Dinah Steveni on fri 23 mar 07
Marcie's wonderment about Michael Cardew's alleged comment regarding =
"Americans make better slides than pots." shows a wonderful innocence. =
I know he's referring to the fact that the images of pots on slides =
revealed a clever use of lighting etc., to make the pots look better =
than in the flesh, as it were. He was a terrific potter, but like Harry =
Davis and others of that ilk and rightly so, maintained a personal =
integrity about making which may have appeared rather inflexible. Why =
not? They went out there to the arm-pits of beyond, won the raw =
materials, processed it and made the pots.=20
Also, post WWII limitations of goods and services in UK would perhaps =
feed a grudging and not quite sneering contempt -- too strong a word -- =
irritation is perhaps kinder for American's cornucopia of materials and =
resources including cameras and photographers to take sympathetic slides =
of perhaps not very well made pots -- to their exacting standards of =
course.=20
That's my take on it, after 25 years of living in the UK, I picked up a =
few vibes. Very nice bits and pieces of observations around this =
subject. Enjoying the discussion.
Dinah Steveni
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