Famous Photographers Essay

maggie hooyman.


Ansel Adams is officially my favorite photographer. His stunning photos of vast landscape literally turns me on. I love the angles he shoots at, the wonderful depth of field he provides, and his amazing depiction of nature. The fact that all of his work is black & white causes his photographs to behold a mystical effect. Usually in pictures of landscape your eyes are so attracted to the colors that I think you miss a lot of the details in nature. I am in love with every single one of his photographs. There is no way I could pick just one picture that I like most of his. When the set of pictures that the website provided for him ended my heart sank, I would have kept looking at more of his images for hours.

Jerry Uelsmann is my second favorite photographer, though he embodies a very different style than Adams. Most of his pictures seem as if they’ve been manipulated in some way to provide extremely trippy images. One of my favorite pictures he has is of an un-rooted tree taking off into the air (Untitled, 1969). This picture is literally impossible, it must be fake, I have no idea how he did it. I am determined to learn his ways.

Clarence John Laughlin’s photos also induce viewers with a trippy feeling, as did Uelsmann. But, his photos do not seem to be manipulated in any way, he just shoots them in a manner that embodies such an effect. My favorite image that beholds this effect would have to be the one titled House of Hysteria. I don’t know how to explain it other than that all the different shadows in the image are what makes this picture strong. Another photo I love is his Beseiging Wilderness where the reflection of a tree is shown over a big house… I don’t understand how he executed this. One photo that I am positive Laughlin must have actually manipulated is his one titled Woman Reflected in a Mirror. The corner of this picture has obviously been added in some how.. I think if I were to start trying to make my photos trippy, such as Laughlin’s & Uselmann’s, I would want to combine their two methods. I would make most of my pictures naturally done, like Laughlin’s. The ones I would physically manipulate wouldn’t be as obvious as Uselmann’s .

Arnold Newman is said to be, “one of the greatest portrait makers in the history of photography”. His pictures seem simple to me yet, complete. One picture, for example, is his Imperial Palace photo. It is so basic, yet beautiful at the same time. I think what I really like about this picture is it’s framing. Almost the entire image is white (because the door is white) but he has this perfectly thin line of black surrounding it. The thickness of the line is the same width as the line separating the two doors, so he makes it seem as though the black frame is actually apart of the subject.

Walker Evans is a photographer from the 30s that took pictures of random landscapes & people. I like her photography because I felt as though she gave strong insight of the culture at that time. Her images reveal commercial posters from the era, the cars that they drove, different views of the current homes, and the rich people’s styles versus the poorer people’s faces.

Brassai’s photos are pictures of Paris after night fall. His images hold sort of an eerie, yet romantic feeling. One of my favorite photographs he’s produced is his one titled Tugboats and barges beside Pont-Neuf. The reflection on the water causes the semicircular openings of the bridge to look as if they’re on big circle. I also really like his picture Backstage at the Foiles- Bergere and the one titled Prostitute at angle of Rue de la Reynie & Rue Quincampoix.

Robert Adams’ photos also embody a sort of basic yet complete look. One of my favorite pictures that beholds this simplicity is the one of a bed with a glowing window in the background (Untitled, Denver 1970-74). Though I think his photographs of nature are stronger. I really like how some of his pictures of trees are shown side to side making them seem as if they’re just one giant image.

Roy DeCarava documented “the African-American experience & its cultural icons”. His pictures posses a glum yet, prosperous feeling. The image that intrigues me the most is the one titled Graduation. It’s odd how the girl is dressed so extravagant, alone, in a trashy alleyway. Another image I find interesting is Pepsi. Has he passed out from work exhaustion or is has he just lazily fallen asleep? I also think DeCarava’s photograph titled Window and Stove is very beautiful.

Imogen Cunningham is an American modernist with pictures dating all the way back to 1910. She mainly takes close-up pictures of plants. One of my favorite photos of hers would have to be Stapelia. It first caught my eye because the flower in it is so unique; the patterns on it’s petals almost look leopard print.. The features that make this photo stronger are the different shadows casted from the stem that is propped up & the different shades of the wall versus the ground.

Karl Blossfeldt also takes pictures of plants close-up but his seem as if he’s trying to really show you something about the plants where as, I feel like Cunningham was just taking pretty pictures. The photos zoom in on the plant much more & usually just focus on one part of the plant. I love the photo Aesculus parviflorabecause it magnified the branch tips of Horse chestnut to reveal what looks like little faces on the plant.

Emmet Gowin’s pictures are photos of her “every day life” in the 60’s & 70’s. Some of them seem bewitched with creepiness while others give me an oddly happy feeling. One picture I love that acquires the creepy sensation is titled Edith. What makes this picture so great is the subject was placed behind a screen door so that there is a layer of wire netting over her face. Gowin’s picture that makes me the happiest is Nancy. This is a picture of a little girl sleeping on the ground with baby dolls surrounding her. Even though this picture makes me all warm inside, the dolls still create a creepy look. One funny thing I noticed is a number of her photographs have that round edging that Wendy had problems with & from time to time show up in my own film. I wonder how she went about this…

Irving Penn is stated as “much, much more than just a fashion photographer”. I think the reason they’ve referred to Penn this way is because even though most his images are just placed in front of a backdrop, he is still trying to convey some sort of a message upon his viewers. Take the picture Mrs. Amory Carhart for instance. It’s a picture of a girl in a big, gorgeous, wedding dress but then there’s this giant, ugly, cord placed in front of her feet. Why he included the cord in the image is beyond me. My favorite picture of Penn’s is Summer Sleep. It reminds me of Emmet Gowin’s picture titled Edith because this too has a screen door appearing over the image. Penn went even further than Gowin by including flies on the screen & a tear in the wire.

Alfred Stieglitz is my favorite photographer from the early 1900’s; his pictures seem to entrance me. First they look as if they’re a some-what basic photograph, but as your eyes begin to wander you notice more & more details that he included. One of the best examples of this would have to be the picture titled Flatiron Building. My eye was initially attracted to the building that is so oddly thin. It’s such an interesting view of the tower that you never even notice anything else. But, when I went back to look at the image I first saw the building then, I noticed the snow that was caught in the middle of the closest tree’s arms, after that my eyes couldn’t stop admiring every little feature that was originally missed. I could go on forever about just this one photograph but I realize this paragraph is getting very long. I have to say though, I think the photo titled Snapshot, Paris is amazing; beautiful use of depth of field.

Josef Koudelka’s photos each seem to tell a separate story. This seems to be due to the fact that every one of them contains people in it that are not posing & are in common surroundings. I like all of his pictures, each of them are interesting in their own way. Koudelka also creates a nice framing effect within the image using different subjects to surround other objects.

Gary Winogrand’s photos seem unreal, but in a natural way… if that makes any since at all. I love the angles he shoots at and the odd images he captures. The picture of Winogrand’s that I like the most would have to be the one titled Los Angeles, California. It’s crooked, the light beam off of a balcony seems to glare in your eye, the shadow effect surrounding the ladies makes it look as if they’re falling towards you, & then there’s some dude asleep in a wheel chair with a little boy across from him starring. It’s great.

Joel Meyerowitz’s photos also seem to besiege you with an unreal existence. Each one seems to have something placed in it that doesn’t look right. His photograph titled Porch, Provincetown is probably my favorite image. How in the world did he get the lightening bolt just to the right of the porch’s pillar? How could he have known that it would strike in that area? I also love the lighting effect on the roof of the porch, the way the bottom half of the door is just stopped in the center, & the gloomy view of the boat in the water.

Max Waldman takes stunning photos of theatrical plays & dances. I love his photographs because I love theatre. In each theatrical photograph it seems that he is depicting a certain scene from the selected play. My favorite image of his is the Fiddler on the Roofone due to the fact that before I realized he took theatrical photos I saw this image and instantly knew it must be from Fiddler on the Roof.

Andre Kertesz’s photos gives a since of complexity. I love his picture titled The White Horse, New York. The way the branches cover the ladies head but you can still see her face in the shadow, just the shadow itself of her and her dog, and that weird carousel horse included in the left corner all make this picture stand out. I also love the photograph Rue des Ursins. The picture provides a glimpse of the inside of a bar and reveals the road descending from it. Showing the contrast between the man filled bar, and the lonely lady crossing the street.

Stephen Shore’s color rich photographs seem, once again, simple but still attract my attention. My favorite photograph of his is probably the one titled El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas. I like this photo because when it comes to my own photography I love to take pictures of nature surrounded by the destruction of modernization. In this photograph a tree stands tall upon a cement sidewalk looking out onto a city street. This image embodies my most loved photographic message.

Vincent Serbin’s images have all been transformed in some way. Some have different scraps of what appears to be tape across them, others have been purposely scratched, a few even appear as though he some how combined one picture over another picture while in the developing process. I love the look he creates with cutting the same photo in different ways & placing the pieces in order as they would appear in the original picture. I think my favorite picture of his is the one titled Parallel Worlds but that’s just because I like full moons & zebras.