This is the 33rd 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.
Andre Kertész 1894-1985
Stairs at Montmartre, Paris, 1926
Signed in pencil on recto
Gelatin silver print
Image/Paper: 3″ x 3-3/4″, Mount: 12″ x 9″, Mat 20″ x 16″
(#969)
“The moment always dictates in my work. Everybody can look, but they don’t necessarily see. I see a situation and I know that it’s right” ~ André Kertész (1894-1985)
André was a modernist, revolutionary. His images are always quiet and subtle. The complete opposite of “in your face” as most contemporary photography is. This is a small gem of a print. I have often kept it on a little table easel on my desk and I look at it whenever I need a dream like distraction. He keeps the central space empty and plays with light and shadow instead and creates a perspective that makes the image so fresh and unique. As his fellow Hungarian photographer and great friend Brassai said “André Kertész has two qualities that are essential for a great photographer. An insatiable curiosity about the world, about people and about life and a precise sense of form”.
Horst P. Horst 1906-1999
Round the Clock, N.Y., 1987
Signed, titled, & dated in pencil on print verso; Embossed with artist’s signature on recto
Gelatin Silver Print
Paper 14 x 11 inches; Image 12 x 9 3/4 inches
(#906)
“He put a little bit of himself into every picture. He was humble, very quiet, very kind. It was as if he didn’t understand or couldn’t connect to the fact that he held a major place in fashion history and photographic history” ~ Carol Alt (Model)
Horst was 79 years old when he took this photograph, an age when most people would contemplate slowing down a bit or maybe even begin to lose some of their artistic drive or energy. But not Horst. He was commissioned to shoot an advertising campaign for “Round The Clock Hosiery”. What he created was one of the great images of his long and illustrious career.
It is reminiscent of his great 1930’s fashion photographs with the use of dark shadows and bright high lights with light sources coming from the side rather than above. He also seems to be referencing his early interest in surrealism with the use of a cropped and disembodied figure with the legs in this image seeming to be torso-less, emerging only from the wide net petticoat.
It could have been shot yesterday by some young, “hot”, wunderkind fashion photographer rather than by an “old master” whose craft and skill and creativity never left him.
Elliott Erwitt
Douglas, Wyoming. 1954. ‘Boy in cowboy hat & collie’
Signed in ink on recto
Gelatin silver print
20 x 16″ sheet; 17.5 x 12″ image
(#970)
“To me photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them” ~ Elliott Erwitt
Tenderness is not something one finds frequently in Contemporary Art and Photography. Much of it to my eye seems to be deliberately produced to “shock” and “confront” the viewer. Just not for me I’m afraid. Elliott’s work is deeply human and heart felt and dare I use that not very “au courant“ word.. beautiful. That is just fine with me. I’m happy to linger with his images, viewing after viewing including this rarely seen “gem”.
Steve McCurry 1950
Men Playing Chess, India, 1996
Signed and numbered in ink on verso
Digital C-Print on Fuji Crystal Paper
30 x 40 inches
Edition 3 of 15
(#965)
“I’m interested primarily in people, and human behavior – how people relate to each other and their environment.” ~ Steve McCurry
This photograph is a perfect example of the Steve’s fantastic eye for color. Set in India, the setting of many of Steve’s brilliant images, we see the subjects red garments blaze against the blue walls of their surroundings. You can’t help but but wonder about their chess game and the woman passing through. What a visual delight.
Jeffrey Conley 1969
Figure in Vast Landscape, Iceland, 2018 (Printed 2023)
Signed and numbered in pencil on recto. Stamped, titled, dated and numbered on verso.
Platinum/Palladium Print
Image – 11″x14″, Matted – 20″x22″
Edition 5 of 10
(#963)
“I think of being out in the landscape as a time to harvest observations – then in the darkroom is the time where the observation finds its voice, its landing space in its physical manifestation as a platinum/ palladium print.” ~ Jeffrey Conley
Jeff is so inspiring. He gives us a tremendous image like this one, which is an incredible feat in itself. Then he goes into the darkroom and labors over a beautiful platinum / palladium print. A delicate and tedious process. He really can do it all.
Ruth Bernhard 1905-2006
Spanish Dancer, 1971
Signed in pencil on recto; signed, titled & dated in pencil with the photographer’s copyright stamp on verso
Selenium-toned gelatin silver print
11 x 14 inches
(#953)
“I try to be aware of light at all times. I’m always watching for it. I am not looking at light because I am a photographer. I am a photographer because I am deeply involved with light” ~ Ruth Bernhard
“I believe in and make no apologies for photography. It is the most important graphic medium of our time. It does not have to be indeed cannot be compared to painting. It has different means and aims” ~ Edward Weston
Ruth met Edward Weston by chance walking along Santa Monica Beach in the 1930’s. His dedication to his art and the frugality with which he lived had a profound effect on her which she carried with her throughout her long and productive professional life. She often said “I have had many loves in my life but what I have never had a person in my life whom I loved more than Edward Weston”. She found her own voice and created a body of sensual female nudes unparalleled by anyone.
Henri Cartier-Bresson 1908-2004
Ile de la Cite, Paris, 1952, printed later
Signed in ink on recto
Gelatin Silver Print
Paper 12 x 16 inches; Image 9 1/2 x 14 inches
(#961)
“A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos” ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson
Paris was Henri’s heartbeat. He knew so well every corner of it and every breath the city ever took throughout his long and unparalleled productive photographic life. I tell everyone who comes into my gallery that without him I wouldn’t be here. Wandering with his hand held Leica he came across a familiar vista, one he had seen hundreds of times before as many of us have. But it was something different this particular day. He must have been thinking about his early training as a painter and he created something truly dreamlike. It almost seems something completely non photographic. Like a charcoal drawing. Pure magic.
Yousuf Karsh 1908-2002
Albert Einstein, 1948, printed later
Mounted on archival board. Signed in ink on recto.
Gelatin Silver Print
19 x 21 inches
(#947)
“At Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, I found Einstein, a simple, kindly almost childlike man, too great for any of the posturing of eminence. One did not have to understand his science to feel the power of his mind or the force of his personality. He spoke sadly, yet sincerely as one who had looked into the universe, far past mankind’s small affairs. When I asked him what the world would be like were another atomic bomb to be dropped, he replied wearily “Alas we will no longer be able to hear the music of Mozart”. ~ Yousuf Karsh
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning” ~ Albert Einstein
Without doubt the greatest portrait ever taken of one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century.
In portrait after portrait I never cease to be amazed at Karsh’s constant ability. He has captured the essence of the soul of every subject before his lens. He never seemed to miss or have a bad day. He had a supreme insight into what makes a person tick and the technical ability and subtle nuance to connect us to them.
Cig Harvey
Claire in the Forsythia, Rockport, Maine, 2010
Signed, titled and dated in ink on photographer’s label; Signed in ink on verso
Archival pigment print
Image 14″ x 14″, Paper 21″ x 17″, Matted 30″ x 24″
Edition 4 of 10
(#849)
How to Force Blossoms 1. Acknowledge out loud your desperation for spring. 2. Find branches with plenty of buds on them. 3. Cut the stems at an angle. 4. Arrange in warm water. 5. Change the water daily. 6. Place in indirect sunlight all over the house. 7. Wait. Warning — Forcing forsythia may cause a temporary aversion to violet, its opposite on the color spectrum. ~Cig Harvey
Today we bring you a strategy for winter survival – and a glorious floral vision, seen through the eyes of British Artist Cig Harvey. In her own words, “The ephemeral nature of flowers is a perfect metaphor for what it is to be human, what it is to feel. My pictures are often of flowers, but they are not about flowers; they are about living and dying. Searching for and bearing witness to beauty to share it with others is a political act. The experience I want the viewer to have with this collection of photographs is the same as when I find the images—a feeling in the body, a witness to something rare in an everyday world. Experience this. Feel this. They are an invitation to experience the natural world in an immersive way, to find and celebrate beauty in the everyday.”
Pentti Sammallahti 1950
Paris, France (Tree, Bridge & Birds), 2011
Gelatin silver print
10 x 8 inches. Image size 9 x 6 1/4 inches. Signed & dated in pencil on recto.
(#779)
“The most important thing is the luck, behind every good image there is the good luck too” ~ Pentti Sammallahti
Pentti may have more good luck than the rest of us. Every photograph seems to have a sense of serendipity. How lucky he was on this day to catch this composition of nature and the city at peace. A mood on the banks of the Seine in Paris.
Sebastião Salgado
Workers Struggle to Remove Bolts, Oil Wells, Kuwait, 1987
Signed in pencil on recto
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil on verso
Gelatin Silver Print
Image 13 1/4″x16 1/2″, Paper 16×20″, Matted 20×24″
(#429)
“Photography is much more than just taking pictures – it is a way of life, what you feel, what you want to express, your ideology and your ethics.It is a language that allows you to travel over the wave of history.”~ Sebastião Salgado
I don’t know anyone who has travelled over so many waves of history than Sebastião. He is a true force of nature as is his wife Lélia. Together, they have shown us situations that we may not have voluntarily chosen to see on our own but have awakened us to the world we live in and what issues as a species we need to confront and discuss and must open our eyes to…His Kuwait series is a great example of one such body of work that once viewed, can never be forgotten.
Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave, #A1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
http://www.peterfetterman.com
The Power of Photography is now a book published by ACC ART Books.
Peter Fetterman : The Power of Photography
ACC ART Books
Pages: 256 pages
Size: 7.87 in x 9.06 in
ISBN: 9781788841221
$45.00
https://www.accartbooks.com/us/book/the-power-of-photography/
www.accartbooks.com
