[Lightstalkers] Philip Jones Griffiths

Philip Jones Griffiths

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:43:05 +0000

We will all miss the dedication and love shown by photographer Philip Jones Griffiths who died March 19. His work was an inspiration to me and I'm sure to many others. Trolley Books has a beautiful quote from Philip and a link to a BBC interview. http://www.trolleybooks.com/trolleynews.php?article=56

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:24:39 +0000

a very fine quote, thanks for that.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:22:17 +0000

This important interview with Aperture http://www.aperture.org/jonesgriffiths/ With the distinction between Real Magnum and Magnum Lite. On photography and art, and photojournalism. Time article http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3586366.ece?token=null&offset=0

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:21:47 +0000

for the ones who didn't seen yet: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/warsgriffiths.aspx

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:23:00 +0000

My hope is that someone will come along and do for the Iraq war what PJG did for Vietnam. Vietnam Inc is no ordinary photo book. A toast to a great thinker, que descanses en paz.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:05:26 +0000

kamber has done some quite remarkable work and certainly continues on: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/20/world/middleeast/20080319KAMBER_index.html and yes mr griffiths has been a tremendous influence. he will be missed at the chinatown dim sum saturday morning brunches.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:22:08 +0000

Hey Jake!! Yes that is true, and there are others doing good work there too -- the question is how to pull it all together and make a larger statement about the meaning of the war. And that is a real challenge. I am sure that eventually such statements will start appearing,and if so, then the legacy of PJG is alive and well.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:48:19 +0000

I am so sad to see this happened. My condolences to Donna and his entire family. Photographers like Philip and Eugene W. Smith don't appear so easily. Personally,for me, it is almost impossible to think that legacy of Philip will continue as I see Eugene's legacy doesn't exist anymore. There others such as Robert Frank and Eugene Richards that I would want to hear same news... Probably, Philip was a "great thinker" so he had produced great photographs.... Bests, -A

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:49:35 +0000

I don't know Jon. There's a point of saturation these days that make the kind of impact that PJG had with Vietnam, Inc. difficult. A certain photographer we all know recently said:

There are too many images. Too many cameras now. We're all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It's just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn't an art anymore. Maybe it never was.
--Robert Frank, Vanity Fair, April 2008, p177

Not sure I agree, but it's food for thought.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:57:37 +0000

food for thought yes, but I dont actually agree at all. There are images, and then there are Images, and the supply of the latter could well be inexhaustible though rare. I think what makes the difference, vis a vis books like Vietnam Inc. is the thinking that goes on in the editing process -- the process whereby the photographer creates a coherent narrative and some kind of meaningful whole out of the individual parts. I mean, the same criticism that Frank levels at imagery could be altered slightly to include verbal prose -- think of all the words spilled in the attempt to define experience, and how much of it is pure crap -- a sea of feeble words and ideas -- but some narratives just rise above the others and manage to convert mere verbiage into something marvelous and moving. Anyway, I dont myself buy the argument about image fatigue and all that -- sure there is a sea of characterless, undistinguished imagery, both video and still, that immerses us, but there are still images whose salty sting manages to arrest us in mindless midstroke . . . . .

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:19:29 +0000

I'm with you. One of the things that made The Americans so powerful was the *book* and the sequencing. And, interestingly, Frank stopped taking photographs just after his book came out. Still we're inundated.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:16:25 +0000

while not as powerful as Vietnam Inc., i think geert van kesteren's Why Mister Why is a book about Iraq that is in somewhat the same vein.... Rest in Peace Mr. Griffiths, an extraordinary soul indeed.

Re: Philip Jones Griffiths

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:53:01 +0000

"By definition 'art photography' fails to make the grade because it lacks content. Now some might say, 'Define content!' Obviously, I'm not talking about silent subject matter--a sun-speckled wall or a pattern of tiles on the side of a building. For me, using the simplest of words, I want to look at the photograph and learn something; I want to receive a message, and the message should be comprehensible not just to an incestuous cabal of 'artists,' but to everyone. Real photography is a wonderfully inclusive, democratic medium, whereas 'art photography' is more often a private pursuit by conmen." superb.