This is the eighteenth installment of the online series by Peter Fetterman Gallery called the Power of Photography highlighting hope, peace and love in the world. We invite you to enjoy and reflect on these works during this time.
Raymond Cauchetier (France, b. 1920)
Jules et Jim, course Charenton- le-pont, 1961
© Estate of Raymond Cauchetier/ Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
I can’t believe it was in 1962 that I first saw Truffaut’s great film the year it was released.
I remember exactly the cinema I saw it in, The Everyman, in Hampstead, London and who I saw it with.
Everything about the film was truly magical. Truffaut’s free spirit approach in direction, the cinematography of Raoul Coutard, the lyrical music of Georges Delerue and the superb performances of Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre. It is surely the greatest film ever made about friendship and the exhilaration of being In love.
Looking at Raymond’s (who just celebrated his 100th birthday) equally inventive images made during the shoot brings all the magic and joy back. It’s a piece of cinema impossible to forget once experienced.
Jacques Lowe (1930-2001)
“The Winner” The Biltmore Hotel, Democratic Convention, Los Angeles, July 196
© Estate of Jacques Lowe/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Tuesday November 3rd, is not only a monumentally important day for the future of America but for the rest of the world and for humanity.
Meditating on the above words of JFK brought back many memories of that special Presidency that still envelopes us with its hopes and dreams and with its joy and sadness because we know how that story ended but also a memory of a special relationship with his personal photographer, Jacques Lowe, who also possessed his own special magic.
Elliott Erwitt (b. 1928)
Waiters and chef, Hotel Ritz, Paris, France, 1969
© Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Well here is an image of pure escapism and glamour. I don’t think I’ve been to a more elegant hotel in the world than the Ritz Hotel in Paris. It deserves its reputation and more so and does not disappoint. For some reason this photo always puts a smile on my face. I always wonder who they are all looking at. Perhaps Catherine Deneuve has just walked by in the courtyard.
A few years ago whilst we were exhibiting at an art fair in New York one of our distinguished designer clients came to see us. He saw the image and told me he was working on the renovation of the Ritz Hotel and reserved it on the spot “C ‘est Parfait” he told me.
It now hangs in the bar. Check it out when you are next there.
Alfred Eisenstaedt (Germany, b. 1898-1995)
Central Park After Snow Storm, New York, 1959
© Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time Life Photo/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Alfred was small in stature but a giant as a photo journalist. A charming, elegant and intelligent man he was truly a witness to the 20Th Century. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t cross his path, from Mussolini, to Churchill to Hemingway to Marilyn Monroe to Katherine Hepburn.
I remember meeting him on Martha’s Vineyard one year where he loved to go to relax after his hectic schedule shooting for Life Magazine where he was revered as a photo god.
This is a little known “gem” in his body of work. A quiet, untypical image of one of my favourite moments – New York after a snow storm when the hustle and bustle of a fast paced, intense city becomes quiet and almost serene. I have fortunately experienced this many times in my constant travel there. Good timing for sure.
Edouard Boubat (1923-1999)
La petite fille aux feuilles mortes, 1946
© Estate of Edouard Boubat/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
When I first saw this image I wanted to meet its creator. It‘s wonderful how a simple image can lead one on a path of such rich discovery and new powerful and fullfilling collaborations and friendships.
I’ll let Edouard’s own words convey its power and his art.
“‘Little Girl with Dead Leaves’ was indeed my first photograph.
But where are our first photographs?
These lights that shine in our childhood memories.
I was walking through the Jardin du Luxembourg after the was, in 1946. I had a Rollei camera that I’d bought by selling my big dictionaries. I was still twenty years old, I was a poet, I was in love. And of course, I wasn’t thinking about any of that at all. When your life is all ahead of you, all you want to do is live. And then years have passed by; the leaves fall every autumn. You don’t say no to beauty; you don’t say no to opportunity. When you’ve found something once, can you ever give it up again? The photo just happened.
Just one. A very pale negative developed in a makeshift lab. Am I still twenty years old today? If I say yes, I still have a chance of finding that light.
I sometimes walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg and I have never seen another girl dressed in dead leaves. Every little girl is a little girl for the first time and everyone and everything I meet are just as I saw them for the first time. There is no such thing as a first photo. There are only new photos. The light is brand new today.”
~ Edouard Boubat. Paris, July 1992.
Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Mexico, b. 1902-2002)
Bicycles on Sunday (Bicicletas, Mexico), 1963
© Estate of Manuel Alvarez Bravo/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Don Manuel’s images are universal in feeling. They transcend both time and culture.
Sunday for me and, I suspect, for everyone is my most cherished day of the week. A time to recharge and contemplate. This photograph on first encounter seems so simple. But on further reflection the cyclists, in perfect cadence with the visual rhythm of the mountains rising around them, elicits for me such power and emotion. The normal human connection which is missing now from our lives which perhaps we have taken for granted.
Gianni Berengo Gardin
Venice, 1959
© Gianni Berengo Gardin/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
In the hands of an ordinary photographer this could have been just another commonplace image of a couple’s stolen moment. But Gianni imbues it with such tenderness and emotion that it has become a classic. Nothing more needs to be said about it, it’s real and honest.
Often what seems to be the simplest of images are often the hardest to pull off.
Michael Kenna (Great Britain, b. 1953)
Kussharo Lake Tree, Study 5, Kotan, Hokkaido, Japan, 2007
© Michael Kenna/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
I have known Michael Kenna now for what must be over 40 years. I think we both arrived from England on the same banana boat full of dreams. I have watched his career grow and flourish due to both his innate talent and his amazing work ethic and dedication to his craft where he has now reached the pinnacle of his profession. He has more imitators than Elvis has impersonators but like there is only one true Elvis, there is only one Michael Kenna.
Whenever I receive a package of requested prints from him it seems like Christmas Day. I know within the package there will be bountiful gifts of beauty and inspiration that will surpass one’s expectations. Such was the case with these 3 images each one more beautiful than the next.
I laid them out together and experienced an immediate transcendence to a feeling I can hardly articulate except to perhaps say otherworldly calm and peace.
I know you will feel the same.
Raymond Cauchetier (France, b. 1920)
Jules et Jim, course Charenton- le-pont, 1961
© Estate of Raymond Cauchetier/ Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
I can’t believe it was in 1962 that I first saw Truffaut’s great film the year it was released.
I remember exactly the cinema I saw it in, The Everyman, in Hampstead, London and who I saw it with.
Everything about the film was truly magical. Truffaut’s free spirit approach in direction, the cinematography of Raoul Coutard, the lyrical music of Georges Delerue and the superb performances of Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre. It is surely the greatest film ever made about friendship and the exhilaration of being In love.
Looking at Raymond’s (who just celebrated his 100th birthday) equally inventive images made during the shoot brings all the magic and joy back. It’s a piece of cinema impossible to forget once experienced.
Steve McCurry (b. 1950)
Flower Vendor at Dal Lake, 1999
© Steve McCurry/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Steve is one of the great 20th Century photojournalists in the tradition of Robert Capa,
Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith. Often it is hard for me to find him. He is constantly traveling on assignment, searching out truth and beauty. I owe my appreciation of color photography really to him over a long and joyful 30 year collaboration.
He was on assignment in India when he captured this image. Dal Lake has been called the jewel of Kashmir and has been a travelers’ destination for more than a century. Here he allows us to share a ride early one morning with the flower sellers as they ply their wares along the shores.
It is one of his most lyrical and elegant images, helping us to escape to a world of color. It evokes in me everything that a great Monet painting does – beauty and peace.
Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950)
Solovki, White Sea, Russia (Dog on motorbike), 1992
© Pentti Sammallahti/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Pentti is a one-of-a-kind human being and photographer. I asked him recently to articulate his approach to photographing dogs in particular, though his body of remarkable work is so much more extensive than this subject. Like a kind of Dr. Dolittle with a true gift and love of animals he let me into some of his secrets which I share with you now.
I don’t know anyone else in the world of Contemporary Photography that spreads so much joy and happiness through their work.
Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave, #A1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
