Irving Penn

Two Glasses of Water, New York, 1970

Irving Penn

by: John Szarkowski

Page:75

This image is a perfect example of how life and time pass us by without us as a whole recognizing.  It also could give us a sense of two different kinds of water  placed next to each other yet looking to the eye completely different.  I get from this piece that the first glass, left, is right after the water was poured. With this said, the glass on the right is the water after is has been settled on the tabletop.  The short period of time that goes unnoticed in everyday events like pouring a glass of water is fascinating when it is brought to our attention.  

Lewis Hine

"Refugees on top of boxcars, exposed to all kinds of weather, returning to their homes."

Strumitza, December 1918

Lewis Hine in Euope

by: Daile Kaplan

Page: 125

I brought this image in because I wanted to talk about the idea of finding or stumbling upon artistic imagery everyday.  Lewis Hine's work resembles everyday lives of his subjects that seem to have a truthful quality to them.  Photographing what you see in front of you instead of constructing something to be photographed allows the viewers to see the same everyday situations through your eyes.  My personal gravitation was directed more towards creating things to be photographed wether they be scenes or a crafty shoebox.  Now as I have the camera in hand there are some things that just happen to find themselves sitting right in front of you, waiting to be photographed.  Just because something isn't constructed out of material such paper and paint, doesn't mean it's not art.  Simply turning your head to see an object at a different angle or holding a camera up to your eye to see the world through and different view makes what's happening around you alter just a bit.  

Edward Weston

Nude, 1934

Edward Weston 

Edward Weston's series of both nudes and natural studies show everyday things photographed in a way that allow us as the viewer to interpret them in a different light.  This image of the nude figure in a unique position makes us see the lines and forms of the body as they flow through the image.  His pepper images have the same feel and are almost mistaken for distorted nude figures.  As photographers our job is to show our audience the world as we view it.  

Jerry Uelsmann

Poet's House

Jerry Uelsmann

1965

A photograph like this one, as well as many other photographs produced by Jerry Uelsmann, make me want to take photographs specifically for this purpose.  This is another artist that shows a different technique of creating an image from the imagination.  The images produced from this technique create a new world for the viewers to get lost in without the works of photoshop.  I wonder if someone were to create specific negatives to coexist with other particular negatives, the same effect would be perceived.  Photography is experimental and fallen upon.  Other times it can be completely constructed.  An image like this one shows the imagination of the landscape and what is could possibly be as opposed to what it really is.  Creating new worlds for the viewer to place themselves into is a theme we still use today to bring to life our own imagination.

Trent Parke

Untitled #3 - The Seventh Wave

Trent Parke

2000

Trent Parke's work is somewhat confusing to me.  I couldn't much on why he photographs what he does but I feel as if that's a good thing.  This piece, untitled #3, has a whimsical sense to it without going beyond the borders of possible.  I feel as is this could have been shot from the ground of two figures jumping on a trampoline or off one for that matter.  The way the images are edited make it seem as if the figures are not in a natural environment.  This play between possible and impossible allows the viewer to question the intention of the photographer.  My generation an image like this would probably be produced in photoshop.  This image makes me want to step back from my graphic design indulgences to cut, paste, crop, and edit things but rather be creative enough to sit and contemplate how it could be created naturally.  

Gregory Crewdson

Untitled

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an artist who's work I enjoy very much.  He constructs entire scenes almost like a movie producer to produce an image that conveys his vision.  Most of what he sees in his head comes from his childhood, and this fact is part of what fascinates me about his work.  Whenever us as students get stuck we are instructed to start off with something personal, something we can grow from.  Crewdson's work is derived from his childhood memories of listening in on his father's therapy sessions and imagining the stories as they were told.  His imagination of other people's stories allowed him to create beautiful images.  My work this semester has been less personal than last years work, however working on our "Impossible Image" project allowed me to try to bring to life a dream I've had reoccurring since I was little.  A little unsatisfied with how it turned out, I felt as if as I worked I lost more and more of what my dream actually was and worked more towards completing the project.  There are many things as a child your imagination sees that everyone else may not.  To be able to successfully portray what one's mind processes is art in itself.  

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Salerno, Italy, 1933

Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alberto Giacometti; The Decision of the Eye

Edited by: Tobia Bezzola Page: 71

I came across Henri Cartier-Bresson's work when doing research for my Asian Art Survey paper on Raghubir Singh.  Finally looking into his work I saw the way he photographed his subject matter and couldn't help but think about the work I am doing now.  My portfolio series shows images that cuts the image into sections, similar to what is shown in this image of Salerno, Italy.  The shadows created by the architecture, as well as the architecture itself create these intense breaks in the image that allow us to view the image in sections.  Each section lead us to the next, which eventually lead us to the subject of what looks like a child.  The figure itself creates another block of shadow that can be viewed as it's own section.  To see Cartier-Bresson's work reminded me of different things to look for when continuing to shoot for this current project.    

Thomas Demand

Drafting Room

Thomas Demand

1996

Thomas Demand's images are fascinating to me.  Demand photographs a specific place, then reconstructs that place using objects like paper and cardboard.  His simple reconstructions are, to me, not seen first as reconstructions.  When I first glanced at his work during one of our readings in History of Photography, I did not know it was a reconstruction until I read about it.  When you look more closely you can sometimes see minor clues like tears in the paper or uneven edges in the cardboard to hint that these images aren't real places.  I like Demand's work because I enjoy creating things to be photographed.  As much as I find the beauty in things you can capture just by the world thats presented in front of you, constructing something, creating something is also a part of this process.  In photo 1 we had a project where we had to create a space and I remember enjoying the idea of taking what you see in your head and creating the world out of tangible objects.  Thomas Demand is an artist that inspires me to be more creative with perhaps some of my future work. 

William Henry Fox Talbot

Fox Talbot Photographer

By: Robert Lassam 

Pg: 54

These "photogenic drawings" of a leaf immediately make me respond due to what I have been learning the past two years.  Our photograms have been favorite projects of mine constructing negatives out of not only transparent material but also materials in shapes that we want all light the be blocked out.  The image above reminds me of how experimental our medium really can be.  Henry Fox Talbot discovering upon the negative form of an image was a great contribution to the world of photography.  One of the works I recently produced used found material constructed in a way that when light shined through it it would produce an image.  Similar concepts with much more advanced technology, my "negatives" were scanned in as negative film.  Seeing an everyday object such as a leaf, or makeup, in the negative light allows us to play with our imagination and creativity.  Henry Fox Talbot was the first step in experimenting with photograms showing us this ability to have the same image look and feel completely different in positive or negative.  So today we have advanced digitally to create similar photograms.

Edward Steichen

Gloria Swanson, 1942

Edward Steichen In High Fashion; The Conde Nast Years 1923-1937 

by:William A. Ewing and Todd Brandow

Page: 57

Edward Steichen's fashion photography has an intriguing quality that caught my attention.  Although fashion photography is not something I can see myself doing, this image in particular was hard for me to ignore.  This portrait of Gloria Swanson was not only done visually beautiful, but clearly shows a part of  the actress herself.  The lace keys into the fact that this woman in the portrait was a higher rank individual.  Able to afford pricey fashions, the lace symbolizes her lifestyle.  But to me, I am more interested in the visual it has created.  Reminding me that light can travel through semi-transparent materials, it grabbed my attention because of how different this image is to other fashion photography of the time.  Even more of his images you see glamorous models and actresses wearing elegant gowns in great compositions.  This image of Gloria Swanson focused my attention more and more due to the creative way of showing fashion and social status more so than some of his other work.