I would propose that what Langston Hughes achieved in The Sweet Flypaper of Life, though radically different in kind, constitutes an editorial accomplishment that bears comparison with what Robert Frank did with his own pictures in The Americans, published in 1958-59. To use a distinction from general systems theory, Hughes took a heap and made of it a whole. […]
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What we’re offered instead is merely a set of pictures John Szarkowski likes — a comparative bagatelle … Such a misuse of power, prestige and influence is an effective if lamentable indication of why the Modern’s credibility and influence on the medium have waned so dramatically during the last decade of his tenure. […] It is little short of scandalous that the Museum of Modern Art has never given a one-man show to a non-white photographer, for there are many at least as talented as some of those photographers the museum has chosen to show over the years. […] All of this contributes to my knowledge base and experience in ways that will surely manifest themselves in subsequent work. This is one of the intangible benefits that an opportunity such as the Teti Fellowship provides to visiting scholars like myself. Yet the future of this remarkable collection appears uncertain, at least in the short term. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |
Dog Day Afternoons: Bits & Pieces (13)
Aside from the fact that we liked and respected each other, I never figured out exactly why Cynthia decided to put her imprint a book of my essays, Tarnished Silver: After the Photo Boom, in 1996. […]