Maisel and Hedgecoe

Jay Maisel (1931-present) and John Hedgecoe (1932-2010) are two photographers that I have come to appreciate more over time. I find their images lingering in the back of mind, and I find myself thinking about their views on photography. The two of them have some interesting similarities and differences, which I will explore in this essay.

In terms of similarities, both Maisel and Hedgecoe had careers that spanned the period from black and white film to digital photography. Both created iconic images: Maisel’s photograph of Miles Davis for the cover of Kind of Blue and Hedgecoe’s photograph of Queen Elizabeth II for English stamps.^[1] Both are known for more than one type of photography: Maisel for his nature photography and then New York street photography, Hedgecoe for his portraits of artists but also for his landscape and architecture shots. Both photographed a very broad range of subject matter: people, animals, cities, wilderness, etc.

Maisel often creates slightly abstract images, emphasizing atmosphere over precision and detail—for example, an image of snow falling on a dark city street (First Snow, Elizabeth Street, NYC) or of sunlight streaming through a misty forest (Trees, Maine). Many of his photographs feature bold or surprising colour, in the form of brightly painted walls, reflected sunlight, or gently coloured skies. One of my favourites (Red Wall and Rope, Singapore) has a workman in blue coveralls dragging a heavy rope in front of a bright red wall; the light blue of the overalls makes the red wall luminous.^[2]

Maisel’s recent books consist of short musings about his approach to photography, interspersed with his images. His philosophy is one of exploration and openness, of learning to see your environment as it exists without imposing pre-conceived ideas on it. He views photography as a search to find and appreciate beautiful settings and objects.

“Don’t look for reds, or blues, or pastels, or saturated color, or no-color color, or vibrations,” Maisel writes in Light, Gesture, and Color. “If you’re open to them, all these things will come to you. If you go after them, they will elude you.”^[3] This is very much the way that I approach photography, so I find Maisel’s thoughts a source of validation and encouragement.

Hedgecoe wrote a series of photography books, for beginner and intermediate photographers, which I’ve read in the past and am re-reading now. These books are notable for his clear prose on technical matters, and for the wide range of photographs that he uses to illustrate his points. A core part of Hedgecoe’s philosophy is experimentation and problem-solving, and he provides detailed explanations of how he achieved particular images—the lens and light sources that he used, where he stood, etc. He also emphasizes the need for simplicity, both in his text and photographic examples.

Hedgecoe takes a more conservative approach to photography; his images have a more solid feel to them. However, there is a sense of inventiveness and humour that runs through his best images. When he photographed sculptor Henry Moore on a beach holiday, he did so in a way that included a series of changing huts marching across the background at the level of Moore’s head—this should have been a distracting mistake but it works, because of the colours in the image and the tilt of Moore’s head.^[4] His photograph of Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis emphasized the man’s thin calves and yellow socks, making him look like a fairy tale character. And his portrait of David Hockney used an exaggerated frown to imitate the the artist’s heavy, circular glasses.^[5]

“The first rule of photographic composition is to keep the shot as simple as possible,” he writes in The Art of Digital Photography. “This rule can often be successfully broken, but it always makes a good starting point. Begin a new composition by trying to find a way of capturing the subject with as few unnecessary details and unwanted distractions as possible.”^[6]

Sometimes I suspect that serious photographers look down on Hedgecoe because of the popularity and accessibility of his books; if so, they aren’t paying attention to the images in among his words. I find Hedgecoe attractive for his emphasis on simplicity, his willingness to do hard work to get a good image, and the slight whiff of mischief that lurks in his best images.

Posted: July 2017.

For Further Information

Jay Maisel

Maisel’s website at www.jaymaisel.com has a good selection of his images. His two recent books provide some discussion of his philosophy: Light, Gesture and Color (San Francisco: Peachpit, 2014), and It’s Not About the F-Stop (San Francisco: Peachpit, 2015).

John Hedgecoe

Web-based resources on Hedgecoe are surprisingly thin on the ground. For a collection of (mostly) black and white portraits see the U.K. National Portrait Gallery website. For an article with a few colour photographs, see the Royal College of Art website. And for two good obituaries, see the Guardian and Telegraph newspaper websites

Apart from that, the best approach is to pick up one of Hedgecoe’s books. These include The Art of Digital Photography (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2006), The Book of Photography (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2005), and The New Manual of Photography (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2003).