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John Loengard

John Loengard Biography

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“Working alone on stories, I began to feel the anonymity of motels on interstate highways reached by jet planes and rental cars. It was hard to have a good time, and the only way I could make the loneliness excusable was by taking pictures I thought were very good, even valuable.”

WayFeelsHardStoriesCarLonelinessVery GoodValuablePlanesGood TimesHighwaysHaving A Good TimeJetAnonymityTaking PicturesInterstateMotelsCar RentalJet PlanesWorking Alone
Book:Pictures under discussion
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“When I teach a class I often give the assignment: Photograph someone you love. I ask people to do this so they have a subject about whom they have feelings, a subject that is more than a model, or an object, or a shape, or an idea. In this way, they can judge the result not only by its technical success, but also by how well it describes their feelings.”

PeopleWayGivingWellsIdeasFeelingsAsksResultsClassTeachSubjectsObjectsJudgingShapesModelsPhotographAssignmentsOne You LoveSomeone You Love
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“The fact is that the camera is literal if anything, which gives it something in common with a thermometer... Often the tension that exists between the pictorial content of a photograph and its record of reality is the picture's true beauty. There is sleight of hand in photography... you make the viewer think he's seeing everything while at the same time you make him realize he's not. I try to make my pictures seem reasonable and then, at the last minute, pull the rug from beneath the viewer's feet, very gently so there's a little thrill.”

IfsThinkingGivingTryingLittlesFactsHandsRealitySeemsLastsRealizingCommonRecordsSeeingFeetMinutesPhotographyCamerasPhotographTensionReasonableThrillViewersLiteralTrue BeautyLast MinutePictorialThermometersSleight Of Hand
Author:John Loengard
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“In a painting no one complains that the subject is posed, but everybody complains about what looks posed in a photograph. Except, I've found that if I go very close in to the face, then the posed expression no longer exists. The face becomes a landscape of the lakes of the eyes and the hills of the nose and the valley of the cleft of the chin.”

IfsLooksEyeFacesFoundSubjectsPaintingExpressionPhotographComplainingHillsLandscapeNosesLakesValleysChins
Author:John Loengard
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“I was photographing the photographer Brassaï. He had very prominent eyes, like a frog's. As I focused my lens, he brought his hand up and pretended to focus his eye. It was a joke, but it added mystery to the picture. There's a sense of action in a very small world. Or with Allen Ginsberg there were people smoking cigarettes and in the smoke there's a sense of motion. It makes much out of very little.”

PeopleWorldLittlesHandsEyeActionFocusMysteryJokesPhotographerFocusedSmokeHis EyesSmokingCigaretteLensesFrogsProminentHands UpSmoking CigarettesSmall WorldGinsberg
Author:John Loengard
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