The Yachting Photography of Willard B. Jackson at Marblehead, 1898-1937
By Matthew P. Murphy192 pages, $50, Commonwealth Editions, www.commonwealtheditions.com
In this new collection of his sailing photography, Willard Bramwell Jackson (1871-1940) captures the sense of graceful ease that is inherent in sailing.
The title refers to the glass plates Jackson used as negatives in making his pictures and, of course, to the boats that are his subject. The 75 images that make up this volume were selected by WoodenBoat magazine editor Matthew P. Murphy, who brings to this work his extensive understanding of yachts, their history and design, and the skills successful sailing demands.
Murphy divides the volume into nine chapters with titles such as “From Workboat to Yacht,” “Knockabouts and Such,” and “Schooner Yachts.” On the page opposite each image, he chronicles the history of the specific boat pictured, its designers and owners, and details about its operation.
While the photos are immediately accessible even to viewers with no familiarity with sailing, the text may prove challenging. Murphy’s prose is liberally sprinkled with sailing vernacular and with references to a yachting history that may be unfamiliar. As sailing does have its own language and lore, more than once I found myself checking in the dictionary or online for the difference, for instance, between a sloop and a schooner.
Given all this, general readers will appreciate the helpful foreword by Daniel Finamore, a curator at the Peabody Essex Museum (where many of the mages will be on display until January 21, 2007) in which much of the background surrounding Jackson, his times, and photographic technique is illuminated.
In the end, it is the photos that carry the book, as they should. The more one pages through Glass Plates, the more it makes sense. Jackson’s images illustrate a specific moment in history that was also the apex of competitive yachting in the United States. They also illustrate seamanship, immense wealth, sport, nature, and the timeless whimsy that always marks human beings at play. Beyond that, the images also represent a perfect confluence of technical expertise and artistic ability that is matched, one comes to see, in both yacht design and in the skills it takes to sail.
Be sure to check out the original glass plates in the new exhibition “The Yachting Photography of Willard B. Jackson” at the Peabody Essex Museum (www.pem.org).