As a footnote to Steven Spielberg’s film LINCOLN I thought it would be interesting to post an interview done by Olympus concerning a photographic statement I made about the former U.S. president from Illinois. The article appeared in the online Olympus newsletter Visionage, January 2007, as one of a series titled Behind the Shot.
The motion picture of LINCOLN was filmed in Virginia, site of numerous Civil War battles, but this photograph was made in October 2006 at Chesterwood, the former home of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850 – 1931). Although French made over 100 commissioned pieces in his lifetime, he’s best remembered for the monumental sculpture of Abraham Lincoln which now sits in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Chesterwood is located three miles outside of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the lovely Berkshire region. The studio is a designated National Trust for Historic Preservation site and a peaceful locale with an open view of Mount Greylock, a hill whose whale shape apparently inspired Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”
For each commission, French would first make a small maquette to show his client, then proceed to a larger sculpture. In this photo, the maquette is seen with a larger sculpture prepared as a mid-way stage for the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln was the tallest of any American president and wore size 15 boots. There’s speculation that he may have suffered from Marfan’s disease, which causes enlargement of the feet and hands.
A stickler for details, French reversed the position of Lincoln’s feet and hands after consulting with the president’s son, who recalled that his father always sat with his right foot forward. Under the sculptor’s supervision, 28 pieces of Georgian marble were assembled by an immigrant Italian stone cutter named Piccirilli and his six sons, with French adding the finishing touches to the huge piece.
Both literally and figuratively, Lincoln stood tall, in dramatic contrast to his humble origins. By careful framing and a purposeful low angle of view, I sought a strong visual interpretation of this aspect of Lincoln’s character. The larger statue soars upward out of the frame while the maquette portrays a quiet modesty.
I shot this image with an Olympus E-330 camera (in the fast moving digital world, now considered more of a relic than Lincoln’s stovepipe hat) and an Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens fully extended to 54mm. This made it equivalent to the traditional, 35mm film-format ‘portrait lens,’ with proportions that give a pleasing perspective for a medium close-up portrait (and in a sense, this was a portrait).
Closing the lens aperture down to f/16 put everything from the tip of Lincoln’s foot to the back of the maquette in focus. At ISO 100, the exposure was one second using a tripod under classic studio north light.
What strikes me most about the image is its monochrome simplicity. The tonal range is limited — from off-white to dark grey — testiment to Honest Abe’s simplicity. Most pictures of the Washington, D.C. memorial tend to be straightforward shots, but here, at the source of creation, I wanted to show something more.
Story and photos copyright © Gary Crallé 2012. No commercial reproduction without written consent.
Chesterwood http://chesterwood.org
Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism http://www.massvacation.com