- Joined
- Aug 9, 2016
- Messages
- 615
I recently found myself wondering if we sometimes hold the "great" names in photography in too high regard, when they may not always merit too much reverence.
This came about when a friend mentioned that an American photographer on another forum was planning to visit Yorkshire and wanted to meet up with L/F photographers (his abbreviation) over here.
Someone else on the forum recommended he get hold of a book of photographs by George Tice called "Stone Walls. Grey skies. A vision of Yorkshire". I'd not heard of this book, but discovered that I could buy a copy on line for less than £4, so I ordered it.
It came yesterday and after looking carefully through it, came to the conclusion that it was worth £4, but only just. If I had seen it in a charity shop at £4 I might even have left it on the shelf.
George Tice is well known for his large format photographs of his native America, and I like his work a lot. But the photographs in this book were taken on two or three visits to Yorkshire and were really , on the whole, quite ordinary. Dull flat photographs taken in dull flat light. Not a patch on the photographs made by the two Yorkshiremen who run this forum. Not a patch on the "Remains of Elmet" photographs by Fay Godwin - and she wasn't even a Yorkshireman! And not a patch on the photographs taken week after week on the North York Moors by my friend who told me about the visiting American, and started all this off.
If anyone else has George Tice's "Stone Walls" book I would be interested in their views.
Alan
This came about when a friend mentioned that an American photographer on another forum was planning to visit Yorkshire and wanted to meet up with L/F photographers (his abbreviation) over here.
Someone else on the forum recommended he get hold of a book of photographs by George Tice called "Stone Walls. Grey skies. A vision of Yorkshire". I'd not heard of this book, but discovered that I could buy a copy on line for less than £4, so I ordered it.
It came yesterday and after looking carefully through it, came to the conclusion that it was worth £4, but only just. If I had seen it in a charity shop at £4 I might even have left it on the shelf.
George Tice is well known for his large format photographs of his native America, and I like his work a lot. But the photographs in this book were taken on two or three visits to Yorkshire and were really , on the whole, quite ordinary. Dull flat photographs taken in dull flat light. Not a patch on the photographs made by the two Yorkshiremen who run this forum. Not a patch on the "Remains of Elmet" photographs by Fay Godwin - and she wasn't even a Yorkshireman! And not a patch on the photographs taken week after week on the North York Moors by my friend who told me about the visiting American, and started all this off.
If anyone else has George Tice's "Stone Walls" book I would be interested in their views.
Alan