N&W RR 1961 Marshalling Yard                                           ©George S. Zimbel

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell computers announced that he and some colleagues have purchased the Magnum file of working prints..the entire collection. It will be housed temporarily at the  Ransom Center of the University of Texas in Austin…where all the work will be scanned front and back thereby creating an incredibly important visual archive of the 20th Century. This news made me think about a row of boxes on the top shelf of Pix Inc.’s former Park Ave. Office. They contained hundreds of prints of Erich Salomon , (1886- 1944) one of the first and most important documentary photographers of the 20th century. Where are those prints? I don’t know. No one will have to ask that question about the Magnum archive. Thank you Michael Dell.

Magnum and I seem to have crossed passed many times always in a collegial way. I knew Cornell Capa from the late 1940′s.
In  1961 Xerox Corp. decided to have a more documentary feel to their annual report and hired me to do the shoot. It worked very well and they were so enthralled with this approach that they decided to hire the entire Magnum crew for the following year! I was not too happy about that but was busy working on the Norfolk & Western project, so it was ok. Raliroads are more interesting than copy machines.

This is where the story get’s complex. Those of you who have read my bio know that my uncle, the architect B.Sumner Gruzen was a very big influence on my work. His son Jordan, now one of the principals in Gruzen Samton Architects has a son Alex who attended the Village Community School in a class taught by my friend  Sari Grossman who was the former picture editor of Argosy magazine. She  had decided to make a career in early childhood education. Too bad for the photographers and good for the children. Alex and his friend Christopher Gonzalez Aller were in her class. Sari remembers them as “little terrors.” Christopher is the son of Peggy Mahoney Gonzalez Aller of Madrid, a  longtime friend of my wife Elaine Sernovitz Zimbel. They both worked at the United Nations from 1953 – 1955.  Christopher is now an expert in Old Master Paintings and lives in Madrid. Alex is now Senior Vice President Consumer Products Group at Dell Computers in Austin Texas. And now you see why I am writing this and why I am sending Alex Gruzen a copy of my catalogue “George S. Zimbel, IVAM 2000″ to give to Michael Dell. He really values documentary photography. It’s like family

george

      Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, but often  a well told story brings the reader nuances that could only be imagined when viewing a photograph. ( Is this a traitorous remark?  No  – it’s pro good literature, not anti good photography.)

Check out the following link:  http://www.elainezimbel.com/radio

Then  pick “Family Secrets” part one, and then “Family Secrets” part two.

I think you will find it compelling…..george

Presidential couples 1960/2009                                                           ©George S. Zimbel 2009

Sometimes I have to see and feel  a print.  This one has been haunting me for years, but last week was the first time I printed it.  I made four copies of this image, and only one had “the magic.”  I ripped up the others. I am satisfied now; I won’t print others.

So, we have “I.D. Waynesburg College 1965 “  printed 14/11/09  by gsz.  1 copy. Reference #4125.

For  information on price, contact me or one of my fine dealers.

I’ll make a flat statement: If you are a documentary photographer you have to  have a sense of rhythm. You have to be in tune with what is happening in front of your lens and  I mean this literally.

Think about  observing an event. Can you watch, analyse, and decide: “This is interesting, I think I’ll shoot it.” It’s already happened by the time you decide.

I’ll get personal here. This rhythm idea came to me last week as we were celebrating my sister Bess’s 90th birthday. She taught tap dancing and  roped me into performing in one of her recitals. I think I was about 10 years old.  Although I protested, there was something I liked about the amazing footwork of a tap dancer.  Years later, in a review of one of my exhibitions, the reviewer had actually seen me at work and wrote “Zimbel dances when he is photographing and his pictures show it.” (Can’t find the original..apologies to the writer.)

Unique among the visual arts is the ability of  a photographer to incorporate spontaneous action into a  still work. Of course I am not talking about all kinds of photography, but only the path I follow.

So, get with the beat..and stay tuned. I have some news….george

When I saw the  New York Times Politics Blog today (10/16/08) featuring a photograph of (l. to r.)  John McCain, Cardinal Egan, and Barack Obama at the Al Smith dinner in NYC, it reminded me of another Al Smith Dinner in 1960 with John  Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Cardinal Spellman.

I was working on my political project (See: American Politicians /MOMA /1994/Susan Kismaric/Page 34) and was conscious that the two candidates would be together at this event, so I was there.  As they were emerging from behind the palms with  Cardinal Spellman, a newsreel photographer hit his light just as I pressed my shutter button. (Overexposed indeed!!!)  But with a three minute  printing exposure I got a print and found that I really liked the image..without the cardinal.  Sometimes you have to crop to tell the story better. I took the print  to LOOK magazine , my favorite venue for  political work.  I got an immediate YES!!, but often a YES gets flippped to a NO.  Pat Carbine called to tell me that someone had seen  the print on Ben Wickersham’s desk (He was the photo editor) and thought it was a photo of Nixon  laid out in his casket! Look at the image sideways and you will see why.  So, that’s the story of  how this picture didn’t get published.

The print is available through any of the galleries that show my work.