“She could find nothing ‘well done’ in throwing bombs off from airplanes, even if they were directed against hated dictatorships, because she never forgot innocent humans, who were torn under the wings of the airplane into pieces…”, Arthur Miller wrote about the Photographer Inge Morath, his wife.
Logically Inge Morath’s photography is aligned to the representation of the small one, human one, that, which fights for a right to to live courageously against the monumental, enormous architecture (and companies) of New York. Typical for example: that photo “Happy Man Strolling”: A merry Afro-american saunters, dances through the bank quarters – ignoring completely the monumental lions made of stone and the gigantic house fronts.
Even that famous Brooklyn Bridge becomes a small accessoir, added to a man, who, deeply sunken into his newspaper, enjoys the morning air, coming up to him from the East River waters, sitting on that bridge.
Photo history also has written by that Lama in the year 1957, which curiously stretches his head out off a taxi window, probably very astonished, discovering for the first time in his life the famous “Times Square” – and Lama’s ears perfectly look alike a fingered Victory sign – the symbol of the optimistic immigrants and emigrants of all the world.
Even the liberty statue, 1997 documented by Inge Morath, is human sized: sitting on a South Street Seaport bench, laughing and talking with a clown – naturally not that immovable sculpture on the isle, but a pleasant, green painted female artist.
Things became alive: the tired bass viol, stretched out like a dog for a nap on the sidewalk, because his owner makes a telephone-call – or that Cadillacs and Plymouths – buried and brought to peace under the snow masses of December 1961.
Inge Morath, deceased in January 2002 , created more than a touching monument with her last work, the NEW YORK pictures: she made a manifest, describing the important role of photography in rough times, she created an art style giving hope for the future.
[“New York” – by Inge Morath, Otto Mueller publishing house, Salzburg / Vienna 2002]
more at http://www.amazon.com/review/RZ32HW9Q5LHIW
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What a generous and heartfelt tribute to Inge. 🙂
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Wonderful post:
As we grow older, I guess, the reality of the past, including the truth of our memories, cristalize, and become the diamonds, that refract realities, the way the way they were intended.
Actions of people, have been always the voice of they souls, unlike their words, sometimes, that may have been confusing. Actions are never confusing.
I enjoyed reading your post.
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http://theworldofphotographers.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/morath-inge-may-27-1923-january-30-2002-photographer/
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