Photographer showcase: John Loengard

There are a many photographers that influenced me when I was young and first starting in photography. But there are only a handful that I have truly admired ever since and that I truly believe had a big impact in how I see photographically. One of these is John Loengard.

Mr. Loengard was born in New York City in 1934. He shot on assignment for Life while still an undergraduate at Harvard, and joined the magazine's staff in 1961, where he had the opportunity to photograph a diverse group of subjects such as The Beetles, T.S. Elliott, Louis Armstrong, and Georgia O'Keeffe. He later became Picture Editor of Life Special Report, and subsequently of Life itself, where he's considered to be a key figure in re-inventing the magazine as a monthly. American Photographer praised him as "Life's most influential photographer".

Many years ago I was in my early 20's and living in New York City. While browsing photography books at a Barnes & Noble on a lazy weekend afternoon, I came across his book Pictures Under Discussion. I vividly remember going through the images and reading the accompanying text. Eventually I realized I'd spent a couple of hours already and still wanted more, so I bought the book. Since then, I've returned to it on numerous occasions and it's never been out of reach. It's one of those books that's both a collection of powerful photographs and an insight into the brain of a great photographer. The book is a collection of over 80 images, each with a short text by Mr. Loengard describing what he was thinking when he took the picture. The text in the book jacket explains it better:

These engaging observations reveal the working methods and artistic concerns of the photographer as journalist, and the reader comes to see how Loengard's aesthetic and technique lead to his constantly starling imagery. The balance of such considerations as tact, light, timing, gesture, expression, and composition combine to create seemingly inevitable, yet entirely unpredictable photographs...

I didn't make this post a book review because this particular book is unfortunately out of print. If you can get a copy of it, grab it. There's a more recent book titled As I See It that's still available, but I haven't seen it so can't comment. Either way, I strongly recommend you look and closely study his work. A google images search for "John Loengard" will give you plenty of results. Other interesting links are:

• John Loengard on artnet
• John Loengard in After Image Gallery