[Leica] Re: Gregory Connif

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

> Does anyone recall a photo book of people's backyards (medium format, BW)
> called "Common Ground" by an american photographer called Geoffrey (or
> Gregory) Coniffe? I'm completely unsure about the author's name spelling.
> I've looked around the internet for it but can't find any mention, and
> hoped that maybe someone here would know of the book. It came out in the
> early eighties, was to have been the first of a three volume series, which
> I don't know if they ever appeared.
> Thanks for any help,
> Rob.


Rob,
Sure, I remember that one. Pretty dreadful as I recall--at least as a
book--one of those "body of work" books that featured a parade of variations
of the same picture, usually accompanied by an erudite and weighty essay
making lots of gravitous claims for the work, as I believe it was in this
case. He was a photography teacher at some prestigious Eastern university if
memory serves. The "body of work" concept was popular then among the
then-burgeoning class of academic photographers. I never saw any sequel. My
guess would be that, as happened to so many others in the same boat, the
book sold weakly and did not encourage its publishers. My memory of the
spelling of the photographer's name is Connif, although I wouldn't swear to
that. There was a swing bandleader with the same last name, and I remember
the two last names being the same--maybe somebody knows the musician? At any
rate, Gregory of that ilk seemed like a smart guy, and he may have even been
a good photographer, although you couldn't tell from the book and I wouldn't
know.

The worst example I ever saw of the "body of work" conceit was an entire
book of photographs of sunflowers taken from various angles against the same
piece of silk as a background--although, mercifully, I've expunged that
particular photographer's name from the memory banks.

Hope this helps.

- --Mike

- --Mike