gurdymonkey | A day in San Francisco, part one

Well, I've finally visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, mostly because it had three major photography exhibits on at the same time, all of which sounded interesting.

The first, "Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities," I very much enjoyed. I've been looking at Adams' work for years - it's everywhere, including a couple big posters in one of the offices in our building. (In fact, he's probably why I'll go, "Oh, look, a rock" or "Oh, look, a dead tree!" and take a picture of it.) My knowledge of O'Keefe was mostly her abstract botanical work. The juxtaposition of her paintings and his photographs was presented quite effectively.

We've probably all heard of the concept in some cultures that photography steals the subject's soul. Well, I'm here to tell you Richard Avedon is a vampire. Cleverly, the writeup at the website does not include any of the many subjects which are photographically drained, flayed and mounted on stark white backgrounds, their eyes staring out at the camera. If I ever shoot anyone like this, stake me quick.

Robert Frank's The Americans was also worth seeing, a dark, biting look at America in the mid 50's.

If life gives you architecture while you're roaming from floor to floor, thinking about seeing and making other peope see, however, play with it!