曾經很瘋過一段時間的的攝影，大學打工來的錢有一半貢獻給了唱片，另外一半就花在了攝影器材上，最狂熱的時候攢了將近兩年的錢終於買了一部夢寐已久的Bronica 645，但是有一次到北美館去看了Robert Bresson和Robert Capa等大師的攝影展，身旁一位專業攝影指著Capa那張最著名的西班牙內戰”啊！中彈了”說：「你看，誤焦了吔。」「喔！」我只能搖了搖頭，看完展之後也體認到了我這一輩子可能連”匠”都很難達到了，於是很實際的只留下一部Minolta單眼和兩組鏡頭，把其他所有的攝影器材全給賣了。
攝影難嗎？其實真的不難，拿起相機按下快門，他傻瓜你聰明，多簡單！只要不太離譜的笨，上過一節攝影課或是翻過一本入門的書大概就能懂了，搞清楚光圈和快門的關係就是唯一需要學的攝影技巧，利用淺景深來明確主題，用B快門蓋上黑布拍拍煙花，自己DIY柔光罩，利用slave來控制多盞閃燈模擬棚拍，甚至學著用蛇腹來拍micro，說穿了只不過就是一些手法罷了。真正難的是如何藉由視覺上的表象來傳達出自己的心思意念，沒有天分，到頂了最多就是個不怎麼樣的”匠”！
到今天仍然有興趣偶爾看看攝影展或是看看相關的書，不過真的很難看到什麼佳作，展的什麼？利用光與影的空間對位描繪出一些體廓，甚或能勉強表達出一些意念，這已經是最上乘的了。多的是那種一莖含苞的孤荷，本已夠讓人哭笑不得了，偏偏旁邊還搭個名字："傲"，瞬間打個寒噤隨即雞皮疙瘩掉了一地。但是起碼這些心態是正常的，假日時公園裡假山前寬衣解帶至身無寸履的麻豆和一群虎視眈眈圍繞著的人群組合成所謂的人體攝影是最等而下之的，完全就是為了滿足那些變態的偷窺癖，基本上和買春召妓沒啥兩樣。
最近剛好想到那個一直以來都在我的腦海中的影像，當初是在「今日世界」上看到的，後來買了一本”The Best of Life”的攝影作品集才再次看到了這一幅照片，1969年8月22日LIFE的封面照片Vernon Merrit III的作品”The young look of New York”，一段上佳的文字附錄於最後。中文版上對另一張照片(Woman with very short mini skirt and sandal.)的註解是：「生活雜誌深深惋惜著長裙的捲土重來，感嘆甚深：「我們怎麼能夠和它們惜別呢？」」真的，”它們” - ”迷你裙”！那幾乎是美好的swinging sixties的代名詞呀！How can we bid farewell to them?
好的照片非常難得，要有那樣的機運碰上那樣的場景還得要有靈感能在那一剎那去捕捉那一瞬間。Joe Rosenthal拍美軍在硫磺島上插旗的那一刻，Alfred Eisenstaedt二戰終紐約時代廣場上美國水兵在街頭的"The Kiss"，Yousef Karsh那張Winston Churchill，Nick Ut那張得了普立茲獎的"The Napalm Girl"……，這些得天獨厚的照片本身充滿了讓人想像的故事，當然，這些也是新聞攝影比較容易掌握表達的。人物照(不是生活照，不是畢業照，不是到此一遊照)不算頂難，一般所謂名流(演藝界)或各行各業頂尖人士大部分充滿自信，西方人尤然，只要掌握那樣的神韻、氣質及特性就能拍出不錯的效果，東方人則生性靦靦，拍來難度會高一些，但是人物本身就已經能為照片充分加持了，再加上人物背後有風情有故事，容易引起共鳴。蟲魚鳥獸山川風景，拍來都是那樣，不但不容易突顯出什麼來，更不容易藉之或表達人文關懷，或呈現時代進程，或反映社會問題，或體現歷史環境……。好的照片必須包含多樣的元素，Susan Santag "On Photography"："A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; picture-taking is an event in itself, and one with ever more peremptory rights-to interfere with, to invade, or to ignore whatever is going on. Our very sense of situation is now articulated by the camera's interventions. The omnipresence of cameras persuasively suggests that time consists of interesting events, events worth photographing."。
Audrey Hepburn
Grace Kelly
Audrey and Grace: Allan Grant, 1956
Backstage at the Academy Awards, two past Best Actress winners, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, await their turns to present. That Allan Grant could catch both supremely elegant, stylish icons together in a moment may have been a stroke of luck (Hepburn and Kelly never did work together, and very soon after this photo was taken the latter left Hollywood to become Monaco’s princess). But Grant’s use of composition and lighting—with the two women parallel and glowing in profile – is nothing short of masterful.
誰呀？剛滿20歲的"娜姐"！
A girl like you, nobody and somebody.
That New York Look
Summertime in pretty much any city is a different experience than any other season, but summer in New York is another world. Many of the people who can afford to escape from Gotham in July, and especially in August, usually do so, and even if their numbers are relatively small among the city’s 8 million souls, the extra elbow room that their absence provides the rest of us on the streets, at the museums and in the parks, bars and restaurants lends much of the metropolis a far less frenetic vibe.
It’s not that the city’s unique energy vanishes; instead, it’s directed toward the pursuit of leisure — street fairs, picnics and plays in the parks, free concerts, people-watching — rather than New Yorkers’ customary quests for money, power, fame, an apartment with a view. . . .
In the summer, despite baking in the sweltering heat, encountering undefinable and often jarring aromas around every street corner and dealing with the constant prospect of citywide blackouts, New Yorkers give themselves license to slow down. To cease striving. To breathe.
[See the gallery, "Jewel of Manhattan: LIFE in Central Park, Summer 1961."]
In August 1969, meanwhile, LIFE magazine was busy celebrating not the season itself, but the eye-popping fashions that the “young people” — which, judging by these pictures, meant anyone under 40 — were sporting during the summer months. In a cover story shot by photographer Vernon Merritt III, LIFE lauded “That New York Look” with an almost poetic zeal that: New York City is a costume party for the young this summer, a party that is taking place outdoors, on the streets and in the parks. Long hair, long legs. The party is not always elegant, but it is completely alive.
It isn’t really hard to tell the boys from the girls, even when they are both in bell-bottoms, and of course most boys don’t put shoe polish on their eyes. All are wearing what they want to wear, from the shortest skirts to the longest skins.
How they look depends partly on where they go. The ferry is different from a Seventh Avenue lunch stand — and very different from Central Park.
The look is not what New York calls sophisticated, but even so, it catches the eye. Many of the girls seem to get their kicks with makeup. They wear it anywhere — absolutely anywhere.
The important thing is to express yourself. Depending on your talents you can do it with a 25-key soprano Melodica or a long, cool stare. You choose. The New York look is a daily celebration of the self.
Here, in recognition of the singular look and feel of that long-ago August in New York, LIFE.com again presents a number of the photographs that ran in the “New York Look” article, as well as some other, atmospheric shots that LIFE did not run in that fashion-centric piece. Take a look — and then go ahead. Get outside. Take a stroll. Flirt with someone. It’s summertime, after all.
— Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com
