Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts, history, cultural events and such like.
In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

"Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived)" ¬Bishop George Berkeley

"Not even I understand everything I am" ¬Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo

"I'm only myself in front of my typewriter" ¬Joan Didion (I'd replace 'typewriter' by 'desktop PC'..)

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.) back in the day.
The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com or Amazon.
www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

The fine photography by Thomas Hoepker has an extra dimension for me: he travels like I do with a keen eye on people and objects on which he aims his camera.
I came across this very fine edition in Arles recently, in the photobook store 'Librairie du Palais'. I just had to buy it (€45), a fine edition to the other photobooks I have by Thomas Hoepker and Italy is my 2nd favourite country in Europe (after Great Britain).
It has a fine essay by Raúl Morales Barcia, in both German & English (let that be a lesson to the French who seem to be keen to publish only in French).

Thomas Gust has a closing essay (in German and English) about Thomas Hoepker, 'Italy, the land of discoveries'. I quote some of it-
"The photographer is not interested in popular tourist motifs; famous landmarks form, at most, the backdrop for the figures that appear. He does not draw on stereotypes, yet everything very much looks like the Italy of those years.
This is the Italy of the onset of mass tourismin the big cities, accompanied by a wave of modernisation, and also the Italy of the simplicity and poverty found in the south, which he documents in detail on several trips."

Thomas Hoepker (Thomas Höpker; b.10Jun1936 – d.10Jul2024) was a German photographer and member of Magnum Photos.
He first began taking pictures when he received an old 9 × 12 glass plate camera from his grandfather for his 14th birthday. He developed his prints in his family's kitchen and bathroom, and began to earn a little money by selling pictures to friends and classmates. He soon acquired an Akarette 35mm camera and sold a few photos to newspapers and staged exhibitions.
Using the proceeds from his picture sales, Hoepker purchased a Leica MP in 1956 - a investment in his future.
Hoepker studied art history and archaeology from 1956 to 1959 at LMU Muenchen and Göttingen where he learned about understanding images and composition. During his studies he continued to photograph and sell images to help finance his education. He left the university without graduating.
He worked on assignments around the globe with a desire to photograph human conditions. In 1964 he began working as a photojournalist for Stern.

In 1956 and in the following years, Thomas Hoepker, who was 19 years old at the time, travelled regularly to Italy to take photographs with a Leica MP.
His gaze is not a tourist one, but that of an explorer. The result is clear, often cinematographic image compositions that tell self-contained stories of encounters with people and their everyday rituals – with elements of compassion and humour.
Hoepker photographed in the big cities, in Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice and Naples. He travels just as intensively to the south of Italy, Calabria and Sicily.
In these photographs, Hoepker finds a social perspective that will accompany and shape his work. His humanistic view and the cinematic-like image compositions bring the photographs close to the neorealist cinema of the time.

www.buchkunst-berlin.de/thomas-hoepker-italia/
en.wikipedia.org:_Thomas_Hoepker
For reviews of his other books I have see MyBlog_2021Q3 + MyBlog_2023Q2 + MyBlog_2023Q4

Kris Kristofferson (b.22Jun1936 – d.28Sep2024)) died aged 88.
The photo shows part of my Hall of Fame, album covers from back in the day.

In my teens I ended up in hospital with a concussion, victim of a youth gang. I wasn't allowed to read and my hospital bed wasn't equipped with a tv, the only thing to do was listen to music. I tuned in to the American Forces Network (AFN) broadcasting from Germany. While I had LP's at home of Bob Dylan, The Eagles and CNS&Y, thus I also got to know musicians such as Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson. Back home I started buying LP's by these artists.
I enjoyed his role in A Star Is Born and Convoy, as well as him performing with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson (the sole surviving member of The Highwaymen).
I was impressed by the anecdote how Kristofferson landed the helicopter he was flying for an oil rig in the garden of Johnny Cash to introduce the music he'd written!

American songwriter, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson died on Saturday 28Sep2024 in his hometown of Maui, Hawaii.
This has been announced by his family, according to various American media. He was 88 years old. Kristofferson is best known for his country ('Americana') music. In the 1970s, he introduced more mature themes to the genre such as addiction and complex emotions, resulting in the subgenre of outlaw country. Kristofferson used influences from rock and folk.

Well-known songs are Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down and Help Me Make it Through the Night.
His songs were often covered by other artists, such as Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, at one time his girlfriend.
He has won several awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. American country singer Willie Nelson called Kristofferson "the best songwriter alive right now" in 2009.
With Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, Kristofferson formed the supergroup The Highwaymen.

Kristofferson graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in literature.
In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine, Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life.
After leaving the army (was stationed in Germany, had trained to fly a helicopter, reached the rank of captain) in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. Struggling for success in music, he worked at odd jobs in the meantime while burdened with medical expenses resulting from his son's defective esophagus. He and his wife, his longtime girlfriend, Frances 'Fran' Mavia Beer, divorced in 1968.
He can remembered writing Help Me Make It Through the Night sitting on top of an oil platform. And writinge Bobby McGee down in southern Louisiana.
Upon hearing Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, Johnny Cash decided to record it, and in 1970 Kristofferson won Songwriter of the Year for the song at the Country Music Association Awards.
In 1971, Janis Joplin, who had dated Kristofferson, had a number one hit with Me and Bobby McGee from her posthumous album 'Pearl'.
Kristofferson made his acting debut in The Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper), in 1971, the year he released his third album, Border Lord.
Several albums and many roles in film followed. His later music showed he was keen on political activism.

After his singing success in the early 1970s, Kristofferson met singer Rita Coolidge. They married in 1973. After performing together, they divorced in 1980.
He married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a time. But the album Music from Songwriter, featuring Nelson-Kristofferson duets, was again massive country success.
Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and added Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to form the supergroup the Highwaymen. Their first album, Highwayman, was a success, and the supergroup continued working together for a time. The single from the album, also entitled Highwayman, written by Jimmy Webb (and originally recorded by him in 1977), was awarded the ACM's single of the year in 1985. But I later read that the four performing together became limited due to Kristofferson's acting career.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Kristofferson in 1985, as had the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier, in 1977.
In 2003 he received the 'Spirit of Americana' free speech award from the Americana Music Association. In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Kristofferson won CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award. Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter, presented the honor during the April 16 awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash, Hank Williams, Jr., Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, and the Dixie Chicks.
He continued making films but also continued performing often with other artists.
In January 2021, Kristofferson announced his retirement. His final concert was held in Fort Pierce, Florida, at the Sunrise Theatre on 05Feb2020, accompanied by the Strangers.
Kristofferson had 8 children from his 3 marriages.
He said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's Bird on the Wire on his tombstone:
Like a bird on the wire/
Like a drunk in a midnight choir/
I have tried in my way to be free.

en.wikipedia.org:_Kris_Kristofferson
kriskristofferson.com
en.wikipedia.org:_American_Forces_Network
www.youtube.com/watch @Plaza de la Trinidad - 2010.

Hernen Castle is a Dutch castle from the 14th century. It is a well-preserved medieval castle in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands.
It is situated in the village of Hernen (municipality of Wijchen), in the far west of the Rijk van Nijmegen. It probably originated around 1350, and then consisted only of a keep and a curtain wall surrounding a bailey. The bailey was later filled in with other buildings, leaving a relatively small courtyard.
The keep collapsed in the 18th century.

Allegedly more than 30 exhibitors came to this fine castle, we enjoyed a wonderful flea market atmosphere around Hernen Castle for the Sunday.
There are several terraces, and a visit to the Castle was also possible, pending reservations through the website of Hernen Castle. We had coffees with apple pies in the cellar.
Hernen Castle is an enclosed medieval fortress with unique covered walkways, situated in a varied landscape of avenues, forests and meadows. In addition to being known for its 'authentic appearance', the castle is also known for the filming of the television series Floris (many decades ago).

en.wikipedia.org:_Hernen_Castle
See also my addition on my Streetphotography galleries.

As a fan of the photography by Robert Doisneau (even though I know he often had a firm hand in directing his subjects) I came across this photobook and had to buy it. My negative considerations were focussed on the text: only in French. But it had the river Loire as a photo narrative and on this 2024 trip we stopped to visit 3 castles on the Loire during 2 days.
We were on our way to Les Rencontres d'Arles (Photography) and had previously visited Paris for 2 days, bought photobooks, but while visiting 'Librarie de Palais' in Arles (10 rue du Plan de la Cour) I thought this secondhand book was karma for its subject.
I have to note I wanted to visit the Mais0n Robert Doisneau (museum) in Paris but the limited opening times did not fit my schedule in Paris. So 'Loire + Doisneau' made me buy it, no regrets.

In 1976, Robert Doisneau was given the assignment to make the diary of an ideal journey, which had never been undertaken before.
The photographer welcomed this proposal as a "wonderful gift of chance" and simply chose the Loire,
the mere mention of which awakened in him the idea of a holiday.
Through fifty shots, from the source to the mouth, a recent (2022, @Nantes) exhibition invited us to relive this journey, imbued with beauty, poetry and that tenderness so typical of Doisneau for the scenes of everyday life.
This exhibition was part of its 30th anniversary, the Cité des Congrès de Nantes is part of the Voyage à Nantes.

The book numbers 42 fine images. Printed on fine thick, heavy paper.
I like it how Doisneau put the castles in the background or out of sight, as the chateaus often, if not always, are the protagonists when the Loire is mentioned.

en.wikipedia.org:_Robert_Doisneau
See also MyBlog_2022Q4. Also on MyBlog_2018Q2

Hadn't read a novel by Nicci French (Nicci Gerard & Sean French) for a number of years but found myself ending a book during my holidays with a few days remaining, so bought this title among a few books in English on offer in a bookshop in Arles. It's not easy to find a book in English in France for the world outside France hardly exist, certainly is not worth considering.
I had enjoyed the Frieda Klein novels by Nicci French but until now I hadn't picked new titles (I have a huge backlog of crime fiction), but now my hand was forced ☺

I was pleased to find 'The Favour' a stand alone novel.
Narrative:
Jude makes her living as a geriatric nurse in London, sharing a flat near Olympic Park with her fiancée. One day, as she's getting ready to leave after working the night shift, there's a guest waiting for her in the lobby. To her surprise she sees it's Liam, her boyfriend for a summer when she was 18 years old.
It's been 11 years since they last saw each other. Liam has come to ask a favor and Jude agrees somewhat confused: she's tired by working through the night and she feels a migraine coming up plus seeing Liam again after so long is quite confusing in itself.
So she agrees with knowing why she needs to bring Liam's suitcase to a cottage in Norfolk with Liam's car later that day and hear why when Liam meets her later.
But this rendez-vous (Liam assures her it's not sexual nor anything illegal) has her lying to her fiancé (marriage planned in a few weeks time) so she travels for hours that afternoon to a cottage, there to await Liam's arrival and this is when and where he'll explain more.
However, Liam never arrives because Liam has been murdered and Jude is now a prime suspect esspecially because she has no explanation why she went to the cottage to meet up with Liam later on.

Turns out shortly before his murder he chose Jude as the executor of his will which has everyone baffled including Jude herself. She gets to meet the people with whom Liam (owner) shared a house. These people suspect Jude of having ulterior motives.
Contrary to advise by police Detective Inspector Leila Fox she muddles along in her own investigation of Liam's life and his murder. Liam's housemates including his wife (with whom he has a child, Alfie) are peculiar and sometimes quite rude, protective of their commune but with underlying emotional currents.

Spoiler alert: everything seems to be there for a captivating story but the protagonist Judith 'Jude' Winter is irrational and naive to the point of unbelievable as a person. The only 'diamond find' is the truth behind the car crash in which Jude and Liam were involved and kicks off this novel.

It just does not quite make the 3 stars (of 5) for me, but it was entertaining enough for a week of holidays.

www.goodreads.com/ - the_favour
en.wikipedia.org:_Nicci_French

'Le voyage d'un immigrant' is a series of exhibitions, photographs made / provided by Anas Aremeyaw Anas + Chun-Yi Chang + Muntaka Chasant + Thaddé Comar + Ljubiša Danilovic + Chiara Dazi + Guido Gazzili + Bénédicte Kurzen + Camille Lepage + Diego Moreno + Philippine Schaeffer + Jun-Jieh Wang + collectif Advantage Austria + collectif LesAssociés + Institute Contemporary.

The exhibition explores the complexities of engagement through the prism of migration, globalization, and identity crises.
Through the work of various artists, it evokes the dilemmas of the concept of legality and the tensions of Belonging. The exhibition encourages us to reflect on our own responsibility and commitment, while paying tribute to the work of the reportage.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the photo prize awarded by the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, tribute is paid to Camille Lepage, whose talent as a photojournalist is still engraved in the memories of many, despite her tragic death.
Her unwavering commitment to bear witness to the often little-known realities of the world deserves to be celebrated and honored.

The exhibition also explores our personal engagement with society, the search for meaning in our lives and actions. It reveals our passions, our desires, but also our deepest fears.
The commitment is artistic, sensory and militant, since this program cannot be contemplated without taking into account the human and political crises that are currently plaguing the world.

https://mrofoundation.org/MRO-Foundation

Lemmer's first law: don't interfere with anything...
But when Emma le Roux looks at him imploringly, and when the end justifies the means, laws are sometimes allowed to be broken. So Lemmer sighs deeply and says yes to the question if he wants to ride along with a smuggling transport of two rare black rhinos.
Wrong decision! Because on a dark, dusty road in Limpopo, a Smith & Wesson 500 is suddenly pressed against his temple. He gets kicked, punched and they steal his Glock, which is completely covered in his fingerprints.
He wants that Glock back. And he wants revenge. So he sets out to hunt down the perpetrators, leaving a trail of violence throughout the country, from Chizarira to the Cape.

Promoted as his best crime novel, I found it certainly not the best I have read written by him.
There are really 3 (too) distinct narratives here but except the hasty epilogue to wrap it up, the three hardly come together...
First there's middle-aged Milla Strachan, divorced (one son, Barend, is mentioned but he does not play a role) and trying to find a job, a new life. She is accepted in a group of 'journalists' who write brief reports for the government on current affairs, developments and possible threats (groups and persons involved. The reports end up on the desk of a security group (apparently without Milla and her clleagues knowing) led by Janina Mentz, who fears her security group will be merged into other security departments: she needs a high profile investigation with high profile results.
In her zeal she misinterprets a person getting close to Milla as a CIA operative.

Lemmer, involved in smuggling two rhinos from Zimbabwe (interesting insights here) is the 2nd narrative but has no connection to Milla's life nor her new friend/lover and is a rather expanded mention of diamants playing a role.
'SPOOR' means tracking a trail; quotes head each chapter from a reference manual for this activity and all three narratives follow traces and trails.

The 3rd narrative is about Mat Joubert taking the case of a missing person, the husband of Tanja Flint. Joubert had a long career with the police as a detective but changed to a privat investigators firm. His story comes complete with wife Margaret and circumstance, including Joubert struggling with )former police) ethics versus the investigation ("prolong the investigation to generate a maximum billing").
Mat Joubert never comes across Milla Strachan, her lover nor Lemmer.

Overall is a somewhat misty (Islamic) conspiracy in South Africa with a target date for a 'major event'. Perhaps a terrorist attack, the smuggling of the rare rhinos seems a cover for smuggling diamants where (organized) crime comes in, a rivaly of gangster groups.
Milla's friend is looking for a bag of cash, which went missing when his car was stolen.
The truth about 'the major' event, the diamants, the missing husband, et cetera, comes together in the very last chapter. Which felt a bit clumsy to me. It felt like 3 books thrown together by the author.

Deon Godfrey Meyer is a South African thriller novelist, writing primarily in Afrikaans. His works have been translated into 28 languages. He has also written numerous scripts for television and film.

en.wikipedia.org:_Deon_Meyer

Schemergoud - legends, anecdotes & stories from forest and field in The Netherlands, the region named Veluwe.
Nineteen chapters in this hardcover book, format 17×24 cm and numbering 112 pages in total.
The Veluwe was and is a region that offers an excellent natural backdrop for stories that are shrouded in mystery, at one time the forest was indeed dark and foreboding.

The stories include those of the shovelers of Hoog Buurlo, of the Forest of the Dancing Trees, of the echo pit and of the kneeling man of Vierhouten.
Among all these Veluwe pearls, a pure diamond shines in the form of the Hoge Veluwe National Park, in which all Veluwe landscapes and stories are represented.
Marti Jansen describes the Veluwe and its inhabitants like no other. In an atmosphere where the gold of the twilight lights up and memories are kept alive, you can enjoy the Veluwe and its story-rich past.

It was a pleasure to read a chapter every now and then. These stories are part of our history but they are not the ones we hear about at school.

bdumedia.nl/boeken (NL)

Photos taken last sunday, 08September, the parade started at 14:00 and streets were again filled here in Lichtenvoorde (Gelderland) with 18 colorful dahlia giants and dozens of smaller parade floats.
Lichtenvoorde holds this flower parade ('bloemencorso') every year in September, at the start of its annual festival.
The parade features floats covered in flowers (usually dahlias) in imaginative designs depicting a variety of themes.
Lichtenvoorde also has a motorcross circuit on which international grands prix are held.

The Lichtenvoords parade is on UNESCO's International List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

bloemencorso.com
en.wikipedia.org"_Lichtenvoorde
www.flickr.com/ - - - /albums

Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. He does that in a clear, non-spectacular style despite some harrowing experiences.

In 'The Making of the Modern Middle East' – in part based on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ – Bowen takes the reader on a journey across the Middle East and through its history.
He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

With his deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan’s Turkey, Assad’s Syria and Netanyahu’s Israel and his long experience of covering events in the region, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.
Spoiler alert: there's no happy ending.

He was the BBC's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem between 1995 and 2000[2] and the BBC Middle East editor from 2005 to 2022, before being appointed the International Editor of BBC News in August 2022.
He joined the BBC in 1984 and has been a war correspondent for much of his career, starting with El Salvador in 1989.
He has reported from more than 70 countries, predominantly in the Middle East and the Balkans.
During the Gulf War he was an eye-witness to the bodies being removed from the Al Amiriyan air raid shelter in Baghdad shelter, where hundreds of civilians had been killed. Bowen reported that the casualties were women, children and older men. There were no military uniforms.

www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Modern-Middle-East-Personal
en.wikipedia.org:_Jeremy_Bowen

This fantastic study explores the intricate and ever-changing relationship between the photographer and the surrounding society. The study echoes contempory times and current affairs.
It considers the ubiquitous commercial, social, and political demands with which the photographer must deal and examines how the photographic reactions to these demands have in turn changed the society they reflect.

Chapters include-
PART ONE
The Relationship between Art and Society
Precursors of the Photographic Portrait
Photography during the July Monarch (1830-1848)
The first Portrait Photographers
Photography during the Second Empire (1851-1870)
Attitudes toward Photography
The Expansion and Artistic Decline of the Photographic Profession
Photography as a Means of Art Reproduction

PART TWO
Press Photography
The Birth of Photojournalism in Germany
American Mass Media Magazines
Photography as a Political Tool
Photography and The Law
The Scandal-Mongering Press
Photography as Art
Amateur Photography
Conclusion

The concluding chapters 'Notes', 'Acknowledgements' and 'Index' add considerable value for reference.
And I love the added illustrations and photographs!

Gisèle Freund (born Gisela Freund; 19Dec1908 – d.31Mar2000) was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists.
Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is a expanded edition of her seminal 1936 dissertation. It was the first sociohistorical study on photography as a democratic medium of self-representation in the age of technological reproduction.
With this first doctoral thesis on photography at the Sorbonne, she was one of the first women habilitated there.
Freund's major contributions to photography include using the Leica Camera (with its ability to house
35 mm film rolls with 36 frames) for documentary reportage and pioneering Kodachrome and Agfacolor positive film for colour portraits of writers and artists, which allowed her to develop a "uniquely candid portraiture style" that distinguishes her in 20th-century photography.

www.goodreads.com/ - - -photography-and-society
en.wikipedia.org:_Gisèle_Freund

Lia van Bekhoven has lived in London for more than forty years. Almost all this time she worked for Flemish and Dutch radio and television, newspapers and magazines to report on what is going on in Britain.
With knowledge, but above all with pointed humor and surprising insights. Lia is a joy to listen to, and now also to read!

Her portrait of the UK is surprising and versatile. She praises British humour and culture, the openness and tolerance of the British, their ability to put things into perspective...
But at the same time, she is annoyed by their clinging to traditions and their longing for the past, by how they do politics, by the enormous social contradictions and by the way in which Brexit has come about and thrown the country back to Little Britain, how a once great country can be small.

She writes this with bravado and with humour, which she illustrates with countless facts and stories taken from her British life.
Her chapters are often cut in tidbits; she is to the point and the book (in Dutch!) is a pleasure to read, even for someone who has travelled almost yearly to the UK for the past six decades.

Lia van Bekhoven (born 5 April 1953) is a Dutch journalist, author and correspondent for radio and television.
She graduated in 1975 from the School of Journalism in Utrecht.
After her studies, she moved to the United Kingdom, where she settled in London. From there, Van Bekhoven corresponds with various foreign media. Her first clients were the Ikon and Vrij Nederland. She worked for the GPD newspapers and then for NOS radio until 2007.

Her regular clients include BNR Nieuwsradio, Nieuwsuur, VRT (both radio and television), Knack and Elsevier. In addition to her reporting for radio and television, she also contributed to the weekly magazine Libelle and to the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera. She can also occasionally be seen on the BBC and Sky News as a commentator on social developments in the Netherlands.
Her British husband Martin Davis died on 12Aug2019.

www.borgerhoff-lamberigts.be/shop/boeken/klein-brittannië
NL.wikipedia.org::Lia_van_Bekhoven

Ruth Orkin (b.03Sep1921 – 16Jan1985) was an American photographer, photojournalist, and filmmaker, with ties to New York City and Hollywood.
Best known for her photograph An American Girl in Italy (1951), she photographed many celebrities and personalities including Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Ava Gardner, Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, and Alfred Hitchcock.
She also made a famous portrait of Robert Capa, a typical candid shot.

'A Photo Spirit' has a two page introduction by her daughter Mary Engel, including family life and her relation with her mother. Mary Engel handles her mother's archive, 2021 is 36 years after her passing and this photobook is a monumental tribute to Ruth Orkin's photography.
The introduction is followed by an excellent essay 'Ahead of Her Time - Ruth Orkin's Performance of Photography' by Kristen Gresh. It includes a detailed biography.
It also mentions 'The Bicycle Trip', how Ruth as an adventurous seventeen year old bicycled with her camera in 1939 from Los Angeles to the World's Fair in New York City, documenting her travels along the way! The four-months period during and after her bicycle journey yielded 360 contact prints. In many of the images she has cleverly used the motif of her bicycle.

The book is not chronological. Instead, the images are grouped thematically. People in a park. People in Venice. Celebrities. New York. The arrangement allows us to consider each image not only on its own, but also in context of the place and time revealed by the group.

Perhaps because of her early interest and work with movies, Orkin’s images often have a cinematographic feel. Whether it be in the lighting, the angle of view, the closeness to the subject, or the arrangement of subjects within the frame, the images have a gravitas that comes from storytelling.
It may also explain why the lay-out shows sometimes series of smaller images.

Orkin’s life seems larger than life. Not only did she bicycle across the United States at age 17 (there is a remarkable image of her sitting on a single speed bicycle with a slightly damaged front fender), she was the first messenger girl at MGM, hired in 1941. Her mother was a silent-movie star.
And then she quit because the union did not allow women...
She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Her first professional assignment was from the New York Times in 1945, to photograph Leonard Berstein.

A monumental photobook that hopefully powers Ruth Orkin's name much higher in the annals of photography!

readframes.com/telling-stories-review-of-ruth-orkin-a-photo-spirit
www.orkinphoto.com
en.wikipedia.org:_Ruth_Orkin

'Belichtingstabel'

text

link

The Nettar series by Zeiss Ikon was a successful range of self-erecting folding cameras for 120 roll film (often described as B2 6x9 film).
Several types were offered for 6×9cm, 6×6cm and 6×4.5cm format, with different lenses in a variety of shutters. Zeiss Ikon also produced a Nettar equipped with an exposure meter, the Nettax (513/16).

Zeiss Ikon always advertised the Nettar series as being for the amateur photographer.
Nevertheless these cameras share many parts with the much more expensive Ikonta series (e.g. body and struts).
The Nettar series may lack the higher specified lens/shutter combinations and things like film type and speed memo discs but the observed built quality is en par with that of the Ikontas.

Below link shows the series began in the early 1930s, but this "...Nettar 516 is almost the same as a top of the range 515 but has a double exposure prevention system added and a Novar instead of a Nettar lens. Year of release: 1940."
However the lens on my camera is a Novar 3.5/75...

http://camera-wiki.org:: Nettar

This morning, before the heat would rise to 29 Celsius, we visited the vintage ('brocante') market at the
'Vroolijke Frans' restaurant in Brummen (Gelderland).
Came away with a few nice tidbits, had a splendid day.

More on:
http://streets.ruudleeuw.com, B&W + Colour

Museum Bronbeek is a national museum about the colonial military history of Netherlands.
The new exhibition tells the complex story of the Dutch colonial presence in Indonesia between 1816 and 1962.
The permanent exhibition tells the story of the rise and fall of the Netherlands as a colonial power in Asia. The conquest and governance, society, the wars and the struggle for independence.
Finally, the exhibition is about how we look back on this shared history in Indonesia and in the Netherlands.
I enjoyed the great care taken in this exhibition, history displayed in great clarity.

History is told on the basis of personal stories, objects, photos and videos.
This makes every museum visit a unique experience in which different perspectives can be viewed. Museum Bronbeek challenges visitors to form their own opinions, my feeling was that we look back on this part of 'our' Dutch heritage with increased regret and remorse.

www.bronbeek.nl/museum

Interesting document illustrating early attempt to fight poverty with supporting photography, in many ways.

The New York Children’s Aid Society (CAS) was founded in February 1853 by a small group of clergymen and social reformers concerned about the general conditions of homeless, neglected and delinquent children. One of the principals of this group was a young Congregational minister, Rev. Charles Loring Brace, who had been working as an assistant minister in the Five Points Mission located in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of the city.

The content consists of the historical pictorial records of the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and contributing photographers, from archives and collections.
The charitable organization was founded in New York City in 1853 to aid, educate, and provide lodging for poor children in the city, and/or to place them in foster homes or with employers outside of the city. We see illustrations relating to the CAS lodging houses, industrial schools, convalescent homes, health initiatives, farm schools, and group outings.
The emigration programs ("orphan train") and foster care and adoption programs operated during the period 1853-1947.

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/childrens-aid-society-of-new-york/

The then weekly Dutch magazine 'De Tijd' asked Roel Visser to make a weekly photo series that had to be a picture of the Nineties (1990s).
After three years of work, a book could be compiled under the same title.
From the foreword by Frans Thomése: 'The Nineties contains photographs of a passionate misanthrope,
a photographer with the Evil Eye, who went in search of the soul of men, but could no longer find that soul anywhere and found only the people, a distraught mess that, on its way to something that once seemed like something, is now lost forever in a time that has finally come to a standstill.'

Photographer Roel Visser caused a furore with his photographs in which a sharp criticism of aspects of the welfare state emerges. 'Hier in Holland', the photo book that was published in 2000, is the highlight
of this. Visser has won several awards, both nationally and internationally.

Roel Visser started his career at the 'Nieuwe Revu' as a classic social photographer, where he worked for five years. When the magazine left this line, Joop Swart brought him in at the weekly magazine 'de Tijd'. Here he made several social reports, for which he also wrote the texts.
During the merger of 'De Tijd' and the 'Haagse Post' into 'HP/ de Tijd', Visser's work slowly changed in tone and style. The consumer society now became the leitmotif, something that 'De Tijd', 'Het Parool' (newspaper) and finally 'HP/de Tijd' offered him space for every week.
These weekly series gave rise to the books De Jaren Negentig (The Nineties; published by Kwadraat Utrecht, 1992) and Hier in Holland.
In addition to his own work, Roel Visser supplies stock material to the ANP.

www.roelvisser.nl

In the next installment to her historical crime series, Val McDermid delivers a new thriller following journalist Allie Burns as the Cold War and AIDS crisis deliver a nonstop tide of news, and an unexpected murder. '1989' was published in 2022.
Spoiler: I much preferred '1979', the #1 Allie Burns book by McDermid (2021).

Allie here is no longer a journalist but rather the northern news editor of the Sunday Globe, entertaining doubts whether she is in the right job.
The opening pages see Allie Burns lurking outside the Lockerbie memorial service, hoping to observe some fresh stories for her newspaper.
Allie has no love for Wallace ‘Ace’ Lockhart (her employer, who is also present): he’s a bully who wrecked her life. Before he bought the Globe & Clarion group, she’d been happily running the investigations unit of the Sunday Globe. Lockhart fired practically everyone, he shut down the investigations unit, and added insult to injury by giving her the meaningless title of northern news editor.
But Lockhart gets another grip on Allie's life and career: he contracted her partner Rona with a well paying job.

It took me over 250 pages (of 447) to find the narrative interesting. I did not care for the extended details of the lovey-dovey lesbian relation and HV/Aids plot, which was way too long and the latter a forced construct (imo) to get Allie's investigative reporting in the narrative. It fitted the biography of the protagonist but did very little for the crime story.
For me it got interesting from (Cold War) Berlin into Poland and the developing details surrounding Ace Lockhart.
I think Val McDermid is no longer in my Top Five of writers I would pick up without reservations.

www.criminalelement.com/ - -1989-by-val-mcdermid
en.wikipedia.org:_Val_McDermid

Yesterday, sunday 18th, I visited the yearly 'fotografica' market in the centre of Doesburg. Everyting concerning (early) photography was on offer: cameras, lenses, filters, books & magazines, vintage photographs. Some splendid exchange of information and conversation too!
Wonderful to browse!
Roel Fokken came up with this idea in the 1990s and this is the 27nd edition (during Covid there were no open air markets).

Maybe I'll acquire something serious next year!

See also my Streetphotography

Photo Libretto is a photo book by Eddy Posthuma de Boer, with an introduction by Ken Wilkie. Published by Thomas Rap (Amsterdam) in 1991, the book contains 366 remarkable photographs (one for every day of the year).
Eddy Posthuma de Boer is one of Holland's most travelled photographers, often on assignment for fashion magazine Avenue and KLM's inflight magazine 'Holland Herald'. Whilst travelling he always made it a point to take photos for himself, they comprise an almanac of oddities...
Great fun to browse this book and an inspiration for every (street)photographer out there on the road!

Eddy Posthuma de Boer (b.30May1931 – d.25Jul2021) was a Dutch photographer and photojournalist.
He started his career as an assistant with ANP and subsequently worked together with such media as De Volkskrant and Het Parool.
As a photographer, he visited over 90 (!) countries, and one time was a travel reporter for the magazine Avenue. He also documented the development of youth culture and paid particular attention to jazz and rock-’n-roll music. He was greatly influenced by Eva Besnyö.

en.wikipedia.org:_Eddy_Posthuma_de_Boer

Frightened by day and drunk by night, a typical
Sylvia Witteman observation (looking back on the Covid era).

Sylvia Witteman is my favourite columnist in my daily, De Volkskrant. This is a recent complation.

First, the refrigerator breaks down, leaking from age. Then the internet. The children in the nearby playground are screaming more and more shrill. A leak creeps down the bathroom wall. Outside, a storm sweeps down the trees. Why has she been watching The Voice all night? And how did she end up at a windy train station in Krommenie?
Then it all turns out to be harbingers of the natural disaster that no one expected and that keeps her confined to her home where the cats have declared war on each other. Frightened by day and drunk by night, Sylvia Witteman haunts a divided house, and tries to make the best of it with humour.

While this compilation of 37 columns (Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 2020) is great fun to read for her wry humour (the first chapter's title would translate as Cunt, she does not mince words) it's also nice to look back on all the inconveniences we shared during the Covid years.

www.hebban.nl/boek/overdag-bang-en-s-avonds-dronken-sylvia-witteman (NL)

I have two books with work by Fulvio Roiter: PHOTOGRAPHS 1948-2007 (see MyBlog_2024Q2) and a book dedicated to his photography in Venice: (see MyBlog-2020Q3) La Mia Venezia.
Since this magazine / monograph showed mostly photographs I had not seen in these books and I could buy it for a mere €5,- I decided to buy it. Even though the text is in Italian, it contains 45 splendid photographs!

Fulvio Roiter (b.01Nov1926 - d.18Apr2016) was an Italian photographer. He was born in Meolo, Venice.
Roiter graduated as a chemist, but from 1947 he devoted himself to photography, being professionally active since 1953.
After several reportages for some magazines, in 1954 he published his first photographic book, Venise a fleur d'eau. In 1956 Roiter won the 2nd edition of the Prix Nadar with the book Ombrie. Terre de Saint-François.
During his career, Roiter released about one hundred photographic books!

en.wikipedia.org:_Fulvio_Roiter

Yesterday visited Gorinchem (a.k.a. Gorkum or Gorcum) for the 10 murals. Mistook one for the only one we missed, full report on my STREETPHOTOGRAPHY COLOUR #2.

Alex Gotfryd had a recurring dream and with the help of two (model) friends captured this dream in a series of photographs, taken on autumn days in Venice (Italy). I liked the concept and in particular, as well as the outcome.

Filled with moody black and white photographs it contains limited written text.
Alex explains he had re-occuring dreams about a silhouetted female figure shrouded in mist in Venice. He eventually goes to Venice and does a photo shoot to capture the essence of this dream. The pictures are fascinating and you accompany Alex into his dream with out any resistance..... eager to help him capture a glimpse of his phantom female.
Alex's model friends were Lynn Kohlman and Gabrielle von Canal. The book is dedicated to Nancy Evans, published by Doubleday, 1988).

I was shocked to read he died at an early age, not long after this book was published!
"Alexander Gotfryd, a photographer and a former art director of the Doubleday Publishing Company, died yesterday [30Mar1991 -RL] at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan.
He was 59 years old and resided in New York City and in Bellport, L.I.
He died of complications following pneumonia, a spokesman for the family said.
After 30 years with Doubleday, Mr. Gotfryd retired last year as vice president and executive art director. At the time of his death, he was art director emeritus at the publishing company."

mistovervenice.blogspot.com/2012/01/appointment-in-venice
www.nytimes.com/1991/03/31/ - /alexander-gotfryd-59-dies-former-art-director-and-a-photographer

An early publication in The Netherlands (1986) of work by Helmut Newton. While his fame stems from elaborate fashion production, often (not always) showing bold nudes, this book has a fair balance of nudes and people posing with their clothes on. Celebrities of course, but I like the unusual poses!
Photos in black & white, hardcover, format 22 x 22 cm, 54 page's. Text in Dutch and English.

Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; b.31Oct1920 – d.23Jan2004) was a German-Australian photographer.
The New York Times described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."

My page berlin2023-exhibs shows my visit to Helmut Newton's Berlin SMB Museum.

en.wikipedia.org:_Helmut_Newton

Deventer Book Market, the largest book market in Europe! With over 870 stalls covering six kilometres, it’s no wonder that over 125.000 visitors descend on Deventer for this yearly event! It’s a book lover's dream come true.
One can rrowse the stalls at the biggest book market in Europe here. Typically held on the first Sunday of August and now in its 34th year, Deventer Book market has something for every kind of reader! From rare hardback editions offered by antiquarian bookshops to brand new bestsellers, one can find anything and everything at the market.

As well as literature, visitors can also expect poetry, travel writing, comic books, children's literature, art books and more. Even find magazines and postcards.
You can enjoy a relaxing day, pottering around the stalls and browsing the selections on offer. There are often book-themed exhibitions taking place in the surrounding streets.
I also practise my street photography while shopping for (photo)books! ☺

www.iamexpat.nl/ - / -events-festivals/deventer-book-market-biggest-book-market-europe

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the finest image makers of recnt times. His extraordinary photographs were shaped by a sharp eye for situation and composition, while using his intelligent empathy never lost sight of the heart of the matter.

This sumptuous collection of work by Cartier- Bresson is the ultimate look at his achievements.
This tome (431 pages!) absolutely brims with classic photographs that have become icons of the medium, as well as rarely seen work from all periods of Cartier-Bresson's life, including a number of previously unpublished photographs and a generous selection of drawings, paintings, and film stills.
The book also features telling personal souvenirs of his youth, his family, and the founding of Magnum.

This definitive collection of a master photographer's work will be an essential book for anyone interested in photography—indeed, for anyone interested in the people, places, and events of the past century.
Be prepared to browse 600+ photographs in color and duotone!

Henri Cartier-Bresson (b.22Aug1908 – d.03Aug2004) was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film.
He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947.
In the 1970s, he discontinued his photographic work, instead opting to paint.

www.all-about-photo.com/ - - - /henri-cartier-bresson-the-man-the-image-and-the-world
en.wikipedia.org:_Henri_Cartier-Bresson
MyBlog_2021Q3 (for 'Scrapbook')
My 2021 visit to the 'Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson' in Paris (79 Rue des Archives): MY REPORT!

I have several books in my collection by Andre Kertész and saw his images exhibited in 2017 (MyBlog-
2017Q4) but was pleased to pick up this retrospective 'A Liftetime of Perception' recently which contains 150 fine duotone photographs.

Kertész is famous today for his extraordinary contribution to the language of photography in the 20th century. This retrospective displays a large number of black & white prints though the book seems not to include by whom it was published in (1982, "printed and bound in Spain; design by Ken Rodnell")

André Kertész (b.02Jul1894–d.28Sep1985; born Kertész Andor) from Hungary was self-taught and ignorant of photographic fashions in the rest of the world, he became the unintentional inventor of what is now called 'candid' manner and went on to produce his greatest masterpieces.
Kertész never felt that he had gained the worldwide recognition he deserved, but these days he is considered one of the seminal figures of photojournalism.
The Estate of André Kertész is represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery New York,NY.

MyBlog 2017Q1 has an extensive account on the books I have by André Kertész
en.wikipedia.org:_Andre_Kertész

I think I bought my first photobook by Ed van der Elsken in 2014 (see MyBlog-Q2) during my early years of collecting photobooks. The title was Amsterdam! and while I have more work by this iconic Dutch streetphotographer, I knew I did not have HALLO! in my bookcase yet when I came across it on the recent bookmarket in Zutphen.
The book oozes good fun and display his free spirit while in Holland, among family and friends but also on assignment abroad on various continents.

A new concept that was not understood when it came out, but over time was recognized as an important source of inspiration for a number of contemporary photographers.
Ed put two photos next to each other, each of which has an associative relationship in a different way, interspersed with a few photos over a double page. Witty, moving and surprising.

www.edvanderelsken.nl/boeken (NL)
en.wikipedia.org:_Ed_van_der_Elsken

Josef Hoflehner (b.1955- ) is an Austrian photographer known for his dramatic black-and-white landscape and subtle color images.
He is also known for his "Jet Airliner" series—mostly high-key photographs of people on Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, overshadowed by low-flying passenger planes taking off and landing at Princess Juliana International Airport. And some at LAX included here too.
He was voted Nature Photographer of the Year 2007, and named as one of 'Austria's 10 Best Contemporary Artists' in 2014.

“I like empty spaces,” Josef Hoflehner has said. “I like to mix up or change my style often, and to experiment with focus and time. Somehow, it is the seemingly most desolate landscapes that have the greatest impact on me.”
Nothing is orchestrated. Hoflehner waits for the right moment, and sometimes uses long exposures, the kind that the earliest photographers had to use. “Josef Hoflehner takes a landscape and turns it into art,” British journalist Elizabeth Roberts wrote. He often raises known views to new visions. So even in a New York City shot pulsing with life, he can isolate and highlight a special form of stillness and beauty.

Retrospective 1975-2015
Hardcover, 30x32cm / 12x13 inches
224 pages, 217 duotone plates
ISBN 978-3832732967
Introduction by W.M. Hunt
teNeues, 2015

en.wikipedia.org:_Josef_Hoflehner
www.josefhoflehner.com

I bought this one on impulse at Barter Books last month and must say it was a disappointing read for me.
Originally this detective novel was published in 1947, the 4th in his series featuring the Oxford Don and amateur detective Gervase Fen. It was the first in a new three-book contract the author has signed with his publishers. It received a mixed review from critics.

For me the detective Gervase Fen never appealed, quite a confusing character who often keeps his theories to himself while going on in a roundabout way. If the protagonist does not appeal, the book is lost to me!
The style of writing is quite pompous, I have no other word for it. Or perhaps I should us 'archaic' in a literary fashion.
Described as 'fast-paced' I thought the contrary is more apt here. Perhaps by 1947 standards it was fast-paced..?
The characters are involved in opera production and often there's mention of opera titles and music suggesting more than basic knowledge of opera. Again, this may have something to do with the 1940s when this was written and published. I have nothing with operas.
Like I said, I disappointing read and I close the book on Mr Crispin.

en.wikipedia.org:_Swan_Song_(Crispin_novel)

A fine collection of photographs of the real, authentic New York - off the beaten tourist track and a welcome addition to my collection of photobooks subjecting New York City to the camera.

It takes an authentic look at the people, the streets, the architecture of this world metropolis.
Like the first part of the Unseen series (e.g. London Unseen), New York Unseen is an authentic approach to the character of a world metropolis.
This UNSEEN edition attempts to capture the soul of the Big Apple without focusing on tourist highlights such as the Statue of Liberty and Central Park. Instead, Luc Kordas focuses on intimate encounters with the protagonists of the East Coast its residents.
Embedded in their "natural habitat," the mostly black-and-white images of people from the city's streets, backyards, apartments, or trains often tell much more than the 1.000th image of the Empire State Building could. The result is a photographic smorgasbord of looks, gestures, situations that capture the soul of New York.
The city is thus seen from its edges, and at the same time from its innermost - an unprecedented view of what is probably the most photographed city in the world.

Format: 208 pages, hardcover
Published: 28Mar2023 by teNeues
Language: English

Luc Kordas (hailing from a Polish background) lives and creates mostly between New York (first time took residence in 2014) and Europe (London, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Madrid).
His work celebrates timeless, everyday moments.
Versatile in both color and black and white, he often chooses the latter for his documentary and street work, seeing monochrome as a more powerful tool of expression.
An avid traveller who is constantly on the road, he likes to merge his favorite genres of photography, moving freely between documentary, portraiture, travel and street photography.

www.goodreads.com/ - - -new-york-unseen
www.luckordas.com

'Printed in Zutphen' is the annual theme in 2024 in Zutphen.
Books have been around for centuries to educate and entertain. Knowledge transfer through books, letters and pamphlets led to better education, emancipation of society and the spread of new ideas. Zutphen has a long history when it comes to the printed word.
Since the first book printed in Zutphen in 1518, the city has been home to various printing houses, publishing houses and bookbinderies, and for centuries there were paper mills on the Veluwe streams that grew into large paper and cardboard factories.

www.inzutphen.nl/nl/gedrukt (NL)

From 15 June to 8 September 2024, the exhibition 'Waters & More – Robin de Puy' can be seen at Museum Henriette Polak.
'Waters & Meer' shows a selection from the well-known photographer's recent projects Down By The Water (2022) and Waters (2023).
The recognizability of her work and the impressive portraits she makes touch a wide audience. The exhibition has been curated in close collaboration with Robin de Puy.

Robin de Puy has been living for several years in Wormer, a small village surrounded by water just north of Amsterdam. She is fascinated by rural America and discovered during the recent lockdown that her new surroundings also turn out to be very universal, with the same kind of small-town local icons that she has often encountered in her travels through the landscapes.
"The longer I don't travel, the more I dare to look at the place where I live. I see how my new environment takes care of me. How the baker and the greengrocer bring my groceries to the door every Saturday morning. How all kinds of people call this their village, their neighborhood, their home."

Waters (2023)
On 1 February 1953, the largest Dutch natural disaster of the 20th century took place. A heavy north-westerly storm in combination with spring tide caused flooding of large parts of the Netherlands. The municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee asked Robin de Puy, who grew up in Oude-Tonge, to portray residents of the island who experienced the disaster or grew up in the shadow of the trauma that their (grand)parents survived.

museazutphen.nl/ - /robin-de-puy-waters-meer/

In the twenty years that he has lived in the United States, the well-known America correspondent Michiel Vos has adapted from a naïve immigrant with romantic ideas about his new country to a citizen who can hold up a mirror to his adopted homeland. As a Dutch boy from Maastricht, he said goodbye to his motherland, married into a well-known American political family and became an American.

In an attempt to unravel the mythology of his New World, Michiel takes us to the American way of life or what is left of it, and opens doors to the American establishment; he meets presidents, pop idols, Hollywood stars and ordinary, mostly angry Americans.
Through tasty and humorous anecdotes, he describes America in the 21st century.

Vos quotes from the Dutch literary critis Michaël Zeeman: (translated) "Fiction in your new country, America, colors reality. Fiction is king".

I (RL) always felt that the Western World, the US and Europe, shared common values but there were distinct difference between each country - including the US versus the US.
Through Hollywood we came to admire the USofA, but...
'America' is champion of the money game, has a greater (and ever widening) gap between the poor and the affluent, racism is more prevalent, Capitalism has its home here, the poor and many of the middle classes have less and less chance to get higher education and step up in social life, the poor from the lower classes vote against their interest from sheer frustration of the entire Washington elite.
Michiel Vos describes his growing understanding during the past 20 years of the American, in which he choose to become an American, and he describes the differences between his 'Euro Dutch' background and the US.

Nancy Pelosi is his mother-in-law and she orders him to put in an attendance every now and then. Because family comes first and foremost. His wife Alexandra makes video- and tv documentaries and this all ties in to the visits (often with their kids), meeting Robert Redford, George Clloney, Brad Pitt, as well as the presidents Clinton, Trump, Obama, Obama. And how they all play their parts in the money game,
leading to contacts and in power.

The book is written very fluently and has plenty of anecdotes, it's at the same time more informative than I thought it would be (I've travelled the US as a tourist since 1980 and have read many books 'on the subject').

link

Obituary: Thomas Hoepker
LFI - JULY 12, 2024
The great camera-wielding humanist has passed away after a long illness. Committed to truth: his pictures are direct, engaged, calm and empathic. Few others have shaped German photojournalism for as long a time as Thomas Hoepker. He leaves behind a decisive mark as a photojournalist and correspondent, as an artistic author photographer; but also as an Art Director and internationally renowned member of the Magnum Photo Agency.

He was a photo reporter in the classic sense of the word, though he liked to refer to himself as an “assignment photographer” or “image maker”.
Whether celebrities or nameless contemporaries, his pictures are defined by a friendly attentiveness,
and an interest in people and their environment. Even though his motifs are at times flavoured with a pinch of irony, they are never voyeuristic or embarrassing. His humanistic view of the world combined with his refined visual sense, has given rise to an enormous body of work.
Hoepker (Höpker), who had been suffering from Alzheimer's for a number of years, passed away quietly in Santiago de Chile, on July 10th, one month after his 88th birthday. He was surrounded by his family, as his widow Christine Kruchen shared on Thursday.

Hoepker had his first successes at photokina in Cologne in 1954 and 1956, where he was honoured in youth competitions, and then exhibited in 1958.
Born in Munich in 1936, he studied Archaeology and Art History, before giving up his studies in favour of his passion for photography.
In 1960 he became a photo reporter for the Münchner Illustrierte, but quickly moved to the magazine Kristall; in 1964 he became a photographer for Stern in Hamburg.
In 1976 he moved to New York as a US correspondent, became Executive Editor of the American edition of GEO, then returned to Hamburg from 1986 to 1989 as Art Director of Stern.
In 1989 he became the first German member of the Magnum Photo Agency, serving as its Vice-President from 1992 to 1995, and as its President from 2003 to 2007.
He produced numerous documentary films together with his wife, Christine Kruchen.

Hoepker was the recipient of many awards and published a large number of photo books and exhibition catalogues. He was honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award in 2014.
Many Leica Galleries have exhibited his work, and in 2022 the Ernst Leitz Museum presented a major retrospective titled Thomas Hoepker – Image Maker.

The powerful shot that Hoepker took on September 11, 2011 captured great attention: it provoked intense discussions, as it shows a group of young people who appear unconcerned as they watch the horror of the burning Twin Towers.
[The above is a shortened edition of the obituary by Ulrich Rüter which came by the weekly LFI Newsletter.]

lfi-online.de/ - /obituary-thomas-hoepker
en.wikipedia.org:_Thomas_Hoepker
Previously documented on my Blog_2021Q3, Blog_2023Q2 & Blog_2023Q4

Albert William Thomas Hardy (B.19May1913 – D.03Jul1995) was an English documentary and press photographer known for his work published in the Picture Post magazine between 1941 and 1957.

Born in Blackfriars, Bert Hardy rose from humble working class origins in Southwark, London.
The eldest of seven children, he left school at age 14 to work for a chemist who also processed photos.
His first big sale came in 1936 when he photographed King George V and Queen Mary in a passing carriage during the Silver Jubilee celebrations, and sold 200 small prints of his best view of the King.

His first assignment, at age 23, was to photograph Hungarian actor Sakall at the Mayfair Hotel.
Hardy freelanced for The Bicycle magazine, and bought his first small-format 35 mm Leica.
He signed on with the General Photographic Agency as a Leica photographer, later founding his own freelance firm, Criterion.

Hardy was self-taught and used a Leica and went on to become the Post's Chief Photographer, after he earned his first photographer credit for his 01Feb1941 photo-essay about Blitz-stressed fire-fighters.

Hardy served as a war photographer in the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) from 1942 until 1946: he took part in the D-Day landings in June 1944.
He covered the liberation of Paris; the allied advance across the Rhine; and was one of the first photographers to enter the liberated Belsen to record the suffering there...
He also saved some Russian slaves from a fire set by German police in the city of Osnabrück, before photographing the aftermath!
Near the end of World War II, Hardy went to Asia, where he became Lord Mountbatten's personal photographer.

He later went on to cover the Korean War along with journalist James Cameron for Picture Post, reporting on atrocities committed by Syngman Rhee's police under the United Nations flag at Pusan in 1950...
And later on that war's turning point, the Battle of Inchon, photojournalism for which he won the Missouri Pictures of the Year Award, "obtaining pictures of the landing at Inchon as, unlike other members of the press".

en.wikipedia.org:_Bert_Hardy

Recently published I noticed it with Hatchard's of London and bought it on impulse. The operating word here is 'by', not 'in', though rhere is the fact that Desmond's analyses focusses on the US (occasional comparisons with European countries) which limits my full understanding of all that is detailed which is in place in the US.

"America’s poverty is not for lack of resources," writes Desmond, "We lack something else".
That something else is compassion, in part, but it’s also the lack of a social system that insists that everyone pull their weight—and that includes the corporations and wealthy individuals who, the IRS estimates, get away without paying upward of $1 trillion per year.
Desmond, who grew up in modest circumstances and suffered poverty in young adulthood, points to the deleterious effects of being poor—among countless others, the precarity of health care and housing (with no meaningful controls on rent), lack of transportation, the constant threat of losing one’s job due to illness, and the need to care for dependent children.
It does not help, Desmond adds, that so few working people are represented by unions or that Black Americans, even those who have followed the 'three rules' (graduate from high school, get a full-time job, wait until marriage to have children), are far likelier to be poor than their White compatriots.

Athoughtful program for eradicating poverty from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted.
While my Penguin edition (published 2024) numbers 284 pages, Pulitzer Award winner Matthew Desmond's narrative numbers 'only' 189 pages: 4 pages of Acknowledgments, extensive Notes to Pages
(per chapter) numbering 76 pages (!) and 6 pages for the Index.

Did you know..?
In 2020 1.1 million workers earned at or below the federal minimum wage of $7,25/hour, a wage madate that hasn't budged in over a decade. Most states still allow restaurant and other services to be paid a subminimum wage, which is a meager $2,13 an hour at the federal level, forcing nearly 5 million workers to survive on tips.
Where did the concept of minimum wage come from? It'a vestige of slavery.
After emancipation, restaurant owners hired formerly enslaved Black workers for free . They had to rely on customers charity.
>>Listen to James McMurty singing 'We Can't Make It Here" www.youtube.com/watch and lyrics on
genius.com/James-mcmurtry-we-cant-make-it-here-anymore-lyrics

Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. He was formerly the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University.
He won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the 2017 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for his work about poverty, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
His 2017 Pulitzer Prize citation read, "For a deeply researched exposé that showed how mass evictions after the 2008 economic crash were less a consequence than a cause of poverty". [¬Wikipedia]

www.kirkusreviews.com/ - /matthew-desmond/poverty-by-america/
en.wikipedia.org:_Matthew_Desmond
sociology.princeton.edu/people/matthew-desmond

Abroad in Japan: Ten Years in the Land of the Rising Sun chronicles author Chris Broad's journey from his introduction to Japan via teaching English on the government-run JET Programme in the northeast Tohoku region to becoming the country’s most popular foreign YouTuber.

A single comment on the video extolling Japan’s lack of a tipping culture has attracted 25,000 likes, a hundred times as many views as Broad’s first video, posted in late 2012. In the intervening decade, Broad has parlayed talking into a camera with his waggish stranger-in-a-strange-land observations and travelogues into a lucrative career, a YouTube channel with nearly 3 million subscribers, a podcast, and now a bestselling book.
I must admit the book is the first I learned about Chris Broad, I am not an avid YouTube explorer for documentaries. Perhaps the book will get me started on YT's Abroad in Japan, as travelling in Japan in 2018 has me hooked on this remarkable country (the reason I bought the book almost as an afterthought in a Waterstones recently).

Tales of acclimation to his new home (in a backwater of northern Japan, Sakata), struggles with both its language and teaching his native tongue alongside local teachers whose own proficiency can be sorely lacking, and exploration of an unfamiliar enough to feel exotic land, make up the first two-thirds of the book.
At the end of his four years as a teacher he moves to Sendai, the biggest city in Tohoku. It is where he finds an affordable home and his Abroad in Japan videos gets a more structured plan for documentaries.
We also read how he is awoken by an alert for a North Korean missile launch and how he suffered through a heavy earthquake. He visits the Fukushima area and revisits it for a meet with Kensaku 'Ken' Watanabe and shares a pizza during an interview.

Chris Broad has written an accessible and entertaining glimpse into life in the country he has made home, and with it recently topped the prestigious Sunday Times bestseller list in the UK. Good on him!

allabout-japan.com/en/article/11217/
en.wikipedia.org:_Abroad_in_Japan
www.youtube.com/watch