Field of View: The Politic Aesthetic
September 28, 2024 | Source: Monroe Gallery of Photography
Via Field of View (Disclaimer: Author's past)
September 28, 2024
Excerpted from "The Politic Aesthetic Access is gone. Moments are dead. Long live the flash"
(see also the virtual exhibition "The Campaign"
"Few photos exemplify access like this gem by LIFE magazine photographer Hank Walker: Kennedy and his brother Robert deep in conversation in a hotel room during that same convention in 1960. It’s one of my all-time favorite political photographs. Access to an authentic moment like this is a photojournalist’s dream.
“The brothers talked very quietly, and Jack told Bobby who he was going to choose as Vice President,” Walker said in a 1994 interview. “I only made one picture in there, and then I waited outside for Bobby to come out. When he did, he was furious.”2
Walker’s contact sheet proves he made way more than just one picture—he wasn’t escorted in and hurried out in 30 seconds. Walker was allowed to work it. Notice how at first he’s shooting horizontally (frame 23), then rotates his camera and makes the one (frame 24).
Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that using a flash was “monstrous” and “impolite, like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand.” Some of the photos from the 2024 conventions were definitely monstrous.
Mark Peterson has been temporarily blinding politicians with his strobe for years. “The flash is like crack to them,” he once said.
