Visited the "Mid-Century Master: The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt" exhibition at the Hillwood Estate, Washington DC. Perhaps best known for his V-J picture in Times Square this exhibition featured some stunning portraiture too. There is a lot to learn from his work, particularly the composition of the street photography. With modern day digital cameras and smartphones we can be even more inconspicuous than Eisenstaedt and his Leica.
What caught my eye in particular was the standard and labelling of the printing. Each image was not only titled and described but also had the printing technology listed. Pigment ink and gelatin silver covered the monochrome work but there were also a number of colour images as a theme of this exhibition was his contribution to Life magazine. I was in town for the image permanence meetings so I had to note that one print had substantial cyan fading. The master would not have approved...
Smartphone image, Alan Hodgson ASIS FRPS