The Face in the Lens: Anonymous Photographs

by Robert Flynn Johnson, Alexander McCall Smith (Introduction)

Anonymous photography has a magic all its own. The intriguing images assembled here by collector and curator Robert Flynn Johnson are all mysterious, but their appeal is various. By turns poignant, humorous, erotic, and disturbing, their subject is the human condition. In ten stunning chapters every aspect of human experience—both public and private—is explored. Richly reproduced and with subtle tonalities marking their age, over 220 photographs showcase the work of photographers whose identities have been lost in time. The images are never anything less than mesmerizing and include previously unseen portraits of such stars as Cary Grant, Richard Burton, and Marlene Dietrich. Introduced by Alexander McCall Smith, this follow-up to Johnson's widely acclaimed Anonymous touches on birth, marriage, death, disease, hope, glory, and despair and a plethora of additional emotions, events, and human states, and will capture the imagination of any reader.

Thames and Hudson

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, History, Art History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found photographs is an opportunity to go into someone else's private world. Usually it has a sexual context, which gives the images another layer of 'feeling' or texture. Johnson has put together a book of images that are haunting as well as beautiful. The thought that we leave things on this planet that can affect one's aesthetic or sense of beauty is fantastic. And when one includes something sexual to the mix, it reminds one that life is so fragile, yet sensually pleasurable.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anonymous photographs grouped into categories. Make up the stories on your own or read the goofy introduction by Alexander McCall Smith. Either way, a brilliantly-executed glimpse into worlds unknown. Highly recommended.

[Relyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a seriously cool book. At time the images were creepy, and at other times they were sweet or humorous.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Flynn Johnson's collection of anonymous photographs makes the case that collecting anonymous photographs is as much an art (or at least a skill) as many of the photographs themselves. While many of these photos really do show artistic and technical skill, their potency is enhanced, or at least expanded, by their inclusion in this collection. Alone, many of these are fine photos, but together they create something even more fascinating - the collected comments and observations of photographers unknown, showing people now (mostly) passed away.

It is an odd feeling to be looking at a moment (staged or spontaneous) in a person's life, when you know that the subject of the photo as well as the photographer are now gone. It reminds me of Ossian Brown's brilliant collection Haunted Air, though in the case of The Face in the Lens the focus is much broader. But the feeling of looking into the past and seeing the photographic ghosts of anonymous people is somewhat eerie, but also intriguing. Photos say a lot, but they leave a lot up to the viewer, as Alexander McCall Smith's somewhat quirky introduction demonstrates. We're seeing history, but it's a history full of gaps, where we insert our own ideas and feelings from our perspective today. Johnson, through compiling these photos as he has, has created his own individual version of history, which is not bad, but is just the nature of telling history.

Part of the joy of this collection is in how varied the photos are and the noticeable lack of artistic aspiration in so many of them. Often the goal was simply to capture a significant moment for documentary, genealogical purposes rather than to do something artistic. What's cool is that sometimes both happened, which Johnson attributes to the nature of photography as an art reliant on technology - the camera can sometimes really help you out, even when you're totally ignorant of how to properly use it. Likewise, the subject of the photo can sometimes be as 'artful' in their body language and manner than any performer or model, suggesting that people really do have a natural impulse and feeling for what is aesthetically pleasing and/or what is genuine and real - this is true even in some of those stiff, posed photos where people were having to stand waiting forever while the picture was taken. Real life often presents the best performances you've ever seen.

Johnson has compiled a fine collection of anonymous photos and makes me wonder what he has in his collection that didn't make the cut for this book. What pictures does he have that still remain unknown to people and what pictures are floating around out there yet to be uncovered? I start feeling a tad weird thinking about my own photos being collected like this. What stories would people create about my photos? What would that say about the subject and what would it say about me? And what about you?

[Courtland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarre images that are separated into themes; the sections herein are Immaturity, Masculinity, Femininity, Compatibility, Celebrity, Singularity, Activity, Festivity, Adversity, and lastly Inevitability. Let you fill these images with as much meaning or as little as you desire for even if you don't believe in Death of the Author the photographers have been lost to time, but ah, there is the collector you could appeal to if you so choose. I found letting my mind meander and drift within these scenes and my mind mold a story like when one is alone or together forming stories about strangers that are around to keep your mind or the person/people you are with entertained, except it is a bit more morbid, considering most people photographed here are most likely dead. This excise also is encouraged in the introduction called "Being Human." But approach it however you like, whether be finding nostalgia, melancholia, humor, etc, etc, or all of the above, give it a look, maybe.

[kotunia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer the approach where photographs are accompanied by text, allowing reflection on the story behind a given photo. Unfortunately, this direction has only been slightly achieved

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of vernacular photographs from Johnson. The text here is much less insightful than that in Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers, but the photographs are equally interesting.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anonymous and strange photographs of the sort I collect at flea markets and estate sales so what's not to like? I liked it so much I ordered his previous book of photos from Amazon.

This is the UK title of his book Being Human.

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coffee table book, really. I didn't really read it--I skimmed it and stared at all the pictures for awhile.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Jordan Perault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great pictures

[CraftyChara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosa recommended: