I found an interesting essay on NIXON being a contemporary "photodocumentary" photographer.

LINK: http://webhome.idirect.com/~gordwest/minweb/gwtexts/nixon/nixonweb.htm

CONTRAST

I thought there was an interesting contrast between this image taken by FINK:

& the images of the dying taken by NIXON:

One woman in the lavish luxury of life and the other lying on her death bed.

Nicholas Nixon - Lovers

Nicholas Nixon, M.P., M.J., Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, 2000

Nicholas Nixon, M.C., P.G., Brookline, 2000

Nicholas Nixon, K.S., J.Z., Somerville, Massachusetts, 2000

Disturbing Similarity

Larry Fink Paris, France January 1996

Nicholas Nixon, Tom Moran January 1988

I have to say- there is a disturbing similarity between Fink's runway photos and Nixon's photographs of AIDS patients.

Nicholas Nixon, Tom Moran October 1987

Larry Fink Christian LaCroix Haute Couture, Paris, France, January 1996

Surely I'm not the only one who sees this.

Links: Nixon 1, Nixon 2, Fink 1, Fink 2

Depictions of the Elderly

Larry FinkNice, France July 1988

I came across this photo of Fink's, and was struck by the turn that it takes (at least in my mind) of his depiction of ordinary people. I posted earlier about his photos of families not being as intimate, as soft as Nixon's, but this photo changes my mind somewhat.

Nixon's most famous photos of the elderly depict patients in nursing homes, all seemingly in their last few days of life. There is a certain amount of truth to this, in confronting the issue of death in this way (he has certainly dealt with the issue in several projects over the years), but the photos are a little harsh, lacking in compassion perhaps. Fink's photo shows more hope, more life than Nixon's depictions of the elderly generally do.

Nicholas Nixon C.C., Boston, 1983

Links: Fink, Nixon

interesting thoughts by NIXON:
as taken from "Family Pictures"

Why do you use and 8x10 view camera?
I use it to get a contact print; it's no more complicated than that.
Sensuality seems to be prevelant in your work. What's that about?
It's just my pleasure---just me. It has to do with the way I love the contact print,
and what I love about people: their bodies, and gestures, their separateness, and
their eyes.
Also, there is alot of contact between people--touching and caressing--just physical stuff going on.
Partly thats what happened when I was there. But these are the moments I choose
to like. It's just my taste. It's what I love, and what I believe in intelectually, and
what I love to look at. It seems inexhaustible, and connected to other aspects of
culture and history that matter to me.
Aging is a major theme in your work. Is that something you've always been interested in?
Instinctively, yes. But it's not something that I'm methodically trying to prove or to
chronicle. It's simply part of my energy to be interested in things that are
ephemeral---the feeling that everybody's mortal.

Comparing Family Photos

Nicholas Nixon, Bebe and Sam (1995)

I was looking through Nixon's photos of his family, and Fink's photos of the Sabatine family at the birthday parties, and noticed something. While Fink's photos are certainly more candid than Nixon's, they seem far less intimate. He seems to have photographed as an outsider, peeking in at another family's celebration (which very well may be what he did). Nixon's photos of his family (in general) seem very posed, but yet they retain a sense of intimacy that Fink's photos of the birthday parties lack. Even in Fink's photo of himself with his daughter(?) Molly, the effect is harsh, quite unlike the softness of Nixon's photos.

Larry Fink, Self with Molly (1982)

Nicholas Nixon, Clem with Bebe (1996)

Links: Nixon, Fink 1, Fink 2