"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" - Lauren

Except for the topics of straight photography, social realism, and photojournalism, I found it particularly difficult to determine how this reading relates to that of the history of photography. On the other hand, as a reading of social conditions in the 1930s South, especially in regards to clothing, I found this excerpt quite interesting. And very well written, in a lyrical prose style.

Therefore, because I was having a hard time relating the piece to photography, I decided to note and highlight phrases that connect to theories and ideas we have previously discussed about the evolution of photography. Although these phrases may not necessarily have anything to do with photography in their original context, I thought it was interesting how the combination of Agee’s words and photography could have potentially influenced his writing style. This can be assumed from what Agee says in his preface: “They [the photographs], and the text, are co-equal, mutually independent, and fully collaborative” (xi).

I associate the first two phrases with the link between the mechanics of the camera and the natural beauty it captures: “They have begun with the massive yet delicate beauty of most things which are turned out most cheaply in great tribes by machines: and on this basis of structure they are changed into images and marvels of nature” (236). (This phrase also reminds me of when cameras and film became easily accessible once they became mass-produced.) The second: “yet they are still the doing as much of machinery as of nature” (237), which exemplifies the debate over whether man’s hand takes any part in the creation of a photograph.

The second two phrases that I found could be associated with the individuality of a photograph: “The variety of personal choice is so wide, it can easily seem pure casual chance and carelessness” (240) and “each… is an extraordinary and beautiful object: but this is irrelevant to its social meanings, as are nearly all products of honesty, intelligence, and full innocence” (241).