Ya never know what's in the Closet

[kiev4a]

The company I work for has been here for 100 years so there is a lot of history floating around. A number of years ago, I was helping sort out about fifty years worth of stuff in an old vault. I ran across a number of 16x20 prints of employees doing their jobs back in the 1930s (we're a printing and publishing company). My first reaction, without even looking at the backs of the prints was "Those look like LIFE Magazine photos." The lighting and style just screamed 1930s LIFE. And it turned out that was the case.

Apparently, back in the late '30s, LIFE was working on a feature on the book publishing industry. A photographer spent several days in our plant. But before the feature was ready for print, WWII came along and the photo spread was canceled. So the magazine (or photographer) sent the company owners the big prints.

Fast forward to today. One of my projects is to digitize all the company historical photos. So, I'm scanning away and I come across an 8x10 version of the LIFE photos --the big ones -- about 15 of them--are now framed and hanging on the walls of the office. I glance at the back of the 8x10 and it says "credit Horace Bristol." Out of curiosity I Google the name. . . .

Turns out Horace Bristol was one of LIFE's first photographers. At least partially responsible for the "look" of LIFE photos in that period. He is most famous for photos he shot of the migration from the Dust Bowl to California during the Depression.

It seems that when Horace stared shooting migrant photos, he needed someone to take notes for what he was doing. He called a writer friend. The writer said the assignment sounded pretty dull to him. Horace persisted and finally the writer agreed to go along. They traveled together through the California migrant camps in the winter of 1937-38. When it s was over the writer decided what they had seen was worth more that cutlines for Horace Bristol's LIFE photo feature. So the writer, John Steinbeck, sat down and wrote "The Grapes of Wrath.

Horace Bristol's work has been the subject of many shows in galleries around the country. His prints command A LOT of money. I just told my boss I think they need to raise their insurance.

Below are some of the shots Bristol made here.

[John Parry]

Great photos. I like Steinbeck although he got a bit touchy later on. The Grapes of Wrath was great, but Cannery Row was better! The Flophouse Bar & Grill I could retire to!!

Regards - John

[PeterW]

Wonderful pictures from the 1930s, Wayne. Horace Bristol was one of the photographers who MADE Life what it was in its hey-day.

The shot of the compositors stone and locking up the forme took me back a few years. We still produced like that in letterpress when I first started in journalism in the early 1960s, and from the composing room the formes went down to the basement to have the heavy curved plates made for the the big rotary presses. (what a noise level when they were running!). I shall always remember the smell of ink and hot lead.

Our printers was some miles away from the editorial offices, and once a week the chief layout sub and a journalist went to the printers for the day (usually finishing about 2 am) to see the paper to bed. The journalist's job was mainly proof reading and 'cutting to fit' if necessary. I got quite good at reading type mirror-image on the stone, but I daren't touch it - I was the wrong union, NUJ and not NATSOPA.

I well remember late one night when a luckless compositor hadn't locked the forme properly. When he went to slide it on to the trolley all the type fell through on to the floor! His language over the next half-minute or so was quite educational. The Linotype operator who'd set it wasn't all that pleased - he had to stay late and reset the whole page.

BTW, would your company be Caxton Press in Caldwell?

PeterW

[kiev4a]

Peter:

My brother-in-law forgot to lock down a form about the size of the one shown in the photo on press night at my parents' weekly newspaper. He started the press, the form went in once came back out and since it wasn't locked down, kept right on going until it crashed to the floor in a pile of lead. The paper was a half day late that week by the time they got everything back together and reset the lines of type that had been damaged. My dad was a patient man. His only comment was "just about everybody makes that mistake ONCE!"

A point of interest: I discovered that the press for which the form is being prepared in the photo, was later sold to the local daily newspaper. About 15 years later my parents bought in for their weekly. It was the same press that dumped the form!!!

[doubs43]

Wayne, those are marvelous shots and exemplify the quality that "LIFE" became famous for giving their readers. Mr. Bristol obviously had a great eye for composition.

I'd love to know what he used to take those pictures. I seriously doubt that it was 35mm.

Walker

[SidW]

What a wonderful find.

On a few trips to New York, we stayed at the Herald Square Hotel, housed in the original Life Magazine Ofices built for them in 1893. The facade is till intact and has been restored. For decorations they have original framed covers hanging everywhere. I took the liberty of borrowing this one (St Patrick's Day 1907) from their home page, partly for its political theme and partly for its wheels:



The whole collection is on their website www.heraldsquarehotel.com, browse down the links on the left side of their home page until you come to the "History" link.

[kiev4a]

I had the opportunity several years ago to talk to an old timer who was here when he took the pictures. Said he used a 4x5 Graphic of some sort. Even the 16x20s don't show much grain. He obviously used flood lights rather than flash. Later I think he did used some Leicas and possibly RF Canons. He also was part of that famous WWII crew of combat photographers led by Edward Steichen. After the war he lived in Japan and shot a lot there. In 1956 his wife committed suicide and in his grief he destroyed most of the negatives and prints in his home. He felt his focus on getting the picture was responsible for her death and quit photography for several years. Eventually he did put together a collection of some of his remaining Dust Bowl shots. Died in 1997.

[Randy]

Wonderful shots Wayne. I've always like that kind of photo, and I think that's what drew me to photograpy. Are you familiar with the work of O.Winston Link?

[herron]

Wayne:
Those are spectacular shots.

Given the time frame, and the publishing connection, they were almost certainly shot with an old 4x5 Speed Graphic. Marvelous cameras. I have several in my collection, but I'm sorry to say I don't use them often anymore, until I come across shots like these and remember what nice images they would give.

I've been in the publishing/printing/advertising business for almost 40 years, and can actually remember watching lead monotype being set in chases like that. The "kids" working around me don't know what I'm talking about, if I mention it. But then, to them, Vietnam was something they read about in their history books, and they actually think some of the minor protests that make the news today over the war in Iraq are actually anti-war demonstrations. They ain't ever really seen one, is my take on it.

Thanks for sharing those.

[PeterW]

Randy,
What a wonderful picture of Green Cove station you posted. I’d heard of O. Winston Link, and seen several of his night-time pictures of railroads taken with dozens of synchronised flashbulbs. But my main interest in those was in the way he achieved the lighting. The picture was often secondary. This one is something different.

This was no opportunist shot, he must have planned it as carefully as some of his night shots, set his camera up and waited with anticipation for the train to appear – the decisive moment, long before H-CB coined the phrase. It lends itself so well to black and white. In colour I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much.

Technically it’s superb. The exposure is spot on, it’s got a full range of tones from black blacks to white whites. And the composition is a classic. The building takes your eye immediately, then the people, the load of logs and the horse form a triangular wedge that takes your eye down to the track, and that takes it up to the oncoming train. And because the train is coming towards you it brings your eye back into the picture.

The average viewer probably doesn’t realise this – they know it’s a pleasing picture but don’t know quite why. But that’s how it should be. Good technique and good composition should go un-noticed, except by other photographers. Only bad technique is noticed by everyone.

On top of that it’s got human interest, history, a contrast of the old country horse and the new iron horse … what more could you ask for in a picture? The only thing I could possibly suggest would be to crop about half an inch off the bottom where there’s no interest. This, I feel, would avoid the horizon of the hills dividing the picture in half and give perhaps a greater sense of the vastness of the US and the isolation of small communities. I believe it was taken somewhere in Virginia and not in the vastness of the mid-west or Texas, but it could easily have been there.

Sorry to wax so enthusiastically with a critique that wasn't asked for, but it’s a long time since I spent so much time just looking at a picture. The longer I looked the more I appreciated and enjoyed it.

Thanks so much for posting it. I would probably never have seen it otherwise.

PeterW

[Randy]

Winston loved steam trains, the Norfolk & Western, and Green Cove. The tracks were taken up over 40 years ago, but Winston was still drawn to this place. The building was the store, the post office, the station, and city hall. He later married his hispanic wife Conchita Mendoza Link in the building, and some time after she absconded with 1,400 of his photos and negatives with a boyfriend, a man Winston had hired to rebuild his locomotive. Winston was heartbroken and died while driving himself to the hospital. In 2003 photos and negatives were recovered in a sting operation in Pennsylvania by police as Conchita and her husband were trying to sell them after she had served 5+ years in prison. Here is Winston in 1956 with his assistant George Thom and some of his night flash equipment.