| Mar 19, 2011 | Lucien Aigner: Photo/Story | | | |
The Suitcase Story
After a successful photojournalism career in Europe, Lucien Aigner left Paris for New York City in 1938 with his wife and their first son. In order to bring a baby carriage, Aigner left behind a suitcase filled with approximately 50,000 negatives, comprising his entire European career. According to the memoirs of Lucien and his two siblings, Betty and Etienne, the “suitcase story” has a number of variations. During World War II, the suitcase passed through many hands, and was hidden in multiple locations until it briefly resurfaced after the war. Aigner’s brother obtained a U.S. visa, moved from Paris to New York, and returned the suitcase to him in 1950. Aigner stored it out of sight in his darkroom for two decades, but around 1970, he rediscovered his “lost” negatives. It is not clear whether he forgot about the suitcase or did not believe the old work was worth revisiting. Thinking the contents might be of some value, Aigner took samples to a few major institutions for evaluation, and this resulted in a number of print purchases and exhibitions. He spent the rest of his years printing, exhibiting, and placing a small portion of his work in several museum collections. The recovery of Aigner’s European career was an event of great relevance: “all of a sudden the realization hit me that there in that suitcase, locked up, was my life.” He rediscovered not only his own work, but also a remarkable historical record of public figures, major events and the everyday lives of European and American citizens during the first half of the twentieth century. When Aigner passed away in 1999 at age 97, his family inherited his life’s work. The Lucien Aigner Estate archive contains, among other items, thousands of negatives and photographs (vintage and printed during the artist’s lifetime); contact sheets; published and unpublished writings (in English, French, and Hungarian) including his memoirs and articles on photography, radio and theater scripts; photographic and film equipment; magazine and newspaper clippings; and the many typewritten photo stories and captions that Aigner wrote to accompany his photographs. This exhibition only begins to reveal the contents of the archive.
"While I have a great respect for the photographic medium, I feel that pictures are not enough to say what needs saying. I have always been suspicious of the cliché about one picture being worth a thousand words."
Lucien Aigner
"Pictures produce impact, writing adds meaning. Pictures without words are often ambiguous; words without pictures, lame."
Lucien Aigner
This online exhibition includes thirty seven photographs from the seventy four included in the exhibition Lucien Aigner Photo|Story, January 29-April 24, 2011, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA.
Courtesy of the Lucien Aigner Estate. With special thanks to guest curator Jennifer Uhrhane.
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Exhibition: Lucien Aigner: Photo/Story
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| | Mar 18, 2011 | Carte de visite - Uncut sheets | | | |
If you have any examples of uncut carte de visite sheets I'd be grateful if you would share them.
I'm also seeking out examples of carte de visite and cabinet card advertising.
Many thanks, Alan
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Exhibition: Carte de visite: Uncut sheets
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| | Mar 17, 2011 | 21st Editions | | | |
21st Editions started in 1998 as 21st: The Journal of Contemporary Photography. The original mission of the press was to broaden the dialogue of contemporary fine art photography by bringing together the widest variety of photographic work with the finest international writers, poets, and essayists. The six volumes of the Journal published between 1998 and 2002 represent an astonishing survey of artistic visions and literary voices, revealing current thoughts on photography from a unique range of intellectual, critical, and historical points of view.
With grateful thanks to Steven Albahari, John Wood, Pam Clark and Crissy Welzen.
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Exhibition: 21st Editions
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| | Mar 15, 2011 | Life Support Japan - OUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED | | | | 
Given the scale of the tragedy unfolding in Japan with the earthquake, tsunami and the potential for nuclear contamination we all need to assist. Crista Dix of the Wall Space Gallery and a host of photographers are doing their bit and kudos to them. A special section of the Wall Space website is dedicated to Life Support Japan with photographers donating prints and a blog has been created that provides information on all the initiatives Life Support Japan. All proceeds go to disaster relief in Japan and over $10,000 has been raised in the first few days.
BUY A PHOTOGRAPH and HELP JAPAN
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| | Mar 13, 2011 | Ken & Jenny Jacobson | | | |
I'm pleased to see that Ken and Jenny Jacobson have just put up a new website. As I'm always looking for photographs that fill in gaps on Luminous-Lint and they have been kind enough to allow me to include many images in the past I'm delighted to see this and hope you all enjoy it.
K&J Jacobson - 19th-Century Photography
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| | Mar 8, 2011 | John S. Craig (1943-2011) | | | | John Scott Craig, photojournalist, photo-historian and creator of Craig's Daguerreian Registry died on Friday February 25, 2011. In 2007, the Daguerreian Society awarded Craig its first Fellowship Award, inscribed with the words:
For the advancement of scholarship in the field of photo history and the willingness to share that knowledge with his contemporaries and future generation of historians, scholars and collectors.
New York Times - Death Notice
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| | Feb 28, 2011 | American Civil War (1861-1865) | | | |
Whilst the American Civil War was not the first conflict to be photographed it came at a time that was interesting photographically. The Daguerreotype was in decline as was the ambrotype but the albumen print and the poor mans photograph, the tintype, were gaining popularity. This meant that whilst the better photographers could use albumen prints to capture the generals, camps and battlegrounds the lower cost of carte de visites and the even cheaper tintypes taken by itinerant photographers made photography within reach of all. The difference between the American Civil War and the wars that had gone before was the way in which the common soldier was recorded as a memento that could be sent home rather than a semi-official photograph of the common soldier taken for portfolios out of the reach of the subject of the photograph.
There were vast numbers of photographs taken of the war and there are innumerable publications that show them including multi-volume illustrated histories. A single exhibition can not do justice to this topic and so this exhibition is divided into themes to highlight specific issues.
| The photographers | |
| Communications | The telegraph and the press. |
| The common soldier | This includes selections from the Liljenquist Family collection donated to LOC in 2010. |
| The officers and politicians | |
| Camp life | |
| The weapons of war | |
| The battlefields | |
| Death | |
| The visual record | This includes the commercial photographs and albums by Gardner, Brady and Barnard. |
| Moving Pictures | Within the sprawling and controversial motion picture The Birth of a Nation (1915) part of the story resolves around a cased photograph. |
With grateful thanks for the knowledge, research and patience of Dave Tooley.
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Exhibition: American Civil War (1861-1865)
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| | Feb 28, 2011 | Online exhibitions on Conflict and War Photography | | | | Current online exhibitions on Conflict and War Photography:
Thanks to all the people who assisted in providing examples.
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| | Feb 6, 2011 | Najaf Shokri: Iran Dokht | | | |
This series comes from the waste of the Statistic and Registration Administration in Iran. It can be a metaphor, or perhaps a symptom, of a society that discards its memories... but read the introduction of the photographer Najaf Shokri who prepared this series.
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Exhibition: Najaf Shokri: Iran Dokht
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| | Feb 6, 2011 | Augustus Francis Sherman and Ellis Island (1905-1920) | | | |
Augustus Francis Sherman (1865-1925) was a registry clerk at Ellis Island (NY) and between 1904 and 1920 he took over 200 photographs of new arrivals.
For further information:
Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905–1920, Essay by Peter Mesenhöller (Aperture, 2005)
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Exhibition: 20th Century Augustus Francis Sherman and Ellis Island (1905-1920)
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