just isn’t better.

Hey Tim, thanks for helping to keep film alive. Keep on doing what you’re doing and I hope you stay safe!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about staying safe and staying in touch.  Now I want to say a few words about staying safe and keep your head in the game. As horrible as the Covid-19 crisis is, we have to search for the silver linings that are presented by it. In my previous entry I discussed using the free time we have to maintain the important personal relationships we share, including those related to our photographic lives. But there is much more we can do to continue Living a Photographic Life.  I written about this before, but now more than ever we must not squander the time we have been given. What we have to do is keep our heads in the game and be a little bit more creative then we’ve been before!

In my case, I mainly make photographs of people out and about living their daily lives. Where I live we have been in lockdown for several weeks now, with no end in sight so scratch that off the list.  Even if I found some people walking around I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to make the types of photographs I like. You might have similar issues you are facing. So what to do? In short, I/we have to keep out our heads in the game. It’s a theme I have also written about before, but it is now more important than ever!

First, explore new ideas to make photographs in any safe way you can. Don’t feel you have to travel far or even leave your house.  Come to the realization that there is so much around you that is interesting if you are only open to it.  What else can you do?  Here’s a list of neat ideas I’ve discussed before and you won’t need to worry about social distancing!

1. If you have a darkroom develop your film that has been sitting around and make proof sheets.
2. Carefully examine your proof sheets and make prints of only the best images.
3. Go through your old proof sheets and make images of keepers you somehow missed. You might just be surprised at what you find and what you produce!
4. Read books about photographers.
5. Study monographs you own of your favorite photographers
6. Learn about photographers you aren’t familiar with online and buy some monographs via Amazon, online used bookstores, or eBay.
7. Utilize the Internet for interesting and useful forums, blogs and websites for good ideas.
8. Visit museums and galleries online for virtual photographic and painting exhibits.
9. Take a photographic workshop remotely with someone you respect that is supportive and will help you. There are also video tutorials that can be purchased and don’t forget about youtube.

What is important is that I/you keep trying to learn, be productive and to continue living a photographic life.  Do whatever it takes!  Everyone is different. I will do whatever I have to do to keep my head in the game.  Do whatever works for you to keep your head in the game to keep your photographic spark alive. Don’t not squander this opportunity we have been given!

Stay safe,

Michael

Just before things got out of control with Covid-19 I drove to Princeton with a friend to see the Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Exhibit at the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton. My friend isn’t a photographer but he was enticed – in part, because after the show and lunch, we would be heading over to the Princeton Record Exchange to hunt for vinyl (spoiler alert … he was really glad he saw the show!).

Now, like most things, the Princeton Art Museum is temporarily closed, but with any luck things will be better before the show is scheduled to end on June 21st. Perhaps it will be extended – I hope so!  I am writing this in the hope that those who can make it will be able to see this show because it’s truly worth the visit!

For all of us that grew up with Life Magazine and looked forward to its arrival in the mail every week, this is a must see.  I remember as a kid looking at all the great pictures and the accompanying text that made up Life’s fabulous photo essays. In 1972 Life went from weekly to monthly publication and ceased publication in 2000, except for some occasional special editions. I still miss it, but this exhibit provided a wonderful chance to relive some of those memories of the hours spent reading Life from cover to cover!  And it was exciting to view some of the famous work I had seen on those pages or had heard about, now in the form of beautiful silver gelatin prints.

Life’s stable of photographers was truly first class; here are some of the highlights. The first thing that struck me was seeing the cover of the 1936 inaugural issue of Life as a pictorial magazine (It had previously been a weekly humor publication that folded during the earlier part of the Depression. Henry Luce bought the name and re-launched the magazine.) was Margaret Bourke-White’s Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936. Side by side were the original cover and a beautiful silver gelatin print. Other famous silver gelatin prints on display included several of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s images made in China, Robert Capa’s Normandy Invasion on D-Day, Soldier Advancing Through the Surf, June 6, 1944,  (photographs made in China); Alfred Eisenstaedt’s VJ Day in Times Square, New York, 1945; J.R Everman’s Audience Watching Movie Wearing 3-D Spectacles, 1952; and Yousuf Karsh’s Winston Churchill, 1941.

Additionally on display were the silver gelatin prints and magazine print of some of Life’s most famous essays including Margaret Bourke-White’s Women in Steel, and Carl Maydan’s Lake Tule that depicted the lives of Japanese Americans in a California internment camp during World War II.

Also very special were silver gelatin prints and marked-up proof sheets for classic essays by Gordon Parks (Harlem Gang Leader) and Eugene Smith (Nurse Midwife).

What a great show! I feel so lucky to have been able to spend time reminiscing, seeing the iconic images as silver gelatin prints and studying the proof sheets to get an understanding of the what the photographers saw and their editors thought.

If it reopens, and it is at all possible, do try to see this wonderful exhibit. Highly recommended! If not, then consider getting the companion book, Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, edited by Katherine A. Bussard and Kristen Gresh.

Stay safe,

Michael

As we get further into the Covid-19 crisis, it’s absolutely clear to me that the most important thing we have are our relationships with our family and friends.  It goes without saying that maintaining our economic wellbeing and everything that goes along is essential, but what will sustain us emotionally in the days, week and perhaps months ahead are these indispensable relationships we have.  Even if the Monalog Collective I have been working to establish did not succeed for some strange reason (That won’t happen!!), the friendships I’ve established because of it will remain. And that matters more than anything. Then there are the members of my Photo Chat group that get together on a Sunday morning for coffee and to show prints, the students I’ve taught, the photographers I have met through workshops, events or get-togethers like Photo Arts Xchange, and finally, the photographers I’ve communicated with and met because of this humble website. None of these friendships can be taken away, whatever happens going forward.

As the virus progresses, I will work to maintain and grow these relationships. Next to the relationship I have with my family, these friendships will be one of the most important things that gets me through this.

In short, I am grateful for all the friends I have made in photography and for all that you have contributed to make my life better. And I am certain those contributions will continue throughout this trying time.

I urge you all to stay safe, and think about the relationships you have made through photography.  Reach out to your fellow photographers and stay in touch, now more then ever. You will be glad you did, and so will they.

Best wishes,

Michael

A couple of weeks ago I needed to go up to New York on business, so I decided while I was there I would make the most of it by visiting the Dorothea Lange exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. What was most interesting about the show was having the words that accompanied her photographs in newspapers, magazines, government reports, books and exhibitions presented alongside the black and white silver gelatin images themselves.

All the iconic pictures we know were present, including those capturing the pain and despair of Great Depression – White Angel, Breadline, San Francisco; Migrant Mother; and Woman of the High Plains, Texas Panhandle.  There were also environmental portraits, candid photographs, photographs of farmhouses and barns, urban architecture, roadside signs, and the lonely road and those traveling it. The Road West, New Mexico particularly struck me.

While many of the images and accompanying words were from her time photographing for US government Farm Security Administration, there was more. Other work funded by the government not only captured the impact of WWII on average Americans, but interestingly also depicted racism towards Japanese Americans during the war. This work is particularly relevant in today’s environment.  There also was great work from the famous 1955 Family of Man exhibit, other Fifties work done for magazines including important photographs depicting the state of Black life in America, some surprising intimate landscapes also done in the Fifties, family photographs made in the 1960s.

Although my guess is that Lange is mainly known for her Depression era work, she could really do it all and clearly did not want to limit herself to a particular genre. We can all certainly take a page from her wonderful body of work and not limit ourselves to the all the creative photographic opportunities that exist for us if we are only open to them.

Truly a wonderful show and highly recommended!  The exhibit runs through May 9^th, 2020.

After I attended the last year’s Photo Arts Xchange I started to think about what I could do to further support a vibrant black and white analog photography community. I already had my own website that focuses on my love of black and white film photography and the darkroom, but I wanted to do more, and I sensed that there would be others that shared my passion and felt the same way.

At the Photo Arts Xchange I met a number of outstanding photographers that worked exclusively with black and white film and used only traditional wet processes to realize their exceptional vision. I decided to reach out to them and other like minded photographers I knew that I thought would be receptive to the idea of creating a photographer’s collective who’s sole mission would be to “support black and white film photography and traditional printing processes”.

Now after months of discussion and hard work we are ready to make our efforts known. We have chosen to call our collective Monalog™, a new word derived from “monochrome” and “analog”.  We chose this because we don’t make color prints or incorporate anything digital in what we do … no scanning of negatives, no creation of “negatives” from digital files, and no digital printing of film negatives.  This having been said, our objective is not to make judgments about color or digital, but support what we use and care deeply about.

The founders of this collective make silver gelatin enlargements, contact prints on Lodima and Azo paper, platimum and albumen prints and prints using carbon transfer processes. They use 35mm and medium format rangefinders, medium format SLRs, and a range of wooden view cameras that produce images using 4×5, 8×10, 11×14, 8×20 or 14×17 inch negatives.  We all used different tools, films, chemistry and papers to create our art, but we share a love and unabiding commitment to black and white film and traditional printing processes.

Monalog was formed by six founding members: Mel Evans, Jim Fitzgerald, David Haas, Jim Kipfer, Michael Marks and Drew Wagner.  Our goal is to grow through membership of fellow “monalog” photographers that are dedicated to this wonderful medium and exhibit a high caliber of vision and adherence to their craft. We will also engage with others, individually and through collaborative activity, and support the industry that makes all this possible.

There is no other photographer’s collective like Monalog.

So please check out the Monalog Collective at www.monalogcollective.com. There you will find member galleries and information, an entertaining and informative blog and updates on news and events.

And if you wish to be part of our collective, Monalog welcomes a limited number of other like-minded photographers that wish to join us.

I look forward to this exciting journey together with you!

Recently I met up with my friend, his wife and their engaging 14-year-old daughter to give her some pointers for making photographs. She used an iPhone like most young adults her age. No surprise there, but no problem either. She was hungry to learn and listened carefully. We walked around Doylestown and she began to make photographs as I told her to look for things she would normally pass by without giving a thought, pointed out some interesting possibilities, gave her some ideas about framing the subject and talked about light.  All and all a very pleasant and rewarding afternoon!

One of the nicest gifts I’ve ever received was a hand written card that arrived in the mail, accompanied by a small color abstract image she made that day and later printed on her father’s printer. I was touched by the words she wrote and impressed by the image she made.  My new friend has since had become the proud owner of a film camera (care of her very thoughtful parents) and is making color and black and white photographs with … you guessed it … film!

It’s always nice to know you somehow made an impact on someone’s life, made all the more special when that person actually takes the time to thank you in a way not delivered by a text message.

I am excited about her enthusiasm, and look forward to the opportunity to photograph wither her again and see more of her work!