Harold Feinstein Photographer

The Rolleiflex camera: Love at first sight

Harold Feinstein — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:04:42 +0000

Seeking Shade, Coney Island, 1946. This is one of my very first photographs shot with my neighbor’s Rolleiflex the year I began taking pictures. I love the simple framing of the square, which helps to compose the elements of the photograph.

Someone once asked me what my favorite camera was. That’s easy. The Rolleiflex medium format TLR. In fact I would call it the most beautiful camera I’ve ever seen. It was relatively easy to use, light weight, extraordinarily well-constructed, simple and had the best lenses in the business. Everything worked again and again and again. Constant reliability, performance and excellence in a camera. I suppose the only objection some might have to it would be looking down into finder lens. But that never bothered me. As a medium format twin lens reflex with 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (in) format, there are two lenses — the taking lens and the finder lens. You look down into the finder which is giving you a reverse image mirrored from the taking lens. You do see what you get with the exception of very close range photographs. Visually the square format is elegant and symmetrical, but also offers the option to crop either vertically or horizontally. And, the 2 1/4 film means generally better quality large prints than you can get with 35mm.

The Rolleiflex Automat, Model 3 was produced from 1945-1949. It was my very first camera.

The Rollei was the very first camera I ever used. Initially I borrowed it from our upstairs neighbor in Bensonhurst, who later made me rent it for $5 a day — an extraordinary amount of money for a 15 year old in 1946. But, I did get hooked on it and later was able to save my pennies and purchase my own.

I had the Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 which was produced between 1945-1949 and also known as the K4B2. It was available in two lens. I couldn’t afford the more expensive Zeiss Jena Tessar lens and instead used the Schneider Xenar lens, which I found just as good.

I recently found Jacob Deschin’s book: Rollei Photography: Handbook of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord Cameras (Camera Craft, 1952) in a box, which prompted these musings. I contributed two essays and a number of photos to it. Here are a few for you.

Sharing a public bench, NYC, 1948

Boy in Sunglasses, Coney Island, 1949

Passengers Sleeping & Reading on NYC Subway, 1949

Related links:

Another blog post on cameras I have used: The Olympus Pen Half Frame Camera: Keeping it Simple!
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Harold Feinstein: Retrospective receives PDN best photo book award!

Judith Thompson — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:19:23 +0000

Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective (Nazraeli Press) , the first career-spanning monograph showcasing the work of Harold Feinstein, is a winner in the PDN Photo Annual 2013 in the best Photo Book category. Every year, Photo District News (PDN), the magazine for photography professionals, honors the best photography from the past year in a variety of categories. A panel of notable judges, including art directors, editors, and other photographers, select the winners. PDN Photo Annual is featured in the magazine’s June 2013 issue.

Harold Feinstein extends his heartfelt thanks to PDN and the judges of the PDN Photo Annual 2013 for choosing his book and he is grateful to those who helped launch and create the book, including Jim Fitts, Jason Landry of Panopticon Gallery and Chris Pichler, owner of Nazraeli Press. He also extends his congratulations to the other winners and hopes to have the chance to congratulate them in person at the PDN Photo Annual bash on May 28.

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Coney Island Sideshow goes uptown!

Harold Feinstein — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:47:06 +0000

Tattooed Man Michael Wilson, 1992, © Harold Feinstein. Michael was a sideshow performer for 10 tens years before he died in 1996.

Run don’t walk to “Sideshow” an exhibition of early Coney Island memorabilia starting May 2nd at The Ross Art Group’s Manhattan gallery. If I could, I would be there. Opening night will feature not only a cornucopia of early Coney Island exotica, but the added attraction of some of Coney Island USA’s Sideshow by the Seashore performers. I’m sure if he were still alive, Coney Island’s tattoo man, Michael Wilson, would be among them. As a sideshow performer for over 10 years, 90% of Wilson’s body was covered with tattoos. In fact he moved to New York because in San Francisco he couldn’t find anyone willing to tattoo his face! Michael was a true artist who used his body as a canvas, and I loved photographing him. As Dick Zigun, owner of Sideshow put it: “There were no stupid biker tattoos for Michael. He never went into a tattoo artist’s shop and said, ‘Gimme that one.’ He would create each design and say, ‘This is what I want.” While he died in 1996, apparently of diabetic shock, his pursuit of his own idiosyncratic self-expression lives on as an inspiration for other sideshow performers, in a world where the sideshow as genre is almost extinct.

Many items from the Ross Art Group exhibit and sale come from the collection of Dr. Richard Lerch, a New York physician, who drew his inspiration (and much of his collection) from Frederick Fried, one of the greatest early collectors of Coney stuff spanning the first 50 years of its existence. Among the many treats available for view and sale will be the photographs of Edward J. Kelty, Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas. Kelty was an itinerant circus photographer known for his 11 x 20 panoramic shots of circus performers. Mole and Thomas’ took aerial photographs of well-known patriotic symbols composed of thousands of people. Taken right before the end of WWI, most of the participants were US Army troops.

A photo by Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas
A portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, formed of 21,000 officers and men at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1918

According to Mickey Ross, the owner of Ross Art Group, the centerpiece of the show will be 28 original architectural drawings and blueprints that conceptualized Coney Island carnival rides and structures. They were created by amusement park ride inventor and manufacturer William F. Mangels and depict such classic rides as the ‘Whip,’ Loop roller coaster, and carousel horses with a mechanical function. These, too, will be available for purchase.

So if you live in New York, hurry on over to 532 Madison Ave (4th floor) tomorrow night and enjoy the show!

Postscript: Richard Lerch will donate the proceeds of one of his rare Coney Island photographs to the non-profit Coney Island Museum the only museum in the world dedicated to interpreting and preserving the history of Coney Island. As many of you know, I donated funds from the sale of my work to #ConeyRecovers and Northstar Fund post Hurricane Sandy to help with reconstruction. MORE IS NEEDED! People are still waiting for houses and shops to be rebuilt. If you care to contribute you can purchase my Coney Island limited edition posters here. 100% of proceeds will be contributed.

Here are a few more of my own memories of the Coney Island sideshow!

Man with his Daughters at the SideShow, Coney Island, 1949 © Harold Feinstein

Lacey Legs, Coney Island, 1969. Kids watching the sideshow performers. © Harold Feinstein

Strange Encounters, Coney Island, 1990. Fred Kahl the Geat Fredini and Demonka the snake charmer
© Harold Feinstein

Related links:

Michael Wilson’s memorial blog
Step Right This Way, a book of Edward J. Kelty’s photographs
More Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas photos
My blog Coney Island and Hurricane Sandy: Down but never out!
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The ICP, Earth Day and me: Celebrating the beauty that surrounds us

Harold Feinstein — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:50:28 +0000

Squash Blossom, Vermont, 1974
In the ICP’s permanent collection

Over the week-end a friend sent me a link to a blog featuring my work. Fans in a Flashbulb: Images from the collections of The International Center for Photography is a blog that shares photographs from the ICP’s permanent collection with text by members of the staff. The International Center for Photography has 93 of my photographs in its permanent collection, which were acquired in the early 80′s. You can view all of them here.

I was pleased to see my work featured in this blog, and intrigued by the choice. Instead of focusing on my well-known street and Coney Island work, writer Francesca Teodori chose to highlight my nature studies — both black and white and color. The color in this case, is not the work published in my seven color books, but rather my 35 mm work that I call Sky Flowers. This body of work consists of flowers I held in my hand against the sky. I had these printed in both Cibachrome and dye transfer prints. The ICP has 20 dye transfers.

Cattleya Orchid, 1980

In tracing the evolution of my work, Francesca gets a few details incorrect. She mentions a “change of focus” away from street photography and toward the natural world in the 1970′s. But it isn’t that I made a deliberate change of focus as much as I changed my location! In the late 50′s and later in the early 70′s I took teaching opportunities that brought me to rural environs. I became one of the first teaching fellows at the newly opened Annenberg School of Communications in 1959, which took me to the great city of Philadelphia, but also the rural communities of New Hope, PA and Ringoes, NJ. In the 70′s I taught at Windham College in Putney, Vermont.

Twin Suns on Misty River’s Edge, Ringoes, NJ, 1962 In the ICP permanent collection

I tell my students “You don’t go looking for pictures, the pictures are looking for you! Your job is to see, and the seeing itself sucks in your imagery.” So wherever we are, there is a photograph and that’s why I got seduced by birds and sheep and grasses and flowers and shells and whatever else is in my surroundings. It’s all beautiful as far as I’m concerned.

Those who know me well know that I’m fond of saying “people are my favorite trees”, which makes Coney Island one of the most verdant forests in the world! But I’ve also said: “I pick up my camera and God puts something beautiful in front of it.” It’s all there all the time. If you can’t be with the one you love….love the one you’re with!

I’m grateful for how A.D. Coleman expressed this in the introduction to my first color book, One Hundred Flowers. Guessing that some might scratch their head in confusion as to how a small camera black and white photographer, known for street photography, would suddenly produce a book of large format digital flower photographs, he suggests that it is the reverence for all living things that ties the seemingly diverse bodies of work together. ”

A cluster of smiling faces on a beach blanket suddenly becomes a bouquet; a thoughtful scrutiny of an opened blossom suggests a portrait. Part and parcel of the same encompassing worldview, they need no further justification.”

My favorite expression is L’Chaim — to Life! To reveal the miracle of what I believe to be God’s creation in whatever form it appears has been my path with the camera, even though I was unaware of this until later in my life.

This ICP blog posting came my way as I was contemplating how I might want to celebrate Earth Day today, and provided a perfect context for my musings about this incredible place we call home. Some years ago Judith bought me two BBC series on DVD — Planet Earth and Blue Planet. They have become my favorite films and I recommend them to you if you haven’t seen them. I never stopped being awed by this beautiful planet we call home.

As I was in the process of doing my first book of flowers, I would often get up late at night and write poetry to the flowers. I later called this series, a Garden of Psalms, and a number of my flower exhibitions have taken on this name featuring the psalms together with the flowers. LIFE Magazine also produced a short video about my floral work called A Garden of Psalms.

White Peony, 1999
From where did you come?
Yes, I know, but,
tell me my sweet ones,
what rapture
carved those wings,
those white flames
whose curves leave me faint.
Was Brancusi watching?

On this Earth Day, I offer you a few more of my nature photographs from the ICP collection and wish you all a moment of reverence for all the beauty that surrounds us!

Duck On The Riverbank, Ringoes, NJ, 1962

Horse in Misty Pasture, Vermont, 1973

Related links:

My photographs in the permanent collection at ICP
Francesca Teodori’s blog “Harold Feinstein Inspires us for National Garden month”
My previous blog posting about my photograph Coney Island Teenagers used as the opening photograph in the ICP show “One Hundred Years of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism: Highlights from the Permanent Collection” (1996).
The LIFE Magazine video on my floral work called A Garden of Psalms

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Coney Island’s Parachute Jump

Harold Feinstein — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:55:18 +0000

Man standing near Parachute Jump, 1949

What’s 262 feet high, known as the “Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn”, and about to be so brightly lit up that it will be seen from space? If you’re from Brooklyn, then the answer came right away, but for those of you not blessed with that distinction, the photograph says it all. Built in 1939 for the New York World’s Fair in Queens, the Parachute Jump was relocated to Coney Island in 1941. I was 10 years old when this magnificent event occurred, and aside from the Cyclone, it was my favorite ride. My singular wish as an avid jumper was that the parachute would get stuck while I was on it and I could then swing from mid-air for hours with a view of the entire amusement park. This would’ve been heaven for me.

Alas, the Parachute Jump stopped operating in 1968 and became a city landmark. In 1980, it was inducted into the National Registry of Historic Places. Outgoing Borough President Marty Markowitz isn’t content with simply celebrating the national historic significance of the iconic landmark. Instead he hopes to make a more cosmic splash by outfitting it with 2$ million worth of programmable LED lights (8000 lights) that will throb rhythmically to music.

The New York Daily News reported that it will be able to be seen from space, and the Bensonhurst Bean issued this headline: “With New Parachute Jump Lights, Aliens Will Be Able to See Coney Island from Outer Space.” Given the superlative offerings available from Coney Island’s Sideshow by the Sea, this level of outreach to attract other-worldly interest seems unnecessary. However, Dick Zigun, the impresario behind the Sideshow is supporting the move saying: “Coney Island is not the place for subtlety. Marty’s right to want something flashier.”

Needless to say, the move is causing controversy, particularly among residents who are still waiting for Hurricane Sandy relief monies to trickle down to them. Can’t say I blame them! As for me, I understand it would cost a whole lot more to make the ride operable again, so I will just have to enjoy my memories of the original Parachute Jump, which brought me repeated thrills and the dream of being suspended for hours with a bird’s eye view of the greatest place on the planet. No bells and whistles needed.

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The Cleveland Botanical Garden features 70 Feinstein umbrellas in springtime celebration!

Judith Thompson — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:22:20 +0000

The Cleveland Botanical Gardens hangs 70 Feinstein umbrellas in its foyer to celebrate spring!

At last the long, cold winter has surrendered to the crocuses and daffodils and The Cleveland Botanical Gardens is celebrating with a blast of color from 70 Harold Feinstein Signature Collection umbrellas produced by Coynes Company. If you’re interested in your own umbrella to prepare for spring showers, you can buy them from Coynes directly or find out from them where they might be available in your neighborhood!

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My visit to AIPAD

Harold Feinstein — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:32:26 +0000

Here I am at AIPAD surrounded by students from The New Hampshire Institute of Art

Going to AIPAD is a bit like a pilgrimage to Mecca for photography collectors. Every year those dealers who belong to the membership organization (AIPAD stands for the Association of International Photography Art Dealers) gather in New York for a grand exhibition and collectors, photographers, critics and the general public descend on the New York Armory to explore the offerings.

Here I am with Burt Finger from Photos Do Not Bend

I’ve never made the trip before, but my wife, Judith, has and was intending to go this year as my proxy. However, when we got a call from Missy and Burt Finger who represent my work in their Dallas gallery, Photos Do Not Bend (PDNB), letting me know that Catherine Evans, curator at the Columbus Museum of Art and Mason Klein, curator at The Jewish Museum, were interested in talking to me about the Photo League, I decided to make the trip. Catherine and Mason co-curated The Radical Camera, the first museum exhibition in three decades about the Photo League. It combines the substantive collections of both museums in a highly lauded touring exhibit now at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. I’m pleased that my work is represented in that show. At the Norton’s opening Catherine gave a keynote talk and slide show that included my recently found negatives from a Photo League meeting in 1949. She wanted to underscore the character of the Photo League as a place where people of all backgrounds came together — something that was not that common in the 40′s. We’re still hoping others who see these photos might be able to identify who some of these other photographers were.

Luckily Missy arranged a wheelchair for me so that I could enjoy being wheeled around the floor of AIPAD in my modified hot rod fueled by Judith (who likes to say that she’s always wanted to “push me around”!) Once inside the doors of the showroom, I was delighted to be encircled by a great group of young people from the New Hampshire Institute for Art, who recognized me and had apparently spent some time studying my work. They came down from Manchester with Gary Samson, chair of the photography department who invited me to come up and do a talk sometime — something I’m delighted to do!

Charles Schwartz is a former student and dealer from New York with a booth at AIPAD.

Other friends I bumped into included Bob Shamis, a former student and former curator for the Museum of the City of New York, whose book, New York in Color, I highly recommend, and Mary Engel, daughter of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin who heads up APAG (American Photography Archive Group), a great group of folks who meet several times a year to discuss strategies and issues related to managing a large photo archive. Mary is responsible for helping us track down and identify one of the unidentified people from the Photo League negs. (See my blog Up-date on Photo League negatives). I also visited with Charles Schwartz who is also a former student and a photography dealer (AIPAD member) who carries my work. He offered me a copy of his recent Blurb book, Light Reclaimed, featuring some of his collection of daguerreotypes.

It was a full and fun day! Thanks to my dear friend and former student, Mariette Pathy Allen who hosted us for several days and who shared with me her incredible photographs from her on-going photo essay that shares the humanity of the transgender community in Cuba. Stay tuned for more on those. I am soon to begin my new blog category Spotlight on my Students, which will feature the work of a different students of mine from 1955 up to the present! Mariette will be my first feature. You’ll definitely want to see her photos!

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Long before there was Photoshop… photomontages!

Harold Feinstein — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:33:39 +0000

Georgina & Rodin, 1988
I met Georgina in Ibiza in 1987, but the Rodin sculpture accompanying her (entitled Last Sight) resides in the Rodin Museum in Paris (shot by me the same year). Each evoked the other for me, so I brought them together in the darkroom!

Last week I was asked to speak at the Endicott College School of Visual and Performing Arts, a great little gem of an art school overlooking the ocean in Beverly, MA. I was a special guest for the opening of an exhibition curated by Boston University’s Photographic Resource Center entitled “Unconventional Inventions: Innovative, unusual, and alternative approaches to photography”.

My friend Sandy Ferrier who chairs the Deptartment of Visual Communications suggested I feature my early street work, especially my Coney Island work, and my time with the Photo League — which I did. But I ended my presentation by sharing with the students, faculty and guests, my own journey with experimentation and “unconventional inventions.” I included three specific areas of experimentation — though there have been many more. I’ll save two of them for later blogs and focus this posting on my darkroom work creating photomontages.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about this topic for sometime ever since I saw a Boston Globe article by Dushko Petrovich on a show at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art that opened last fall and closed in January 2013. The show was entitled: Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop. I’m sorry I never got a chance to see the show, but that review and others brought forward the time-worn debates — present since the inception of photography — as to what constitutes so-called “honest” photography. In this day of digital imaging and manipulation the question takes on new complexities. But following the thread of this in my own life has taken me on some interesting journeys with my own work.

I started taking photographs when I was 15 in 1946. I was a purist for well over a decade. I believed that what you saw through the view finder and clicked in that moment was the real and true photograph — not to be manipulated. In fact I was so purist that when Edward Steichen, who had been a great supporter of mine and purchased my work when I was 19, invited me to submit seven photographs for the Family of Man exhibition, I turned him down on the grounds that “themed shows” undermined photography by making the art subservient to a theme and not the unique artist and image. (Alas I was not alone in this opinion as it was a frequent critique by photographers of the time, but it is probably the decision I’ve most regretted vis a vis my photography! Here’s an interesting article by Bill Jay about the historic ramifications of that show.)

My purism was a reflection of the time. Mid-20th century street photography, as reflected by the inclinations of the Photo League, sought to show life “as it is.” At the time, we were reflecting a growing consciousness about the use of photography as social commentary — a way to present all aspects of the human condition by bringing the truth of people’s lives front and center. Yet, as Petrovich points out, even Paul Strand, a co-founder of the Photo League “wasn’t above painting out a figure that cluttered the composition in his 1915 photograph City Hall Park. (He later declared, ‘You can do anything in photography if you can get way with it.’)”

Paul Strand’s City Hall Park, 1915, had a figure painted out.

The f64 school on the west coast, consisting of folks like Alfred Steiglitz, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams, expressed their commitment to realism and objectivity through shooting with the camera’s aperture down to its smallest opening (f64) creating great depth of field and then printing from contact negatives so as to preserve the most integrity possible to the details. Yet, as Petrovich points out, Ansel Adam’s famous “Moonrise” (1941) was given its dramatic appeal by “aggressive darkroom chemistry six years after the fact.”

Ansel Adam’s Moonrise, 1941, required many hours of darkroom work to produced the right tones.

In future blogs I will dive more deeply into the creativity of the printing process, but suffice it to say that most photographers who print their own work (or printers under the supervision of the photographer) are employing interpretive means of all kinds to make the most beautiful photograph. This means dodging, burning, and in some cases cropping (which I was also very much against in my early career!).

By 1957, I was into making photomontages using multiple negatives and bringing them together in the darkroom. Herbert Keppler, editor at Modern Photography and then Popular Photography was an important early supporter of my work and he often solicited me to produce articles on both composition and printing. This article scanned from an old magazine took the reader through the process I used to bring together negatives in the darkroom.

Here’s the photograph from that article:

Boys running into surf, 1954

Now they’re diving — also three negs!

Boys diving into surf, 1954

On this page they ask the question:

“How far can you go with multiple printing?”

Pigeons, 1956
Here I used NINE negatives. Believe me it took a long time to print.

There’s a wise expression: “Hardening of the categories causes art disease” (generally attributed to my good friend W. Eugene Smith, though I actually think I said it first!) Once we think we’ve defined what art is, or what photography is, we’ve limited our artistic imagination. Now I’m not saying I like all art or all photography, but I do encourage my students to go with whatever calls them and play with it. Be true to your own form of expression, because you’re the authority of your own art.

Here are a few more photomontages birthed from my imagination!

Boardwalk sheet music, 1950

Sheep under clouds, 1961
The sheep are from Ringoes, NJ and the sky is from Coney Island!

Related links:

Dushko Petrovich’s Boston Globe article, The surprisingly old art of photo fakery: We’ve been doctoring pictures as long as we’ve been taking them.
Bill Jay’s article: The Family of Man: A Reappraisal of “The Greatest Exhibition of All Time”

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The Olympus Pen half-frame camera: Keeping it simple!

Harold Feinstein — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:50:59 +0000

Beauty Parlor Window, Philadelphia, 1964 photographed with the Olympus Pen camera

At my Aperture event recently a former student asked whether or not my new book contained any photographs taken with the Olympus Pen half frame camera I used during the mid-60′s. The answer is yes. It was a camera I loved using. Interestingly, the photo above, Beauty Parlor Window (1964), appeared on Mike Johnston’s excellent blog Online Photographer during the Kickstarter campaign in 2011 and generated a guessing game about what camera I was using that would be held vertically and produce a horizontal image. Soon enough one of the blog readers guessed correctly.

I have used and loved many cameras in my 65 years of photographing and this was one of my favorites. The reasons are simple: it was compact, easy, had great depth of field and 72 frames to a roll — meaning, cheap! Since I bought my film in 100 foot rolls and loaded it myself, it was even cheaper! As a half-frame camera, the orientation for holding the camera produces the opposite format photograph (e.g. hold the camera vertical to get a horizontal photo and vice versa).

Olympus made a number of versions of the Pen camera (so named because it aspired to be small like a pen!) The one I owned was the Pen W. The depth of field of its 25mm lens meant that when I went out to shoot street photography, I would set it for 8 feet and everything from 3-20 feet was in focus which was a great advantage. (This nifty webpage shares more info about the various iterations).

“Since this model sold for only two years, it is one of the more unusual models. It is basically the same as the Pen S, but had a slightly wider-angle, six-element, semi wide angle Zuiko 25mm (f2.8 – 22) manually-focusing lens. Focus was from 2 feet to infinity with click stops at 7 and 15 feet. Built-in tripod socket and cable release socket. On the front it says Pen W and it was only available in a black body. It also had a PC connection and a cold flash shoe. No meter. Shutter speeds of B, 1/8 – 1/250.”

I thank Gene Smith for turning me on to this camera. Sam Stephenson, author of the wonderful book The Jazz Loft Project posted this short contribution from another of my students, Irving Goldworm, who remembers my stories about Gene’s affinity to the camera and how he easily convinced me to get one.

Photographer Irving Goldworm checked in over the weekend with the following memory, courtesy of his 1963 photography course with Harold Feinstein, who of course was an old friend and longtime associate of Smith (and an invaluable resource to me). Irving said:
Once Smith was touting to Harold Feinstein the virtues of the forty-five dollar Olympus half-frame camera he had bought. He explained: “It has a very sharp lens; there’s no camera nonsense about it; no accessories or interchangeable lenses; people aren’t intimidated by a guy carrying so unimposing a gadget; and, oh yes, you can’t pawn it.”
HERE is an interesting 2009 piece from The Online Photographer about the half-frame camera and it includes a vintage advertisement for it featuring one WES.
Thank you, Irving.

Some years ago some folks from Nikon came up to our house to interview me about my work. In the process they asked me about what cameras I like the best. Without mentioning brand names I said I like easy. I’ve never been one for bells and whistles, preferring instead something that fits nicely into my hands (small) and makes taking pictures simple. (Those who know me well know that “easy” and “simple” at least partially define my philosophy on photography!) Truth is, after my love affair with the Pen, I stayed with Olympus, among others, and still have the OM-4, which I’ve used for over three decades now. It, too, is small and easy.

Self Portrait, NYC, 1966 taken with Olympus Pen

I never knew about Yoshihisa Maitani who designed the Pen camera for Olympus when he was a young and junior level engineer. He details his story and the story of the Pen in this truly fascinating talk, which may be of particular interest to camera history buffs. After coming out with the first Pen, which the Olympus factory manager refused to produce (resulting in having it sub-contracted to a different manufacturer), Maitani wanted to make an even simpler model. He explains it this way:

Yoshihasi Maitani creator of the Olympus Pen camera

In those days, almost all camera buyers were men: men accounted for about 98% of the market, and women around 2%. Men like machines. They dream of Harley-Davidsons. That’s why we made cameras with so many controls. The accepted wisdom was that real cameras had to have lots of controls.

He goes on to talk about wanting to make a camera for women. Obviously he’s in need of a bit of re-education here about women liking simple and men liking complicated! Suffice it to say that I require something simple! But here’s the point. He wants to make an easy camera and comes up with resistance. The camera, he was told, wouldn’t be a “proper camera.”

This concept was the exact opposite of the cameras that were selling well on the market. The sales staff told me that it wouldn’t be a proper camera, and I later heard that a conference of branch managers had also concluded that my design would not be a real camera. The head of the sales division came to see me in person and tried to persuade me to abandon the idea. I’d only been with Olympus for about three years, and it was only a year since I’d returned to the design department after my training in the factory. I was just a youngster. And yet this executive came to see me. He sat down with me and begged me to give up my idea.

I realized that the barrier of accepted wisdom was about to prevent my idea from becoming reality, so I asked him to wait until the next day, when the prototype would be ready. I worked all through that night, and the next day I showed him the camera. He played with it in silence for about 30 minutes. Finally he looked at me and said, “Maitani, let’s do it!” As the proverb says, a wise man will change his opinion, a fool never.

Maitani’s wisdom prevailed and over 17 million of these cameras sold. I like this guy and feel like he designed this camera with me in mind. Inspired by his thoughts, I would add — “Always question accepted wisdom”. How else will you ever do something original? And, oh yeah, don’t forget to keep it simple! Thanks to Maitani’s great camera, I was able to do just that.

Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective selected as a Photo-Eye Best Book of 2012

Judith Thompson — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:27:47 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that Harold’s latest book, Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective was chosen as a Photo-Eye Best Book of 2012. The book was selected by Svetlana Bachevanova, a publisher at FotoEvidence, a platform to support documentary photographers.

Here is her comment:

Decades before photojournalists were embedded with soldiers in Afghanistan, Feinstein was recording his experience serving as a soldier in the Korean War. Included in the book are also his iconic photographs from Coney Island. Simple black and white record of this time when photography’s primary purpose was to document, not to comment. Just a pure pleasure of the well caught moment.

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