Film Photography Makes A "Stunning" Comeback

[chris_livsey]

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For those interested in the above picture some time should be spent in looking over this work which gives the truth behind the "melted in the darkroom" rolls.

 

http://www.nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/photocritic/major-stories/major-series-2014/robert-capa-on-d-day/

[EoinC]

For those interested in the above picture some time should be spent in looking over this work which gives the truth behind the "melted in the darkroom" rolls.

 

http://www.nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/photocritic/major-stories/major-series-2014/robert-capa-on-d-day/

...and there is this...

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[adan]

EoinC - did you read A.D. Coleman's extensive investigation, linked to by chris_livsey?

 

Much more recent material than that 2011 video - and Morris has grudgingly conceded, since then, that there likely never were more than 11 pictures taken by Capa on D-Day, nor was the film damaged in processing. Capa panicked and fled the beach-head. The "melted film" story appears to have been a coverup, mostly to keep LIFE in New York from firing Capa, originally.

 

Which in no way should reflect on the majority of Capa's career and demonstrable courage.

 

BTW - absolutely fascinating stuff in that Coleman work, addressing a huge swath of subjects: from the ethics of history and journalism, to making journalists mythological celebrities, to the technical inner workings and mysteries of Contax and Leica cameras vis-à-vis Kodak's film magazines (Super-X fans will get a nod), to battlefield analysis of, and by using, his pictures, by military experts. Something for everyone - and all from one curious photographer's original doubts.

 

It won a national award for investigative journalism history.

 

But it probably should be broken out as its own thread - it deserves it, and further commentary will only clutter this one.

[EoinC]

EoinC - did you read A.D. Coleman's extensive investigation, linked to by chris_livsey?

 

Much more recent material than that 2011 video - and Morris has grudgingly conceded, since then, that there likely never were more than 11 pictures taken by Capa on D-Day, nor was the film damaged in processing. Capa panicked and fled the beach-head. The "melted film" story appears to have been a coverup, mostly to keep LIFE in New York from firing Capa, originally.

 

Which in no way should reflect on the majority of Capa's career and demonstrable courage.

 

BTW - absolutely fascinating stuff in that Coleman work, addressing a huge swath of subjects: from the ethics of history and journalism, to making journalists mythological celebrities, to the technical inner workings and mysteries of Contax and Leica cameras vis-à-vis Kodak's film magazines (Super-X fans will get a nod), to battlefield analysis of, and by using, his pictures, by military experts. Something for everyone - and all from one curious photographer's original doubts.

 

It won a national award for investigative journalism history.

 

But it probably should be broken out as its own thread - it deserves it, and further commentary will only clutter this one.

Yes, Andy - The video is from 2011, before the 2014 TIME video (which I can't run on the TIME site). I wasn't posting it to back Morris' version - just to show it, and how vehemently he stated it. It is an impressive piece of investigative journalism, and shows how susceptible we all are to a consistently pushed story. Once it got to TIME faking the 'missing' frames, it is clear that getting the story can easily supersede ethical concerns. It is that level of complicity that is of great concern.

 

The original deception is somewhat forgivable in the context of WWII, and the prevailing propaganda of the time. It then took on another dimension when it became popular, and the story grew legs, with no-one wanting to let the hot air out of the balloon. Incredibly long legs, though , when they could drive further unethical behaviour 70 years later.

 

We are fortunate to have the likes of Coleman and Baughman to question our blind beliefs.

[chris_livsey]

Yes, Andy - The video is from 2011, before the 2014 TIME video (which I can't run on the TIME site). I wasn't posting it to back Morris' version - just to show it, and how vehemently he stated it. It is an impressive piece of investigative journalism, and shows how susceptible we all are to a consistently pushed story. Once it got to TIME faking the 'missing' frames, it is clear that getting the story can easily supersede ethical concerns. It is that level of complicity that is of great concern.

 

The original deception is somewhat forgivable in the context of WWII, and the prevailing propaganda of the time. It then took on another dimension when it became popular, and the story grew legs, with no-one wanting to let the hot air out of the balloon. Incredibly long legs, though , when they could drive further unethical behaviour 70 years later.

 

We are fortunate to have the likes of Coleman and Baughman to question our blind beliefs.

I am pleased to have stimulated this interest. Just for the record this in no way reduces my admiration for Capa's work, indeed the "damaged film" story was not invented by him, although he was a master of "inventing" stories around himself and I suspect although we will never know he rather liked the story.

The irony is, in the context of blurred shots and this thread, that had he presented 10 rolls of perfectly exposed and focussed images they would almost certainly not had the visceral impact of the few frames he did make.

 

In some small investigative way I cast doubt on another famous/infamous quote of HCB  "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept"

 

The quote appears to be part of a conversation apparently during a portrait commission by "Vanity Fair" of Helmut Newton as subject towards the end of HCB's life. It does not appear in print AFAIK directly written by HCB but is reported by Newton as said by HCB during the shoot, but as I discuss below that seems unlikely.

 

"He had his little Leica," Newton remembers, "and he simply would point and shoot." Since Cartier-Bresson's hand isn't as steady as it used to be, some of the pictures were a bit fuzzy. "Sharpness," he told Newton, "is a bourgeois concept." Newton sits back and laughs: "I thought that was just divine."

The portrait session was July 4th 2000

Reported in "Newsweek" 6/2/03

 

Presumably this was not said during the session, although the narrative flow would suggest that, as HCB was on film and not "chimping" so sharpness at that point would not be "seen" !!! So it perhaps formed part of a discussion over the contact sheets later, this is not made clear.

That Newton would have seen and discussed the contacts however is strange as HCB was famously reluctant to share contact sheets. Did Newton and HCB meet again later to discuss which frames to submit  and he made the comment then but Newton placed the comment at the time of the shoot for a "better" anecdote?

Alternatively perhaps HCB was aware his hands were unsteady during the shoot and he was repeating frames which Newton, as a photographer noticed and commented on, but surely that would be common practice in such a session, and Newton does say "the pictures were a bit fuzzy" implying he had seen them but he could not have done so at the actual shoot.

 

 

The portrait session was July 4th 2000

Reported in "Newsweek" 6/2/03

http://europe.newsweek.com/opposites-attract-137833

 

The portrait used by "Vanity Fair" can be seen here:

https://iconicphotos.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/img013.jpg

Click to enlarge, looks sharp to me 

 

Interestingly they, "Vanity Fair", report the remark as "Focus is a ......." again interesting as I presume Newton told them the story first and "Vanity Fair" published it in 2001 whereas the "Newsweek" article is from 2003. Neither report the French and would HCB have conversed with Newton in English anyway?

 

 Just like Coleman you never know what lies at the end of the rabbit hole.

I have no hope of either the "myth" of Capa's film or the HCB "quote" ever disappearing.

Edited September 16, 2016 by chris_livsey