A Salute to the Masters: Unstuck Posters (A Tribute to Aaron Siskind)

After writing a series of articles dedicated to arguably some of the greatest street photographers, this time I wrote one dedicated to the American abstract expressionist artist Aaron Siskind – a master of immortalizing details of nature, body parts and architecture, as well as walls and objects found in the streets – and his series of photographs of unstuck posters.

I first knew about the work of *Aaron Siskind* (1903-1991) after reading the book “Principles of Composition in Photography” by the photographer Andreas Feininger. This is a photo of a wall in New York which resembles a contemporary abstract art painting, taken by Siskind.

Born in New York at the beginning of 20th century, Siskind began to photograph when he received a photo camera as a wedding gift in 1929. In 1932, he joined the Photo League Association, an organization of New York City photographers devoted to documenting social life in the city’s working class neighborhoods. As a leader of this group, Siskind created an important social reportage documenting the life in the Harlem district during the Great Depression.

In the early 1940s, Siskind left the Photo League to dedicate himself to a unrelenting exploration of objects and natural details. He photographed unstuck posters, body parts, fence details, gravestones, walls, trees, and leaves.

While teaching at the Black Mountain College in the summer of 1951, Siskind met fellow faculty member and photographer Harry Callahan of the Institute of Design in Chicago, who invited him to join his team. When Callagam left the Institute in 1961, Siskind took over as head of the photography program, continuing to teach until his retirement in 1976.

For this tribute, I took a series of photos of unstuck posters in my city, Como. I loaded my Zorki 5 camera with a roll of Ilford FP4 black and white film.

A Salute to the Masters is a series dedicated to great photographers that I like. I posted other tributes for Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Ernst Haas, Stephen Shore, Gabriele Basilico, Robert Adams, Thomas Struth, J.H. Lartigue, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Gianni Berengo Gardin, André Kertész, Willy Ronis, Brassaï, Rodchenko, Dan Graham, Henry Grant, William Eggleston, Dennis Stock, Juergen Teller, Martin Parr, Peter Mitchell, Mario Giacomelli, David Burnett, Michael Williamson, Bernard Cahier, Harry Gruyaert, Bruno Barbey, Paul Strand, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Lothar Rübelt, David Goldblatt, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Raymond Depardon and Izis Bidermanas. I especially love street photography and urban architectural photography.

written by sirio174 on 2014-12-13 #lifestyle #advertisement #italy #como #regular-contributor #a-salute-to-the-masters #aaron-siskind #unstuck-posters