Rangefinder Magazine
January 2006

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Profile: Steve Anchell Donna Conrad
The Art of Hope

During the last 35 years Steve Anchell has worked in almost every genre of photography: wedding and portraiture, glamour and fashion, architectural and aerial. He has taught workshops in street photography, large format, darkroom, studio, travel and portraiture. He has written three of the most important books on darkroom technique in the last 20 years: The Darkroom Cookbook, The Variable Contrast Printing Manual (named the best technical title in 1997 by Photo-Eye books), and The Film Developing Cookbook (co-authored with photo chemist Bill Troop). Currently he is the editor of Focus magazine. Despite his varied background, Anchell considers himself an artist who uses the medium of photography to express his vision of a world in harmony.

The apple lady was 93 years old and lived up the hill behind the stand. If you wanted apples or honey you would “toot” your horn and she would come down. I set up across the street with a 5x7 view camera and was preparing to release the shutter when this old car pulled up and stopped.

Anchell is best known in the fine art world for his work with the nude in nature. He has been working with the subject for more than 30 years. The first anthology of his work, The Nude at Big Sur, was published in book form in 2002 (Cold Creek Press).

Working with models in nature, Anchell strives to give expression to poet Robinson Jeffers’ sentiment “man as part of nature, not apart from nature.” He acknowledges the collaboration between photographer and model as paramount to the success of any image. “I would like to make it clear that I do not ‘shoot’ nudes. Nor do I sponsor ‘photo shoots.’ I take great exception to both of these common terms that are denigrating to the creative spirit. Photographers need to understand that words have power. There is a difference between saying you are going to ‘shoot’ someone and saying you are going to ‘create an image’ with the participation of another person.”

Saint Sebastian Day is a very important celebration in New Mexico. I was passing through Penasco just as a parade was passing along the main street, which is also the state highway. I set up my 8x10 view camera across the street and photographed these three patrons enjoying the parade and camaraderie.

Looking at the variety of Anchell’s work, it is difficult to classify him. “Recording the world in which I live is an obsession with me. While I do not limit myself to any one subject, I find people the most fascinating, whether they are nude or clothed. Accordingly, I photograph people in the streets of New York City as eagerly as I photograph nude models on the beaches of Big Sur.

“I had a large commercial studio in Hollywood, California, in the early ’80s, but there came a time when I decided I wanted to put more energy into my fine art work. I sold the studio and set out with my 8x10 Agfa-Ansco camera. At first I wouldn’t take the camera out of the box if there were people within sight. Then in January 1982, while photographing in New Mexico, I stopped at Reuben’s Fruit Stand north of Espanola. I was so taken with Reuben I had to photograph him and his nephew, Pete, with my 8x10. From that time on I wanted to photograph people as well as the places I saw vanishing in the face of ‘progress.’ ‘America Passing’ became one of my personal projects as well as ‘Route 66.’ I traveled the back roads of America, recording the people and places that are often bypassed in our haste to get somewhere else.

Philippe’s, located in Los Angeles where Olvera Street (the Hispanic cultural center) and Chinatown meet, claims to be the inventor of the French dip sandwich. I set up my 8x10 view camera and was just about ready to release the shutter when the cook ran out and leaned against the counter. I made two exposures; he waved and went back to the kitchen.

“All photography is autobiographical. You can’t take a photograph unless you are present. What kind of life do you wish to live, what do you wish to see, experience, and record—war, famine, death? Beauty, goodness, humanity? You can argue that someone has to record the dark side, but you can also argue that someone needs to www.rangefindermag.com 51 record the good.”

Although he still maintains a small studio in his home, Anchell spends most of his time on personal photographic projects. “An artist always has to be working on personal projects, otherwise their work becomes stale. Artists need to consistently reinvent themselves.”

This is part of the “Route 66” project that took place from approximately 1983 to 1993. This image was taken just outside Rolla, Missouri, with a Toyo 45A field camera.

One of his personal projects that pushes the envelope and prods the viewer’s sense of irony with its title is “Cuba: The Face of the Enemy,” which shows the faces of the Cuban “enemy” bearing striking similarities to those of everyday Americans. A copy of this work is exhibited at the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, Noam Chomsky, has agreed to write an introduction for an upcoming book.

Anchell has established an international reputation as one of the top photographers teaching in black and white. “Teaching is something I do naturally. I enjoy seeing people grow. For me, the two aspects that make a good teacher are a love for people and a willingness to see others become at least as good as you are, and possibly even better, without feeling threatened by their growth.”

From 1989 to 1991 I photographed blues clubs in South Central L.A., Compton, and Watts. Laura was the proprietor of one of the most popular clubs, Babe & Ricky’s Inn on Central Avenue, which she had opened in the 1950s. The musicians were among the best I have ever heard, but many of them had never traveled above Olympic Blvd., the dividing line in Los Angeles between their world and the white world. (circa 1989, Leica M3, 35mm f/1.4 lens)

His workshop, “The Nude at Big Sur,” is the longest continuously running workshop on the nude. Even so, “After 20 years I’m ready for a change. This year I’m starting an entirely new workshop, ‘Nude Noir.’ The workshop is inspired by the film noir style of the 1950s. This workshop will take place entirely in a studio, using light, both window and strobe, sets, props and costuming to create dramatic, stylized images. As this workshop will be intense, I am giving preference to photographers who have a background, preferably an exhibit record, of working with the nude.”

He has also been associated with photographic and darkroom seminars for schools such as Santa Fe, Zone VI, and Tuscano. In 1999 he established and directed the Photographers’ Formulary Workshops in Montana, including the design of their excellent darkroom facilities.

It was about 11 p.m. in Havana. I was walking down a dark, deserted street when I heard music coming out of what appeared to be a shack. I walked in and found it to be a small, locals’ club—that is, for Cubans, not for tourists. As I passed Agustin he took a puff from his cigar and smiled, much as you see here. Not speaking Spanish I pointed to my camera and pantomimed taking a photo of him. He smiled, nodded yes, and proceeded to smoke. I took five frames, this one being the last. As I turned to leave he asked in perfect, though heavily accented, English, “Can I buy you a beer?” He and I became good friends. (2001, Leica M3, 35mm f/1.4 lens)

In 2004 he began teaching a street photography workshop for The International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City. “As an incurable people watcher, I have been practicing street photography with Leica rangefinders since 1983. It has become my favorite form of photography. My work includes New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cuba, Nicaragua, Spain, Hong Kong and many other locations, mostly in black and white.”

Although Anchell is known as a “darkroom guru” (from 2001 to 2003 he was the editor of the last magazine devoted exclusively to film photography, Photovision), today he embraces digital technology. He uses both the Epson 2200 and 2400 printers, an Epson 4990 scanner, and a Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D camera. He is working on a new book, The Digital Cookbook, which begins when the image enters the computer environment.

This was made with a Leica M7 and 35mm f/1.4 lens in Conden, Montana, while I was program director for the Photographers’ Formulary Workshops.

On film, Anchell says, “One should explore new tools and techniques before dismissing them. People often mistake my personal preference for film photography as meaning I don’t like digital. Far from it: I see digital as an art medium still in its infancy. I don’t think there are many artists who yet know how to use its full creative potential. But there was a time in photography’s early days when the same could have been said for film. I enjoy digital photography nearly as much as film, but film remains my first love.” T

While professionally Anchell is a writer, teacher and fine art photographer, he also finds time to study art, philosophy and history. When asked about leaving the lucrative world of commercial photography, he explains, “It is my belief that the way in which an artist lives his life is nearly as important as his art. It is the artist who must set the example that there is life outside the corporate world, that there are alternate ways to live and create. This means that sometimes you must go without, but you still go on, staying true to your vision.

The title of this nude image is “Sabrina.” It’s a classic nude study. It was published in France in a book on the odalisque in art. It is one of three images offered with the limited edition version of Anchell’s book, The Nude at Big Sur. (Nikon FE)

“I do whatever is necessary to support my photography. This includes writing about photography and teaching workshops. I’ve consciously created a situation in which I support my art by means that are closely related to it. Though I don’t consider teaching and writing about photography to be the same as doing photography, I enjoy both of these pursuits.”

Asked what he feels will be his greatest influence on photographers and photography, Anchell reflects for a moment then replies, “My influence will be felt through my teaching. I have lost count of the number of students who have sent me a notice of their first show and thanked me for helping make it happen. “Recently I received a photography magazine from China, Photographers’ Companion. It contained an interview with a former student who lives in Beijing. In it he says that I was one of the two major influences in his photography.”

I was walking down Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles, which was the center of the Jewish community in L.A. at that time. I glanced into the shop and saw the most exotic looking young woman. I drove home, grabbed my 5x7 and came back, it must have been half an hour. She was gone but her father was there in her place. Like the young woman, the store is also gone now.

For more information about Steve Anchell, visit his website: www.steve anchell.com. In May 2006 he will be teaching “Nude Noir” in Philadelphia; in June, “Wild Horse Weekend” in Wyoming, sponsored by Konica Minolta, and in October “Halloween in Greenwich Village,” sponsored by Leica Camera and the International Center of Photography in New York City.