1920/30/40/50s American iconic ~ over and over again, but that's OK (in this case)
Friday, February 18, 2011 at 12:12PM 
On occasion, as rare as that might be, I start to think that everything on the planet has been pictured - that there are no more pictures to be made.
This brief illusory rumination most often strikes after spending some time perusing the online photo world where, in fact, most of the pictures presented have, in fact, been made before. While having been made before is not always a fatal flaw, it is (to my eye and sensibilities) when the having-been-made-before pictures in question tell us nothing new. That is to say, not only is the referent very familiar but so is the connoted.
I mention this because during my recent NYC trip, while I visited Mast Books, my favorite art (with a heavy emphasis on photo books) bookstore on the planet - a very small store, on Avenue A between E. 5th & 6th, with a rather eclectic selection of very gently used photo books, I came across and purchased a delightful little gem, Vest Pocket Pictures, Photographs by Julius Shulman. The book features Shulman's early - made in the early>mid 1930s with a Kodak Vest Pocket Camera (a gift on his 23rd birthday) - personal snapshots and intimate keepsakes of family and friends. The 58 pictures in this book - beautiful duotone reproductions printed at 2.5×3.75 inches, only slightly larger than the original negatives - predate, by 13 years, his decision to dive into the picture making world as his lifelong profession.
Now, I must admit that I purchased the book simply because, after a quick glance through it, I was immediately impressed with the pictures (and the reproduction thereof). I did not read any of the text - a brief preface by Shulman and postscript essays by Craig Krull and David Tseklenis. And, to be perfectly honest, the name, Julius Shulman, meant absolutely nothing to me. I just flat out really like the pictures.
I purchased the book and left it at the counter for pickup upon my return from my Chelsea gallery crawl. During that crawl, in one of the galleries, I came upon a print of Case Study House #22, a picture with which I was long familiar (in publications - I had never seen an original print) but not one that I associated with the name of Julius Shulman. I took some time to study and admire the picture but it wasn't until later that evening, while looking at the book and reading some of the text, that I realized Julius Shulman was the guy who made Case Study House #22 - weird eerie coincidence # 2,187 (in my life, experiences like this happen with a somewhat strange regularity).
My first thought was - well, scratch my back with a hacksaw. I didn't know whether to cry or wind my watch. You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather. My second thought was - man, I really love that little bookstore. It may turn out to be my version, albeit on a much more positive note, of John Prine's the hole in daddy's arm were all the money goes (PS - don't tell the wife).
All of the preceding said and with the the Shulman picture in this entry submitted as prima facie evidence of the fact that not all having-been-made-before pictures are alike, I would like to state that, even though I would guess millions of very similar manifestations / variations on the above picture can be found in family snapshot albums all over the world (although this one is very American), all of these having-been-made-before pictures resonate with me, punctum wise, every time I view one.
I am very curious how many of you, like me, have a picture just like this one in your family album(s). And, if you do, what effect does it have on you when you view it and others just like it?
FYI, re: thinking that everything has been pictured - most times when that thought comes in my head, something comes along (I wouldn't mind having one these pictures on my wall) that disabuses me of that notion.
Reader Comments (1)
There are a number of stories about Julius Shulman on NPR's website. My search brought up about a half dozen, including a short notice of his death in July of 2009.
http://www.npr.org/search/index.php?searchinput=Julius+Shulman