Admittedly, apart from The Documentary Impulse, I don’t have any other book by Stuart Franklin.
It’s not something I can explain but among all the Magnum photographers, Franklin somehow managed to ‘escape’ my attention.
But of course, I know about his famous Tiananmen pictures. Who can possibly forget the tank man?
So do I have a good reason for picking up this book? Well, I always want to be the ‘learned’ photographer, one who’s opinionated.
Gosh, am I glad that I bought it, and actually read it cover to cover, itself a rare feat for me.
Franklin really has a way with words but that doesn’t mean he is more style than substance.
He writes beautifully, authoritatively, passionately and fearlessly. Even when it means the possibility of losing a pal.
This is definitely not an understatement or oxymoron but he writes clearly, with a disciplined restrain from using flowery language for the sake of.
You cannot do that unless you have done your research and is prepared to stand by your convictions. You cannot do that if you are worried what the world will think of your writing.
Do I have a good reason for picking up this book? Well, I always want to be the ‘learned’ photographer, one who’s opinionated.
For instance, in pages 71 – 72, he writes this about Eugene Richards’s 1994 Cocaine True Cocaine Blue:
The impact of the book was diminished, however, by the relegation of a brilliant explanatory text by medical doctor Stephen Nicholas to the back pages. Nicholas, a perceptive and well-informed writer, places the tragedy of crack cocaine addiction into a clear social and economic context, which the pictures fail to do. If Richards had shared the project with Stephen Nicholas, as Paul Taylor did with Dorothea Lange, the national debate that Nicholas claimed to be the book’s intent might have been faster coming.
Not until the back pages of Cocaine True Cocaine Blue do we begin to understand the context and process.
I have Richards’ book for many years, why didn’t I see what Franklin sees?
Perhaps I have been so captivated by his images that I lose all objectivity. Should I be looking at books more holistically and ahem, critically?
Franklin and Richards were colleagues at Magnum. I don’t know if they are/were close, but I wonder what will Richards feel about the ‘feedback’?
If I want to be cheeky, I would propose that because Franklin couldn’t criticise Richards’s photography, he found another angle to diss the book?
No, I refuse to believe that.
So that’s only one example.
The entire book is filled with ‘knowledge’ we can definitely acquire to better appreciate the ‘finer’ things in an image.
Franklin has a lot of insights and isn’t afraid to share them.
But above all, this is a book worth reading because he pulls no punches. He is clear about what works for him and is not afraid to state those that don’t.
If I have a chance to meet him, I will bring with me a whole list of questions.
