John Loengard: Brassai’s Eye, 1981

What was not expected was to get really energized by a complementary exhibit of images by famed LIFE photographer and photo editor John Loengard, and then to meet Loengard himself. Celebrating his new book, The Age of Silver, the Loengard show presents 24 thought-provoking pictures of photographers working on location and in their studios. Over his 55-year career, Loengard interviewed and photographed Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avendon, Berenice Abbott, Harry Benson, and many others. There is the astonishing picture of Annie Lebowitz out on a Chrysler Building gargoyle as an assistant hands her a camera back freshly loaded with film, and there is Jay Maisel hanging from a water tower, solo, getting the shot.

Those pictures made me nostalgic for the days when graphic designers pored over contact sheets and sent out negatives to be printed at labs. Do other designers mourn the qualities of film photography that may never be captured again, while acknowledging that our survival would be impossible today without the access and speed of digital?