diptych # 37 ~ (on seeing) the possibilities of form and color

W23 / restaurant ~ New York, NY / Digby, Nova Scotia • click to embiggenDuring my recent visit to NYC I purchased a used book - Robert E. Sheehan Color Photography 1948-1958 - which was published in 1987. I had never heard of Robert Sheehan and I doubt that very few others have as well. However, a quick glance thorough the book convinced me it was worth acquiring inasmuch as I gleaned that Sheehan was an early (pre 70s / New Color era) practitioner of color picture making.

As it turns out, the book is a great look / insight into the early days of serious non-commercial use of color film. A time when color picture making was considered to be an amateur-snapshooter-only practice - if one was interested in making serious (fine art) pictures, the predominate aesthetic of BW was the only way to go.

While a number of name BW picture makers gave color a try, the technical limitations of that era's color film were considered to be insurmountable for serious picture making. Nevertheless, Sheehan was one picture maker who ignored the prevailing picture making paradigm and made color picture making his life's work (a life shortened by alcoholism), pursuing what he called " the possibilities of pure color and form".

From the book:

I am not seeking a completely purified image in the painter's sense. Rather, I abstract my area from existing matter, designing it from edge to edge in the viewfinder ... it is their (the referents) selection and arrangement which makes the complete picture. If the subject matter happens to have unique qualities, then the effect is greatly heightened by incorporating it with an absorbing design."

IMO, that statement is yet another short-and-sweet how-to on the the notion of so-called composition.