Ben Lifson essays

**tim atherton** · 13-Dec-2005, 14:44

somoen pointed me to an interesting series of essays by Ben Lifson online:

http://www.rawworkflow.com/making_pictures/index.html

You really need to start at the beginning (oh and have a fast conncetion...)

Also some intersting things on detail and digital

**David A. Goldfarb** · 13-Dec-2005, 16:42

Interesting guy. He appeared on photo.net briefly and said some very intelligent things, but he didn't quite get photo.net, and photo.net didn't quite get him, which was unfortunate--

http://photo.net/shared/community-member-all?proc_name=bboard&user_id=416365

**tim atherton** · 13-Dec-2005, 17:26

7es, Ben used to on the Streetphoto list for quite a while - I used to enjoy our discussions - he can certainly be a bit long winded, but I always took some new gem away from them at the end.

And he has certainly been around the block - he knows his stuff, has worked first hand on a lot of great collections of work (Strand, Kertesz, Atget, Winogrand - to name a few) and has known a good few of the "greats" as well. You might not always agree with what he says, but ther e is a real depth of knowledge there.

**Jason Greenberg Motamedi** · 13-Dec-2005, 17:49

I took a number of photo-history seminars with Ben Lifson at Bard College in the 1980s. David's description of him not quite getting "photo.net, and photo.net didn't quite get him" is a accurate depiction of his relationship to students and other faculty members. Unfortunate. However, he is a brilliant man and is one of the very few photo-historians/critics who has been able to really make me think. Most just make me sleep.