Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:18 PM 1/4/2005, you wrote: >But BD, did you see _incongruous_ juxtaposition when you saw those >large prints? > >And... there isn't any "weird" in HCB's work... at least none that I can >remember. I've always thought that any surreal art needs to be a little >bit weird. I've been looking through some of his books today. I think without question his early pictures involved incongruous (and weird) juxtapositions -- some of them are quite shocking and visually subversive -- very much in the spirit of surrealism as Breton laid it out in the "Manifesto." The notion was to "find" surreal juxtapositions in the ordinary world and disrupt the habit of conventional seeing. Artists like ParkeHarrison and J-P Witkin construct surreal tableau and photograph them, but in the early days of the movement much was made of exactly the kind of discovery that HCB was doing. Some writers have said the first 2-3 years of his career were the most surrealist-influenced, but you can still see it in a lot of the later work. He was first shown in the US by Julien Levy, who also was showing Max Ernst and Dali, so the surrealist connection was well-established. One problem with HCB is that he has described himself in various ways, for various reasons. He wrote an essay (1952) explaining his work as "photo-reportage" and then later denied it was ever any such thing. As someone here pointed out earlier, he said was advised to call himself a journalist because no one would pay him to do surrealism with a camera. BTW, Jim, thanks for the ParkeHarrison links. I noticed that they will have a show here in 2005. I'll have to tell my daughter, who is a student (photography) at UNM, and a fan of ParkeHarrison. Robert PH received his MFA here in '94. Some of my friends were his classmates. Phil Swango 307 Aliso Dr. SE Albuquerque, NM 87108 505-262-4085 714-908-7846 (fax) pswango@att.net