Continuing on with Romantic Images, we have another from Sudek. Unlike the last image, this one has a person in it. We have the rays of light as we saw with Sabine Weiss, we see the smoke from the man's pipe and the bottles. It appears he is in a bar, alone, and is in deep thought. We can see the shadows of a beard giving us a sense of his age. While not in his youth he if far from old. 

His grip on the bottle is not of need but of curiosity. He is reading the label. We can almost picture him sitting board and after serving himself a glass, stops to read the label. Te smoke trails are interrupted by his hat, causing them to swirl around his face before continuing up.There is an archway with some molding just visible. It gives the feel of an establishment, not a home. He still has his hat and coat on, so he might have just stepped inside a few minutes ago.

In the back you can see a hat hanging, indicating that someone else is there. But the man sits alone, bored, coat still on serving himself a drink. Maybe he is leaving work and just stopped for a drink before going home. Maybe he is waiting on someone who is late.

The image gives us a sense of place and time. The light rays, pipe and smoke are all images we have seen countless times. Again we are left remembering something that we never really witnessed but the components of our memory is all there...a bar, a bearded man, pipe, smoke and dark cold winter.

Below is an image I took that reminds me of something very different.  I kept this in color but am showing a young man sitting alone. He is a person into fashion but does not want to appear to be a slave to it. You see his round glasses are in line with today's fashion but his 'Waldo' hat says that he does not take himself too seriously. All of it carefully put together.  He is taking a drink of his beer, sitting on the patio of a bar. It is bright outside with no shadows, close to noon. 

All are little details that help hint at a story.  Nothing like Sudek who adds complexity over complexity but the drive is the same. To remind someone of something they have never seen.

Continuing on the theme of Romantic Images, we have one from Josef Sudek. One of my favorite photographers, Sudek shot images of Prague that transmit its character like few others. It reaches a point that you are not sure if Sudek captured the personality of Prague so well or if he gave Prague its personality.

In this image we have the stairs leading up to the Charles Bridge with faint lights on a foggy night. No one is around and this was shot around the Soviet occupation time. You can feel it, a sadness mixed with an amazing artistic flair. This is Prague. 

Even if you have never been, you can feel the weight of the image. The lack of people, the foggy light and the dark barren tree. It is winter but for some reason does not seem too deep of winter. The stairs go up to the right and down towards the center of the image, in parallel. There is light in a few windows on the far left, hinting that it is not too late, some people are in a warm home. It only increases the sense of loneliness and isolation. 

I had the privilege of going to Prague back in 2015 and it was one of the best cities I have ever been. Unfortunately I had not discovered Sudek at that time or I would have been able to visit his home, which is now a museum. I did, however, encounter the same stairs and was pulled to them much as Sudek must have.

My take on the stairs was from the front. I was with a fellow photographer friend who was into shadows and wanted to capture the shadows on the stairs. I took one as well and liked the asymmetry.
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I took the image at night, not too late if I recall, possibly 10 pm or so. It was almost completely empty but the occasional person walked by.  I took another image head on, looking for symmetry. The stairs seem so hard and cold but built in an artistic style that is found so easily in Prague.

A bit of a departure from Lartigue, today I will speak about an image by Sabine Weiss. Sabine is a sublime photographer, who built her career when women photographers were not as respected as their male counterparts. She proved that she deserves her place among the greats.

This image of a man, running on the streets of Paris has all the hallmarks of a Romantic image. The high contrast image is not something you will glance over. The cobble stones give you a sense of place, and the 1950's car in the far left background gives a sense of time. The rays of sun, coming through the trees is common enough that we have all seen it. The image of it tickles memories we all have. The long shadow, so typical of later afternoons gives the image power. The open armed running is something of our youth and the feel of afternoon calm permeates the image.

I can imagine silence, broken only by the sound of leather shoes hitting the cold cobble stones. The light is fading fast and he needs to get home, perhaps from seeing his girlfriend. Maybe he is running to catch a train or to meet someone important. 

This is an image of life, movement, light and dark. The long shadow, so much larger than the young man who made it makes his running seem a bit useless. It is as if he is running to catch a train and he knows it has already left. Maybe with his love on board...

I love to catch these nostalgic pictures, but rarely do. Below is an image I shot while waiting for the early morning train. It was winter in London and I was going into work. In came my 06:44 train and I used my Olympus Stylus to capture the image on Ilford FP4.

The focus is just off due largely to the early morning fog. There is enough light to see the track, some dark shadows of the other passengers and the bright light of the train coming towards me. 

Following on my theme of romantic emotions that images can create, I come back to Lartigue and Bibi. Here she sits in the passenger side of a car in the late 1920's. You can see the top is down, she has an expression of pure joy, and we have what appears to be a beautiful day.

Again we have a nostalgic feel for a car from a different time. This was not built for transport, it was built for pleasure. Obviously Lartigue always shot the upper class and he was often criticized for it. Even today there are people who consider his photography as a second class to other masters simply because he shot the joy of upper class society.

In the memories of experiences we never had, we picture the wonderful life of the wealthy. We do not ponder the challenging life of the lower classes. Lartigue's photography feeds that imagination. Capturing a simple image, like the one above, fills me with happiness and a desire to do something for the pure joy of doing it.

Documentary photography is meant to capture events, as they happen. Travel photography, some art photography and even vacation snapshots are meant to remind us of a happy time even if we were not even there.

My Grandfather had an old green Fiat. It was the last car he drove and it reminds me of trips to the countryside to a vacation house and trips to the ranch. When I ran across a similar vintage car I had to stop to take a few pictures. While this picture means nothing to anyone aside from me, it reminds me of that green Fiat and the trips we took in it. The emotion of seeing it approach and leave.

This is one of my all time favorite images, it is one that oozes romantic emotions in me. Not the romance between two lovers, but the one between the image and my memories, or imagination. 

Here we have Bibi, the first wife of Lartigue coming off the cruise liners in the 1920's. You can see her hat and how she is covering her face from the wind. The steam ships in the background are the points of focus but there she is in the foreground giving our eye an anchor point. For a photographer known for his ability to capture movement, energy and high class play, this image is a bit of a departure. It captures the romanic notions of sea voyage perfectly well.

Gone is the flip-flop wearing, obnoxious vacationer that seems of always sit beside me, in the cramped confines of "Economy Class" seating. Here we have a woman dressed for traveling, coming off the height of luxury travel for the time. This image, of upper class travel, stirs an emotional desire to get out and see the world. 

The emotional curiosity of travel, coupled with a desire to take along a camera and some film is something that is deeply rooted in me. The travel does not have to be far from home, or even someplace exotic, but it has to have a camera and some film.

Below is an image I took back in 2013, while on a vacation to Bali. We skipped the beach scene, for fear of running into flip-flop wearing, drunk vacationers, and opted for a small villa up in the rice paddies of the mountains. It was the pinnacle of relaxation and a great chance to see a little of the non-tourist local population.

A driver had told me of a local artist a few miles from where we were staying, who did amazing, hand painted pictures. I went over and found him sitting outside looking over the rice paddies that fell off his porch.  I had my camera with me and he suggested I wait a few minutes to see the local priest come by, as he did everyday. 

I sat and waited. The artist did not talk, he just sat and looked out. It began to rain and still he sat there. I pulled out a rain cover for my camera and also sat there, semi protected by a tree. All you could here was the rain dropping on leaves and the occasional motor bike on the dirt road behind some trees. 

Then I saw a man dressed in white, in a broad had walk by. As he gingerly moved his feet along a muddy path, arms full of his offering. I waited until he was on the other side of the field, slowly picked up my camera and took a few shots. This is one which I left in color.

After he walked away the artist slowly stood up, invited me into his home and showed me his works of art. One is still hanging in my entry way. An amazingly detailed ink painting.

I love photography, but when I cannot be running around with my camera I like to look through my photography books. When I encounter an image I really like, I try to understand why it is that I like it. Then I want to understand more about the photographer and how they captured the image.

I thought I would share one of these Deep Dives with you. Here we have the famous Milton Greene, best known for his shots of Marlin Monroe. He was born in 1922, in New York and began taking pictures very young. He decided it was going to be his profession and he worked with Elliot Elisofen, a photojournalist. 

He established himself as a fashion photographer of the 1940's and 1950's. This is what I consider the golden era in American Fashion Photography. He was known for his portraits of famous people, and his method of taking them. He would get the subject to relax by playing music. For Marlene this was classical music and he served Sherry.

What draws me to this image is that the subject draws you in. There is little to lock onto aside from these amazing, bright legs. Your eye follows them up to her head, covered with hair leaving some mystery as to who this person really is. The soft, dark background contrasts with the object Marlene is sitting on, which is rough like a stone. Simple, black shoes complete the image and stand out against the grey background and the white of her legs. 

Her hand, the only other thing in the image, is slightly blurred from motion. I do not believe the hand really contributes anything aside from the gesture that she is caught in, almost as if she was running her hand along her leg. 

The small items I do not like of the image, how you can just see the bottom of her chin, I believe it would have been better if her hair covered her face completely. The little detail under the object she is sitting on is a bit distracting. I would have burned that in a bit.

An amazing shot, made by an magnificent photographer of a legendary entertainer.