NEW TWINE

F yes

2012-03-13T00:46:00.008-04:00

Lettering from the Type Archive.

California

2012-03-13T00:43:00.001-04:00

William Eggleston. California, 2000.

A real beauty, from Eggleston in the 21st century at Chiem and Reid in 2010.

Sheron Rupp

2012-03-07T13:31:00.004-05:00

Roy and Johnnie, Wartrace, Tennessee. 1990.
Oxbow, Northampton, MA, 2000.
Elkins, Arkansas. 1987.

"I immediately fell in love with what I could do with a camera- more immediate seeing, more of the real world."

A great interview with the photographer Sheron Rupp in the eighth issue of Ahorn magazine. Written by fellow Virginian Susan Worsham.

Previously: John Szarkowski on Rupp's perfect picture.

Winslow Homer

2012-02-29T16:17:00.002-05:00

Winslow Homer. Farmer with a Pitchfork, 1874.

Copper plate

2012-02-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

A copper printing plate from eBay, 1924 map of Vermont.

Eggleston at Work

2012-02-13T22:35:00.000-05:00

William Eggleston. Untitled, 1970.

Hopper drawing

2012-01-21T18:32:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of the fall this drawing by Edward Hopper appeared on eBay. It ended just short of $450.

Adams at Home

2012-01-11T08:37:00.006-05:00

Joshua Chuang, Bookcase in the home of Robert and Kerstin Adams.

Some notes from curator Joshua Chuang on several recent books by Robert Adams on the Yale Press Blog.

I'm very interested in the books on these shelves! In the top right case I recognize the complete watercolor and oil paintings of Edward Hopper and Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist, each edited by Gail Levin. The rest are a mystery to me.

Fairfield Porter

2012-01-06T07:59:00.002-05:00

Fairfield Porter. The Beginning of the Fields. 1973.

Three Mormon Towns

2011-12-23T23:12:00.004-05:00

Photographs from Dorothea Lange's Three Mormon Towns, an exhibition hosted by Bringham Young University earlier this year. A small preview at ArtBlart.

To A Cabin

2011-12-23T22:57:00.003-05:00

"Shortly before her death...she published a small book of pictures that she made of her family at a cabin on the shore near San Francisco. I often turn to that book when I'm tired. I thank her for it - for its warmth."

Robert Adams in conversation with students at Reed College. From Along Some Rivers, published by Aperture in 2006.

Good Grass

2011-12-23T22:24:00.002-05:00

Eric Lindbloom. Three from Salt Grass published by Lodima Press.

Brassed Leica

2011-12-21T17:26:00.003-05:00

A real beauty!
Via Fotochaton.

Levitt Dye Transfers

2011-10-25T20:17:00.005-04:00

What a dope! Two dye transfer prints by Helen Levitt just sold on eBay for $300 apiece. These cycled through unsold several times at $300 and while I hemmed and then hawed these were snapped up. And with good reason! According to the seller they were made by the noted printer Frank Tartaro in New York City. An edition of three, with one of the prints going to Ms. Levitt herself.

North South East West

2011-09-11T14:00:00.003-04:00

Lee Friedlander. Richard Benson. 2010.

Richard Benson. California. 2006.

Richard Benson. California. 2009.

Richard Benson. California. 2006.

Richard Benson, North South East West
Pace MacGill Gallery, 32 East 57th Street, New York
September 8 - October 22, 2011

Friedlander, New 35

2011-09-08T13:26:00.005-04:00

Lee Friedlander. San Francisco. 2009.

Still got it! A recent picture by Friedlander, swapping out the Superwide for the Leica.

Feather, 1839

2011-09-02T18:59:00.003-04:00

Michael Faraday. Feather. Salted-paper print. 1839.

An early salt print from right around the birth of photography that floated onto my desk late this August.

Nathaniel Stebbins - Yacht Portraits

2011-08-30T22:53:00.003-04:00

Nathaniel Stebbins. Shamrock. c. 1898.

Nathaniel Stebbins. James W. Parker. c. 1907.

Keep an eye out for a beautiful portfolio of Stebbins's work, Yacht Portraits of the Leading American Yachts. Published by Brentano's in 1889. Printed in photogravure by the Boston Photogravure Company. More photographs in the MIT Museum Collections.

Always

2011-08-18T22:08:00.001-04:00

Coke sign, 25x26 inches. On eBay.

Evaporating R

2011-08-10T12:28:00.004-04:00

Letter by Nick Benson at the John Stevens Shop. Newport, RI.

Photo by Jesse Marsolais.

Winogrand on eBay

2011-07-21T08:54:00.005-04:00

A signed print by Garry Winogrand, on eBay.

The same seller recently closed this sale.

White light and positive energy is only used to bring powerful MONEY increase to your energyI use my own specially blessed and powerfully blended Oils along with Tarot, Runes, Incense and Candles to cast the spell that I can customize to fit your needs.Casting is next day. Bring more money for secure happiness into your life. I have cast many spells for money with very good results. Try today and see the money come your way.

Current bid: $735.00

Alan Lomax

2011-07-20T14:42:00.004-04:00

Old Bight. Cat Island, Bahamas. 1935.

Children Playing. Eastonville, Florida. 1935.

Old Bight. Cat Island, Bahamas. 1935.

From the Library of Congress.

Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute

2011-07-15T19:44:00.005-04:00

Frances Benjamin Johnston. Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. 1899.

More work by Johnston from the Hampton Institute along with thousands of other photographs made in Virginia at the Library of Congress.

Bessie

2011-07-14T09:14:00.004-04:00

"Bessie, daughter of Zion, mother of three, she lives in a small village settled on an isolated ox-cart trail in 1858 by ten families."

From Dorothea Lange Looks at the American Country Woman.

Sheep

2011-07-06T19:21:00.003-04:00

Walker Evans. Untitled. Circa 1930.

Richard Benson. Tethered Sheep. 1995.

U.S. Rubber

2011-07-06T16:18:00.003-04:00

Edward Hopper. Shakespeare at Dusk. 1935.

Walker Evans. U.S. Rubbers Sign, New York City. 1928-29.

The Morning Paper

2011-05-30T10:40:00.002-04:00

Larry Sultan. Pictures from Home, 1982-1992.

William Eggleston. Self Portrait, 1970s.

Cotton Sharecropper Families

2011-05-29T19:42:00.006-04:00

Photographs of Cotton Sharecropper Families. An album of 107 silver prints from Walker Evans's work with James Agee in Alabama. At the Library of Congress.

Final Marks

2011-05-29T19:17:00.005-04:00

Final Marks by Frank Muhly, Jr. and Peter O'Neill. A wonderful documentary made in 1979 about the lettercutters of the John Stevens Shop in Newport, Rhode Island.

Lloyd's Saw

2011-05-25T07:20:00.002-04:00

From Lloyd's blog.

Half Plate

2011-05-11T10:30:00.004-04:00

Mathew Brady. Benjamin B. French, half-length portrait, facing left. 1844-1860. Daguerreotype.

Grease Points

2011-05-08T08:24:00.003-04:00

"All this about inspiration. . . . Now look, I can't tell you anything about methods of work. . . . But I do think that all this about inspiration--I think writing is mainly work. Like a mechanic's job. A mechanic might as well say he was waiting for inspiration before he greased your car because if he didn't feel just right he'd miss a lot of the grease points, that he had to feel right up to it."

E.B. White. The New York Times. "The Author of One Man's Meat Talks About Writing and Country Living." 2 August 1942.

Keeping Early Hours

2011-05-06T22:44:00.003-04:00

"If anybody has a job and starts at 9, there's no reason why they can't get up at 4:30 or 5 and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day - which is what I did."

Mary Oliver. "A Solitary Walk." Christian Science Monitor. 9 December 1992.

Previously: Rise and Shine

Ozarks

2011-04-18T16:22:00.001-04:00

Dorothea Lange. Ozarks, Missouri. 1938.

Pine Valley

2011-04-08T11:08:00.001-04:00

Robert Adams. Baker County, Oregon. 2003.

From Pine Valley.

Rise and Shine

2011-04-07T18:14:00.003-04:00

"The best photographers go to bed early, and are up before sunrise. They may miss the evening light, but on the basis of photography's evidence the dawn appears to be even better."

John Szarkowski. Atget. Museum of Modern Art. 2000.

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

Robert Adams. Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques. May 1995.

Allman's Barbecue

2011-04-03T10:39:00.001-04:00

Eric Marth. Fredericksburg, Virginia. 2011.

Good Barns

2011-04-02T20:57:00.003-04:00

David Plowden. Ventilator, Galen Zeger's Barn. 2002.

David Plowden. Round Barn. 1965.

David Plowden. Gabrel Roof Barn. 1965.

Images from the David Plowden archive at the Beinecke Library.

Haywood in February

2011-04-02T19:32:00.002-04:00

Eric Marth. Haywood Farm. 2011

Eugene Atget's Workroom

2011-04-01T19:23:00.001-04:00

Eugene Atget. Ca. 1910.

Walker Evans - Polaroids

2011-03-30T10:29:00.005-04:00

Walker Evans. Polaroids.

Friedlander at Work

2011-03-29T08:31:00.003-04:00

"At sixty-five I retired from everything except work."
Lee Friedlander

Haircuts $5.00

2011-03-26T20:45:00.006-04:00

Rogers' Retirement.

Virginia Spring

2011-03-24T17:10:00.001-04:00

Joel Sternfeld. Coeburn, Virginia. 1981.

Walker Evans - Fredericksburg

2011-03-24T12:09:00.005-04:00

Walker Evans. Frame Houses. Fredericksburg, Virginia. 1936.

This image was included in Evans's American Photographs, and cropped a bit differently. It was made on Hanover Street in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A few of the houses here are standing today and in fine repair!

Big Fan

2011-03-24T10:19:00.003-04:00

Eric Marth. Fredericksburg, Virginia. 2008.

Eric Paddock

2011-03-23T23:12:00.002-04:00

Eric Paddock. From Belonging to the West.

Madison County

2011-03-19T17:47:00.001-04:00

Eric Marth. Madison County, Virginia. 2011.

Walker Evans - John Stevens Shop

2011-03-18T01:18:00.000-04:00

Walker Evans. John Stevens Shop. Newport, Rhode Island.

In a note from Nick Benson I learned that this photograph shows John Benson's lettering for a commission from Smith College.

Asparagus

2011-03-16T15:36:00.003-04:00

Eric Marth. King George, Virginia. 2011.

February

2011-03-12T12:28:00.002-05:00

Eric Marth. King George, Virginia. 2011.

Hopper's Grasses

2011-03-12T08:09:00.002-05:00

Two Hands

2011-03-09T21:03:00.002-05:00

Dorothea Lange. Migratory Cotton Picker. Eloy, Arizona. 1940.

Wright Morris. Untitled. 1940s.

Latane Laundry

2011-03-09T11:19:00.003-05:00

Eric Marth. Blenheim Farm. Westmoreland County, Virginia. 2010

Tom Waits and Robert Frank

2011-03-07T08:45:00.002-05:00

Ted Barron. New York City, 1985.

Waits and Frank on the cover of Rain Dogs. From the New York Times.

William Christenberry - Signs

2011-02-27T01:56:00.002-05:00

William Christenberry. Collected signs.

Sheron Rupp

2011-02-26T16:07:00.002-05:00

Sheron Rupp. St. Albans, Vermont. 1991.

John Szarkowski on Rupp's "perfect picture."

Mr. Bennett

2011-02-26T13:50:00.004-05:00

Paul Strand. Mr. Bennett, Vermont. 1944.

"Who can say what amalgam of memory, dreams, study, pain and discipline brought Paul Strand to photograph Mr. Bennett and to record him so perfectly? The picture is almost as unaccountable as the fact of Mr. Bennett, we are left with our little cosmologies and the certainty that we will never fully know. But we continue to speculate, as we do with all great art, because the picture is clearer than life and in this consoling."

Robert Adams. Why People Photograph.

William Eggleston: Photographer

2011-02-26T10:22:00.006-05:00

The full version of Reiner Holzemer's short documentary William Eggleston: Photographer is online.

Bulletin Board

2011-02-25T13:50:00.002-05:00

Robert Adams at Home

2011-02-21T20:19:00.002-05:00

Robert Adams. Colorado Springs, 1969.

Robert Adams. Longmont, Colorado. 1980.

Fireman's Fairgrounds

2011-02-20T09:56:00.003-05:00

Eric Marth. Orange County, Virginia. 2009.

Unionville, Virginia

2011-02-16T09:51:00.001-05:00

Eric Marth. Unionville, Virginia. 2009.

A Visit with Richard Benson

2011-02-16T09:42:00.005-05:00

In the winter of 2009 photographer Steven Smith made a visit to Richard Benson's work house in Newport, Rhode Island. Read for more photographs of Benson's workrooms and garden, and for notes on some recent work.

Twine Sign

2011-02-13T11:20:00.003-05:00

From flickr.

Richard Benson - Light Meters

2011-02-11T22:42:00.005-05:00

"I sometimes go so far as to say that no great black and white photograph was made with a light meter, unless it was being used to hold up the sagging bellows of an old view camera."

Richard Benson. The Printed Picture.

Dead End

2011-02-09T12:28:00.006-05:00

Lee Friedlander. Walker Evans, Connecticut. 1974

Walker Evans. Connecticut. 1974.

Second Place

2011-02-08T23:25:00.002-05:00

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. 2010.

John Stevens Shop

2011-02-01T12:41:00.008-05:00

John Stevens II. Elisabeth Havery. 1724.

John Stevens Jr. Esther Halliock. 1773.

Philip Stevens. Job Harris. 1729.

Philip Stevens Sons. Amos Baker. 1886.

John Stevens Jr. Nathaniel Waldron. 1769.

John Stevens Shop. John Howard Benson. 1956

Photographs from the Faber Gravestone Collection.

Fairfield Porter

2011-01-30T22:46:00.003-05:00

Fairfield Porter. South Meadow. Lithograph. 1972.

Wrecks

2011-01-28T08:26:00.004-05:00

Photographs purchased on eBay.

William Carlos Williams & Walker Evans

2011-01-27T10:12:00.006-05:00

One early and notable review of American Photographs was written by the great poet William Carlos Williams. The article appeared in the New Republic in the fall of 1938. A few years ago I copied the article from microfilm and offer the full text here.

William Carlos Williams. "Sermon With a Camera." The New Republic. October 12, 1938.

Walker Evans - Signs

2011-01-26T10:57:00.009-05:00

"I'm interested in signs a great deal right now, so I find that I do signs whenever I can find them. I usually swipe them too: I have a wonderful collection!" Walker Evans at Harvard, 5 April 1975.

Signs from the Walker Evans archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Milano Chow

2011-01-25T21:24:00.002-05:00

Milano Chow. Student Ascending Stairs. Charcoal and graphite on paper. 2010.

Some new work by Milano Chow, publisher at Medium Rare.

More here.

Robert Adams - Sea Stories

2011-01-20T15:39:00.019-05:00

Robert Adams. North Beach Peninsula, Pacific County, Washington, ca. 2005.

The Yale University Art Gallery is planning two books of new work by Robert Adams: This Day and Sea Stories. Both will include photographs made over the last ten years near his home in Oregon. In an email from the gallery I learned that the books are planed for publication in the Spring of 2012. More about Sea Stories:

This publication presents Robert Adams’s latest major body of work, recently acquired by the Gallery. Designed as an artist’s book and culled from images made since the late 1990s, the publication traces the walking routes that Adams and his wife have taken regularly in the forests and along the shores near their home in coastal Oregon, where he has carefully observed the cycles of nature and the migration of birds.

There are more photographs from the projects at the gallery's site The Place We Live, a retrospective of Adams's work.