Tramway Station, U.S. Capitol, 1935-36
Photograph by Volkmar Wentzel
If you like National Geographic magazine and want to see photography by four of the all-time greats, come to the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., before January 4 to see the "Odysseys and Photographs" show. Luis Marden, Volkmar Wentzel, Thomas Abercrombie, and Maynard Owen Williams shot a collective 162 years (!) for the magazine. They were intrepid explorers as well as photographers. Williams first came to the magazine in 1919 and Abercrombie retired in 1994, so this selection gives you an idea of how National Geographic saw the world through much of its history. I would bet even most photo buffs have never heard of these gentlemen, but as you will see in the book Odysseys and Photographs edited by Leah Bendavid-Val, their work is superb.
In addition to the exhibit at headquarters, come celebrate the lives and work of these four great National Geographic photojournalists, and check out the Odysseys and Photographs NGLive! event, Monday, November 10.
Woman and Coffee Blossoms, El Salvador, 1941
Photograph by Luis Marden
What's wonderful about the exhibition is the way it's captured the sense of adventure these men felt when they went into the field. You get a taste of their personalities not only from the photographs themselves, but also from the (often entertaining) telegrams they sent to their editors and even from the sound of their voices, which you can hear when you pick up one of those heavy, black, old-fashioned telephones installed in the museum. Kids especially seem to enjoy hearing the photographers talk about their exploits on these "telephones to heaven" (as one of my colleagues dryly described them). You can also see their black-and-white prints on a desktop and their color transparencies and even a few autochromes strewn on a lightbox, as if an editor had just stepped away.
Herat, Afghanistan, 1931
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams
We also get glimpses of the photographers' personal lives. Luis Marden first approached National Geographic with the declaration "Gentlemen, I am unencumbered in any way [read: unmarried] and free to travel anywhere" as if that were the foremost requirement for joining the staff. Thomas Abercrombie's wife, Lynn, also a photographer, often accompanied him on assignment, and he once turned down a Bedouin emir's offer to trade her for 50 camels. Maynard Owen Williams convinced then editor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor to allow him to relocate with his family to France, thus becoming the first (and for a time the only) member of National Geographic's Foreign Editorial Staff. But as we hear Volkmar Wentzel say rather plaintively in his own voice, everyone thinks the life of a photographer is glamorous, but more often it's simply lonesome.
Woman With Birdcage, Afghanistan, 1967
Photograph by Thomas Abercrombie
It's astonishing to think that photographers could come to a magazine and stay for 40 years. The current business climate certainly doesn't encourage this, and neither does the culture of disposable celebrity. But nurturing long-term community, on both the writing side and the visual side, is a tradition at National Geographic. We still work with photographers who've contributed to the magazine for decades. Bill Allard apparently holds the current record, shooting for us more than 44 years and counting.
This continuity does create a sense of family at the magazine that is one of its defining characteristics, and these legendary photographers are still very much beloved among the staff who knew them. The exhibition also makes clear how much the contributors loved what they did and how fortunate they felt to be traveling the world on the magazine's behalf. As Williams once said, "The greatest 'kick' a field man can have is to carry a million and a quarter members up onto a high mountain, show them the world, and say 'It's yours in a way it could not be without me.'"
Related Links:
Buy the book Odysseys and Photographs online
See the exhibit at National Geographic headquarters
NGLive! Events: www.nationalgeographic.com/nglive/washingtondc/index.html
National Geographic Museum: www.nationalgeographic.com/museum
