Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast #94: Our First Fight

 by Kevin Lane

Don't worry; I just needed a catchy title for this blog post. Wayne and I are still very close friends who think alike in many ways. Wayne isn't just a Shutter Brother; he is very much like a brother to me, and I'm very grateful for having him in my life. 

However, that doesn't mean we agree on everything. Wayne thinks that a photograph that is not printed by the photographer who took it is not a valid representation of the photographers's work. I think that, at the very least, it can be. That is, if a great deal of care and research goes into making the print. In the show, I use the photography of Vivian Maier as an example. Maier exposed thousands of rolls of film, yet she made relatively few darkroom prints. When John Maloof and others discovered exposed film in 2007, the world began to be introduced to her photography only after her film was processed and scanned. Most of us who have seen her photography did so as a result of one of several documentaries and/or one of the several books that have been published. Some may even have seen her work in a museum exhibition. The vast majority of these pictures were never printed by Maier. Are they then not valid representations of her work?

The real answer to that question may be that we will never know. Maier, who died the very year her work was discovered, is not around to have her say. And given her extreme importance she placed on maintaining her privacy while she lived, she may have strong reservations over her worked being published in the first place, never mind how her pictures are printed today. The fact that she herself always printed her square format negatives as cropped rectangles actually lends credibility to Wayne's argument. 

Nevertheless, I am quite grateful for having Maier's photography available to enjoy. She had extraordinary talent and technique, and her pictures inspire me. I don't really care who printed them. I am simply grateful that they exist.

Vivian Maier saw and shot it. Someone else developed and printed/scanned it.
Who's photograph is it?

From Vivian Maier: Street Photographer, edited by John Maloof and published by
PowerHouse Books, Brooklyn, NY

In show #94 I present a review of Stephen Shore's book, The Nature of Photographs. I have only recently become acquainted with Shore's work and have enjoyed looking at two of his most well known photo books, American Surfaces and Uncommon Places. The Nature of Photographs is, as it says on the cover, A Primer that serves to explain how a photograph works - that is to say, how a photograph does what it does to the viewer when viewed. I found it very interesting and immediately re-read the book. In fact, because the book originated as a college course that Shore once taught, I decided to take notes as if I was in Shore's classroom. In addition to Shore's text, the book contains a large number of photographs that are used to illustrate his explanation of what Shore calls a visual grammar. I think that both photographers and fans of photography would enjoy this book.

We've really been receiving some great listener email lately, and the mail we read on this show is no exception. In one email, Professor Bear Brown asked about Wayne's extensive printing notes for his photograph of Burgess Falls. So here they are!

We would love to hear from you as well, so please drop us a line at unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You can also leave comments on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Finally, we must give a special shout out to our listeners who have "shot the extra frame" and made contributions to the production costs of the podcast. If you wish, you also can contribute by going to our Ko-fi.com account.  Thank you!

Happy Photography everyone! Now go get some good pictures!