We had a wonderful trip. Angela drove us to SFO airport and we got right through checking baggage and security with ease. We had a really nice couple sitting next to us. He was from Hamburg so we were able to ask him some questions about how to pronounce a few things in German.
Then in Frankfurt we got the ICE train to Gottingen and after a lovely 2 hour trip through the German countryside, we arrived in Gottingen to be met by Heath, one of the people who work at Steidl. We walked from the train to “Steidlville,” at Dustere Strasse 4. We were given keys to the flat on the fourth floor where luminaries in the art world like Gunther Grasse have stayed, It’s quite surreal just looking around this simple and beautifully kept flat. Neither of us can sleep, in part from jet-lag, and partly from the boisterous college students celebrating the Saturday night!
Gottingen is a beautiful city with a big university. It wasn’t bombed much in WWII due to its lack of manufacturing or industry so the buildings are old and charming. We will try to walk around the old city when we need to stretch and clear our heads. But our main purpose being here is not to rest or sight-see. We are here to represent the photographers in the Golden Decade and to see this project through to publication.
We are honored to represent the Golden Decade photographers. It was Ben Chinn, Bill Heick, Cameron Macauley and Ira Latour who first interested us in this book project. But then when we met all the other photographers, we were completely captivated. We are reminded of their colorful stories, so varied and rich. David Johnson, who was the first African American photographer to study with Ansel Adams, and he took photos of the early Jazz scene in the Fillmore District in San Francisco and then of the Civil Rights Movements. John Upton, who worked closely with Minor White, co-wrote the photography text book still used by colleges today, in its 11th printing. Ben Chinn, who had been in charge of the Army photography department from the West Coast to the Mississippi, produced stunning photos in Paris and San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Women were well represented in the early classes. Zoe Lowenthal, Muriel Green, Pat Harris, Helen Howell, just to name a few, all contributed beautiful work and intellectual prowess. And their voices ring out loud in their stories. Their perspective was quite different from the men, and just as compelling.
Many of these wonderful women and men have died since we came to this project. We miss them so much, but feel so glad to have just gotten to know them long enough to be deeply impressed by them. For those who are still living we are working hard to get their stories into print for them and their families. We have all been edified by the Golden Decade.
For us, and me personally, I’m thinking of my own father, who tirelessly tried to show us all his love for photography but who had to put up with an often petulant family who didn’t like to pose for him or sit with him in his darkroom. I can’t take this back, but I can take it forward. Here’s to new beginnings!
Today, now, promises to be exciting as we meet Gerhard for the first time and begin our journey at Steidl.
