Yesterdays
Hi-Fi In Focus
Chet Atkins
RCA Victor LPM-1577
1957
From the back cover: The RCA Victor-Cannon Camera Album Cover Contest assignment was disarmingly simple: to represent in a color photograph the abstract idea of high fidelity musical expression in terms of the camera. The attempt was made in 30,000 transparencies submitted by 7,000 entrants in the United States, in Japan and in other countries. The most successful, in the unanimous opinion of the jury, was A. A M. Baunach of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, whose brilliantly conceived winning transparency (reproduced from a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4-inch original) graces the cover. It won because the photographer arrived at a clear-cut idea and worked painstakingly to achieve it. Using the familiar technique of the swinging pendulum with suspended lights of different colors, he tried, and submitted several versions, to communicate an impression – and realized a statement. The result: a stylized human iris, representing camera optics. provides the impact of compelling accent in the dead center of a richly hued whirligig of electronic precision.
The jury was impressed with many other, often delighted, but on test found them wanting for a variety of reasons, one of the most predominant being the photographer's departure from the characteristics of the medium to the imagery of the painter. They just did not have the photographic look and in most cases could have been done as well or better with a brush, the jurors felt. Many that were quite beautiful in their imaginative display of color shapes, groupings and relationships, regretfully were put aside because they missed the point. Among these were such cliches' as the moving light photographed with a slow shutter and circles of out-of-focus colored light. Others seemed to contrived to be convincing, particularly some table-top arrangements.
Too many were thinking more in terms of decorative effects for their own sake than interpretations of the assigned theme. A sense of literalness, in which musical instruments as subjects played a large part, inhibited the imagination of others. Flower closeups appeared in great abundance, pretty as flower pictures but unrelated for the most part to any aspect of the contest topic.
Lack of real content was the frequent plaint of the judges: not enough vitality and pictorial essence to justify favorable consideration. What they sought was a mood or atmosphere, a background of suggestiveness and association pinpointed by a forceful photographic image that would draw and hold the observer's attention and invite his mind to soar. Not too many fulfilled this requirement.
Was it that the contest theme was too complex, or so simple that many approached it too casually? Certainly, some of the results would seem to point in the latter directly, such as the slides that obviously had no relationship to the theme, slides apparently picked for their excellence simply as commendable color pictures rather than as real attempts to meet the issue. Many undoubtedly would receive high ratings in amateur exhibitions and general contests, but in this particular instance they were simply put of place. Frequently during the judging, the comment was, "Swell picture – too bad he did not try just a little harder."
If real effort was lacking in many, others showed evidence of working too hard on an idea that basically had little pertinence to the theme. Some created unnecessarily complicated image-making problems, handicapping themselves from the start; they did not think in simple enough terms. The elements of pattern, related shapes, and the need for unifying accent, were too little exploited.
In the main, the jury gave its most sympathetic attention to those who apparently had set themselves a goal and experimented industriously to reach it. These worked a basic concept in a series of variations to make it yield a winner. If they failed in relation to the contest, it was not a real failure for the the contest had offered them a opportunity to try their skills in a field – the abstraction with purpose – that is rarely attempted.
A statistical detail of the contest that had some effect on the type of material submitted was that about a fourth of the transparencies were taken on 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 and larger film. Ordinarily, 35mm slides dominate the color contests. The larger camera apparently offered some photographers greater scope for composing and idea building. However, there were many among the (miniature) slides that were also carefully thought out, so that the use of the larger or the smaller camera was perhaps more a matter of individual temperament and preference.
It was interesting to observe that as a national group, the Japanese appeared to be exceptionally gifted in matters of design and fantasy, factors of particular value in the field covered by the contest theme. They had a lightness of touch, a poetic quality that was distinctively their own and was recognized by the judges almost every time they were shown.
Taken as a whole, the contest entries represented a high degree of effort and imagination, on a level seldom achieved in a contest of this character. If most of the entrants missed, it was in the main for lack of experience with abstraction and in working out a photographic idea. In more than a few instances, the transparency was of such outstanding merit that the judges were almost persuaded, though of course this was not possible, to abandon the original goal and to create a new one on the spot, based on the rich material before their eyes. – Jacob Deschin - Camera Editor, The New York Times and author of The Canon System of Photography)
From Billboard - January 6, 1958: The cover steals the show; it's the prize winner (from some 30,000 entries) in the contest staged by RCA Victor with Canon Cameras to catch "the abstract idea of high fidelity" with a lens. As guitarist Chet Atkins' seventh album on this label, it should delight his fans with a versatile collection of numbers ranging from Bach's "Bourree" (on which Atkins' electric guitar sound exactly like harpsichord) to a flamboyant, quick-fingered "Tiger Rag."
El Cumbanchero
Ain't Misbehavin'
Shadow Waltz
Anna
Yesterdays
Portuguese Washerwoman
Tiger Rag
Walk, Don't Run
Tara's Them
Johnson Rag
Lullaby Of The Leaves
Bourree (J. S. Bach)
Avorada (Little Music Box)
