Blogfinger

By Paul Cadmus, Jared French and Margaret French. ©  Fire Island, 1950.  Scanned from Photograph Magazine.   Re-post from 2015 at Blogfinger.net

By Paul Goldfinger, Photography editor  @Blogfinger

These three photographers collaborated together from the 1930’s to the 1950’s producing intimate sized black and white prints characterized by “magical realism.”  These were set pieces that evoked psychology, eroticism, and symbolism.   Their work on Nantucket, Fire Island, Provincetown, New York, and New Jersey was controversial at first, but is now considered to be important examples of American photographic art.

The Gitterman Gallery is mounting a show of their work from September 9 to November 7, 2015, at 41 East 57th Street;  Suite 1103. The show is called PaJaMa after their first names. You can see more images by them at http://www.gittermangallery.com.

I enjoy their photographs because of the very special black and white moody effects.  It’s hard to understand how 3 people can work together to produce a photograph, but I imagine there are design, story, photographic and production challenges, so there must be an element of division of labor.

RACHEL CANTU: