In Focus:Doris Ulmann - Photographs from the J Paul Getty Museum

(c) 1999 J Paul Getty Museum

(who, I assume, are also the publishers, as I found no indication to anything other

Found this randomly on the library shelf - and this little book is not only interesting for the photographs but also for the bio-historical value of Ulmann's life and work. Actually, it reads like a photographic version of the movie "Songcatcher" (which I know! this just struck me as so sad! - I'm not comparing books to movies that I've seen! - Lord how 21st Century of me!)

But to continue: the movie catalogued a woman at the beginning of the 20th Century going to Appalachia to gather folksongs. Doris Ulmann, in the 20's and early 30's, went to Appalachia to photograph the culture in order to preserve it. Interesting historical note: during the 20's, it was after The Great War, and millions of Eastern Europeans were flooding to the US legally and illegally and there was a great fear that we were being "overrun" and that our culture would cease, and there was a great interest in preserving the "American" folk-culture, especially of the Appalachias, which was basically settled by the Germans and Scots some one or two generations prior.

(Does anybody see the similarity between then and now? Basically, the same thing is happening now, and all that will happen is that our children and grandchildren will be in a blend culture and right now we will be depicted in future history books as being silly and closed-minded. So be it. We are. Let's us at least be the generation to admit it!)

But back to the book: Photographs, hmmm - I liked her character studies, and she really could get a good sense of faces, however, while she seemed to have a sense of chiaroscuro (BTW I love that word!) I don't get the feeling that she could really "control" it.

Oh well, what do I know?

More interesting in the book was whether she was having an ongoing affair with her chauffer and colleague, John Jacob Niles, a dashing young man who carried her camera, played dulcimer, knew backwoods folksongs and was generally her passport through hillbilly territory. Although nothing was ever stated, it certainly makes for intriguing scandal and would probably be presented in any movie adaptation of her life.

Last of note was the forum in the back of the book, which I found absolutely hilarious - about 5 or 6 snobbies sitting around discussing what was going through her mind as she composed her photographs, such as was she "aware" of the subtly erotic position of JJ Niles and the washerwoman, and was she trying to compose the story of an affair, and was it a subconcious acting out of their own relationship? This discussions are always enjoyable, simply because of their inherent uselessness. 1) We'll never know what she thought while taking pictures, unless she wrote down her thoughts and 2) everything is pure guesstimation: fun, but lacking in any real value, and 3) it's hilarious to imagine the intelligentsia believing that it DOES have any value.

Not to laugh at the intellectuals, but we've got to put all sort of discussions of these in the proper perspective, and not take ourselves too seriously, like I believe Doris Ulmann may have. (Or at least she did with her subjects, because they are all so SERIOUS! Not ONE of these people were smiling!)

But then again: Appalachians. 1920's-30's. Hmm. Probably a pretty tough life and not a whole lot of time for giggles.


VG