A. Aubrey Bodine: Baltimore Pictorialist, 1906-1970 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)

One Saturday afternoon about five years ago in Washington, DC, I wandered into the gallery of Kathleen Ewing and spent hours looking at the pictures of the photographers she represents. Prominent among them was A. Aubrey Bodine and his magnificent images of the people of the Chesapeake Bay. I'd never heard of Bodine but was completely captured by his pictures of the water and the people who live and work on it. Many of his pictures intrigued me because they look so much like stage settings with actors posed for the pleasure of the camera. But Bodine was also a portrait photographer, and one of great skill. This book, with beautifully reproduced photographs, an appreciation & biography by Ewing and a remembrance by Harold A. Williams who worked with Bodine on the "Baltimore Sun," will surely bring a new and appreciative audience for Bodine. One cannot help but be impressed with the fog rolling in on a Baltimore dock over two sleeping dogs in 1947, naked boys diving into the Patapsco River in a 1933 photograph which pays obvious homage to Thomas Eakins, or with the 1955 portrait of H.L. Mencken, among many, many others. Highly Recommended.

I first saw the A. Aubrey Bodine book at the headquarters of the National Press Photographers Association in Durham, NC. Ken Cooke, director of photography for the Fayetteville Observer, and I were visiting with Charlie Cooper, the NPPA director. We decided to visit Charlie on our way back from Washington where we were coordinating a photo exhibit on Desert Storm at the Smithsonian. During our talk, Charlie picked up on a comment I made about timing, feeling, and heart coinciding with release of the shutter--classic Cartier Bresson "decisive moment" I guess. Anyway, Charlie then took me into the NPPA library where he showed me a book of someone's work he knew defined our discussion. It was the book "A. Aubrey Bodine : Baltimore Pictorialist, 1906-1970." As NPPA director, Charlie has known and worked with many great photographers and Bodine was one of them. Ken also became very excited having known Bodine from years of working in photojourn! alism and having a sincere appreciation for Bodine's work. I, as the younger man, had never heard of Bodine until that day, but I will always be grateful to Charlie Cooper for introducing me to this book. To me, Bodine defines seeing the day-to-day world with heart and moment as I believe very few photographers today achieve. He is not well known, but his work is something to cherish. I feel very fortunate to have a copy (Charlie was kind enough to send me one). It is a book that every student of photography and community photojournalism should see, feel, and own.