The landscape is littered with camera technology failures. Something about capturing an image brought out the inventors, and today there is even a collector category known as photographica. They collect camera detritus. There is no shortage.
Competing technologies drive the market and pictures of pretty woman drive men.Thus, the Vistascreen! An enterprising gent named Stanley Long in the UK decided to get into the three dimensional photographic business in 1956. View-master was up and running, but unlike Long...they were short on babes. The only thing better than a beautiful woman is one who is poking her whatnots out at you, so capturing a babe in 3-D has always equaled the moon shot as a noble goal for man. (Having just been to the Grammy awards and suffering a headache along with the rest of the well-heeled audience during the Michael Jackson "extravaganza" I can tell you not only has 3-D not progressed far, it certainly is NOT going to save Hollywood. 30 seconds into the flick, the stars were taking off their glasses to see what Celine Dion was wearing) But I digress.
Vitascreen faded with time and the Glamour shots Stanley took and sold faded as well. Today they are collector items...and guess what? REPRINTED. Modern re-issues of Stanley Long's Lifelike British Babes are available again, but the link doesn't work. I'll try to post it later
Circa 1935 postcard with "missing painting" gummed insert "canvas" to affix a picture of a loved one (or to mail a picture of yourself to one) Unmailed. Colllection Jim Linderman
Now HERE is an unusual real photo postcard. I apologize for not having mirror software...you'll have to lug your computer over to the mirror in the hallway. Caption reads "SOME CALVES AT THE ROPING CONTEST July 4th Dewey OK" but what appears to depict some hooves passing a fence is in fact some lovely legs of well-heeled women taken from under the grandstand bleachers. I suppose in 1911, it was so taboo to show dames gams, they had to resort to this convoluted deception. Note: Photoshop has a mirror effect, reverse technique which will allow one to "flip" an image. If anyone out there has the time, mail it back to me and i'll post it!
Real Photo Postcard Dewey Oklahoma 1911, Collection Jim Linderman
"Pet refuses to leave Master's bier; derrick Needed to Lower Coffin" 1922
Captain George Auger Cabinet Card by Frank Wendt, circa 1890 and attached newspaper clip, Collection Jim Linderman(To be posted on the circus sideshow photographer site Wondrous World of Frank Wendt as well)
Luc Sante was kind enough to write an essay for "my" book "Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Music and Photography 1890-1950" and Lance Ledbetter from Dust-to-Digital and I were thrilled to have him involved. Both of us knew his reputation and he gave the project authority and legitimacy. It was flattering as hell.
Mr. Sante's new book "Folk Photography: The American Real Photo Postcard 1905-1930" has just been published. I collect Real Photo Postcards as well and waited anxiously for the publication. Presto! I have some favorites...the shooting gallery rack on page 55, the Nebraska carnival girls on page 59, the Wall "o" Rabbit, a Canadian woman reading with her eyes closed while a Micmac beaded bag hangs over her head...and "STRUM" will simply break your heart with scale, beauty, form and joy...but you will most certainly have your own favorites.
This is serious book. It is tough, real and glorious. Well over 100 images, all killer, no filler and the bonus of a sizable essay from a great New York writer who edits tighter than a Hank Williams song but aims even higher. Browsing the text to find Luc walking that section of Astor Place the same year I moved to the city is tenuous, having left two years ago...but I will muster the strength to read twice. It is a beautiful book and anyone who grazes this blog for the real deal will find sheaves of it in this book. It is linked at right.
Frank Wendt, who I have devoted an entire site to HERE composed this cabinet card photograph made up of eight earlier photos he took of the same wiggly boy, Albert Powell Jr. A contortionist quality photo! And just when I thought I had collected them all, I now have 8 more to look for.
Albert Powell Jr. Cabinet Card by Frank Wendt, c. 1890 Collection Jim Linderman
A fashion due for a return...The Painted Knee. Shown here is "Gina" a Moulin Rouge Dancer and one of the first to adopt the latest fad. Ornamental colored faces painted on the knees. The paintings are placed so the figures perform amusing dances or contortions when the owner walks or flexes. BROWSE AND ORDER ART BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR HERE Original Press Photograph Dated 1926 Collection Jim Linderman
A snapshot dated 1938 on the reverse, Sally Rand doing her famous ostrich feather fan dance in Dunham, North Carolina. Sally was born Helen Beck, but Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name she made famous. She worked in silent films, but when sound came in she went out. Maybe she sounded like an ostrich too.This photo was taken five years after her famous appearance at the Chicago World's Fair in which she was arrested 4 times in a single day for indecent exposure (even though, like here, she was wearing a body stocking...maybe) Amazingly, the Chicago performance is now available on youtube! It is remarkable to think some North Carolinian actually snuck a camera inside the show to take this picture, but I am glad he did, and I'm glad I found it tucked among a thousand other photographs. My favorite Sally Rand fact is that among her four husbands was one named Thurkel. This picture is pretty good and the photographer certainly waited until exactly the proper best moment. Maybe Thurkel went out front to take it.
The earliest "living flag" reference I find is a group of Los Angeles schoolgirls in the 1890's. A considerable number of them are recorded in that decade so there must be earlier examples. This one is certainly from that period, it is a primitive and ragtag posing but quite charming nonetheless. I am sure the "conductor" had greater expectations when he told the children what to wear then next day. Perhaps the origin of the living flag photograph is to be found in parades after the Civil War?
Arthur Mole had it easier...his participants were used to not squirming like schoolchildren, they being all well-trained soldiers. Several of his staggering works are shown here, they are available at the Library of Congress website.
The funniest living flag is certainly the one in Lake Wobegon, which keeps breaking up as the participants with red, white and blue baseball caps leave to climb to the third story buildings on Main Street and look down. Garrison Keillor has said his living flag was based on a 1917 photograph of several thousand army trainees arranged on a football field to form the Liberty Bell, this was certainly the photo produced by Arthur Mole shown here.
Spencer Tunick, of course, does not ask his participants to wear baseball caps or anything else. To date, the largest Spencer Tunick piece has been 18,000 folks in Mexico City. He is no Arthur Mole, and the idea is getting a bit tired by now anyway.
There was a living flag made in Portugal to celebrate the country's soccer team making the finals in the World Cup, it was comprised of 18,788 women dressed in red, green and black. That one I'd like to have seen, but not as much as a Mole.
"Living Flag" photograph Anonymous c. 1880 Collection Jim Linderman
Archiving is a natural thing, I suppose, as is arranging, organizing and documenting. Various content sites such as flickr and a million plus blogs are growing faster than American's waistlines. There is a tendency for humans to share just as there is a tendency for birds to crow. What is usually missed, however, is that social websites have basically created an entire population of content providers, none of whom get paid one penny. In fact, some pay for the privilege. Every image loaded becomes public property of a sort, but it also becomes fodder for search engines to use, manipulate and market. As computerized digital recognition becomes more and more sophisticated, one will be able to specify any characteristic in an image and retrieve it in micro-seconds. "Let's find 50 images which look EXACTLY like Aunt Gertie!" I'm not kidding one bit. (One might also specify a search parameter to find models with their faces obliterated by too much incandescent light, as above) It should give one pause...me? I don't care as I usually retain the originals, and there will always be someone interested in physical objects (at least I think there will). I am also interested in how things age and fall apart more than how they are maintained and preserved. But if you treasure a photo, drawing, painting or doodle with unique characteristics of any kind, you might think about uploading it into the universal brain.
Untitled (Photographer) Snapshot, c. 1940 Collection Jim Linderman
Frank Wendt has always been unfairly placed in the shadow of Sideshow Freak photographer Charles Eisenmann, his mentor. Wendt took over the Eisenmann studio on the Bowery in 1893 and ran it for five years before moving it to New Jersey. He continued making pictures there for a number of years, some quite extraordinary. In 1979, just as interest in collecting circus freak photos was rising (in part as interest in Diane Arbus was rising as well) a book on Eisenmann was published which dismissed Wendt's work as "perfunctory" and that the production of those years has all but been "obliterated." Au contraire! As we are just learning, MANY exceptional images remain. The photos here are certainly not obliterated.
Wendt specialized in the unusual, of course as you can see. But he had a wider clientele than Eisenmann. He shot all manner of performers, not just the strange. In fact, some of his most beautiful work is normal looking actors and child performers, who would use his cabinet card photographs as trade cards, mementos and such, frequently selling them to admirers for a dime each. Often the performers autographed the cards on the reverse, personalizing them to fans and the freaked. In the case of the carnival performers, vital statistics were often provided though frequently exaggerated. In fact, Wendt would take his pictures to emphasize the particular trait or deformity being marketed.As traveling shows passed through New York and New Jersey, they would stop to replenish their stock. Sometimes Wendt would republish Eisenmann's work on his own cards, but frequently a new photo was taken, and the same performers often appear in later pictures, with different imprints or logos on the cards.
I have posted work by Frank Wendt on this site before, they are worth looking at.As research continues, I plan to expand on the story with a book and exhibition.
Frank Wendt Five Original Cabinet Card Photographs circa 1890-1900 Collection Jim Linderman
Victoria Plaza's moment came against the Rutherford, New York girls baseball team in Spring 1921. The Passaic New Jersey student pitched a no-hitter. When she woke that morning, could she have suspected her photo would be taken against a wall near the dugout? She seems to be handling her momentary fame with considerable style and grace.
Original photo with pencil caption and date stamp, 1921 Collection Jim Linderman
Be it an educated pig as shown here (taking a slider face first to serve some point) or the famous "learned pig" national treasure Ricky Jay has written about, the swine has long been man's smart friend in the animal world. Anyone who doubts this need only watch an episode of Green Acres featuring Arnold "The Pig" Ziffel. In one episode I remember, not long after the series went to color, he even BLUSHED himself RED. In another episode, Arnold became a painter and adopted the name "Porky Picasso" until his masterpiece "Nude at a Filling Station" was banned. At any rate, the Porcine Pneumonia seems to be subsiding, thanks be to God. I had the flu for six months once, and I do NOT want it again.
Original Photograph "The Educated Pig" circa 1930. Collection Jim Linderman
Still open to the public, but please don't smoke. The wall is composed of 215 layers of newspaper. Rolled Newspapers make the furniture. Started in 1922 by Elis Stenman, the objects and walls contain tributes to celebs of the day, including Lucky Lindy and Herbert Hoover. The way things are going, this house made of paper may well outlive the newspapers of today. Visitors welcome, don't forget to check the local paper for hours...that is if they still have one.
Four postcards, date unknown. Collection Jim Linderman
A photographic posing chair in 1870 was an investment of $50, so this enterprising photographer took a picture of his. Practicing? Maybe. The relative purity of this image can be attributed to his frugality...the extra long Victorian chair fringe seen so often in tintype studio photographs cost an extra $15. My book The Painted Backdrop will be published in 2010.
Original Tintype Photograph, circa 1870 Collection Jim Linderman
DYMO was founded in 1958. Who can forget that satisfying crunch as a letter was squeezed out? That frightening first check for spelling errors as a long phrase was clipped off? The pride one felt when applying the brown "wood grain" labels to virtually anything within reach? DYMO invented the Embosser and changed anal-retentive organizers forever, including this photographer who took the concept of "caption" one step further.
Anonymous Vernacular Photographs with Dymo Labels 1950-1965 Collection Jim Linderman
Anyone can make a stereoscope photograph, but sometimes the question has to be why. Stereoscopic imaging tricks one's brain into creating depth perception. Ever since the technique was discovered in 1838 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, it has been a slippery slope all the way to Imax and beyond. My favorites are the striking hyper-color stereo slides of hoochie-kootchie girls from the 1950's. (Followed closely by Andy Warhol's Frankenstein in 3-D. While watching I remember reaching out over the head of the person sitting in front of me to catch a piece of dripping liver as it was being thrust towards the audience). The National Stereoscopic Association has an annual convention, and I have actually been to one, but to paraphrase a vintage t-shirt slogan "I went to the stereoscope show but all I got was this creepy relative, four screwdrivers, a leering bartender and a greek waiter"
Set of Four Anonymous Sterescopic image cards, c. 1965 Collection Jim Linderman
Say...isn't that something? Bob "Ski-Nose" Hope's head packed securely for a trip to the wax museum back room. Mr. Hope lived until the age of 100 yet never told an old joke. This is a press photograph, earlier known as wire photos, radiophotos, telediagraph and belinograph (jeepers, am I looking up words today) There has been some question as to the legality of buying and selling press photos, they have copyrights after all...but I guess if the agency wants this one back, they need just ask.
"Heading for Cold Storage" UPI press Original Photo 1968 Collection Jim Linderman
