Above are some of my favorite photos I've taken in Philly from 2009. I traveled to NYC a few times and had some shots I really liked, but this set doesn't include them. There are definitely also some shots that I didn't upload from various shoots I did for clients, but this is a good sampling of the film and digital I shot over the year. To view larger on flickr, click here.
I wish I had done this in years past. To new traditions.
I went to The Met on the Friday after Thanksgiving before heading back to Philly. I didn't partake in the Black Friday madness so I wasn't up at 3a and I got to enter The Met right as it opened. I was free to roam most of the museum before the rush, but as you can see from the photo above, there were still 100+ there waiting to get in at open, 9.30a, along with me.
My primary reason for going was to see a special exhibition of Robert Frank's The Americans called Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans. My friend Tony graciously got me a copy of the Steidl 50th anniversary edition hardcover of the book for my birthday last year. The production was overseen by Frank himself selecting the paper, overseeing the cropping (if any) of all images and personally overseeing and approving each sheet of the final proofs in Germany in 2007. Bad ass. This is one of those seminal works in all the field of photography and I'm indebted to Tony for the lovely gift.
The Met's exhibition (which runs through January 3rd) features all 83 images, in sequence, from the book. As you walked to the entrance of the exhibit, you were greeted by 8×10 – 11×14 images from works previous to The Americans. In front of the open doorway to the photos were a couple 12' tall scanned images of some of Frank's contact sheets which went into the making of The Americans. He went through 767 rolls of film over 2 years as he criss-crossed the country making photos. You really get a look at the thought process when you look at a person's contact sheets. I think it would be cool to see the 'contact sheets' of today's digital photogs. You can see when a master like Frank drastically underexposes images in sequence every once in awhile; it makes you not feel too bad for muffing one here and there. Maybe he adjusted the shutter speed dial of his Leica M3 or aperture dial of one of his lenses. Regardless, the mistakes were corrected the next frame.
One of my favorite images from the show is not from the book. It's his image titled City of London, 1951 (above). He went to London to photograph the bankers. You can feel the man in a top hat at the bottom left walking right through you. The morning (or evening? or midday?) fog in the distance of the alleyway. A woman across the street walking briskly in a fur coat. The strong vanishing lines of the sidewalks, windowsills and people running to the distance from right to left. The flash of bright white of the banker's crisp shirt in sharp contrast to the muddy grey of the rest of the image. His whole silhouette draws your eye. Shot at 50mm, Frank must have been close.
The book was a project Frank started after receiving a Guggenheim grant with the help of friend (and my photographic idol) Walker Evans in 1955. The actual grant application was under glass in the first room of the exhibition. His goal was:
To photograph freely, throughout the United States, using the miniature camera exclusively. The making of a broad, voluminous picture record of things American, past and present. This project is essentially the visual study of a civilization and will include caption notes; but it is only partially a documentary in nature: one of the aims is more artistic than the word documentary implies. Applicant elaborates this matter in separate accompanying statement of plans.
On another informational placard it noted that Frank created 1000 work prints and laid them out all over his house while culling to the final 83. Hundreds of work prints were up on a wall to see the selection process. Different colored pencils/markers/pens were used to cull and crop. It was noted on a placard, I believe by the curator of the show, that Frank's original captions are subtle, forcing an intellectual reading of the images. None are obvious, but not wholly metaphorical, but a detail of the event as a whole. For example…
In this photo titled: Rodeo, NYC 1954 [#65 in sequence], you see a man, a cowboy in the middle of NYC. A Dodge pickuptruck with a bed cover (pre Leed!) in the background. A lovely curve through the brim of the 10-gallon hat atop the plaid-laden cowboy. Below the fist-sized buckle are some pre-hipster slim fit, 5-pocket, dungarees slipping into well-worn, almost-to-the-knee stitched boots. He's dipping his head down to stick a freshly rolled cig into his mouth with his right hand and a left hand, adorned with a simple wedding band, is surely about to follow with the clink of a Zippo. Leaned up against a familiar wire mesh NYC trashcan, this cowboy is nowhere near a rodeo as we know it, but that might not be where this cowboy's mind is at.
There were dozens of contact sheets in the middle of each room which I thought was a nice use of space. Instead of blocking off the rooms into smaller spaces for walls to hang photos, the glass cases housed the process behind the book. You can see the 1-3 frame sequences as they came to fruition. For the most part, never more than 3 frames dedicated to any single subject. He shot freely. He shot confidently. He shot for himself and not for deadline nor art director. He didn't have to spend rolls of film on a single subject, aiming to get it right for someone else. He knew what he wanted, he shot it how he wanted and he moved on feeding his hungry eye.
I could also check out the film stock Frank shot in 1955-1956 with the contact sheets laid out for all to see. Kodak's Tri-X, Super XX, Plus X as well as Ilford Hypersensitive were 4 of the ones I noticed. Judging from what I've read and saw in the photos, he was shooting primarily 50mm with some 90mm and a little wider than 50mm.
In His photo 'Barber shop through screen door – McClellanville, SC' [#38 in sequence] he literally peers into a barbershop through a screen door 40 miles northeast along the Atlantic from Charleston. In Frank's shade, you can see into the barbershop, but around his silhouette you see the reflection of the suburban houses across the street through the dappled sunlight of the heavily shaded sidewalks laden with tall, old trees. A lone, empty barber's chair. A shelf full of hair tonics. Frank is saying to the viewer "through my eyes, under my guidance, I present the world."
I thoroughly enjoyed my hour peering at Frank's images. It's always great to see images under glass in a museum in large format. The images were between 8×10 and 16×20. If you're in NYC between now and January 3, I highly recommend you go see the show. I know the show was in DC's National Gallery of Art earlier this year from January to April, but I'm not sure where this show is headed next, if at all. At the very least, go pick up a copy of the book. You won't be disappointed with any copy I'm sure, but the Steidl version Tony gave me is sublime and I highly recommend it.
I cannot begin to state how happy a proper bagel makes me. I grew up in NY and living in Philly for the last 6 years, I've grown to appreciate a few things about NY I always took for granted. When I go back to NY, I almost always get at least one bagel in during my trip. When I went back up for Turkey Day, I was in NYC on Black Friday intent on going to The Met for a photo exhibit. I stopped into Tal Bagels at 86/Lexington for a plain bagel, cream cheese, lox and some fresh squeezed OJ. And there it is above.
It set me back a good amount of dough, but it was worth it. That crisp crunch of the boiled and baked crust. The chewy, doughy, just barely sour inside. How the cream cheese melds with the first millimeter or so of dough. I asked for it lightly toasted, but when the guy behind the counter split it open, a puff of vapor emerged from the bagel "it's still warm" he said as he turned to me. I smiled and nodded in satisfaction – I had gotten the first of the new batch from the oven.
He wrapped up the bagel after slathering on 1/4lbs or so of lox and squeezed out some fresh OJ into a bottle. I sat down by the steamy window (fresh bagels were being pumped out from the back regularly as it was the second wave of the morning rush) and got to work on my feast. The bagels were up to snuff so I got me a dozen for the road. Normally, you get a bakers dozen, but at Tal, you get an extra 3, count em 3, bagels for 15. My bag, and my clothes inside the bag, smelled deliciously of bagels for the rest of the day and ride back to Philly.
Well, it finally happened: R. Bradley Maule, aka BLove, has left Philadelphia. He's probably unpacking boxes right now at his new pad in Portland, OR with his lovely wifey Rachel. That's right – Brad left Philly for the Left Coast. A sad day. He was one of Philly's greatest spokespersons with quite the online presence backed up by visits to just about every neighborhood there was on foot. He knew what was going on in City Hall, he knew what was going on 57 floors in the air and several stories below ground. His photos and prose will sorely be missed.
A couple weeks ago me and a few others had some goodbye drinks and laughs with him in his favorite building, the PSFS buliding (in Sole Food). I've known Brad for 5 years now (I just dug up the first email thread we had back in February of 2005 – he commented on my blog 4 days prior) and while our face to face meets have been few, we've exchanged, what seems to be, a few thousand emails. I've read his site – PhillySkyline.com – religiously for 5 years now and it's going to be weird not having his opinion on all things Philly. It'll remain up as an archive, but nothing new will be posted.
Brad took me up with him on a hardhat tour of the Comcast Center months before its completion (no windows up on the floors we were on). He brought me up 33 floors in the PSFS building for this amazing view. He's put me on to a lot of cool stuff in Philly and I can't thank him enough for that.
But all is not lost. Brad will continue to take photos and he'll surely emerge discussing the goings on of the Left Coast at some point. For now, you can check out his newly created flickr photos and look out for new content on Maule of America in 2010. Brad's Farewell, Philadelphia slideshow.
All the best to you friend. And now I know somebody up in the NW for when I make it out there. Brad'll be scoping out the food scene for sure.
