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Interview
with Paul Waldman
What
inspired you to start the LAMPP project?
I wanted
to show these artists were more than their images. The public is
too isolated from the photographer. The average person might recognize
an image but has no idea who made it. Even in the photographic community
relatively known artists are often unknown to their peers. I would
walk into some of the biggest labs in New York and people behind
the counter wouldn't know the work of the famous photographers whose
film had been brought to be processed and printed. I thought this
quite ironic.
Photographers are an incredible human resource. I had immersed myself
in the work of contemporary American photographers and found myself
looking at what might be considered a collective perspective, an
American point of view. For me this had a kind of social hum, with
a distinctly American quality. I simply got caught up “listening”.
As the project progressed, I became more enamored. I was meeting
the on-the-spot-historians of the 20th Century.
Who
was the most interesting subject you've photographed so far?
Of
the men in the project I can say without hesitation that two of
my favorite encounters were with Andreas Feininger and Allen Dutton.
Andreas was a man with an elegance rare to any age. He had the patience
to see, an unparalleled grace, and a will to translate, from his
mind, to those he taught through his many books. Allen on the other
hand would have been quite jovial with Chaucer or meditative with
Sufi mystics. As we drove through the back roads of Arizona, Allen
chimed with passages of poetry by Tennyson and Shakespeare. He can
see life inside and out, literally. His intellect is massive.
Of the women in the LAMPP, the choice is far more difficult. I wish
I had had the opportunity to travel on location with Mary Ellen
Mark, work in the darkroom with Ruth Bernhard, or develop a deeper
friendship with Inge Morath. There aren't words to express my life
in their presence. Experience is entirely in the moment. And in
these moments as with all LAMPP moments, I've been blessed.
Who
was the biggest surprise to you when you met them in person?
Irving Penn. He is one of my all time favorite photographers. When
we met for the first time, I was literally speechless. I don’t
know why. It was embarrassing. Fortunately I had the good luck to
meet with Mr. Penn again but all I could do was apologize for being
speechless the first time! If I have a third opportunity to speak
with him, I’d like to ask him to consider becoming part of
the project.
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Paul
Waldman
©David
LeRoy Hunsaker |
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