Robert Pledge (center) and Ronald Pledge (right)
Photograph by Elizabeth Krist
When I walked into the Artefacto Exhibit Space in Georgetown the evening before the opening of "Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism," not a single piece of art was hanging on the walls or from the ceiling. Robert Pledge, co-founder and director of Contact Press Images, had arrived for the day to oversee the installation of the exhibit, but even after he raced out to catch a plane at 8 pm, there was still only one oversized contact sheet in place. And yet, when the opening began just 22 hours later, the exhibit was miraculously up and ready for prime time. The adrenaline of the last-minute just seems to be a grand Contact tradition.....
The show is an impressive look at one photography agency's journey through the last 30 years of news and human drama. But it is also a tribute to film in the digital age, celebrating the artifact of the contact sheet, which documents a photographer's step-by-step approach to a particular subject on a particular day. Not like today's slippery digital catalogues, with images diving out of sight or slipping out of order. Just the (in this case) black-and-white rectangles locked into their original sequence unfolding over time. As Ronald Pledge, Robert's son, wonders, will the next generation even know what a contact sheet is?
Contact Sheet - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran, February 1979
Photograph © by David Burnett (Contact Press Images)
Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile, Iran, February l979
Photograph © by David Burnett (Contact Press Images)
The exhibit is appearing in the US for the first time, and it is irresistible. The highlight is 25 massive, barn-door sized contact sheets hanging from the ceiling. When I first saw a version of this show at the Pingyao photo festival in China two years ago, I couldn't help playing the parlor game of looking at each contact sheet and trying to find the iconic image that later emerged on the printed page. Unlike the contact sheets once exhibited by William Klein, these are not all marked with bright splashes of color to indicate his selections. The viewer can thus play the role of editor--which raises questions: In this era of Flickr and personal blogs, does anyone still need an editor? Is everyone an editor?
Omayra Sanchez, Armero, Colombia, 1985
Photograph © by Frank Fournier(Contact Press Images)
The show also includes images many of us will never forget, like this haunting portrait of Omayra Sanchez, a 13 year-old girl trapped by the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Armero, Colombia, in 1985.
I remember the days of marking up contact sheets with a grease pencil, and I remember going to the Contact offices on Central Park West almost 30 years ago and seeing Robert and co-founder David Burnett (as well as Rick Smolan and David Cohen of "Day in the Life" fame) wandering around. Ronald, who finally oversaw the desperate last-minute hanging of the FotoWeek show, was practically a baby back then. The industry seems to keep evolving faster than ever, but even if contact sheets and 35mm slides eventually become relics of a distant age, we can hang onto the friends we've known in this crazy musical-chairs game of a business.
