here are the promised extracts from penmans essay
three degrees
in many of his images, an easily overlooked span: Eternal Nature, historical man, transient man. It's there in an early phot of Zurich (towering tree, smaller stone pillar, advertising image), as it later appears in The Americans (as eg.:timelessly gnarled tree, courthouse, snazzy man's shirt). It takes me a long time to see this pattern. Which may mean: we scan photogrpahs as if they belong to the last category when, in time, some of them will certinly end up in the second.
liability
Housing was cheap. travel was easy. there were commonual support systems. the decline of such things since is one reason a Frank or a Bukowski or Sun Ra, say, would be unlikely to flourish today, with time to drift, experiment, burn. Another reason: today, they would be 'acclaimed' - splashed accross every would be fashionable magazine and media spot - before they'd even unpacked their baggage.
set to infinity
The right photograph stop Time in a way that conservatoire art rarely does; resonance where you don't exepct it slows perception down to a heartbeat; whereas, the merely beautiful (too concise, too clear) simply hurries your gaze right along.