History Scanned (Signal vs. Noise)

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View Comments (21) | Post a Comment

History Scanned

20 May 2003 by

A beautifully moody gallery of 50 black & white shots from Chicago’s famous, and now defunct, junk/treasure market known as Maxwell Street. [link cred: Coudal]

21 comments so far (Post a Comment)

20 May 2003 | said...

You wouldn't mean Scanned?

20 May 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Let's talk design for a moment: That "background" page was sorry drab, so horribly laid out (serif font?) ... I couldn't bring myself to read it.

Wasn't it YOU, JF, who wrote something about supporting good design? :-)

21 May 2003 | alisha said...

you guys are going to shoot me but it reminds of the market scene in Knotting Hill - theyre beautiful. I like the little old man with his books whos getting snowed on. I also like the cool cat on page 16 with his leopard skin shopping bag.

21 May 2003 | cindy said...

Yeah, the sharp dressed fella (#16) made me smile and the close-up #34 stopped me in my tracks. Some beautiful shots from an era that might not be remembered for it's style (e.g. the classy banks in #48. "Honey, remember to save your quarters, just slide them in the crack.")

21 May 2003 | Nerdy said...

Guys... not meaning to rain on your parade... but honestly... this work is nothing special. Technically, it's depressingly poor; compositionally it's a disaster; emotionally destitute. There are dark greys like Zone 5 or 6 where it should be 8 or even 9 -- it's so bad it looks like the paper was fogged. There's no detail in the blacks at all, even where you'd expect there to be some. The tonality is completely compressed; so much it almost looks solarized.

There is no focus on any main subject, and many photos have a chunk of wasted space even where empty space doesn't exactly seem to contribute to the composition.

Admittedly, some of the composition is all about personal taste and preference, but technically, he needs to improve his exposure, printing, and/or scanning.

Try Tony Dummett if you want better B/W in the same style, from the same era:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=93013

Sorry for being so harsh, but this is work I'd expect from someone in their first 3 months of learning photo.

-jon

21 May 2003 | coudal said...

For me, the shots are more interesting as history than anything else. The open-air, anything-goes, buyer-be-really-aware nature of the old peoples' market is unfortunately now a thing of the past. When taken as a group, the accidental feel of the shots served as an appropriate (intended or otherwise) metaphor for a disjointed morning spent roaming Maxwell Street.

21 May 2003 | cindy said...

Jon - I can only speak for myself, but the appreciation that I had for these photos were not of a technical nature. The emotion that a few of them invoked and having snapshot of a certain location/time/era that no longer exists can outweigh whether the photograph is technically "good" or not. Art is subjective. I wouldn't let someone's "technically poor" efforts distract you from finding what beauty and interest might be there. Just my opinion.

21 May 2003 | Urbanchords said...

I would agree with Cindy. They interest me for their historical content, not there photographical skills. I also think that the roughness of the photos reflect their subject matter. There is nothing neat and technical about Maxwell Street.

22 May 2003 | JFR said...

Mmmmmm . . . . Maxwell Street Polish Sausage and onions

22 May 2003 | JFR said...

My picture is on Page 8.

http://members.aol.com/natheist/private/page8.htm

22 May 2003 | JFR said...

- No, you can speak for me too, dear.

22 May 2003 | Jon said...

Good points...

This is kind of the eternal battle of "emotion" vs. "technique". However... I'd argue that photos with quality in both expression and technique supercede those with only one.

I strongly disagree with the assertion that "rough photos" reflect "rough subject" -- isn't the quality tangential to the subject?

Any of the highly regarded photographers have both -- even the "postmodern/eclectic/journalistic" styles of Cindy Sherman or Nan Goldin are technically spot-on. If not "by the book portraiture" correct, at least they provide enough technical quality to be contextually relevent.

Compare also Minor White, Robert Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson. It might not be Chicago, but these are ones that I compare favourably to.

It's just that personally, I find this set of photos without much emotion as well as technically bereft. They're worthy of being called snapshots, but they could have been done by anybody with a camera, some film, and the guts to do it.

It might be suggested that the appearance of emotion and/or quality could be due to 1) nostalgia or 2) from being from another time and hence reverence for the subject?

Did anyone even LOOK at the Dummett link?

I'd like to see what you think of his work. Most of it is from the 70's also.

At the very least Mr. Burkins needs a better printer and an editor.

-Jon

22 May 2003 | yuckmouth said...

What is Maxwell Street like today? This post brought this site to mind.

22 May 2003 | stone said...

art is subjective - JFR

Art is not subjective. Art can and should be judged based on how well it has accomplished its purpose. Otherwise it has no meaning. Its purpose that is subjective.

31 May 2003 | sadsad said...

this if f***** G A Y MU*** fUC**** BITCH ASS NIG*** DIDNT I TELL U NOT TO F***

31 May 2003 | SADASDA said...

FU*K MUTHA FUQAS

31 May 2003 | sdasd said...

i am gonna fu*k up ur historyy bitches fu*k u and ur momma b*tchs

13 Nov 2003 | Casino Online said...

Just cheched out the photos of from Chicagos famous, and now defunct, junk/treasure market known as Maxwell Street given by coudal. Historic photograph's from 1975 to 1984.