Photography exam
Emmanuel Radnitzky
What is Man Ray's real name?
Brassai, The Pont-Neuf, 1930-32
(not actual image).... This photograph is important to the development of photography as a medium because showed sides of Paris that many people thought unfit to be photographed. He showed mobsters, gangs, prostitutes, gamblers and other very taboo things. This was all in an effort to humanize and normalize these people and activities. He also photographed a lot of people kissing. All of his images were staged, but not invented situations. Much of it is planned but they have a candid and spontaneous nature to them. He utilizes extreme contrast of light and dark. He utilizes literal and figurative connotations of light and dark. For example, in this photograph, there is a picture of a bridge, and above the bridge is light and below the bridge is darkness but also it portrays people below the bridge in the darkness doing something taboo. This plays into stereotypes people have of Paris at night.
Edward Steichen, Lee Miller, NY, 1928
(not actual photograph)... This photograph is historically important to the development of photography as a medium because it portrays a very influential person in the area of photography. Photographed by a famous fashion photographer, this woman (the subject of the picture) got her start as a model (was apparently hit by a car that the Vogue Magazine man was driving), moved to Paris, got romantically involved with Man Ray, and developed an interest in photography. She was a war photographer who always brough a surrealist sensibility to her image making. She also posed nude in Hitler's bath tub on the same day that Hitler killed himself with her muddy boots all over the white rug. She was even a surrealist chef at one point in her career as an artist.
Julia Margaret Cameron, Devotion, 1865
A picture of a woman with a veil looking down on her sleeping child. This is another photo that is historically significant to the development of the medium of photography because it proved that it can be scene as art and doesn't have to be used solely for evidence. The photographer was born in British India and moved to England. She took up photography at age 49 when her daughter gave her a camera. She embodied the values of PICTORIALISM!!! She made references to literature and the bible and virtue and spirituality. She embraced the flaws of the photographic process (ie broken glass plates, cracks, out of focus, runs etc.). She made all of her work from the woman's perspective and photographed her family. She used a soft focus for a dreamlike quality. This gave her work a painterly pictorialism vibe. She expressed the ideologies of "pre-raphaelites" and thought industrialism was evil. High-minded and romantic, she wanted to express the real and ideal through photography. She is known to get close to her subjects and crop the images down in post-production, which was very modern for her time. She self-taught herself how to use Collodian glass plates.
Henry Fox Talbot
The inventor in England of the "calotype" or light sensitive image making who was part of the race to develop photography as a medium in the 1830s and 40s. His process, was cheap, fast, and reproducible even though it lacked the quality of the daguerreotype. His famous photographs include "The Oriel Window" in 1835 (the first negative) and "The Ladder" in 1844. He also published a book titled "The Pencil of Nature" which was the second photo book ever made.
Louis Daguerre
The inventor in France who developed the daguerreotype camera. He was always focused on "fixing the shadows". One of his first images is called "Boulevard du Temple" (1938) which is the first candid photo ever made due to long exposure times. He was known for his aggressive nature and verbiage towards photography. He used words like capture, aim, take shot and shoot. These relatively hostile words are still used today. He introduced [photography to the world in 1839! The daguerreotype camera used a plate which was good quality but was only one of a kind.
Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, 1838
This image is historically important for the history of the medium because it is the first candid photograph ever taken. Due to the long exposure time all of the moving people in the busy street were not captured in the photo. Instead just the boot black and the man getting his shoes shined made the image. It was taken from the photographer's workshop in paris in 1838. It took 10-12 minutes to expose.
Joseph Niepce, View From the Window at Le Gras, 1824
This image is historically important to the history of photography as a medium because it is agreed upon that this image is the first photo ever taken! It is a heliotype and it is an exposure out of the window. The photographer was originally a classical french painter experimenting with this new medium.
Man Ray, Rayograph, 1927
This image is important to the developing medium of photography because it portrays a surreal image and deals with the idea of the "automatic". This is an element of surrealism and is a strategy for surrealists which takes familiar everyday objects and makes you look at them in a different way.
Edward Steichen, Rodin - The Thinker, 1902
This image was historically important to the development of photography as a medium because it utilized PICTORIALISM, soft focus, lack of detail in the darks, and moodiness to portray photography as an art. This validated hotography as an artform. This image looks like a painting. The pictorialist movement was all about making photographs appear more painterly. It is less about the subject matter and more about the effects. This movement became popular in Europe , England and the United States. Soon however, this photographer would make a switch to more stark, sharp, geometric, cubist and industrial photos.
Edward Steichen, The Pond at Moonrise, 1904
This image was historically important to the development of photography as a medium because it utilized PICTORIALISM, soft focus, lack of detail in the darks, and moodiness to portray photography as an art. This validated hotography as an artform. This image looks like a painting. The pictorialist movement was all about making photographs appear more painterly. It is less about the subject matter and more about the effects. This movement became popular in Europe , England and the United States. Soon however, this photographer would make a switch to more stark, sharp, geometric, cubist and industrial photos. This photographer also co-founded a movement called the "Photo Succession" which encouraged the public to see photography as art, by putting photos in the "Little Gallery of the Photo Succession" aka the 291 Gallery, where photos were put on display just like fine art would be hung on a wall.
August Sander, Lawyer, 1924
This is a picture of a man standing in front of his flat's staircase with his dog and his coat, hat and cane. This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it is part of an archive that tried to capture all types of people of Germany in the 1920s. He did portrait archives of German people based on archeotypes He started this project in the 1920s-1930s. He developed a non-hierarchical list of categories (the farmer, skilled tradesman, women, classes and professions, artists, the city, and the last people). He was trying to portray the diversity of German People. He used a low depth of field to show a strong figure/ground relationship. Most of his subjects are not smiling with unemotional faces. He continued this project until 1933 when Hitler came to power in Nazi Germany where his project would no longer be as greatly appreciated.
Man Ray, Apple and Screw, 1931
This is an image of an apple. This image is important to the developing medium of photography because it portrays a surreal image and deals with the idea of the "uncanny" which is when something is slightly recognizable but also strange at the same time. This is not deja vu although it is a very similar feeling. It is influenced by Freud's psychoanalysis.
Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, Laboratory Glass Study, 1939
This photo is a metal spiral thing on a stick that casts a shadow on a table. This photograph was important in the history of photography as a whole because it conveys the main motif of this photographer's key interest: "light and the behavior of light". He approached his work in a scientific/objective manner. This artist was obsessed with the Photogram as a way to create an ideal or pure form of photography. He was interested in light, the object and the surface and their relationship with each other. He thought that the camera is a limiting device. This photograph in particular is an example of STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY or this artists "new vision" of the ideal pure image that photography should be.
Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keefe - Neck, 1921
This photo is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it shows the shift of a famous pictorialist photographer to wanting to portray complementary shapes, not subject matter. One of these projects was when this photographer decided to photograph a specific woman's whole body. This photographer never did commercial work considering it to be the equivalent of selling out your art-form.
Julia Margaret Cameron, Holy Family, 1872
This photo is historically significant to the development of the medium of photography because it proved that it can be scene as art and doesn't have to be used solely for evidence. The photographer was born in British India and moved to England. She took up photography at age 49 when her daughter gave her a camera. She embodied the values of PICTORIALISM!!! She made references to literature and the bible and virtue and spirituality. She embraced the flaws of the photographic process (ie broken glass plates, cracks, out of focus, runs etc.). She made all of her work from the woman's perspective and photographed her family. She used a soft focus for a dreamlike quality. This gave her work a painterly pictorialism vibe. She expressed the ideologies of "pre-raphaelites" and thought industrialism was evil. High-minded and romantic, she wanted to express the real and ideal through photography. She is known to get close to her subjects and crop the images down in post-production, which was very modern for her time. She self-taught herself how to use Collodian glass plates.
Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, 1924
This photo is important in the history of photography as a medium because it shows the shift in the photographers style from pictorialism to modernism. The photographer was not independently wealthy so he had to work for a living. This photo is part of his very successful commercial work career. he worked for Vogue Magazine as well.
Walker Evans, View of Morgantown, West Virginia, 1935
This photograph is a picture of a geometric fencelike structure with the housing residencies behind in the background. This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a form of photography as a socially engaged call for change. He was hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to show places, cities, land as part of a "disappearing land" similar to the work of Eugene Atget. This photographer was concerned with form and order. He did a formal study of shapes. Unlike Dorothea Lange, who took her portable camera which allowed her the ability to gain trust and approach people, this photographer had a large glass plate view camera which limited the portableness and movement but increased sharpness and exposure. All of his images are void of people.
Claude Cahun, Untitled (I'm Training, Don't Kiss Me), 1929
This photograph is crucial in the development of photography as a medium because it challenged gender roles and ideas of femininity and masculinity. He focused on the distinctions between gender roles. He liked working with self-portraiture as well.
Andre Kertesz, Mondrian's Pipe, Paris, 1926
This photograph is crucial to the development of photography as a medium because it focuses on abstraction, constructivism and surrealism This artist was never pinned down my one particular art movement. She believed in the spontaneous capture of moments, yet abstractly-crafted and planned moments. She was a "hunter" always looking for the unforeseen to occur. She believed that photojournalism and surrealism were not mutually exclusive but the people in U.S. Print did not agree.
Andre Kertesz, Distortion #49, 1933
This photograph is crucial to the development of photography as a medium because it focuses on abstraction, constructivism and surrealism This artist was never pinned down my one particular art movement. She believed in the spontaneous capture of moments, yet abstractly-crafted and planned moments. She was a "hunter" always looking for the unforeseen to occur. She believed that photojournalism and surrealism were not mutually exclusive but the people in U.S. Print did not agree. This particular photograph uses mirrors to bend the imagery to create an abstraction.
Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, 1858
This photograph is historically import to photography as a medium because this photo is an example of how the medium could be used as an art-form instead of as evidence. The photographer was a portrait photographer but a combination printer on the side. This picture was made with 5 different negatives. It was originally titled, "She Never Told Her Love" but was changed. It portrays a death by tuberculosis and a broken heart. This was extremely radical and offensive at the time to portray death in a photograph even if it was to serve as art. It was too intimate to be photographed is what the public said. It was a form of personal expression but was considered radically morbid. This was the photographer's way of saying the painting isn't the only medium that can create a scene, photography can be an art-form as well.
Henry Peach Robinson, When the Day's Work is Done, 1877
This photograph is historically important because this photographer was a portrait photographer and a combination printer on the side. This is an example of one of his combination prints as you can see in the front right corner. This is another example of how photography served as an art-form and not as evidence.
Eadweard Muybridge, from Animal Locomotion, 1877-78
This photograph is historically important to the development of photography as a medium because this is another example of how photography was used as a form of evidence, not art. This is an image of horse running to settle a bet with Governor Stanford of California about whether or not there is a point in a horse's stride in which all four hooves are off of the ground a one particular time. Stanford paid the photographer to carry out the study by using strings attached to trigger cameras along a race track. The photographer became interested in this project and took it up with other animals.
Paul Strand, Wall Street, 1915
This photograph is historically significant because it was one of the first photos to celebrate machinery, and the industry over the individual as a subject matter. This photo is perceived as cold, objective and unemotional. It is highly influenced by cubist paintings of the early 1900s and was the start of a popular style shift from pictorialism that would be relevant in photography.
Alexander Rodchenko, Girl With a Leica, 1934
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it alters the perspective in a unique way which creates a dynamic image and disrupts the grid. This photographer was also part of the soviet avant-garde movement which embraced high contrast with black and white imagery. He was also interested in geometric shapes and abstraction. As well as extreme perspective. The soviet avant-garde movement was popular in the early 1930s. This photograph highlights the aspect of the soviet avant-garde that emphasizes patterns and contrast. She is really not the subject of the photo, but rather the leica (the camera) which allowed people to move freely without a tripod and allowed for dynamic compositions.
August Sander, Secretary at West German Radio, 1931
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it is part of an archive that tried to capture all types of people of Germany in the 1920s. He did portrait archives of German people based on archeotypes He started this project in the 1920s-1930s. He developed a non-hierarchical list of categories (the farmer, skilled tradesman, women, classes and professions, artists, the city, and the last people). He was trying to portray the diversity of German People. He used a low depth of field to show a strong figure/ground relationship. Most of his subjects are not smiling with unemotional faces. He continued this project until 1933 when Hitler came to power in Nazi Germany where his project would no longer be as greatly appreciated.
Dorothea Lange, Funeral Cortege, End of an Era in a Small Valley Town, 1938
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it portrays life during the Great Depression. The Farming Government Agency hired Dorothea Lange to portray the effects of the Great Depression from 1929-1939. The Farm Securities Administration wanted to portray the effects of the great depression in rural poor dustbowl areas so they could garner more support from the more urban middle class areas.
Dorothea Lange, Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy Arizona, 1940
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it portrays life during the Great Depression. The Farming Government Agency hired Dorothea Lange to portray the effects of the Great Depression from 1929-1939. The Farm Securities Administration wanted to portray the effects of the great depression in rural poor dustbowl areas so they could garner more support from the more urban middle class areas.
Dorothea Lange, In a camp of migratory pea pickers (Migrant Mother), 1936
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it portrays life during the Great Depression. The Farming Government Agency hired Dorothea Lange to portray the effects of the Great Depression from 1929-1939. The Farm Securities Administration wanted to portray the effects of the great depression in rural poor dustbowl areas so they could garner more support from the more urban middle class areas. This is a very famous groundbreaking portrait.
Walker Evans, Burroughs' Kitchen, Hale County Alabama, 1936
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a form of photography as a socially engaged call for change. He was hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to show places, cities, land as part of a "disappearing land" similar to the work of Eugene Atget. This photographer was concerned with form and order. He did a formal study of shapes. Unlike Dorothea Lange, who took her portable camera which allowed her the ability to gain trust and approach people, this photographer had a large glass plate view camera which limited the portableness and movement but increased sharpness and exposure. All of his images are void of people.
Walker Evans, Shoeshine Sign in Southern Town, 1936
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a form of photography as a socially engaged call for change. He was hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to show places, cities, land as part of a "disappearing land" similar to the work of Eugene Atget. This photographer was concerned with form and order. He did a formal study of shapes. Unlike Dorothea Lange, who took her portable camera which allowed her the ability to gain trust and approach people, this photographer had a large glass plate view camera which limited the portableness and movement but increased sharpness and exposure. All of his images are void of people.
Henri Cartier Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, France, 1932
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a photo that epitomized this photographer's search for "decisive moments". He used a lacai and searched the streets for these moments that weren't necessarily the height of action, but rather the instance when the formal and spacial relationships of the subjects reveal their essential meaning. All of this photographer's photos have a sort of visualisation or rhythm of spacial elements. He utilized depth of field consciously. There was a theatrical stage-like effect to his photographs. He was a proponent of "full-time photography", which meant no cropping and the artistic act ended at the snap of the shutter. He worked for many commercial mass media outlets. He also developed an organization called Magnum Photos that gave photographers the full rights to their own images. He appreciated the ability to question and decide simultaneously. He had a real and childlike sense of humor. In 1937, this photographer was captured and imprisoned. A Prisoner of War for 3 years, he finally escaped on the third attempt. This changed his life and his work. He always believed that any moment is precious and can become the decisive moment. After this, he started leaning more towards photojournalism and away from surrealism. He found the miraculous in the mundane or normal events. He then started making "photo-essays" or "picture stories" which were just a sustained photographic investigation of an event.
Henri Cartier Bresson, Madrid, 1933
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a photo that epitomized this photographer's search for "decisive moments". He used a lacai and searched the streets for these moments that weren't necessarily the height of action, but rather the instance when the formal and spacial relationships of the subjects reveal their essential meaning. All of this photographer's photos have a sort of visualisation or rhythm of spacial elements. He utilized depth of field consciously. There was a theatrical stage-like effect to his photographs. He was a proponent of "full-time photography", which meant no cropping and the artistic act ended at the snap of the shutter. He worked for many commercial mass media outlets. He also developed an organization called Magnum Photos that gives photographers the full rights to their own images. He appreciated the ability to question and decide simultaneously. He had a real and childlike sense of humor. In 1937, this photographer was captured and imprisoned. A Prisoner of War for 3 years, he finally escaped on the third attempt. This changed his life and his work. He always believed that any moment is precious and can become the decisive moment. After this, he started leaning more towards photojournalism and away from surrealism. He found the miraculous in the mundane or normal events. He then started making "photo-essays" or "picture stories" which were just a sustained photographic investigation of an event.
Alexander Rodchenko, Osip Brik, 1925
This photograph is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was one of the first times a photographer utilized graphic design through a photo. This was the shift in using post production in the making of a dynamic photograph. This is also the shift in the photographers career from personal art to working for the state. He had a career in making book and movie covers. Through these projects he was able to merge all of his practices into one.
Edward Steichen, Milk Bottles - New York City, 1915
This photograph is historically significant in the history of photography as a an art form because it allows the photographer to give value to any old mundane scene. This photo specifically is very "Whitmanesque" as it shows Walt Whitman's humanitarian view and vision for America. He thought everyone should have equal value and that if something, no matter how mundane it is, is worth photographing, then it too has value. That is why this picture is significant. Because this photographer was able to take milk bottles, and put them on a pedestal simply by taking a picture of it. This gives the photographer a sort of power. Also, this is symbolic of this particular photographers switch from pictorialism to modernism.
Nadar, Louis Pasteur
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a developing medium because it shows this photographer's style of portraiture. Using simple clothing, no props, and rembrandt photo techniques, this impressionist portraiture photographer was able let the sitter speak through the photograph.
Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a developing medium because this was one of the transitional photographs for the person taking the picture. This was taken by a photographer who is also known as "the father of american photography". This photo identified his switch from pictorialism to a more geometric, cubist and industrial type of photography. This photographer also co-founded a movement called "Photo Succession" and started "The Little Galleries of the Photo Succession" (aka 291 Gallery) which was the first gallery that showed photos in a fine arts setting.
Nadar, George Sand, 1864
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a medium because it is primary example of a famous portraiture artist with fiery red hair who developed his persona/brand as a photographer. He was the first to use artificial lighting in a studio. He took the first ariel shot from a hot air balloon where he made a portable ariel dark room. His studio became a club house for the paris elite. And he took portraits of all of his famous friends. Unlike traditional photographers of the time, he did not rely on props or backdrops for his portraits but rather preferred to capture the sitter's personality by them participating by sitting. He also used the rembrandt portraiture techniques. He was also known to mimic Manet's impressionist movement but "impressionist" was not a complement at the time.
Anna Atkins, from Photographs of British Algae, Sinotype
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a medium because it shows that photographs can be used as a form of evidence. This photograph in particular is a cyanotype which is a blue photo process of scanning items which turn out white. This photo was a part of the first fully illustrated science book and it was about botany. The photographer did not see herself as an artist but rather just someone trying to garner evidence.
Matthew Brady, Aftermath of Gettysburg, 1863
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a medium because it was the first time in the United States that war photography was relevant. While this is an example of photography serving as evidence and not as art, it is also an example of how the truth can be bent. The photographer was known to move around the dead bodies to get the best shot and also only take photographs of the dead southern soldiers in the Civil War as he was hired by the Union. Therefore, this was the first form of propaganda.
Alexander Gardner, Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter, 1865
This photograph is historically significant to photography as a medium because while this is an example of photography being used as evidence, it was also the first time evidence was being bent in the lens of the camera. The photographer of this image moved the body over 20 feet and propped his own prop gun up against the rocks to get the best image.
Paul Strand, Porch Shadows, 1916
This photograph is historically significant to the development of photography as a medium because this was part of the cubist movement away from pictorialism and towards a type of photography that emphasized the importance of complementary shapes. The motto of this particular cubist movement was "art for art's sake" in the early 1900s.
Henry Fox Talbot, The Ladder, 1844
This photograph is historically significant to the development of the medium because it is one of the first calotypes ever made. Calotypes were cheap, fast and reproducible. This was the type of photography that eventually won out in being accepted by the public.
Dora Maar, Pere Ubu, 1936
This photograph is important in the development of photography as a medium because it was signifying of a shift towards the surrealist style in that she made the ugly beautiful or vice versa. She also coined this "convulsive beauty". She blurs the lines between the distinctions of attraction and disgust. This image looks cute at first but then the viewer realizes that something is off. This is really an image of a dead armadillo. This deals with the idea of the "uncanny" which is when something is slightly recognizable but also strange at the same time. This is not deja vu although it is a very similar feeling. It is influenced by Freud's psychoanalysis.
Eugene Atget, La Cour du Dragon, Paris, 1913
This photograph is important in the history of photography developing as a medium because it was used in the form of an archive to capture a fleeting Paris. The streets in his photographs are empty due to the long exposure of his photographs. This was on purpose that he used an antiquated technique to match the theme of his subject. The stillness, wide angle, fuzziness and intentionally limited range of scenes gave the impression of the fleeting Paris he was trying to capture. He died in 1927 and got little to no recognition throughout his lifetime. However, he lived near Man Ray and he and the surrealist clique in Paris loved his work and his work became appreciated after his death.
Eugene Atget, La Foiure du Trone, 1925
This photograph is important in the history of photography developing as a medium because it was used in the form of an archive to capture a fleeting Paris. The streets in his photographs are empty due to the long exposure of his photographs. This was on purpose that he used an antiquated technique to match the theme of his subject. The stillness, wide angle, fuzziness and intentionally limited range of scenes gave the impression of the fleeting Paris he was trying to capture. He died in 1927 and got little to no recognition throughout his lifetime. However, he lived near Man Ray and he and the surrealist clique in Paris loved his work and his work became appreciated after his death.
Lewis Hine, Ellis Island Madonna, 1904
This photograph is important to the development of photography as a medium because it humanized immigrants by using familiar religious imagery. This would appeal to the Christian audience in the United States and encourage them to accept the immigrants that came through Ellis Island in the early 1900s. He used the titles of his images to further convey these messages.
Claude Cahun, Self Portraits
This photograph is important to the development of photography as a medium because it was the first time that someone really challenged the distinctions between gender roles and disrupting identities. He also worked heavily with self-portraiture.
Brassai, Rolled-Up Bus Ticket, 1932
This photograph is important to the development of photography as a medium through history because it shows the miraculousness of the mundane. He photographed these things he liked to call "unconscious sculptures" which were miniature sculptures that he found outside of public places. They were little pieces that people unconsciously made when they were bored or didn't know what to do with their hands. Photographing these boring mundane objects gives them meaning and projects importance on them. This artist was great at portraying the "miraculousness of the everyday".
Man Ray, Sleeping Woman, 1929
This photograph is important to the history of photography as a developing medium because it used a technique called socialization in which both the positive and the negative are shown at the same time in specific areas. This is also called "oneric" surrealism which is expresses a dreamlike quality. As opposed to "automatism" surrealism which makes photos without relying on the unconscious mind.
Oscar Rejlander, Two Ways of Living, 1857
This photograph is important to the history of the medium because this was one of the first photographers to use photography as an art-form and not as evidence. This image portrays virtue and vice. It is also utilizing the combination printing technique which means the photographer overlaid over 30 images to create this final piece. On the right of the image one can see the aspects of virtue and on the left side one can see elements of vice and debauchery.
Oscar Rejlander, Head of John the Baptist, 1855
This photograph is important to the history of the medium because this was one of the first photographers to use photography as an art-form and not as evidence. This was not an image to serve as fact but rather an impression.
Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, Photogram, 1943
This photograph is of a spiral thing. This photogram is historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was a cameraless technique that focused on light and the behavior of light, as this was the photographers primary motif. It focused on light and the bahavior of light-sensitive surfaces. He was interested in industrial materials. He was a constructivist who was interested in stream of consciousness but not irrationality. This artist was obsessed with the Photogram as a way to create an ideal or pure form of photography. He was interested in light, the object and the surface and their relationship with each other. He thought that the camera is a limiting device.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Olly and Dolly Sisters, 1925
This photograph is of a woman sitting on top of a big black circle with her hand to her chest and a little smaller circle off to the side. This photograph is historically important in the development of photography as a medium because this was one of the first early photomontages. This photographer was interested in industrial materials. He was a constructivist who was interested in the stream of consciousness but not irrationality. This photo was a part of the Bauhaus movement (1913-1933) which was a school of art that actively created useful design. It merged fine art and craft into one. It showed truth to materials and clear imagery. He had what he liked to call a "new imagery".
Edward Weston, Nude, 1936
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it is the start of west-coast modernism which which had a pictorial style (soft focus, low tonal range etc.) This photographer was one of the most famous American photographers. He was super modern. It was when he visited New York in the 1920s when he completely changed his focus to a very sharp aesthetic. He took narrative out of his work and brought in strictly form through his spiritual practice of photography. It was a zen/religious exercise to him. He did not utilize a hand held camera but rather a giant camera. He coined the term "previsualization". He took close up images of organic objects. This is probably his most famous image using this sharp style with extreme tonal range and extreme clarity. He was also known for nudes and stunning photographs of the California Coasts, it being one of his greatest inspirations. He was a member of the F64 group which meant he liked to use a very small aperture which resulted in extreme sharpness, depth and precision.
Edward Weston, Pepper #30, 1930
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it is the start of west-coast modernism which which had a pictorial style (soft focus, low tonal range etc.) This photographer was one of the most famous American photographers. He was super modern. It was when he visited New York in the 1920s when he completely changed his focus to a very sharp aesthetic. He took narrative out of his work and brought in strictly form through his spiritual practice of photography. It was a zen/religious exercise to him. He did not utilize a hand held camera but rather a giant camera. He coined the term "previsualization". He took close up images of organic objects. This is probably his most famous image using this sharp style with extreme tonal range and extreme clarity. He was also known for nudes and stunning photographs of the California Coasts, it being one of his greatest inspirations. He was a member of the F64 group which meant he liked to use a very small aperture which resulted in extreme sharpness, depth and precision.
Lee Miller, Firemasks, 1941
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it showed the launching of this particular photographer's career as a war photographer and the main photographer for Vogue magazine. All of her image making had a surrealist sensibility to them.
Lee Miller, Murdered Prison Guard, 1945
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it showed the launching of this particular photographer's career as a war photographer and the main photographer for Vogue magazine. All of her image making had a surrealist sensibility to them.
Jacob Riis, Bandit's Roost, 1888
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was by one of the first photographers to use the medium for social change. He portrayed people's houses in impoverished areas and used the bright flash to highlight the horrible conditions. This specific flash that he used was so powerful and bright and unexpected that it often times burned down places and caught his assistants on fire. He even went possibly blind in the creation of his book project: How the Other Half Lives. BUT, all of his work facilitated change. Riis believed in nurture over nature. And believed that people could get out of their impoverished situations if only given help.
Jacob Riis, Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, 1890
This photograph is significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was by one of the first photographers to use the medium for social change. He portrayed people's houses in impoverished areas and used the bright flash to highlight the horrible conditions. This specific flash that he used was so powerful and bright and unexpected that it often times burned down places and caught his assistants on fire. He even went possibly blind in the creation of his book project: How the Other Half Lives. BUT, all of his work facilitated change. Riis believed in nurture over nature. And believed that people could get out of their impoverished situations if only given help.
Lewis Hine, Whitnel, NC, 1908
This photograph was also significant to the development of photography as a medium because it was taken to spark social change with child labor laws. This photographer was hired by the National Child Labor Law Committeewhen they were seeking reform. The public didn't know that it was an issue and they needed to be told and shown that it was. He cared about his subjects, posed them, wrote down all of their information to treat them like actual people and not just photo subjects. He had to do these photos in secret or else the factory owners would not let him take them. He would pretend he was taking photos of the machinery. He also posed as a fire inspector, bible salesman and an industrial photographer in order to enter these buildings. Photographically, he used available lighting and a large aperture (small opening) which created a shallow depth of field. He did not show what the children were making.
Alexander Rodchenko, Fire Escape Ladder, 1925
This photograph was historically significant in the development of photography as a medium because it was the first time a photographer decided to alter the cameras angle. Most photographers prefer to take photographs at what is known as "belly button view" or "eye view" as typical angles. However, this specific photographer took pictures in unique points of view. He would tilt the frame giving an interesting and unique perspective. This created a dynamic image that disrupted the grid.
August Sander
This photographer was an archivist who wanted to archive and document all types of people. He did portrait archives of German people based on archeotypes He started this project in the 1920s-1930s. He developed a non-hierarchical list of categories (the farmer, skilled tradesman, women, classes and professions, artists, the city, and the last people). He was trying to portray the diversity of German People. He used a low depth of field to show a strong figure/ground relationship. Most of his subjects are not smiling with unemotional faces. He continued this project until 1933 when Hitler came to power in Nazi Germany where his project would no longer be as greatly appreciated.
Eugene Atget
This photographer was an archivist who wanted to archive pre-industrialized Paris. He wanted to capture this fleeting Paris that was disappearing. He considered himself an archivist or record-keeper, not an artist. The streets in his photographs are empty due to the long exposure of his photographs. This was on purpose that he used an antiquated technique to match the theme of his subject. The stillness, wide angle, fuzziness and intentionally limited range of scenes gave the impression of the fleeting Paris he was trying to capture. He died in 1927 and got little to no recognition throughout his lifetime. However, he lived near Man Ray and he and the surrealist clique in Paris loved his work and his work became appreciated after his death.
