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Famous
Photographers
& Images
AWQ 3O & 4M
Mr. C. Murray
Left:
Nicephore
Niepce, circa
1795.
Left: Niepce’s earliest surviving
photograph, circa 1827
- Starting in 1829 he began
collaborating on improved
photographic processes with
Niepce – world’s first permanent photograph Louis Daguerre.
- The Niepce crater on the
Moon has been named after him
in recognition of his
accomplishments
Nicephore Niepce – was a French inventor, most noted as a pioneer in photography.
The earliest known surviving example of a Niépce photograph (or any other photograph)
was created in June or July of 1827. In 2002 another early photograph by Niepce was
discovered. It was taken in 1825 of a young stable boy leading a horse, the photograph was
auctioned off in France for more than 500,000 Euros ( approx. 678,000 USD ). Niépce called
his process "heliography", meaning "sun writing". The exposure time required is an issue still
debated today, somewhere between 8 and 20 hours. Because of the very long exposure time,
the process was used to photograph buildings and inanimate objects, but could not be
practically used to photograph people.
Photographers from the Civil War:
Mathew Brady & Timothy O’Sullivan
- recorded U.S. Civil War
- documentation of the horrors and disasters of war
-Mathew Brady did not actually shoot many of the Civil War photographs
attributed to him. He was more of a project manager and he spent most
of his time supervising his traveling photographers, preserving their
negatives and buying others from private photographers when they
returned fresh from the battlefield
Mathew B. Brady,
- Brady routinely took credit for the work of his staff photographs circa 1875
Joseph Hooker, 1814-1879
Mathew Brady Studio
Mathew Brady, 1861 Albumen silver print, 1863
Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885
Mathew Brady Studio
Albumen silver print, 1864
The Harvest of Death: Union dead on
the battlefield at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania,
photographed July 4, 1863.
Albumen print, 7 x 8 11/16 in.
“Slowly, over the misty fields of
Gettysburg--as all reluctant to expose
their ghastly horrors to the light--came
the sunless morn, after the retreat by
[General Robert. E.] Lee's broken army.
Through the shadowy vapors, it was,
indeed, a "harvest of death" that was
presented; hundreds and thousands of
torn Union and rebel soldiers strewed the
now quiet fighting ground, soaked by the
rain, which for two days had drenched
the country with its fitful showers.”
Timothy O’Sullivan – photography to record
Although Gardner's caption identifies the
historical events (U.S. Civil War) – depicts the men in the photograph as "rebels
reality of war represented...without shoes," they are
probably Union dead. During the Civil
War, shoes were routinely removed from
corpses because supplies were scarce
and surviving troops needed them.
Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882)
- as a teenager he was employed by Matthew Brady, a Civil War photographer
- Under the employ of Mathew Brady photographers were sent out to document the war. To
do this they had traveling darkrooms so that collodion plats could be processed on the spot.
- In 1862 or 1863, he joined the studio of Alexander Gardner, who included forty-four of
O'Sullivan's photographs in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, the first published
collection of Civil War photographs. After the war he photographed the American West.
Timothy O'Sullivan Timothy H.
O'Sullivan,
Field Where General
Reynolds Fell,
Gettysburg
negative July 1863;
print 1866
Albumen print
6 15/16 x 9 in.
Photographers Wagon & Tent
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
Desert Sand Hill near Sink of Carson, Nevada
American, Nevada, 1867
Albumen print
8 13/16 x 11 7/16 in.
Timothy O'Sullivan's darkroom wagon, pulled by four
mules, entered the frame at the right side of the
photograph, reached the center of the image, and abruptly
U-turned, heading back out of the frame. Footprints
leading from the wagon toward the camera reveal the
photographer's path. Made at the Carson Sink in Nevada,
this image of shifting sand dunes reveals the patterns of
tracks recently reconfigured by the wind. The wagon's
striking presence in this otherwise barren scene dramatizes
the pioneering experience of exploration and discovery in
the wide, uncharted landscapes of the American West.
Edweard
Muybridge
(1830 - 1904)
- known primarily for his
early use of multiple
cameras to capture
motion, and his
zoopraxiscope, a device
for projecting motion
pictures that predated
celluloid film strip used
today.
Muybridge – photography as an aid in scientific - The Horse in Motion
shows that the hooves all
investigation leave the ground at the
moment when all the
hooves are tucked under
In 1872, soon-to-be Governor of California Leland Stanford, a the horse, as it switches
businessman and race-horse owner, had taken a position on a from "pulling" from the
popularly-debated question of the day: whether during a horse's front legs to "pushing"
gallop, all four hooves were ever off the ground at the same time. from the back legs.
Stanford sided with this assertion, called "unsupported transit",
and took it upon himself to prove it scientifically. (Though legend
also includes a wager of up to $25,000, there is no evidence of
this.) Stanford sought out Muybridge and hired him to settle the
question.
To do this Muybridge developed a scheme for instant motion
picture capture as well as improving chemical formulas and
development of an electrical trigger.
In the 1880’s, Muybridge invents the
zoopraxiscope which produced a series of
images of a moving subject. The Zoopraxiscope
projected a series of images (hand painted from
Muybridge's photographic sequences) on a
circular rotating glass plate. The images were
elongated to compensate for the distortion
caused by projection through a rotating shutter.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/anima/optical/zoopraxi/index.htm
Julia Margaret Cameron
(1815 – 1879)
– was known for her portraits of
celebrities of the time, and for
romantic/dreamy themed images (with
far-away looks and limp poses and soft
lighting)
- work had a huge impact on the
development of modern photography,
especially her closely cropped portraits
which are still mimicked today
- her career was short and came late in
her life – her daughter gave Julia her
first camera when she was 48 years old
- Cameron strove to capture beauty in
her images and her images often
employ a soft focus technique as well as
vignetting
- most her work falls into two
categories: closely framed portraits and
illustrative allegories based on religious
Cameron – set up photos illustrating and literary works.
stories, romantic dreamy themed
images – early female photogrpaher. Left: ”I Wait”, 1860s
Left::
”Mrs. Herbert
Duckworth”,
April 1867
Below:
“Sadness”,
1864
Above: “Self-
Portrait by Julia
Margaret
Cameron.
Above Right:
“The Parting of
Sir Lancelot and
Queen
Guinevere”
Left: ”Pomona”,
1872
Nadar or Gaspard-Felix
Tournachon
(1820 – 1910)
– was born in 1820, he was a
caricaturist for a Paris newspaper
- He took his first photographs in
1853 and in 1858 he became the
first person to take aerial
photographs and use artificial
lighting
- he used artificial lighting
(magnesium flares) when
descending into the sewers and
catacombs of Paris
- he built a huge hot air baloon
named Le Geant (The Giant) and
took aerial photographs of Paris –
Nadar – first person to take aerial photographs he later crashed the balloon
and use artificial lighting, also known for his early
portraitsNadar
Above:
Self-Portrait
c. 1855
Above Right:
Sarah
Bernhardt
c. 1825
André Gill, La Lune
Right:: June 2, 1867
The Sewers Hand-colored Engraving
1864-65 12"w x 18"hGeorge Eastman (1854-1932) - founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film which helped bring photography into the mainstream. - roll film was also the basis for motion picture film - In 1884, he patented a photographic medium that replaced fragile glass plates with a photo- emulsion coated on paper rolls. The invention of roll film greatly speeded up the process of recording multiple images. - He coined the marketing phrase “You push the button, we do the rest.” - The camera owner could return it with a processing fee of $10, and the company would develop the film and return 100 pictures, along with a new roll of 100 exposures. - The letter “K” had been a favourite of Eastman’s, he is quoted in saying it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter". He and his mother devised the name Kodak with an anagram set. He said that there were three principal concepts he used in creating the name: it must be short, you can not mispronounce it, and it could not resemble anything or be associated with anything but Kodak In 1932, Eastman died by his own hand, leaving a suicide note that read, "My work is done. Why wait?“.
Hine – used his photographs to promote social Above: Power house mechanic
reform (child labour and workers rights) working on a steam pump,
1920
Left: Girl worker in Carolina
cotton mill, 1908
Lewis Hine (1874 – 1940) – was an American photographer who used the camera
both as a research tool and an instrument of social reform.
As a teacher in New York he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational
medium. He took his classes to Ellis Island to photograph the thousands of immigrants who
arrived each day to America. Eventually the realized that his vocation was photography.
In 1908 he became the photographer for the National Child Labour Committee and he
documented child labour in American industry in order to end the practice.LEWIS HINE (American 1874-1940)
CHILD LABOUR SERIES
ABOVE: Boy carrying homework from
New York sweatshop, 1912
RIGHT TOP: Newsies and Bootblacks
shooting craps, 1910
RIGHT BOTTOM: Newsies selling in saloons
at night. New England, 1912Above: “Worker on the Empire
State building” circa 1931
Left: “Construction worker on
the Empire State building,
working on some type of wire."
Circa 1931
Lewis Hine
In 1920 he made a series of “work portraits” which emphasized the human contribution to
modern industry. In 1930, Lewis Hine was commissioned to document the construction of The Empire
State Building. Hine photographed the workers in precarious positions while they secured the iron and steel
framework of the structure, taking many of the same risks the workers endured. In order to obtain the best
vantage points, Hine was swung out in a specially designed basket 1,000 feet above Fifth AvenueAlfred Stieglitz
(1820 – 1910)
– American-born photographer
who was instrumental over his fifty
year career in making
photography an acceptable art
form alongside painting and
sculpture.
-Published magazines that
promoted photography as an art
form
- founded the Photo-Secession
group to force the art world to
recognize photography “as a
distinctive medium of individual
expression.”
"The Steerage" 1907
Stieglitz – photography as art – he was photograph by Alfred Stieglitz.
instrumental in making the art world Photograph of working class
recognize photography as a distinctive people crowding two decks of
medium of individual expression a transatlantic steamerHe was insistent that
"photographs look like
photographs," so that the
medium of photography
would be considered with
its own aesthetic credo
and so separate
photography from other
fine arts such as painting,
thus defining photography
as a fine art for the first
time.
This approach by Stieglitz
to photography gained the
term "straight
photography" in contrast
to other forms of
photography such as
"pictorial photography"
Cunningham, Imogen Alfred Stieglitz (above right & above) which practiced
American (1883-1976) The Terminal, New York, 1892 manipulation of the image
Alfred Stieglitz in American Place Flat Iron Building, New York, 1903.
pre and/or post exposure.
1934Dorothea Lange
(1895 – 1965)
– was an influential American
documentary photographer and
photojournalist
-She is best known for her Depression
era work for the Farm Security
Administration
- her photographs humanized the tragic
consequences of the Great Depression
and profoundly influenced the
development of documentary
photography
- she started off as a portrait
photographer with her own studio.
With the onset of the Depression.
Lange turned her camera lens from the
studio to the streets
- her work brought the plight of the
poor and forgotten, displaced farm
families, and migrant workers to public
Lange – iconic images of the Great attention
Depression and influential in development - her images were distributed free to
of documentary photography newspapers across the country and
became icons of the eraLange actually took six images that day, the last being the famous "Migrant
Mother". Below is a montage of the other five pictures.
Persons in picture (left to right) are: Viola (Pete) in rocker, age 14, standing
inside tent; Ruby, age 5; Katherine, age 4, seated on box; Florence, age 32, and
infant Norma, age 1 year, being held by Florence.
Pete has moved inside the tent, and away from Lange, in hopes her photo can
not be taken. Katherine stands next to her mother. Florence is talking to Ruby,
who is hiding behind her mother, as Lange took the picture.
Florence is nursing Norma. Katherine has moved back from her mother as
Lange approached to take this shot. Ruby is still hiding behind her mother.
Left to right are Florence, Ruby and baby Norma.
Migrant Mother
(Florence Owens Florence stopped nursing Norma and Ruby has come out from behind her. This
Thompson), photograph was the one used by the newspapers the following day to report the
Nipomo, California story of the starving migrants.
1936
White Angel Bread Line
1932Comments on Migrant Mother:
Over 10 minutes Lange took 6 images. Lange wrote of the meeting:
"I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that
they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the
children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food."
Her son Troy Owens recounts:
"There's no way we sold our tires, because we didn't have any to sell. The only ones we had
were on the Hudson and we drove off in them. I don't believe Dorothea Lange was lying, I just
think she had one story mixed up with another. Or she was borrowing to fill in what she didn't
have.“
It was only in the late 1970s that Florence's identity was made known, after a letter she had written
was published in a local newspaper and the Associated Press sent a story around entitled "Woman
Fighting Mad Over Famous Depression Photo." Florence was quoted as saying "I wish she [Lange]
hadn't taken my picture. I can't get a penny out of it. She didn't ask my name. She said she wouldn't
sell the pictures. She said she'd send me a copy. She never did."
Dorothea
Lange taking
photos from
her car.Dorothea Lange
White Angel Bread Line
1932
Dorothea Lange
Hoe Culture,
near Anniston,
Alabama, 1936
Dorothea Lange
Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded
San Joaquin Valley, California
1935- she was the first
Western
photographer
allowed into the
Soviet Union
- she was the first
female
photojournalist for
Life magazine
- her photographs of
the construction of
the Fort Peck Dam
were featured in
Life’s first issue,
including the cover
Bourke-White – early female photojournalist who was the
first female war correspondent, first foreign photographer
allowed into Soviet Russia, first cover of Life magazine etc.
Margaret Bourke-White (1904 – 1971)
– was an American photographer and photojournalist
- photographed during the Depression like Dorothea Lange
- she was the first female war correspondent and first woman to be allowed
to work in combat zones during World War II- As the war progressed, she was
attached to the U.S. army air force
in North Africa, then to the U.S.
Army in Italy and later Germany.
She repeatedly came under fire in
Italy in areas of fierce fighting.
- "The woman who had been
torpedoed in the Mediterranean,
strafed by the Luftwaffe, stranded
on an Arctic island, bombarded in
Moscow, and pulled out of the
Chesapeake when her chopper
Above: Self-
crashed, was known to the Life
Portrait during staff as 'Maggie the
a WWII photo Indestructible.'“
assignment
- In the spring of 1945, she
Left: German
civilians made
traveled through a collapsing
to face their Germany with General George S.
nation's Patton. In this period, she arrived
crimes,
Buchenwald,
at Buchenwald, the notorious
1945
concentration camp. She is quoted
as saying, "Using a camera was
Bottom: almost a relief. It interposed a
Prisoners at slight barrier between myself and
Buchenwald,
1945 the horror in front of me."She had a knack for being at the right place at the right
time: She interviewed and photographed Mohandas K.
Gandhi just few hours before his assassination.
Eisenstaedt, her friend and colleague, said one of her
strengths was that there was no assignment and no
“Ghandi at Spinning picture that was unimportant to her. She also started the
Wheel”, 1946 first photo lab at Life.
Margaret Bourke-White
contributed many things to the
world of photography. She was
a woman, doing a man's job,
in a man's world, from the
foundries of Cleveland to the
battlefields in World War II.
She was an original staff
photographer for two of the
most prominent magazines of
her day, Fortune and Life. She
led a life full of adventure,
pioneering a new art form:
photojournalism. Margaret
Bourke-White was, and still is,
one of the most important
photographers of the twentieth
century.The halftone process, perfected in the 1880’s, permitted photographs and type to be printed together, and photographs became unexpected additions to news stories. The photo essay, a sequence of photographs plus brief textural material, came of age in the 1930’s. The halftone process converts the continuous shades of gray in a photograph into distinct units of black and white that can be printed with ink on paper Magazines such as LIFE became immensely popular as they were the most accessible, exciting, up-to-date form of news available. Today they are replaced by the mass media of television, newspapers, and the internet. But photojournalism has existed for the last 150 years, and photojournalists have spent that time on the front lines, not only in times of war but in times of peace, recording the important events of contemporary history alongside the situations of everyday life, condensing the essential of a story in just a few pages of pictures. First LIFE magazine cover, dated Nov. 23, 1936, with logo and picture of Fort Peck Dam by Margaret Bourke-White
Brassai (1899 – 1984)
– was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor,
and filmmaker who rose to fame in France
- His job as a journalist and love of the city,
whose streets he often wandered late at
night, led to photography. He later wrote
that photography allowed him to seize the
Paris night and the beauty of the streets
and gardens, in rain and mist.
- Gyula Halász went by the pseudonym
"Brassaï," which means "from Brasso." As
Brassaï, he captured the essence of the city
in his photographs, publishing his first book
of photographs in 1933 titled "Paris de
nuit" ("Paris by Night").
- His efforts met with great success,
resulting in his being called "the eye of
Paris". In addition to photos of the seedier
side of Paris, he also provided scenes from
the life of the city's high society, its
intellectuals, its ballet, and the grand
Brassai – best know for his images of the operas. He photographed many of his great
artist friends, including Salvador Dalí, Pablo
streets of Paris at night
Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Alberto
Giacometti.
Brassai (Gyula Halasz), Open Gutter, From "Paris by Night“, 1933-his images depict in a non-
judgmental and keenly observed
fashion the prostitutes, opium
addicts, lovers (homosexual and
heterosexual), street hoodlums,
performers and nighttime revelers
of prewar Paris.
- Brassaï described himself as
nocturnal, rising only at sunset and
going to bed at sunrise, walking for
long hours around the city,
sometimes with a companion, but
more often alone. At first he
worked simply with available light,
"Bijou" of the Montmartre cabarets Prostitute at angle of Rue de la Reynie using long exposures on a tripod.
From "Paris by Night“, 1933 and Rue Quincampoix Paris was getting significantly
From "Paris by Night“, 1933
lighter out of doors at night, with
electric street lighting beginning to
take the place of gas.
- Brassai had used some very long
exposures - perhaps half an hour -
for his night pictures.
Parisian couple, 1926- He often chose conditions of mist or
light rain and tried to mask close bright
light sources behind trees or other
barriers in the scene to avoid problems
of excessive exposure in these areas.
Both served to reduce the excessive
contrast which was the main problem
in night photography.
Above: Brassaï @ work -The weather conditions he chose at
Below: Portrait of Brassai
by another photographer
least in part on technical grounds
added to the work, producing strong
“The Stairs" by Brassaï moods and a tangible atmosphere.
- Brassaï generally timed his
exposures using a cigarette -the
cheap, fast-burning Gauloise which
incorporated an oxidiser being suitable
for brighter conditions and a more
expensive slower burning brand for
darker areas.
“Brouillard" by Brassaï-best known as a candid news
photographer whose stark
black-and-white shots
documented street life in New
York City. Weegee's photos of
crime scenes, car-wreck
victims in pools of their own
blood, overcrowded urban
beaches and various
grotesques are still shocking,
- Fellig was the only New York
newspaper reporter with a
permit to have a portable
police-band shortwave radio.
He maintained a complete
darkroom in his trunk of his
car, to expedite getting his
free-lance product to the
newspapers.
Weegee – best known for his street crime scene
photography - Weegee worked mostly at
night; he listened closely to
broadcasts and often beat
Weegee aka Arthur Fellig (1899 – 1968) authorities to the scene
– was an American photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white
street photography
- His nickname was a phonetic rendering of Ouija, because he frequently arrived at scenes
only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were reported to authorities"He will take his camera and ride off in
search of new evidence that his city,
even in her most drunken and
disorderly and pathetic moments, is
beautiful."
-William McCleery in Naked City
-His acclaimed first book collection of
photographs, Naked City (1945), became
the inspiration for a major 1948 movie The
Naked City, and later the title of a
pioneering realistic television police drama
- Most of his notable photographs were taken series.
with very basic press photographer equipment
and methods of the era, a 4x5 Speed Graphic
camera preset at f/16, @ 1/200 of a second with -Fellig is also referred to in an episode of
flashbulbs and a set focal length of ten feet. The X-Files in which Agent Dana Scully is
assigned to work with a crime scene
photographer named Alfred Fellig whose
subjects may in fact be his victims.
- had no formal photographic training but
was a self-taught photographer and
relentless self-promoter. He is sometimes
said not to have had any knowledge of the
New York art photography scene; but in
1943 the Museum of Modern Art included
Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber Use Their Top Hats to several of his photos in an exhibition
Hide Their Faces, January 27, 1942In the Lobby at the Metropolitan Opera,
Opening Night, , November 22, 1943
The Fashionable People, [title first used for
"The Critic" in LIFE Magazine], published
December 6, 1943
- "The Critic" is probably Weegee's most famous image, and most widely published. It taken at the opening night of
the Metropolitan Opera in 1943. In an interview, Louie Liotta, Weegee's assistant, recalled that Weegee has been
planning this photograph for a while. Liotta, at Weegee's request, picked up one of the regular women customers at
Sammy's on the Bowery at about 6:30 p.m. With a sufficient amount of cheap wine for the woman, they proceeded
to the opera house. When they arrived, the limousines owned by the members of high society were just beginning
to discharge their passengers. With a signal worked out in advance, Weegee gave the sign to Liotta, who releasd
the woman, hoping all the while that she could keep her balance long enough for Weegee to expose several plates.
The moment had finally arrived: Mrs. George Washington Kavenaugh and Lady Decies were spotted getting out of a
limousine. Both women were generous benefactors to numerous cultural institutions in New York and Philadelphia,
and Weegee knew that they were known to every newspaper in New York. Liotta recalled the moment he released
the disheveled woman: "It was like an explosion. I thought I went blind from the three or four flash exposures
which Weegee made within a very few seconds." For his part, Weegee told the story that he "discovered" the
woman viewing the opera patrons after the negative had been developed, never revealing the prank, saying it was
as much a surprise to him as anyone.Riis – documentary photography for social
reform – poverty
Bandit's Roost by Jacob Riis, 1888, from How the
Other Half Lives. This image is Bandit's Roost at 59½
Jacob Riis Mulberry Street, considered the most crime-ridden,
(1849 – 1914) dangerous part of New York City.
– a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer, and social reformer, was born in Ribe,
Denmark. He is known for his dedication to using his photographic and journalistic talents to
help the less fortunate in New York City, which was the subject of most of his prolific writings
and photographic essays. As one of the first photographers to use flash, he is considered a
pioneer in photographyW. Eugene Smith
(1918 – 1978)
– was an American photojournalist
known for his refusal to
compromise professional
standards and his brutally vivid
World War II photographs.
- Smith was injured while taking
photographs of WWII. During his
two year of recovery and plastic
surgery he took no pictures and
debated whether he would ever be
able to return to photography.
Then one day Smith took a walk
with his two children and even
though it was still intensely painful
Smith – war photographer known for using a for him to operate a camera he
35mm SLR in combat zones, also known for came back with one of the most
establishing the photo essay as an important famous photographs of all time:
"A Walk to Paradise Garden." This
way to convey a message (story through memorable image was to serve as
pictures) – also early environmental the final picture in the famous
photography "Family of Man" Exhibition.-He began his career by taking pictures for local newspapers. He
went to New York City and began work for Newsweek and became
known for his incessant perfectionism and thorny personality.
Smith was fired from Newsweek for refusing to use medium
format cameras and joined Life Magazine in 1939.
- As a correspondent, Smith entered World War II on the front
lines of the island-hopping American offensive against Japan,
photographing U.S. Marines and Japanese prisoners of war. On
Okinawa, Smith was hit by mortar fire. After recovering, Smith
continued at Life and perfected the photo essay, a set or series of
photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of
emotions in the viewer.
Right: An example of Smith's
war photography for Life.
Above: Marine Mop-up Following Japanese Suicide
Charge, Saipan, 1944
Left: Marine Demolition Team Blasting Out a Cave on
Hill 382, Iwo Jima, 1945Tomoko Uemura in Her
Bath, Minamata, 1972
-In the early 1970s, William Eugene Smith lived with his wife, in Minamata, Japan.
William Eugene Smith took this photo. as well as many others, of the effects of long term
environmental industrial mercury poisoning on the local population.
- Here, on the Japanese Island of Kyushu, we see an image of an outwardly healthy mother
bathing her fetal-poisoned 16 year old daughter, Tomoko Uemura, grotesquely deformed,
physically crippled and blind since birth due to environmental industrial mercury poisoning in
the local Minamata, Japan, water supply.
- This may well be the first environmental pollution photojournalism. The photograph is
from a series on industrial pollution by William Eugene Smith and Aileen Mioko Sprauge
Smith for which they jointly received the World Understanding Award-U.S.A. William Eugene
Smith, who was severely beaten by goons hired by the offending chemical company, also
received the Robert Capa Gold Modal-U.S.A. for "photography requiring exceptional courage
and enterprise."- “There is nothing
in this world that
does not have a
decisive moment"
Cartier-Bresson
applied this to his
photographic
style. He said: "To
me, photography
is the
simultaneous
recognition, in a
fraction of a
second, of the
significance of an
Cartier-Bresson – developed a style of “street event as well as of
a precise
photography” that promoted the idea of the organization of
“decisive moment” forms that give
that event its
proper
expression."
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Children in Seville, Spain, photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1933.
(1908 – 2004)
– a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an
early adopter of 35mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped
develop the "street photography" style that has influenced generations of
photographers that followed.Behind the
- Cartier-Bresson exclusively used Leica 35 mm
Gare St. rangefinder cameras equipped with normal 50mm
Lazare, Paris lenses or occasionally a wide-angle for landscapes.
There was a He often wrapped black tape around the camera's
plank fence chrome body to make it less conspicuous. With fast
around some
black and white films and sharp lenses, he was able to
repairs
behind the photograph almost by stealth to capture the events.
Gare Saint- He never photographed with flash, a practice he saw
Lazare train as “impolite...like coming to a concert with a pistol in
station. I
happened to
your hand.”
be peeking
through a
gap in the
fence with
my camera at
the moment
the man
jumped.
Brussels,
Belgium,
1932
- He believed in composing his photographs in his
camera and not in the darkroom, showcasing this belief
by having nearly all his photographs printed only at full-
frame and completely free of any cropping or other
darkroom manipulation -- indeed, he emphasized that
the entire negative had been used by extending the area
reproduced on the print to include a thick black border
The Var department, Hyères, France 1932. around the frame.Berenice Abbott
(1898 – 1991)
– an American photographer
best known for her black-and-
white photography of New
York City architecture and
urban design of the 1930s.
- Abbott's first became
involved with photography in
1923, when Man Ray, hired
her as a darkroom assistant at
his portrait studio. Later she
would write: "I took to
photography like a duck to
water. I never wanted to do
anything else." Ray was
impressed by her darkroom
work and allowed her to use
his studio to take her own
photographs
Abbott – best known for her architectural
and urban design photographs of New Berenice Abbott
York Canyon: Broadway and Exchange
Place, c. 1935-39In early 1929, Abbott
visited New York City and
immediately saw its
photographic potential.
Accordingly, she went back
to Paris, closed up her
studio, and returned to
New York in September.
Her first photographs of
the city were taken with a
hand-held Kurt-Bentzin
camera, but soon she
acquired a Century
Universal camera which
produced 8 x 10 inch glass
plate negatives. Using this
large format camera,
Abbott photographed New
York City with the diligence
Abbott was part of the straight photography
movement, which stressed the importance of
and attention to detail she
photographs being unmanipulated in both subject had so admired in Eugène
matter and developing processes. Throughout her Atget. Her work has
career, Abbott's photography was very much a
display of the rise in development in technology
provided a historical
and society. Her works documented and praised chronicle of many now-
Above: Columbus Circle, Feb. 10, the New York landscape. This was all guided by her destroyed buildings and
1938 belief that a modern day invention such as the
Right: Cliff and Ferry Street, camera deserved to document the 20th century.
neighborhoods of
Nov. 29, 1935 Manhattan.Man Ray
(1890 – 1976)
– an American artist who spent most of
his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best
described simply as a modernist, he was
a significant contributor to both the
Dada and Surrealist movements,
although his ties to each were informal.
-Best known in the art world for his
avant-garde photography, Man Ray
produced major works in a variety of
media and considered himself a painter
above all.
- In 1999, ARTnews magazine named
him one of the 25 most influential artists
of the 20th century, citing his
groundbreaking photography as well as
"his explorations of film, painting,
sculpture, collage, assemblage, and
prototypes of what would eventually be
called performance art and conceptual
art" and saying "Man Ray offered artists
in all media an example of a creative
Man Ray – know for his photograms as well intelligence that, in its 'pursuit of
as explorations into surreal photographic pleasure and liberty,'" — Man Ray’s
images stated guiding principles — "unlocked
every door it came to and walked freely
Rayography Spiral, 1923 where it would."Left: Objet Indestructible
(1923-1975) -
(Readymade wooden
metronome with photograph
of an eye )
Bottom Left: Larmes, 1932
Bottom Middle: Le Violon
d'Ingres, 1924
Bottom Right: Woman,
1931
Man Ray involved himself with Dada, a radical anti-art movement, and abandoned traditional painting, started
making objects, and developed unique mechanical and photographic methods of making images. Like Duchamp,
he made "readymades" - objects selected by the artist, sometimes modified and presented as art. His Gift
readymade (1921) is a flatiron with metal tacks attached to the bottom, and Enigma of Isidore Ducasse is an
unseen object (a sewing machine) wrapped in cloth and tied with cord. His approach to photography was always
to challenge the traditional ways of seeing. His extreme close-up of an eye with perfectly round tears is an
arresting image. He is also known for his experiments with a darkroom process called solarization, in which the
image is treated with special chemicals and exposed to light before it is thoroughly developed.Yousef Karsh (1908 – 2002)
– a Canadian photographer of Armenian birth,
and one of the most famous and accomplished
portrait photographers of all time
-when he came to Canada he established a
studio on Sparks Street in Ottawa, close to
Canada’s seat of government. Canadian Prime
Minister Mackenzie King discovered Karsh and
arranged introductions with visiting dignitaries
for portrait sittings.
- Karsh's work attracted the attention of varied
celebrities, but his place in history was sealed
in 1941 when Winston Churchill came to
Ottawa and was photographed by him
- as the story goes, Karsh was only given two minutes
to photograph when Churchill marched into the room
scowling, "regarding my camera as he might regard
the German enemy." His expression suited Karsh
perfectly, but the cigar stuck between his teeth
Karsh – famous Canadian portrait seemed incompatible with such a solemn and formal
photographer – probably best known occasion. "Instinctively, I removed the cigar. At this the
Churchillian scowl deepened, the head was thrust
for how he is able to capture the forward belligerently, and the hand placed on the hip
essence of a persons identity on film in an attitude of anger."The image captured Churchill
and the England of the time perfectly — defiant and
unconquerable. Churchill later said to him, "You can
even make a roaring lion stand still to be
Winston photographed." As such, Karsh titled the photograph,
Churchill The Roaring Lion.
1941Humphrey Bogart, 1946 Albert Einstein, 1948 George Bernard Shaw 1943 Ernest Hemingway, 1957
Karsh was a master of studio lights. One of Karsh's distinctive practices was lighting the subject's hands
separately. He photographed many of the great and celebrated personalities of his generation. It was said that
"when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa.“ Karsh had a gift for capturing the
essence of his subject in the instant of his portrait. As Karsh wrote of his own work in Karsh Portfolio in 1967,
"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The
revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the
eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that
fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize."
Photos Left:
Man Ray,
1965
Ansel Adams,
1977
Self-Portrait,
1938
Rush by Yousuf Karsh (1984)Ansel Adams
(1902 – 1984)
– an American
photographer, best known
for his black and white
photographs of California's
Yosemite Valley.
-Adams also authored
numerous books about
photography, co-founded
Group f/64 along with other
photographic masters and
created the zone system - a
technique which allows
photographers to translate
the light they see into
specific densities on
Ansel Adams – famous photographer known for his negatives and paper, thus
iconic images of the American landscape – master giving them better control
printer in the darkroom, teacher and environmentalist – over finished photographs.
pioneered the idea of visualization - Adams also pioneered the
idea of visualization of the
The Tetons - Snake River, (1942)
finished print based upon
- when he was 4 years old he broke his nose in an aftershock from the 1906 San the measured light values
Francisco earthquake. It was never corrected and appeared crooked for his entire life.
in the scene being
- his original passion was to become a concert pianist and alternated between the two at photographed
the start of his careerTop Left: Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, 1960 Above: Oak Tree, Snowstorm, Yosemite National Park, 1948 Above Right: Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, 1944 Right: Portrait of Ansel Adams, 1960 by Nancy Newhall Bottom Left: Close up of leaves in Glacier National Park, 1942 Ansel Adams was a dedicated artist-activist, playing a seminal role in the growth of an environmental consciousness in the U.S. and the development of a citizen environmental movement. His photographs continue to inspire the artist and conservationist alike.
Edward Weston
(1886 – 1958)
– an American photographer, and co-
founder of Group f/64. Most of his
work was done using an 8 by 10 inch
view camera.
- after operating a traditional
photographic studio for a few years,
he began a new period of transition in
1922. Renouncing pictorialism in favor
of straight photography and he would
later become known as the "pioneer of
precise and sharp presentation" with
images of natural forms such as the
human figure, seashells, plants,
vegetables, and landscapes.
-Weston worked mainly with nudes,
still life - his shells and vegetable
studies were especially important -
and landscape subjects.
- Price History: 1970's: $500 - $1,500
1980's: $3,000 - $50,000 1990's: $10,000 -
$300,000 Current: $5000 - $500,000
Weston – best known for his “abstract” studies
- Even though he was a celebrated
of natural forms such as vegetables, the photographer he survived selling his photos
human figure and landscapes etc. for a humble price of $7-10. Now, they have
gone up over 1,000,000% in value.- he co-founded Group f/64 in 1932 with Ansel
Adams, and others. The term f/64 referred to
the smallest aperture setting on a large format
camera, which secured maximum depth of
field, rendering a photograph evenly sharp
from foreground to background. This
corresponded to the philosophy of straight
photography that the group promoted in
response to the pictorialist methods that were
still in fashion at the time.
Nude, 1936 White Dunes, Oceano, California, 1936Edward Weston Top Left: Shells, 1927 Top Middle: Excusado, 1925 Above: Artichoke Halved 1930 Far Left: Pepper, 1929 Left: Nude 1927
Bill Brandt
(1904 – 1983)
– an influential British
photographer and photojournalist
known for his high-contrast
images of British society and his
distorted nudes and landscapes
- Brandt became Britain's most
influential and internationally
Brandt – known for his high-contrast images that admired photographer of the
20th century. Many of his works
combine elements of surrealism (distorted reality) have important social
along an “abstract” study of form commentary but also poetic
resonance. His landscapes and
nudes are dynamic, intense and
powerful, often using wide-angle
lenses and distortion.
- Bill Brandt was largely self-taught in
photography and worked as a
student-assistant to Man Ray in Paris
from 1929 to 1930. This exposure to
Man Ray and his work would
determine the surrealist undercurrent
and tension of many of Brandt’s
imagesDiane Arbus
(1923 – 1971)
– an American photographer,
noted for her portraits of people
on the fringes of society
-Arbus' early work was created
using 35mm cameras, but by
the 1960s Arbus adopted the
Rolleiflex medium format twin-
lens reflex. This format
provided a square aspect ratio,
higher image resolution, and a
waist-level viewfinder that
allowed Arbus to connect with
her subjects in ways that a
standard eye-level viewfinder
did not.
- Arbus also experimented with
Arbus – known for her confrontational (or noble) the use of flashes in daylight,
portraits of people on the fringes of society allowing her to highlight and
separate her subjects from the
background.
Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967
Arbus' photograph Identical Twins is tenth on the list of most expensive photographs having sold in 2004 for $478,400.Arbus is noted by critics and art
historians for her photographs depicting
outsiders, such as tranvestites,
Two Men dwarves, giants, prostitutes, and
Dancing at ordinary citizens in poses and settings
Drag Ball,
New York conveying a disturbing uncanniness.
City, 1970
Jewish
Giant at
Home
with his
Parents,
1970
Child with
Toy Hand
Grenade in
Central
Park, New
York City
,1962Double Exposure A Moment With Diane Arbus Created A Lasting Impression By David Segal, Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 12, 2005 NEW YORK They remember none of it. Not the lady with the camera, arranging them by a wall at the Knights of Columbus hall in their home town of Roselle, N.J. Not the chocolate cake they had just finished, which is very faintly visible in the picture at the creases of their lips. The Wade sisters, as they were known before they each married, recall nothing about the day they gazed into the lens of Diane Arbus and became part of American photographic history. Unless you count the dresses. "We still have them," says Colleen. "Our mother made them," says Cathleen. "They look black in the photograph but they're actually green." They were 7 years old in 1967, when Arbus found the girls at a Christmas party for local twins and triplets. Nobody is quite sure how Arbus heard about the gathering, but a few parents obliged when she asked their children to pose. Which is how the Wade sisters wound up on a sidewalk, standing close enough to seem joined at the shoulder, their expression a kind of spectral blank. It would become one of the most famous photographs of the era's most compelling photographer. Arbus killed herself in 1971, at the age of 48, leaving behind a gallery of characters - - some of them spooky, some of them bizarre, all of them vaguely tragic -- who won't go away. There's a retrospective of her work called "Revelations" now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it's a menagerie of weirdos we seem to have known all our lives: those two men waltzing at a drag ball, that Mexican dwarf, the grimacing kid with a toy grenade.
Harold
Edgerton
(1903 –
1990)
– was a professor
of electrical
engineering at the
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology.
- He is largely
credited with
transforming the
stroboscope from
an obscure
laboratory
instrument into a
common device
Edgerton – inventor of the strobe (the flash in the camera), as seen in nearly
well as his scientific studies in “freezing time in images” every camera
Shooting the Apple, 1964Left: Milkdrop Coronet, 1957 Top Right: Densmore Shute Bends the Shaft, 1938 Above: Cutting the Card Quickly, 1964 & political cartoon spoof
Jerry Uelsmann
(1934 – )
– a master printer producing
composite photographs with
multiple negatives and extensive
darkroom work. He uses up to a
dozen enlargers at a time to
produce his final images.
-Today, with the advent of digital
cameras and Photoshop,
photographers are able to create a
work somewhat resembling
Uelsmann's in less than a day,
however, at the time Uelsmann
was considered to have almost
"magical skill" with his completely
analog tools.
- Uelsmann used the darkroom
Uelsmann – known for his surreal images frequently, sometimes using three
that combine several individual photos to ten enlargers to produce the
together – master printer in the darkroom expected effect.Untitled 1976
Anne Geddes
(1956 – )
– an Australian-
born photographer,
clothing designer
and
businesswoman
who now lives and
works in New
Zealand. She is
well-known for her
stylised depictions
of babies and
motherhood.
Anne Geddes – best known for her stylized,
staged and costumed images of babies and
motherhoodSteve McCurry
(1950 – )
– an American photojournalist best
known for his evocative color
photography. Capturing the
essence of human struggle and
joy, in the finest documentary
tradition, is one of his artistic
trademarks. McCurry has covered
many areas of international and
civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq
war, Beirut, Cambodia, the
Philippines, the Gulf War, and
continuing coverage of
Afghanistan. McCurry's work has
been featured in every major
magazine in the world and
frequently appears in National
Geographic magazine.
Steve McCurry – best known for
his colourful portrait images of
different cultures that capture the http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php
essence of his subjects identityDoubilet – well know underwater photographer who works for National Geographic – scientist as well as artist David Doubilet (1946 – ) http://www.daviddoubilet.com/ – a well known underwater photographer known primarilly for his work published in National Geographic Magazine
Annie Leibovitz
(1949 – )
– a noted American
portrait photographer
whose style is marked
by a close collaboration
between the
photographer and the
subject
Annie Leibovitz – famous celebrity photographerNatchwey – contemporary war photographer James Natchwey ( – ) –
Freeman Patterson – Canadian photographer who promotes the concept of spirituality behind the still image – currently teaching, writing and lecturing about photography Freeman Patterson ( – ) –
Edward Burtansky – St. Catharines photographer who focused his work on manufactured landscapes. Edward Burtansky ( – ) –
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