John Loengard
John Loengard
John Loengard, an American photographer, joined the staff of Life magazine in 1961, and from 1973 to 1987 he served as the magazine's picture editor. He has taught at the International Center for Photography, New York, The New School for Social Research, New York, and at workshops around the country. Loengard’s work is in the collections of institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona; the International Center of Photography, New York, New...
difficult fashion glamorous great high knew mix moved poverty racism stories subjects
He could mix stories about high fashion and the glamorous world he moved in with the gritty, more difficult subjects of racism and poverty that he knew firsthand and photographed with great sympathy.
photography important looks
Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture. If a photograph looks perishable we say, "Gee, I'm glad I have that moment."
eye hands people
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.
eye expression lakes
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.
class ideas giving
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.
summer teacher photographer
Teachers don't work in the summer, and photographers don't shoot in in the middle of the day.