Leave the Gloom Behind: Discover the Playful World of Quirky Photography Inspired by John Gutmann (1905–1998)
An Overview and How-To Guide to Capturing the Unconventional Spirit of 20th Century Photography
The urban photographers here took pictures that showed the negative side of the Depression, but my pictures show the almost bizarre, exotic qualities of the country. … I was seeing America with an outsider’s eyes — the automobiles, the speed, the freedom, the graffiti … — John Gutmann, San Francisco
Born in Germany, John Gutmann came to the United States in 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor. The year civil rights disappeared, freedom of expression was banned, indiscriminate arrests transpired, and opponents of the Nazis were outlawed.
In Germany, Gutmann had trained as a painter. His style: Facist.
Fascist art is art co-opted from Art Deco and similar to Bauhaus in its geometric form. Used primarily in architecture to create a streamlined aesthetic popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
His self-portrait is well known from a 2005 exhibition of his work at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, where he resided most of his time in the United States.
Gutmann was a professor at San Francisco State University, the author’s alma mater, from 1938 to 1973. In 1989, Gutmann’s work traveled to both coasts in a retrospective by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
After graduating from San Francisco State University, I discovered he had been a professor there two decades before I enrolled in the creative arts master’s program.
Inked Photography
He found America fascinating, photographing things he had never seen in Europe — inked people with adventurous designs, from hula girls to cowgirls and a man’s baby with JR. between its legs. Above is an elaborate butterfly with incredible symmetry on the back of a young woman’s neck.
Photographing people’s tattoos is an easy street photography trick. While you wouldn’t randomly walk up to a person and then stop him/her, asking permission for a photo op of their tattoo, you could find a willing subject sitting at an outdoor cafe or, even better yet, working behind the counter of a local shop. Many inked people are proud of the artistry etched into their skin and would give you a quick heads up “sure” when asked for their tattoo to be photographed.
Porky the Car from Nevada
Gutmann also photographed automobiles inside and out, sometimes honing in for a close-up of a license plate as depicted in his photo, Texas Car, 1937.
I’ve photographed a similar close-up of a Nevada license plate that reads PORKY. This vintage automobile, a Hudson, takes the cake of uniqueness to new heights. The gem was found at a California vintage auto show, one of many that blanket the state frequently throughout the year.
What made Gutmann different from other photographers of the time was that he worked outside the FSA (Farm Security Administration). Many well-known photographers of the ’30s photographed for this government agency, and their photos were often solemn artifacts of the Great Depression.
Gutmann’s were not. His eye for all things American, including pop culture, made his photographs less grim. Looking up at what was happening was just as important as looking around.
Clowning Around
Look no further than The Beautiful Clown, 1940, and you’ll find his focus on performance art in close-up portraits mind-blowing. Long ago, while at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, Quebec, I found a pair of performance artists with a unique view of accordion playing. The juxtaposition of lines adjacent to the tight polka dot pattern on the man’s shirt is notable in this photo. Two people squeezing together to play an instrument is a monumental creativity of the human spirit.
For Gutmann, a worm’s-eye view (looking up at subjects) was often the only important one. “I was seeing America with an outsider’s eyes — the automobiles, the speed, the freedom, the graffiti,” he was reported to have said in a 1989 interview.
This one you got to bend down for. Or shoot from below while someone is in the air, such as in the photo by Ola Dapo above. When people are walking, jumping, or dancing, stoop as low as you can go with your camera and shoot with your camera pointing slightly upward. You’ll find that among your shots, you’ll get exciting movement blur (especially in low light) and the angle of the people moving about.
Instant Messaging
Gutmann took pictures of the signs people used to advertise their businesses. These signs contained quite a bit of text. When people did this, it was called instant messaging. Today, you instant message on a cell phone; back then, it meant to display signs so they could be seen from a distance.
North African Culture
While on sabbaticals in 1957 from San Francisco State College (now SFSU), Gutmann traveled to Europe and North Africa. He photographed a trio of Moroccan women in burkas in a mysterious dark alleyway with a tunnel of light behind them casting giant shadows of each that they appear to be walking into.
When I was in Egypt in 2012, I was traveling in a van when I caught a quick shot of a similar shot of a pair of women in Islamic dress. Since they were photographed from the side, you can’t see their faces, as each woman is blocked by a headscarf and a big sack of what appears to be some flour or grain. The shadows are more minor and behind them.
In Yes, Columbus Did Discover America, San Francisco, 1938, words and phrases cover a car from bumper to bumper in front of a store where the awning contains similar written text.
Expressions such as “Lies are falling thick and fast,” The truth marches on,” “The big dog that’s barking loud now won’t bite,” and “Honor thy father and thy mother” are written in white on a black car. This white area sits in the middle of the bottom of the frame.
Also in white with black writing on it is the awning of the liquor store, which sits in the top third of the frame, one-third of the way in from the left border of the shot. The placement of the two white areas shifts the balance of the photo to the left so that the focus of it lies just to the left of the center. A man reading the paper underneath the awning is almost hidden in the image.
In photos similar to Gutmann’s shot, there is a truck with Bible scriptures and a man holding up two large placards with dense text from the Bible written all over them (left). The truck (right) sits in the desert near the Salton Sea in Niland, California. It’s part of a giant manmade mountain coined Salvation Mountain. An elderly man has spent years building the mountain and painting it and surrounding objects, making it a great spot to photograph.
Gutmann may be the most unique of all the twentieth-century photographers — his life captures are so well framed that you cease to believe they are actual scenes from real life.
Gutman’s close-ups were accented with weird foreground interruptions when viewing the subject. In Face Behind Veil, 1939, the front of a woman’s face covers the entire frame and is blocked in the foreground with a net.
I’ve taken the liberty to change the subject to an animal’s head as seen through a fence at a zoo. To be sure, the same effect is emulated, though with a different message — one of the trapped animals wishing they were elsewhere.
Gutmann also placed his subjects in the following ways, some intentionally and some candidly:
* Japanese Girl and Geisha Friend, San Francisco, 1939 and Chief Monk and Novice of a Buddhist Temple, 1944: Face in the foreground on the right side of the frame; another face to the left (from the camera) and behind the first. Both heads turned sideways, facing left.
* The Fleet Is In, San Francisco, 1934: Side portrait of a woman with two sailors’ backs in front of her.
* Texas Women, 1937: Full-body frontal portrait of two women holding something. (The one on the left has a purse and coat; the one on the right holds a gift box.)
Tricks
Get out your fast lens and shoot like Gutmann did. Gutmann photographed divers and gymnasts, primarily women, in the air, such as his famous photo of diver Marjorie Gestring at the 1936 Olympics.
Photographing people doing tricks on the ground and in the air who viewers like people at the state fair are attracted to deep-fried ice cream sandwiches.
A man doing a one-handed handstand while he balances his body sideways in front of an amazed audience fills the frame above.
This makes an essential difference between the early to mid-twentieth century and the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The first thing is the clothes. In Gutmann’s time, people were more formal and would not have worn clothes so loose that they flipped up while doing gymnastic tricks.
They would most likely have had their shirts tucked in. The photo, though, displays male sexuality as seen in the late twentieth century — men could be seen as figures fit for modeling just as quickly as women could.
Also, for the trick, gymnastics (and diving) became much more complex by the late twentieth century. The stunts were more challenging — some so complex that it took some time to figure out how a person could do such a thing.
Today, sports such as gymnastics have become integrated with dancing, creating the art form that began in the late twentieth century, break dancing. When photographing break dancing, shoot at a narrow aperture in Aperture Priority mode so that the subject performing is frozen.
Coffee is a nice treat for writers like me : )
Takeaway Quirks of Photography
Photography is one profession that implements tricks like no other. You won’t see an accountant do many stunts except maybe attract the attention of the IRS with bizarre deductions.
The best part of the craft is you can get as weird and wonderful as you want.
That’s why I do it.