Author Topic: Photography dinner (Read 5174 times)

choppert · « **on:** October 07, 2008, 10:10:27 AM »

Hello all,

If you could have dinner with anyone from the history of photography (that's dead or alive) who would it be and why?
You'd get all the stories from them, could ask any question, they'd bring along their work for you to look at, and you could show them your work too.

I'll start it off....

Joel Meyerowitz (with Ed Ruscha sitting at the next table, chirping in) - I bet he'd have some great stories from New Yoyk in the sixties and seventies, the New England work and then the 9/11 work.
He could show me his magic trick for being invisible in the street, two feet away from someone's nose!

He'd bring along Cape Light photographs, and I'd show him about two photos I'd taken that I'd dare show!

Anyone else fancy a post?

Chops

Andrea. · « **Reply #1 on:** October 07, 2008, 12:00:03 PM »

Alexey Titarenko.
I'm rather partial to boiled cabbage and cucumber pate and quite fancy a night out on the town of St Petersburg. Quite like an insight into his bleaching techniques too - although my Russian is a tad rusty - non-existent actually.

tijeras · « **Reply #2 on:** October 07, 2008, 08:15:14 PM »

Edwin Hubble:
He was an astronomer who took plates with the 100 inch telescope on Mount Wilson and determined we live in an expanding universe from the images he made.

I would make sure we dined outdoors under the stars on a moonless night and would ask him what he would like photograph now if given the chance.

I would also want Hubble's pet cat, Nicolas Copernicus, to be in attendance as well since I too have a fondness for cats.

gothamtomato · « **Reply #3 on:** October 08, 2008, 01:05:44 AM »

Yousuf Karsh.

I was lucky enough to get to meet him a few times, and chat with him briefly. He was lovely. But I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to him at length about his work and all the amazing people who sat for him.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #4 on:** October 08, 2008, 02:56:23 PM »

Great post which is both easy and really hard to answer. I mean any number of photographers fit into the category of someone I'd like to have dinner with. I like eating dinner and I like talking about photography so it's a bit of a win/win really.

I already had dinner with some of my fave photo people: Skorj and Susan B on one occasion and Don Brice, El Gordo (sporting normal hair), Leon and Damion on another, but if you were to press me and I absolutely HAD to narrow it down to a single person I'd reluctantly cancel the seating arrangement featuring Simon Norfolk, William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Fazal Sheikh, Anders Petersen, Josef Koudelka, James Fee and some others and move to a small corner table in a bustling little cafe somewhere in the Big Bad City in the dead of night and get Weegee to tell me all about it. About everything. What a night that would be!!

Francois · « **Reply #5 on:** October 08, 2008, 03:16:32 PM »

What do you do when all the great photographers you'd like to go out for dinner are already dead? Apart from making you loose your lunch, they sadly wouldn't be much of a chat anymore

Oh, well... I could hope in a future life to get to meet William Mortensen, or any of the great ones like Weston or Adams...

But to be more realistic, the easiest and most probable would be to get a chance to meet the great Ed and wonderful Leon

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #6 on:** October 09, 2008, 01:17:09 AM »

Quote from: Francois on October 08, 2008, 03:16:32 PM

But to be more realistic, the easiest and most probable would be to get a chance to meet the great Ed and wonderful Leon

...and up until this moment I'd always thought you were a very knowledgeable gent with impeccable judgement.

Francois · « **Reply #7 on:** October 09, 2008, 03:25:10 PM »

Quote from: ed.wenn on October 09, 2008, 01:17:09 AM

...and up until this moment I'd always thought you were a very knowledgeable gent with impeccable judgement.

Well... you've got to make do with what you've got

Stu · « **Reply #8 on:** October 09, 2008, 04:42:40 PM »

It would have to be Salgado.

I have always been a fan but until recently I had never seen his work on the wall. His 'In Principio' gallery showing absolutely blew me away - it's that feeling you get where when (after many many hours) you coax yourself away and on the walk home you waste more film than ever before in your life, desperate to be a better photographer! Totally inspiring.

It's a bit like when as a kid you watched a cool film and for 10 minutes after it finished you thought you were the main action guy... just in a far more geeky way!

Whilst we're being all poilte and nice, I am of course sure that all of our wonderful Filmwasters host's work would have the same effect... but that goes without saying!

I don't think I'd bother asking Salgado too much about how he gets what he does, i'd just want to know how it made him feel (in a non soppy, manly conversation kinda way!)

choppert · « **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2008, 04:47:36 PM »

Yes, let's stop all this buttering up of our gracious hosts.

Just because they can run a website doesn't make them good photographers, just means they are nerds!

(And that was probably the last post from me before my account is removed and my face is obliterated in a Rodchenko styleee)

(the artist formerly known as) Chops

[Sorry, image deleted during forum software upgrade. Please re-upload if so inclined.]

Stu · « **Reply #10 on:** October 09, 2008, 04:51:48 PM »

So Chops, you started this thread therefore I can only assume that you intend to arrange all these dinners, otherwise it is just plain mean - I personally like Claridges on a Thursday afternoon if Salgado can make it.

Much obliged,
Stu

choppert · « **Reply #11 on:** October 09, 2008, 05:03:37 PM »

Claridges. Thursday. Leave it with me. By the window or by the stuffed giraffe?

Should be a little easier than the Eugene Atget lunch at the Daventry Wimpy that I've got to orgainse for next Saturday!

edthened · « **Reply #12 on:** October 09, 2008, 06:02:42 PM »

Och Chops, a wood like tae hav dinner wi Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton an Brassai pleese.
Ony sootable venue within 20 miles o' Glasgow will be fine wi mee

choppert · « **Reply #13 on:** October 09, 2008, 06:27:55 PM »

Ed, Rogano or Where the Monkey Sleeps? You choose.

Or that little pizza chippy half way down Sauciehall Street?

edthened · « **Reply #14 on:** October 09, 2008, 07:23:45 PM »

Och it wood hav tae be The Rogano

russmorris · « **Reply #15 on:** October 11, 2008, 09:10:22 PM »

merkley???

His world, his people, his vision. There's no tellin' what would we'd eat - or drink (or ingest, otherwise), who'd join us or what we'd discuss, but I'm guessing it would be a little like being Alice in Wonderland...

SuzanneR · « **Reply #16 on:** October 12, 2008, 02:12:08 PM »

Gertrude Kaesebier

I've long admired her work, and the fact that she took up photography in her 40's at a time when women did not do such things, and made some deeply moving studies of mothers and children. She was part of the photo secession, and I'd enjoy a good gossip about all of them!!

Pete_R · « **Reply #17 on:** October 12, 2008, 05:13:13 PM »

For me it would be Fay Godwin and lunch would be of the packed nature, to be eaten with our backs against Janet Haigh's stone .

db · « **Reply #18 on:** October 14, 2008, 08:30:10 AM »

If it was just for the hero worship side of it, I'd give Walker Evans a call. But in case he got a bit
morose and serious, I'd ask him to bring Robert Frank along so we could kick on at some interesting
places around town.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #19 on:** October 14, 2008, 09:43:47 PM »

...would Robert Frank be the guy you'd choose to bring up the mood? Hmmm.

BTW, Chops, I loved the post with your face blacked out; hilarious. We are indeed a totalitarian organisation here.

LT · « **Reply #20 on:** October 15, 2008, 02:03:21 PM »

mine would be PH emerson if only to ask why he was so evangelical about his pictorialism, then completely u-turned and gave up on it all.

tinm@n · « **Reply #21 on:** November 07, 2008, 12:12:36 AM »

starter: Edward Steichen
main course: Bill Brandt
dessert: Kate Moss

david b · « **Reply #22 on:** November 07, 2008, 10:47:56 AM »

For some reason I'm reading that list in a "Main course: Bill Brandt, served en croute in a bernaise sauce garnished with truffles" type of way.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #23 on:** November 08, 2008, 02:47:18 PM »

How very "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and the Football Team" of you.

tinm@n · « **Reply #24 on:** November 09, 2008, 11:20:29 PM »

Haha yes, in that case I think I'd be heading straight for the dessert. Thinking about it now, although I really like Bill Brandt's work I don't think he'd be the best dinner guest. When he took portraits he barely spoke to his subjects apparently and was a very secretive fellow in general.

Aline · « **Reply #25 on:** November 16, 2008, 05:16:25 PM »

Martin Parr, Matt Mahurin, and Jan Von Hollenben....can't wait for cocktails.

Author Topic: Photography dinner (Read 5174 times)

tijeras

russmorris