Video: The strangest professions in the world in the photographs of Nancy Rica Schiff (Nancy Rica Schiff)
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The career of a photographer Nancy Schiff (Nancy Rica Schiff) is not particularly exotic, but it was thanks to her work that she met people whose professional activities, to put it mildly, are non-trivial. Schiff's book Odd Jobs (Portrait of Unusual Occupations) contains photographs of specialists in the most outlandish fields.
As often happens, the “Strange Professions” photo project began quite spontaneously. In 1989, while filming a reportage on the Hollywood Racetrack, Schiff spotted a strange character at the end of the treadmill. His job was to time the race. “Few consciously strive to become a race gauge. This episode made me think that it would be interesting to travel around the country and find other unusual professions,”says Nancy. Which she did, capturing the most eccentric shots on black and white film.
The photographer's criterion for "weirdness" was simple: there had to be some unexpected twist in the plot. For example, the permutation of gender roles: a male bra designer or a young man testing tampons. Actually, a whole chapter is devoted to specialists testing various products, products and substances in the book. Another work could be related to death, some taboo but funny topic, or be one of a kind.
Despite the fact that the book was refused publication for a long time, after its publication it was a great success with readers, and after a while Schiff prepared for publication the second volume, clairvoyantly entitled "Even stranger professions." Both projects demanded a serious dedication from Schiff and greatly influenced both her and the people who took part in the filming. She had climbed Mount Rushmore to photograph the "crack-plasters" or, bent over three deaths in a custom-made small trailer, filming artificial insemination of cows from above.
As for her models, many of them contacted Schiff after the publication of the books to tell how this event affected their lives. Most of them were quite pleased with their newfound fame. True, for some it turned out to be associated with certain inconveniences. For example, "odor evaluator" Betty Lyons, who appeared on the cover of the first volume, wrote to the author that her friends and neighbors knew that she was working in the laboratory, but did not even know what exactly was her job.
Some photographers use props, editing and digital technology to create strange photo-hallucinations, but Nancy Schiff's work shows that reality can be just as absurd.
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