Thank you to the New York Times for informing me that The Jump Book exists. A book of photographs of the most unlikely people jumping. Rather great. Take a look. The Duke of Windsor or Richard Nixon - which is the most surprising?
Thank you to the New York Times for informing me that The Jump Book exists. A book of photographs of the most unlikely people jumping. Rather great. Take a look. The Duke of Windsor or Richard Nixon - which is the most surprising?
I suppose that it is Halsman Jacques Barzun referred to when he wrote
ReplyDeleteOne of the world's leading photographers concludes his session with a siter by requesting a favor: will the sitter jump for him? The artist explains by bringing out a stack of photographs of the world's leading notables taken in the act of jumping.... Now will you jump for me? According to the artist himself, only two of his subjects have refused. Each time he asked for their reasons. Whether both mentioned the supreme informality of the pose, the impudent overdose of candor, or the rancid flavor of amateur psychologizing, the photographer is too offended to remember.
(The House of Intellect, end of the chapter "Conversation, Manners, and the Home")
I would love to know who refused. I love their reasons. They both belong to that rare breed of person who is not overwhelmed by the desire to please. Without that element, there is no reliable integrity.
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