“I probably took this photograph while going to the Duffort lab, near Sevres Babylone. The position of the sun, in the axis of rue de Sevres, tells me that it was taken in the afternoon. As a photographer who often works outdoors, I was very interested in cosmography. So, whatever the city, I know before going to the location, just by reading the map, at what time of day I will find the best lighting - if the sun turns up, of course. The back light, (it’s crazy how much backlight fascinates me!) made me choose this spot, to have the awning on the left and the veiled sun in front. I had taken two shots with little enthusiasm and then suddenly, this woman appeared out in the open!
Jubilation was immediately followed by a twinge of unease, as is always the case in these delicate situations: had I pressed the shutter at the crucial moment?”

~ Willy Ronis

Willy needn’t have stressed about this. He took the perfect shot. This has always been one of my most favorite images in his extraordinary body of work. The perfect composition to capture the perfect mood of a perfect moment of a magical Paris afternoon light.

“My work is all about one individual to another individual who is looking at the photograph.”

~ Louis Stettner

Louis was never one to talk too much about his images in intellectual or theoretical theses.
He was just a warm man with deep feelings who wanted to share his own “Joie de Vivre” with others.

This is one such example taken late in his life.

“Everything I’ve photographed exists regardless of me, my role is only to be receptive. The most important thing is the luck. Behind every good image there is the good luck too. Sometimes when you are in the right place in the right moment, you’ll feel that the image is a gift and even that doesn’t matter who is behind the camera."

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Of course Pentti is right. Luck is often an important ingredient in a successful image. But much more important is the real talent and vision and experience to realize when you are lucky.

“I strive for individual pictures that will burn into people’s memories.”

~ Steve McCurry

This is one of those unforgettable images Steve is referring to. At the annual festival celebrating Ganesha, held in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) the participants powder their faces with a natural dye that is colored using flower extracts. In the midst of the raucous activities, McCurry asked this boy if he could take his picture. He agreed. The red powder accentuates the boy’s eyes, which scrutiinize and question the viewer.

“This scene took place on Rue Rambuteau, in front of Les Halles market, the corner of a cafe. It is backlit just as I like it, a nice shot of sun. The opportunity was there to be seized."

~ Willy Ronis

The war in Europe was finally over and moments of daily joy started to come back and there was the wonderful Willy with his openness and heart to record it.

“Time proves the value of a photograph. Only time can decide if a photo becomes important.”

~ Louis Stettner

Well this image was taken over 70 years ago and I have long appreciated its humanity. On the surface a simple mother and child photograph but its emotion and joy and spirit exude much more than that.

I know people will be reflecting on its strength in another 70 plus years.

“I spent 3 Sundays going back each week to Venice Beach before the subjects “stopped flexing for my camera" and resumed posing for each other.”

~ Max Yavno

This is one of Max’s greatest images and so full of life and energy. A truly iconic LA image.

A lovely anecdote: I had a print of this image up in the gallery recently and a lovely elderly woman came up to me and said, “I am that little girl hanging onto that rafter in the photograph”.

She told me she lived right near the beach and every Sunday she would leave her tiny apartment and watch the body-building guys perform for the crowds and soak up the sun.

Another more innocent era for sure.

“During the day, young people spent their time either in the street or in one of their regular local cafes, such as Popoff or Le Bidule. This image was made in the latter establishment, lit mainly by a match. 
1/10 second. F/1.9. There is no miracle: a match held 4 in away from the face gives more light than a 75-watt bulb hanging 5 ft away.”

~ Willy Ronis

Willy makes it sound so easy to create an image of such technical brilliance and mood. But it takes a lifetime of hard work and dedication and passion and extraordinary talent to get to that point where it seems so effortless.

“To say photography is intrusive is a load of nonsense. All you are doing is plucking an invisible moment out and making it last.”

~ Grace Robertson

Grace had a great gift with children and was alway so perceptive about everything. Here her eye focuses on the outsider little girl amidst all the boys playing in the park.

“I had been carrying around in my head since I was a boy, a great many images which would surface on my consciousness at the appropriate moment and dictate the formal design of a picture. I wanted to tell stories through pictures.”

~ Thurston Hopkins

Thurston was one of the most underrated, great photographers I had the pleasure to work with.
He trained as a painter and graphic designer before taking up photography. He had a great, great sense of composition and could find joy everywhere. As is evidenced by these two girls in a poor part of London where I was also born.

“Art is both love and friendship and understanding. It is both the taking and giving of beauty.”

~ Ansel Adams

These are some of the most simple and moving words I have ever read about the power of art.
Ansel was of course most well known for his epic images of the American Landscape,
but here we see another side of his work. A very rare “portrait” of his friend the San Francisco sculptor Annette Rosenshine.

We never see her face but we understand the mutual respect of one artist to another in this most tender of images.

“It was during the summer vacation. We had joined my wife Marie-Annes’s parents in a village in the Gironde. They knew this winemaker who made very good wine and during a visit I thought he had such an amazing “mug” that I just had to photograph him.”

~ Willy Ronis

Here is a portrait of a happy man. He does not need too much help from any analyst. He is content in his simple pleasure.

Willy was right. What a face!

"Some of my photographs have always been a mystery to me in terms of how I arrived at them.”

~ Paul Caponigro

Of course it is often impossible to get a great artist such as Paul to articulate precisely their creative process. It seems even inappropriate and intrusive to try. That is a private matter. What is most important is the result and in this image the result speaks for itself. It is just beautiful and meditative.

Maybe Paul intended it as a metaphor for life’s journey with all its twists and turns and unintended moments, but most likely not.

One can just simply be appreciative that it exists and enjoy it.

“A photo must represent, partake, suggest or reflect the object photographed, but it is not a work of art because it does either or all of these, it must be alive and as a photograph have an existence of its own.”

~ Edouard Steichen

This is one of Steichen’s early masterpieces and one of his most important images. It also greatly impressed the hard-to-please Alfred Stieglitz who was keen to include it in his hugely important publication Camerawork.

Originally trained as a painter, Steichen embraced the soft focus, atmospheric tenets of pictorialism with its dreamlike and mysterious moods. The image is alive and haunting. A nude female figure seated, one knee raised and leaning to the left with her right arm extended across her body slowly envelopes us. The subject's face is obscured as it is shrouded in shadow and we are completely seduced as we are brought into her world.

“An afternoon at the end of winter, Place de la Concorde. Before disappearing, the sun filters through the clouds and sensually outlines the curves of the parked cars. A fleeting effect, which needs to be captured on the spot. The Paris sky is - in the eye of this Parisian - one of the most beautiful and varied in the world, perhaps because of the relative proximity of the English Channel. But that doesn’t mean it is beautiful all the time. Furthermore we must never neglect special moments when they present themselves. Many of the images in my work are the result of dismissing so -called good reasons such as “I’ll do this some other time. I’m late, that’s enough for today” and worst of all, “So, what am I going to use that for?”

~ Willy Ronis

We are all so fortunate that Willy didn’t decide to go home early this day otherwise we would have been deprived of one of his greatest images. There is indeed something so magical about “The Paris Light”.

This image has it all. Paris, The Eiffel Tower, the shapes and lines of the cars and of course the unique mood and ambience of this extraordinary city.

“I like the smell of the chemicals and I like the darkness and the red light and the noise of the flowing water. If I am not in the darkroom for one day I have a feeling the day is lost.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Well this day was certainly not lost when Pentti turned his eye towards the Atlantic Ocean. It has such great power and atmosphere. One feels like one is there with him and we can experience the sounds of the waves as well.

He then returns to his little darkroom to work his magic and produce yet another gem of a print.

“I have had the great privilege of photographing children all over the world and now that I have a child of my own, I have an even greater appreciation for their energy, curiosity and potential.

Despite the hardships into which many children are born, they still have the ability to play, smile, laugh and share small moments of joy. There is always the possibility that a child could grow up and change the world.”

~ Steve McCurry

Fatherhood has come late in life for Steve, but I am so happy for him to have the opportunity to experience this profound and humbling state. I have had the honor to have worked closely with him for 35 plus years. He has shown us the humanity of children in the far corners of the world.

Here in this abandoned shipyard, children have transformed this place of limited resources into their own special playground, a testament to their resilience. Where there is childhood, there is hope.

This image along with many of Steve's iconic and some unseen images are on view in The World of Steve McCurry exhibition in the gallery now through the end of May, 2022. Open for viewing Tuesday - Saturday 11-5.

“I have to admit, I like old things.”

~ George Tice

You are not alone George. I always tend to seek out old fashioned diners on my travels. I find them strangely comforting with their atmosphere of warm nostalgia and the semblance of simpler times.

“Photography came as a substitute. I was painfully shy and found talking to people difficult. A camera in my hand gave me a function, a reason to be somewhere, a witness but not an actor.”

~ Martine Franck

I knew Martine was very ill and I wanted to do something for her that would try and take her mind off the pain she was in. I remembered an overlooked image of hers that I had found in her archive that I loved. It was taken in India in 1964 and thought it symbolized her own very spiritual side.

I asked her if she would allow me to produce a small group of platinum prints of this image for her as it reminded me of her own grace. She ever modestly agreed and I was happy and honored to be able to present the image to her a couple of months before she passed away.

“I arrived one day and got into the lift at the magazine and there was this stranger in it. I knew he was a photographer because he was a bit lopsided.”

~ Grace Robertson

Thurston met his future wife and fellow photographer Grace Robertson at the celebrated UK magazine “Picture Post” where they both worked. It was the UK equivalent to “Life” Magazine and was always full of compassionate human interest stories.

Two friends say cheerio after probally a somewhat boozy lunch in the great somewhat bohemian Soho district of London. An area I know very well replete with all its great cafes, bookstores and in the heart of the theater district.

“Wherever there is light one can photograph.”

~ Alfred Stieglitz

Surely this is one of the most beautiful female nudes in the history of photography. Sensual and subtle, it was the result of a special unique collaboration between two great masters at the turn of the century.

Who actually did what has always been a matter of conjecture. But does it really matter? I don’t think so. The result speaks for itself. Stieglitz had a very domineering personality and White was known to be a quiet type. Maybe Stieglitz took control of the session but was open to White’s suggestions as the session progressed. Oh to have been a fly on the wall that day. The subject provocatively raises her arms but modestly turns her head and closes her eyes.

It is just breathtaking and the nuances of the print and the delicacy of the mood they created are unparalleled.

"What is important to my work is the individual picture. I photograph stories on assignment and of course they have to be put together coherently. But what matters most is that each picture stands on its own with its own place and feeling.“

~ Steve McCurry

Pictures can offer themselves up to you - but only if you have patience.

McCurry asked these nuns if he could follow them on their daily walk around the city. He trailed them for several days until, with rain failing and a brightly colored building as a fitting backdrop, he captured this graceful image.

Steve McCurry. The Iconic Photographs. Phaidon.

“I love this content dialogue between myself, my camera and my subject, which is what differentiates me from certain other photographers who don’t seek this dialogue and prefer to distance themselves from their subject.”

~ Sabine Weiss

Sabine always put so much of herself into her images. She was a hard working photographer in a male dominated profession and she identified obviously here with another hard working woman returning home after a long day.

Her sense of light and shadow were beyond exceptional.

“Life is once forever.”

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

Four simple words sum up Henri’s approach not only to photography but his approach to life in general. I learnt so much from him and the lessons he taught me continue every day through being surrounded by his work.

A family relaxes on a Sunday by the banks of a river. In an ordinary photographer’s eye it would be a static moment. With Henri it has a gentle dynamism and tells a story of family and friendship.
How did he know to press the shutter just as the man on the left is pouring the glass of wine and the woman on the right is about to eat the tastiest morsel of the chicken leg in harmonious order?

“I wait for photographs like a pointer dog.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

I’m not sure how long Pentti must have waited to secure this magic moment. I am sure it was an extensive amount of time, a tribute to his unfailing patience and dedication to his craft and in seeking out life’s unexpected joyful moments.

“It takes the passage of time before an image of a common place subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is being beyond the moment, the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.”

~ George Tice

Yes we live in age of portable smartphones. This telephone booth now seems like it is from another century, but it is only 1971 and it has that Edward Hopper urban loneliness look to it.

Remember running out of coins?

“I want to be a part of a tradition of photography that depicts the world as it is, that portrays humanity as it is and documents world events.”

~ Steve McCurry

In June 1983, Steve McCurry was travelling by taxi through a stretch of desert on the Indian -Pakastani border in Rajasthan. It was extremely hot and that part of the country had seen no rain for 13 years. During the journey the weather suddenly changed and Steve spotted a sand storm approaching with a ferocious roar like a huge wave. He stopped the taxi near a group of women who had formed a close circle to protect themselves against the biting wind and searing sand.

One feels one is looking at a scene from The Bible. Almost a dream but so real.

“In the 1950’s newspaper photographs were even more cliche ridden than they are today. Moreover I detested their ruthless methods I was expected to adopt in order to obtain the sort of results which kept picture editors happy"

~ Thurston Hopkins
1913-2014

Thurston often wore his heart on his sleeve. He saw the good in everyone and was devoid of cynicism. It shows in his many heart felt images. A true romantic but with a great sense of humor.
Just notice the furtive look of the young man taking a sneak at the lovers on the chair.

“A good picture must move you, have a good composition and be sober. People’s sensitivity must jump out at you”

~ Sabine Weiss

I was very fortunate to find this rare image in Sabine’s archive a few months before she passed away at 97 years old and so fortunate that she managed to make and sign a handful of prints for me. I thought it was such a tender moment, which was not posed, whilst she was on assignment for Life in the 1950’s.

John Edward Sache spent an immensely productive 20 year career primarily in Northern India and produced so many beautiful landscapes and architectural studies in Calcutta, Bombay, Lucknow, Delhi, Agra and Cashmere. This particular group of vintage albumen prints are especially rich in their tonal range and condition.

“Cities are a mess for my eye,
I prefer when it is silent and simple.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti has a kindness and sensitivity that you experience the moment you are fortunate to encounter him. You experience the warmth of the world through his eyes. His images are like fairy tales that he unravels before us.

“It is important for you to spend your time photographing things that matter to you. You need to understand the things that have meaning to you, not what others think is important for you."

~ Steve McCurry

Steve has always followed his own path and humanistic instincts. That is why he has achieved that rare thing in an artistic life - longevity. He never compromises his vision and approaches each situation with integrity and compassion and empathy. He does not shy away from his spiritual side and feels at home in Tibet, a place he returns to frequently.

Candles are a form of offering at the Tibetan prayer festival in Bodh Gaya, India during which thousands are alight throughout the area.

“It is one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like. It’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.”

~ Paul Caponigro

1967 was a magical year for Paul as he got to spend some extensive time in that special country, Ireland. Discovering its landscape and people inspired his art. The faces of these children could only be Irish. He captures their strong individual personalities. I often think what became of them. Did they stay in their land of birth or like so many of their countrymen and women did they wander abroad in search of another life? We shall never know but perhaps one of these children is reading this now.

“Looking through the New York Evening News want ads when I started out I never saw any ads for “Artist Photographer” .
I would do my own personal photography at the weekends. I realized that there would never be a perfect time to give up my day job
so my personal work became my major work.”

~ George Tice

George looks for power and beauty in the ordinary urban landscapes and finds it. There’s something so touching and moving in this vista knowing that the Twin Towers are no longer there.

“Joined by a couple of lovers. Reciprocal discretion. I could not resist the temptation to photograph them in their charming embrace, against the panorama of the west of Paris. They pretended not to notice: perhaps they were even happy to let me have this record of their joyous love. The light of Paris is always at its most beautiful after the rain clears. A few clouds still lingered here and there, filling the sky attractively: another gift to the photographer.”

~ Willy Ronis

One of the most celebrated of all French romantic images. So deservedly so.
Toujours l”amour. Nothing more needs to be said. This image says it all.

“It is the wild, stubborn and unconquerable spirit of this ancient country that has drawn me back again and again for almost 40 years.
Much as outsiders try to reform it, Afghanistan never really changes. It has absorbed blows for millennia, but always continues on as before, defiantly 
outside of time as we know it. And yet without even trying to, Afghanistan changes everyone who spends time there. It has certainly changed me."

~ Steve McCurry

Steve began his photographic career in earnest in Afghanistan. He gained his International reputation from his early work there that set the pattern for his unique approach to storytelling.
While no part of this original building survives, progressive renovation has resulted in one of the most exquisite and sacred monuments in Afghanistan. Steve has created a balletic interpretation with his usual lush colors of this special place.

“It was a craft. I was a craft woman of photography.”

~ Sabine Weiss

Sabine never stopped working since the day she became a professional photographer. She had no airs and graces and did not consider herself to be “an artist". But of course she was and a great one at that when it came to her personal work.

She accepted commercial assignments to keep going and often was sought after by French Vogue.
Here is one of her great fashion shots full of a wry sense of humor.

“You live as long as you dance.”

~ Rudolf Nureyev
1938-1993

“It is important for me to try and catch the person when they are listening or when they are in a pensive mood or have forgotten my presence. I rarely ask a person to pose for me as I prefer they reveal themselves as they wish. For me the eyes and the hands are most important and when possible I try to use natural light."

~ Martine Franck
1938-2012

Martine created an archive of extraordinary portraits of many of the great artistic creators of her time. Her soulfullness and emotional perceptions produced such sublime compositions. She truly interacted with her subjects instead of being just a mere passive observer, as is revealed here in her portrait of the great Russian dancer.

“When I photograph dogs, I always have something to feed them - some sausage or sardines. They are quite easy to befriend. Give them something twice and they’ll be your friend for life.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti here discloses one of his “trade” secrets and has now let the cat out of the bag so to speak.
His secret weapon as to how to get our canine friends a little more cooperative to perform for his lens. Treats!

“Pictures don’t just walk past you. You have to run along to find them.”

~ Steve McCurry

At the annual festival celebrating Ganesha, held in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the participants powder their face with “air”, a natural dye that is colored using flower extracts. In the midst of the raucous activities, McCurry asked this boy if he could take his picture. He agreed. The red powder accentuates the boy’s eyes, which scrutinize and question the viewer.

Steve uses color with a brilliance and variety like no one else. He creates the real and the surreal the same time.

This image along with many of Steve's iconic and some unseen images are on view in The World of Steve McCurry exhibition in the gallery now through the end of May, 2022. Open for viewing Tuesday - Saturday 11-5.

“After a time you don’t want to have any photographic influence. It’s ok to be influenced by writers, poets, people in other fields, but not okay to be influenced by other photographers.”

~ George Tice

George has always marched to the beat of his own drum which is what has made him one of the great American photographers. You can always tell one of his photographs. His work always looks or points to a larger force at work beyond what they contain within their frame such as this one which I always call 
“The Last Picture Show”.

You are invited to linger with his images. They are not a quick read. We are invited to stay with them and to revisit them again and again. I always see something new each time. That is why they have sustained their interest for me after so many years.

He has taught me to understand America more deeply.

“I take photographs to hold on to the ephemeral, capture chance, keep an image of something that will disappear, gestures, attitudes, objects that are reminders of brief lives. The camera picks them up and freezes them at the very moment they disappear.”

~ Sabine Weiss

This is one of Sabine’s most atmospheric images. It has everything in it. A great mood, magical backlight, night-lighting and a fleeting moment of physical motion. It is no wonder that the great Edward Steichen wanted to include her in his seminal exhibition “The Family of Man”.

“The reason I enjoy photography?
The improvisation, the randomness and the unexpected.”

~ Martine Franck

Martine was one the most intelligent, elegant and dignified people I have ever met. Her graciousness and kindness to me as I embarked on this career was profound. I owe her so much.
She possessed a truly rare talent.

Her quiet manner, almost an innate shyness covered a strong passion and determination to create beauty. She found architecture and humanity in the landscape as is evidenced here.

This is one of my most favorite buildings in New York. I can just get lost in its magnificence and learn so much each time I enter its hallowed grounds.

Alexander Thibideau was one of the leading members of The Photo Pictorialists of Buffalo, a small group of photographers who broke away from the Buffalo Camera Club in 1906 to achieve higher artistic standards in their work.

He certainly achieved this with this dreamlike image for those who love books.

“I prefer winter, the worse the weather, the better the photograph will be.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Talk about suffering for your art. Siberia is generally regarded as the coldest place on earth. A true artist seeks out beauty whatever the personal cost in comfort and convenience in order to obtain their goal. We are fortunate to be the recipients of all of Pentti’s efforts in this regard in over 50 years of his hard work and passion.

“If photography comes down to vision and craft, vision is more important than craft, but I do make a nicely crafted photograph.”

~ George Tice

This one of George’s most beautiful physical prints. It is the perfect combination of vision and craft. 
It came about as a complete accident.

George was working on his much celebrated Amish project. He was expecting a horse-drawn buggy to come around the corner when lo and behold an old VW Beetle suddenly appears and being the ever ready artist he is George seized the moment and made photographic history.

It is one of his most challenging negatives to print but well worth all the effort he has to extend to get his desired result.

“In many parts of the world, people ply their trades out of doors, whether it is on a sidewalk, in a doorway or alley, or a makeshift stall. Their ubiquity enables people to have the convenience of stopping in at any time to get a haircut, get their shoes fixed, have their teeth repaired, get their ears cleaned, or have their fortunes told.”

~ Steve McCurry

In my long collaboration with Steve I have come to realize more and more that his photographs truly capture human experience and transcend boundaries of language and culture to tell a truly global story.

This image along with many of Steve's iconic and some unseen images are on view in The World of Steve McCurry exhibition in the gallery now through the end of May, 2022. Open for viewing Tuesday - Saturday 11-5.

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea”

~ Henry James


“Long necks. The thrust of the head in a certain position. The way the fingers work, fabrics work. It’s all part of my painting background”

~ Lillian Bassman

I must say I agree with Mr James. Breakfast meetings are just too early. Power lunches just too pretentious Just offer me a wonderful high tea rendezvous and. I’ll be there in a flash. Lillian with her consistent elegance and panache, captures the moment beautifully aided by the exquisite. Carmen Dell’Orefice who at 90 years old is still a working model and in much demand.

“ I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together."

~ Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II

I often think that The Queen should also be Prime Minister too. She has such a vast experience and knowledge of people and dare I say the word “politics” too that she is amply qualified for both positions. I think she also keeps her mind very sharp as well by working on her jig saw puzzles.

She is formidable.

“Preparing the “Stone Walls, Grey Skies” book I used the Bronte Sisters writings as research. You could say that Haworth Moor was Bronte country. Their writings were a great influence.”

~ George Tice

George won a year’s fellowship to photograph in North Yorkshire. He brought the same great insight there and understanding of the landscape and its people as he had done in his native New Jersey.

He also mastered the complicated and exacting platinum print process to create exceptional prints such as the above.

“We are always the same age inside.”

~ Gertrude Stein

“I don’t make up my mind before. When I photograph them and something happens then you have to catch it and understand it. Try and bring it out. I don’t think we should photograph somebody with a pre-conceived idea…..then it is not the person.”

~ Horst P Horst (On portraits)

Before he moved to NY as war broke out in Europe, Horst spent many early formative years in Paris working for French Vogue and other publications. He was a master of light and composition. He befriended and was befriended by the notable Gertrude Stein who lived her ex pat life to the full.

Here he captured her essence in her celebrated apartment and salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus with one of her constant companions, her equally celebrated dog “Basket” who knew everyone too.

“There are times when you recognize a design or a composition and you work it. You’ll wait for as long as it takes.”

~ Steve McCurry

Patience is one of the most important skills it takes to become as great a photographer as Steve.
Prayer flags hung to bring happiness and prosperity cover a hillside in Machen with the perfect human scale to illustrate the grandeur of it.

This image along with many of Steve's iconic and some unseen images are on view in The World of Steve McCurry exhibition in the gallery now through the end of May, 2022. Open for viewing Tuesday - Saturday 11-5.

“Fashion photography is singularly the most creative form of photography there is. Even though I’m doing a Volkswagen ad or Rolls-Royce, I’m still a fashion photographer.”

~ William Helburn

Well on this day his job was for Chrysler. One of my favorite spots in Manhattan. 59th Street and 5th Ave, opposite the venerable Plaza Hotel. Back then it is interesting to note that 5th Avenue was a two way street.

The glamour and elegance of it all.

“Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.”

~ Her Royal Highness QUEEN ELIZABETH II

I think Her Highness has a great love of the outdoor life. It must be a great relief for her to be away from the crowds and all the indoor duties and receptions she has to be present at. I suspect she is at her happiest when she is outside with her beloved corgis and horses.

I know I would be.

“If you’re in the right place at the right time, then all you have to do is push a button. Being a photographer doesn’t come into it.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

I’m not sure Pentti’s practice is as humble as he modestly states here. It takes years and years of hard work to be ready for such a moment as this.

He didn’t place the dog on the cow’s body and just step away. He was just receptive and prepared to receive this touching gift.

“I saw all kinds of people get into photography because they loved it. But then when they became professional, their own personal work went out the window. And I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

~ George Tice

George came from a humble background and had to earn a living to support a family and himself, so in his beginning days he had to literally go door to door taking baby and family photos.
But he never lost sight of being a creative art photographer.

He spent nine years on his own time and dime to create an amazing project on the Amish and Mennonite communities whose way of life he knew would be hard to maintain in an ever changing industrial world.

It resulted in his great book “Fields of Peace” where this joyous image is illustrated, a tribute to his determination and talent.

“Our work was always about the subject, about content. We photographers talk about art too, about photography as a craft, but taking pictures is above all about telling a story.”

~ Steve McCurry

This Calcutta street scene is a cacophony of visual noise. Steve spent a long time searching for a way to capture the energy and vitality of this most unique of cities.

To say all human life is shown here is a vast understatement. He is telling us a real human story.

“Creative photography does not have to have anything to do with location, project or causes as such yet it can involve anyone of them. It is a need to express something within the photographer. A creative photograph is one seen through the photographer. The reason for making the photograph is often unexplainable.”

~ Todd Webb

A scorching hot New York summer day. A hydrant goes off and all of a sudden a group of kids from all racial backgrounds join together in a circle in harmony and joy to embrace this gift.

One of the greatest New York images ever in this collector’s humble opinion. A symbol of hope that only mostly children seem to possess.

“I somehow managed to come up with off beat ideas that clients liked. I didn’t want to do normal pictures. I’d be awake the night before a job and think about what I could do that no one else had thought of."

~ William Helburn

One of the true advertising stars of the “Mad Men” era, Bill was a larger than life dynamic character who lived life to the full. He never chased the artistic/museum validation as many of his contemporaries did, he just wanted to do the best by his commercial clients which he did and they kept coming back for more.

I just love the whimsy of this one.

“For me the most powerful expression is the simplest.”

~ Kurt Markus

Whilst working on location for German Elle, Kurt saw this solitary horse. In what seems like the most simple of moments he distills his deep respect for the West in a single frame.

He spends hours on each print in his darkroom to fulfill his vision and this one just glows.

“I think that as good architecture enhances a city, a good hair design/cut enhances the definition and expression of a face.”

~ Vidal Sassoon

“For me, one of the most important aspects of my work is to give people something to dream about just as I used to dream all those years ago as a child looking at beautiful photographs. I still weave dreams, finding inspiration wherever I can and looking for romance in the real, not the digital world.”

~ Grace Coddington

I came of age in London during what is known as “The Swinging 60’s”, a time of incredible and unparalleled energy. Vidal Sassoon was at the epicenter of it all and was responsible almost single handedly for modernizing the looks of the choicest and most beautiful women in the fashion and Hollywood worlds.

Grace Coddington was a young model back then starting out on her career before she became one of the most celebrated creative directors in the fashion business during her tenure at American Vogue.

Vidal's was one of those most responsible for “The Look” of that era.

“Books are the plane and the train and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home.”

~ Anna Quindlen

Alice Boughton was one of the most important pioneer female pictorialist photographers at the turn of the century. Like her mentor Gertrude Kasebier she was a fellow of Alfred Stieglitz’s Photo Secession movement.

It was a time when female photographers went out of their way to support other female photographers. Not so much a conscious movement but they all supported each other.
She was a fine portraitist who specialized in literary figures and had a special gift for photographing children.

I believe this to be a unique print and was so happy to have found it .

“It is through living we discover ourselves at the same time as we discover the world around us.”

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

This was the first Cartier-Bresson photograph I collected and it still remains today after so many years one of my all-time favorite photographs. 

Why?
I’m not even sure I can come close to articulating it. I just find it profoundly moving and beautiful. Perhaps it is just the simple gesture of the woman raising her hands in prayer against the background of that extraordinary landscape and the look given by the young woman at the lower left of the frame who turns her body towards her.

In conversation recently with the celebrated British photographer David Bailey he confessed to me that it was his favorite photograph too.

And I’m sure also for many others. Once viewed, never forgotten.

“My way of working is to enter an unknown world, explore it over a period of time and learn from it”

~Bruce Davidson

Bruce is most revered for his insightful and gritty urban images (like the Brooklyn gang or stickball scene included below) but here this is a different Bruce. He devoted over four years to roaming day and night one of the great urban oasis in the world, Central Park.

Perhaps it was a deep personal need to escape for awhile from the intensity of the city but certainly in this image he seems to have found a deep peace and balance. He almost seems to have subconsciously channeled Alfred Steiglitz but has made the park his own.

Shot with a wide angle lens, the blanket of snow has always evoked for me a poetic lyricism and a silence not often found in the energetic city.

“Over the years, those who have seemed to me to be the most happy, contented and fulfilled have always been the people who have lived the most outgoing and unselfish lives”

~ Her Royal Highness
QUEEN ELIZABETH II

“Every year during the State Opening of Parliament there would be a procession, I knew that would be my best chance of capturing an image I’ve had in my head for decades. I wanted to show HM The Queen in portrait, a modern interpretation of the iconic image that appears on our stamps. Every year I would stand in a different place, at a different height and wait for the moment to arrive. I was determined to capture the image I had in my mind, and determination paid off. It was at the State Opening of Parliament in 2015 when she rode by in full regalia. I took a series of photographs and after she passed, I looked at what I captured. And there it was; I had it. It took me 12 years to take this one, single photograph. I sent a copy to the palace and received a kind letter in return asking for a copy of the print for the Royal Photographic Collection for posterity.”

~ Greg Brennan

Luck was on Greg’s side that special day in 2015 when his passion and persistence finally paid off. The Queen is of course one of the most recognized and beloved humans on the planet, with an extraordinary life lived.

What is so amazing to me is that this image was grabbed “on the fly” as they say. It looks like a long, highly produced, expensive, intense studio session with a large team of hairdressers, make up artists, lighting technicians, etc to aid in producing an image to the highest technical standards worthy of its subject.

But it was the complete opposite, a solitary photographer with a great eye on a mission.

“I don’t know my subjects. I just take pictures. My relationship to them is basically being grateful for them to be there”

~ John Simmons

The heart and emotion that John pours into each of his images is just so life affirming. His keen eye and empathy produces work of such timelessness in the humanity his eye portrays. There are no technical tricks or manipulations. He just sees it and feels it and makes us feel the same.

“Looking back through my older photos I wondered if my eye had changed and I don’t think it has really. The photographs I took back then are really quite simple. They are pared down in terms of what’s in the frame. I guess that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”

~Roger Deakins

This is one of my favorite early images by Roger before he started his illustrious career as a cinematographer. We shared a similar upbringing in England perhaps that is the reason I relate so much to his work. Going to a fun fair was an exciting event. It was even a little risqué with interesting side bars. What Roger captures here is the essence of childhood. But the way the different generations of kids just lined up with so much going on in the background in a single frame, for me, it lets old memories come flooding back.

“I like to work with no time limits, nobody watching or asking questions, no phones or other interruption. When I go to a location, I don’t know if I will be there for five minutes or five days. Inspiration depends on the light, the atmosphere and what I react to"

~ Michael Kenna

Obviously Michael stayed much longer than 5 minutes in this location. Who could blame him confronted with such a visual. It had such an impact on his soul that he returned.. again and again..

“Carey was a ceramics student at the art school in Georgia where I had been teaching photography. She lived out in the country in an old house with lots of land. I thought she was beautiful in a way that was both ancient and modern.Though she was at home in rural Georgia, she could have stepped out of a Julia Margaret Cameron photograph from Victorian England.”

~ Mark Steinmetz

Mark makes photographs of ordinary people in the ordinary landscapes they inhabit and makes them extraordinary. This is one of the most tender and beautiful images I have ever seen. He shoots on film and creates prints in a traditional darkroom. The light in his images is just magical.

This a photo that emanates such grace and peace and hope.

“My friends still call me a 'Young Turk'. I spent all those years learning how to be a photographer. It has been exciting, unexpected and tremendously rewarding"

~ Fred Lyon

Fred is one of the most special people I have ever had the pleasure to work with in my whole career.
He has been constantly working at his craft for over 75 years now. There is incredible empathy and sensitivity to his work. Once you meet Fred in person you understand where it all comes from. He is in the tradition of all the great French humanist photographers like Ronis, Boubat, Doisneau, Weiss mixed in with Brassai and Cartier Bresson but with his own unique eye.. He is one of the most charming, engaging, intelligent, and thoughtful human beings I have ever met. We all need relief from contemporary life and whenever I spend time living with his work (as I do), it does this for me every time without fail. A treasure and a gift to know him.

"I get as much joy and kicks out of taking photographs as I do after a day’s filming. I can take one frame of a photograph and come home and I’m really satisfied."

~ Roger Deakins

It’s early morning at an English coastal beach-town, like the ones I too used to visit as a child. The tourists have yet to wake up and arrive but Roger is there patiently waiting, observing to see if something might just catch his attention. It did. The donkeys have just been loaded off their transport. Not an eager kid in sight. Just a tender reflection of a simple vista, a quiet reflective moment before the crowds appear and the calm disappears.

“I try to look at light at all times, I am always watching for it. I am not looking at light because I am a photographer. I am a photographer because I am deeply involved with light.”

~ Ruth Bernhard

Whenever I found myself in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities to visit, I would always make a point to go visit Ruth on Clay Street in Pacific Heights. She lived in a wonderful, simple apartment there, always surrounded with unique objects that stimulated her art. She was always, always looking. That was her mantra. So this image has always had personal resonance for me and the memories of our frequent encounters there come flooding back.

“Photography is an alibi, a pretext to see everything, to go everywhere, to communicate with everyone”

~ Sabine Weiss

Sabine unlike many of her male French photography colleagues who preferred to stay home more, had an incredible wanderlust. She worked for many international publications and travelled extensively. She often worked for Life Magazine who encouraged her to travel and she made several trips to New York. She imbues this Manhattan woman with such “esprit” and elegance and energy. A joy to behold.

“There are days when one walks around without getting a single photograph, without running in to anything. But there are other times when things are offered to me like gifts ….. But in order to see that gift, one has to be prepared. If I am, and if my camera is there at the right moment, click! All I have to do is accept it.”

~ Edouard Boubat

This was a special day for Edouard as the gift he was given became one of his most beloved images. One cannot set up a shot like this. It just happened in the tradition of the great affection certain Parisians, and not just Parisians, have for their dogs. They take them everywhere they are allowed to. Faithful and loyal companions through the journey of life.

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter”

~ Ansel Adams

Ansel was a founding member of the F/64 group, a group of West Coast photographers who came together in the 1930’s including Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. Edward Weston’s prints were priced back then at $15 each and everyone else's were $10 each.

The term F/64 refers to a small aperture setting on a large format camera which secures great depth of field, rendering a photograph evenly sharp from foreground to background. “Sand Fence” is a very rare, “gem” of a print from Ansel which best exemplifies this philosophy. By showing viewers a true picture of a photographic subject, Ansel captured not just its appearance but its emotional reality. I feel like I’m standing right next to Ansel as he is taking this photograph. The quality and physical beauty of this specific print is just amazing.

“I think with great photographers you look at their photographs and there’s a story within them. You can’t really do that in a movie because you can’t make the individual frames too complex - you are telling the story as a composite. It’s a different way of communicating."

~ Roger Deakins

Roger is filming “The Reader” in Germany, he is on a period train, filming is finished for the day and everyone is heading back to home base to get refreshed for the next’s day shooting.
Because it is a period train the windows can come down easily. He is looking out. He sees a pair of hands. Perhaps an extra is leaning out. Steam from the train comes into the frame. We cannot see who the hands belong to. No face to give us more explanation. It is just a moment but it is tender and hypnotic. It is a great photo and becomes the cover of Roger’s first book of his own images and the “raison d ’etre" for our first exhibition with him. It is up to each of us to complete the narrative for ourselves.

"Neal Cassady and his love of that year, the star crossed Natalie Jackson conscious of their roles in Market Street Eternity: Cassady had been the prototype for Jack Kerouac’s 1950 “On The Road” saga hero Dean Moriarty, as later in the 1960’s he’d taken the driver’s wheel of Ken Kesey’s psychedelic-era day -glo painted Merry Prankster cross country bus “Further”.

Neal’s illuminated American automobile mania, “unspeakably enthusiastic” friendship and erotic energy had already written his name in bright lit signs of our literal imaginations before movies were made imitating his charm. That’s why we stopped under the marquee to fix the passing hand on the watch, San Francisco maybe March 1955"

~ Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg lived many lives as a renowned poet, world traveler, spiritual seeker, founding member of a major literary movement, champion of human and civil rights, songwriter, political gadfly, teacher and co founder of a poetics school.

He was also a really good photographer and this image has always been one of my favorites.
I like where it was shot, Market Street in San Francisco, and love its mood. I’m swept up in it’s romance but what really makes it for me is the marquee with the great Brando movie “The Wild One” featured. I see and feel America in it’s composition and mood.

“My work is my language and I don’t discuss it very easily. It’s difficult for me to verbalize my feelings or to intellectualize my work”

~ Brett Weston

Brett had a pretty simple artistic process. He used large format cameras, insisted on pre visualizing final images before exposure and produced immaculate prints. What is impossible to articulate is all the long hours he put into thinking about the work and executing the final print. That is why very few photographers have ever come close to achieving what he achieved during his long and productive career. He destroyed the majority of his negatives on his 80th Birthday as he did not want anyone to print from them after his passing. This “act” was very controversial at the time but one has to respect his decision. He was an artist who had certainly paid his dues and had the right to follow his own path even up to the end as he had done his whole life.

“I allowed life to give me presents. And everything just sort of happened the way it was supposed to happen. I did not pursue anything. It more or less pursued me”

~ Ruth Bernhard

This is one of Ruth’s great early still lives. She always had a deep fascination with dolls and puppets. Here she transforms everyday objects into a powerful metaphor for youth and innocence and belonging.

“I think my contribution to the fashion photography genre has been to photograph fashion with a woman’s eye for a woman’s intimate feelings”

~ Lillian Bassman

Marilyn Ambrose was the model here for one of Lillian’s great Harper’s Bazaar 1950’s shoots.
It’s hard to imagine any male photographer coming anywhere near to getting the psychological depth and insight into this “performance” and subtext of this image.

“An artist has to have a strong ego. He has to be enamored with his work. His art has to be the most important thing in his life.”

~ Brett Weston

Brett lived his life broken down to the essentials. Early to bed, early to rise. Living simply. Some bread and cheese here, some figs and nuts there to keep his energy up whilst he was working.
All for his precious time in the darkroom where his creations really came alive and his printing prowess was displayed creating some the most beautiful prints in the history of the medium.

“At the time, I was not aware that there was another photographer, a dozen or so years older than me, who also roamed through Paris at night, with a tripod and whose name was Brassai. I only met Brassai much later on, in 1945. Like all lovers of night photography in cities, I particularly liked the rainy days because of the reflections.”

~ Willy Ronis

Of all the great photographers I have had the good fortune to work with Willy was one of the ones I felt closest to. He was like the grandfather I never had. He was gentle and wise. One day visiting him I said let’s go have dinner near Rue Muller, one of my favorite photographs of his. We jumped in a taxi and went to a restaurant opposite where the car in the photograph was parked
I swear to you nothing had changed since he first took this great photo in 1934. I was going to host a special dinner for him here on the occasion of his 100th birthday but he passed away when he was 99 and a half years old. He almost made it to that special occasion. But his images live on and are timeless. I still think about him everyday. I was first introduced to him by Cartier-Bresson with the words “Peter, go work with Willy. He is better than me!”. They were both great and so special. They don’t make them like this anymore.

“I love the wait for things to come to me, for the event and me to meet half way”

~ Sabine Weiss

One of my favorites of Sabine’s. I love black and white photography shot in the snow. A truly romantic but subtle image. One can almost imagine two people sitting there talking to each other in the most amorous city in the world.

"It's a common experience with photographers that they never notice imminent danger, when they've got a camera in their hands. Something sort of takes over."

~ Thurston Hopkins

Thurston Hopkins always found stories. But on this day he found a classic comedy playing out before his lens. The young school mates wishing the hot-shot car was there's, and the policemen perhaps toying between appreciating or ticketing the closely observed vehicle. One can almost picture the unfortunate owner hurrying down the street past the photographer and into the frame. The image really seems right out of a film with all the charm of Wottingham in the 1950's. It is a snapshot of another time. We all can imagine how different this photograph would look if shot today.

"The most important thing is the luck, behind every good image there is the good luck too"

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti may have more good luck than the rest of us. Every photograph seems to have a sense of serendipity. How lucky he was on this day to catch this composition of nature and the city at peace. A mood on the banks of the Seine in Paris.

“I love Jazz musicians. I think they are just wonderful people and as a metaphor I see the music as a cry for freedom”

~ Herb Snitzer
b. 1932

“ I know what I have done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.”

~ Miles Davis
(1926-1991)

It is the Newport Jazz Festival. Miles is giving a press conference before the concerts begin. He is dressed entirely in black with several gold chains around his neck. He is answering questions reluctantly. He would rather be anywhere else. He just wants to play Jazz. Herb moves in close and creates an amazing portrait that capture’s all his subject’s intensity and power and unique personality.

“This was taken around the time of Bowie’s 50th Birthday celebration in New York City. He told me he’d be in need of a strong cup of breakfast tea and he wanted to go to “Tea and Sympathy” in the Village. I like the Brit in New York feel of the photo-with his Union Jack mug of tea. He stood outside the cafe for 20 minutes while I did a selection of photographs and nobody spotted him or if they did, they didn’t come over to chat - not even when he was laughing and complaining about the cold.”

~ Kevin Cummins

There is a wonderful new documentary out now by Brett Morgen on David Bowie “Moonage Daydream”. I urge you to go see it on an Imax screen to appreciate the full power of it’s remarkable subject. Bowie was a huge part of all us who came of age in England. Kevin has really captured his essence here. A cool, intelligent, creative chameleon. I still recall the day he walked into our booth at a New York art fair over 20 years ago, well mannered, respectful and of course immaculately dressed asking the most intelligent and well considered questions. A scholar and a gentleman.

“February was very cold that year. I heard on the radio that the Bois de Boulogne Lake had frozen over enough to allow ice skating. Naturally I went there for the occasion. The sweeper in the center ventured onto the ice with the grace and prudence of a tightrope walker, presumably to sweep away any possible trip hazards, twigs, stones etc from the area. The policeman, frozen cold was on duty to provide order and security”

~Willy Ronis

Those of us who have been in Paris in February know how cold it can be. Not quite as cold as Montreal or Helsinki but not that far off. Willy aware of the situation in his beloved Bois de Boulogne rushed over and created something as beautiful and as intriguing and human as any Pieter Bruegel or LS Lowry painting.

“I love appreciation and an audience. We all do but I don’t photograph for anybody but myself"

~ Brett Weston

Brett always had such a strong sense of design. He appreciated how the camera transformed close up subjects with photographs.. His masterful black and white tones further obscured an object’s appearance. This tendency toward abstraction characterized much of his work throughout his nearly 70 year career.

“Dresses that are truly beautiful are never unfashionable”
~Elsa Schiaparelli
(1890-1973)

“Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again”
~ Horst P Horst
(1906-1999)

Elsa Schiaparelli was born into an Italian Aristocratic family and created the house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927 and ran it successfully herself into the 1950’s. It is still alive and vibrant today and much revered. Lady Gaga herself wore a Schiaparelli creation to the Biden Presidential Inauguration. Elsa was a dynamic woman who befriended many great artists and collaborated with Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dali amongst many others. She saw herself not just as a couturier but more like an artist who used fashion as a medium. Horst also based in Paris at the same time was in much demand and worked extensively for French Vogue who commissioned this elegant portrait.
He also photographed her arch rival Coco Chanel. If you find yourself in Paris before the end of January 2023 a big Schiaparelli exhibition at Musee des Arts Decoratifs is not to be missed.