g. Paul Bishop Photography Exhibit
"One Hundred Faces"
By Laile E. Bartlett
San Francisco Bay Area Press
1971
Paul Bishop's studio on Durant is one of the landmarks of
Berkeley. His portrait portfolio is one of its notable collections.
Some people collect antiques --- or stamps or
recipes or posters. Paul Bishop collects people. People old and young,
renowned and unknown --- all of them with character.
He does not pursue them, though; they come to
him. For three decades, a remarkable breed of human being has made its way to
his door. Poets, scientists, musicians, statesmen --- all have found the welcome
of his fireplace and warm brick walls. One by one, they have taken their turn
on the great hassock: Robert Frost, Admiral Nimitz, the Huxleys, the Kroebers,
Frank Lloyd Wright. Photographers of note have come too: Edward Weston, Imogen
Cunningham, Cedric Wright.
Paul Bishop has selected "100 faces"
from his remarkable assemblage. The present exhibit captures a moment in the
lives of these one hundred that one knows or wants to know --- an inimitable
recollection of these great of the earth.
It all started with a birthday-present camera,
when Paul was a student at San Leandro High. His first "serious
photo" was a egg --- an everyday, ordinary egg --- an experience which
seems inexorably to have led to a propensity for "egg-heads."
After graduation from Armstrong Business
College, an aptitude test matched his manual dexterity with his scientific
bent and came up with dentistry. Paul followed this lead, and after attending
the University of California at Berkeley, went to the UC Medical Center as a
dental student. Though he was top man in Dr. Max Marshall's bacteriology
class, the perceptive professor, also a photographer, sized him up and advised
against dentistry. He predicted that, with his creative urge and sensitivity
to people, Paul could be an outstanding photographer.
That prediction came true. Paul Bishop is today
a distinguished artist/photographer, respected and honored by his peers. He
has won awards, had varied exhibits, been featured in national photography
magazines, and has seen his work reproduced in the American Annual of
Photography. An even greater tribute, perhaps, passersby ask to buy from
his display window photos of people they don't even know.
Bishop's first studio was a second-story loft
on Kittredge Street, next to the California Theatre - now a parking lot. That
was in 1939. It was there that he learned that starving artists in garrets
don't attract a thriving business.
His next studio, with a fur rug and all the
trimmings, was on Grand Avenue in Oakland. He had taken a course in glamour
photography at a Hollywood movie studio and now attracted debutantes and sweet
young things who came for movie-star portraits. It was here he learned to his
sorrow that "prettying" people up is not only false, but is also a
deadly bore.
The transition from successful popular
photographer to the present uncompromising artist took place during a stint in
the wartime service. He joined the navy as a photographic officer, and before
he was through --- 21 months overseas and 7 battle stars later --- Lt. Bishop
had had time to think.
He had also met Father Doyle, a Chaplin aboard
the carrier U.S.S. Hancock, who helped him think through life's meanings and
goals. Bishop is not Catholic, but he considers the influence of this
courageous and inspiring Chaplin the pivotal point in his career. "His
was the first truly great picture I ever made," Bishop says, "and at
that time I pledged to seek truthfulness, sincerity and honesty in my fellow
man --- a real project for living, a reason for being alive."
He has not swerved from his goal --- though the
going has been hard at times, and he has had to supplement his income with
carpentry --- and he has been making "great pictures" ever since.
The small "g" in his name, he
explains, serves to differentiate "between 'me' in the present ... and
'me' in the past --- I was called George."
In 1946, he carried Luella, his bride, whom he
had met on return from the service, over the threshold of the new Durant
Avenue studio. From that day, "this little pile of bricks" has been
office, workroom, and nest where they have lived and raised their family, two
girls and one boy, g. Paulette, g. Patricia, and g. Paul, Jr. and assorted
pets.
From that day on, it has also been an
incredible partnership, a rebuttal to the talk of the day that "marriage
has had it." "I may click the shutter," says Paul, "but
there's nothing else that we don't do together. If I'm the 'figurehead' in
this business, Lou's the 'power!' And she's a whiz of a snowmobiler!" he
adds with a chuckle.
Though the Bishop front door is closed to the
world of commerce, the usual rush of coming-out pictures and wedding parties,
their lives have been woven solidly into that of the community, with visits
from deans and professors, President Sproul, Enrique Jorda and others from the
San Francisco Symphony, Herb Caen, and the Griller String Quartet.
They like to think of their home "like the
'little theatre off Times Square' where special things happen." For every
corner is filled with memories and stories --- of the visit of Kinsey-Report
biologist Kinsey, and of Phyllis Diller, a housewife with five children who
entertained the ladies at the laundromat. "She was so shy then,"
Paul recalls, "that we had to bring her out!"
Often, too, they opened their studio to local
artists with one-man showings of sculptors, water colors, oils, prints and
flower arrangements.
The Bishops' "off location" life is
just as rich and three-dimensional. They have a mountain retreat at [Bear
Valley] with a cabin they built themselves. Paul restores old ore equipment
from this historic Mother Lode country, and his mountain yard is filled with a
collection of ore cars and relics from another age.
He is now branching out into a new art form,
inspired by such materials. One such work, from primitive square nails from
old Mother Lode buildings, now hangs in the studio. Another, of used
horseshoes from an old blacksmith shop, is in process.
Somewhat nearer to his day-to-day work is his
hobby of making portraits for book jackets. Thomas Shaw, Bank of California
manager, whose hobby, in turn, is sponsoring and encouraging such exhibits as
this one, has included in the show a display of Paul Bishop's book jackets.
These include photos of William Carlos Williams, theology professor Robert
Fitch, Brother Antoninus, Chester Bowles, both of the anthropology - Kroebers,
and the educator-sociologist "Bartlett Pair."
Most interesting to his peers, says Bishop, is
that one can make a living or even survive by making honest, straightforward
pictures. In an age of superficiality and phoniness, he still sticks to
authenticity --- authentic subjects, authentic craft --- no dressing up, no
covering up. At a time when everything is hard-sell and commercial, this is
out of step --- no gimmicks, no come-on, no advertising.
When asked to accept payment for ten cover
photos for the UC Alumni Club news some years back, he replied, "I do
better work when I'm not paid for it. The only reason I charge anything for my
work is because I have to earn a living."
Even in hard times, he has consistently sent
those who want their warts and wrinkles removed in photos to other
photographers. He's been a boon to his rivals! Since he never retouches a
print, only a select clientele is willing to take such a risk.
Of his style, American Photography once
noted: "Realism takes courage." Courage for client as well as
photographer! "When a subject sits before Bishop's camera, he understands
that he is going to get nothing more than what he came in with --- his face as
it appears without the benefits of soft lighting, retouching or other
alterations."
Needless to say, his following of romantic
young girls fell off as his store of characters grew. He has some stunning
photos of young girls, nonetheless, and he has won at least one prize for a
beautiful young woman.
Donald W. MacKinnon, the Berkeley scholar who
conducted a nationwide study of human creativity, has written: "All
creative persons place a high value on the theoretical and aesthetic. In other
words, such persons seek not only truth, but beauty." Paul Bishop must be
one of those to whom Prof. MacKinnon referred. In 1953, he said: "Each
person has as his greatest heritage his God given individuality. My objective
is to perceive his or her individuality, to admire it, to understand as much
as I can of it and to portray as much as I can of it --- thereby adding my bit
to Truth and Beauty."
But, as with other creative persons, he is also
aware of the need to develop and grow. "I feel that an artist should
improve all his life. I hope that the last portrait I take before I die is my
best."
__________
Bartlett, Laile E. "g. Paul Bishop
Photography Exhibit: One Hundred Faces." San Francisco
Bay Area Press. 1971.
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