John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Bug Out 69: Old Dominion Speedway, 29 May 2011

A couple of weeks ago, I dusted off my favorite old cameras and headed up US 29 to Old Dominion Speedway, in Manassas, Virginia, for Bug Out 69.  It was part of my never-ending rambling through the more obscure byways of American car culture.

I also figured that it would a lot of fun.  What could be better than spending the day with hundreds of slightly wacky Volkswagen collectors, restorers, and racers from up and down the eastern seaboard and beyond?  Nothing that I could think of.

 

 

It's not a Bug, but it sure is pretty, in a rat rod kind of way.  Bug Out 69, Manassas, Virginia, 29 May 2011.  (Photo copyright John Edwin Mason, 2011.  Click on the image to see a much larger version.)

You can read the rest of the story and see many more of photos of classic VWs, hot rod VWs, drag racing VWs, their proud owners, and the Miss Bug Out pagent(!), on my racing blog, here.

The Free Bridge Quintet @ the University of Virginia, 22 October 2010

(Note:  This post is appearing about two weeks after I had hoped that it would, so I'm going to ask you to pretend that it's still sometime in late October.)

The Free Bridge Quintet presented its fall concert, on the 22nd, and the whole evening was spectacular.   Top to bottom, start to finish, the band was simply on fire.  My guess is that the energy was coming from two sources.  First, the group was welcoming Wells Hanley, its new pianist, into its midst, making this concert an especially important event.  Second, the band was continuing its multi-year exploration of "The Art of the Quintet," performing classic repertoire by the likes of Richie Powell, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, and Horace Silver.  With tunes like that to work with, it's no surprise that there was a little magic in the air.

 

 
John D'earth, trumpet, and Jeff Decker, tenor sax.  [All photos copyright

John Edwin Mason, 2010.]

The quintet's front line of John D'earth and Jeff Decker was in typically fine form.  Both men also compose and lead bands of their own.  Towards the end of the concert, D'earth's gorgeous ballad "In Memory" almost made my heart stand still.

 

Wells Hanley, piano, John D'earth, trumpet. 

Like all of the quintet's members, Wells Hanley teaches in the University of Virginia's department of music.  (In both the quintet and at UVA, he's succeeding Bob Hallahan, who's left to take a position at James Madison University's school of music.)  Hanley's got chops to spare, no doubt about that.   He's also bringing a new sensibility to the group, one that's more open to influences from rock and other contemporary music.

 

 

Robert Jospe, drums, Jeff Decker, tenor sax.

Drummer Robert Jospe was in fine form, laying down propulsive grooves and adding a variety of complex textures to the band's sound.  Like D'earth and Decker, he leads a band of his own, when he's not playing with Free Bridge.

 

Jeff Decker, tenor sax, John D'earth, trumpet.

I was lucky enough to have been hanging out with the band during the sound check, just before the concert.  With no audience in the house, I could roam the stage with my Rolleiflex, looking for photographs (and occasionally finding them).

 

 

Pete Spaar, bass.

Pete Spaar has been anchoring the quintet since the beginning.  The first thing you notice about his playing is the rich, warm sound that he gets out of the instrument.  (Must be all that classical training.)  Then you start paying attention to his terrific technique.  But, in the end, it's his understated, yet inventive soloing that really gets your attention.

 

 

John D'earth, trumpet, Wells Hanley, piano.

So, the Free Bridge Quintet, Hanley edition, is off to a fine start.  But don't take my word for it.  Their next concert is in the University of Virginia's Old Cabell Hall, on Saturday, 2 April 2011.  You can check them out for yourselves.

Rollei at a Rally: Tom Perriello for Congress!

Last Sunday was 10/10/10, an auspicious date.  What better way to celebrate than to load some film into my Rollei TLR and head over to Charlottesville's Tonsler Park, where my wonderful first-term congressman, Tom Perriello, was speaking at a campaign rally,

Those of us in Virginia's 5th Congressional District know how lucky we are to have Tom representing us in Washington.  Even his opponents admit that there are exceedingly few politicians who work harder, are more level headed, or have a deeper understanding of the issues.  In many ways, he's a fascinating guy.  The inspiration that he draws from the life of Martin Luther King has shaped his commitment to fundamental human rights, such as access to decent healthcare and economic opportunity.  Not surprisingly, he's been endorsed by a variety of liberal groups.  But, get this, his understanding of the rights and duties enshrined in the Constitution has also led to endorsements from both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Rifle Association.

 

 

(All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010.  Click directly on any of the images to see larger versions.)

But back to the rally.  It opened with blessedly short and to-the-point speeches by the likes of Charlottesville's young and energetic vice mayor, Holly Edwards.

 

 

Then it was Tom's turn.

 

 

Part of me wishes that I had recorded his remarks.  He's a terrific speaker -- a down-to-earth style and great sense of humor, combined with a deep and passionate commitment to the issues.  (Actually, you can judge for yourself.  Here's a link to his appearance on MSNBC's Keith Olbermann show.)

 

 

The citizen in me wants to believe that the rosy glow in these photos comes from Tom's speech.  The photographer in me knows that, as amazing a man as Tom may be, it was actually the warm autumn sun.

 

 

In any case, this was grassroots politics at its best.  Everyone had a good time, whether talking politics with neighbors...

 

 

...or signing up campaign volunteers.  (By the way, these are a couple of students from Charlottesville High School, one of whom just happens to be my goddaughter!)

 

 

Charlottesville city council member Kristin Szakos kept the crowd entertained by raffling off prizes.

 

 

I got the chance to hang out with friends.

 

 

And make a few new ones.

 

 

Meanwhile, my Rollei got the exercise that it desperately needed.

All in all, 10/10/10 turned out to be a heck of a day.

PS  You can find out more about Congressman Perriello's positions on the issues and learn how to help with his campaign, here.

Car Culture, Continued: The SBRA Bracket Finals, 2010, at Eastside Speedway

Driving over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Eastside Speedway, after having been away for several months, feels like going home -- in an odd sort of way.  My attachment to the place has nothing to do with family (although I've made a lot of friends there, over the last few years).  Instead, it's all about photography.  Eastside is where I was reborn as a photographer, after having put down my cameras for nearly thirty years.

Since 2002, I've been working on Democracy of Speed, a documentary project about the culture of motorsports in America.  It focuses on Eastside, the track where I first realized how deeply blacks, Latinos, and women are integrated into the world of drag racing.  This was something I hadn't expected, aAnd it's something that distinguishes drag racing from every other motorsport.  In fact, I'd always thought that drag racers were a bunch of dumb rednecks.  (Forgive my language, but, in my ignorance, that's what I was thinking.)  Turns out, I was wrong on both counts-- they aren't dumb and they aren't (most of them) rednecks.

 

 

All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010.  Click directly on any of the images to see much larger versions.

I was back at Eastside, a couple of weekends ago, for the annual Southern Bracket Racing Association (SBRA) finals.  It's a team event.  Over 200 racers representing several dragstrips in Virginia and Maryland descend on Eastside to determine which track will win the championship.

It was the first time that I'd been at the track since the Easter Sunday Funny Car show (another highly anticipated annual event).  In part, I was there to make some photos.  After spending the last few weeks shooting drag races on assignment, it was nice to be able to slow down, sling a Rollei TLR around my neck, and shoot some film.  Because, after all, square photographers are cool.

 

 

But the photography for Democracy of Speed is largely finished.  (You can see a gallery of images, here.)  Right now, I'm putting most of my energy into editing and talking to publishers.

 

 

So, I was able to spend a lot of time hanging out.  That's Susie, the wife of my friend, Larry, who's one of the best racers around.

 

 

The guy standing on the left is a member of the Steppe family.  His father and uncles have been racing at Eastside since the mid-1960s.  That is, they were racing at the track -- against mostly white opponents -- before the state of Virginia was completely desegregated.

 

 

I'm constantly fascinated by the ways in which drivers personalize their cars.

 

 

Fans watching the race.

 

 

A certain amount of friendly wagering goes on at these events.

 

 

A motorcycle racer and a friend wait in the staging lanes.

 

 

A four-footed fan.

By the way, Old Dominion Dragstrip took the team honors, going home with this year's championship.  Eastside's racers came in third.

Esther Bubley's Untitled Film Stills

Esther Bubley had a flair for the dramatic.  Throughout her career, her best photos are powerful, evocative, sometimes decidedly off-center, and seem to be telling a story.

Esther Bubley:  Washington, D.C.  Small boys watching the Woodrow Wilson high school cadets.  1943.  (Click directly on any of these photos to see larger versions.)

When I first started writing about Bubley, I was drawn to her by the facts of her life as much as by her photographs.  Here was a young woman -- barely in her twenties -- from a small town in the midwest and with little to show in the way of experience and training, who talked her way into a job with Roy Stryker's legendary Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information documentary project.  It's a great story.

But her photos are even better.  Here's what I had to say about the first set that she did for Stryker, an exploration of relations between men and women in wartime Washington, DC.  It was an audition, of a sort; she was trying to move out of the darkroom and into the field: The photographs "deal forthrightly with sexuality.  More so than any other FSA/OWI photographer, Bubley explored wartime changes in the social geography of sex.  Her gaze was direct, and, with a few exceptions, she neither scolded nor romanticized her subjects."

I also should have said that they're beautiful.  And while they're not romantic, at the time, I would have called them theatrical (for example, here and here).

Esther Bubley:  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Greyhound Bus Lines mechanic.  1943.

For a while, "drama" and "theater" seemed perfectly adequate as one of the ways of talking about Bubley's photos.  Of course, they weren't the only ways of talking about them.

Esther Bubley:  Washington, D.C.  Pearl Ginsburg refused to have her boardinghouse rent raised.  1943.

I also loved the way that she worked with people, alternating between distance and intimacy.

Esther Bubley:  Washington, D.C.  The Campbell family at home after church.  1943.

But the more I looked at photos like this portrait of the Campbell family, the more I felt that "theatrical" wasn't quite the right word.  Not for a photo as self-consciously lighted and arranged as this one (which is one of many like it).

Esther Bubley:  A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the terminals. Hailing a Macon-bound bus on the highway in Georgia.  1943.

When I saw this image, I realized what I was missing.  Bubley wasn't thinking about the theater, she was thinking about movies.  When she made images like the ones in this post (and the ones that I linked to above), she was making film stills, although she probably wouldn't have put it that way.  "Hailing a Macon-bound bus" could almost be a photo from the set of It Happened One Night, Frank Capra's great 1934 screwball comedy.

Afterthought:  Perhaps Bubley did have something cinematic in mind.  She worked the scene hard, producing four images of the same woman, shot from different angles and distances.  "Hailing a Macon-bound bus"  isn't the only one that feels like a film still.

Esther Bubley:  A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the terminals. Girl waiting for bus by road's edge.  1943.  (This photo, unlike the others in this post, is not available as a high-resolution download from the Library of Congress.)

Cindy Sherman:  Untitled Film Still #48.  1979.  Copyright Cindy Sherman.

Think of film stills, and you think of Cindy Sherman, of course.  The Untitled Film Still series that she made in the 1970s catapulted her to art world fame.

The parallels between "Hailing a Macon-bound bus" and Untitled Film Still #48 are striking.  I have no idea whether or not Sherman had ever seen any of Bubley's photos.  (Probably, yes.  Bubley achieved modest fame of her own, especially within the photographic community.)  But I doubt that Sherman was familiar with "Hailing a Macon-bound bus."  It's not one of Bubley's better known images.  Sherman, I'm guessing, was simply responding to the power and pervasiveness of Hollywood's cliches.  Just as Esther Bubley had.

 

John Vachon:  Portrait of Esther Bubley. 1944.

To notice that Bubley carefully arranged some of her photos -- posing her subjects and lighting them for maximum dramatic effect -- is to direct our attention to the cinematic qualities of many of her photos.  It's also important to say that it doesn't diminish the photos documentary value.

There are two points to keep in mind.  First, the FSA/OWI generation of photographers were inventing the rules of documentary work as they went along.  Posing and lighting subjects wasn't an ethical problem for them, as it would be for some, but not all, photographers who came later.  They would have asked themselves, instead, if they were being honest to the situation and not unfairly distorting its meaning.

Second, no photo is a transparent record of objective reality.  The camera always lies.  (At the very least, it flattens three-dimensional reality.)  Photographers are always subjective.  (They choose, at the very least, where to point the camera and when to press the shutter.)

Good photographers -- like Bubley and the other FSA/OWI photographers -- would have understood that objectivity is elusive.  If they succeeded at being honest, at reining in their subjectivity -- and I think that they did -- it was because they worked hard at it.  Research balanced art; heart balanced mind.

* * *

N.B.  All of Bubley's photos in this post are from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, at the Library of Congress.  Photos made by the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information photographers are not under copyright.