Very neat artice by the New Yorker on Thomas Joshua Cooper

[Steven Ruttenberg]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...m=TNY_Magazine

[Tin Can]

Thanks for posting!

A well written history of a "windmill tilter". Thomas Joshua Cooper as told by Dana Goodyear is every photographer's hero.

Would all our lives be so romantically described.

I also like that a few images were shared!

[mmerig]

Interesting article, but it has way too much hyperbole or even plain lies for me. More importantly, there are some beautiful Cooper images on the Lannan Foundation website.

Here are a few statements that I thought were a bit over the top:

"He has bought the last of the film developer that he prefers, the last of the fixer, and the last of the paper." I wonder what the developer and paper were? Why so particular about fixer?

"Awkward, fragile, heavy (the rig, including tripod and film, weighs some sixty pounds)," His set up looks usual, no way it is 60 pounds.

"Made from nineteenth-century wood, the camera is particularly vulnerable to the influence of salt water." Wood is not especially sensitive to salt water, no matter how old it is. Sure, it could warp etc., but metal would be worse in salty environments.

"The final two weeks they spent in the twelve-foot-long dinghy, towing Northanger and depth-sounding as they went." The Northanger was a 54-foot motorized sailboat (so they say)-- why do this with a 12-foot dinghy? It would be like towing a large truck with a bicycle, and the main hazard was ice, so depth soundings would not help.

"Printing requires total concentration—fifteen hours a day, a week per print." Over 100 hours to figure out every print?

"They were in a freezing fog, but Cooper could see on the map that nearby was an uncharted island," Uncharted, yet on a map, somehow seen in freezing fog? This could just be unclear writing taken literally.

There are dozens of others, and even some more on the Lannan Foundation website (e.g., "equipped with special film for below freezing temperatures".) I did not believe anything after a while.

By the way, the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary.

[Pieter]

Interesting article, but it has way too much hyperbole or even plain lies for me. More importantly, there are some beautiful Cooper images on the Lannan Foundation website.

Here are a few statements that I thought were a bit over the top:

"He has bought the last of the film developer that he prefers, the last of the fixer, and the last of the paper." I wonder what the developer and paper were? Why so particular about fixer?

"Awkward, fragile, heavy (the rig, including tripod and film, weighs some sixty pounds)," His set up looks usual, no way it is 60 pounds.

"Made from nineteenth-century wood, the camera is particularly vulnerable to the influence of salt water." Wood is not especially sensitive to salt water, no matter how old it is. Sure, it could warp etc., but metal would be worse in salty environments.

"The final two weeks they spent in the twelve-foot-long dinghy, towing Northanger and depth-sounding as they went." The Northanger was a 54-foot motorized sailboat (so they say)-- why do this with a 12-foot dinghy? It would be like towing a large truck with a bicycle, and the main hazard was ice, so depth soundings would not help.

"Printing requires total concentration—fifteen hours a day, a week per print." Over 100 hours to figure out every print?

"They were in a freezing fog, but Cooper could see on the map that nearby was an uncharted island," Uncharted, yet on a map, somehow seen in freezing fog? This could just be unclear writing taken literally.

There are dozens of others, and even some more on the Lannan Foundation website (e.g., "equipped with special film for below freezing temperatures".) I did not believe anything after a while.

By the way, the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary.

Worth writing a note the the editor of the New Yorker. They should do better.

[mmerig]

Worth writing a note the the editor of the New Yorker. They should do better.

Please see post #33

[Tin Can]

Like I said, his Art is actually internal

we are bugs on a wall

[Tin Can]

I focus the shiny ball of Science, my problem lies with appropriation and control.

Today participating, OCT and Ophthalmology in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

We do live in interesting times.

[Tin Can]

I guess you never told a story around a campfire...

[mmerig]

I guess you never told a story around a campfire...

Sure, plenty of them, but I wouldn't encourage a magazine writer to publish them. And I do try and stick to the truth.

[Andrew Tymon]

The developer is Edwa Fg7 and the paper was Agfa Multi contrast classic both discontinued. As to the fixer I have no idea. As to the dinghy towing the sail boat. They were in uncharted waters with no information as to what was there. I'm sure they didn't literally tow the the sailboat but had it follow the dinghy they were taking depth soundings from. There is rock as they were in Antarctica.