Dovima with Elephant: evening dress from 1955

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was an American photographer born in New York City to a Jewish Russian family on May 15, 1923. He started his life as a photographer at Merchant Marines in 1942 taking identification pictures of the crewmen. Working his way up through the company he finally opened his own studio. He then began shooting photos for vogue and life. He shot pictures of famous models such as Brooke Shields and Gianni Versace. Since the beginning of Richard’s Career, he has been interested in the way portraiture captures the personality and soul of a subject.

Avedon became the first staff photographer of The New Yorker in 1992. He also won awards such as The International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award in 1993. Richard Avedon died on October 1, 2004.

The specific photo that I found compelling of Richard Avedon’s is the Dovima with Elephant: evening dress from 1955. I was drawn to this photo because of the combination of animals and humans. Animal behavior and human behavior have been compared for centuries and combining the two and having do similar poses makes for an interesting relationship. I like the rough texture of the elephants skin and the smooth material used for the woman’s dress. Also the contrast between the elephants gray skin and the ladies white and black dress, really draws in the viewer to a focal point. I feel the photo is well balanced and holds an interesting composition.

Victorian Farmhouse by Luke Swank

Luke Swank

Luke Swank was called a modernist photographer. Most of his work dated in the 1930’s due to an untimely death in 1944. Luke’s grew up in an affluent family, where his father had diversified his business interests in different areas. Later Luke would live off of a trust from business ventures while pursuing his hobby of photography. Luke went to college at Pennsylvania Agricultural College (now Pennsylvania State University) and enlisted in the Army. He married Grace Ryan and had a daughter.

Luke Swank was a self-taught photographer. He claims to have learned a lot thru trial and error. In 1930 he was selling cars in his hometown of Johnstown Pennsylvania and two years later the Museum of Modern Art; New York featured his work of Steel Plant. Swank experienced success at subsequent shows, but eventually the depression had its effect on him as well and he had to get a job and support his family, now with an added son. He soon went to work for H.J. Heinz Company where he started a season of food photography.

Victorian Farmhouse by Luke Swank

The photograph called Victorian Farmhouse was created 1940-1943. I was drawn to this picture initially because it looks like the cliché Haunted House. I can’t tell if the house is old deserted or if it is the black and white coloring making it look like it is old and decrepit. This could be a very well kept Victorian home decorated with all the colors that were popular. If I were to find an old deserted Victorian home today and took a picture, I think it might look very similar. I love the sky, where there is no sign of clouds. It looks like a charcoal drawing that has been smoothed and blended. Or maybe there is a dust storm coming up behind the house. If this is so, the chickens in the front yard are not concerned. The chickens are the only thing in this photo that offer up a little hope….  

B29 Bomber Coming Out of the Factory

Artist: Laura Gilpin
Title: B29 Bomber Coming Out of the Factory
Date: 1994
Size: 10x13 in

Laura Gilpin started taking an interest in photography at a very young age. When she was in the learning process of photography there were no light meters to make sure the exposure was right. Everything was done by experiment and just getting the right feel for the light. Gilpin then went to the Clarence H. White School in New York to further study photography techniques.  At the school, Laura learned that her interest in music was directly related to her interest in photography.  In music one is continual with sound and in photography one is continual with ton. After her schooling, Gilpin worked closely with Mrs. Gertrude Käsebier to keep getting critiques.  Then, for a period of time during World War II, Gilpin worked as the official photographer for Boeing Airplane Company. Laura considers herself mainly a landscape artist but her work with other subjects like the Navaho has taught her patience and perspective on the subjects.

                Laura Gilpin’s photograph of the B29 Bomber Coming Out of the Factor really struck an interest with me because the lights behind the plane in the factory and the composition of the sky. In a way, the lights are glorifying this bomber plane when reality is the World War II was a very depressing and terrifying time for many. The complexion of the sky, how there is a glow around the factory indicates that this photography is taken around dawn when the bomber plane is most likely out on its way of its first journey. Because the sky is still so dark it hints to the darkness and depression that is out in the rest of the world while the brightness of the lights contradict this.  I think the contrast in this picture is excellent and the sharpness of the details focuses the picture even more on the plane. The reflection of the light on the water under the plane just adds more of a glorifying touch to the picture.

The Face of Today's Digital Cameras, John Burgess

The photograph title is “The Face of Today’s Digital Cameras” by John Burgess. Burgess was born in California. He is a famous photographer from San Francisco. Burgess started photography as an outdoor education instructor. After that he started to work as Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat editor. Burgess brings his expertise in location lighting to transform an ordinary scene into dynamic, graphic images. He understands the need to make adaptations in style to fit each subject. He is an important photographer because he is a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated and his work has appeared in dozens of publications. Burgess has won over 100 professional awards for his photography, and is a frequent speaker at many workshops on photography. He took some human face pictures at local camera shop. It transformed digital cameras into a human face. Burgess arranged and photographed their LCD screens to form a single face.

I love the picture because I was inspired from the picture. I usually take some pictures, when I go to local electronic store too. However, I have never thought like his arrangements. Moreover, there is an incredible point that it looks like a Transformer Robot. It was the most favorite thing for me. There are some great points too. Burgess chose grass men at the top left, but he didn’t choose grass man at the top right side. I guess I can’t think about the composition. Burgess also chooses different color and shape of cameras. I really like his choice that is the bottom one. It seems human face line. I also like blurred background. I also like blurred background. It is compared between the cameras and the background. I thought I want to learn this blurry and arrange techniques from the picture.

Icarus Atop the Empire State Building, Lewis Hine

*Title on Object:  “Icarus Atop the Empire State Building” 1931

*Published Title: "Sky Boy" 1931

*Photograph by: Lewis W. Hine

*Gelatin Silver Print, 8.8 x 6.5 cm

*Lewis Hine has significance in the history of photography because his photographs were used as a means of social reform. In the early 1900s he worked with the National Child Labor committee and was assigned to a job to photograph child labor practices. Hine's work (which documented the “horrors of work”) greatly influenced the change in the public's attitude towards child labor and was used as a main tool in the fight for stricter child labor laws.

In 1930, Lewis Hine was hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building. On this job, he took hundreds of photos that, in this case, depicted the “dignity of labor.” These photos, along with photos of factory workers and other laborers, were published in a book by Hine titled “Men at Work” in 1932.

*I chose this photograph because I think that its overall composition is great. That is what drew me to the photograph. I liked that it has this diagonal line, and this includes the person being part of this line, through the whole photo which makes it more interesting than if this line (with the person) were straight down the page. Another thing was that the line was not just one straight line, it was broken up by the lose piece of cable/rope that was wavy and had a circle at the bottom. This break in the line and the line itself created a sort of whole/cavity that looked big enough for the person to fit if anything.

Another thing that interested me about this photograph was the layout of the positive and negative space throughout the photo. Along with the diagonal line created by the rope and the man in the photograph, there were metal parts of the building laying in the bottom left side of the photo that were dark and gave this mainly gray photograph darker parts to sort of balance out the color. The river in the background created another diagonal line that was opposite the rope in the foreground for great contrast, as well

His Hashemite Highness King Abdullah, George Rodger

Information- George Rodger

Title-His Hashemite Highness King Abdullah

date unknown

                 

George Roger was born in Great Britain in 1908. He joined the British Merchant Navy with whom he sailed the world twice from 1925-1929. While in the navy he wrote about his travels and became a self-taught photographer. The outbreak of World War Two inspired him to capture the spectacle of battle. His photographs landed him a job as a war correspondent for Life Magazine. He is most notable for being the first photographer to enter the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen just after Germany’s surrender; his photographs were highly influential in showing the reality of the War. He was also particularly interested in documenting tribal culture in South Africa, Uganda, and southern Sudan. In 1949 he was granted permission to spend time with tribes in Africa. Life Magazine once said, “George Roger has gone to more sweat and pain to get a few pictures than any other photographer.

I don't know if this photo really affects me in a huge way or even if it is that important but to me this is a very well taken photograph because of the way he did it. I picked this photo because i really enjoyed the way it was shot. He use a shallow depth of field by making the image blurry in the front and back but is sharp and focused on the king. I also really like how he developed the picture, making the blacks black and the whites white. The Kings face is my favorite part of the photograph because it has this element of thought to it and that makes me think that he didn't set this photo up....that it just happened. All in all, looking through George Roger’s work, he has become one of my favorite photographers.  

Mary Ellen Mark, Lillie with Her Rag Doll

Mary Ellen MarkLillie with Her Rag Doll, Seattle, 1983
22.6 x 34 cm (8 7/8 x 13 3/8 in.)

Gelatin silver print

Copy of Photo: http://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/gm_25411201.jpg

 

Mary Ellen Mark currently lives in New York City, but was born in Philadelphia in 1940. Mark gained notability as a female artist who focused on documentary photography by capturing the world's diverse cultures. She spent many years in India photographing Mother Teresa, circuses and brothels in Mumbai and gained worldwide recognition. Afterwards in 1983 she did a photo essay for LIFE based on runaway children in Seattle. Later her work in Seattle become the basis of a film called Streetwise, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Mark contributes to The New Yorker and has published in LIFE, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. More than anything else Mark's images are known for human experience and social environment by conveying human reality and truth. 

 Mark's photographic series of homeless children in Seattle are shocking, entertaining and real. Seattle was seen as a clean and ideal American city. Her photos, on the other hand uncovered the reality of the city and the social problem that is everywhere in America. The photo selected shows a girl who is acting tough by smoking a cigarette, however she is holding a rag doll with her other hand. I selected the photograph because its a powerful image that shoes reality. The girl is smoking which makes her seem older, but the doll in her hand lets the audience know that she is just a child. Mark shot in black and white because the image was meant to have a feeling of no hope, and of being abandoned. She is alone and homeless and the image forces people to realize what is occurring and the problems others are facing.

 

Sources:

Mary Ellen Mark.com Bio and Resume. 2011

 

National Museum of Women on the Arts. Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography.Scala Publishers Limited: United Kingdom. 2008.

 

Word Press. Art Blart. https://artblart.wordpress.com/tag/mary-ellen-mark-lillie-with-her-rag-doll/