John G. Morris Photo Diary Binoche Et Giquello
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
binoche et giquello drouot montaigne 30 avril 2011 john g. morris photo diary binoche et giquello john g. morris photo diary Vente publique Drouot Montaigne 15 avenue Montaigne, Paris samedi 30 avril 2011 à 15 h 15 exposition publique les jeudi 28 et vendredi 29 avril de 11 a 18 h patrimoine photographique exposition privée chez les experts du 5 au 23 avril ceros , 70 galerie Vivienne, tel. 01.53.29.92.00 n° 30 ceros binoche et giquello 70 , galerie Vivienne, 75002 Paris Jean-Mathieu Martini & Serge Plantureux Conseil des ventes, agrément n° 2002.274 Binoche et Giquello, 5, rue La Boétie, 75008 Paris Tel. +33 (0)1 47 42 78 01 Fax + 33 (0)1 47 42 87 55 Kristen Gresh & Farrah Spott, special consultants Alexandre Giquello Commissaire-Priseur habilité, S.V.V. agr. n° 2002.389 Pascale Marquis, Mirka Lugosi, Gilles Aribaud, frames and graphic design [email protected] www.binocheetgiquello.com Liam Abarca-Gresh, junior intern Tel. +33 1 53 29 9200 / 9294 [email protected] www.photoceros.com Principles of description and information : The cataloguing principles used have been specially established to describe the historic condition of positive pho - Exposition publique à Drouot Montaigne, 15 avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris tographic prints, not the images as referenced by their negative numbers les jeudi 28 et vendredi 29 avril 2011 de 11 h à 18 h et le samedi 30 avril de 10 h à 13 h The following conventions have been used : • The date indicated in the title for each photograph is the date of creation of the negative image Les conditions de vente, ainsi que les estimations pour chacun des 230 lots se trouvent détaillées dans • The date and the geographical places indicated in the descriptions of the photographs are related to the origin le catalogue en langue française, avec un texte de préface par Michel Lefebvre. of production of the positive print Les acquéreurs ou enchérisseurs domiciliés hors de l’Union européenne ont la possibilité de conclure The terms and conditions of the sale and the price estimates for each of the 230 lots are listed in the French préalablement à la vente une convention de mandataire sous douane avec la société Ceros afin de ne language catalogue with a preface by Michel Lefebvre pas devoir avancer la TVA française lors de la vente. Notice : non-European residents and institutions can contract ceros company before the auction in order to avoid the anticipated payment of VAT on auctioneer premium Cover : Elizabeth Crockett Reeve, Life Magazine Staff, London Bureau, England 1944, n°8 This is the collection of someone who once threw away prints by Henri Cartier-Bresson and numerous other photographers when he finished using them in layouts or when they were not chosen for publication. It is a compilation of photographs given to him over time by friends and colleagues who are and were the twentieth century’s greatest photographers. Many of the prints originally served as material to work with, as documents. This atypical ensemble includes rare photographic works, some of which have editing marks, grease pencil and wartime censor stamps on them. These traces of history on the prints, contrary to common auction market beliefs today, add to their value as well as to the history of photography, photo - journalism and the media. The John G. Morris Photo Diary visually recounts Morris’s distinguished career and sheds new light on his position at the heart of photojournalism, while complementing his autobiography Get the Picture . The Diary begins with his early life as a student at the University of Chicago where he created and edited the student magazine Pulse . After graduating, he worked for Life magazine and became the magazine’s London picture editor during the Allied invasion of Normandy. Morris is respon - sible for saving Robert Capa’s legendary eleven images of D-Day after the melted preface emulsion accidentally destroyed most of the precious negatives. The Diary also includes Morris’s own work as a photographer in France, where he worked Twentieth-century photojournalism represented a time of strong visual storytelling, when alongside war correspondents, as seen in prints of his image of a young German news pictures were developed in darkrooms and printed systematically for distribution and publica - prisoner, German Surrender in Normandy , or his own Annotated Rennes Contact Sheet tion. Photographers were always close to the action or event and produced compelling photographic from the Liberation of France. Also included in this section is a rare image of Capa narratives published in magazines and newspapers such as Life, Ladies’ Home Journal, Holiday, The at Work n° 28 , that shows Capa photographing the surrender of German Soldiers. New York Times and The Washington Post . These stories were frequently the result of a collaborative After World War II, Morris continued to work with his close friend Robert Capa and other effort between picture editors and photographers. Then as well as now, effective picture editing started magazine photographers such as Sol Libsohn, co-founder of the New York Photo League, and Esther with assigning stories and continued through with layout and publication. This behind-the-scenes Bubley when he was picture editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal (LHJ) where he conceived of the editing plays a decisive role in our collective visual identity and history. yearlong series of picture essays, People are People the World Over (1947-1948 ). The series aimed to The rise of digital photography has increased the importance of news and photojournalistic illustrate a shared humanity by all, featuring agricultural families from twelve different countries. It photographs from the last century by transforming them into historical objects, because digital pho - inspired Edward Steichen in his conception of the major 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, tographs today are no longer regularly printed. As a result, these twentieth-century photographic The Family of Man . It was also one of the first assignments for the new cooperative agency Magnum objects are increasingly valuable to collect, study and preserve. The John G. Morris Photo Diary is an Photos that was founded in 1947 . Morris assigned Capa to photograph a Slovakian family that led eclectic collection amassed by the legendary picture editor throughout his influential seventy-five year Capa to later give him one of the pieces de resistance of this collection – the exciting Gypsy Wedding, career. These 230 photographs, with personal handwritten inscriptions on the back of each print, n° 48 . This is just one of many rare unpublished photographs in the Diary that enrich our visual constitute a visual anthology that make a unique collection that is not compiled by a collector. lexicon and complement our knowledge of iconic images. In 1953 , Morris became Magnum’s International Executive Editor, helping the Portraits of powerful policymakers at work during times of war were edited by Morris’s IPS young agency survive some of its most difficult years. Morris was responsible for Contact Sheet : President Johnson with Rep. Clarence Cannon, n° 159 and Vietnam War Briefing , n° 163 . selling the rights to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s January 1955 Life cover story, an During Morris’s tenure at The New York Times , he revolutionized the presentation of Page One inside view of Russia during the Cold War and the Military Appraisal at Moscow and published the first color photographs of the Moon Landing. Throughout his career he remained Trolley Stop n° 66 . The Diary includes numerous portraits of Capa, as well as close with W.E. Smith, and the Diary includes work prints of many of Smith’s iconic images as well historic photographs by early members such as Chim’s Italian Political Rally or as less known ones such as Maison de Fous with tracing paper overlays annotated by Morris in prepa - Elliott Erwitt’s Cartier-Bresson at Magnum . ration for an exhibition in Paris. Two rare vintage proof prints of Haiti, printed by Smith himself, Morris’s important friendships had a lasting impact on the history of photogra - are testament to the close working relationship and friendship between photographer and editor. phy such as his connection with Dorothea Lange who gave him several prints The Diary’s final section is devoted to Paris where Morris has lived for the past 28 years. including A Useful Woman in Small Ways , 1951 , n° 82 . The Diary also dedicates a section to the work It concludes with prints by many old colleagues and friends such as Marc Riboud as well as by young of Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel, two under-appreciated German-born Life magazine photographers. photographers whom Morris has had a lasting influence on such as Peter Turnley and Jane Evelyn Their striking series on Ohio politics is just one of their many contributions to the history of photo - Atwood. «Furthermore, as French picture editor Michel Lefebvre noted, John is the soul of the U.S. journalism. Democratic Party in Paris. One had to see him in January 2009 when he was getting ready, excited as a child, During Morris’s freelance years, he created Independent Picture Service to head out to Washington for the inauguration of Barack Obama. John was 93 years-old then, with a sparkle (IPS) and distributed picture stories. The selection of photographs he received in his eyes and a heart filled with the joy of an eternal lover of life.» at IPS illustrates the political and social struggles of the 1960’ s, including Each and every one of these original diary entries is a unique photographic object. Thomas Hoepker’s Police Shooting Range and Akihiko Okamura’s Father and Son , an image that Marjorie Morris published in the 1967 anti-war book The John G.