John Vachon Family and education[edit] Vachon's daughter, Christine Vachon, is a noted independent film producer. Later years[edit] John Vachon's first job at the Farm Security Administration carried the title "assistant messenger." By 1937 Vachon had looked enough to want to make photographs himself, and with advice from Ben Shahn he tried out a Leica in and around Washington. The hallmark of this style of photography is the portrayal of people and places encountered on the street, unembellished by the beautifying contrivances used by calendar and public relations photographers.[2] He died in 1975 in New York at age 60.[1] Samples of photography[edit] Notes[edit] External links[edit] Vachon, John.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the street photography or life reportage style that was coined The Decisive Moment that has influenced generations of photographers who followed. Early life[edit] Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France, the oldest of five children. His father was a wealthy textile manufacturer, whose Cartier-Bresson thread was a staple of French sewing kits. He attended École Fénelon, a Catholic school that prepared students to attend Lycée Condorcet. Studies painting[edit] After unsuccessfully trying to learn music, as a boy Cartier-Bresson was introduced to oil painting by his uncle Louis, a gifted painter. Experiments with photography[edit] Cartier-Bresson matured artistically in this stormy cultural and political environment. Filmmaking[edit]
Martin Munkácsi Martin Munkácsi (born Mermelstein Márton; 18 May 1896 – 13 July 1963) was a Hungarian photographer who worked in Germany (1928–34) and the United States, where he was based in New York City. Life and works[edit] Munkácsi was a newspaper writer and photographer in Hungary, specializing in sports. At the time, sports action photography could only be done in bright light outdoors. Munkácsi's innovation was to make sports photographs as meticulously composed action photographs, which required both artistic and technical skill. Munkácsi's legendary big break was to happen upon a fatal brawl, which he photographed. More than just sports and fashion, he photographed Berliners, rich and poor, in all their activities. The speed of the modern age and the excitement of new photographic viewpoints enthralled him, especially flying. On 21 March 1933, he photographed the fateful Day of Potsdam, when the aged President Paul von Hindenburg handed Germany over to Adolf Hitler. Munkácsi's influence[edit]
The Collection | Eugène Atget. (French, 1857-1927) French photographer. An only child of working-class parents, he was orphaned at an early age and went to sea. Determined to be an actor, he managed to study at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique in Paris for a year but was dismissed to finish his military service. By 1891 Atget had found a niche in the Parisian artistic community selling to painters photographs of animals, flowers, landscapes, monuments and urban views. The oeuvre demonstrates this variance throughout; while Old Paris was Atget’s main theme, as he worked he occasionally made photographs that seem more picturesque, imaginative or formally inventive than others. The tendency towards personal autonomy and free expression grew more marked as Atget’s career progressed. In 1920 Atget sold most of his negatives of Old Paris to the government; he had completed that section of his work. Atget’s best work is a poetic transformation of the ordinary by a subtle and knowing eye well served by photography’s reportorial fidelity. top
Eugène Atget Organ Grinder (1898) Eugène Atget (12 February 1857 – 4 August 1927) was a French flaneur[1] and a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization.[1] Most of his photographs were first published by Berenice Abbott after his death.[2] An inspiration for the surrealists and other artists, his genius was only recognized by a handful of young artists in the last two years of his life, and he did not live to see the wide acclaim his work would eventually receive.[2] Biography[edit] Atget's birthplace in Libourne (France) Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget was born 12 February 1857 in Libourne. Atget moved to Paris in 1878. Still living in Paris[5] he became an actor with a travelling group, performing in the Paris suburbs and the provinces. Starting in 1898, institutions such as the Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris bought his photographs.
Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz is known for the New York art galleries that he ran in the early part of the 20th century, where he introduced many avant-garde European artists to the U.S. He was married to painter Georgia O'Keeffe. Life[edit] Early years (1864–1890)[edit] Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the first son of German-Jewish immigrants Edward Stieglitz (1833–1909) and Hedwig Ann Werner (1845–1922).[1] At that time his father was a lieutenant in the Union Army, but after three years of fighting and earning an officer's salary he was able to buy an exemption from future fighting.[2] This allowed him to stay near home during his first son's childhood, and he played an active role in seeing that he was well-educated. 1886 Self-portrait.
Gordon Parks Early life[edit] Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of Sarah (née Ross) and Jackson Parks.[3] He was the last child born to them. His father was a farmer who grew corn, beets, turnips, potatoes, collard greens, and tomatoes. They also had a few ducks, chickens, and hogs.[4] He attended a segregated elementary school. When Parks was eleven years old, three white boys threw him into the Marmaton River, knowing he couldn't swim. His mother died when he was fourteen. In 1929, he briefly worked in a gentlemen's club, the Minnesota Club. Photography career[edit] At the age of twenty-five, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine and bought his first camera, a Voigtländer Brillant, for $12.50 at a Seattle, Washington, pawnshop.[11] The photography clerks who developed Parks' first roll of film, applauded his work and prompted him to seek a fashion assignment at a women's clothing store in St. Parks renewed his search for photography jobs in the fashion world.
Diane Arbus Diane Arbus (/diːˈæn ˈɑrbəs/; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal".[2] Arbus believed that a camera could be "a little bit cold, a little bit harsh" but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws.[3] A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid ... that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'", and that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.[4][5][6][7] Personal life[edit] Diane and Allan Arbus separated in 1958, and were divorced in 1969.[15] Photographic career[edit] Death[edit] Notable photographs[edit] Eddie Carmel, Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, New York, 1970 Arbus's most well-known individual photographs include: