ktnxbi

For week 5 we take a break from the war, 4 x 5 cameras and from press photographers.

Camera 2 x 3 Speed Graphic

Film Kodak

Lens 100mm

Shutter & Aperture Flash @ f4.5

The Wincoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia was advertised as fireproof despite not being fitted with sprinklers, fire escapes or alarms. It was built in 1913 and is the site of the worst hotel fire in American history and second worst in the world.

Arnold Hardy was a student at the time. He was returning home on 7 December 1946 after a date and heard the sirens of fire engines. Being a keen amateur photographer he rang the fire department for the location and caught a taxi to the scene. He carried his 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Speed Graphic, a little smaller than the normal press 4 x 5’s, and 5 flash bulbs.

At the scene he was awestruck by the desperation on display from the occupants of the building. The fire trucks could only reach floor 9 of the 15 floor building. Guests tried to escape by tying bed sheets together that gave way leaving them tumbling to the ground. Some tried to jump a 10 foot gap to the next building but failed. A desperate mother threw her two children from a window and then jumped herself. All three died. It was a horrific scene on the ground and up on the higher floors.

Hardy made a few photos and was watching the scene as he heard a shriek. Turning up he saw a woman falling to the ground. He pointed his camera and fired his last bulb just as she was passing the third floor. Her body hit a pipe then bounced into a railing and fell to the ground. She miraculously survived. 119 others sadly did not.

Most of the survivors on the upper floors were the wise ones who blocked the cracks around their doors to prevent the smoke overcoming their rooms. I guess there’s a lesson in there for all of us.

Some sources - Documentary about this fire, a book, historical markers at the site and much more on the web.

This week we have an iconic image. It rates up there with the most reproduced images of all time.

Camera 4 x 5 Speed Graphic

Film Agfa

Lens 127mm

Shutter & Aperture 1/400 @ f16

Raising the flag on Iwo Jima was a historic moment post a historic battle. Iwo Jima was to be the first Japanese soil to fall to foreign hands in more than a millenia of pride filled history. It is the first place a foreign flag has ever flown over Japanese territory. You can imagine the crushing blow this dealt to the Japanese. Loosing this piece of dirt, which was a part of Tokyo although some seven hundred miles away, had a big impact on the morale of a nation.

Roughly 50,000 American troops stormed the 22,000 strong Japanese. After a month long battle on the 8 square miles of Iwo Jima, 7,000 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese would die.

Joe Rosenthal was covering the fighting daily, his images of the Iwo Jima landings making the rounds on newspapers and magazines around the world. Five days after landing Rosenthal heard that Marines were raising a flag on top of Mount Suribachi. Moments after nearly losing his life in an overboard incident he climbed the volcano with two Marine photographers. Half way up he ran into Lou Lowery, photographer of the original flag raising.

Atop Suribachi Rosenthal captured an image of the the second flag raising we all know of today. The one that won him a pulitzer and was seen around the world, sold millions of stamps, raised money for the war effort, was the centre of controversy and cemented his name in history books. The story behind the photo has been researched by many people, discussed on message boards, in newspapers and numerous books. There are websites dedicated to the photo, statues, tv shows and even two movies directed by Clint Eastwood.

For week 3 we have another war related photograph. It was the early 1940’s after all. It’s not your usual front lines shot but one that was much closer to home for the Americans.

Camera 4 x 5 Speed Graphic

Film Kodak

Lens 127mm

Mid World War II the town of Villisca, Iowa housed eleven hundred people. It’s located fifty miles southeast of Omaha. A real small-town in the middle of America. In a town this small you’re bound to know the majority of the population and certainly know of any war heroes returning home.

On 15 July 1943 Lt. Col. Robert Moore’s train had arrived home. He and his fellow Iowans had faced off against a notoriously skillful field marshal known as Desert Fox, Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel. Here was a real hero, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroic leadership coming home to his small town where everyone either knew him or of him.

Earle Bunker of the Omaha World-Herald was assigned to cover the story. It was his chance to make a picture somewhat different to the normal depictions of combat that usually graced the front pages. It was his chance to reveal the emotional side that played well with families throughout the country. He waited 24 hours for the train to arrive.

When the train finally screeched to a halt on the platform at Villisca station, a hero, a soldier away for sixteen months stepped off to be greeted by his town. He spotted his wife Dorothy and his seven-year-old daughter Nancy. He dropped his bags as Nancy ran into his arms while his wife wept freely in her cupped hands. Earle Bunker chose his moment carefully and gave us a scene so timeless and emotion filled that it won him the 1944 Pulitzer.

The image is so generic as to represent a whole nation. There is no face to identify the subjects. No flag to tug at your patriotism. No identifying mark other than family love. It could be - and it was - the return of many war heroes across the country and across the world.

For the second week we have an image that, on it’s own, doesn’t have the same impact as the inaugural winner did. In my opinion however, it is a much more powerful image backed up by a sad story of a brief moment.

Camera 4 x 5 Speed Graphic

Film Kodak

Lens 127mm

During January of 1942 Frank “Poppy” Noel was covering the British troops, who were only a few steps ahead of the Japanese, in Singapore for Associated Press. The Pacific War was going badly, the Japanese bombers were beginning to hit the city and Noel had contracted malaria. Word got to Noel from New York that he was to head home and despite the weathered and tough persona, he was glad to be going home.

He booked passage on a freighter that would take him to Burma. His luggage for the 15,000 mile trip was a Speed Graphic and the clothes on his back. Less than 300 miles out of port on the Indian Ocean a Japanese torpedo ruptured their vessel. Noel was trapped in his cabin but managed to escape and board a life boat with twenty seven survivors out of the seventy seven original crew. They drifted aimlessly for five days in scorching tropic heat.

In the endless ocean a lifeboat drifted towards them. The boat carried Indian sailors, survivors from the freighter. They had lost their water supply in the rush to escape the sinking boat. As they neared Noel’s boat one of the sailors reached out with his hand and begged for water. Sadly, they had none to offer them. Noel - sick with malaria, thirst and low on morale - was switched on despite the hardships and pulled out his Speed Graphic. He took a single frame of the moment the sailor realised there was no water to be shared. The expression is heart crushing, the eyes conveying desperate sadness. The boats drifted apart and were later separated by a tropical storm. The other life boat was never seen again.

Noel’s career was always fraught with danger. He went on to cover the war in Europe, then the Palestine war in 1948 and later in Korea where he was captured by the Chinese early on and held prisoner. He did escape once but all that earned him was beatings and solitary confinement in a small cell.

Colleagues from Tokyo managed to somehow sneak in a camera for Noel. He took amazing pictures of POW’s which were snuck out. The first set was of Americans in prison uniforms, each one identified by name and town. The pictures were relayed around the world. Noel, amazingly, went on to photograph hundreds more and many were featured on front pages of newspapers around the world. He was rescued in an operation on 9 August 1953, a full 32 months after his capture.

He went on to work in New York for a while and later for AP in Florida where he retired and passed away far from war, prisons and lack of water.

Each Friday I will post a Pulitzer winning photograph. I am no art critic by any stretch of the imagination so do not expect an amazing critique. I do however know a bit about the photos and will attempt to give you some of the back story and any other little interesting facts I have come across.

Camera 4×5 Speed Graphic

Film Kodak

Lens 127mm

For the first week we have the action packed Labor Strife in Detroit (Ford Strikers Riot) from 1942, the inaugural winner captured by Milton Brooks.

The Speed Graphic by Graflex was the camera used by professionals, ie the press, around the mid 20th Century. They were difficult to use by today’s standards and offered only one shot per six to seven seconds. With this in mind, to get that one shot you needed patience and an instinct unlike anything we are used to with today’s 6fps prosumer digital cameras that can fill your 32GB card in a matter of minutes with hundreds of RAW images. I make this point to emphasise how special these early images are and how true the saying, ‘the decisive moment‘, really is. I also make this point to emphasise the meaning behind Milton Brooks’s nickname, ‘One-shot Milton’. He was known as a master of patience and it is said that he would often make one shot, and then go home.

In Spring of 1941 Brooks, working for The Detroit News, was to be found at the River Rouge - one of Ford’s biggest plants in Detroit. He was covering a strike started after a man was fired on April 3rd. Henry Ford had always insisted that he would close down a plant before dealing with the unions and he held out unlike his competitors, General Motors and Chrysler. A swell of workers walked then line and urged everyone to strike, closing down the 120,000 man plant.

A man was seen arguing with the pickets. He was trying to get past the line. Other photographers moved on looking for more interesting scenes. Brooks, patient as always, waited it out observing the now heated argument. It didn’t take long for the clubs to come out swinging. Brooks took his picture and went on to win the first Pulitzer in the field of photography.

I don’t know if I’m strange for doing this but I’m a photo taking machine!

In my life I’v clicked the shutter no more than 5,000 times. That’s a small number by anyone’s standards and especially for someone that considers themselves an amateur photographer.

I have however taken thosands upon thousands of photos in just the last month. I’m a freak of nature. I can’t walk to the kitchen without mentally taking a few photos. I open the pantry and as the light hits the boxes of cereal I take a snap. Before I close the door I’ve spent a roll of 36 frames. On my way to work, walking around the city, going to get my lunch, meeting friends, brushing my teeth, photos, photos, click, thunk.

I don’t know if I’m crazy or obsessed but I believe it’s both. Every photo I take wins the Pulitzer only to be shadowed by the next one a moment later. I write this in a room in partial light offering me at least 3 rolls of photos by the time I finish. You just don’t stand a chance next to me. I’m telling you I’m a camera first, a human second.

You think I’m kidding don’t you?

A screen legend passed away last Friday. He starred in too many movies to list, many of which are classics. I didn’t hear about the sad news until a few moments ago but yesterday I watched one of his movies, The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) where he supported Tim Robbins under the writer director brother duo of Ethan and Joel Coen. It might be overlooked and it might not be one of his better performances but it’s a cracker of a movie, sure sure.

Next time you’re at the video store and don’t know what to select, grab the Proxy and enjoy a quirky fun movie, sure sure.

RIP

I blogged about this show nearly a year ago. Season 2 has just started and it’s better than the first. More drugs, more sex, more laughs and twists and just downright cool dialogue unlike most shows that are thrown up out of Hollywood.

It’s not out on Australia TV just yet but it will be here soon so look out for it on Channel 10.

Recently I did a bit of street photography. My heart just wasn’t in it and I ended up asking people for their portraits. Not a single person said no. I was both amazed and proud of my city, Sydney.

Having had a taste for random public portraits I wanted more. I figured if I set up on a corner with a nice backdrop I could get some decent medium format portraits of good quality. The only problem is that would look a bit overwhelming to the public and I will certainly get rejected more often than not.

What if I gave them a dollar? What if I pledged to donate a dollar of my hard earned cash to Cancer Council Australia? Would they then agree? Would they match my dollar? I plan to find out very soon.

My plan is to make a sign with clear instructions of what I’m doing and why. I will be set up with a tripod in a busy intersection taking portraits. I will have cards made up with some contact details including my website where I will display the portraits.

The website will serve to legitimise my project, inspire and collect more donations. They can come and view their portraits and maybe even buy a print.

Find out more and keep track of this project here - ktnxbi.com/portrait

Thanks to a kind hearted sgtcaboose from OCAU forums, I’m back.

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