Passings ~ Billy Bang (1947-2011)

Billy Bang, Brussels, 2005. Photograph © Daniel Theunynck.

Tonight npr reports that the extraordinary jazz violinist Billy Bang has died. This is a terrible loss. I was privileged to hear Bang play numerous times and found him not only an extremely talented but a fundamentally decent man.
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P.S.: Here is the obit from The New York Times.

Passings ~ Manning Marable (1950-2011)

Manning Marable, historian and social theorist, has died. You can find the obituary from The New York Times here.

Passings ~ Brian Lanker (1947-2011)

Photojournalist Brian Lanker has died. You can find the obituary from The New York Times here.

Passings ~ Boxall, Constantine, Douglas

Once again The Guardian has published a series of obituaries of photographers - Tony Boxall (1929 -2011), George Douglas (1922-2011), and Dennis Constantine (1926-2010). Once again, these are people with whose work I am unfamiliar.

Passings ~ Tweedie, Dominic & Pikow

In The Guardian since the turn of the new year I've noticed a series reports relating the deaths of photographers who, while quite accomplished, were wholly unknown to me. So, here are links to their obituaries: Penny Tweedie (1940-2011), Zoë Dominic (1920-2011) and George Pikow (1922-2011).

Passings ~ Milton Rogovin (1909-2011)

Milton Rogovin (2004). Portrait © Alec Soth.

The wonderful photographer Milton Rogovin has died. You can find an obituary here and further commentary here in The New York Times. I've posted several times here on Rogovin and his work. There is little to say but that he had a long life and lived it well, with integrity and enthusiasm.
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P.S. ~ Updated 19 January 2011: You can find a nice, brief 2008 essay on Rogovin from the British Journal of Photography here.

Passings ~ Judy Bonds (1952-2011)

Environmental Activist Judy Bonds has died. Bonds (the picture here is from 2009) was a critic of mountaintop removal coal mining and was director of Coal River Mountain Watch. You can find an obituary here in The New York Times and another one from West Virginia Public Broadcasting here.

I've lifted this video remembrance from Appalachia Rising:

Vivian Maier (1926-2009)

Photograph © Vivian Maier

I came across this story today on the rediscovery of Vivian Maier. It is not exactly an obituary, more a remembrance and celebration. And since the images mostly depict of Chicago, I find them especially interesting.

Passings: Chalmers Johnson (1931-2010)

Political Scientist Chalmers Johnson (no relation) has died. Johnson was a right-wing critic of American military adventurism overseas. I thought his views on many matters were wacked. But his criticisms of Bush-era foreign policy were useful for establishing that one cannot simply identify anti-empire positions as a form of left-wing subversion. And, of course, he provided a role model for those who think that the discipline ought to be engaged actively in public debate. You can read the obituary from The New York Times here

Passings: Jack Levine (1915-2010)

American painter Jack Levine has died. You can find an obituary here in The New York Times. Levine, according to the Times, was adept at 'skewering plutocrats.' His work on the painting I've lifted here - entitled the "Feast of Pure Reason" (1937) - was funded by the WPA. Imagine the government today funding artists to depict the 'patriotic' intimacies that exist between police, politicians and capitalists! In discussions of the economic stimulus spending program there was lots of talk about 'shovel ready' construction projects. No one thought to mention the plethora of 'satire- ready' subjects among the prominent, wealthy and powerful.

Passings ~ Marion Brown (1931-2010)

When I lived in Amherst, Mass. briefly after graduating from college, I had the chance to hear saxophonist Marion Brown play live. Among my favorite records (well before vinyl was the 'retro' medium for hipsters) at the time was a solo recording by Brown. In any case, Brown has died. You can find a notice here in The New York Times. (Thanks Patrick!)

Passings ~ Corinne Day (1962-2010)

In The Guardian you can find a slew of tributes to and remembrances of fashion photographer Corinne Day who has died prematurely of brain cancer [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].

Passings ~ Herman Leonard (1923-2010)

Photographer Herman Leonard, perhaps most famous for his iconic images of jazz musicians, has died. You can find notices from the L.A. Times and npr here and here.

Passings ~ Joanna Steichen (1933-2010)

Joanna Steichen, third wife of photographer Edward Steichen has died. The New York Times ran this obituary. This may seem a bit of a stretch as the basis for a post. But it is a good thing, I think, to puncture the photographer-as-hero-genius myth that pervades the profession. Not only are those who make images captive to those who inhabit a host of institutional arrangements (e.g., editors, curators, publishers, galleries, museums, agencies, etc.), but they often are beholden too to the active collaboration of inspiring subjects (e.g., [1] [2]) and of supportive families and creative staff. (Joanna Steichen clearly falls into that category; but she is not alone if one thinks, for instance, of Lélia Wanick Salgado or of the staff Ed Burtynski has put together to fabricate his prints.)

Passings ~ Lee Lockwood (1932-2010)

Photojournalist Lee Lockwood has died. You can find the obituary from The New York Times here. Here again my lack of background is a disability. Lockwood seems to have slipped from the limelight leaving a considerable body of provocative work.

Passings ~ Tony Judt (1948 ~2010)

Historian Tony Judt has died. You can find obituaries from The New York Times here and from The Guardian here.

Passings ~ Benny Powell (1930~2010)

Photograph © Jos L. Knaepen.

Trombonist Penny Powell has died. I had the true pleasure of hearing Powell play with Pianist Randy Weston on two occasions in NYC several years ago. You can find a brief obituary here in The New York Times.

Passings ~ Fred Anderson (1929-2010)

Fred Anderson sits on the edge of the stage at the Velvet Lounge
before opening for the evening (February 2006)
~ Photograph © Jeff Robertson/AP.

Fred Anderson has died. You can read obituaries here and here and here and here. Anderson was a musician, entrepreneur, mentor and, by all accounts, a genuinely decent man. His passing is an immense loss to the jazz scene in Chicago especially, but very far beyond as well. I commented on a recent Anderson recording here just about this time last year.
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Thanks for the heads up!

Passings ~ Joe Deal (1947-2010)

Sanitary Landfill, Corona, California, 1984, from
Subdividing the Inland Basin. Photograph © Joe Deal.

Photographer Joe Deal - perhaps best known as contributor to “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” in the mid 1970s - has died. You can find an obituary from The New York Times here.

Passings ~ Louise Bourgeois (1911~2010)

“The subject of pain is the business I am in . . . To give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. . . . The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses.” ~ Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois, 1982.
Photograph © The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe.

Among the events I have managed to neglect of late was the death of artist Louise Bourgeois. In part that was because I have been very busy and in part it is because I am woefully out of touch with the history of art. But when I noticed my old friend Susan Bogle Finnegan, herself a talented and accomplished artist, calling her "extraordinary," I was pretty certain I'd missed the boat. ("Again!" Susan would no doubt note.) In any case, you can find a slide show of her work and an appreciation in The New York Times here and here; and yet another slide show and an obituary here and here at The Guardian, followed by this appreciation by Germaine Greer.

Here is a telling snippet from the appreciation Holland Cotter published in The Times:

"Ms. Bourgeois’s sculptures in wood, steel, stone and cast rubber, often organic in form and sexually explicit, emotionally aggressive yet witty, covered many stylistic bases. But from first to last they shared a set of repeated themes centered on the human body and its need for nurture and protection in a frightening world."

This strikes me as leading us to think about the politics of vulnerability and security. But, from what I can see, none of commentaries accept the invitation.