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Larry Racioppo on a perfect summer subject.
Inside Street Photography |
The official newsletter of Street Photography Magazine |
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| Friday, 26 Jul 2024 | Reading time: 5 mins | Read online
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I began swimming when I was six years old, fourteen years before I began photographing. Since I like to swim almost as much as I like to photograph, it was only a matter of time before I started photographing swimmers on the beaches, lakes and pools I frequented. Most of my first photos were not very good.
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| Plum Beach, Brooklyn, 1976 |
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I had to photograph people near the water but not in it because I did not have an underwater camera like the classic Nikon Nikonos 35mm film camera. From the original Nikonos, introduced in 1963 through the final Nikonos V, this was THE CAMERA used by serious photographers. You can learn more about it here.
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Peter Kayas used a Nikonos to make the photographs in his wonderful book about swimmers at Coney Island. In his introduction, Peter describes his MO:
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“I keep my camera hidden underwater while I stalk around the crowds of people splashing, wrestling, or embracing; then, at the last moment, I pull the camera up to my eye to make the photograph.”
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After I moved to Rockaway Beach in 1990 and began swimming in the ocean regularly, I wanted an underwater camera. I could not afford a Nikonos so I bought a Minolta Weathermatic 35mm camera. It was released in 1987 and cost about 1/3 of the Nikonos.
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I made some interesting photos with it, but was never truly pleased. I used it to photograph my family and friends in the ocean, in Rockaway, and in pools upstate. I never made any “art” with it, and when it stopped working (I may have let water get inside.), I threw it away.
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| Patrick and Joey, Rockaway, NY, 1995 |
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| Kara and her cousins, Delmar, NY, 1993 |
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I often brought a second camera, usually medium format, with me as well, and I was much happier with the photographs I made near the water’s edge, or on the side of the pool.
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| Chris, Delmar, NY 1994 |
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Of course, I was not the only photographer working seriously near – but not in - the water. Between 1992 and 2002, Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra used a 4x5 view camera and fill-in flash to create exquisite portraits of young people on beaches ranging from Gabon to Poland to Coney Island. Eighteen of these images are included in her 2004 monograph, published by Schirmer/Mosel and D.A.P.
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Dr. Marcus Bunyan wrote with depth and insight about her Beach Portraits series which were included in Ms. Dijkstra’s 2012 retrospective at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York. Had I seen this book earlier, I might have started using fill-in flash sooner than the late 1990’s. Used properly, which takes a while and some testing to master, it makes a big difference when photographing in bright, open areas like the beach.
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| Swimmer, Union Temple, Brooklyn, NY, 1987 |
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| Swimmer, Coney Island, 1998 |
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Long before I knew anything about creating a “series” or “body” of photographs, I photographed my 20-year old brother on the side of our parents’ summer cottage. He stood casually and looked directly at me.
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| Robert, Spring Valley, NY, 1971 |
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A few years later while walking through the Museum of Modern Art, I was pleasantly surprised to happen upon Cezanne’s 1885 painting "The Bather."
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| "The Bather" by Paul Cezanne, 1885, Permanent Collection, MOMA, New York |
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I smiled to myself, and continued toward to the small bench where I would sit for a while opposite Picasso’s "Guernica" before heading back home to Brooklyn.
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 | Larry’s portrait by Anna Delaney |
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When I returned to South Brooklyn in 1970 after two years in California as a VISTA Volunteer, I was 22 years old with no plans and a $30 camera I barely knew how to use. I took a course at the School of Visual Arts, a job with the telephone company and began to photograph my family and friends. Things worked out better than I could have expected. I’ve been making photographs for over 50 years, and have some things I’d like to share. |
Readers can respond directly to me – larryracioppo@gmail.com. |
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