What We're Reading: How the FSA Whitewashed the Depression
The Depression-era Farm Security Administration photography program to document the country during dire times — a program that employed the likes of Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee — has been lauded as one of the great triumphs of the medium. But the Atlantic looks at three new books —Walker Evans: Starting From Scratch, by Svetlana Alpers; Russell Lee: A Photographer’s Life and Legacy, by Mary Jane Appel; and Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, that paint a more complicated picture of the FSA’s legacy. Read the full Story >>
Passings: Underwater Photographer Ernie Brooks Dies at 85
Ernie Brooks II, famed as an underwaterr photographer, died November 19 at age of 85, notes the ASMP. “Photography was in his blood as the son of the man who created the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and the grandson of a Portuguese woman who was a professional portrait photographer,” notes ASMP. Brooks graduated from his father’s institute and studied with Hans Haas, a pioneer of underwater documentaries. He established the school’s underwater photography courses and was one of its champions during difficult financial times. The school was sold in 1999 and closed in 2016. Read the full Story >>
Let's Continue the Conversation ...
Please contact me (button at top) to let me know about any books, shows, or projects you’ve got going. Also visit the Pro Photo Daily Facebook page, if you haven't already. If you "Like" us you'll get updates of stories that don't make the Daily and shared stories from others. And of course we hope you will give us your opinions on some of the issues we address. You can find an archive of Pro Photo Daily posts at https://www.ai-ap.com/prophotodaily/ and a look at the best of some of our posts on our monthly Flipboard. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>
Books: How a Soap Opera Changed Diana Markosian's Life
To understand how she became who she became, artist Diana Markosian has reenacted her childhood through photographs, film and a script written in collaboration with a scriptwriter who inadvertently influenced her life by writing a soap opera that shaped it. The result, notes the British Journal of Photography, is "Santa Barbara," a new book from Aperture, which tells the story of her mother, Svetlana, … Read the full Story >>