Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon:

Avedon was a very successful portrait photographer and was very well known for his fashion photos. He has worked for Vogue and Life magazines. In addition to his fashion photos, he also was a successful photo journalist. He took photos of mental hospitals and worldly events, famous people, and had a series called 'The Great American West'. His photos are easily distinguishable because of his minimalist style and usually stark white backgrounds. I love how much emotion he shows in his photos. His fashion portraits were successful because they just were not beautiful shots of people but because they showed some emotion and personality. The audience was no longer just looking at the woman or the garment that was being sold but thinking about the image as a whole more conceptually. My favorite work that he has done was The Great American West. Every image I have seen from the series has been beautiful and very inspirational to me. Even though he does not follow the rule of thirds the image is too striking to look away. His subjects often making eye contact and the detail of the photo makes you not want to look away. He also has a lot of contrast in his images but he makes it work. He found the sweet spot of contrast that works perfectly for his subjects.

Philippe Halsman:

Richard Misrach/Robert Glenn Ketchum

Richard Misrach:

Misrach is known for his landscape work and work that shows human interaction with the environment. He has been an advocate for color photography and has recently taken advantage of the perks of digital photography and producing very stunning detailed images. He has had work in over 50 major museums. Misrach's work really shows how important lighting is in landscape photography.  He has taken a lot of photographs using the golden light right before sunset. Although I do see a lot of photos where he shot on overcast days. It makes me wonder how long it takes him to get a successful photo of a certain place, if he waits days until the perfect light or if he just gets very lucky. I think his photos of how humans interact with the environment are very successful, especially the one above. I love the contrast of the textured road created by vehicles. There is a lot of detail that is shown by the lighting. I'm not sure about his placement of the horizon line though. It does break the photo in half but the sky really works with the image. Looking at his work makes me want to use my largest f-stop and set my camera on a tripod during golden hour and take as many landscape photos as I can. I was also particularly inspired by his use of reflections in his landscape images. 




Robert Glenn Ketchum:

Ketchum has been a strong advocate of using photography to address enviromental issues. He was one of the founders of the International League of Conservation Photographers. American Photo magazine named him one of the most important people in photography in the 1990's and also featured him in their 'Masters Series'. His photos are mainly color landscapes. I think his photos are very successful because he just doesn't shoot traditional landscapes of rolling hills. He also shoots nature, photos of trees and streams. Just because you are taking a landscape photo doesn't mean the background has to be miles and miles long. I like how he uses fog in a lot of his photos. It blocks just enough of the land that it peaks your interest but if you look hard enough you can still see past just a bit of the fog. I'm very inspired by his work because it looks like he had to hike through deep nature to get his photos. It doesn't look like he stood on a lookout next to a hundred tourists and snapped his photo. 

Annie Leibovitz/Chris Verene

Annie Leibovitz:

Leibovitz is known for her stunning portrait photography. She studied painting and took night classes in photography before she began working for Rolling Stone Magazine. After working only three years for Rolling Stone she became the Cheif photographer. She also worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue as well as many advertising campaigns such as "Got Milk?". Leibovitz has a reputation for persuading her subjects to lose their clothing for her camera. She likes to get to know the people she photographs and make them feel comfortable. I think its amazing that she can take such sensitive and reveling photos of famous and stubborn people. The ideas she has for her images are also very intriguing. I would love to hear how she brainstorms for photoshoots. I also love how she lights her photos. I'm amazed by the flawless lighting in even on location. The lighting she uses gives her subjects so much detail and texture. She includes so many details to help the audience see the whole story. I get a lot of inspiration from the second picture above. I love how the photo is almost monochromatic except for the deep red detail. Her work has provided a lot of inspiration for me both conceptually and technically. 

Chris Verene:

Verene began working with a medium format camera at the age of 16. His ongoing project is to document his family and community he grew up with. He does this in a very interesting way. He is one of the perfect examples of "You have to know the rules before you're allowed to break them." With first glance at his photographs you would think that they were just snapshots out of an old family album, but with closer inspection you can tell that a lot of thought had actually gone into making the images. He works a lot with flash and candid subjects. When I look at the images he has taken of his family I feel like I am being allowed to see a very intimate moment. He shows us into homes and the everyday life of people. They are not dressed up, the house might not be cleaned as if they were expecting it to be photographed. I love looking at the patterns and decor in the houses as well as the candidness of everything. The flash almost give it a plastic throw away camera feel. Like mom was just snapping photos on christmas morning to document the event. But the shots are composed and the flash is done technically well. 

Meatyard/Winogrand

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: 

Meatyard was first a photography hobbyist, he first purchased a camera so he could take photos of his son. Eventually he began attending photo workshops and even had his own makeshift darkroom where he processed photos in his spare time. He is known for his original yet slightly disturbing work. Meatyard challenged some of the social norms of photography by using unconventional subjects, soft focusing, intentional camera shake blur and other things. He worked mostly with black and white photographs. His images showed a lot of contrast while also working with slower shutter speeds to blur motion. Many of his photos feature his subjects wearing masks or holding old dolls. He often placed his models, ordinary people, in backyards or abandoned buildings. He worked with a wide range of lighting anywhere from direct sunlight, diffused lighting, and some studio work. I think his most interesting work is when he intentionally chose to blur some motion. I have seen a photo he took of a child waiving their arms. It was a simple beautiful demonstration of motion. Many times when he uses a slow shutter speed to blur movement it creates even more of an eerie feel to his photos. Overall his work has inspired me to experiment using slow shutter speeds in more portraits and not just sports or panning photos. 






Garry Winogrand:

Winogrand was made famous for his black and white street photography, showing American life in the mid-twentieth century. He shot so many photographs that at the time of his death in 1984, he had over 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film. Winogrand was an expert at capturing public American life. His high contrast photos show behavior, beauty, fashion, and the mentality of the ordinary person going about their day while also maintaining beautiful composition. While Meatyard took a more artistic approach to his photography using alternative techniques I feel like his photos are just as successful as Winogrand's. Winogrand has a more clean composition and subject matter but both photographers have very strong subjects and concepts. 

Eggleston/Shore

William Eggleston: 

Eggleston is mainly known for his ability to photograph and find the beauty in ordinary subjects. His work was inspired by dye-transfer printing. He found the colors beautiful and wanted to photograph more ordinary subjects instead of producing commercial photographs like what he had seen. He has also been credited with securing color photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Obviously, the majority of his work is in color. I am amazed by how he can practice color theory and find ordinary subjects that exhibit such pleasing color combinations. Even his monochromatic work seems to have amazing color contrast. He does a good job documenting the simplicity of life through everyday subjects. I think his use of color helps draw attention to his work. Sure its a photo of a building and some cylinder. But the primary color contrast really brings our attention to it.  




Stephen Shore:

Shore began his photography career when he was 14, he sold 3 photographs to the curator of Metropolitan Museum of art in New York. He says that he first loved color photography because it not only showed the intensity but also the color of the light. He found the changing of light fascinating. It was amazing how much light could change in just a few hours, or that light could be so different at the same time of day on different days. Much like Eggleston, he photographed how beautiful normal mundane subjects can be. Shore's work has less saturation than Eggleston's but still shows beautiful color. I think that Shore also uses more subtle color theory. I can't always put my finger on why exactly the colors are so pleasing in his photos while in Eggleston's I can usually point out when he uses something like primary contrast or complimentary colors.

Meyerowitz/Pfahl

Joel Meyerowitz:

Meyerowitz is a street photographer and was an early advocate of color photography. His book Cape Light, is seen as a classic book of color photography. Many people also know him for photographing the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks which were compiled into a book: Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive. It seems as if Meyerowitz can make a beautifully composed photo wherever he goes no matter what his subject is.  He follows the rule of thirds in a lot of his work, but he still knows how to break the rules. Some of his pictures he places his subject in the very middle of the photo or the horizon going directly through the middle of the photo, but it seems to work. In his landscape work he uses a very large f-stop so that you are able to see basically everything in the frame. Even in his photograph titled 'morning mist' you can still see incredibly far into the background. As I keep researching photographers for our blogs I keep noticing how many use color theory in their photos. Of course, Meyerowitz is among them. Before that though, he took high contrast black and white street photographs. I am challenging myself to go out and try to make successful street photographs. 




John Pfahl:

Pfahl is known as a nature photographer while also photographing how humans are effecting it. He is currently a professor and is working on 'reviving' color photography. My favorite collection of his work is Picture Windows. Pfahl adds a new perspective to landscape photography. I love how he finds a way to incorporate our lives into nature so beautifully and  creatively. I also love that he chose not to do something like HDR so that we can see inside the windows as well. I feel like his photographs really bring the beauty of nature closer to us. It makes you want to look out your window and see the beauty that lies past our closed blinds. I also love his technique of using a large f-stop. I love being able to see forever past the silhouetted window. Overall, I find Pfahl's work very inspiring both because of his conceptual ideas and how he technically can photograph a scene. 

Both Meyerowitz and Pfahl are masters of color photography and using tiny apertures to allow their audience to see everything in the frame. 

Gursky and Muheisen

Andreas Gursky:

Gursky is a german photographer who is known for his large detailed photographs. Photography had always been in Gursky's life since his parents were involved in commercial photography. He also attended multiple schools studying photography. Gursky has a very distinct style of photography. From looking at selection of his work I noticed that he often uses the same composition for his photographs. He shoots his subject straight in front of him and usually very symmetrical. He often uses repetition in his images. In most instances, when he shoots the subject straight on it allows the audience to see the full extent of how the subject repeats itself. Such as his photos of buildings. In most of his images of people, he shoots from a slightly higher angle but still uses repetition to his advantage. By having a higher angle the audience can see better the mass of people. Gursky's images also always have incredible detail and color. He definitely uses color strategically instead of using it just because his camera automatically shoots in color. Overall I have taken a lot from looking at Gurskys photographs. I'm paying more attention to color and detail.  

Muhammed Muheisen:

Muheisen is a photographer for the Associated Press based in Jerusalem. He is known for his moving photographs of middle eastern conflict and won many awards with these photographs. Muheisen composes his photos with color in mind and also conquers difficult lighting situations. He also finds a way to photograph sensitive subjects while also informing about the effects of war. I love that he shoots the every day life of his subjects. From children playing to parents grieving over wounded loved ones to celebrations to street vendors trying to make a living. I'm very inspired that he is able to use colors so effectively while in the field while also battling some difficult lighting. He uses a lot of monochromatic color schemes, but when color is present in his photos its usually very vibrant and contrasting with the background. He also uses a low f-stop so he can shoot in very low light. Overall, he work has inspired me to pay more attention to colors when I shoot and also not to be afraid to shoot in difficult lighting, Ill never be able to shoot in it if I don't ever try.

Andreas Gursky and Muhammed Muheisen have different shooting styles. Gursky has a rigid and calculated style while Muheisen's style is more spontaneous. Both, though, use colors to their advantage and have excellent composition.