National Geographics Greatest Portraits

[JBrunner]

I Just noticed this:

In Focus, National Geographics Greatest Portraits

at

The Utah Museum of Natural History (kind of an oxymoron )

May 13 to Sept 23rd

Adults $6

I'm going Saturday.

[Pinholemaster]

Wonder if the photographers who made the "greatest portraits" will see a slice of that 6 bucks?

Grin.

[bjorke]

...of course not, nor will the many people portrayed, most of whom are non-Americans and never even signed a release before becoming symbols of a corporate publisher

[mtbbrian]

I have been meaning to get there!
Thankfully it runs as late as it does!
Hey Jason!
Brian

[df cardwell]

...of course not, nor will the many people portrayed, most of whom are non-Americans and never even signed a release before becoming symbols of a corporate publisher

[JBrunner]

Well, I went to the show last Saturday, and I've been mulling over how to follow up this thread ever since.

I don't like to say bad things, especially about photography, and this is representative of some very good photography, and the content of the show is great, running in a timeline from the earliest days of the magazine, to near present.

Sadly, the presentation quality is atrocious. Most of this exhibit is best viewed from the middle of the room. It literally looks like the exhibit was scanned on an old flatbed, jpeged, emailed to the museum, and then printed at the office superstore down the block. The prints are not prints. They are posters. Really bad posters. Not a single photograph in the room.

Kendrick's elegant little tintype has been scanned, and blown up to about 4 feet tall. Severe compression artifacting is evident in all areas of bokeh from a normal viewing distance. The poster does not resolve until you are over twenty feet back. The blacks have also been squirted out a sickly green, and we're not talking about subtle.

Others exhibit color dither in all continuos tones, again at normal viewing distance, and beyond.

Very, very disappointing, but I guess it is to be expected as the Dthingie dumbing down hits critical mass.

All was not lost, as the admission also covered the rest of the museum, wich has a fine fossil collection, and a wonderful minerals exhibit, among other things.

[naturephoto1]

Jason,

Sorry to hear that the NGS made such a poor presentation and reproduction of such fine and important photographs. That is certainly very disappointing to hear.

Rich