MorseBlog

Here I summarized a little of what I was able to Google about the more obscure photographers in this series. Fred Bond.  Little is known except he wrote a couple of books on photography. Difficult to find much biographical material.  He lived in Los Angeles. KODACHROME & KODACOLOR FROM ALL ANGLES (1947 3rd edition) WESTWARD HOW! through the Scenic West (1947) Ferenz Fedor He lived in Albequerque New Mexico. His photographs appear in some archives online mostly black and white with churches of New Mexico and Native Americans as popular subjects. Chalres D. Downey From Scottsbuff Nebraska (1907-1989). An archive of Downey family photographs is at the Nebraska State Historical Society . There is a Downey Photography that has been in photography for 5 generatons. The current owner "Tom’s grandparents, Charles and Dorothy, began Downey’s Studio in the 1930s in Scottsbluff, Nebraska." An article in the local paper indicates the shop will close its doors after...

A couple of years ago on one of my visits to see my dad in the the USA my wife and I stopped by our favorite bookstore in Bonners Ferry Idaho,  Bonners Books . We love browsing their well curated selection of books in a quiet and friendly atmosphere. I stumbled upon this slender volume called The Glory of Our West . It was filled with really nice iconic images of the western US and a short essay for each image. (There are in about 50 images so I will break this into a number of postings.) I did a little research, published in 1952 it was made to encourage motor trips to the west by Standard Oil of California for rather obvious commercial reasons. They combined photographs from the foremost landscape photographers of the time and writings by various famous writers in the west at the time. There were earlier versions as well apparently and other editions. The photographers and writers were mostly regional. The whole work while clearly commercial in intent was executed with some art...