Topic: My Perfect Day......

[Late Developer]

If you were granted a wish to spend some quality time with ONE photographer (whether they are living or dead) who would it be, and why?

Would it be to learn more about the person / get tips on how they achieved the photos they took / take?  Would it be for the adrenalin-rush of seeing how a war photographer copes with life or death situations and still get the story?  Or something completely different....?

[zapsnaps]

Only one? Helmut Newton (but if I had three, I'd add Cecil Beaton & Norman Parkinson). It would be to chat to them as people, rather than trying to learn how to emulate their style. I imagine they would all have very interesting anecdotes to share.

[Urban Hafner]

I'd be fine going out for a day and shooting pinhole images with Leon or Paul Mitchell.

[Late Developer]

I'd be fine going out for a day and shooting pinhole images with Leon or Paul Mitchell.

You and me, both.....

[Late Developer]

I'd be fine going out for a day and shooting pinhole images with Leon or Paul Mitchell.

David - have you seen the 1995 film "Helmut by June"?  Here's a link, if not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52hxDJweTCs

It's been on Sky Arts but Lara and I went to a Helmut Newton exhibition at Foam gallery in Amsterdam a couple of months back and watched it again.  He was a bit of an odd cookie bit very talented, I feel.

[Late Developer]

What got me thinking about this question was re-visiting, for umpteenth time, Andre Kertesz's book, "On Reading".

Much as I love landscape and travel photography, I'm starting to appreciate social documentary / reportage photography.  There are, of course, hundreds if not thousands of great photographers in this genre, but "On Reading" is such a great piece of work by someone whose other urban landscape and pictorial / abstract work I really like, that I'd love to have been able to "shadow" him and watch him work for a while, if not spend time discussing his motivations and techniques. 

[02Pilot]

I had to give this a bit of thought before writing. Without question, Kertesz is the photographer who has most influenced my own work, but that alone is not necessarily enough to come to an answer. Certainly, it would be fascinating to see Capa working during the Spanish Civil War, or Brassai stalking the streets of Paris at night, or Rodchenko seeking new perspectives on monumental Soviet architecture. I would love to see how Cartier-Bresson decided on exactly how to position himself in a scene, waiting for someone to enter his frame. Any of those experiences would be utterly fascinating to me.

But in the end I kept coming back to Kertesz. Not just because I am so familiar with his work, nor because I've found it so influential, but because I would really like to see how he saw it when it was made, how he chose to frame what he did in the context of what he chose to leave out.

Should anyone be interested, here's a couple of Kertesz videos:

BBC Master Photographers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olc_QLDPUeU

Kertesz in Paris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCr1r4boxdU

[Late Developer]

Should anyone be interested, here's a couple of Kertesz videos:

BBC Master Photographers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olc_QLDPUeU

Kertesz in Paris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCr1r4boxdU

Definitely interested.  I think I've seen the first one - but it will definitely be worth a second viewing.  I don't know the Paris one, so that'll be a treat for later.

Thanks for posting the links.

[Paul Mitchell]

I'd be fine going out for a day and shooting pinhole images with Leon or Paul Mitchell.

That's incredibly kind of you to say Urban. There's nothing stopping you from popping over for a couple of days and I'm sure something can be arranged with me and Mr T 

I would loved to have shadowed Peter Dombrovskis around for a day in the darkest depths of Tasmania!

[kentish cob]

Impossible to single out just one... so I'm going to have a perfect weekend...

Day 1 with Michael Kenna, because I need a little calm in my life.
Day 2 with Elliott Erwitt, because his eye for a photograph is second to none.

[Urban Hafner]

I'd be fine going out for a day and shooting pinhole images with Leon or Paul Mitchell.

That's incredibly kind of you to say Urban. There's nothing stopping you from popping over for a couple of days and I'm sure something can be arranged with me and Mr T 

Some day (when the kids are older, I guess) I'll make it over there. Maybe I'll need a visa though. 

[zapsnaps]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the link to the Newton film - I hadn't seen that before.

One of my favorite stories about Newton is his assignment for Playboy. The commissioning editor supposedly said to him "We don't want any kinky stuff like you do for Vogue". Interestingly, all 3 of my chosen photographers (Newton, Beaton, Parkinson) had long-term relationships with Vogue. Photography owes a lot to the selling of frocks and handbags.

[Late Developer]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the link to the Newton film - I hadn't seen that before.

One of my favorite stories about Newton is his assignment for Playboy. The commissioning editor supposedly said to him "We don't want any kinky stuff like you do for Vogue". Interestingly, all 3 of my chosen photographers (Newton, Beaton, Parkinson) had long-term relationships with Vogue. Photography owes a lot to the selling of frocks and handbags.

I think selling frocks and handbags (and all manner of other luxury / designer stuff) also owes a lot to photography.....

[irv_b]

I would really have liked to hang out with Gordon Parks.
He broke down many barriers and highlighted injustices/inequality with his photographs that I would hope that just a bit of his eye for situation could rub off on me