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The Love/Hate World of Shomei Tomatsu
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In addition, Frank will teach a one day, hands-on flash photography workshop, Saturday, October 1st, entitled "Flash Photography Demystified...or Flash is Your Friend (Honest.)"
In the documentary class students will be expected to initiate or continue a project of their choosing, with the goal of producing a finished picture story by the end of the session. Students wishing to accompany their photo essays with written text are encouraged to do so. Class size is limited. Early registration is suggested. For information on both the documentary course and flash workshop: 301-320-7757.
Frank's Picks
An occasional feature with Frank Van Riper's recommendations of current shows, exhibitions, etc. that are worthy of a look. They concentrate on -- though are not limited to -- photography and the visual arts.
Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, through October 2nd
So hugely talented in so many areas, Irving Penn remains modern photography's Renaissance Man, which is why viewing this sumptuous small show at the National Gallery of Art is like being limited to a delicious appetizer at a banquet.
Penn, still active at 88, began to master the maddeningly difficult platinum/palladium photographic printing process in the 1960s and reproduced many of his most famous black and white images in the generally supportable belief that platinum prints reveal more than traditional (and comparatively easier to make) gelatin silver prints.
Certainly, there are simply breathtaking photographic images here, in arguably their highest manifestation: an achingly beautiful (and somber) portrait of the humorist S.J. Perelman, a stark image of a young Tennessee Williams, a rich amalgam of tones, shadow and highlights in a 60s portrait of a gang of Hell's Angels.
Yet there also are prints that seem chalky and, if anything too dark and dense: compare two studio shots made in Cuzco, Peru, presumably at the same time in 1948 against the same background: Mother and Posing Daughter looks contrasty and stark; Mother and Sleeping Child, however, offers the incredible range of tones one associates with the platinum process.
Why the difference? Forget it, Jake, it's platinum.
I also question the notion that anything looks better in platinum. Check out Penn's great 1991 book Passage to compare some beautifully printed (and reproduced) silver prints with what is on the walls here. Sometimes it's a tough call as to which is better.
But that takes nothing away from the fact that the images themselves, in either incarnation, are superb.
For info: http:/
Frank Van Riper is a Washington-based commercial and documentary photographer and author. His current book is Talking Photography (Allworth Press), a collection of his Washington Post and other photography writing over the past decade. He can be reached through his website http:/
