Jane Liechty, Style Paragraphs

Robert Adams, Turning Back: A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration (2005)

Robert Adams (born 1937) is an influential, American photographer. He has published more than fifty books and won many prestigious awards. His work reflects a narrative: truthful images of both the landscape's natural beauty and man’s often destructive stewardship.

Turning Back presents black and white images of trees, both living and cut down, in Oregon and Washington. Clearcutting destroyed most of the original forest in these states and Adams’ photography of this decimated landscape is a story of grief and hope. Adams wrote, "I found myself asking many questions, among them: what of equivalent value have we inherited in exchange for the original forest? ... Does clearcutting originate in disrespect? Does it teach violence? Does it contribute to nihilism? Why did I almost never meet parents walking here with children?"

The photographed subject in Turning Back is trees, but the real subject is men. The book begins with a kind of prologue – six images of people on beaches – but the main body of work shows no people, only their grievous footprint on the land: cut-down trees, including giant stumps. Significantly, Adams ends his book with pictures taken from a well-tended orchard, showing an apple harvest, representing hope.

Adams’ pictures are generally taken in bright sunlight with strong shadows. The subject matter is simple and direct. He avoids overly manipulated and complicated images. 

I couldn’t find technical information about the kind of camera he used, but it looks to me like maybe he used a large or medium format camera as the prints are of very high quality.

His work grew on me as I thought about his narrative and repeatedly read his book. I like his documentary style and philosophy.

Mark Cohen, Frame: A Retrospective (2015)

Mark Cohen (born 1943) is an innovative American photographer and artist from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He lived in his industrial hometown for most of his life, until moving to Philadelphia in 2013.

His subject choice is often people, but his framing is unusual. For most photographers, the face and eyes are the most expressive part of the body, but Cohen often composes his images in ways that crop the head entirely, instead focusing on other details. For Cohen, hands (also legs and mid-sections to a lesser degree) are as expressive as faces.

His images seem un-posed. His subjects often look either startled that they are being photographed or unaware that the camera is on them. He photographs ordinary people going about their everyday lives, recording normal street scenes, even trash. Occasionally, he uses flash to blast his subjects with light (for example, Flashed Pocket, 1973). It is an unusual effect and I am not sure I like it, but it is interesting. When taking pictures, he often held the camera waist-high, giving a lower point of view. For these reasons, his style has been described as “intrusive,” “democratic,” and “somewhat uncomfortable.”

Cohen’s images are mostly black and white, interspersed by occasional color prints. In Frame, Cohen sequenced the photographs himself. He had three Leicas, a Nikon SLR and an old Olympus (I presume he used 35 mm film), favoring a wide-angle lens. Regarding his choice of lens, he said, “That type of interaction took a psychological toll over the years,” Cohen says. “I made a lot of nifty pictures by being that close to people. But after a while, I went to a wider lens. 28mm. Then 35mm. Now I’m at 50mm, so I feel very safe.”

I’m not sure I like his pictures, but the narrative is fascinating. I like gritty images that are truthful, and that is what Cohen does well.

Clay Lancaster, Clay Lancaster’s Kentucky: Architectural Photographs of a Preservation Pioneer (2007)

Clay Lancaster (1917-2000) was born and raised in Kentucky. After a successful career in the northeast, he returned to Kentucky in 1978, where he lived until he passed away. He is not remembered so much as a photographer, rather as a scholar (architecture, philosophy, and cross-cultural studies), and also a writer and artist. He loved local architecture and was an advocate of its historical preservation. 

The collection of images in Clay Lancaster’s Kentucky are reproductions of tiny contact prints (2 ¼“ by 3 ¼”) found stacked in boxes in his home. He took these pictures to use as a reference for his drawings. They are snapshots taken with a modest hand-held camera, placed on the floor, or table, or car, no tripod. He estimated the correct exposure, holding the shutter open as long as he felt needed. He made thousands of photographs of Kentucky buildings in the 1930s, documenting the local architecture. Many of these buildings have since been destroyed. The images in this book are simple black and white prints.

I love the architectural style that Lancaster chose to document. His pictures well framed, capturing interior and exterior views, often taken in full sun. I chose to imitate Clay Lancaster’s style for my project, photographing similar architecture, and copying Lancaster's style of framing and lighting.