STL DPB On The Road: San Francisco

Published Oct. 16, 2009 at 11:00 a.m.
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Mrs. C. and I are in SF for a legal conference in my specialty. Actually, I played hooky most of the day. This is the view of the Embarcadero ferry terminal at the foot of Market Street, shot from the end of the hall of our hotel.

The focus of the day was the Richard Avedon show at the SF Museum of Contemporary Art. It overwhelmed me. At times the brilliance of the work literally brought tears to my eyes. It felt a little silly to call myself a photographer after viewing 200 of Avedon's images, almost all portraits. The work was intense and beautiful, and had so much to teach. When to keep the image sharp (Ronald Reagan). When soft focus works better and when a complete blur is the best expression (Charlie Chaplin). How a very shallow depth of field can create the most intense visual image, softening into a blur by the time we see the ears. When a long depth of field grabs and holds a complex whole (a young Truman Capote or Marianne Moore, perhaps the most beautiful picture in the show). When to center the subject of a portrait in the frame (Marilyn Monroe), when to go off center (Marian Anderson) and when to go way off center (appropriately enough, St. Louis' own William S. Burroughs). And over and over again, the genius of using a plain white paper background for a portrait, stripping away everything external, leaving just a single, isolated human.




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