tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1915486167088463856..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Pie Town Fair: Russell LeeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-56577822620773214472012-04-12T15:37:06.892-07:002012-04-12T15:37:06.892-07:00And a week and a day seems even longer. Sending g...And a week and a day seems even longer. Sending good wishes...Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04214178206307289834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-24835887366012073142012-04-11T13:26:14.325-07:002012-04-11T13:26:14.325-07:00A week seems so long sometimes.A week seems so long sometimes.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82422522887615380072012-04-10T11:55:55.125-07:002012-04-10T11:55:55.125-07:00i keep checking my reader for a tc update. get wel...i keep checking my reader for a tc update. get well sooner.gamefacedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16562522181852339258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-12015717710008440332012-04-09T14:36:00.589-07:002012-04-09T14:36:00.589-07:00Sorry to hear about your accident and I wish you a...Sorry to hear about your accident and I wish you a quick recovery, and I miss your blog already.Tom Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14211378281642641041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-47697851416027949982012-04-07T11:16:18.509-07:002012-04-07T11:16:18.509-07:00Tom, here is to a speedy recovery, my friend. You ...Tom, here is to a speedy recovery, my friend. You and A are in my thoughts.<br /><br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72602115578262010532012-04-07T06:42:21.206-07:002012-04-07T06:42:21.206-07:00Here too, we anxiously await.Here too, we anxiously await.kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52726799434243101432012-04-07T05:34:41.135-07:002012-04-07T05:34:41.135-07:00Tom, Hope you are well. You are missed. All the b...Tom, Hope you are well. You are missed. All the best. Hazen.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61812616861526093362012-04-06T08:57:08.392-07:002012-04-06T08:57:08.392-07:00Hi Tom,
Michael Lally is saying you've had an...Hi Tom,<br /><br />Michael Lally is saying you've had an accident. I've been enjoying your blog for months now and your writing for literally decades. <br /><br />I certainly hope that this finds you well or at least better.<br /><br />Kevin<br /><br />(Feel free to delete this message if you want to keep your situation private.)-K-https://www.blogger.com/profile/03289562368002376807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-3547629806606387922012-04-04T09:06:57.381-07:002012-04-04T09:06:57.381-07:00Tom,
yes to Russell Lee"choosing the moment ...Tom,<br /><br />yes to Russell Lee"choosing the moment the trip the shutter" -- each fleeting moment caught, as in that one with the women and children at the car (New Mexico license plate 91-338, woman in back (open) seat w/ blond child leaning toward woman in red-orange sweater, her right foot tucked up and right hand on roof, girl looking down. . .<br /><br />". . .in that high thin air, <br />under those pure blue skies. . ."<br /><br />4.4<br /><br />backlit edge of cloud above still black<br />ridge, bird standing on shadowed branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> plane distance from the sun,<br /> form which amounts to<br /><br /> co-ordinates, that equal to<br /> this we see, possible<br /><br />whiteness of sun in clouds above ridge,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspitSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-68854240833376439492012-04-04T06:54:57.222-07:002012-04-04T06:54:57.222-07:00tom, i just started "rainbow pie" (joeba...tom, i just started "rainbow pie" (joebageant)<br />i think you'd enjoy it.gamefacedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16562522181852339258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86301917170806204892012-04-03T23:01:08.321-07:002012-04-03T23:01:08.321-07:00Your poem and Lee’s photos make for delicious fare...Your poem and Lee’s photos make for delicious fare--a blue-ribbon combination plate!vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82034997640250509322012-04-03T19:57:12.156-07:002012-04-03T19:57:12.156-07:00Well you work for yourself and there are huge rew...Well you work for yourself and there are huge rewards in that even if there may be no financial riches<br /><br />One has to be resilient and i suppose altruistic in some degree too in order to more than merely survive I'm assuming a neighbour is in the same financial boat<br /><br />It contrasts how much of a persons life juices get squeezed out of them to serve their boss's and the company's interests<br /><br />So much sour grapes too in relation to peers and their perceived affluence<br /><br />Simpler lives maybe mean simpler pleasures?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72878046038425032582012-04-03T19:47:20.417-07:002012-04-03T19:47:20.417-07:00Terry and Hazen,
Many, many thanks.
"Direct...Terry and Hazen,<br /><br />Many, many thanks.<br /><br />"Direct seeing" -- that's spot on. Lee's work does indeed often evoke Evans's curious, frequently reiterated comment about composition, and finding the moment when it clicks: "God made it that way." Variously reiterated..."God did that, I wouldn't change it."<br /><br />There was maybe just the slightest nudge here and there by Walker, though -- just making sure that God had got it right.<br /><br />And of course things like colour and flash(bulbs, that is) were disdained by Evans, who was a bit arrogant in that respect.<br /><br />(Remembering that Russell Lee started out as a painter.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-26616108309324307222012-04-03T15:11:01.700-07:002012-04-03T15:11:01.700-07:00This is direct seeing, a quality that Lee seems to...This is direct seeing, a quality that Lee seems to possess in abundance on this assignment in Pie Town, and a skill he shared with his FSA colleague, Walker Evans. His compositions satisfy; they answer an innate desire for harmony and balance. Right from the start we see this in the topmost photo, when a woman strides from the left into a picture where each figure in the crowd almost seems posed, as Velazquez might do in Las Meninas, but—except for Lee’s choosing the moment to trip the shutter—is entirely random: the boy turning, his bare foot extended; the dainty, white gloved hands of the invisible woman to whom he turns; the hats, the faces. And in another photo, the gestures of the women meeting at the fair and the red-haired boy standing apart . . . <br /><br />Your vision of living “up on the Divide” is like this. It catches the essence of “the scratched-out bounty” of a life on the margins.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-85018141531610186372012-04-03T13:46:18.775-07:002012-04-03T13:46:18.775-07:00Dear T: I love that poem, all those tasty interna...Dear T: I love that poem, all those tasty internal rhymes darting in and out with precision movement. And the photos: I want a small slice of each of those pies and cakes.tpwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05909239000589253931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81981077810793995142012-04-03T13:04:07.548-07:002012-04-03T13:04:07.548-07:00Nin, that feeling you're talking about, though...Nin, that feeling you're talking about, though the participants might not have called it romance, seems from this distance palpable, and very real.<br /><br />I marvel at the ability of Russell Lee to work unobtrusively in such situations; it appears the photos are being taken by a trusted observer whose presence is noninterfering and whose detachment is at the same time kept intact. There is a naturalness about the scenes. <br /><br />He came from a small town in northern Illinois (Ottawa) and that might have given him an advantage other photographers lacked, in a setting like this. It was such settings to which he was always drawn. (He would go on to do wonderful work in the Spanish-American communities of thhe Southwest.)<br /><br />It's apparently a pleasant occasion, a subdued celebration of sorts. They have brought in the pinto bean harvest, the beans are in the bean shed, the field work is suspended, this is the Fair.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76783123938306331932012-04-03T10:13:59.083-07:002012-04-03T10:13:59.083-07:00I love these photos. I feel as if I was there, in...I love these photos. I feel as if I was there, in a variation of that some 20 years later. All those outdoor events, though they were hot in Va with flies around the food and in the food . . .<br /><br />There still is some romance to it, or so it seems, though most of the romance is in the idea I bet, not the reality of what it must have been like.Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.com