Charles H. Traub - The Education of a Photographer

The
Education
of a
Photographer

Edited by Charles H. Traub,
Steven Heller,
and Adam B. Bell

2006 Charles H. Traub, Steven Heller, Adam B. Bell

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

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Published by Allworth Press
An imprint of Allworth Communications, Inc.
10 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

Cover and interior design by James Victore
Page composition/typography by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry, India

ISBN: 1-58115-450-X

ISBN: 9781581158304

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Education of a photographer / edited by Charles H. Traub, Steven Heller, Adam B. Bell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. PhotographyStudy and teaching. 2. Photographers. I. Traub, Charles, 1945
II. Heller, Steven. III. Bell, Adam B.

TR161.E49 2006
770.922dc22

2006016626

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

Special thanks for cooperation and help in completing this publication are due to: Aperture and its editors, especially Andrea Smith; Bomb and Nell McClister; Peter Bunnell and the Minor White Archive; Commerce Graphics and the Berenice Abbott Estate; Martine Franck Cartier-Bresson and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson; the Helen Gee Estate; Hattula Moholy-Nagy; Blind Spot and its editors; European Photography and Andreas Mller-Pohle; the Aaron Siskind Foundation; the Pace/MacGill Gallery; the Fraenkel Gallery; and the Gitterman Gallery.

The following individuals were particularly helpful in their counsel and guidance: Jill Bender, Natasha Chuk, Bob Lobe, Nathan Lyons, Deborah Hussey, and Randy West.

Thanks are also due to Tad Crawford, publisher; Nicole Potter-Talling, editor; and Monica Lugo, associate editor; and all at Allworth Press for their constant support and encouragement. And to James Victore for his splendid cover design.

Finally, special thanks are due to David Rhodes, president of the School of Visual Arts, for his unending support for photography education.

Every effort has been made to locate the owners of copyrighted material and to make full acknowledgement of its use. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions if notification in writing is received by the publisher. Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to include the following essays and translations.

Berenice Abbott, Photography at the Crossroads, from Classic Essays on Photography, ed. Alan Trachtenberg. Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics, NYC. Reprinted with permission from Berenice Abbott Estate/Commerce Graphics, NYC.

Robert Adams, Colleagues, from Why People Photograph, Aperture, 1996. Copyright Aperture Foundation. Reprinted with permission from the Aperture Foundation and Robert Adams.

Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness, from The Unforeseen Wilderness: An Essay on Kentuckys Red River Gorge, University of Kentucky, 1971. Wendell Berry. Reprinted with permission from Wendell Berry.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, from The Minds Eyes: Writings on Photography and Photographers, Aperture, 1999. Henri Cartier-Bresson Estate. Reprinted with permission from Aperture, Martine Franck Cartier-Bresson and Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Dave Eggers, Woman Waiting to Take a Photo, from The Guardian, Saturday, May 22, 2004. Dave Eggers. Reprinted with permission from Dave Eggers.

Lee Friedlander, excerpt from Interview with David Harris, from Viewing Olmstead, ed. Phyllis Lambert, Centre Canadien dArchitecture, 1996. David Harris. Reprinted with permission from David Harris and Lee Friedlander.

Vilm Flusser, excerpt from Towards a Philosophy of Photography, from European Photography, Gttingen, 1984. European Photography and Andreas Mller-Pohle. Reprinted with permission from European Photography and Andreas Mller-Pohle.

Peter Galassi and Vik Muniz, Natura Pictrix from Vik Muniz, Centre National de la Photographie, Caisse des Dpts et Consignations, Galerie Xippas, 1999. Peter Galassi and Vik Muniz. Reprinted with permission from Peter Galassi and Vik Muniz.

Helen Gee, , from Limelight, University of New Mexico, 1997. Helen Gee Estate. Reprinted with permission from Helen Gee Estate.

Max Kozloff, from New York: Capital of Photography, Yale University Press/The Jewish Museum, New York, 2002. Max Kozloff. Reprinted with permission from Max Kozloff and Yale University Press.

Vera Lutter, Vera Lutter by Peter Wollen, from Bomb, Fall 2003. 2003 Bomb. Reprinted with permission from Bomb.

Susan Meiselas, Central America and Human Rights, from Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers, ed. Ken Light, Smithsonian Institute Press, 2000. Ken Light. Reprinted with permission from Ken Light.

Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Die beispiellos Fotografie, from Das Deutsche Lichtbild (Berlin, 1927), pp. xxi; also published in i10 (Amsterdam) 1, no. 1 (1927), pp. 11417; Unprecedented Photography, English translation by Joel Agee from Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 19131940, ed. Christopher Phillips. Reprinted with permission from Hattula Moholy-Nagy.

Cynthia Ozick, excerpt from Shots, from Levitation: Five Fictions, Knopf, 1977. 1977 Cynthia Ozick. Reprinted with permission from Melanie Jackson Agency, LLC.

Irving Penn, Introduction, from Worlds in a Small Room, Grossman Publishers, 1974. Irving Penn. Reprinted with permission from Irving Penn.

Philip Perkis, excerpt from Teaching Photography: Notes Assembled, OB Press. Reprinted RIT Cary Graphics Art Press, 2005. Philip Perkis. Reprinted with permission from Philip Perkis, OB Press and RIT Cary Graphics Art Press.

Shelley Rice, excerpt from Essential Differences: A Comparison of Lisette Model and Diane Arbus, from Artforum 18 (May 1980): 6671. Shelley Rice. Reprinted with permission from Shelley Rice.

Alexander Rodchenko, Puti sovremennoi fotografi, from Novyi lef no. 9 (1928): 3139; The Paths of Modern Photography, English translation by John E. Bowlt, from Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 19131940, ed. Christopher Phillips. Reprinted with permission from John E. Bowlt.

David Shapiro, A Conversation with Jeff Wall, from Museo, Vol. 3 Spring 2000. David Shapiro. Reprinted with permission from David Shapiro.

Stephen Shore and Tim Davis, A Fluttering Knuckleball: Lunch with Stephen Shore and Tim Davis, from Blind Spot, Issue 26. Blind Spot. Reprinted with permission from Blind Spot.

Clarissa Sligh, excerpt from When the Plantiff Speaks, from Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography, ed. Deborah Willis, The New Press, 1994. Clarissa Sligh. Reprinted with permission from Clarissa Sligh.

Larry Sultan, excerpt from Pictures from Home, Harry N. Abrams, 1992. 1992 Larry Sultan. Reprinted with permission from Larry Sultan.

John Szarkowski, Commitment, from lecture at 1st Teachers Conference, George Eastman House, 1962. John Szarkowski.

Minor White, The Camera Mind and Eye, from Photographers on Photography, ed. Nathan Lyons, Prentice Hall/George Eastman House, 1966; and When a Student Asks, from