Salgado's Legacy

Kuwait oil fields, 1991, by Sebastião Salgado. Photograph: Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado died last week at the age of 81. Another photography hero gone. His photography was the very high quality benchmark that I have never managed to quite attain but always strived for. Salgado's superb blend of beautiful photography and getting to the heart of the subject matter place him right at the top of documentary photographers. He had critics with the term “aesthete of misery" used against him, and his departure from Magnum in 1994 seemed to cause some animosity too. Often it seemed to be a reaction against his success as a photographer.

I'm not going to cover Sebastião Salgado's life and work here. Other bloggers and news websites have done a far better job than I could ever do at summing up his long career. However, for a student photographer in the 1990s, it was just inspiring to see a documentary photographer producing such epic work. With over 30 books published (two or three are on my bookshelf and I'd have bought more if I'd had the money) it was always a visual treat and an education going through the images on the pages. In many respects Salgado had the successful documentary photographer career that we all wanted.

If you aren't familiar with Sebastião Salgado's work then check out some of the links in this post but especially have a look HERE for a great collection of his iconic images.

The word legend is used far too often these days, but Sebastião was a legend in every sense of the word. Another legend lost.

Formula One at 75

If you are a Formula One fan then the BBC and Getty Images have put together a great collection of Formula One photography going through 75 years of the sport.

From Juan Manuel Fangio through to Lewis Hamilton, the page is a great introduction to the history of Formula One as well as a fascinating read for any F1 fan.

Check out F1 at 75 by visiting the link below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/v7yykmbyey/f1-at-75-by-bbc-sport-and-getty-images

The Gathering Clouds

A dark sky over Old Boat Sheds - Lindisfarne, Northumberland

Last week I got a message to say that my Tumblr blog had reached the grand old age of thirteen years old. I have to admit the number seemed slightly surreal as I looked at it. Then again, this blog will be even older soon with the blog becoming eighteen years old at the end of February. All of my blogs have benefited from relatively calm and save foundations to build on by the blogging platforms. As we've seen recently though, change might come down the line at any time from the large digital overlords in future years. When it comes to the blogs I like to think that I will have the time and options to move them somewhere save if needed. That's what I hope at least.

The same can't be said about social media though. The recent revelations about changes to fact checking at Facebook, Instagram and Threads (USA only at the moment but still worrying) have made me consider my future social media yet again. The last time was when Twitter started changing into the monster that it is now, some eighteen months ago. I made the decision to deactivate the last of my Twitter accounts in November. With some fourteen years of use, over 3000 followers and a once great source of photography news, all a distant memory long before I hit the kill button, I'm just wondering if I'll have to do the same with Instagram and Threads.

In the end, it's about investment. Our time, effort and content. We store our lives on these platforms only for something or someone to move the goalposts years down the line; a change of owner or leadership, economic instability, politics, terms of service etc. Something always changes. Maybe the calculation from Meta etc is that people won't leave these platforms when they are too invested. People live their lives - good and bad - through these social media platforms, not to mention make money as businesses. Too many posts. Too much history. Too established. Leaving is just out of the question! 

Personally I am no longer willing to invest that kind of time and effort into another new social media platform. Back in August 2023, I wrote on the Darker Skies blog my thoughts about Twitter and the changes that were taking place there at the time. Nearly two years later and I'm still of the same mind. My conclusion was that the blog or website should be where I focus my efforts rather than invest too much in a platform that will eventually become too toxic to stay. I still agree with that conclusion. For now I just intend to keep a close eye on things, see what happens and make a decision as and when. That's all I can really do.

An Early Start

 

Old Boat Shed on Lindisfarne, Northumberland - December 2024

Another year started and hopefully it will be a good one. Two photo book releases are planned, one at the start of the year and then another around November. That's the plan I intend sticking to at least.

The end of the year went quite well. A trip up to Northumberland for a week around the middle of November saw a good bit of of photography taking place. Even though the weather was rather windy, the quality of light more than made up for the gusts. You just had to keep the camera as steady as possible and not wave the lens about too much.

The visit Holy Island of Lindisfarne was a nice surprise. A quick drive down revealed that the tide was at its lowest point meaning it was safe to visit without being cut off by the tide. There had been no plans to visit. It just happened. The last time I'd visited Holy Island it was the summer of 1992 and I was 20 years. A student photographer trying to find his creative path.

What would he have thought of the older photographer wandering around the old boat sheds? Horrified probably, though impressed with the camera and lenses. As for advice, I'd just tell him to be more confident. Easy to say, maybe not so easy to be.

The Last Days of Summer

 

A home on the Kintyre Coast, Scotland - September 2023

Not long left now. Almost the end of the summer. It's been a summer of consolidation for me this year. Not much in the way of travel but plenty of progress made on a number of projects that I've wanted to tick off my to-do list for years. There are just one or two things left to do before the year ends.

The website has seen the bulk of the work as I catch up with adding projects to the gallery. The Northumberland and Isle of Arran/Kintyre galleries were added last week completing the process of updating that area of the website. It's the first time I've been all caught up in some time.

As we head into Autumn/Fall the next project is to finish a photo zine I've been working on for some time. The photographs and layouts are done so only the text remains. If I can sort that out and get the zine out for before the end of 2024, I'll be happy.

So not too bad, and it means that I'm in a good place to start next year.

The Ragpicker's Dream

 

'Spain, Valencia, 1952, Robert and Mary Frank' By Elliott Erwitt

Back in November of last year, I posted about the OMD album cover for their brilliant 1980 album Organisation which featured the wonderful photograph shot by Richard Nutt of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco in the Red Cuillin mountains, on the Isle of Skye.

I'm posting again with another album cover image from Mark Knopfler's 2002 album The Ragpicker's Dream. I've been a fan of this album for several years and recognised the Elliott Erwitt image from a book by the photographer I picked up in Norfolk many years ago.

The photograph still had the power to surprise me though. It's only recently that I've found out the image contains the presence of two great photographers. Elliot Erwitt, behind the camera, and Robert Frank who is dancing in the photograph with his wife Mary.

Three years after this photograph was taken, Swiss photographer Robert Frank went on a journey through the United States that would later form his iconic 'The Americans' book.  The project is highly regarded as a classic piece of documentary photography.

Ironically the other book I was looking at before purchasing Elliott Erwitt's in that bookshop in Holt, Norfolk was... yep, Robert Frank's 'The Americans'. Why didn't I get it? Cost. It was very expensive!

Eleven Pictures

 

American troops land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. June 6, 1944.  Photograph by Robert Capa

Eighty years ago Allied forces waded ashore on the Normandy coast and started the liberation of Europe. Quite a few photographers accompanied the armada across the Channel, but the D-Day photographs that get talked about most usually belong to a certain Robert Capa.

During my years at college studying photography, the images came up quite a few times. Given that the images are iconic I was often surprised by the critical reaction from my fellow students and even the occasional lecturer. It often appears fashionable to criticise iconic or popular images to some extent, but the critics just missed the point. It usually ended in rather a good debate though.

The eleven Capa photographs from Omaha Beach certainly captured the moment. The images were taken during the second wave landing by the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.  From a personal point of view, I prefer Capa's later images during the Allies' fight through Normandy including the image of prisoners 

In recent years there has been further close examination of the images and the story behind the photographs. One thing is certain. The stories surrounding the making of the photographs just make Capa's images more intriguing.

Just a Number

 

Lost running shoe - Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk - 2016

There is a moment when you suddenly realise that your photography has aged. Those images you printed up in the darkroom, ah it seems like just yesterday, are in fact suddenly 25 years old. The very age you were when to took the photographs. It's a sobering thought.

Moments stay with you. I wrote on my main website blog about a personal important photography milestone over thirty years ago. The photograph was of the seafront at Colwyn Bay and it marked that moment when the camera and darkroom skills all came into line. I saw the image in my mind's eye and took the photograph using my camera and darkroom abilities. I still have that 10x8 black and white print framed on the wall.

Since then, many photographs have been produced, trailing behind like a ship's wake. I can divide the images into eras. The 1990s were the black-and-white film years, the 2000s were a roughly even mix of black-and-white and colour, and the 2010s were like the previous decade but with digital colour gaining dominance and mobile photography added. The jury is still out about the 2020s.

I think what I'd like to do in this 'era' is return to shooting a little bit of film. Probably not on the scale of twenty years ago, but a few rolls of HP5 or FP4 film through the F3 or F5 would feel good. 

As for the photographs getting older, you just have the nostalgic moment and carry on with the journey. After all, the age is just a number!