Jump to content

Paul Berg (photographer): Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 18: Line 18:


== Recognition ==
== Recognition ==
Berg maintained his interest in action, often tackling animal subjects from dachshunds<ref>Popular Photography, Feb 1949, Vol. 24, No. 2, p.66, 80</ref> to elephants,<ref>Popular Photography, Nov 1946, Vol. 19, No. 5, pps. 61, 66, 78</ref> and performance; he was one of several photographers whose images of children dancing [[Ring a Ring o' Roses|Ring-a-Roses]] were assembled in an installation in the round by curator [[Edward Steichen]] for the world-touring [[The Family of Man|''The Family of Man'']] exhibition that was seen by 9 million visitors. Berg’s version, shot from a high, distant vantage point overlooking a thronging city street, shows children joining hands and dancing amidst cars and parked trucks. In April 1963, he documented artist [[Allan Kaprow]]’s ‘Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann'.<ref>Online Archive of California https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9d5nb3dv/ </ref><ref>A review of the Kaprow installation appeared, with photographs by Berg, in the St Louis Dispatch PICTURES supplement, Sunday May 19, 1963 {{Citation | author1=Meyer-Hermann, Eva | author2=Perchuk, Andrew | author3=Rosenthal, Stephanie | author4=Kaprow, Allan | author5=Getty Research Institute | title=Allan Kaprow--art as life | publication-date=2008 | page=163 | publisher=Los Angeles Getty Research Institute | isbn=978-0-89236-890-7 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Albu, Cristina, (editor.) | author2=Schuld, Dawna, (editor.) | title=Perception and Agency in Shared Spaces of Contemporary Art | publication-date=2018 | publisher=Taylor and Francis | edition=First | isbn=978-1-315-43713-2 }}</ref>
Berg maintained his interest in action, often tackling animal subjects from dachshunds<ref>Popular Photography, Feb 1949, Vol. 24, No. 2, p.66, 80</ref> to elephants,<ref>Popular Photography, Nov 1946, Vol. 19, No. 5, pps. 61, 66, 78</ref> and performance; he was one of several photographers whose images of children dancing [[Ring a Ring o' Roses|Ring-a-Roses]]<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Steichen, Edward | author2=Sandburg, Carl | author3=Norman, Dorothy | author4=Lionni, Leo | author5=Mason, Jerry | author6=Stoller, Ezra | author7=Museum of Modern Art (New York) | title=The family of man: The photographic exhibition | publication-date=1955 | publisher=Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10809600 }}</ref> were assembled in an installation in the round by curator [[Edward Steichen]] for the world-touring [[The Family of Man|''The Family of Man'']] exhibition that was seen by 9 million visitors.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Hurm, Gerd, 1958-, (editor.) | author2=Reitz, Anke, (editor.) | author3=Zamir, Shamoon, (editor.) | title=The family of man revisited : photography in a global age | publication-date=2018 | publisher=London I.B.Tauris | isbn=978-1-78672-297-3 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Sandeen, Eric J | title=Picturing an exhibition : the family of man and 1950s America | publication-date=1995 | publisher=University of New Mexico Press | edition=1st | isbn=978-0-8263-1558-8 }}</ref> Berg’s version, shot from a high, distant vantage point overlooking a thronging city street, shows children joining hands and dancing amidst cars and parked trucks. In April 1963, he documented artist [[Allan Kaprow]]’s ‘Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann'.<ref>Online Archive of California https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9d5nb3dv/ </ref><ref>A review of the Kaprow installation appeared, with photographs by Berg, in the St Louis Dispatch PICTURES supplement, Sunday May 19, 1963 {{Citation | author1=Meyer-Hermann, Eva | author2=Perchuk, Andrew | author3=Rosenthal, Stephanie | author4=Kaprow, Allan | author5=Getty Research Institute | title=Allan Kaprow--art as life | publication-date=2008 | page=163 | publisher=Los Angeles Getty Research Institute | isbn=978-0-89236-890-7 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Albu, Cristina, (editor.) | author2=Schuld, Dawna, (editor.) | title=Perception and Agency in Shared Spaces of Contemporary Art | publication-date=2018 | publisher=Taylor and Francis | edition=First | isbn=978-1-315-43713-2 }}</ref> Other artist portraits he made include Roy Lichtenstein and Leo Castelli at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York.<ref>https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-27-spring-2013/ones-creative-imagination-was-set-free</ref>


==Exhibitions==
==Exhibitions==

Revision as of 09:28, 24 October 2019

For the scientist, see Paul Berg. For the professor of music, see Paul Berg (composer). For the snowboarder, see Paul Berg (snowboarder).

Paul Berg was an American photojournalist for the St. Louis, Missouri Post-Dispatch, and also wrote about the practice of photojournalism.

Early career

At the University of Chicago, Paul Berg in partnership with John G. Morris issued a student newspaper Pulse in September, 1937 which they published until March, 1941, when America became involved in WW2. It was a bold attempt to launch their careers in journalism, described by Morris as; "a radically different college publication, its news section modelled on Time, a monthly survey in the manner of Fortune, and photographs of the candid-camera type, like those in Life”[1] They and their colleagues went into professional careers: Paul Berg became a staff photographer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, John Corcoran for Science Illustrated, Myron Davis for Life, and David Eisendrath for the Chicago Times and New York's PM.

Post-Dispatch photographer

After the War, Berg worked for the St. Louis, Missouri Post-Dispatch until 1972, and was most active there during 1951-1972.[2] Commentary on his newspaper work appeared frequently in Popular Photography magazine, used as an example of a creative approach to reportage and documentary work. One writer, in discussing his picture 'School’s Out’, notes that Berg was “well-known for his photographic studies on sociological questions and problems, which frequently appear in the Sunday picture section of his paper.”[3] Julius H. Klyman, editor of the Dispatch Sunday supplement PICTURES used Berg’s photography, as well as that of co-staffers Arthur Witman, Jack Gould, Sam Caldwell and David Gulick, to raise the profile of the magazine.[4]

Technique

Berg, like most news photographers of the 1940s, used a cumbersome large-format press camera even for subjects like the theatre, an example being ‘Between the Acts’, showing a wardrobe mistress adjusting a dancer’s costume during final dress rehearsal of the St . Louis Municipal Opera, before the gala opening of a new season. Berg used a 4x5 Speed Graphic and Ansco Superpan Press film, hanging one flashbulb from the ceiling, and fired one on camera diffused with a handkerchief over the reflector for an exposure of 1/50 sec. a f/32. However, other shots during the same session were made on a medium-format Rolleiflex without flash.[5]

In the 1950s Berg became an advocate for the 35mm format which was still then regarded by American picture editors as ‘miniature’, and not worthy, or capable, of quality reproduction, unlike their counterparts in Europe who had accepted the legitimacy of the smaller format before the war. Berg wrote about the value of 35mm in the thirteenth edition of the Leica Manual And Data Book in 1956.[6] In reviewing the newly released manual, Popular Photography wrote:

In a chapter titled 'The Craft of the Photojournalist', Paul Berg…has concocted one of the finest blends of inspiration and execution that we've seen between hard covers in a very long time. Staffman Berg makes it plain that he's a 35-mm man because his Leicas let him do the job he's set out to do better and more easily than other types of available equipment. His well-defined concepts about pictures, photojournalism, and the picture story, his analysis of his own approaches to technical problems and equipment, and his auto-descriptions of a working pressman's problems and methods on assignments… are summed up in this simple statement of purpose: "Because his goal is to catch life as it is, the photojournalist interferes as little as possible with what is in front of his camera."[7]

Nevertheless, Berg still used large format for high-definition colour photography of performances; a 1957 issue of Popular Photography devoted to the theme ‘Action’, uses Berg’s example of a colour shot of flamenco dancers in full flight, for which he returns to the 4”x 5” camera (a 1940s 'Meridian') using 4 G-E #22 flash bulbs and Ektachrome Type B 200 ASA.[8]

Recognition

Berg maintained his interest in action, often tackling animal subjects from dachshunds[9] to elephants,[10] and performance; he was one of several photographers whose images of children dancing Ring-a-Roses[11] were assembled in an installation in the round by curator Edward Steichen for the world-touring The Family of Man exhibition that was seen by 9 million visitors.[12][13] Berg’s version, shot from a high, distant vantage point overlooking a thronging city street, shows children joining hands and dancing amidst cars and parked trucks. In April 1963, he documented artist Allan Kaprow’s ‘Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann'.[14][15][16] Other artist portraits he made include Roy Lichtenstein and Leo Castelli at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York.[17]

Exhibitions

  • Photographs from the Museum Collection, November 26, 1958–January 18, 1959, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 70 Photographers Look at New York, November 27, 1957–April 15, 1958 (picture of Lever House), The Museum of Modern Art, New York[18]
  • The Family of Man, January 24–May 8, 1955, The Museum of Modern Art, New York[19]

References

  1. ^ Morris, John G. (John Godfrey) (2002), Get the picture : a personal history of photojournalism ([New ed.] / foreword by William H. McNeill ; afterword by the author ed.), University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-53914-0
  2. ^ "[Paul Berg collection]". www.loc.gov. 1946. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  3. ^ Popular Photography, Aug 1948, Vol. 23, No. 2, p.36, 73
  4. ^ John M. Mcguire, 'A Picture Story: Photographs Tell the History of the Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine, St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), December 1, 1996
  5. ^ Popular Photography, Sep 1947, Vol. 21, No. 3, p.72-3, 84
  6. ^ Morgan, Willard Detering; Lester, Henry M, (joint author.) (1956), Leica manual and data book ([13th ed., entirely rev. and reset] ed.), Morgan & Morgan, retrieved 24 October 2019 {{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Popular Photography, Mar 1956, Vol. 38, No. 3, p.24
  8. ^ Popular Photography, Apr 1957, Vol. 40, No. 4, p.88
  9. ^ Popular Photography, Feb 1949, Vol. 24, No. 2, p.66, 80
  10. ^ Popular Photography, Nov 1946, Vol. 19, No. 5, pps. 61, 66, 78
  11. ^ Steichen, Edward; Sandburg, Carl; Norman, Dorothy; Lionni, Leo; Mason, Jerry; Stoller, Ezra; Museum of Modern Art (New York) (1955). The family of man: The photographic exhibition. Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation.
  12. ^ Hurm, Gerd, 1958-, (editor.); Reitz, Anke, (editor.); Zamir, Shamoon, (editor.) (2018), The family of man revisited : photography in a global age, London I.B.Tauris, ISBN 978-1-78672-297-3 {{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Sandeen, Eric J (1995), Picturing an exhibition : the family of man and 1950s America (1st ed.), University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 978-0-8263-1558-8
  14. ^ Online Archive of California https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9d5nb3dv/
  15. ^ A review of the Kaprow installation appeared, with photographs by Berg, in the St Louis Dispatch PICTURES supplement, Sunday May 19, 1963 Meyer-Hermann, Eva; Perchuk, Andrew; Rosenthal, Stephanie; Kaprow, Allan; Getty Research Institute (2008), Allan Kaprow--art as life, Los Angeles Getty Research Institute, p. 163, ISBN 978-0-89236-890-7
  16. ^ Albu, Cristina, (editor.); Schuld, Dawna, (editor.) (2018), Perception and Agency in Shared Spaces of Contemporary Art (First ed.), Taylor and Francis, ISBN 978-1-315-43713-2 {{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-27-spring-2013/ones-creative-imagination-was-set-free
  18. ^ "MoMA master checklist" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ "Paul Berg | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Berg_(photographer)&oldid=922786833"