Aren’t you a lucky person, Søren!?? My God, what a find! That’s what you get when you like to open old boxes or go through dusty stuff. Makes me think of those gold diggers panning for gold. Swirling the pan until they found something shinning at the bottom. That’s what you found!😉
Coming from a family of smokers, miraculously I never took up the practice. One puff of a cigarette in my very early teens was all it took for me to never do it again. As far as photographs of smokers or cigarettes, I could pull them all up at a moment’s notice in Lightroom, most were unintentionally photographed.
Good for you for not turning to smoking, particularly if the rest of your family are smokers! I do think they make an interesting topic. How people hold their cigarettes, how the smoke is blown out and dissipates. It does make for good photographs! Thank you for your comment!
Despite the fact I don't find smoking sexy or cool, these are great photographs. I especially like the one of the Irish men because they look so Irish. The woman smoking two cigarettes in amazing.
Your detective work sounds very fulfilling for you and leads to some intriguing stories and adventures. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
Hey Andrea, thank you for your comment. You just need a small break for these kinds of investigations to come together. And to be honest, the internet has improved a lot in the last few years and you can search in more imaginative ways to get to what you are looking for. 25 years ago, this would have been a difficult challenge….. Thank you for reading!
He Susanne, thank you for reading and the restack! Finding things is less easy now, I think. 20 years ago, or 30, the internet was not as searchable as it is now, and there was much less information available. This whole story only really evolved in the past couple of years, when I found the auction catalogue entry, which opened the door. Also, I think all you really have to do is know a little more than the next person. There are no doubt still lots of treasures out there. So, I still go through boxes. I think of it as the lottery. You have buy a ticket to win!
A great read, Søren, and a great collection of images. Love the HCB Tipperary one, the Ostia Lido one as well as Picasso. The Rayographs are intriguing too. The contact prints are very interesting and a great find. I hope you are able to eventually uncover the history of them.
Thank you, Mark! It is a fun group. I am still working on the strips. I have no idea beyond my suspicions. I will keep at it, but it remains a very dark tunnel for now. I too really like the HCB. It is a fun challenge to figure out the rest, but it was the HCB, which drew me in, in the first place.
What a great read and showcase of this most amazing exhibition, that was rare then, as it would be nowadays, for the reasons mentioned by you. I think there are at least three generations that have during their lifetimes become accustomed to the rather unique phenomenon that is the 'cool' of smoking, maybe most revealed by the poignant presence of smoking in films, where it was often used as an attribute to tough, artistic, free-spirited, elegant and generally unconventional personae. In photography, as your post shows to some extent, smoking is less of an attribute than a habit that was very common among people from all levels of society. In tobacco ads brands claimed the most outrageous positive side effects of smoking, rather than the negative ones it's associated with now. I have smoked (until 2006) and can remember in my adolescence and young adult life there still was a remainder of those attributes from the past.
About the film strips: your idea of authorship seems very likely, although my first thought was Moholy-Nagy, but I couldn't think of any photo he made that is close to this in idea or form.
It's such a wonderful side-view into photo history, and I think you've done a wonderful job to delve into this and share your findings with us!
Thank you, Vincent. I am sure a lot of us can relate. I gave up smoking before you did the same, and yes, it was cool in part based on heroes of the day on celluloid puffing away! I do think these photographs show a very social side of smoking. People relaxing, enjoying themselves, having a pint.... It is not long ago where the end of the world was deemed to be near, because people would no longer be able to smoke in bars! Times change, and we change with them. I don't consider myself particularly driven by social norms, but I think I have become very sensitive to smoking and I really don't like the smell on my clothes, or in the curtains. We adjust.
I am intrigued by Moholy-Nagy, I could imagine him doing the strips.... very interesting idea. I will look into that.
It is an interesting exhibit. I have a photograph, rather large, much larger than my scanner of a young Cartier-Bresson attending a show of his own photographs. They are enlarged, mounted on something - a piece of plywood maybe - and just attached to the wall. There are no frames. There is no glass. It seems we have come quite a long way to where we are today, where there is almost a certain code to showing photographs, if you are a serious gallery, or institution.
I will let you know if I figure out the maker of the strips! Thank you so much for reading!
Hi Kevin, these are the actual 1964 silver prints that were on the wall. It is no unusual for shows to get sold off when a show ends. Particularly, when it is not by a single photographer, but a group show.
I am not sure the museum ever owned these prints. I suspect the tobacco company sponsored the show, maybe not directly, but at least indirectly by way of the ‘collector’, who may, or may not actually have been the owner of the photographs. I have attended a number of photography fairs, where the content of a booth has been sold cheaply to a local dealer after, because it costs too much to ship back to wherever the gallery is from. A large image, maybe 8 feet by 5, or something, which at the exhibitor’s booth would have been 15,000 sold for 1,500 in the local gallery simply because shipping, paperwork, duty, etc. was just too complicated. And yes, you are right, prints were much smaller back in those days.
Ho goodness. What a pile of stuff to come upon! Nice bit of history, Soren!! It always cracks me up how things tie together and how quickly we find ourselves pulling at the threads of photographic art history.
As someone who quit smoking many years ago I still find images of people smoking very cool. I can’t help it. Let’s not start smoking, though.
Hey Sila, I completely agree. Let's not go back there 😃 Thank you for stopping by!
so cool!
Aren’t you a lucky person, Søren!?? My God, what a find! That’s what you get when you like to open old boxes or go through dusty stuff. Makes me think of those gold diggers panning for gold. Swirling the pan until they found something shinning at the bottom. That’s what you found!😉
Panning for gold! Good analogy. Thank you, Luz! For me it is as much about figuring out the story. I love a good mystery…..
Coming from a family of smokers, miraculously I never took up the practice. One puff of a cigarette in my very early teens was all it took for me to never do it again. As far as photographs of smokers or cigarettes, I could pull them all up at a moment’s notice in Lightroom, most were unintentionally photographed.
Cheers
Good for you for not turning to smoking, particularly if the rest of your family are smokers! I do think they make an interesting topic. How people hold their cigarettes, how the smoke is blown out and dissipates. It does make for good photographs! Thank you for your comment!
Pure magic ✨ thanks for sharing all these great photographs 😊
Thank you, Léa! It is not something I would have thought of putting together, but I am glad someone did and I do like the photographs!
Despite the fact I don't find smoking sexy or cool, these are great photographs. I especially like the one of the Irish men because they look so Irish. The woman smoking two cigarettes in amazing.
Your detective work sounds very fulfilling for you and leads to some intriguing stories and adventures. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
Hey Andrea, thank you for your comment. You just need a small break for these kinds of investigations to come together. And to be honest, the internet has improved a lot in the last few years and you can search in more imaginative ways to get to what you are looking for. 25 years ago, this would have been a difficult challenge….. Thank you for reading!
I love Man Ray's images.
They are super cool! For sure. Thank you for reading, Manuela!
I can‘t believe what you find in second hand stores. Amazing story!
He Susanne, thank you for reading and the restack! Finding things is less easy now, I think. 20 years ago, or 30, the internet was not as searchable as it is now, and there was much less information available. This whole story only really evolved in the past couple of years, when I found the auction catalogue entry, which opened the door. Also, I think all you really have to do is know a little more than the next person. There are no doubt still lots of treasures out there. So, I still go through boxes. I think of it as the lottery. You have buy a ticket to win!
The Blue Haze: It's Toasted.
Nice collection of smoker photos! Thanks for sharing, Søren!
Thank you, Saptarishi. I do like them. It may not be politically correct, but I do like them!!
I don’t smoke or condone smoking but it does look attractive for some reason, I’ll admit!
You are funny! I completely agree!
A great read, Søren, and a great collection of images. Love the HCB Tipperary one, the Ostia Lido one as well as Picasso. The Rayographs are intriguing too. The contact prints are very interesting and a great find. I hope you are able to eventually uncover the history of them.
Thank you, Mark! It is a fun group. I am still working on the strips. I have no idea beyond my suspicions. I will keep at it, but it remains a very dark tunnel for now. I too really like the HCB. It is a fun challenge to figure out the rest, but it was the HCB, which drew me in, in the first place.
What a great read and showcase of this most amazing exhibition, that was rare then, as it would be nowadays, for the reasons mentioned by you. I think there are at least three generations that have during their lifetimes become accustomed to the rather unique phenomenon that is the 'cool' of smoking, maybe most revealed by the poignant presence of smoking in films, where it was often used as an attribute to tough, artistic, free-spirited, elegant and generally unconventional personae. In photography, as your post shows to some extent, smoking is less of an attribute than a habit that was very common among people from all levels of society. In tobacco ads brands claimed the most outrageous positive side effects of smoking, rather than the negative ones it's associated with now. I have smoked (until 2006) and can remember in my adolescence and young adult life there still was a remainder of those attributes from the past.
About the film strips: your idea of authorship seems very likely, although my first thought was Moholy-Nagy, but I couldn't think of any photo he made that is close to this in idea or form.
It's such a wonderful side-view into photo history, and I think you've done a wonderful job to delve into this and share your findings with us!
Thank you, Vincent. I am sure a lot of us can relate. I gave up smoking before you did the same, and yes, it was cool in part based on heroes of the day on celluloid puffing away! I do think these photographs show a very social side of smoking. People relaxing, enjoying themselves, having a pint.... It is not long ago where the end of the world was deemed to be near, because people would no longer be able to smoke in bars! Times change, and we change with them. I don't consider myself particularly driven by social norms, but I think I have become very sensitive to smoking and I really don't like the smell on my clothes, or in the curtains. We adjust.
I am intrigued by Moholy-Nagy, I could imagine him doing the strips.... very interesting idea. I will look into that.
It is an interesting exhibit. I have a photograph, rather large, much larger than my scanner of a young Cartier-Bresson attending a show of his own photographs. They are enlarged, mounted on something - a piece of plywood maybe - and just attached to the wall. There are no frames. There is no glass. It seems we have come quite a long way to where we are today, where there is almost a certain code to showing photographs, if you are a serious gallery, or institution.
I will let you know if I figure out the maker of the strips! Thank you so much for reading!
What is the origin of the photos? Was it a portfolio sold along with the exhibition, like an exhibition catalogue?
Hi Kevin, these are the actual 1964 silver prints that were on the wall. It is no unusual for shows to get sold off when a show ends. Particularly, when it is not by a single photographer, but a group show.
A big museum selling off prints? That's insane! Even if they are "just" photos. Also, I guess that even exhibition prints in those days were small!
I am not sure the museum ever owned these prints. I suspect the tobacco company sponsored the show, maybe not directly, but at least indirectly by way of the ‘collector’, who may, or may not actually have been the owner of the photographs. I have attended a number of photography fairs, where the content of a booth has been sold cheaply to a local dealer after, because it costs too much to ship back to wherever the gallery is from. A large image, maybe 8 feet by 5, or something, which at the exhibitor’s booth would have been 15,000 sold for 1,500 in the local gallery simply because shipping, paperwork, duty, etc. was just too complicated. And yes, you are right, prints were much smaller back in those days.
It makes sense that the sponsor could have provided the prints. Things were different back then.
Incredible story. Good for you for recognizing them in the store.
I know, Tim! I was lucky to be there when he put the folder out, and lucky to recognise the Cartier-Bresson image. Thank you for reading!
Great find, thx for sharing the story.
Thank you, Ruben! It was a fun trip!
Ho goodness. What a pile of stuff to come upon! Nice bit of history, Soren!! It always cracks me up how things tie together and how quickly we find ourselves pulling at the threads of photographic art history.
Hi Hanz, thank you for the comment. In so many ways, photography is not terribly developed in a historical context. In art-terms we are just babies!
Super enjoyable article and great historical images as well. 👌🖤📷
Thank you, Benjamin for stopping by. There are some great photographs here, for sure!