Columnist Jon Carroll visited a show of photography of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco -- I can't believe it's 100 years already, can you? -- and loved the show but had a problem with the labeling and signage, or lack of information in same. He tells us about it in today's column:The problem here is the failure to acknowledge that the photographs were an information-rich environment. When we see a Monet seascape, we are indifferent to its precise location. It's not about the place; it's about the light. But these photographs were journalism before they became art. They are our shared history, the worst thing that ever happened to the city that we admire (even if we can't afford to live there), and we want details -- not details about cameras, but details about destruction. If the three most important things about real estate are location, location, and location, then the three most important things to say about exhibited photographs -- remarkably effective photographs -- taken and exhibited to show the extent of a disaster and bring the emotional impact to us -- are context, context, context -- those details about 'where was this taken from?' and 'what is that building or that statues that is still standing?' as well as 'how did they get the camera high enough to take that shot?' and 'what kind of camera was used for this?'
One book that does a really good job of giving us both kinds of information is the recently published Mystical San Francisco, a book of photographs by Frederic Larson, photographer extraordinaire, with text by Herb Caen (San Francisco Chronicle Press, 2005).
Admittedly, it's a book depicting the beauties, not the disaster, of the city in a series of amazingly beautiful photographs, with words by the late great Herb Caen.
As you page through the book, the caption of each photo tells you what you are seeing -- the context/content of the photo ("Oil on California Street cable car tracks"). At the back of the book,in an Afterword by Frederic Larson, are some hints for (when, where, how) taking such photos and, one by one, the technical photographic details: notes about how the photo was planned and taken, as well as type of lens, f-stop, speed, ASA setting, and whether with a digital camera or using color negative film.
Best of both worlds, I think that's called.
8:33:00 AM 
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