Review: 'LIFE Photographers: What They Saw'

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Review: 'LIFE Photographers: What They Saw'
What Photographers Should Be Reading

By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography

"LIFE Photographers: What They Saw" by John Loengard, a Bullfinch Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, 456 pp.

John Loengard's collection of interviews with photographers who worked at the weekly LIFE magazine may have gotten too little attention when it came out nearly two years ago.

This is a book which needs to be recalled from the wings for another bow.

The book contains 44 interviews with photographers who made up nearly half the photography staff who worked for the weekly LIFE magazine. Many of the others had passed on by the time the project got underway.

Some could not or would not participate. Among those who did are photographers Cornell Capa, Gordon Parks, Bill Epperidge, John Dominis and Harry Benson. Time and again we are struck by how many of these photographers were so incredibly young when they worked at LIFE often just in their twenties or early thirties. What is also clear is in the early days as photojournalism was emerging or as the profession was evolving thereafter, there were no pat answers, there was no formula or path to follow.

Everyone was always struggling to figure out how to do this. It's a condition photographers still wrestle with today.

There are surprises in nearly every chapter. Who did the photographers admire? Consistently the same names surface: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans, Margaret Bourke-White. Eisenstaedt's heart stopping 1934 picture of the crew members atop the Graff Zeppelin (italic) is included.

It continues to take one's breath away after all this time. And while we tend to think of Co Rentmeester as a sports photographer, his turn to sports was only after being wounded in the hand during the Tet offensive while covering Vietnam. (However Rentmeester had rowed for the Holland in the Rome Olympics.)

And frankly, the interview with Mydans alone is worth the price of this volume. His story is so much more than the one photograph we remember of General MacArthur walking ashore. One can wonder how someone well into their eighth decade could still inspire and call forth accomplished professional journalists to pursue excellence. Being in the presence of Mydans through this chapter will make the case and make clear why Loengard dedicated the book to him.

Along with the insights of photojournalism's great thinkers is practical instruction on the more down to earth work of becoming a photojournalist.

Cornell Capa describes his view of the path to great work thus: "Growing up as a photographer is like going to medical school and becoming an intern. You start understanding what the world is about and how to translate it into photographs. You may become more efficient, more proficient, more educated, more intelligent, more loving. If you're not moved by what you're looking at, your pictures will not contain the human response."

Along with this are humorous incidents of photographers who dropped trou to expose themselves to their arresting Nazi officers, or Eisenstaedt's explanation of how a photographer gets pigeon-holed by editors. He had taken a picture of a dog lifting its leg and the picture had become reasonably well known. When editors needed a story on Niagara Falls, they were said to have remembered his earlier "water" picture and thought he was the logical choice for the Niagara story!

Best of all the interviews are not all sweetness and light. Doors are thrown open on any number of skeletons. Influential editors such as Wilson Hicks and Ed Thompson come in for major servings of blame and praise, depending on who is being interviewed.

But best of all the magic of working for this publication, often early in one's career, comes through consistently. Mydans may have the best summary covering not just this publication, but the entire profession. "There's a thrill to see the picture form in front of you and to catch it. The world is in motion, and the photographer has to find some way to stop that motion for an instant. Sometimes it's not easy, but there's nothing that I have ever done that is more fun."

Related Links:

LIFE Photographers: What They Saw

Jim McNay's member page