Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Quiz #8

I just got a copy of Charles Woodard's delightful little handbook The History of Photography in Pen and Ink. The drawings are very primitive, about the equivalent of what my kids can do. But as with children's illustrations, this deliberately skeletal approach manages to attack the essence of each image. Some of the drawings are quite obvious, for example this Strand image:



Others are far more ambiguous. When I saw the drawing below I thought for sure I was looking at the oven in Eggleston's Guide (at right). It's actually a drawing of Ed Ruscha's Hollywood Bowl, 1967.



So here's the game. Your mission should you choose to accept it is to identify the twelve photographs drawn below. These are all well known photos and they will be familiar to most photographers. The first person to correctly identify all twelve wins a very gently used copy of Camille Seaman's 2008 monograph The Last Iceberg. Please do NOT enter the contest if you have access to the Woodard book, since that wouldn't really be fair now would it? To start you out, the clue for one of them can be found somewhere in this post. Good luck.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can get most of them, but I won something here before. Should I just post what I know and let someone else fill in the blanks (and get the prize?)

J. Karanka said...

Hah, he has completely changed the perspective of the Cartier-Bresson one... did he draw them from memory? Most of the perspectives have been heavily normalized and flattened.

Blake Andrews said...

As you note, a partial answer doesn't win the prize and may help someone else win it. It's up to you whether you want to post it.

The Cartier-Bresson is indeed way off, as are most of these yet that's what is intriguing. That he's left enough of the structure for the photo to be recognizable.

Anonymous said...

Partial answers:

1. Steiglitz, "Steerage."
2. ?
3. Eggleston, "Adyn and Jasper"
4. The Bechers, "Tall Furnaces"
5. HCB's famous puddle jumper.
6. ?
7. ?
8. Walker Evans, "Bed, Tennant Farmhouse"
9. ?
10. Mapplethorpe, "Mark Stevens"
11. ?
12. Ed Weston, "Cabbage Leaf"

J. Karanka said...

Blake, what I find interesting is how hard it is for me to recognize the images when they're drawn. I was way off with #3 even if it's a photograph that I've seen lots of times... I was absolutely hopeless with #1... if #5 wasn't so so obvious I wouldn't recognize it either! I must be extremely dependent on the image having the right spatial relationship between the elements.

J. Karanka said...

Btw, I did draw it when I was bored a few weeks ago... ;-)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3417/3191224678_feda6c8927.jpg

(for comparation purposes)

Blake Andrews said...

Nice drawing, Joni. Derek, you're halfway there.

Anonymous said...

Derek, I can help you out with number 11. It is a Winogrand from his Airport series.

Anonymous said...

#9 definitely Dr from Smith's Life essay Country Doctor.

#6 and #7 prob not but Kertez's girl in cafe and Steiglitz's Terminus seem to come to mind( the cart attached to horse doesn't seem right however).

Blake Andrews said...

Good work everyone. #9 and #11 are correct, which leaves only 3 drawings unsolved.

Freudus said...

6 is Nan Goldin's Trixie on the Cot. I'm stumped on the others. 2 I'm torn between Dorothea Lange and Bruce Davidson, and 7 I'm convinced is Koudelka - just no Koudelka I've ever seen. Hmmm...

J. Karanka said...

I think Paul Russell shouted full house here:

http://flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/discuss/72157613072431332/

With #2 being Lange, #3 Eggleston, #4 Bechers, #5 Cartier Bresson, #6 Nan Goldin, #7 Emerson, #8 Walker Evans, #9 W. Eugene Smith, #10 Mapplethorpe, #11 Winogrand and #12 Edward Weston... notice group effort on this one...

Paul Russell said...

Well, Freudus got eight of the 12 straight off in Another Place, so maybe if Derek R doesn't mind, maybe Freudus is a winner?

Freudus said...

Your call Blake, though it was very much a group effort. Maybe we can do a bookshare (I think most of us are here in the UK)?

Blake Andrews said...

You guys are good, but you've made it difficult to sort out a winner. Considering answers below and on HCSP and in light of the fact that Derek and Freudus have already won something, I'll go with Paul Russell. Email me your address and I'll get the book out. If you'd rather have a print I can send that instead. I just thought people might want some other prize for a change.

Now to solve Mr. Russell's drawing...The thing that looks like a train on the left is throwing me off. I keep thinking O. Winston Link but I know that's not it.

Paul Russell said...

Thanks Blake. I think you started something here...

Charlie said...

Ahahahaha. This was fun to read.