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General Category / Inspirational Photographers / Ernst Haas 1921 - 1986
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on: August 02, 2007, 07:58:11 PM
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Started by Jennifer Clarkson | Last post by Jennifer Clarkson
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Nationality: Austrian born, lived most of adult life in United States
Career span: 45 years (1941-1986)
Favourite medium: colour film
Famous for:
1) innovations in colour photography
- first colour photograph essay in LIFE magazine in 1953
- his work at the Museum of Modern Art was the subject of their first exhibition devoted solely to the colour photography of a single artist
2) "painting with the camera" - making colourful blur effects by using slow shutter speeds (1958), especially of bullfights, nature and athletics
3) landmark advertising campaign for Volkswagen in 1963
4) transforming the still image into another art form via audio-visuals with a dissolve unit and music (early 1970s)
5) publication of his photo essay on returning prisoners of war from Russia
His Passions and Inspirations:
1) the importance of poetry in photography, the visual language
2) using colour creatively
3) movie set photographs - he documented the making of such films as “The Third Man” “The Misfits” “West Side Story”, “Land of the Pharoahs”, “Little Big Man”, and “Quest for Fire”
Some Quotes:
1) A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it?
2) I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.
3) There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.
4) With photography a new language has been created. Now for the first time it is possible to express reality by reality. We can look at an impression as long as we wish, we can delve into it and, so to speak, renew past experiences at will.
5) "The best zoom lens is your legs."
6) "There are two kinds of photographers: those who compose pictures and those who take them. The former work in studios. For the latter, the studio is the world…. For them, the ordinary doesn‘t exist: every thing in life is a source of nourishment." -Ernst Haas, quoted by Lacouture
7) "The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances…a tiny relationship — either a harmony or a disharmony - that creates a picture."-Ernst Haas, "More Joy of Photography" by Eastman Kodak (Editor)
8. You become things, you become an atmosphere, and if you become it, which means you incorporate it within you, you can also give it back. You can put this feeling into a picture. A painter can do it. And a musician can do it and I think a photographer can do that too and that I would call the dreaming with open eyes.
Other Points of Interest:
1) held photography positions for a wide variety of publications, including Life, Vogue, Look, Der Stern, and Geo
2) published several photography books
- In America
- In Germany
- Himalayan Pilgrimage
- The Creation (Viking) published in 1971, which went on to sell over 350,000 copies
3) 1977: Eastman Kodak Company produced a colour print of his "Impalas Grazing" at Grand Central Station in New York City, which was the largest colour print made to date
4) originally attended medical school in Austria, but left to become a staff photographer for Heute (a magazine)
5) he acquired his first camera in 1946 on the black market with 10 kilograms of margarine received for his 25th Birthday; it was a rolleiflex
6) great series of pages on Haas' philosophy: http://www.ernst-haas.com/philosophy01.html
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General Category / Inspirational Photographers / Annie Leibovitz b. Oct 2, 1949
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on: July 29, 2007, 01:36:56 PM
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Started by Jennifer Clarkson | Last post by Jennifer Clarkson
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Nationality: American
Career Span: 35 years + (ongoing)
Favourite medium: 35mm camera, black-and-white Tri X film
Famous For:
1) wildly lit, staged, and provocative celebrity portraits that made the news, either for their subject, or for their shocking statement
2) influential advertising campaigns for major companies such as American Express, Gap, Givenchy, The Sopranos, and the Milk Board.
3) portrait photographer who uses her subject's entire body, often in motion, to dispel any artificial qualities.
Here are some examples of her work:
- Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Cover of Rolling Stone: Originally intended to feature both subject nude, Ono's reluctance led to the photograph featuring a disrobed Lennon hugging his clothed wife. Taken on the morning of December 8, 1980, this was one of the last photographs of Lennon, who was murdered by a deranged fan later in the day
- a nude Demi Moore, seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue.
- Moore also appeared later on the cover of the same magazine nude with a suit painted on her body.
- Whoopi Goldberg lying in a bathtub full of milk, shot from above.
- Christo, fully wrapped so the viewer must take the artist's word that Christo is actually under the wrapping.
- Dolly Parton vamping for the camera while Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes his biceps behind her.
- Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, as The Blues Brothers, with their faces painted blue.
- Queen Elizabeth in occasion of her visit in US 2007
- world's first glimpse of Suri Cruise, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter
Her Passions and Inspirations:
- intimate portraits of celebrities
Other points of interest:
1) spent several early years based in the Philippines working various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Israel participating in an archeological dig at King Solomon's temple for several months in 1969
2) Worked for Rolling Stone magazine from 1970 to 1983; named chief photographer for the magazine in 1973; among her subjects from that period are Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Patti Smith
3) served as a concert-tour photographer for the Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas in 1975; while on the road with the band she produced her iconic black-and-white portraits of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, shirtless and gritty
4) Photographed celebrities in the 1980's for an international advertising campaign for the American Express Charge cards
5) Featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair since 1983
6) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II requested in 2007 that Annie take her official photo for her state visit to Virginia
7) Has several books:
Dancers. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
Photographs. New York: Pantheon, 1983.
Photographs--Annie Leibovitz, 1970-1990. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Women. New York: Random House, 1999. The book includes images of famous people along with those not well known. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon and Diane Sawyer share space with miners, soldiers in basic training, and Las Vegas showgirls in and out of costume.
A PHOTOGRAPHER'S LIFE: 1990-2005
8. She is one of only two living photographers to have had an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.
9) received a degree in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute
10) Among other honors, Leibovitz has been made a Commandeur des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and has been designated a living legend by the Library of Congress.
Interesting Interview Transcript about her book "Women":
http://www.powells.com/authors/leibovitz.html
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General Category / Inspirational Photographers / Ansel Adams 1902 - 1984
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on: May 21, 2007, 02:42:22 PM
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Started by Jennifer Clarkson | Last post by Jennifer Clarkson
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Nationality: American
Career span: 50 years
Favourite medium: medium-format black and white film photography
Famous for:
1) black and white landscape photos, especially of the American West (e.g. Yosemite)
2) testing Polaroid's film technology (where he was a long-time consultant)
3) developing "zone exposure" to get maximum tonal range from black-and-white film: it involved using a light meter to obtain a film negative with silver densities corresponding to a high number of distinct shades of white, grey, and black
His Passions and Inspirations:
1) Nature and Conservation of nature (through National Parks)
2) promoting photography as an art form distinct from accepted art forms of the day
3) promoting fundamentals of photography, such as precision, sharp focus
4) Teaching "pure" photography - i.e. not making photographs look like paintings or etchings
Other points of interest:
1) originally trained as a concert pianist
2) co-founded "Group f/64" with E. Weston and I. Cunningham to help establish photography as a legitimate art form, distinct from other accepted art forms such as painting and sculpture
3) co-founded the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art
4) Career in photography likely influenced by the tendency of advertisers in the 1920's to use photographs rather than hand drawings under the belief that photographs were more persuasive. The mood of the 20's and 30's was towards realism in photography, which likely came about as a result of the depression and the want for direct communication.
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Keep up a good work!
