Photo202spring2

   

Joel Meyerowitz Joel Meyerowitz is a contemporary photographer most well noted for his use of color photography in the 1960s of architectural light and street photography. The goal of much of his art was to capture a fleeting perspective. In reference to what his motivation while photographing, Meyerowitz states his main goal is to ask “How much could we absorb and embrace of a moment of existence that would disappear in an instant?”. The idea that Meyerowitz looks to capture primarily candid settings shines a light on his photography as a whole, as he often looks to capture aesthetically pleasing but genuine moments of time. Even in his commercial work, his style and ability to depict a sense of a genuine moment frozen in time, remain prominent. His photos feel well composed but at the same time very natural, as if the viewer is walking along and stumbles upon the moment. He took this concept to the next level in much of his street photography which is mostly based in the stre...

Sally Mann was introduced to photography at a young age by her father. She began using his 5 x 7 camera which she has consistently used throughout her career. What makes the image hers is her ability to use various techniques and photographic elements in order to convey a single idea. Throughout “Proud Flesh” the images have a decent bit of variety but certain elements remain constant. Some of the consistent elements in her photos is using black and white and using natural light. Her images take place in doors in extremely dim areas, with the only light seeming to come from sunlight peeking in windows and doorways. Her relationship to her subject is extremely important in understanding what she is going for in this work. In “Proud Flesh” she photographs nude subjects, which isn’t a new concept in photography or in art in general however. What separates her images and makes it completely her own, is the decision to photograph subjects which aren’t models in any traditional sense. The...

Adam Welk   Style Assignment   Murat Germen:   Murat Germen is a Turkish photographer who uses several different techniques to make his artwork unique. He focuses on areas of high population and urbanization. In his work Muta-Morphosis, he manipulates a panorama picture of a city so the observer can view the city from a different perspective. After taking a panorama of a city, he puts the image through an algorithm that changes it in a certain way that makes use of colors and patterns to make it still resemble a city while being something completely different. He wants the viewer to see how big cities impact the area by using distorted images. In his works Facsimile, he uses city horizons and skylines to show as if each building radiates its own energy. It is up to interpretation to the viewer of what it means, however the size of the building has no effect on the size of the color it radiates. On the upper half of the image, you see a colorful skyline. When...

Ralph Eugene Meatyard was an American, black and white photographer from the 1960s. He is famous for the distinctive masks shown in his photography as well as sometimes using dolls. His models are always wearing masks or holding them and their natural faces are never shown. He also experimented with dreamy or psychedelic effects in his photography occasionally. His scenes were often very rustic, abandoned scenes or woodland scenes. Meatyard’s process included choosing the environment first then direct his subjects how he saw fit while considering lighting. He stated that the reason he has people wear masks in his photography is that as mask “serves as non-personalizing a person.” I believe I could replicate his photography by picking rundown environments or woodland areas and have my models wear masks. I have access to masks very similar to the ones in his photographs so that won’t be an issue. I will need to convert these images to black and white and also decide whether my sub...

Andreas Schmidt Andreas Schmidt was born in Germany and studied photography in Nottingham. Andreas Schmidt's uses simple light to photograph buildings in the city. In this particular book The City , he photographs the City of London, financial district of great London area. Most of his photograph focuses in architecture and does not have any human figure. His pictures all have good quality of light, focusing on the shape of architecture. His framing is elegant and trying to capture the line and shape of the architecture.  His pictures all has very high dynamic range, trying to document every fine details of the scene.  His mostly uses standard lens probably with tilt-shift when inside to crate a normal look with straight lines so the picture could easily bring viewers into the scene. When outside, he uses relatively long lenses to compress the foreground and background so the viewers could appreciate details of the city. He also might uses high resolution 135mm DSLR or 120mm...

Lee Friedlander is an American photographer who attempts to find beauty, and himself, in natural landscapes. He is most known for his obscure self portraits where he photographs his reflections or shadows in urban settings. Lee works exclusively with black and white film. This is manifested in his work because it creates a sort of muted contrast in his images, and lets the viewer focus on the most important parts of each photo. His work focuses on social landscapes as his photographs include himself in reflections, posters, and more; many believe this is too make a comment about the selfishness of people who live an urban lifestyle. His images, in my opinion, look amazing and they really take into account every single detail. The sharp angles that are exemplified with the black and white film are so interesting to look at. If I choose this photographer, I will attempt to replicate this style by taking long walks and strolling around downtown looking for inspiration. His style is ...

The first photographer I’m writing about here is Edward Burtynsky, and the book is  Manufactured Landscape.  The pictures in the book are just stunning, and notably the most interesting part is, although these suppose to be landscapes, they do not look like the usual landscapes we think about. They are landscapes that are created by human.  The subjects he photographs are usually not considered beautiful, but through his photographs, Burtynsky extracts the beauty from the scene, and also the ugly reason that caused such scenery. The very first thing that I noticed is his photos often lacks something in there for scale. You can’t tell if its only a small hill or a gigantic mountain on the first look. And the ones that do have something you can recognize to comprehend the scale of the subject, the photograph often highlight the enormity very well. (You don’t know how big those rocks in the quarry field until you see some tiny people standing right next to it. He uses a l...

Henry Wessel Henry Wessel was a photographer born and raised in New Jersey, where he lived with his mother who was a real estate agent. He first started photographing in 1966, which was the same year he graduated from Penn State University. He used a film camera and in the book I chose (Real Estate Photographs) he took the pictures out of a car window. Due to his constant life, living with real estate, he took pictures of houses in a consistent area. He mocked real estate images, using the same frame and "shape" as he calls it. The book is all of homes in the same area, of Richmond, California and were taken between 1990 and 1992. The images are all taken horizontally and have the same spacing between the house and the rest of the picture. All of the home seem to have an interesting color to them. Meaning the house might be bright pink, or have a green trim. All the whites are also very bright and draw your eye to the house. To replicate this style I would use a tripod to t...

Elad Lassry – On Onions Elad’s style can be described as simple on the surface, complex in nature, yet clean and balanced. It may seem like nothing but some pictures of onions but when observing them, you can tell he really thought of it. When he places multiple subjects, they are balanced and strategically placed in nature. Even when he cuts into one, the flow, rhythm and balance of the shapes on the inside are visually appealing to the viewers eye compared to things that he could have photographed. He photographs close to the subject on a white background so there is no mistake what he is trying to capture. Additionally, there is no lighting issue with shadows etc. as they are balanced with lighting as well as visually. The biggest thing is that his photographs are not over complicated. There are not a lot of things going on. It is just simply his subject placed correctly and photographed. There are no distractions with lights, colors, or anything extra. While ...