Tradition III

Third in the 'Tradition' series of images I recently shot at Rabbi Lichter's torah repair shop. He was explaining the layout of the handwritten script on the pages of parchment of the scrolls. There is a strict formality to the way the text is inked. The number of characters in each line, the paragraph breaks, and the spacing on each page is discussed in great detail in texts that give the scribe explicit instructions about how any repairs must be done to maintain the sanctity of the scroll.

Fuji Tele-zoom Lens and some Music Masters

I attended the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival this past Saturday which afforded me the opportunity to give my Fujinon 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 OIS lens a real test in extreme shooting conditions. Besides taking pictures, I had a blast meeting with some old friends who were performing as the Masters Of Bluegrass Band (back in June I heard this same band and wrote blog posts about that experience here and here)

First the photography business. I almost never shoot at the focal lengths of this lens. When I do, ninety-nine percent of the time it's performance photography. I need a lens that is razor sharp at the focus point, can open wide enough to afford a pleasingly soft background texture, and can nail colors so that I can easily manage the difficult lighting conditions that stage lights create. I've used this lens before for concerts, but not for outdoor night performances with all kinds of color lights with a mixture of color temperatures thrown in. I was quite pleased with the results. All the shots below were taken at an ISO of either 1600 or 3200, a focal length of 200mm or thereabouts, an aperture of f4.8 (wide open), and a 1/60th second shutter speed. That focal length - effectively 300mm on a full frame camera - and that shutter speed would have rendered the images totally useless without the Fuji optical image stabilization, which performed outstandingly well.

I am totally committed to my Fuji X system and have learned over the past year and a half to work with its idiosyncrasies. And Fuji is to be commended for the dedication they have shown in optimizing and updating the system with firmware updates - especially the focus issues that were manifest in early system development. But the shooting experience was not totally awesome. Probably because I'm not used to or adept at shooting at such a long focal length I found the focus time to be a tiny bit slower than I would have liked, which meant that I often missed catching an interesting facial expression. By the later part of the set, however, I'd worked out how to get the focus set and wait patiently (which, by the way, does not come naturally to me) for the shot I wanted. I was quite pleased with the results.

The second issue I had in shooting with the lens is that I normally always used the optical view finder. Understandably with this long a focal length, that would be impossible because the area of coverage would be a dot in the viewfinder, so using the electronic viewfinder is a necessity. My problem wasn't with the restricted area of view, but rather with the harshness and glare of the optical quality. I'm sure Fuji is improving this with each new camera release, so I'd expect that by the time the Fuji X-Pro 2 hits the market (no idea when that would be) this issue would be resolved.

Now for the really important stuff, about the band and the music. First I have to say, and I'm not making excuses for myself, that shooting performances like this are a bitch. It's impossible to get a good sight line where a microphone, cable or mic stand isn't in the way. Compounded with having to climb over and around people in the audience - who seem to get a real attitude about photographers getting in their way, imagine that!) and add all that to my aging body which does not want to cooperate and it's a tough experience.

The personnel is Del McCoury - guitar, Bobby Osborne - Mandolin, J.D. Crowe - banjo, Bobby Hicks - fiddle, Jerry McCoury - bass.When the emcee introduced the band she said it looked like Mt Rushmore. The two Bobby's are octogenarians, Del and J.D. are in their seventies, and Jerry is getting close to seventy. Each of them has been performing bluegrass professionally for close to 50 years. The performance was loose, to say the least. But that was part of the charm and fun of the performance. At one point Del introduced his next song as Blue Ridge Cabin Home - it's a standard and a classic in the genre. Bobby Hicks kicked the tune off on fiddle, and when Del started to sing the first verse was from an entirely different song - They Tell Me Your Love Is Like A Flower - which the band had never before performed. If Del hadn't laughed and joked with the audience about it, you'd have never known there was a mistake. Over two hundred years of performance experience sure does account for something.

I'm partial, I love all these guys. When I was learning my music and developing my chops to get ready to play with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, these guys were my idols, especially Bobby Hicks. His fiddle playing on the Bill Monroe classic recordings of the 1950's bore the distinctive stamp of someone with 'grass in his blood'. There were Saturday nights when I got into my car and drove to the top of a mountain close by my home (ok, a small hill -  but it was high) so I could try to catch a broadcast on WSM of the Grand Ole Opry and hear Flatt & Scruggs, Monroe, or Jim & Jesse McReynolds, or on the WWVA Jamboree from Wheeling, West Virginia to hear the Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin, or Earl Taylor. These are heady times for bluegrass music, when these artists leave the stage, I'm afraid it's going to be a downhill slide of generic cookie cutter bands.

Del McCoury

Bobby Osborne

Bobby Hicks

J.D. Crowe

Jerry McCoury

Tradition II

In yesterday's post I mentioned that Rabbi Lichter's work is often meticulous and grueling. When he's asked to repair a torah scroll he has to go through each column of letters on every sheet of parchment to determine if the ink, which actually lays on top of the parchment when it dries, needs to be repaired or re-written. If, after he's made a repair, there is any ambiguity about what he has fixed, he must then ask a child to identify the letter.

Tradition

As I was working on this photograph, I had the song 'Tradition' from Fiddler On The Roof  playing in my head. On Wednesday I spent some time with Rabbi Aaron Lichter in his office on the Lower East Side. Rabbi Lichter is a torah scribe. He examines old, worn torah scrolls for damaged or missing letters and fixes them with a quill pen and special ink. He also repairs the tiny script on mezuzah and tfilin parchment. It's grueling and meticulous work.

I photographed Rabbi Lichter twenty years ago when his office was at a different location in the neighborhood, a much larger space .... with much more clutter.

At the MoMA

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be in Manhattan on a beautiful day. I was out to shoot some images in the area of Fifth Avenue and 57-59th Streets, and there was no lack of subject matter. But I have to admit that my mind was elsewhere. On the way uptown I passed the Museum of Modern Art on W. 53rd Street and was reminded that there currently is a show of the work of Walker Evans' American Photographs.  After a couple of hours on the street I went to MoMA to see the photographs.

Last year MoMA published an edition of its original book of Evans' work first done in 1938 to accompany a show that appeared in the museum of the same photographs . The current edition was released to celebrate the book's seventy-fifth anniversary. I was intrigued when the book first appeared on Amazon because I have a book of Evans' work entitled America which was published by Rizzoli. Quite a few of the photographs are duplicated in that second book, and the reproduction process of the two different publishers is quite evident when comparing the subtlety of tones and details. Rather than dwell on my personal opinion, I would suggest to anyone that comparing the two would be quite informative. The order of the images in the original book was constructed with great care by Evans, and in the preface of the current edition the publisher suggests that when looking at the images the reader would be best informed of Evans' intent by following his carefully planned layout.

The current edition by MoMA also includes the essay by Lincoln Kirstein which accompanied the original edition seventy-five years ago. The book is available at the MoMA bookstore on the first floor.  To gain some insight into what Evans was after in his work it might be wise to spend some time with Kirstein's words before seeing the show. I was quite impressed with how applicable Kirstein's insights are to events and trends in today's photography scene.

Most of the exhibition rooms of the museum are not photography restricted - usually the photo ban is only for special exhibits. I like to watch and photograph people as they move around the sculptures in the garden, especially the Giacomettis. I shot this first image several years ago:

and this was done yesterday:

This also was taken several years ago, I was immediately attracted to take the shot because of the position of both left legs, but then just as I pressed the shutter the young lady shifted her gaze:

Lower East Side Update

Several days ago I posted an image of a gentleman I met in a shop on Grand Street, and I mentioned that he was a 96 year old hero who had survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp. I need to correct his age, he's 98 years old. Quite amazing. I hope to be able to be able to spend more time with him and do more posts about his story.

After discussing the project with another documentary photographer, I spent more time in the neighborhood and have become more committed to completing the entire project with a set of images 'twenty years later'. This is going to take a considerable commitment of time and energy but, as with anything else, the rewards will be in direct proportion to my effort.

In 1993 I visited a book bindery on Henry Street aptly enough called Henry Bookbinding and was allowed by the owner, Sholom Halpert, to shoot some film. I revisited the shop and was cordially welcomed by Mr. Halpert and invited to do more images. The first two images are digital scans of negatives that were shot in 1993:

And this is from my recent visit to the shop:

Ninety Six Year Old Hero

This past week I restarted a photo project I on which I initially worked in 1993-94 about New York City's Lower East Side, entitled Manhattan Diaspora. The original collection of photos can be viewed here in the galleries by that name. After discussing my recent photo work with an old friend and colleague who, by the way, was instrumental in helping me develop my passion for documentary photography, I decided to revisit the neighborhood - places, businesses, and people - and do a twenty-years-later extension of the project. I found several people who I originally photographed in 1993, and I look forward to spending time with them again.

While I was walking along Grand Street, I saw in the window of the East Side Glatt meat shop an interesting looking man talking to the sales clerk. When I entered the store I was introduced to ninety six year old Max Davidowitz. I showed him a series of images of the original project that I had loaded onto my iPad, and he told me of some of his experiences mining coal for over three years while in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He rolled up his jacket sleeve to show me his identification tattoo, and in a flash I knew why I had to rededicate myself to this project. He didn't understand why I was so interested in him. He is a hero.