At my uncle's suggestion, I just bought "Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World, 1939-1959". Wonderful book, well written about by many others. I highly recommend it.
What causes me to write, though, is Gjon Mili's photo of Pablo Picasso painting with light in his prime, 1949. Incredible when one realizes that Picasso is creating a piece of art that only he could see and that would have been completely ephemeral without the camera.
What is compelling about the image is how well lit it is. I'm paying a lot of attention to that sort of things in photos these days and I have some small inking of how difficult it was for Mili to both envision and then execute on this shot.
I'm looking for it on the internet so that I can add it to this post to show you just what I mean. Quite rare, as it is an early Kodachrome photo - and all the more powerful for it.
Posted by artandscience at August 12, 2006 03:17 PM