Laurie says:

I seem to be looking at portraits lately.  I saw this one of the actress and activist Ruby Dee and really liked it.  I’ve always admired her and this shows her at time I hadn’t seen before.

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This was taken when she worked at the Western Electric Company’s Kearny Works during World War II, soldering wires on an assembly line.  I like the way it shows her intense concentration, and aesthetically I appreciate the way it pushes the ragged edge of white (something I do in my own work).

Paul Novitski asked me in the comments to expand what I mean by the “ragged edge of white”

I think the best way to start, is to say something about the ragged edge of black. This is the edge you see pushed more usually in photography. A good example of this is Roy De Carava’s photo from post about him.

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I like to push the ragged edge of white occasionally, which is less usual.  This photo of mine is a good example.

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You’ll notice the important areas of the intense whites and you do in the portrait of Ruby Dee.

Thanks for asking Paul.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 12:34 am and is filed under Art, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.