in Street Photography Workshop

Venice & Verona ( ITALY )

A Secret Tradition

Come explore the sun drenched side streets of Venice & Verona in a truly unique photography workshop.  We will retrace the footsteps of the “Grand Tour” which was the foundation for any serious artist in the last three hundred years.   During these formative trips painters like John Singer Sargent mastered Design, Composition, and Light to transform everyday street scenes into masterful works of Art.

Discover the ins and outs of Venice's back alleyways. © Adam Marelli

You and your camera will be led on a guided exploration to learn “How to See like a Master Artist.”  Many of the design principles were reserved for serious artists and are never taught in photography programs.  But in this special (5) day workshop, you will learn the secrets of Classical Design that pioneers like Henrì Cartier-Bresson inherited from drawing, to revolutionize the world of Photography.

© Adam Marelli

Who is Invited

The Venice & Verona workshop is open to all levels of photographers from beginner to professional.  Since the Classical Design is rarely taught, everyone will start at the same level.  We do ask that you are familiar with the basic functions of your camera so you can take full advantage of the teaching.

La Fenice, Venice's famous opera house which has burned down three times. Here is is alive on a quiet evening. © Adam Marelli

Schedule

Over the course of (5) days there will be progressive lectures and slide presentations to highlight the pinnacles of design in Art and Photography in an easy to follow format.  By comparing the traditions of Painting and Photography you will uncover a the shared language of design used for centuries to carve these magnificent cities.

Day 1- 2 (Sept 17-19), Venice: Design Presentations, Street Shooting, Lunch, Critiques and stops at my favorite Venetian restaurants and coffee shops.  We will depart via train for Verona, which is only a quick (1 hour) train ride from Venice.

Day 3-5 (Sept 19-22), Verona:  For a change of scenery we will switch from canals to a city with Roman and Medieval roots.  The Arena, castles and a whole to architectural setting will allow you to practice the the techniques taught during lecture.  Lunches and snacks will be included to keep the fuel going all day long.

Master Low Light techniques. © Adam Marelli

What Will You Learn

I believe that workshop attendees should walk away with tangible skills that can be used for evaluating their work.  It goes without say that we will have a fantastic time, but I believe it is more important that your photography becomes significantly better than when we started.  Having taught many of these techniques private to students over the years, I am 100% confident that YOUR pictures will never be the same.

After this workshop you will know:

• The Foundations of Dynamic Symmetry 
• Learn how to Master the format of a 35mm Sensor 
• How to “Set a Scene” by using light and architecture to your advantage
• Introduction to techniques to Spot a photo before it happens
• Basic Principles of Figure to Ground Relationships
• Learn the language of Design, hardly taught to photographers
• How to critique the formal qualities of any image
• How to generalize a scene and See like an Artist
• Learn common mistakes that plague many photographers and simples ways to avoid them
• “Are you using the right lens?” Discover which focal lengths are best suited to your style.

Join us at some of my favorite restaurants in Venice. When I hear people say the food in Venice is bad, all that means, is they do not know where to go. © Adam Marelli

Cost

The cost for the workshop, 5 days of design lectures, lunch and cappuccinos (for refueling along the way) is $1,995.

We can make suggestions for hotels and transportation to and from Venice.

Register Now…

via email to Adam@adammarelliphoto.com

Your Fearless Leaders

Adam Marelli

Artist & photographer, Adam Marelli is based in New York City.  His projects explore the ancient crafts of building, maestros in their workshops, and designs handed down through generations.  Whether he is photographing a master carpenter, dodging fish at a local market, or at the drafting table, he is in constant search of the threads which bind our cultures together.

When he noticed a shortage of design instruction geared towards photographers, he opened the doors of his studio, where he teaches the lost lessons of Classical Design.  The success of his methods saw him named as the Leica Akademie’s Resident Photographer in New York City.  His advice is regularly featured in the “Ask the Contractor” column in the New York Times, he was a lecturer at New York University, and continues to pursue projects at home and abroad.  His writings on photography appear on Forbes, The Gothamist, & Phaidon Press.  Invisible Exports gallery represents his work in New York City.

Take advantage of Adam’s unique perspective on photography and travel on the workshop of your choice.  See why he believes that Success is not Accidental.

Eric Kim

Eric Kim is an international street photographer from Los Angeles with a passion in interacting with his subjects, especially getting close to them. He travels all around the world and teaches street photography workshops to passionate shooters. He has had exhibitions at the Leica store in Korea, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne and in Cambodia and Downtown LA.

Eric is currently an instructor at UC Riverside and is teaching a university-level course titled: “All the World’s a Stage: An Introduction to Street Photography”. His past workshops include locations such as Switzerland, Beirut, Seoul, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Sydney, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Stockholm, and Berlin.

You can see Eric’s work on his website.

My psychologist tells me I should be more accepting of compliments and give the self deprecating humor a rest.  I was very happy to see that my comments on the Leica-M Monochrom were quoted on Forbes.  I did get a chuckle when they referred to me as “renowned.”  Oh well, you take the compliments when you can get them. : )

Is the camera you own a test of your sanity? Image from DP Review

They could hardly care about the details of the camera, rather they are primarily concerned with interesting marketing/product strategies.  As much as the forums are lit up with every conceivable complaint, I think the M-Monochrom is a stroke of brilliance.  It is a highly specialized product that will be of profound interest to a handful of photographers around the world.  I BET that in the next year, we will see other camera companies doing the same thing, because a BW only camera has its advantages.  At the moment Leica is the on the forefront.  Sure other companies have developed BW sensors, but none have such a dedicated bunch of BW shooters who are willing to pay the sticker price.  See theForbes article about the Leica M-Monochrom here.

Top view of the Leica M-Monochrom & 50mm APO-Summicron.

Did Leica Just Release a Camera That Can Only Take Black-and-White Photos?

Now here’s a new product introduction that is both gutsy andmakes a world of sense. Germany’s Leica Camera AG has just released the M Monochrom, a black-and-white only version of its M9 digital rangefinder camera. It’s the only such camera on the market. At first blush you might think there’s a good reason. Why would anyone plunk down $8,000 for a color-blind camera when any smartphone can take pictures that can easily be converted into monochrome? And you would be right be right: about 99.9% of mankind have no use for such a thing.

But, as in many other categories, people with specialized needs or desires are willing to pay a massive premium for a product that excels in a highly specialized way. People who buy Leica fit that bill (once you subtract certain hipsters, midlife-crisers and trophy wives who buy Leicas as expensive necklaces). Leica photographers are more likely to shoot in black and white, or at night. They are also obsessive about sharpness. Now consider that a black and white sensor can deliver 100% sharper images and minimal image noise up to ISO 10,000, and you have the perfect camera for exactly these purposes.

As renowned Leica photographer Adam Marelli puts it:

The M-Monochrom is a specialized solution to a certain set of photographic problems.  If a tool only has to do two or three things, it gives it a huge advantage over is competition.  I expect the experience of using the camera to be very agreeable.  It will end the conflict of “should it be a color picture or a BW?”  Problem solved, its black and white.  One less thing to think about.

At ISO 10,000 you can take a picture in candle light that will easily rival Delta 3200 film pushed a stop or two.  This is a huge bonus.  And as a professional, if you sell a single image in a gallery with the camera the it pays for itself.

Because it is so unique, the Leica M Monochrom will receive a ton of attention from photo buffs and in the photography-related media – advertising not just itself but the entire company. Case in point: as of this writing, Leica’s Web sitetook minutes to load (on a 50mbps line) because of massive traffic.

What at first seemed like a hare-brained scheme turns out to be a brilliant new product idea. Sometimes, it pays to zig when others zag.

The new Leica Monochrom, all black finish and the 50mm APO-Summicron lens.

The Big Announcement

Leica finally made their announcements and in the wake of hysteria, the crowds are already protesting.  A BW only camera?  Why would a company go through all the technical hoops of releasing a camera that has one primary function?  See what Forbes Magazine things of the Leica Monochrom.

The reason is Leica does not need to appeal to everyone.  In fact, they hardly have to appeal to any large number of photographers.  The majority of the camera buying market does not use rangefinders, can’t imagine life without auto focus, and is busy learning how to edit videos because now their clients expect them to be cinematographers.  The audience asked for more features and every other camera company (in the 35mm world) has answered.  Now, Photo-Expos around the world are filled with talks on “How to market video to clients.”  What a colossal mistake!

Leica Monochrom rear view.

I don’t know where this went off course, but I like photography because it presents two simple challenges:

• Create a 2D image that reads as strongly or stronger than its 3D original.
• Take a moving scene and distill it into a still image without loosing any of the action.

Notice that “color” is not a prerequisite for my concerns with a photograph.  If you can create a Powerful and Active image, color is inconsequential.  Monochrom is an exercise in understanding value.

You will have to decide if the Monochrom is worth it to you. Oh the sleepless nights to come...

Is it worth it? 

After buying an M9, people would come up and ask me, “…so, is it worth it?”  My response was, for me it was worth it, for you, “I don’t know.”  An $8,000 enthusiasts camera may not be worth it, depending on your resources.  But if you are into many of the additional hobbies that I run across in the Leica world such as cars, boats, planes, really expensive travel, and watches, then $8K is a drop in the bucket.  Of all the expensive hobbies, Leica is still relative cheap.

If however you a 19 year old college student with the prospect of $100,000 of student loans facing you, then the Leica Monochrom would not be the best choice for you.  First, I would say that limitations to artists are useful.  Learn on an M6 with BW film and you will eventually be better photographer.  Anyone I knew in school, who could go out and buy exactly what they needed for their craft usually produced garbage.  Innovative solutions are born through economy and resourcefulness.  Years later, after the student loans have died down and an artist has made the very best they could with very little, it becomes time to step up the gear.

The sensor will be a specialized solution to the black and white photographers needs.

From Leica’s Point of View

If Leica can sell out a camera for $8k, why would they sell it at $4K?  Surely they could sell more cameras at $4K, but who knows if they want to produce that many cameras.  They balance cost to production in a way that keeps people fiending for their equipment.  Its brilliant.  No camera company has such a fanatical following of lovers and haters.  It reminds me of the old statistics they used to run on Howard Stern.  I cant recall the exact numbers, but people who hated him actually listened longer because they wanted to hear what he would say next.  Its quite amusing.

So Why BW Only

The M-Monochrom is a specialized solution to a certain set of photographic problems.  If a tool only has to do two or three things, it gives it a huge advantage over is competition.  I expect the experience of using the camera to be very agreeable.  It will end the conflict of “should it be a color picture or a BW?”  Problem solved, its black and white.  One less thing to think about.

At ISO 10,000 you can take a picture in candle light that will easily rival Delta 3200 film pushed a stop or two.  This is a huge bonus.  And as a professional, if you sell a single image in a gallery with the camera the it pays for itself.

And all of those BW filters will finally get some digital use again.  For anyone who shot film they understand that no amount of post production can equal the use of a filter.  I can’t wait to put an orange filter on a Monochrom and see how far the image can be pushed.

The screen could still use some attention, but I imagine it will be addressed on the M10 or the M-1 Monochrom

What could have been fixed?

There are three things I would have changed about the M Monochrom.

1. BODY SIZE:  Leica should make an effort to return to the size of the Leica MP.  The added height of the M6ttl and M7 are not needed and the added thickness of the digital M’s would not be missed.
2. SHUTTER RELEASE:  The shutter should feel like a film camera.  I would pose a challenge to Leica since they are a talented bunch of engineers.  Make the shutter feel like the film cameras and deaden the sound of the curtain to be at least as quiet is the film cameras.  When you consider that a few years ago there were piles of “experts” on forums explaining why a digital M would be impossible, you can see that the realm of possibility is broader than expected.  A quieter shutter and smoother release would be heavenly.
3. LCD SCREEN:  No one buys a Ferrari and then outfits it with tires from a garage station.  There is a certain level of quality that exists with me M Cameras and the screen is a generation or two behind the curve.  It would be great if the next screens could be retro fitted to the older bodies.  I would not even care if Leica wanted to charge $1000 to make the swap.

The ideal camera for me is one which remains in the same outer shell because the human hand is not scheduled for a re-design anytime soon.  But what needs to change are the components.  If Leica continues to make bodies in the M idiom, it will be very useful if things like the sensors and screens can be swapped out.  Will they do that?  I would not hold my breath, but when I had a chance to meet with some of the German Leica team last year, they asked for my thoughts.  So why not let them know?

The Monochrom makes sense to me, but the 50mm APO-Summicron is still a little confusing.

Conclusion

Hopefully all of the fanatical browser refreshing has died down.  We have an M Monochrom, a new 50mm APO-Summicron (which I will write about later), and an X2.  Thursday happened, the world did not end, and we can go back to life as usual.  The only difference now is whether we decide to put ourselves of THAT waiting list for a Leica Monochrom.

Today I am off to start another weekend workshop at the Leica Akademie.  Looking forward to it.

Best, 

Adam Marelli

An appretice’s life in a studio

meant copying the work of 

a master artist.  But copying

alone does not guarantee

an understanding of design. 

We need to bring “information

to bear” as we organize the 

chaos of life into a successful image. 

L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp.

Art versus Xerox

In the 1500’s, when a young boy showed promise as a draftsmen, they were often given over to an appreticeship.  They left home, usually through a family connection, and enter a “Master’s Workshop.”  I say Master in quotes because some of the greatest artists worked from rather mediocre artists.  Regardless of their superiors status, a young apprentice would pay the Master a small amount of money to cover his room, board, and forthcoming education.  When a prospective student considers the extortion rates that private universities request they might want to have a look at the accounting books of studios like Peter Paul Rubens.  It becomes very clear that NO university in the world can acutally rationalize an artistic education costing over $100,000.

Once inducted into the studio, they were given menial tasks like sweeping or fetching supplies.  Eventually they would work up to making preparatory sketches or transfers sketches for larger works.  When they were able to perform to a stardard of excellence (or at least tollerance) they would set to work copying the master’s drawings.  This was a multi-purposed exercise.  It provided income for the master, as the copies were often sold, it kept the young lad out of trouble, which was inevitable in Renaissance Europe, and it gave them a chance to study the designs of the master.

Only when pencil touches paper can an artist begin to understand all of the design problems the master faces when sitting in front of the blank paper.  

By tracing the hand of successful cartoons, working solutions become evident.  But copying was not enough!  It was merely the start of a long life as a half breed between a craftsman and a respected artist.  Anyone who mastered copying without every internalizing the tools of drawing became nothing more than a prehistoric Xerox machine.

The Futurists published a manifesto calling for the destruction of libraries and museums. Ironically this piece now lives in half a dozen major museums. As often as artists say they want to destroy the museum, all too often the museum opens its wings and accepts its rowdy children. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni

We do not want aspire to photographic copy machines.  We want to understand the tools of design and make images that reflects our sensibilities about the world.  Now just to temper the young artist’s ego, we MIGHT…if we are very lucky and if we work very hard…add but a grain of sand to the beach of artistic accomplishments of the last 45,000 years.  Even the biggest upheavals and revolts in art only add one more step to the museum staircase.  No movement in art has ever dissasembled or destroyed the efforts which preceded it.  Therefore, we are only looking to expand the visual log of art by the tiniest amount.  But, if we are successful, that effort may be the most rewarding accomplishment of our entire lives.

Henri Cartier-Bresson "Bali, 1949" & Ferdinando Scianna "Bali, 1989" MAGNUM PHOTOS

What mistakes can we avoid? 

If we had to describe the image the above image my Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ferndinando Scianna we could say?

“Its a picture of a woman carrying a basket on her head in a Balinese market.”  

The content is simple.  There are no tricks.  She is not actually an Ex-Queen reduced to ruins, now stripped of her clothing, begging for food.  The black and white image by Cartier-Bresson is a common a scene as any in Bali during the 1940‘s’s.  Forty years later when Cartier-Bresson’s friend and collegue Ferdiando Scianna went to Bali, he took, as some might describ it, the SAME picture with only a few differences.

Photographer                 Cartier-Bresson                VS              Scianna                               

Type                               Black & White Film                          Slide Film

Year                                1949                                                   1989

Orientation                   Vertical                                               Vertical

Angle                            Overhead                                            Overhead

Gazing Direction          Right                                                   Right

On paper, these images seem very similiar, even though forty years seperate their creation.  But if we look at the design elements that Cartier-Bresson employeed and Scianna copied, we will see the difference between the Master and the Apprentice.

Disclaimer

Just as a small aside, I just want to say that I have no axe to grind against Scianna.  He has made some wonderful images throughout his career.  He and Cartier-Bresson were good friends, and these articles are not intended to come across as picking on one photographer.  There are oversights in Scianna’s image that can teach us invaluable lessons.

Compared to the accomplishments of Cartier-Bresson, we will all have a tough time.  His work stands heads and shoulders about many of his colleauges.  Additionally, it is useful to copy the work of earlier masters, namely HCB.  There is no better way to learn a craft.  We mimick, practice, refine and innovate.  Its a tradition that is centuries old.  Within the tradition of “Making Studies”  I believe that artists have an ethical obligation to give credit to the senior artists who were responsible for informing their craft and not run off claiming they were struck by immaculate genius.  NO ONE was born a great photographer, they all learned.  Some learned faster than others, but they all put in their time.

Cartier Bresson using the arc to organize his scheme. Henri Cartier-Bresson/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Where’s the difference?

The primary difference, which I believe everyone can see is that Cartier-Bresson’s picture looks more active.  We can FEEL the turn of her head, the swing of her hips and the activity of the market.  The image is more alive.  Depicting action in a still image is the photographers dilemma.  Cartier-Bresson succeeds.  His image breathes, bounces, and exists in a state of perpetual motion.  So HOW DOES HE DO IT?

Bali, 1989. Ferdinando Scianna

Let’s look at Scianna first to understand what does not work.  Just because we shoot at funny angles, like up or down at a figure, the angle will not imbue them with a sense of movement.   Scianna shot the image from almost the same angle as Cartier-Bresson, but he did not pay attention to the position of the woman.  The first mistake Scianna makes is the head and the body look the same way.  This is an instant killer of movement.  If the head and body look the same direction, the image will feel very still.  Leonardo Da Vinci explained how the head and the body should be oriented in “A Treatise on Painting.”  With the head an body facing the same way, Scianna is off to a rough start.

Jacopo Pontormo showing us how hips and shoulders relate to one another. "Striding nude with raised arm" housed at the Morgan Library in New York City.

Secondly, in Scianna’s picture, the swing of the hips is impossible to see because it is cropped out.  He should have tipped the camera down further and taken a step back.  Hips and shoulders have a special relationship with each other.  When the right hip drops the right shoulder rises.  Don’t beleive me?

EXERCISE: Try this…stand in the mirror perfectly straight, like a soldier.  Shift all your weight on to your left leg.  Immediately, the right side of your pelvis will drop and your right shoulder will rise up.  When an artist learns to draw the figure, they study how the shoulders and hips can set the entire tone for a gesture.  In Scianna’s picture, he eliminates this possibility when he crops out the hips.

The central vertical is the strongest element in the scene. It is effective, but not very dynamic.

Thirdly, Scianna lacks an overall design scheme.  Cartier-Bresson’s image is designed using arcs.  There is are three main arcs that are echoed in the woman’s body.  It gives the image unity and a repeated gesture.  Remember these elements are subtle, but this does not preclude them from being very effective.

This is a 1.5 Grid laid over HCB's image. Can you see the major directions he is using? There are three of them.

Can you see like an Artist?

That question always raises an eye brow because it sounds like artists “See” in a special way.  They see as well as a musician hears.  Through practice they are more sensitive, more aware, and more visually informed than someone who does not rely on seeing for a living.  We are taught how to be visually literate, it does not appear naturally.  The entire debate about people being gifted is a complete waste of time.  Michelangelo was gifted and guess what he did?  He worked for seventy years until he dropped dead and never wasted any time staring at himself in the mirror pondering his greatness.

First we see the dominant vertical element.

How does Cartier-Bresson learn how to see arcs in a figure?  Simple…he had a good figure drawing teacher.  In drawing classes artist are taught to make abreviated sketches.  They may have 10-30 seconds to draw an entire pose.  Initally it looks like they are scribbling, but over time the artist learns to capture just the basic gestures which define a motion.  In a few strokes of a pencil, we can get the sense that the model is leaning, sitting, standing, or lifting an object.  When you look at the figure over and over again (the 10,000 hour Rule comes into play here) you become capable of spotting a pose in a split second.  This is why Cartier-Bresson refered to photography as a “…recognition of an order.”  THIS was the type of order he was talking about.  It was a pose or a movement that defines the human form.

Cartier-Bressons sets the angle of her head on the Baroque Diagonal.

The Icing on the Cake

When you first start studying design, you will learn that every image has a dominant direction.  Whether it is a portrait or a landscape or even an abstraction, every image has a dominant direction.  Artists are frugal beings.  It probably comes from years of scratching out livings.  But in all seriousness, when an artist can “say less with more” the image will have greater carrying power.

The old man had a sense of humor, for sure. The Sinister Reciprocal sets the angle of the breasts.

If there are thirty different directions in an image, chances are it will read as flat and dead or too chaotic to be engaging.  A good artist will use a handful of directions to define an image.  Here we can see how Cartier-Bresson uses a dominant vertical (running through her arm, a supporting diagonal (catching the tilt of her head) and the reciprocal of the sinister diagonal (defining the angle of the breasts).  Maybe Cartier-Bresson was a boob guy? Who knows.  More likely he remembered that the nipples are useful coordinates when drawing a human body.  If you draw them in the wrong place the chest look cross eyed.

After our discussion, is it clear why these images are not the same?

Conclusion

When we go out into the world we never know what might be around the next corner.  At times, we may step into an image rich enviroment, like a Balinese market, that just FEELS ripe for the picking.  The purpose of training your photography is so that you can develop a confident authority over a scene.  Once this happens you can anticipate activity and NAIL a shot when it takes shape.  In the learning process, I would recommend studying a single artist for a month or so.  If you are very disciplined spend a year.  As you search for their images in your world a deluge of lessons will present itself.  It is funny how often you find something when you have a sense of what you are looking for.

Is this intended to be a license to copy someone’s work?  No, not at all.  That is a misunderstanding.  The goal is to study their work, gain an appreciation for their accomplishments and encorporate your own mixture of influences into your life long pursuit.  There well of artistic knowledge is deep enough that you could not hope to consume all the lessons in one hundred lifetimes.  And the unique mixture of influences will result in a distinct look.

So how many combinations are out there?  Well I heard this example given by a mathmatician John Holland in “Hidden Order” (written in 1996).  He said:

“Lets decompose the face into ten components (one of which is “eyes”), and lets allow ten alternatives for each component (as in “blue eyes,” “brown eyes,” “hazel eyes,”…) We can think of ten “bags” holding ten building blocks each, for a total of 10×10 = 100 building blocks.  Then we can construct a face by choosing one building block from each bag.  Because there are ten alternatives in each bag, we can construct any of the 10¹⁰ = 10 billion distinct faces with these 100 building blocks!” 

Then he said there are more people alive today (1996) than have existed in the history of humanity (the population was approaching 7 billion).  Which means that mathematically we are in the early stages of repeating combination of facial elements.

What does this mean for us?

When we consider that a camera allows us to choose the 360 degrees of a circle, 9 values from white to black, and a color gamut based on 16 colors…I would say that we do not need to concern ourselves with the “Risk of Repetition.”  There are more variations available then we will ever fully understand.  In the mean time enjoy, study the history of design, and if you are free join me at a workshop where we can really dive into the options I would love to meet you.

Best-Adam Marelli

Texas Prison. © Danny Lyon

Juan’s Travels

For those of you who read the site, you know we spend most of our time discussing design, art history, and travel.  But every now and again, I like to open the discussion.  Photographers are often politically engaged, not afraid to voice their opinions, and bring a first hand perspective to the discussion.  Danny Lyon shows us how its done.  He is at the forefront on the discussions of Civil Rights, the American Prison System, and Immigration.  His work and commentary have been a part of the conversation for over forty years.  Younger photographers should take note of Danny’s experience and his excellent writing skills.  

This month Danny wrote an intense entry on the issues of Immigration as he sees them from his home in Arizona.

“The question of immigration is not a

legal question. It is a moral and ethical

question. “The Law is an Ass” Cicero

wrote 2000 years ago.That does not mean

that I am an anarchist. It means that the

law must take into account mitigating and

human factors in every case.”

Read the entire essay on Danny Lyon’s Blog.

Best,

Adam Marelli 

Sao Paolo 1960. Rene Burri/MAGNUM PHOTOS

If you’re not close enough…you picture might still be good enough

I am headed out the door to the studio at the moment, but wanted to let you guys know I am working on an article about Rene Burri. Originally William Palank has asked me to do an article on him for the “Great Compositions” series.  The article will focus on the idea of SCALE in our images and why those little figures in the distance have a purpose.

Hopefully I will get it up before the Leica Akademie Workshop on Friday.

Until then, 

Adam 

[ HOUSTON/TEXAS ]

Llanito by Danny Lyon at the Menil Collection, through July 29th.

Last week the Menil Collection opened an exhibition devoted to Danny Lyon.  The impressive thing to consider is the Menil Collection rarely shows photographers.  They are generally devoted to painting and sculpture, which makes this a big honor for Danny’s work to be featured in their space.  I have not been to the Menil yet, but if you are in Houston Texas, it is well worth a stop.

(text below is the release from the Menil Collection)

This World Is Not My Home: Danny Lyon Photographs, an exhibition of approximately 45 photographs and photographic montages, traces the evolution of the New York and New Mexico-based artist’s career from 1962 to the present. A leading and explosively creative figure in the American street photography movement of the 1960s, Lyon distinguished himself from peers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander through his exceptionally strong political consciousness and concern for those on the margins of society.

Drawn from the artist’s studio and the Menil’s collection of 246 of Lyon’s photographs, the exhibition features images from important bodies of work, including, among other subjects, his early studies of Midwestern motorcycle gangs, the Civil Rights Movement, and death row inmates in Texas prisons. To make these affecting, intimate images, Lyon was both a participant and an observer. He got to know his subjects and often captured their stories in highly descriptive, opinionated texts as well as in photographs. Lyon rode with bikers, marched against segregation with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and spent hours inside the notorious death-row “Walls Unit” of Huntsville Prison. His goal, he said, was “to destroy Life magazine”—to present powerful, real alternatives to the hollow pictures and stories permeating mass media in America.

Throughout his long and prolific career, Lyon has combined an eye for beautiful compositions with passionate interest in political struggle and change. This World… will include photographs from all periods of the artist’s career as well as images from a new series made in rural China, where that country’s economic boom is causing profound changes, and a number of the recent montage works in which the artist arranges old and new photographs to create poetic reflections on memory, family, and the transience of life.

This World… celebrates the artist’s 70th birthday and the extraordinary gift to the museum of 75 important photographs from the 1960s by Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil in 2010. Organized by Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Toby Kamps, the exhibition also recognizes Lyon’s deep and sustained relationship with Texas, Houston, and the Menil Collection. In Houston, where he briefly lived, Lyon met museum co-founder Dominique de Menil, who provided crucial moral support for his work as well as funding for a film about homeless orphans in Columbia entitled Los niños abandonados (The Abandoned Children) (1975). This film, recently restored, will be presented in a special screening during the exhibition.

This exhibition is generously supported by Michael Zilkha, David and Anne Kirkland, Mark Wawro and Melanie Gray, H-E-B, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, and the
City of Houston.

For more information visit The Menil Collection on Danny Lyon

Enjoy, 

Adam Marelli 

Can you remember the first 

time you saw a National

Geographic?  The exotic

landscapes and strange peasants

have tickled our imaginations 

for decades.  But where did the 

interest in peasants find its roots?

The Church at Greville by Jean Francois Millet

Thousands of miles from home

Whenever I start working with someone for the first time, I always ask them “If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go?”  The responses vary from the Antarctic to the Sahara…never has anyone said “my own back yard.”  For some reason, of which I could hardly explain, exploration seems to be at the heart of artistic impulses.  I am no different.  The idea of jumping on a plane and exploring a new landscape often keeps me up at night.  Staring into the glow of my apartment window, my thoughts fly through the places I have been and search the globe for my next destination.

Millet started his career as a relatively successful portrait painter. This image of a young naval officer is a fine example of his talents as a draftsman, designer, and painter. Portrait of a Naval Officer by Jean Francois Millet.

Jean-Francois Millet never boarded a plane, but he did leave his home for Paris.  As a young painter, he won a scholarship to continue painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche.  The well to do Parisian was an unlikely match for Millet, who would come to embody the “Peasant Painter”.  While in his formative years the provincial painter from Grenville France (on the Cotentin Peninsula) Millet remarked about Delaroche’s “…in the work of Delaroche, I could see nothing but large size illustrations and histrionic effects without any real feeling.”

The Hémicycle by Paul Delaroche

If you are an artist or photographer who feels like the art of your era is dead, without thought, or real meaning, do not despair.  It is a common feeling for many artists big and small.  So what was Millet to do?  He looked to the past and artists like Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Poussain, and Rembrandt.  For Rembrandt he reserved these thoughts:

Self Portrait with Staff by Rembrandt van Rijn

“I felt I would have to stand 

there a long time before 

I could enter into the 

genius of this man.” 

—Jean Francois Millet 

Millet had great regard for the formal qualities of these great artists and used their tools as he decided to approach a subject matter which rang true to his interests.  Like many artists Millet did not discover his subject matter immediately.  He painted a number of successful portraits, a few religious paintings (only four in his career) and a number of nudes.  As the story goes, one day Millet overheard two gentleman looking at a painting of a nude in the window of the gallery.  One of the men remarked that it must have been a Millet, who always painted nudes.  This offhanded comment brought Millet’s canvases of bare backsides to a crushing halt.  It is rather unfortunate because he was quite good at both portraits and nudes.  But let no artist be dissuaded by the tastes of others, Millet had other subjects in mind.

La Ferme du Tourp by Jean Francois Millet

The end of Paris

When Millet was thirty five he moved to Barbizon, thirty miles south east of Paris.  He had established a relationship with Goupil’s gallery, so he had an agent back in the the city.  Goupil’s would eventually be the place of employment for a young Dutchman named Vincent Van Gogh.  In spite of his failed career as an art dealer, young Vincent was profoundly affected by the work of Millet’s that he saw and Goupil’s.  With gallery representation tentatively secured and a few minor commissions completed Millet decided to move to the artistic community outside of the Fontainbleau forest.

First Steps by Millet and Van Gogh. Great artists repeat the same themes and study each others work. These types of studies were critical to Van Gogh's development.

Spain, Merida, 1990. Bruno Barby/MAGNUM PHOTOS

In Millet’s mind the Fontainbleau forest was the reserve of the wealthy.  It hosted earlier artists like the Clouets, father and son, and was considered to be a picturesque escape from the city.  It was a beautiful location.  The country side was relatively free from the cholera epidemic which swept through Paris, making it a good home for Millet’s family.  Millet was born into  a lower middle class family.  He did not share the pedigree of the other artists in the Barbizon.  His interest in the Barbizon was not the fantasy of the forests reserved for the rich.  Though he does not come across as terribly political, Millet certainly did not possess an interest in the high brow life that he saw in Delaroche’s Parisian studio.  Instead he walked out of the forest and into the fields.

The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel

Bruegel’s Peasants

An important concept which I emphasize whenever possible is that when you find a subject matter, there is a REALLY good chance that you are not the first one to approach it.  A previous artist, whether we know of them or not, had many of the same interests.  The dutch painter Bruegel was an earlier painter of peasants.  His paintings from the 1500’s were widely known throughout all of Europe.  Millet did what many of us would hope to do in a lifetime.  He understood the work of Bruegel’s peasant scenes and dutch landscapes and dove deeper into the peasant’s lives creating a new body of work that would influence subsequent generations of artists and photographers.

Mexico, Chiapas, 1998. David Alan Harvey/MAGNUM PHOTOS

The life of an 19^th century peasant was nothing desirable.  It was a hard life of tilling rough soil, wrought with obstacles, all for little money and no hope of ever leaving their place as a farm hand.  Even within a free society of post Revolution France, the fields were not filled with people clamoring for the opportunity to work sixteen hour days in the dirt.

China Peasant Farmer 1979. Eve Arnold/MAGNUM PHOTOS

While more artists were spending their days in the beautiful Fontainbleau forest, Millet turned one hundred and eighty degrees and marched for the peasants.  Its curious to look at his motivations for depicting workers of the day instead of the Princes and Generals who were the normal subjects of great painters.  Instead of men of rank, Millet choose Butter Churners, Sowers, Wool Spinners, and Harvesters as the heroes of his scenes.

Fishermen Sri Lanka. Steve McCurry

Do his motivations seem like they might have a connection to photographers like Sebastiao Salgado’s Workers, Werner Bischoff’s Peruvians or Steve McCurry’s Fishermen?  As far as I can see, the focus on the working communities of any country can be traced back to the success of Millet’s work.

Art teachers these days discourage students "copying" master paintings. But it is apparent that throughout history this was one of the best ways to discover the tools of an artist. Copying was not only encouraged, but in many cases it was required. Photography is no different. We start our work, where the great ones left off.

“That he should have lavished so much care

on such humble objects, little regarded

at that time, can only mean that Millet

loved them and respected them for

their own sake.”

Woman at the Well by Jean Francois Millet

The Anatomy of Work

Let’s peer inside the dark farm house to understand what might have caught Millet’s attention about french Peasants for his paintings.  He was known for accurately capturing the arm gestures of a baker versus a coppersmith.  He paid close attention to the differences between peasants jobs.  There was nothing lazy about his eye or his approach.  By the end of his life, he had mastered his subject matter, something we should all pursue.

Harvesters Resting (Ruth & Boaz) Jean Francois Millet

“The remarkable thing about Millet’s most ambitious works is the balance he achieves between accurate observation and epic transfiguration.  His successful fusion of those two qualities became apparent for the first time in “Harvesters Resting” which began as “Ruth and Boaz” - apparent in their superb flow and movement of the reclining louts showing off their Florentine forms.” (-Théophile Gautier) and also the admirable “Gleaners” whose gestures and rhythms come directly from Greek Sculpture.  It was not without advantage that Millet kept some plaster casts of the Parthenon Sculptures in his Barbizon Studio. – Ernst Chesneau

Inside of the double quote from Gautier and Chesneau we can understand that Millet saw the actions of these nameless peasants sharing the DNA of the greatest sculptures from Antiquity.  In a true effort of democracy Millet elevated the farmer from a dirty peasant hand to a heroic embodiment of any virtue worthy of a Greek God.  Concepts like Strength, Fortitude, Resiliency and Youth are all present in the bodies of Millet’s subjects.

Apollo Belvedere at the Vatican Museum in Rome.

The question for us as photographers or artists, is “What happens when we see a connection with our subject matter and the past? What can this do for us?”  For starters, it gives us a set of visual references to study.  The sheer power of the stances adopted by a young Apollo or Venus might be present in the living subjects before our lenses or notepads.

Burma, Bago, 1995. Steve McCurry/MAGNUM PHOTO

We need to have some sense of tradition to see why great sculptors chose to immortalize a figure in a certain pose.  Left arm forward, right arm back…these gestures are not arbitrary, they all align with design traditions which are thousands of years old.  There are movements which ring more true and powerful than others.  I believe that when you look at a a series of Millet’s and then flip through a National Geographic magazine, you cannot help but see the connection of 19^th century painting to 21^st century photography.  Even if the photographer, however good or bad they may be, never saw Millet, they would have inadvertently been exposed to his legacy through other artists.  The subject matter of master artists echoes the past, with such immediacy that it cannot be ignored.  And I bet as you pick up those old magazines and compare them with Millet’s paintings, one idea will become painfully obvious.  Many photographers miss the opportunities to create Great work, because they never studied the painting traditions that preceded their work.  Its an easy trap to avoid.

Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint John by Michelangelo

Dead artists speak to you

There have been a few times I have mentioned that when you study the design of an artist it will feel like they are speaking to you.  Now if you walk into a museum and ALL the paintings are talking to you, there may be a good psychologist awaiting your phone call.  But in all seriousness, not every artist’s work will speak to you.  And at different points in your life, one artist may speak louder than another.  For Millet he found an intense connection with Michelangelo.  When Théophile Silvestre was nominating Millet for the Légion d’Honneur to Napolean III, he referred to him as the “Michelangelo of Peasants.”

A Farmer. France, Langedoc-Roussillion Raymond Depardon/MAGNUM PHOTOS

“When Millet saw a drawing of Michelangelo’s of a man in a dead faint: “I shared the suffering of that prostrate body and those very limbs.  I realized that the artist who had drawn that was capable of personifying all the good and evil of mankind in a single figure.  I had already seen in Cherbourg some mediocre prints after Michelangelo, but here I could feel the heart beat and hear the voice of the artist who really haunted me all my life.”

Myanmar, Mandalay, 1986. Hiroji Kubota/MAGNUM PHOTOS

What are they saying

Where do we look for the answers to our questions?  Since we can no longer sit next to Millet and have a conversation how can we bring his work to life?

Can you see the "turning figures" like we recognize in Cartier-Bresson in this image? This is one continuous lineage of image making. The Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino

Here are some places to look:

1.  Writings.  This one sounds obvious enough, but not enough people read the writings of artists.  If you like Millet or Rembrandt read a book on them, don’t just look at the pictures.  When Millet speaks about the italian artists Rosso Fiorentino or Primataccio, who both left Italy to paint in the French courts, he says:

“An art of a decadent period, it is true…

but what a power of creation! And how

reminiscent their hearty bluntness is

the art of early times! One could

look for hours at the works of

these good natured giants.”

Millet is revealing who influenced his work.  If he appeals to you, then its best to understand what tools he acquired from other artists along the way.  The biggest mistake I hear on forums and other websites are photographers who say they don’t look at anyones work.  This is a colossal mistake and there is an important distinction to be made here.  While you are actually working or in the middle of a project, I agree, looking at other artists can prove to be problematic.  But in your early years or between projects drink up the works of other artists like they were going to disappear tomorrow.  The lessons are so rich with information that your images will catapult themselves forward.

Millet actually made two versions of the Gleaners. The first was a vertical composition, which I actually prefer to the more famous horizontal format. Its great to understand that Millet re-worked the image to find different solutions.

2.  Drawings.  Impressionist Camille Pissaro said of Millet’s work,”…they (the public) do not realize that his drawings are one hundred times better than his paintings, which have really dated.”

Field in Viet Nam. Philip Jones Griffiths

Not everyone loved Millet’s paintings, in fact he died fairly broke and with little appreciation.  But if you want to understand how an artist thinks, forget about their final works.  Study their drawings.  Look at the elements they emphasize and which bits fade into the whiteness of the paper.  When we study Millet, we can see that he is principally concerned with generalizing a pose, getting it to read against the background and capturing accurate details about the peasant’s life.  We can look at a painting like “The Sower” to see how he refines the MOST expressive pose of a man throwing seeds on the field.  The subject has his right leg forward, his left leg back, his left arm forward and right arm back.  This type of contrapposto is lifted directly from Michelangelo because it gives a power to the Sower’s gesture.  We can feel the movement.

Stick with a single subject matter for a few months to see how you can develop a specific idiom. And just as a tip "street photography" is a genre not an idiom.

3.  Patterns.  My feeling is that real artists do not worry about style.  They focus on idioms.  What’s an idiom?  Its a visual grammar that is particular to a theme.  Millet could be described as working in a peasant idiom.  Since his subject was varied, but unchanging for the later part of his life, he freely explored the many facets of peasant life.  He found techniques for dealing with the color palate, activities, and nuances of farm life that might not work in an idiom of seascape paintings.

Tchad. Raymond Depardon/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Without any effort, his paintings develop their own style, but I hardly imagine Millet sitting at his dining room table lamenting his next stylistic choice.  Style, as far as I am concerned, is the concern of capricious marketers most concentrated in the fashion world.  As an artist, if you do anything with a considerable amount of thought, training and intention you can’t help but develop a style.  And your style will be profoundly more rich than the fashionistas who are trying to decide if “Black is the new black or white is the new black.”  Let them self destruct on their own accord.

Millet experiments with vertical and horizontal formats for his image before making two final paintings.

When we look at Millet and understand his peasant idiom, we can see him playing with the format of the canvas, the vertical and horizontal orientations of the figures which sometimes work better than others.  He devotes considerable time to the “tools of the farm trades”, the positions of workers in action, and the quality of light in the fields.  Its great to see his work together in a book, because the progressions and experiments read more clearly than they might in a museum.  Unless a museum is mounting a 100 piece show, a book is an easier place to study any artist’s work.  Then when you go back to the museum the work will scream at you.

The Gleaners by Millet and possibly McCurry.

The Magnum Connection

So how did an provincial painter influence the photographers at Magnum Photo and National Geographic?  One name…Henrì Cartier-Bresson.  The work of Millet made an impact on Cartier-Bresson and he studied his paintings and drawings.  Then after Cartier-Bresson started Magnum and brought in younger photographers like Werner Bischoff, Josef Koudelka, Constantin Manos, Salgado, McCurry just to name a few…they were all exposed to Cartier-Bresson’s work and by default the influence of Millet.  Now some photographers actually come from fine art backgrounds, but more and more the classical art education is dying.  Many photographers have college degrees in literature or history.  They would have never encountered the drawing education that Cartier-Bresson had as a youth.  As you look through the work of prominent photographers keep Millet in mind.  You will be amazed at how often his images surface in the work of other artists.

The Fishermen by Millet and Salgado.

On our next trip

When you take your next trip, whether it is by car, by plane or by boat, don’t forget Millet.   Ask yourself what details he might have considered were worthy of a sketch?  Remember that all objects are not equal and some will work better in a photograph than others.  Art making is challenging enough, so we would like to hedge our bets by understanding the artists who preceded us and focusing attention on subjects which will read in the final image.

Hiroji Kubota Japan, Yamagata, 2002 Hiroji Kubota/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Since we are talking about travel, why not share where you next trip will be to open a dialogue about travel?  I would like to hear where you are going next.  Nothing fills the air with more excitement than a trip to the airport and a passport stamp.  And if you would like to follow my travels “friend me” on Facebook.

References for this article came from:

“Jean Francois Millet.” André Fermigier. Rizzoli International Publications, 1977.

Additional images provided via http://www.jeanmillet.org/

In the mean time…Enjoy!

Kindly, 

Adam Marelli 

What exactly is street photography

and when did it begin? 

Was it the 1950’s or 

was it the 1930’s?  Did it have

anything to do with the 

invention of the 35mm?  The

roots of street photography extend 

back the 1400’s when painters

became interested in daily

scenes.  Lets have a look into

the source pool to see what 

we discover in the works of 

John Singer Sargent.  

Water Carriers by John Singer Sargent

An “American” in Venice

I never understood why art historians refer to John Singer Sargent as an American artist.  The painter was born to American parents in Florence Italy in the year 1856.  There was hardly anything American about the painter.  It only adds to the confusion that he appears in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Sargent was raised with a household of maids from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and England.  Subsequently, he spoke five languages.  He never received formal education, only tutors.  Aside from his gift for languages he dazzled Parisian and Londoner crowds with his social graces and prodigious piano and guitar playing and paintings.  In short, he was a gentleman of Europe, and a truly cosmopolitan artist.

John Singer Sargent Self Portrait 1886

You Think Your Mom is Crazy?

This past weekend my girlfriend and I were reflecting on the mix of parenting we received as children.  Parenting is a tough business and our parents have their quirks.  But none of our experiences hold a candle to the weirdness of Mrs. Sargent.  Mary Newbold Singer Sargent was a self professed “sickly lady” who needed to retreat to Europe.  Once she was free of America her maladies seemed to vanish.  Every time her recovery appeared permanent, her husband wanted to board the next ship back to the US.  To curb this tendency, Mrs. Sargent gave birth five times between 1856 and 1870.  A pregnant lady was unfit for a ocean voyage.

Mrs. Sargent was desperate to never set foot in the United States again, but did not express anti-American sentiments.  She was perfectly fine with America, just as long as she could live in Europe.  Her illnesses, unfortunately manifested themselves most acutely in the children, not herself.  Two of her daughters and one son died before the age of five, one after being dropped by a nurse.  Sargent and his surviving sister Violet lived full, happy lives.  She died at eighty five in Florence in 1870.  Needless to say the surviving children were given profound attention by their odd, but endearing mother.  In total Sargent only spent eight years of his life on American soil, which is why his American attribution feels misplaced.

A scene like this would have been virtually unheard of in the 1880's. No woman would walk around Venice without a male escort. Maybe this is the way Sargent wanted Venice to be. Street in Venice by John Singer Sargent.

What Is Street Photography?

As far as I can understand it, Street Photography is a misunderstood term.  It is used by publishers, search engines, and flickr groups to talk about a new style of picture making that is in effect a few hundred years old.  It is a half breed between travel, cultural, human condition, documentary, portraiture, and fine art photography with a conceptual twist.  This ensures that almost any time the term is being cast like a net over a set of pictures, the images are either being grossly under estimated or elevated to the status of a genre worthy of a name, when in truth they are just a collection of snap shots.  As Capa warned Cartier-Bresson, titles should be avoided because they lead to pigeon holes.  Once the fad is over, you don‘t want to have a label tattooed on your back.

In truth, we could consider the Egyptian hieroglyphs proto-Street Photography since they show the working slave conditions of the Pharaohs from a time before Christ.  But if we want to get into the source material for most of the street photography in the world we have to look back to characters like John Singer Sargent and his years in Venice.  There are plenty of earlier European examples, which I will cover in future articles, but for now I would like to focus on Sargent because I enjoy his work and life in Venice.

Campo dei Frari by John Singer Sargent

Is the Street Random?

Internet discussions seem to revolve around the idea that Street Photography is a collection of random scenes, ordinary items, and everyday moments that would normally be considered meaningless.  And truthfully most of the editorial world still considers them meaningless.  Its rare, if ever, that an editorial photographer would advertise themselves as a “Street Photographer” because most editors don’t hire street photographers.  It is more of a pastime for enthusiasts and for professionals it is the “artistic side,” not often included in their normal workflow of client deadlines.  But then again, most editorial work ends up in the waste basket anyway, so we must be careful how we measure the success of a image or business card heading.  Editors are not the be all and end all of photography.

Cafe on the Riva degli Schiavoni by John Singer Sargent

But maybe if we were to approach Street Photography like Sargent, we may find different results.  In the two stints which he lived in Venice (1880 & 1882) I hardly imagine he would have described his work or subject matter as mundane, ordinary, or random.  In order to sit down at an easel and invest the time a painting requires, we imagine that Sargent must have thought pretty highly of his activities.  Otherwise he would have been better off grabbing a Spritz and enjoying some cicchetti in a piazza.

Critics were not all in favor of Sargent's depiction of Venice. A Street in Venice by John Singer Sargent.

The criticism of Sargent’s Venetian work was not all favorable.  The set of Venetian images was considered by some to be random and disappointing.  They maintain a strange parallel to much of street photography’s criticism.  This is an important thing to understand as a photographer.  Often on this blog or while teaching I use the terms Artist and Photographer interchangeably.  Each group, while choosing a different medium is often engaged in parallel discussions.  One of which surrounds the idea of dealing with criticism.  Sargent’s paintings from Venice were met with some negative feedback like:

“…leads us into obscure squares and dark streets

where only a single ray of light falls.  The women

of Venice, with their messy hair and ragged

clothes are no descendants of Titian’s beauties.  Why

go to Italy if its only to gather impressions like these?” 

— Arthur Baignères, 1883

The critic seems to be saying, “What’s the big deal with painting a bunch of ratty girls wandering around the streets of Venice?”  I believe Monsieur Baignéres was terribly mistaken.  Sargent’s Venetian scenes reveal the life inside of Venice’s great palazzi, while they outline the path an artist must take in search of a subject.  Great images hardly fall into artists laps.  They need to search for them like an archeologist hunting for ruins.  There is only so much factual evidence that can make us dig.  Part of the process is feeling our way through subject matter until the bell tower (campanile) of art becomes audible.

(Quote from “John Singer Sargent” by Patricia Hills in association with the Whitney Museum of Art)

This is the entry stair case at Ca' Rezzonico where Sargent kept a studio for a period of time. Adam Marelli Leica M6 & 21mm Elmarit.

Venice as a Muse

Anyone who has travelled to Venice knows that it is not an easy place to photograph.  The pictures we see tend to fulfill every cliché of gondolas and churches imaginable.  Why would such a picturesque city be difficult to photograph?  Well for starters, Venetians are hard to find.  Many of the great houses like Ca’ Rezzonico, where Sargent kept a studio, are now empty.  Many Venetians have left the city.  At the moment, the population of Venice is at its lowest since the last time the Black Plague swept through the city.  There are less than 60,000 locals still living in Venice proper.  So finding scenes of actual Venetian life is a challenge.  Anyone can walk up to Piazza San Marco or the Accademia and snap a picture, but as we look at Sargent’s images, we see the impulse to discover the real Venice behind the heavy doorways of these urban castles.

Sargent spent his days in the back streets of Dorsoduro, though he did take an apartment in Piazza San Marco for a time.  Outside of central Venice, the streets are not overrun with tourists groups descending from cruise ships wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts.  If one thing angers a Venetian more than anything, it is tourists who arrive to their city under dressed.  Venice has been a tourist wonder since before Sargent, so in that case nothing has changed about the city.  But that did not stop Sargent from exploring the interiors and the streets on his own.  We notice in many of his paintings that the characters repeat.  This implies that there is a routine to the city, which is easy enough to understand.  Most of us have routines of sorts.  But it also tells us that Sargent made friends with locals.

Gigia Viani by John Singer Sargent

Una Bella Ragazza

One Venetian he was particularly fond of was Gigia Viani.  His depictions of her feel so faithful that we might recognize her if we saw her walking with her crimson shawl.  Now as the budding street photographer might already understand, if you follow someone on the street it is considered stalking.  It is liable to get you in a lot of trouble.  But if you make friends with a local, your time wandering the streets is just a matter of hanging out.

Sargent used his resources and language skills wisely.  Completely fluent in Italian, he painted scenes that were quintessentially Venetian.  As we venture through a city, all scenes are not equal.  There are some scenes which define a city and other scenes that read more like visual static.  Sargent excelled at depicting scenes which would not be found outside of Venice.  The hints of architecture or light are undeniably Venetian.

When we look at the progression of his Bead Stringers we can watch Sargent distill the activities from a work environment to a sort of lounge.  His early paintings, were of an activity, namely the women weaving beaded cloth.  This seams like a logical place for a painter to start.  He chose a typical Venetian product (Beaded Fabric) and painted the women at work.  The entire arrangement is very literal, but would have given him an excuse to hang around a space for a longer period of time.  He gives us a little tip embedded in the canvases.  If you want to see an aspect of life, propose it to your subjects as a piece of art.  It allows you to linger, without them feeling put off.  Hardly anyone likes being stared at, but if you are making work, usually you can linger for as long as you would like.

Venetian Bead Stringers I by John Singer Sargent

Where he starts with the first Venetian Bead Stringer’s, we are given a scene with all the indicators of what is to come in the later works.  The interior is typically dark, as is common with many Venetian homes.   Skylights were not very prevalent in Sargent’s time.  We can recognize the bright sun in the background windows.  These same exteriors would be blown out if we were to make a photograph.  Inside the high wood beamed ceilings look no different today.  The advantage Sargent had was the women were still manufacturing goods in the city.  Nowadays a majority of the tourists goods are imported which is a shame.  Though there are a number of Venetian establishments making goods again.

The women, huddled around the table, would be a street photographers dream.  They are so distracted they hardly even notice each other.  This is not a functioning factory, but merely the activities of women who would rather be elsewhere.  As Sargent explores this further, the bead making transitions from being the primary activity to a background support.

A Venetian Interior by John Singer Sargent.

As Sargent passes through the second Bead Stringer painting titled Venetian Interior, we see work happening along a back wall, but the main characters are hanging out on the left side of the canvas.  The same blown out light trickles along the floor of the dark hall.  But Sargent is shifting from depicting accurate working life to the casual languor which Venice is famous for.

Venetian Interior with Gigia by John Singer Sargent

When we arrive at the Venetian Interior which includes Gigia Viani, all work has drawn to a close.  Gigia and a companion walk down the hallway, sliced by a line of bright light on the floor.  She is mid step and reminds us more of the Cartier-Bresson tradition of the walking figure than of Titian (Titziano, for the Italian) reclining Venus.  Here we see Sargent playing all the games of street photography without any of the pretenses of a formal painting.  But…But….do not let the casual nature of the image deceive you.  This is a highly designed work of art.

The women make a full turn of the clock from three o'clock to nine o'clock and back to the center.

The figure placement is the stuff that Cartier-Bresson dreamt of as a young Surrealist photographer.  If we start from the back of the painting and walk forward we see the far figure on the balcony gazes to the right.  As we move clockwise we see Gigia looking to the right but her body moves to the left.  The third, unknown figure looks to the left.  Her gaze continues the clockwise motion of the work until BANG the last lazy figure brings us back to Gigia.  There is NOTHING accidental about the placement of these figures.  And while they are not engaged in anything more than walking, Sargent is trying to show us how to see social activity Venetian style.

All the while, he plays with light, adjusting the exterior brightness to the reflected light inside.  His figures each hold a considerable amount of reflected light to read against the dark backdrops.  He also subdues the colors leaving us with just a taste of yellow orange in the lights and subdued grays for the balance of the images.

Italian Girl with a Fan by John Singer Sargent

Sargent’s Day Job

As Sargent was wrapping up his second stay in Venice he needed to delay the departure.  He was working on a large canvas called Italian Girl with Fan (forse si chima “La ragazza col ventaglio”) for submission to the Salon in Paris.  Even Sargent had a bit of  a day job.  Portraiture was his primary means of income and the most highly regarded type of painting for competition.  For the subject he chose to depict his friend (and I hope for his sake, lover) Gigia Viani.  The image reads like a full length street portrait of a girl stopped for a moment.  Her toe carries all of the vertical strength of the image while her parted lips seem to be seconds from speaking.

We see all of the marks of the Venetian Interiors, except he is focused on only Gigia.  Her body is punctuated by a rich crimson shawl which echoes her lips and eyes.  The wall is a warm yellow gray that supports the brightness of her clothing.  If she is the Venetian woman in rags that Baignéres complained of, I would see every reason in the world to go to Venice.  She is absolutely captivating.   

This is probably Sargent's most relaxed image of Gigia, wasting away the day. The Sulphur Match by John Singer Sargent

Packing the Bags

As Sargent wrapped up his second stay in Venice he concluded a body of work that predates the effort of every street photographer in history.  His images show that the rapid production of images was not something that needed a camera.  It was an artistic impulse that was no way linked to technology.  People are generally curious about one another.  Some of them are capable enough with their art to pass that curiosity through layers of paint for generations to come.

The original is in private collection, so there is only a black and white photograph available. But it works well because it shows us how much we owe to Sargent's work as photographers. Campo Behind Scuola di San Rocco by John Singer Sargent

When I listen to photographic critiques and lectures, I hear most often that photographers talk of other photographers.  The conversation is too narrow and often excludes important artistic figures in the development of image making.  Even if the photographers who inspire us were not artists, if you trace the genealogy of art backwards it all reaches a point where painting was the inspiration.  This is not because painting has any superiority to other mediums, but it was and probably still is one of the most widely practiced artistic forms in human history.

Our efforts as street photographers or photographers in general, are not new or original.  We have, as I see it, a cultural obligation to understand our visual roots and pass artistic lessons to the next generation.  When we do this, it is imperative to point out that photography is merely the last ten keys on the artist’s piano.  The other eighty six are owned by 45,000 years of hand made artistic heritage.  And without a proper context the efforts of any artist are in vein.

Kindly, 

Adam Marelli 

Tuesday, March 27th

The cover shot from Thomas Hoepker's new book Champ.

From Anastasia Photo:

Today marks the 70th Birthday of one of America’s icons, Muhammad Ali. Thomas Hoepker photographed Ali throughout his career both in and out of the ring capturing some of the most iconic photographs of the champ. Many of these photographs can now be found, some published for the first time, in a beautiful new book, “Champ”, Muhammad Ali, photographed by Thomas Hoepker.  Anastasia Photo will be hosting a book signing with Thomas Hoepker on Tuesday, March 27.

For more information visit Anastasia Photo’s Blog.

My Feelings on Book Signings

Book signings can be a great place to have a real conversation with a photographer you admire.  They can also be an absolute mob scene, where you get a quick “Hi, thanks for buying my book” and then you are shuffled with the rest of the cattle to the drinks table.  It all depends, but like the lottery, you have to play to win.  In most cases photographers are not celebrities.  They are genuinely happy that a fan base attends their events.  They are more than willing to have a quick chat and give you some of their time.  I don’t know Thomas personally, so you will have to let me know how the evening turns out.  Hope everyone has a great time.

And when you are finished, try and grab a table at Enoteca for a glass of wine and some delicious Italian food.  The wait can be long, so it might not be a bad idea to drop your name before you go to the signing.

Enjoy, 

Adam Marelli