His photographs of sexual acts, of sections of automobile radiator grilles and instrument panels, conjunctions between elbow and chromium window-sill, vulva and instrument binnacle, summed up the possibilities of a new logic created by these multiplying artefacts, the codes of a new marriage of sensation and possibility. J G Ballard, Crash p106
The most prosperous beggars are street acrobats and street photographers. On a good pitch – a theatre queue, for instance – a street acrobat will often earn five pounds a week. Street photographers can earn about the same, but they are dependent on fine weather. George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
You are charged with espionage, with trespassing in a military zone, with taking photographs calculated to endanger the safety of the French Republic and being in possession of such photographs. Hotel Reserve 1944 starring James Mason & Lucie Mannheim & Raymond Lovell & Julien Mitchell & Herbert Lom & Martin Miller & Clare Hamilton & Frederick Valk & Patricia Medina & Anthony Shaw & Lawrence Hanray & David Ward & Patricia Hayes et al, directors Victory Hanbury & Lance Comfort & Max Greene
They were assisted by a powerful new medium that would change the way war and killing would be reported for ever – photography. Blood and Glory: The Civil War, H2 2016
Twas the night before Christmas
And deep in the lab
Something came crawling
From under a slab
it crawled to the agar
To take a peek
At all the bacteria
Lying asleep
it slithered through the jelly
(as icky things do)
Depositing slime
And gobbets of goo
Moving on to the ‘scope’
With a single aim
To spell out a message
Addressed to Elaine
Dear Human, it wrote
With some ink from a gland
Forgot your card,
Please understand
Having studied your kind
And obtained my degree
On a theses titled
‘Humans and their relations with me’
I find that you pry
Into all that we do
Without recognising
We need privacy too!
You took photos
of each of my chums
All of my aunties
And
Each of my sons
You sold these photos to some TV show
Keeping the money
Isn’t that so?
If you use our photos, to give others a fright
You really don’t know us
For it is simply not right!
Now that we’ve informed you
Please make amends
Or we’ll consult our lawyers
Messrs S Bends
Well put an end to your scary sights
By wearing bright colours
And thick woolly tights
Viruses and bacteria
Will aim to be cute
And all of your ventures
Will go down the chute
But heck, as it’s Christmas
We’ll give you a break
Here is one scary picture
And it isn’t a fake!
Out of pouch, it took with a sigh,
Its favourite photo
Of Elaine’s right eye! Iain Probert, A Christmas Ode for the Scientifically Minded, to sister Elaine Humphrey after photos used on TV show X-Files 1997
Everybody saw that damn picture and made up their own story about it. Flags of Our Fathers 2006 starring Ryan Phillippe & Jesse Bradford & Adam Beach & John Benjamin Hickey & Paul Walker & John Slettery & Barry Pepper & Jamie Bell & Robert Patrick & Neal McDonough et al, director Clint Eastwood
I have photographs. I don’t know what photographs are out there in the world about me. Weiner, 2016
The camera, all-seeing and all-knowing, can freeze in time our lives and historic moments that can shape them. Eamonn McCabe, Britain in Focus: A Photographic History I, BBC 2017
The first sense of wonder and what the Victorians called, Natural magic of photography. ibid.
Fox Talbot could see the beauty in nature but was frustrated by his own failure to replicate what he saw with his own eyes. ibid.
From this one negative, you could print as many positive copies as you like. ibid.
Over 11 years taking nearly 2,000 photographs Fenton had wanted to elevate his medium of expression to the point where it could be accepted as an artform. ibid.
Dry plates also led to the use of portable cameras. ibid.
‘There was a sexist element to the critical attacks on her.’ Julia Margaret Cameron continued to take photographs. ibid.
1985: Before kick-off there was trouble. A group of Liverpool fans charged towards Juventus supporters forcing them to flee. Juventus fans couldn’t escape; they had nowhere to go … The wall breaks. I take two frames on a cheap Sureshot camera and I get these pictures of these poor souls crushed and gasping for air. Eamonn McCabe, Britain in Focus: A Photographic History II
By the end of the Second World War British photography had become the dominant visual medium. ibid.
The Sidney Street Siege was covered with unprecedented depth … The making of press photography. ibid.
The British soldiers were armed with one of the most important photographic inventions of the twentieth century – the Vest Pocket Kodak. ibid.
‘[Alvin] Coburn was looking for that dark, misty, almost ominous feeling with this ethereal light coming off the Thames.’ ibid.
Cecil Beaton captured the spirit of the roaring Twenties. ibid.
Bill Brandt travelled to the north of England … An uncompromising portrait of the people who lived and worked in these industrial communities. ibid.
1938: Picture Post was launched. ibid.
Bert Hardy used the Leica camera. ibid.
In today’s digital age the way I work is completely different. Now photography is instantaneous. Eamonn McCabe, Britain in Focus: A Photographic History III
[John] Hinde now set out to bring the technicolour glamour of cinema to the humble photograph. ibid.
Kodak were the pioneers … They introduced the cheap instamatic camera. ibid.
An amazing set of colour photographs commissioned by the Sunday Times magazine: John Bulmer. ibid.
Her black and white photographs gave new depths to the 1960s most colourful figures … Jane Bown. ibid.
As soon as Vanley [Burke] came to the UK from Jamaica he began to create one of the most important records of African-Caribbean people in Britain. ibid.
Another photographer was recording his own city as it was being pulled down … Leeds was changing beyond recognition … Peter Mitchell was there to record the demolitions … Gentle and personal observations of people in an urban landscape. ibid.
One of the most acclaimed photographers of her generation, Fay Godwin worked in that most traditional of genres – landscape. ibid.
Martin Parr’s acutely observed images of British people. ibid.
The photo is leaked and becomes the global defined image of Saddam Hussein’s capture. The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All III, National Geographic 2017
So I went on this mission to piece together the rest of her work. Finding Vivian Maier, 2013
Why is a nanny taking all these photos? ibid.
‘She wore men’s shirts’ … ‘Sort of a Nazi march’ … ‘Always a camera around her neck’ … ‘The camera was shooting from below’ … ‘She was a closed person’ … ‘Piled high with boxes’ … ‘What’s the point of taking it if no-one sees it?’ … ‘She was wonderful to the children’ … ‘Off they would go on their outings’ … ‘She identified with the poor’ … ‘She travelled by herself’ … ‘How did she acquire that [French] accent?’. ibid.
‘More interest in the work that perhaps any other photographer.’ ibid. gallery
This is really great art. ibid.
‘She had a dark side’ … ‘Something happened to her that was awful’ … ‘She would lose it sometimes’ … ‘No-one was allowed to see where Miss Maier lived’ … ‘Stacks of newspapers almost to the ceiling’ … ‘She was living with mental illness’ … ibid.