Dancer
This photo of "Mlle. Marionne" comes courtesy of John Foster, genius in the field of vernacular photography. He wrote about this image earlier this week ("The Marked on and Altered Photograph,") on his marvelous Accidental Mysteries blog. It's a funny coincidence, because I was up at the Mercantile Library on Monday, going through the remnants of the Globe-Democrat's photo morgue. The collection I was working with dated back to the mid-1930s, but most of the images fell between 1952 and 1979. I started my editorial career at an online publication, so I have never actually been in a photo morgue, but handling these photographs gave me new respect for 20th-century press photography. My sister still uses film cameras, and develops her own film, so I know how time-consuming just that process can be. But the work that went into labeling these images was amazing, too -- there were multiple notes on the back of each one, either in grease pencil or marker, and the accompanying article, along with copious typewritten notes, was rubber-cemented onto the back. Of course everything had to be filed and organized and cataloged, too.
What really impressed me, though, were the images with painted-in details. Mostly that meant painting out the background to isolate a figure, the old-school way of "silhouetting" somethng in Photoshop. In one photo, the artist had articulated the individual hairs on the heads of two little girls standing in line to see Santa; in another, an entire helicopter had been repainted (perhaps it was a blurryness issue -- whirling blades?). I knew that newspapers used to do this, but holidng one of these images in your hands, at least if you entered the world of editorial in the post-Photoshop age, is an impressive thing. Though I have to say: it is hard for me to see these as documentary photographs; they are just too artful. In any case, it was a funny coincidence to see John's post on the subject. Though of all the photos he pulled from his collection, I think my favorites are not the press photos, but the art naif, the portrait with faces redrawn in blue ball-point pen. --Stefene Russell
