August 19 “Fromage”

August 19th is World Photography Day. I would like to present a small portfolio of photography books from my library. I have a few diverse books.

My first book is “Glimpses of the World” by John L Stoddard, published 1907. The subtitle is “A Portfolio of Photographs of the Marvelous Works of God and Man. Containing a Rare and Elaborate Collection of Photographic Views of the Entire World of Nature and Art.” This book is oversized (14″ by 11″) and quite heavy. Stoddard was a world traveler, and would take photographs, and then give lectures (and sell books.)

As photography progressed, there became a crossover of photographing nudes, instead of just painting them. Sometimes these books would be sold as “Studies for Artists” to pass censorship rules. I have several earlier books. The first is “The Beauty of the Female Form: 48 Photographic Studies” by Bertram Park and Yvonne Gregory, published in 1936.

The second is “The Technique of Nude Photography” by Philip Gotlop, 1952. Both books, do give much in directions of body angles, posing, lighting, types of camera lenses, promoting as Gotlop states, “The benefit of my experience in this specialised branch of photography.”

An interesting book for old photographs is “Photo Oil Coloring for Fun or Profit” by Lucile Robertson Marshall, published 1956. This book showed both amateurs and professionals better techniques for colorizing photographs. It was a popular book, the first edition came out in 1944, and my edition was the eight printing.

It had to be somewhat popular. I have a colorized photo of my dad, hanging on a wall.

Speaking of Dad, he took pictures in high school and college, and even of his kids. At least his first one (Me!) Most of these photos were not in black and white, but with Kodachrome transparencies, to use with a slide projector. They were sent to Kodak Processing Laboratory in Chicago for developing. The neat thing about those slides, is that I took them all in about 15 or 20 years ago and had pictures developed. So not only do I have some great infant pictures, they are in color. Here is a beautiful me, from back in 1958.

Some photographers did not like to use color at all. I have this oversized book “Ansel Adams-The Spirit of Wild Places” by Eric Peter Nash, 1995. This is a wonderful book of many of his photographs of the American West. Adams was a master of lighting, and focus, and it is always a treat when I flip through these pages.

Another artist is one who uses the brightest colors she can find. I also love this book, another oversized one, “Down in the Garden” by Anne Geddes, 1997. Geddes is famous for setting up infants in costumes and elaborate setups. This was her first book, and is certainly a smile starter.

I was a Journalism major in college, and I took a lot of pictures, mostly with a Canon AE-1. I had a bunch of lenses, and played with them all. A few years back (perhaps nine), I broke down to get back into picture taking and got a Canon EOS Rebel. Bought a few more lenses, and took pictures on memory cards instead of film.

My granddaughter wanted to use the camera, and I bought this book to re-teach myself, and to help her. She fell in love with photography.

This is an early photo I took of us in Florida, and some wildlife shooting. She was calm with all of the animals, including some alligators, except for this one turkey vulture. “It stared at me,” she said, “like it was planning to come peck my eyes out.”

She may be better than I am now. She has worked with other family members-a professional photographer, in several weddings, shot school pictures for groups, and has done several paid gigs. She is starting college now, and I haven’t seen my camera, or lenses, for a couple of years. The sacrifices I guess, for helping kids grow.

At least I still have my portfolio of 8 by 10 photographs in an album that I look at now and then. I would like to share a few of them. Her photos are framed and hanging in a guest bedroom for everyone to see.