Death/Destruction - Journalism/Fine Art - Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

By Morgan Ondrejka

Alex Webb was born in San Francisco in 1952. He became interested in photography while he was in high school. He attended Harvard where he majored in history and literature while also studying photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. He joined Magnum photos as an associate member in 1976. During the mid 70’s he primarily shot in black and white in the south. Working in the Caribbean and Mexico, he started shooting in color. He’s worked for NY Times, Life Magazine, and National Geographic Magazine and has seven published books along with numerous awards and exhibitions.

Screenshot from Webb's Biography on pro.magnumphotos.com 

Rebecca Norris Webb was originally a poet, but currently has 5 published photo books, one of which incorporates her text and photos. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, National Geography and Time. Norris Webb says "I often work in landscapes that call to me for some reason, including places I’ve lived or I find myself returning to places that resonate with memory and poetic associations." This idea seems very apparent in her work My Dakota.

Photograph by Rebecca Norris Webb from her photo book My Dakota

Their second collaborative photographic book is called Memory City, inspired in part by Kodak filing bankruptcy. Besides documenting a year in the life in Rochester, they decided to use film in two very different ways to show their respective relationships with analog photography.

“I’m using my last rolls of Kodachrome- the rich, vibrant color film I used solely for some 30 years- that now can only be processed as black and white. This gives the film a slightly distressed quality, as if weathered or faded over time. It seems appropriate for this project that explores this multi-layered portrait of Rochester and something about memory – both public and private- and the possible disappearance of film. 

Since this may be Rebecca’s last project using film, she used the repetitive nature of the contact sheet as a kind of visual elegy to film, specifically dressed women wear only once to a memorable – and often photographed- event. For Rebecca, these first communion, prom, or wedding dressed are metaphors for film itself- something made of the flimsiest of materials that has accompanied the photographer to every important event or indelible moment documented.” – Alex Webb

Downtown, Rochester, NY, 2012. Alex Webb

South Wedge, Marianne's Dressing Room, Rochester, NY 2013. Rebecca Norris Webb

When I was researching these photographers, I came across a great interview about the body of work. This was just one of the questions that really gives you some insight to the process.

L’Oeil de la Photographie: How did you decide to work on Rochester? How this city resonates in your photographic work and your personal history?  

Alex Webb (AW): This project grew out of a two-week Magnum group project on Rochester, NY, that I was asked to be part of in April 2012, three months after Kodak declared Chapter 11. I invited Rebecca to come along with me, and we quickly became fascinated with this troubled yet soulful home of Kodak—and the city’s rich history.  

Kodachrome, produced for many years in Rochester, was an essential part of my photographic process for more than 30 years. As a young photographer, I discovered a way of working in the intense light and vibrant colors of the tropics using Kodachrome, Kodak’s first significant mass-market color film. That’s why I decided to use my last rolls of Kodachrome, the now discontinued vibrant color film that can now only be processed as black and white, which lends it a weathered feel, as if faded over time. 

Rebecca Norris Webb (RNW): I, too, found my way of seeing by using a particular Kodak film, first TriX and then later Portra. And since I solely use film, that flimsy slip of celluloid brought to mind the metaphor of women’s special occasion dresses, worn only once to a memorable event. So Memory City’s still lifes and portraits of Rochester women past and present became Memory City’s elegiac refrain, my way of memorializing film, my long relationship with it, and the city itself.

I enjoy both individual artists work along with their collaborative works. I think all of their work evokes emotion regardless of the subjects, whether there is an artist statement or not. I love that in Alex’s work especially; I can see the aesthetic of the film, which is something I enjoy. I think this work showed me that you could capture “a day in the life” without the images being bland or boring.