Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Esther Bubley was a late joiner to Roy Stryker's small team of FSA/OWI photographers who captured the Depression and war years with such compassion and honesty. I first saw her work in 'Documenting America 1935-1943' (ISBN 0520062213) with nineteen photos of a cross-country Greyhound bus trip taken in 1943. This was her first and last major assignment for the OWI before Stryker left for Standard Oil in 1943, she joined him in 1944.
In 1947 she photographed another Greyhound bus journey and the five photos in the book show why I think her work is exceptional. They show passengers waiting in a New York bus terminal but you are there too, sitting in a seat opposite two ladies talking (page twenty) or opposite the mother with two children (page twenty-four). Somehow these public photos draw the viewer into them without intruding on the privacy of those being photographed. Looking through the pages I think nearly all her photos have a bit of this intriguing quality.
The surprise in the book, for me anyway, are the 1952 Charlie Parker jam session photos. Bubley was a friend of David Stone Martin, the graphic artist who created the album cover look for Norman Grantz's jazz record labels. Martin asked her to photograph the session so he could use the work as reference for his cover art. (Her 314 studio shots were published in a 1995 book, 'Charlie Parker', in France).
The book is arranged chronologically with Bonnie Yochelson's sympathetic essay running through the various photo chapters. A nice touch is the inclusion of several small reproductions of magazine spreads from Pageant, Ladies Home Journal and in particular Life showing how Bubley's photos were used. Design of the book is excellent and the printing (with 200 dpi) gives the photos great clarity.
Esther Bubley was a great photojournalist who quietly got on with her work with honesty and integrity. This book celebrates her professionalism.
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