Chasing Light

Elvis Presley | The King is dead. Long Live the King

Elvis Presley © St. Louis Globe-Democrat 1957

Before Elvis there was nothing.

-John Lennon

John Dominis | Mickey Mantle

That’s my technique with people. I’m sort of a fly on the wall. You try not to interfere, hang around, hope that they don’t even notice you, and if they do, they don’t care.

-John Dominis

Mickey Mantle Having a Bad Day at Yankee Stadium, New York, 1965 © John Dominis

Sports photography is extremely tough. It may be the most active of photography genres as games and events are being recorded by thousands of photographers every day. The moments are captured and the action is documented to convey what has occurred but few images ever break through this base level of reportage to become iconic moments. Think of it. How many great sports photographs can you remember? Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston (in 1965 also), Mary Decker’s fall at the 1984 Olympics, the Black Power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed at the 1968 Olympics.

Is that it? Is it because sports photography is overshadowed by the video of these great moments that we are watching live? Or that what strikes most sports fans are the unusual photos, the physically incredible images that can have little lasting value; the moment of impact, crashes, great catches, etc. I do not know.

This shot of Mickey Mantle has always been an important one to me. Ever since I first saw it, this image has been burned into my eye, this great moment of sour frustration and dejection by one of the greats as he heads back down into the dugout. The empty frame, the curve of his body from the S line of his spine, crowning to his bowed head, and the delicate dancer’s line of his arm to the splayed out fingers to the batting helmet looking forlorn hanging in mid air as if on the head of the person to blame for Mantle’s mood.

There is so much emotion and drama in sports but so few images capture something that seems more complicated than victory or defeat.

Hiroshi Watanabe | Places

El Arbolito Park, Quito, Ecuador, 2002 © Hiroshi Watanabe

I go to places that captivate and intrigue me. I am interested in what humans do. I seek to capture people, traditions, and locales that first and foremost are of personal interest. I immerse myself with information on the places prior to leaving, but I try to avoid firm, preconceived ideas. I strive for both calculation and discovery in my work, keeping my mind open for surprises. At times, I envision images I’d like to capture, but when I actually look through the viewfinder, my mind goes blank and I photograph whatever catches my eye. Photographs I return with are usually different from my original concepts. My photographs reflect both genuine interest in my subject as well as a respect for the element of serendipity, while other times I seek pure beauty. The pure enjoyment of this process drives and inspires me. I believe there’s a thread that connects all of my work — my personal vision of the world as a whole. I make every effort to be a faithful visual recorder of the world around me, a world in flux that, at very least in my mind, deserves preservation.

Artist’s statement, Hiroshi Watanabe

Music Notes, Nakatsugawa, Japan, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

White Terns, Midway Atoll, 2000 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Whales Eye, Anaheim, CA, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Bora Bora, Tahiti, 1997 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Mandalay, Burma, 2000 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Santa Monica Pier, 2000 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Battery Park, New York, 2000 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Liberty State Park, New Jersey, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Tsutenkaku, Osaka, Japan, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Salmon Heads, Sapporo, Japan, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

International Fountain, Seattle, 2000 © Hiroshi Watanabe

China Town, Portland, Oregon, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Standing Woman, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Kabukiza, Tokyo, Japan, 2004 © Hiroshi Watanabe

Henri Cartier-Bresson | Paris, Part One

PARIS—Brasserie Lipp on St.-Germain-des-Prés, 1969. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

-Henri Cartier-Bresson

PARIS—Boulevard Diderot, 1969. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—Place de la Sorbonne, May 1968. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—A march in support of French President Charles De Gaulle on the Champs-Elysees, from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, May 1968. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS, France—The events of May 1968 on the Champs-Élysées. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—A demonstration, May 1, 1971. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—Notre-Dame de Paris, 1952-53. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—The Gare du Nord, 1955. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—The Latin Quarter, 1952. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—1968. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—1932. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—Galeries Lafayette, 1968. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—1967. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

PARIS—Galeries Lafayette department store, 1967. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

David McCullough | The Johnstown Flood

A locomotive whistle was a matter of some personal importance to a railroad engineer. It was tuned and worked (even “played”) according to his own particular choosing. The whistle was part of the make-up of the man; he was known for it as much as he was known for the engine he drove. And aside from its utilitarian functions, it could also be an instrument of no little amusement. Many an engineer could get a simple tune out of his whistle, and for those less musical it could be used to aggravate a cranky preacher in the middle of his Sunday sermon or to signal hello through the night to a wife or lady friend. But there was no horseplay about tying down the chord. A locomotive whistle going without letup meant one thing on the railroad. It meant there was something very wrong.

The whistle of John Hess’s engine had been going now for maybe five minutes at most. It was not on long but it was the only warning anyone was to hear and nearly everyone in East Conemaugh heard it and understood instantly what it meant.

-David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood

He saw the whole Mussante family sailing by on what appeared to be a barn door. Mussante was a fruit dealer on Washington Street, a small, dark Italian with a dropping mustache, who had been in Johnstown now perhaps three years. He had had a pushcart at first, then opened the little place not far from the Heiser store. Victor knew him well and his wife and two children. Now there they were speeding by with a Saratoga trunk open beside them, and every one of them busy packing things into it. And then a mass of wreckage heaved up out of the water and crushed them.

But he had no time to think more about them or anything else. He was heading for a mound of wreckage lodged between the Methodist Church and a three-story brick building on the other side of where Locust Street had been. The next thing he knew he was part of the jam. His roof had catapulted in amongst it, and there, as trees and beams shot up on one side or crashed down on the other, he went leaping back and forth, ducking and dodging, trying desperately to keep his footing, while more and more debris kept booming into the jam.

-David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood

Main Street, Johnstown, after the flood. Andrews, E. Benjamin, History of the United States

Weak and shivering with cold, she lay down on the mattress, realizing for the first time that all her clothes had been torn off except for her underwear. Night was coming on and she was terribly frightened. She started praying in German, which was the only way she had been taught to pray.

A small white house went sailing by, almost running her down. She called out to the one man who was riding on top, straddling the peak of the roof and hugging the chimney with both arms. But he ignored her, or perhaps never heard her, and passed right by.

‘You terrible man,’ she shouted after him. ‘I’ll never help you.’

-David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood

"The Debris above the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge" from "History of the Johnstown Flood", by Willis Fletcher Johnson, 1889

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Ellen von Unwerth | Revenge

I love all the old pictures–of spanking and Bettie Page and corsets. But you can’t do spanking in fashion, so I wanted to do a project where I could really let go and get girls who also love those things. I thought it would be even more sexy when there was a story to go with it, so it wasn’t that difficult to write a little storyboard.

I had chapters, so there were 10 drawings in total. Each girl had a character and I used the storyboard to explain the story to the girls. But there was still freedom to play.

-Ellen Von Unwerth

Janelle Fishman as Emily; Travis Marshall as Eric the Chauffer; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Dorota Wójcik as Veronique a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Janelle Fishman as Emily; Diana Stroessel as Françoise; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Diana Stroessel as Françoise; Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Dorota Wójcik as Veronique a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Dorota Wójcik as Veronique a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Dorota Wójcik as Veronique a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Dorota Wójcik as Veronique a Maid; Tina Davis as The Baronness; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Tina Davis as The Baroness; Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Janelle Fishman as Emily; Travis Mashall as Eric the Chauffer; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Tina Davis as The Baroness; Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Svenja Parotat as Lulu a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Tina Davis as the Baroness; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Janelle Fishman as Emily; Travis Mashall as Eric the Chauffer; Tina Davis as the Baroness; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Julie Ordon as Marie-Louise; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Julie Ordon as Marie-Louise; Tina Davis as the Baroness; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Diana Stoessel as Françoise; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Diana Stoessel as Françoise; Travis Mashall as Eric the Chauffer; Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Diana Stoessel as Françoise; Travis Mashall as Eric the Chauffer; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Diana Stoessel as Françoise; Lenka Batkova as Laurence a Maid; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Janelle Fishman as Emily; Sarabeth Stroller as Isabelle; Julie Ordon as Marie-Louise; Diana Stroessel as Françoise; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Micki Olin as Ivy; Janelle Fishman as Emily; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Micki Olin as Ivy; Janelle Fishman as Emily; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Micki Olin as Ivy; Janelle Fishman as Emily; Revenge by Ellen von Unwerth

Terry Richardson | Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper, 1999 © Terry Richardson

Dennis Hopper, 1999 © Terry Richardson

Yeah, I mean I’m dazzled by beauty; I don’t even try to get inside.

-Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper, 1936 – 2010

Paul Newman, 1964 © Dennis Hopper

I was a compulsive shooter back then. I was very shy, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate if I had a camera between me and other people.

-Dennis Hopper

Paris Woman, 1994 © Dennis Hopper

I had been taking photographs because I hoped to be able to direct movies. That’s why I never cropped any of the photographs; they are all full-frame.

-Dennis Hopper

Jane Fonda, 1967 © Dennis Hopper

Like all artists I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation.

-Dennis Hopper

Bill Cosby (Chateau Marmont), 1965 © Dennis Hopper

… but I was trying to go another way from the movie business. And I was taking pictures in black-and-white. Everyone else was using color. I was using Tri-X because I could shoot at night, and get shots by holding it real still, with just streetlights and so on. So these were things that I was playing with. But at the same time, a lot of my ideas were glamour ideas, because I wanted people to look good. So my portraits were about them in natural light, looking good, and looking in some way that had something to do with the reality of their world.

-Dennis Hopper

Jefferson Airplane, 1965 © Dennis Hopper

There are moments that I`ve had some real brilliance, you know. But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough. I never felt I played the great part. I never felt that I directed the great movie. And I can`t say that it`s anybody`s fault but my own.

-Dennis Hopper

Robert Rauschenberg, 1966 © Dennis Hopper

You know, the history of California art doesn’t start until about 1961, and that’s when these photographs start. I mean, we have no history out here.

-Dennis Hopper

Brian Jones, 1965 © Dennis Hopper

Most of the guys who were heavy on drugs and stuff — the rockers, and all that — we’re all out playing golf and we’re all sober. It is weird.

-Dennis Hopper

Tuesday Weld, 1965 © Dennis Hopper

The high points have not been that many, but I’m a compulsive creator so I don’t think of the children first, I think of the work. Let’s see, I guess, Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, a couple of photographs here, a couple of paintings . . . those are the things that I would be proud of and yet they ’re so minimal in this vast body of crap — most of the 150 films I’ve been in — this river of shit that I’ve tried to make gold out of. Very honestly.

-Dennis Hopper

Jean Tinguely, 1963 © Dennis Hopper

Then I had Easy Rider, and I couldn’t get another movie, so I lived in Mexico City for a couple of years. I lived in Paris for a couple of years. I didn’t take any photographs, and then I went to Japan and saw a Nikon used. I bought it, and I just started, like an alcoholic. I shot 300 rolls of film. That was the beginning of me starting again, and then I went digital.

-Dennis Hopper

Biker Couple, 1961 © Dennis Hopper

I’d love to be in a Coen Brothers film, or something by Curtis Hanson — did you see 8 Mile? a terrific little movie — but I’ve never worked for Lucas or Spielberg. You could name most of the directors in Hollywood I’ve never worked for. I am not offered any of the roles that Jack Nicholson gets or Warren Beatty gets, or any of these people get, and never have been and never will. So when you ask me about playing villains and would I like to play other things, I think, God, I’m just lucky if I get a villain part every once in a while.

-Dennis Hopper

Biker, 1961 © Dennis Hopper

I think of that with my photographs. I think of them as ‘found’ paintings because I don’t crop them, I don’t manipulate them or anything. So they’re like ‘found’ objects to me.

-Dennis Hopper

Bruce Conner (in tub), Toni Basil, Teri Garr and Ann Marshall, 1964 © Dennis Hopper

When it first started, it was inferior and the inks weren’t archival. As soon as the inks became archival, I went digital. To me, it’s like the difference between developing something in chemical or being able to spray the light. It’s like painting with light, and the computer is reading the light. When a digital photograph looks right, it looks like it was painted.

-Dennis Hopper

Claes Oldenburg (Portrait with Cake Slices), 1965 © Dennis Hopper

I started out shooting flat, on walls, so that it had no depth of field, because I was being photographed all the time as an actor. And if you notice, there aren’t a lot of photographs [in the show] of actors — Dean Stockwell, Paul Newman. I thought I was an imposition to the actors who were being photographed all the time. I really wanted the flat-on-painter kind of surface. I did that for a long time. Then the artists. I really started taking photographs of artists. They wanted me to take photographs. They wanted posters and things. I was hanging out with them. I photographed the ones I thought were going to make it. I wasn’t really working as an actor during this period, and I thought, Well, if I’m not going to be able to work as an actor, I might as well be able make something that’s going to be credible. So I took photographs of Martin Luther King and Selma, Montgomery, as history, and selecting artists that I thought would make it. I met most of the Pop artists before they ever had shows.

-Dennis Hopper

Andy Warhol and members of the Factory (Gregory Markopoulos, Taylor Mead, Gerard Malanga & Jack Smith), 1963 © Dennis Hopper

I didn’t use a light meter; I just read the light off my hands. So the light varies, and there are some dark images. Also, I’m sort of a nervous person with the camera, so I will just shoot arbitrarily until I can focus and compose something, and then I make a shot. So generally, in those proof sheets, there are only three or four really concentrated efforts to take a photograph. It’s not like a professional kind of person who sets it up so every photograph looks really cool.

-Dennis Hopper

Ed Ruscha, 1964 © Dennis Hopper

Well, I was a compulsive creator, so it became my creative outlet. I was using Tri-X film — which nobody else was using at the time — because I wanted to get as much natural light as possible and be able to shoot everything in natural light without flashes. I was a product of the movie business …

-Dennis Hopper

Irving Blum and Peggy Moffitt, 1964 © Dennis Hopper

I was doing something that I thought could have some impact someday. In many ways, it’s really these photographs that kept me going creatively.

-Dennis Hopper

Self-portrait at porn stand, 1962, © Dennis Hopper

I am just a middle-class farm boy from Dodge City and my grandparents were wheat farmers. I thought painting, acting, directing and photography were all part of being an artist. I have made my money that way. And I have had some fun. It’s not been a bad life.

-Dennis Hopper

Philip Jones Griffiths | England, 1964

ENGLAND—Teenagers at a jazz festival, 1964. © Philip Jones Griffiths / Magnum Photos

Even if not a single picture is never published, they exist. And that means that we are recording the history of the human race. If that’s all your doing, it still a very very worth while profession to be involved in.

-Philip Jones Griffiths

Portraits | My Family

Years ago–when I had hair–my family decided to get a group portrait taken during Christmas. We went to my friend Chan’s studio and took some standard photos. Then I made them take a portrait for me, one that I would definitely hang onto my wall. That was a long time ago. My sisters kids are now graduating from high school.

My mom still hates this shot.

The clan