2 PHOTOGRAPHERS EXCHANGE VIEWS
....and so it goes on...
The following is a dialogue across several months, across the Atlantic, and across years of friendship with a fellow photographer, Charter Weeks. It begins just after I (RG) had read a wonderful book about Charter’s work, written by his son. This was coincidentally published around the same time as my book, TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME.
First, a few paragraphs from an essay of mine in May 2023, quoted by Charter.“In the last week I have read a book about photography and seen a play about a Welsh Miner’s Choir. They were both entertaining and contained seeds of ideas, but they irritated me, even in the face of the obvious talents displayed.
“I felt uprooted, as if what I was seeing/reading was not moored in any meaningful world of experiences. This was because the ideas, sounds and images presented were too remote from reality as I understand it. They were at best, light-hearted entertaining crowd pleasers. That is, they displayed superficial compromises to lull the audience into simplistic responses.”
On 27 May 2023, at 20:40, Charter Weeks wrote to me, responding to my essay and in particular the paragraphs above, concerning the book.
CHARTER:“I read your essay today and wondered, given the proximity of timing about your comments (above). Although it (the book written by his son about Charter) was not intended to be in any sense social commentary, I would have thought references to working people, sharecroppers, King’s place of assassination, Police harassment of a black family etc. might have been more than “superficial” and “simplistic. So I am curious to find out why you thought it so?”
I responded: On May 28, 2023, at 6:20 AM, I wrote:
“ooooo i was worried you might have thought that and no, I was of course not responding to your son’s book but to a book by Geoff Dryer, THE ONGOING MOMENT. He irks me, a hollow version of John Berger….sorry, I should have followed my instinct and let you know.
Regarding your son’s book, I thought it was an excellent set of observations and your son (the writer) did well. To be truthfully critical, I could have done with less about him and more about you and your practice and more quotes from you…..but you know, I’m not great when it comes to family.”
CHARTER responded on 29 May at 3:28 AM:
“A. Whew! I have great respect for your critiques, in fact, in my work files I have a folder called just that.
“B. I obviously read your thoughts.
“C. It is interesting that this has to do with Dyer because Sebastian (Charter’s son) started this project after reading Dyer’s book on Gary Winogrand. He even did a review for a Los Angeles newspaper, which is how he got Dyer to write a blurb.
“I never saw Dyer’s book and, in my opinion less than half of Winorand’s work is worthy of consideration. He became a favourite of Sarkosky (the long-time curator of photography) at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. I’ve concluded that Winogrand was unable to sort and distinguish what he was looking at.
“Sebastian and I have had an ongoing conversation about photography since he was a teenager and I gave him a camera and assignments. This book was his COVID project but also, I think a response to me as a gift to enforce my role in his life because his father was the well-known poet, William Mathews. After his father died Sebastian wrote a book titled IN MY FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS. So I sort of think he wanted this book about me to somehow counter the first book because in reality Bill Mathews wasn’t a …. Sebastian entered the literary world surrounded by famous writers and it was an attractive world.
“In any event, you and I are so closely aligned on issues around social and economic injustice. For the better part of my life I was the occasional photographer, whereas you managed to make it the foundation and substance of your life and so the limited body of you work that I have seen is deeply reflective of your commitment to working people and is extraordinarily intimate!”
On Jun 15, 2023, at 12:32 PM, I wrote:
“Tina (my wife and soul mate) and I are living a crazy life of work and more work. Everyday, no rest, no going out, no walks just work.
•”I am about to finish my film called BELONGING/BECOMING (you can see a trailer here.
•”Working on my weekly essays;
•”trying to get some attention for my book TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME (about to send you a copy);
•trying to promote THIS GOOD EARTH (my second from last feature documentary), by working with an excellent social media person;
•and at last I have found TopFoto, a photo library that will take all my work in perpetuity as an archive whose owner, Flora Smith, is on the equality- justice-freedom-side of things and keen, so I have to archive all the work I am sending them while adding all the metadata (oi).
“None the less, time to look at and appreciate your pictures and memories. I remember the St Sebastian and still find it both humorous and also deeply moving. It reminds me of Cohens words, “he died to make men free now we die to make things cheap”.
“The self-portrait which is so lovely, so simple and innocent and yet happily embraces EUROPEAN modernism as a thing to be gazed at.
“I don’t remember the subway one which is so graphically strong…but redolent of its moment because of the clothing and the film poster...and, what is she looking for, at??
“Now of course I look at everything in relation to your biog. My memory of it is filled with poignant images and memories partly about and partly with you. I think it’s wonderful and also slightly tinged with sadnesses how we were thrown together in London and New York and then went our separate ways, but always with you in my heart…”
from Charter on 2 July, 2023 23:08
“Your book (TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME) came the day before yesterday. I’ve been spending a little time with it every day. The photos are all fabulous. I have varying response to the text as the issues you address are so different. I’ll reply to it all shortly but some of your most iconic images have never lost their power!!”
“I can’t imagine where you came across a copy of “Variorum" (an entertainments magazine we photographed for and jointly designed in NYC in the late 1960’s.) I so remember your image of the little girl with the flute. I guess it wouldn’t win any design awards, but there are a bunch of interesting photos.
“Thanks for sending me your fabulous project, a courageous undertaking.”
from RG on 3 July 2023 09:40
“I found the Variorum amongst my papers. Remembered with fondness. I still have an imagined image of you bending over creating headlines with letterset….painful.”
from Charter on 6 July AT 10:34AM
“Back to your book which is terrific. For me that particularly means the images. Robert Golden’s eye is a truth teller. Except for the occasional image for illustrative purposes, burnt garlic for example, there is so much wisdom and compassion in whatyou show us.
“You have always expressed a deep relationship with and search for beauty which is an area that has no imprint on me and my work. That is not to say I do not see it or that I do not appreciate it, it’s just not a motivating element in my vision.
“Which is what leads me to the other aspect of the book, the text. It is interesting for what it is as personal reflection on your way of approaching your life as a photographer and I feel certain very helpful to young or uncertain image makers.
“For me, 2 months shy of 81 years old, the subject matter rubs up against the many times I have had to think about privacy, about honesty, about responsibility, about structure, about integrity, and so many other matters that you have brought forth for consideration. But having done this for 60 years +, I guess these are matters I have had to resolve over time, and so the text is more my window into your world-view than a guide for me to consider my own work. The book should be required reading for students of photography.”
from RG on 14 August 2023 14:07
“For me the question of beauty is not simply a formal one about colour, composition, etc. but also about content and where the veracity of the content is embraced by the appropriateness of the form.
“Then there is the question of meaning/relevance to the being of one’s viewers. If the content is meaningful to them, if it is presented in an appropriate way and if it touches their lives in a meaningful way (about wants and needs at that moment in their lives) they sense that the image carries valuable truths, and I think that is the mysterious moment when they are moved and that describes the sensation of beauty.
“In that my concerns are not that meaningful to you, the content of your note describes a dialogue so that may be worth our indulging in for a moment.”
18 August 2021 19:23
“Not sure if I have been misunderstood or simply been unclear.
“The book is fantastic! As I said it should be required reading for all students of photography.
“It is not that "my concerns are not that meaningful to you” because they are, but rather I process them in a different way.
“My point is that at 81 moral and intellectual approaches to image making are matters addressed in earlier parts of my path. Furthermore as a Zen practitioner, such matters are secondary to direct experience moment by moment as explained by your statement "the image carries valuable truths”.
“What I am trying to say is for me your images are the powerful "valuable truths” what are the heart of the book as are the images on your blog, and indeed your work has always inspired and motivated me to consider the social impact of what I am doing.
“As to the matter of “beauty” it is again not intellectual but like the flash of a lightning bug, gloriously present in the moment or created as an exploration of conscious manipulation. I trust this helps clarify my thinking?”
Love C
And so it went and so it goes, and the respect and deep relationship lasts and lasts.
You can see Charter’s work at https://charterweeks.wordpress.com
You can see more about my book at
https://robertgoldenpictures.com/transient-light-fleeting-time/