Eric Heo

Professor Klein

ART 4900

July 26, 2016

                                                Paul Outerbridge

Born on August 15, 1896, Paul Outerbridge was an American photographer who was well known for his early use of color photography. In 1922, Outerbridge’s work began being published in Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, jumpstarting his career as a photographer. After working for the French Vogue magazine for a couple of years, Outerbridge returned to New York City in 1929. Having photographed mostly in color and nudes, he was way ahead of his time in technicality and conceptually.

Some of Outerbridge’s works that involved both color and nudity are The Shower and Woman with Claws. The Shower is a photograph of a naked woman behind a clear shower curtain, both covering and revealing the subject’s body simultaneously. With a higher exposure on the upper right corner of the photograph, the subject’s face and upper body is more visible than her lower body. The baby blue hue of the shower wall gives the photograph a playful tone; however, the nudity of the subject juxtaposes the playfulness with a charismatic tone. In a sense, the technicality of the photo is mirrored by the tone of the photo. The slight blur mirrors the playful tone given by the blue color, suggesting a hint of innocence, while the blurred but obvious nudity shines.  

Woman with Claws is another one of Outerbridge’s photographs taken of a nude woman in color. Unlike The Shower, this one is not blurred and reveals the upper body of the subject in detail. In this photo, the model is photographed nude, wearing a pair of sharp-tipped gloves pressing against her breast and stomach. Part of her legs and face are cropped from the photo, while her breast and stomach are covered by the gloves. The tone of the photo is gloomy because the background wall is a deep blue with a shadow outlining the subject. When looking at the photo, you also get a sense of satire due to the pointed gloves covering a breast and part of her stomach while exposing an area where she lacks pubic hair. Outerbridge reveals explicit parts of the body while covering parts that are not as explicit. From this photo, it is as if Outerbridge wishes to reveal nudity to the audience, but at the same time is shy of what the viewers might say.

Overall as an artist, Paul Outerbridge was very ahead of his time period and his photographs show this as he produced vivid color nude photos that were not up to par with the standards during his time. His two works of art, The Shower and Woman with Claws are very interesting photographs due to the juxtaposition of tones and considering his early approach on a more contemporary style that was frowned upon.

Berenice Abbott was an American photographer, during 1940’s, best know for her black and white photography of New York City architecture and Science. She received the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award, two years prior her death, in 1989.

One of her most famous projects was called “Changing New York,” which she started after returning from Europe. She saw America with a “fresh and enriched perspective” and began to photograph the rapidly evolving urban landscape of the city. Her captivating photographs of new bridges and skyscrapers, replacing older structures, as well as the juxtaposition of evolving modes of transportation with those of the past and crowded street scenes evoke an exciting combination of realism. You could imagine yourself standing in the streets and absorbing the streets “feeling.” Through her project I could feel the changes that were happening in the city by the way she portrayed her subjects in the pictures.

 In 1939, she began experimenting with scientific imagery and capturing the movement of physics, mathematics and chemistry in her dramatic black-and-white photos, and called her project “Documenting Science.” As her photographs illustrate the latest technology, which makes them modern, however the principles they show came before her period, which makes them timeless. In this project the photographer is trying to take us both backward and forward in time. Abbott pictures depict a spellbinding pattern of colliding and overlapping circular forms. If you stare long enough you start to see faces or other forms in the picture. In her project, I got the feeling of being tricked, when I first looked at the picture I saw one thing and few moments later I saw something else. It was interesting trying to figure out what she was trying to show or how she took the picture without reading the captions. The project gave the feeling of mystery and blurred the lines between facts and fiction. Other photos show multiple exposures of items moving through space, an enlarged view of penicillin mold, and beams of light passing through a prism.

https://www.google.com/search?q=berenice+abbott+photography+science&client=safari&channel=mac_bm&biw=1230&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi63bbXuZbOAhXDPB4KHWVICBcQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=_

GarryWinogrand-Photographer

Martin Lee
Professor H. Klein
July 28, 2016

Robert Frank

Robert Frank was born in 1924 and is from Zürich, Switzerland. He was raised during a time where Hitler was everywhere and he wanted to get away from all the negativity. Robert is an American photographer and documentary filmmaker. He’s most known for his work in 1958 for which he had made a book titled The Americans. He is still alive as of today and is 91 years old.
Looking through some of his work in The Americans I can really see why he has won so many awards and got famous off this book. Most, if not all of these shots were taken in the 50’s.
I can tell that he takes every photo with reason and everything is done on purpose. A lot of the shots are candid and tell a story. None of his photos are every static. Although you may think that some of his photos are very still, if we look more closely, there is something lurking that. He focuses a lot on juxtapositions, symmetry, patterns, and depth. He times his photos so precisely and to think that this was all done on film is unbelievable. He has also gotten in very difficult angles to get the right shot.
It’s truly inspiring looking at a lot of his work. I can tell that he was never afraid to just shoot. His street photography is amazing. Most of his work with people show a lot of emotion yet they’re mostly all candid photos which amaze me even more.
Something interesting I find in his photos personally is that the contrast sometimes is very harsh. It really gives me chills sometimes looking at these photos as if the people in the photos are looking directly into my soul. I can feel so much “aura” off the black and white.
He also did a lot of work on the social class divide and the segregation that was still happening at the time. He finds ways of framing and composing his photos in such a way that is quite obvious what he wants the viewers to portray but he sometimes slips an Easter egg in there sometimes if you look more closely to photos.
He’s also done quite a few landscape/scenery photos but they all make me feel something about the photo. I feel like I am there with him while he is taking the shot.
Ultimately, looking at his work inspires me to continue shooting. With this age in digital photography, we can shoot more than ever. I am inspired to try newer things but at the same time, notice everything around me. There is fine art everywhere. It’s up to us to see it through the camera’s lens.

Juan Romero

ART 4900

Professor Klein

Herb Ritts was born in Los Angeles in 1952. Before getting into photography, he went into the family furniture business before going to college for economics and art history. It wasn’t until he and his friend Richard Gere decided to shoot in front of an old Buick that he really became interested in photography and found success. Following this, he soon became a very well known commercial photographer and also became known for directing award-winning music videos.

This photograph exemplifies the style that Ritts would come to be known for in his career. Here Richard Gere stands in front of an old Buick with not much else going on. Portraits are meant to emphasize the subject of the photograph, which he accomplished by going with simple environments. He also mostly kept his photographs in black-and-white, which I feel also helps accomplishes what a portrait is meant to do. Instead of bright colors possibly drawing your focus to something that’s unimportant in the background, you are forced to really look at and examine the photograph before being drawn to the most prominent element. I also feel as though the black-and-white allows for more emotions to come through.

While most of his photographs were of celebrities, Ritts also took photographs like the one above. These were meant to truly emphasize and show off the human physique. The lighting along with the black-and-white creates contrast on their bodies and emphasizes the crevices on their bodies. The detail on their bodies resembles what you would expect when seeing a statue like Michelangelo’s David or other similar Greek statues. This Greek influence probably came from his previous studies in art history.

Overall, I find Herb Ritts’ photography to be very interesting. The lack of color and lack of elaborate environments or props makes it easy to identify what it is that he wants you to look at.

Wenqi Zhang

Art 4900

Professor Klein

Lisette Model, a renowned photographer, was born in 1901 in Vienna, where she first studied compositional theory and piano before going to Paris (Rosenblum 37). She was later influenced by European modernist aesthetics and philosophy; hence, abandoned her musical career to take up painting and subsequently photography. Later in 1937, she decided to concentrate full-time on photography and moved to New York with her husband, Evsa Model, in 1938. Three years later, she started a twelve-year association as a freelance photographer with Harper’s Bazaar (Roosens 26). In 1951, she taught in various workshops and private classes during her time and died in 1983.

Model’s notable work encompasses a series of photographs she made using a 35-milimeter camera, of individuals on the Lower East Side of New York streets and Promenade des Anglais in Nice (Rosenblum 39). Model’s work is notable since it emphasizes on the peculiarities of ordinary people in addition to its direct, honest portrayal of the contemporary life and its influence on the human character. She redefined the aspect of American documentary photography as well as the direction of the postwar photography in the 1940s (Roosens 28). Model made several great images from the sad, often eccentric, and funny inhabitants of subterranean haunts in New York to the rich idlers in Promenade des Anglais.

Figure 1: Coney Island Bather, New York (Rosenblum 40)

Model’s photography was natural and brought out all the features in the image. Her photographs represented the actual occurrences at the time and are admired because of their clarity. Model’s images have an impact on me in that I can deduce the historical incidents from the pictures. I often get a glimpse of the past by looking at the images. The first reaction one gets by looking at the pictures is a good feeling since they look real and actual people express the universal humanity in the society.

Roosens, Laurent, and Luc Salu. History of Photography: A Bibliography of Books. London: Mansell, 1989. Print.

Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2010. Print

Ben Nahmani

Art 4900

Professor Klein

7/24/16

Lucas Samaras

            Lucas Samaras was born in 1936 in Kastoria, Greece. His artistic work has been publicly displayed since the 1960’s. Samaras worked in other mediums such as painting, sculpture, and performance art, before beginning work in photography. He even attempted a career as a Psychoanalyst. His photographic work began to surface in the early 1970’s.  Samaras’ artistic style is one I would consider as avant-garde as much of his work is distorted, mutilated, “strange”, and contain colors that clash and mix all at the same time.

            The piece above, from the concentration titled Auto Polaroid 1969-71, is one of my favorite works by Lucas. The first photo (top left) shows two photos of Lucas himself overlapping, resembling Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The photos continue to flow from left to right, down to the bottom left and to the right again. I admire this piece because as disfigured and monstrous he makes himself look by double exposing himself the photos work very well together as a whole, making it “agreeable”.

         Another favorite of mine is this self portrait, from the concentration Photo-Transformation 1974. The ambiguity of what is happening in the foreground of the photo (hidden by what looks to be scratches) with the bluish aura shining from the back right but flooded out by the plain kitchen lighting from the left. I find it pleasing to the eye yet disturbing to the mind. It’s easy to see that Samaras dabbled in psychoanalysis.

            Below, another photo from Photo-Transformation July 9^th, 1976 shows Lucas in a long exposure. Due to the extended shutter speed setting, Samaras was able to make it look as though he appears multiple times in the same photo. Again there is a disturbing element to this photo. In most of his other work the “disturbing” (for lack of better word) aspect is usually phallic in nature, but here Samaras is seen holding a knife as well as with his face to the seat of a chair. There is also a blur of movement (from when he changed position) which hints at the action of stabbing himself in the head.

            Overall, I would have to say that Lucas Samaras’s work is very impressive. He was able to evoke real emotion from me, which I believe he intended to do and which I believe all art is intended/supposed to do (other than looking pretty of course). To conclude my review of the artist, Lucas Samaras, I’d like to leave you with a colored pencil drawing that has a wonderful review/reflection online. Click Here to read it!

Untitled, 23/7/1982

Paul Strand is a photographer from New York City. Like most photographers, he began by enjoying photography as a hobby. During a class field trip, he got the chance to visit an art gallery. A gallery that promoted photography and paintings that are outstanding. This led to him taking his hobby more seriously. Eventually, he was able to get his work promoted into galleries. Strand’s work was seen to be influencing and abstract. He contributed to creating a group named Photo League. This group used their artwork to promote social and political causes.

One of Paul Strand’s famous works is a photograph named ‘Wall Street’. The photo frames a building with people walking pass by it. There are strong shadows being casted, giving us a sense of time. Even though we don’t know the exact time, we can infer that everyone is going to work or going home. Everyone walking in this photo are silhouetted, giving a sense of uniform. Everyone is silhouetted because they have the same destinations. The photo also has huge black rectangle in the building. The color of the rectangle matches the color of the shadows coming from the people. The shadows and the black rectangles on the building puts a mysterious feeling into the photo. Paul’s choice of shooting on Wall Street shows me that he knows money plays a huge role in our everyday lives.

Aside from shooting photographs for social and political reasons, Paul Strand did a lot of portraiture. Looking as his portraits, we can see a lot of detail and style of the clothes worn. The style of the clothing really tells us a story about the person’s career. The black and white really brought out his subject’s unique features. His collection of portraits contained people of all kinds. I’m assuming he had an appreciation for diversity because he is from New York City. Looking at his portraits, I feel really close to the subject. At the same time, he shot a lot of still life photography. He puts together a photograph using inanimate objects ranges from bowls to houses. He takes advantage of the geometric shapes that are natural there. Paul then frames it well so the lines from the inanimate objects can attract the viewers’ attention. For example, Paul would put together a couple of bowls and using its natural curves, he creates a sense of symmetry.

Post your written piece under the category, Photographer. You can access the assignment on Blackboard.