Hank O’Neal: You’ve Got To Do A Damn Sight Better Than That, Buster by Hank O'neal

Hank O’Neal: You’ve Got To Do A Damn Sight Better Than That, Buster by Hank O'neal

Hank O'Neal met Berenice Abbott in 1972 at the coffee shop of a Holiday Inn on 57th Street in New York City. After a two-hour meeting Abbott suggested he should visit her if he was ever near Moosehead Lake in northern Maine. In the fall of 1973 O'Neal did just that, spending a long weekend with Abbott at her circa 1810 stagecoach inn. They hit it off and at the end of the stay she said, "If you ever get a real camera come up here and I'll teach you how to use it." In early 1974 he bought an 8x10 Deardorff camera and in the summer of that year headed back to Maine. The first and only lesson lasted about 30 minutes and Abbott told him to photograph the antique doorknocker on her front door. After almost an hour she returned to check on his progress and said, "You've got to do a damn sight better than that, buster"-not only sound advice but a great title for a book.

Abbott and O'Neal became close friends and worked together on books, exhibitions, catalogs, films, lectures, portfolios, the sale of her collection, and even social gatherings, with Abbott as the maid of honor at his wedding. You've Got To Do A Damn Sight Better Than That, Buster is an informal, rollicking memoir based on 19 years of personal observations by O'Neal of one of the most accomplished American artists of the twentieth century.

When a supervisor at the Federal Artist's Project saw Berenice Abbott's Blossom Restaurant photograph he said to her, "Nice girls don't go down on the Bowery" to which Abbott replied, "I'm not a nice girl, I'm a photographer." Hank O'Neal

HANK O'NEAL was born in Kilgore, Texas, in 1940 to Harold and Sarah. He is currently an author, photographer, and music and music festival producer, and formerly a military officer and US government official. He has published two dozen books dealing with music and photography or both, and has produced hundreds of recordings and music festivals. He lives in New York City.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9783958297012
ISBN 10	3958297013
Title	Hank O’Neal: You’ve Got To Do A Damn Sight Better Than That, Buster
Author	Hank O'neal
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Steidl Publishers
Year published	2024-06-27
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.