Mr Cushman was an American gentleman, shooting bw and colour rolls from the late 1930s to the late sixties. He was a damn good amateur. His well-kept collection went to the Indiana University. They digitized the colour films and made them accessible through the net. Here: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp.
The pictures are mostly Americana, everyday pictures, cityscapes, buildings, street views.
Mr. Cushman had a Contax (like R. Capa), more precisely, Contax II (the IUni says, Contax IIa, but that come only after the war). The contemporary American "consumer" cameras were quite awful and laughable pieces of metal and bakelite, incomparable to Zeiss' cameras. Here, some material on Contax II and its brother, Contax III (that is, Contax II with a turret for the light meter). Notice that the Kiev 4 is a quite exact replica of the latter, with a Jupiter 50mm.
So what Mr Cushman achieved with his coated 50mm Zeiss lens, on 35mm colour film? Samples.
Miner town Zinc, Arizona. He photoed a lot of dilapidated buildings, lowlife areas, countrysides and other desperate places.
Chicago, entrance of the Art Institute, housing that particularly cold and vitreous picture.
Chicago again. Steel works.
Miami shore.
Chicago. It is really like that, even at broad daylight.
Chicago. The Wrigley Building (until a few day ago, it still belonged to the chewing gum company, by now it is sold). The verticals are somehow cool. The other one, with some Gothic flying buttresses, is the Tribune Tower.
The Wrigley Building again (the one with the clock tower). And the Tribune Tower, again. I would prefer the Carbon and Carbide Building with its dark granite (anthracite) surface, but these are also admirable.
Chicago again. Floating blocks of ice.
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