20 Photographers

Zack Leal
Shannon Duncan
Art 1370
Assignment #4
10/11/08


20 Photographers


1. Sam Abell: An American photographer born in 1945. He’s known particularly for his photographs of gardens and landscapes of far off lands and remote locations. He vividly distills the essence of the location into one singular photograph. I think the main quality that I enjoy in his photographs is the lush range of colors he captures in his photographs. At times it’s because of this broad palette achieved in his photographs that it feels more like I’m looking at a painting rather a photograph, however it doesn’t deter from the experience.

2. Lewis Baltz: An American photographer born in 1945 as well. His photographs are known for being comprised of areas that are barren and worn down and searching for the beauty from within these run-down places (such as factories, old buildings, etc). I find this to be a very fascinating quality in finding quality in deconstruction and destruction. I guess it’s more the raw and frenetic nature of these pieces that draws me in and then the emotional detail I get from it that keeps me interested.

3. Marco Bettoni: This photographer was born in Italy. Though his latest work is very interesting. His most popular work to date, involves aspects of Japanese culture (obviously something very foreign given that he‘s Italian). However it’s the way he conveys these elements that is striking. For one body of work he shoots pictures of wind socks that look like carp used for Children’s Day, a holiday celebrated in Japan. So you have this solid element but then he makes it topsy-turvy by shooting these wind socks at many different angles, giving off this whimsical look. It’s almost like looking through a fish-eye lens (no pun intended).

4. Big Rocket: This is a pair of photographers from London that take very interesting diptych pictures. A lot of their pictures aim to try and convey emotions from a before and after approach and vary greatly in their subject matter. I find these subtle touches interesting as emotions can change at a drop of the hat and its fun to see their interesting approach at capturing these changes. Plus I had to laugh at their pictures of people dressed (very well and elaborately) as Star Wars characters. Maybe it’s just the frankness of the photographs that makes it so silly (and probably their intention behind those shots).

5. James P. Blair: An American photographer well known for his work for National Geographic. However he also has a breadth of personal works that delve into a more abstract form. A lot of these works involve photographs of isolated portions of walls, signs, and graffiti. I enjoy these photographs for the raw qualities a lot of the graffiti pieces have. They remind me of one of my more favorite painters Jean-Michel Basquiat, I just love the raw quality of works like this. I often feel that pure emotion can come through and be felt through mediums of a raw nature be it photographs, paintings, or music.

6. Brassai: A Hungarian photographer born in 1899. A great breadth of his works are comprised of life in cities in general. However the works that attract me from his photographs are his night life shots. I think it’s just the nature of what he captures in these night time shots that I enjoy, it gives off a very film noir type of feel. And although black and white photography can easily recreate this look in the proper settings there is just something about these shots that feels untouchable despite the very common subject matter. I just find that quality to be very fascinating. One interesting tidbit is he was friends with Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

7. Keith Carter: An American photographer born in 1948. The breadth of his works are known for the way his subject matter (usually normal people, animals, and landscapes) is depicted in a very mirage-like manner. As stated before I enjoy these very illusionary hazy qualities in works like this, especially when it’s just capturing the norm of everyday life. It just gives you a different perspective on things just looking at photos like these.

8. Cameron Davidson: An American photographer who notably takes aerial shots. However it’s what he captures that intrigues me the most. A river becomes this coiling mass like a snake slithering across the Earth, an island turns into a submerged tortoise. It forces you to change your perspective from how you would normally view landmasses. Rather than raising a question of what angle the photographer wants you to look at their work, these works make that readily apparent.

9. Elliot Erwitt: A French photographer born in 1928. The majority of his works revolve around humorous and ironic situations. I enjoy these pieces for their very down-to-earth nature and the humanity that can be seen within these photographs and of course because of their humorous nature as well. And after all, laughter is the language of the soul.

10. Steve Eure: An American photographer well known for his abstract pictures. They delve deeply into combining their abstract qualities with the hard and sometimes bleak nature of reality. I think he conveys this with his heavy use of grey in the objects (be it that they are naturally gray or altered using something that is grey colored) he photographs. Though I find his subject matter interesting in general. He photographs collages and solid structures like walls altered from their natural form (mostly altered through utilizing either paint or by chipping away pieces from the object). A lot of these pieces remind me a lot though of another favorite painter of mine Jackson Pollock. They illustrate the frenetic energy and movement utilized by the materials used in deconstructing the object and the deconstruction of the object in general.

11. Ernst Haas: Haas is an Austrian photographer born in 1921. He is known for his experiments in utilizing light and his innovations in color photography. His pieces vary greatly, ranging from the abstract to everyday. I think the quality that I admire in his pieces so much is that he openly and actively worked to look at what he was shooting from brand new perspectives. I also admire his philosophy on photography (for instance his website opens with a description of himself as a painter in a hurry).

12. Dave Hacker: Dave is a photographer from London. He’s best known for his backwards approach to photography. He started at first heavily using digital cameras but then all of a sudden he makes the change to using old non-digital cameras. This change resulted in a drastic change in his photos. Photographs of modern landmarks in London through his approach appear antiquated and all but a memory (even though they obviously are not and are still around). I think what attracts me to these pieces is more the resourcefulness behind the piece as I feel it is a noteworthy benchmark of what one can achieve through being bored with the norm.

13. Michael Kenna: An English photographer born in 1953. A breadth of his work involves depicting landscapes in an illusionary manner. However what attracts me to his photos is more the way his photos look dreamy in general. While others appear to be slowed down or out of focus in order to get this quality, Kenna’s photos just use the natural surroundings to bestow these qualities (for instance utilizing rising mist in the area to shroud a distant object). I think it’s this manner of obtaining this look that draws me in as the object being photographed literally is surrounded by a sort of air of intrigue and mystique.

14. Barbara Kruger: An American photographer born in 1945. Her works are very interesting as they seem to feel a lot like pop art in a sense. The reasoning behind this is her photographs generally have a phrase slapped on top of them usually in white letters stenciled over a bold red background. One of her more well known photographs is a photograph of a hand with the phrase “I shop therefore I am” positioned over the center of the image. I feel the reason I’m drawn to these pieces is that I just seem to get a very pop art feeling from it, and maybe it’s just the melding of those mediums that makes it all the more interesting to me.

15. MANUAL (Hill and Bloom): A pair of American photographers (Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom) who work collectively and constructively under the name MANUAL. Their pieces range an abstract gamut spanning from photographs of hands to distressed and bent painting frames. I’m attracted to these works because at times in general I just like the look of abstract and unusual works, the sheer intrigue draws me in. I don’t know if it’s me just wanting to try and just piece together the reasoning behind the work or just because it’s totally different from the ordinary. One interesting tidbit is that Suzanne Bloom is a professor for the photography/digital media department here at the school of art.

16. Paul Smith: A photographer from London who takes a very fun and interesting approach to his shots. A lot of his pieces involve very common scenes of life in say London. However the way he changes things up is he plays the part of every person captured in the scene. I don’t know whether it’s the amusing egotism or the sheer dramatic change in emotion he depicts for all the characters he happens to have in the scene that makes it so humorous to me. I mean seeing an army of one person can be a very dramatic image humorous or otherwise. I think maybe this flair for the dramatic is the quality I find most interesting then out of these works overall.

17. Seton Smith: An American photographer born in 1955. Seton’s photographs take a very interesting approach. He takes photos of everyday objects in everyday environments but his photographs have this distorted out of focus look to them. It makes these ordinary objects take on a more surreal illusionary appearance. I think it’s this ghostly appearance that captures my attention. Or rather its combining both elements of the ordinary and then the distortion that attracts me.

18. Edward Steichen: Steichen is a photographer from Luxembourg who was born in 1879. Steichen actually was originally an accomplished painter before moving into photography. The breadth of his work is very varied and was more based upon his career choice at the time. However it’s his landscape pieces (especially The Pond Moonlight) that are extremely beautiful and powerful for their subtle nature. I think it’s this quality coupled with the painting-like nature and mysterious appearance that makes these pieces really capture my attention.

19. Jerry Uelsmann: An American photographer born in 1934. Uelsmann’s pieces are actually pretty simple in practice, while some may work with just one enlarger Uelsmann uses many to build up many separate images into one whole. However while his process may be simple his photographs are rather complex and deep. Many of his pieces give off the appearance of having a great spiritual presence and at times often appear very whimsical and like photographs of dreamscapes when taken in as a whole rather than acknowledging the individual parts.

20. Minor White: An American photographer born in 1908. White is widely considered and hailed as one of America’s greatest photographers. White’s approach to photography was utterly simple. His works were usually very common everyday subjects, landscapes and occurrences. However it’s his utilization of light that makes his pieces so interesting and appear as strongly as they do. The idea behind his works was that the photograph mirrors the feelings of the viewer in order to grasp the emotion White is trying to capture and convey with his photographs.