The Contact Sheet by Steve Crist takes a look at a crucial aspect of the photographic art that is seldom addressed in books or discussion: the selection of images from a shoot. I always find it fascinating on those occasions where another photographer edits my work (or vice versa) to find that frequently the images they choose as the “selects” differ from my own choices. Sometimes, we don’t even recognize our own best images until much later, as was the case for Alfred Stieglitz, who didn’t even bother to print “The Steerage” until 4 years after its capture. The Contact Sheet pulls from a wide variety of photographers, both legendary and more obscure, offering some of their signature images alongside the contact sheet from which those images were drawn. This provides a fascinating insight into both the process by which these photographers work, and also into their selection criteria for which images they stamp with their “seal of approval.”

© 2009 Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos/Courtesy AMMO Books

The book measures 8.25″ by 10.25″, and sits about 1″ thick including the cover. The printing is crisp and attractive, and the layout is well executed. The brief biographical sketches and contextual information for the shots is presented in 4 languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. The volume is published by AMMO Books, who were kind enough to authorize my reproduction of the selections from the book as illustration for my review.

© 1999 George Georgiou/Courtesy AMMO Books

© 1999 George Georgiou/Courtesy AMMO Books

An excellent example of the insights in the book is the chapter that presents George Georgiou’s photo-journalistic image of a wedding in Kosovo, circa 1999. The image was taken very soon after the end of hostilities, of a bride who was marrying a Kosovar Albanian that lived in Belgium. According to the photographer, it is the tradition there that the bride is supposed to maintain a solemn demeanor, while the party goes on around her. It is fascinating to see Georgiou work this one composition for an entire roll of Tri-X, looking for the one shot where the arms around the bride form the perfect zig-zag composition and the expressions are all clearly visible. One common theme that I noticed in this chapter and throughout the book is that the selected image was seldom the very last image taken… usually the photographer doesn’t know when he or she gets “the shot.” This fact was especially pronounced to me in the Doisneau chapter, where the photographer’s iconic “Le Basier de L’hotel de Ville” was presented. Based on the numbering of the contacts, Doisneau continued to pursue an inferior variation of his famous shot where the couple is on the back of a bus after the fateful frame was captured.

I find the fact that these photographers frequently didn’t realize (or weren’t confident) that they had “it” jibes with my own experience, and reinforces for me the subconscious nature of photography. Some might interpret the fact that photographers often don’t realize that they have the shot in the can to imply that they arrive at these great photographs by luck, or simply by playing the laws of probability to create enough volume of shots that statistics will ensure success. However, this view is refuted by the consistency of the really great photographers and by the inability of prolific journeymen to produce truly mind-blowing work. I rather interpret this trend to suggest that all photography combines aspects of conscious and unconscious thought. Frequently, our unconscious may achieve the instantaneous recognition of the “decisive moment,” expression, or composition before our conscious mind is prepared to recognize it. Our conscious selves may be so wrapped up in our stylistic concerns, our preconceived notions, that we overlook the greatness understood my our more instinctive selves.

The Contact Sheet is a modestly sized book that is crammed full of realizations and insights such as those above. Its reasonable price tag enables this book to be a painless investment in professional development, or a wonderful Christmas gift for your favorite photographer.

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