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.

My self generated project on U.S. politics which started in 1954  had slowly run out of steam by 1960..or maybe I had run out of steam. I decided not to go on the  road to shoot the political circus. It didn’t add up -  serious  national business turning into show business. I couldn’t stop cold turkey, so when I decided to watch the Nixon – Kennedy TV Debate I set up a tripod in front of my b/w television set and “documented”  the event.  What happened when I caught a  Camera 1 to Camera 3  crossover  was a surprise  graphically and for what it said about the political process.

My debate photographs became part of my “Still Movies”  project which was first exhibited at Art 45 in Montreal in the early 1980’s. This work has  been in many exhibitions and is now  in the permanent collection of Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal and the private collections of Jurg Schaub of Basle and Lawrence K. Grossman of New York.

I am preparing a list of existing prints which are for sale. Contact me in this regard at:  george.zimbel @ primus.ca

More important, watch the upcoming tv debates in  the U.S. and  Canada with the wise eyes  of someone who is seriously interested in the world.

george

Woman with reference cards 1960′s ©George S. Zimbel 1962/2008

Trying to reorganise my filing system, I found a negative of a woman with file cards…the pre-computer way to find books in a library. I scanned it and put it in a “special place” until I had time to print . Of course I couldn’t find it when I was ready to print. “Special places” are great for hiding stuff. I don’t give up and I don’t really loose negatives, so last week when it surfaced I headed for the darkroom and made a small edition (6) of 11/14″ prints. You can order one from me or any of my good dealers .  I won’t reprint it. I am satisfied that it is now exists .

If you look at Matt at MOMA 1960′s in my children’s section, you will see a boy looking up..the boy is still looking up. (Right in first row..right on.!) [Manteca photo ©Denise Grant 2007]
I received this email yesterday and want to share it. gz

“Greetings all,
Manteca’s Montreal concert will be broadcast on Nov 7 @ 8:00 PM on CBC Radio 2 on Canada Live. CBC.ca if you are out of the country. Hope you can tune in. It was a very exciting show.

Le spectacle du Manteca va etre sur CBC Radio 2 le 7 novembre @ 20:00 – c’est une show époustouflante.

Best

matt ”



I have been photographing seriously since I was 14 (not necessarily very well!). That’s 64 years, and because I make my own prints (a philosophical matter) I realise that I have outrun my capacity to print what I want to print. It has an extremely dampening effect on shooting new work. Do I need another negative? When will I print it ? Shall I make three?; Shall I make six? I will definitely not print the image again…etc.etc. Not to mention the dissapearance of SG bartya paper. The whole thing is paralyzing in terms of producing work. Of course I still see photographs every time I walk down the street , but they end up in my head archive, not my print archive.
I decided to fight the impasse [block?] by making a collage from tests that I had processed and saved over the years…I had a big box..enough for two, plus one for dear old Marilyn which I have not yet begun. I did the collage and when people ask me what it’s about, I refer to the title “It’s A Life. ” That’s it – a bunch of fragments glued together by a viewpoint. Will I rip up some prints to do more? I don’t think so, but it is tempting… gsz

If you would like to see “It’s a Life #1 or #2 for possible acquisition by your museum collection, contact me or one of my dealers for information and a readable scan.