A Partial Recollection

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Earlier on today I picked up a notification from an academic feed I subscribe to, alerting me to an old paper [1965] written by someone whose name was extremely familiar to me but which I couldn't place: Albert Renger-Patzsch [pictured]. The paper was entitled 'On Photography's Significance and the Photographer's Responsibility'. I hadn't hitherto seen the piece - or so I imagined - and haven't yet done other than to skim it, but it seemed to me to have some points of interest, placing his views square in what was the territory of my degree dissertation back in '78. On Googling Herr Renger-Patzsch, I found that I was indeed familiar with some of his images, and therefore I can only blame age and time in explaining my forgetfulness in his case. I'll get back to you with some more cogent thoughts on the essay when I've fully digested it.

Like I say, if I read it at the time, I've mislaid the memory somewhere along the way, and if I referenced it in my dissertation - of which I have no copy, save a few, scant notes - which I must have done at the time given the subject I was considering, that also is lost in the mists of my time. Given that I wrote the damned dissertation in three days, in a fog of student living, whilst listening to the first broadcast of The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Captain Beefheart, and Christ knows what else, it's a miracle I remember any of it, to be frank, and especially at this distance in time. What I do remember is one of the moderators later describing it to me as 'interesting'. Whether that was meant simply as a compliment, or as politely sardonic criticism, I couldn't possibly say. Anyway, suffice it to say, Renger-Patzsch gets an entry into The Twenty, so maybe I'll not mislay the memory in the future. Keep you posted...

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