Misha Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt is probably one of my favourite Magnum photographers. In recent years his pictures have been well very published -- Taschen and others have done some superb productions of his books and new and rarely seen work has come out in considerable quantity.

His austere B&W photos are often funny, charming, witty -- and always humane. There's virtually nothing he can't do with a camera. From the simplest, most classical composition -- like this, in which there is just a beautiful object (Pablo Casals' cello) and the careful rendition of light, tones and textures, the art that lies at the heart of B&W photography; to this, a smudged, slow, melancholy river-side moment in NYC -- Erwitt's pictures give immense pleasure.

Amongst his most famous -- and touching -- pictures must be this one of Lucienne, his first wife, with their daughter and a rescue cat in their Manhattan apartment.

There's a lovely article about it here written by Misha, Erwitt's son. And no, as Misha is at pains to emphasise, he is not the naked baby in the picture: that's his sister, Ellen.

This is family photography as public history.

And a quick update (15/09/11): I've just discovered a great Erwitt slideshow on the Time blog here. This is a lovely selection, the scans are good and there's a full screen feature (don't miss the button top-right like I did). But best of all the pictures have Erwitt's own gruff, laconic, no bullshit captions.

I never look at Erwitt pictures without coming away feeling slightly better and lighter of heart. How many photographers can you say that about?

Networking

Sometimes the overall mix of colours when photographing indoors -- clothes, lighting, complexions, furniture, decor -- can all serve to be a bit distracting. But B&W simplifies and takes away and can do an awful lot to make indoor photographs more elegant and 'timeless'. And sometimes less is more... I like this one a lot for its energy and expressions.

Dappled light

The late summer, with interesting stuff going on on the streets and lovely dappled light to take advantage of all seems an awful long time ago...

William Bloye

I've long been fascinated by some of the older civic buildings on Gt Charles Street -- such as the old Birmingham Chest Clinic. They have a sort of pea-souper, inter-war atmosphere about them.

I thought the relief work on the chest cliic might be Eric Gill, but it isn't -- it's by William Bloye, who was born in 1890 and died in Italy in 1975. But until that time, and especially in the 30s, 40s and 50s he was Birmingham's unofficial civic sculptor, working on an extraordinary range of civic and commercial commissions from his studio on Golden Hillock Rd in Balsall Heath.

And interestingly, he did study lettering under Eric Gill.

Anyway, this is how I see the chest clinic -- in grainy monochrome, the light failing. If I turn around I know that men will be hurrying past in trilbys and tightly belted overcoats, pre-war Austins and Humbers creeping along Charles St in the rush hour traffic.

Running man

In a swirl of silver thermal blankets and blazing late-autumn sunshine, the first runners in the half-marathon came home...

Breakfast conversation

This was taken at an event I photographed for a local voluntary organisation, but I liked the atmosphere and intimacy of it sufficiently to regard it as a 'personal' picture.

Pope's visit

They waited in gardens, on the pavement, and in upper storeys where the view would be better.


And they waited outside bars.


Some came in jubilation...


And some in anger...


And they came with messages...



All in all, it was one of the most curious events I think I have ever been present at.

We buy gold

Flogging our gold: it's something we may soon all have to resort to.

Time travel

At the tail-end of the summer I went again to the open day at the Museum Collection Centre. The nicest thing is that you get to travel there and back on an old bus. This one was a 1960s bus, I think. I suppose it would have been in service well into the1970s -- it's certainly how I remember bus travel being in the 70s.



On the day I went even the parked traffic seemed obligingly in character too.

Remembrance Day

I'm no great fan of the Remembrance Day set-pieces. Unless you've got a really good vantage point -- or access to the ceremony itself -- and good long lenses, they are very difficult to photograph. But what I like more and more is what happens before and after the event, the small things going on in the margins as people prepare or as they leave....

Is it art?

I think it is. I'm catching up with some long-stockpiled film which has just been processed. This was in September and I rather think it was some kind of street performance as part of ArtsFest.

Or maybe it was one of those strange glitches when people forget that they are out to shop and slip into a dream state?

Matchgirl

I love this. She almost was a real, live matchgirl -- except what she was selling happened to be street art, handmade silkscreen prints taken, I imagine, from Indian designs.

Anyway, it has a lovely, slightly out of kilter feel to it -- simple, but on the other hand puzzling.



And then once you start to look, street art seems to be all around you...

Memento mori

I was walking through the Jewellery Qtr one Sunday morning. This looked like a pre-prepared religious allegory, a memento mori.

Polish Prayers

Taken some while ago at a Polish Community Centre where everyone was very welcoming and patient -- even when I somewhat mistakenly (in retrospect) carried on photographing as prayers were said.

Another from the same event -- song sheets are handed out for guests to sing traditional Polish folk songs and hymns.

The Big Pride

Another from a few months back -- Pride in the rain...again. I love photographing at Pride and the chance juxtapositions that happen on its fringes. The rain adds a different atmosphere.

Voja Mitrovic, Printer to the Greats

There is a great two-post article by Peter Turnley on The Online Photographer website about Voja Mitrovic ('Voya'), master B&W printer to many of Magnum's photographers, including Cartier-Bresson. If you ever wondered what role printing plays in the production of photographic masterpieces, and why -- and how -- some people can coax finer images out of a photographic negative than others, then wonder no more, just read the article.

Part 1
Part 2

Expressions – again

Hat girl

I remember when this was. There was a Latin American festival just starting and I was attracted by this hat stall and hung around photographing for quite a while, hoping something might fall into place. This exchange, the fleeting gracefulness of the young woman's gesture, can hardly have taken more than a fraction of a second. But the strange thing is, I have no recollection of taking this picture specifically.

Maybe I didn't. Gueorgui Pinkhassov, the wonderful Magnum photographer, has said:

Good photos have come when I least controlled the situation. The process reminds me more of fishing than it does of shooting. I look through the lens; I create my composition – banal, boring. Get tired, get distracted – click and success. As though the photographic angels, upon whom it all depends, had begged, 'Don't look through the lens, let us work in peace.' Sometimes I have not even recognized my own photographs.

I love a man in uniform

It was so wet I could hardly see to focus. When I saw this scene taking shape I heard an almost audible click in my head as I saw the centurions move into just the position that would reveal the further one's face, accentuate the shape and rhythm of their helmets, and catch the onlookers' expressions. Sometimes it's like that -- you know it's going to work for you. But mostly it isn't...

Spring was in the air....

Certainly for this woman, who broke into a joyful, impromptu dance as some busking musicians played Balkan folk music.

Sunday drinkers

A bitterly cold morning at the tail-end of last winter. This Eastern European couple were keeping warm in proven, time-honoured fashion...

I quite often photograph at charities and voluntary organisations. Here's two of my favourites from a set that I took at St Paul's Community Trust, who were fantastic in letting me wander about everywhere and take pictures during their thirtieth anniversary event.

Splinter Cell

Sometimes these juxtapositions work, sometimes not. But whenever you see them, trying is irresistible -- maybe the Gods of timing and synchronicity will smile.

England's Glory

Colour cool/colour hot

An empty Bridget Riley exhibition -- still, calm, meditative; and the clash of colour, shapes and motion on the street -- an energy drink company vying for the attention of punters.




There's a wonderful sequence of photos here taken for the British Council, which includes pictures of Riley in the mid-60s. It's not difficult to see why she was such a captivating figure -- tousled, gamine, intellectual... This one especially.