It’s great stumbling upon these type of photographs on Flickr.

INFO
Vintage Cochise County

“A friend asked me recently about my influences in photography. I replied, with Cushman squarely in mind, “More and more, it’s the people nobody has ever heard of. I love coming across lesser-known photographers who worked more or less anonymously, for the simple joy of photography.” I love it when I can look at a photographer’s work and not sense any “ego” involved; humble and evidentiary photography with no gimmicks or reliance upon technical trickery.” – Cary Conover

Cary Conover has written a nice piece on the work of Charles Cushman, along with some insights about his evolving philosophy.

©Smithsonian Institution

©Smithsonian Institution

©Smithsonian Institution

I was in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago and had a free afternoon to roam around.  When I checked out the National Museum of American History I stumbled upon “The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise” exhibition. It was a great surprise and contained some really amazing photographs. If you’re in D.C., it’s certainly worth checking out. It runs through February 28, 2010.

When I got back I did some research and found the archive online, which I expected.  I browsed through it and found these photographs with warping and reticulation to be kind of interesting. These aren’t representative of the work that’s exhibited, but nevertheless, I thought I’d share them.

INFO
The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise [NMAH]
The Scurlock Photographic Studio records, 1904-1994 [NMAH Archives Center]
The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise [Amazon]

The story of Vivian Maier and her recently discovered work has been circulating for a few days now ever since photographer John Maloof posted about his discovery over at HCSP.  Paul Russell and K. Praslowiscz have written up nice posts about the discovery.  Of course, it’s one of those feel good stories for all photographers, but what instantly came to my mind while I was looking through the work was, how many more Vivian Maier’s are out there?

Another question that came to my mind was the role the internet plays in these type of discoveries.  Without the internet, this work likely wouldn’t find much of an audience.  It’s another way the web is changing photography.  There’s no doubt that a discovery will be made that will likely send shock waves through the photography world. What if someone of Eggleston’s caliber has been out there for years photographing but not showing anyone?  Or maybe I’m wrong, maybe the web has made everyone too jaded and we’ll just give these discoveries a week of blogging and buzz before we move onto the next thing. I hope not.

I’ve no doubt there are countless other artists are out there because I know photographers.  They tend to be a bit introverted and shy about their work.  It’s much easier to stuff the negatives and prints under the bed than making an effort to show them to people who will understand.

It’s a great time to be a photography fan. I can’t wait until the next Vivian Maier comes around, but I do feel sorry for poor John Maloof who has in one purchase, literally doubled the amount of scanning and editing he needs to do.

Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work

UPDATE

Robert Bergman is another example.

‘The Man Who Waited’ [WSJ]
Robert Bergman WITH JOHN YAU

Tolstoy by Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky

“The process used involved a camera that would take a set of three photographs.  These pictures would be monochrome but each picture would be taken using a filter of a different color.  When all three monochrome pictures were projected (using light which had to be specifically colored) then the original color scene could be reconstructed.  However, this took some time to take – hardly the point and click we are used to a century on – and so occasionally in Prokudin-Gorsky’s work you can see stray movements…”

The Incredible Century Old Color Photography of Prokudin-Gorsky [Socyberty] via Ramanan Sivaranjan