There are artists–painters, dancers, musicians, photographers–for whom you have an immediate affinity. For me, that’s Saul Leiter. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1923; his father was a rabbi, a Talmudic scholar of some repute. It was only natural that Saul Leiter would follow … Keep readingSaul Leiter
For the first twenty-nine years of his life, he was pretty unremarkable. He was born in Detroit in 1912, took a degree in engineering from Michigan State, got a steady job in the Motor Parts division of Chrysler Corporation, met a good woman and got … Keep readingHarry Callahan
In 1945, detective novelist Raymond Chandler wrote an essay about the ‘new detective story.’ The stories were considered new because they introduced a new type of protagonist: the hard-boiled detective. In part, Chandler wrote: “…down these mean streets a man must go who is not … Keep readingDaido Moriyama
Miroslav Tichý was 22 years — a student of drawing and painting at the Academy of Art in Prague — when the Soviet Union ‘annexed’ Czechoslovakia in 1948. Like many other students, Tichý was very vocal in his opposition to the new regime. The new Soviet … Keep readingMiroslav Tichý
Denis Darzacq was born in a good neighborhood in Paris in 1961. He went to a good school, got a good education, started a good job as a press photographer. He signed up with Agence Vu, the elite French photography agency. That probably would have … Keep readingDenis Darzacq