Henri Cartier-Bresson Commercial Success

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. A pioneer in photojournalism, Carti- Cartier-Bresson’s rise as a photographer proved rapid. By the mid 1930s he’d shown his work in major exhibits in er-Bresson wandered around the world with his camera, becoming totally immersed in his current environment. Mexico, New York, and Madrid. His images revealed the early raw possibilities of street photography and photo- Considered one of the major artists of the 20th century, he covered many of the world biggest events from the journalism in general. During an exhibit of his prints in New York in 1935 Cartier-Bresson befriended another pho- Spanish Civil War to the French uprisings in 1968. tographer, Paul Strand, who’d begun to experiment with film. Inspired by what he saw, Cartier-Bresson abandoned photography and returned to France where he took work as an assistant with French filmmaker Jean Renoir. Over Biography of his early years the next three years, Cartier-Bresson worked on a handful of Renoir films, including his most critically acclaimed, La Règle Du Jeu (1939). Widely considered one of the leading artistic forces of the 20th century, Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. The oldest of five children, his family was wealthy—his father made a fortune as But the documentarian in Cartier-Bresson had no use or particular talent for directing feature films. Instead, he was a textile manufacturer—but Cartier-Bresson later joked that due to his parents’ frugal ways, it often seemed as drawn to showing real stories about real life. His own life took a dramatic turn in 1940 following the German inva- though his family was poor. sion of France. Cartier-Bresson joined the army but was soon captured by German forces and forced into prison-of- war camp for the next three years. In 1943, after two failed attempts, Cartier-Bresson escaped for good and imme- Educated in Paris, Cartier-Bresson developed an early love for literature and the arts. Creativity was certainly a diately returned to his photography and film work. He created a photo department for the resistance and following part of his DNA. His great-grandfather had been artist and an uncle was a noted printer. Even his father dabbled in the end of the war, was commissioned by the United States to direct a documentary about the return of French drawing. prisoners.

As a teenager, Cartier-Bresson rebelled against his parents’ formal ways. Early in his adult life he drifted toward communism. But it was art that remained at the center of his life. In 1927 he began a two-year stint studying painting under noted early Cubist, André Lhote, then moved to Cambridge University to immerse himself further in art and literature courses.

Sparked by the avant-garde scene enveloping Paris, and fresh from his release from the Army, which had stationed him just outside Paris, Cartier-Bresson traveled to Africa in 1931 to hunt antelope and boar. Uninterested in actually eating what he’d tracked down, Cartier-Bresson eventually grew tired of the sport and gave it up.

But Africa did fuel another interest in him: photography. He experimented with a simple Brownie he’d received as a gift, taking pictures of the new world around him. For Cartier-Bresson there were direct parallels between his old passion and his new one.

“I adore shooting photographs,” he’d later note. “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians—which is my relationship to photography.” In short, as his frustrated editors would soon discover, Cartier-Bresson preferred This is a photo of a few women and children, all looking to the same taking shots rather than making prints and showing his work. direction and crying sorrowfully. This photo is called a grieving woman with young boy, Cyprus. The setting of this photo looks like the streets of a poor village. This photo supports the rule of thirds, because the Upon returning to France later that year, Cartier-Bresson purchased his first 35mm Leica, a camera whose simple focus of the photo is on the woman at the intersection of the grid of style and stunning results would help define the photographer’s work. thirds. The image is high contrast, but the photographer must not have used flash photography because the light source is not coming from the For the rest of his life, in fact, Cartier-Bresson’s approach to photography would remain much the same. He made side of the camera. The thing that stands out most is the emotions of the picture.. The emotion and mood is very strong on the woman’s face This photo is called Rue Mouffetard, named after the paris street in clear his disdain for the augmented image, one that had been enhanced by artificial light, dark room effects, even and the image itself is also very strong because of its high contrast and which the photograph was taken on. It shows a young boy walking cropping. The naturalist in Cartier-Bresson believed that all edits should be done when the image was made. His bold lines. down the street, smiling proudly with a bottle of wine held in each of equipment load was often light: a 50mm lens and if he needed it, a longer 90mm lens. his hands. . The composition of this photo is very simple, focusing on the young In his 1952 landmark monograph The Decisive Moment, he defined his philosophy: “To me, photography is the si- boy. It does not follow the rule of thirds as the main focus is in the middle. The photographer used natural daylight in his photography, multaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization giving the photo a natural tone. The photo was taken from above of forms which gave that event its proper expression.” eye-level/ from a higher angle of the boy. The mood of the photo is very delightful and relaxed, because the tone of the photo is light and Cartier-Bresson was drafted into the French army in 1940. He was taken prisoner by the Germans but escaped on natural. Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for his collection “The Deci- sive Moment” and he said that he would stand at a spot for a long pe- his third attempt and joined the French Resistance. In 1946, he assisted in the preparation of a “posthumous” show riod of time with his camera and wait for something interesting to hap- of his work organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the mistaken belief that he had been killed in pen. When he saw something interesting, he would then take a photo. the war. He didn’t find the subjects in his photo, he waited for them to come to him, which is probably why the mood of his photographs, including In 1966, Cartier-Bresson quit Magnum and began to turn his focus to where it had once been: on drawing and Rue Mouffetard, is shown as very relaxing and humorous photographs. painting. He disdained doing interviews and refused to talk much about his previous career as a photographer, seemingly content to bury himself in his notebooks, sketching out landscapes and figurines.

In 2003, Cartier-Bresson, along with his wife and daughter, took an important step in securing his legacy as an artist with the creation of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris in an effort to preserve his work. His later years would also see him awarded numerous awards and honorary doctorates for his work. URL:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson Just a few weeks shy of his 96th birthday, Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away at his home in Provence on August 3, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/23/henri-cartier-bresson-the-decisive-moment-reissued-photography 2004. http://www.biography.com/people/henri-cartier-bresson-9240139 David Bailey

Biography

David Bailey was born in London, England in 1938. Bailey did poorly at school due to undetected dyslexia and ir- regular wartime schooling. Cinema influenced Bailey’s work. He was a member of the British Royal Air Force based in Singapore. In 1959, he started working for photographer John French. In 1960, he freelanced and began his career as a fashion photographer, working for numerous magazines, including Vogue, Elle and Glamour, and for many British newspapers. Using a 35 mm single-lens reflex enabled him to shoot outdoors. Spontaneity of gesture and the incorporation of random elements brought a filmic quality to his photographs that reflected his enthusiasm for French New Wave cinema.

After finishing his national service in 1958, Bailey secured a job with David Olin, who was then the main supplier of photos to Queen Magazine. In 1959 he became an assistant to fashion photographer John French in London. In 1960, at 22, he was already working as a freelancer for British Vogue, and soon became almost as famous as the people he was photographing: fashion designer Mary Quant, and everyone who was involved in Bazaar, the Beat- les and the Rolling Stones, The Who, singers Marianne Faithfull and Sandie Shaw, actresses Mia Farrow, Catherine Deneuve and Geraldine Chaplin, actors Peter Sellers and Michael Caine, and models Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and Penelope Tree. Bailey also photographed the period’s current fashions on the streets of London and New York for In this photograph David Bailey has also used a white magazines like American Vogue and Glamour. “I wanted to be like Fred Astaire, but I couldn«t, so instead I went for background which helps to show the contrast between the next best thing, which was to be a fashion photographer.” the background and the black suits John Lennon and Paul McCartney are wearing. In contrast to the first image, here more parts of the body are being shown in this por- Bailey’s career and personal life seemed to thrive during the Heyday of the “Swinging Sixties,” and while at times trait instead of just including head and shoulders. As this the public seemed more interested in his colorful exploits than in his photography, it is his work which really speaks photograph includes two people the portrait is not as close for itself and withstands the test of time. In the past, he’s cited Picasso as being his greatest inspiration. “The first up as the previous one. The facial expressions are neutral half of the century belongs to Picasso and the second half belongs to photography. These days everyone is called and are not portraying any specific emotions. However the gesture of having your hands over someones shoulders an artist from Madonna to someone who can hold a paintbrush, but it is Picasso who really started the whole thing suggests these two are close friends. off and made me want to go and take pictures.” And in the past 40 years Bailey has held steadfast to the way in which he take pictures: Black-and-white, minimalist, very graphic with high contrasts between lighter values and Although there is artificial lighting used in this and many darker tones, and shot on a variety of formats. “I take the same approach today as I did when I started.I’ve always other of David Bailey’s portraits, the tone is not as strong as in the first photograph. This could be because the light- hated silly pictures and gimmicks, which is all I see these days, or, to put it another way, ‘the Avant Garde has gone From the two photos above we can detain that there are a lot of ing used is limited so the contrast between the darker black and white contrasting tones, with little or no use of digital to Kmart.” and lighter areas are not as strong. I think David Bailey retouching or digital animation, and although without the presence could have used diffused lighting in this piece so it is soft- of props, his work is very theatrical and could be considered as All told, Bailey has written and produced countless books, directed films, arranged photographic shows and made er. Most of the tone is shown towards the bottom of this symbolic. With the use of lighting and emotions he is able to evoke portrait, around their hands and at the end of his finger commercials. His book Goodbye Baby and Amen is the complete record of his work and captures the decade he first different emotions from the viewers which makes his work very tips. As David Bailey mainly worked in the 60’s there were eye-catching. flourished in, with portraits of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, as well as actresses, politicians, artists and writers no digital cameras at the time so most of his photographs Using the two pictures above as an example I believe that the of the day. His first book of portraits, David Bailey’s Box of Pin-ups, was published in 1965. David Bailey’s Rock and would have been taken using a black and white film cam- emotions being portrayed above are completely controlled and are Roll Heroes, 1997, showcases more than 80 of his most vivid images of the pop scene from the 1960s on - images era. In most of David Baileys photographs he uses a direct trying to send out a message, using front lighting to his advantage. aproach to taking portraits, which makes the image central of Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and The Who - and also includes more recent photographs of re- For example, In the Jack Nichlson photo I believe he deliberately to the picture frame. requested that he shouted and screamed in the picture, this, to cording artists like Seal, Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Sting, and Dave Stewart. Two noteworthy films are Be- symbolise the type of hell raising, troublesome characters that Jack aton by Bailey, 1971, and Andy Warhol, 1973. In 1984 there was a major retrospective of his work at Manhattan’s Nichlson usually plays. However I also believe he deliberately placed International Center of Photography, and in 1999 another major show, “The Birth of the Cool,” at London’s Barbican the light to the side of his face (front lighting) to symbolise that this Centre. is only one side of Jack Nichlson, the characters he’s usually asked to play. The light represents that this is only a part of who he is and not an overall summary. David Bailey, Archive One 1957-1969, published in 1999, includes the bulk of his early fashion and portraiture work, I think he also used this method for the Will Smith photo above, a but also unearths some photojournalistic gems taken in the early Sixties, mostly of London’s East End. Today, Bai- person who i personally remember playing a goofy character in a ley’s still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down. His most recent work includes portraits and celebrity programme ‘the fresh prince of bel air’ back in the 90’s. Bailey also used this to his advantage to show that this once goofy character, shoots for Harper’s Bazaar, Italian Vogue, The London Times and Talk magazine, among other publications. as we can see from the pose that has been chosen, is only a part of who he is and not an overall summary, juxtaposing his work. Professional Accomplishments I feel as if the photographs that Bailey takes are filled with such emotion, as though he puts a piece of himself in every photo, in David Bailey started his professional career as a photographic assistant at John French Studio. In 1960, he worked every frame. Considering the fact that everything about these pho- as a photographer for John Cole’s studio. Later that year, Bailey was contracted by British Vogue magazine as a tos are under his control, from the brightness of the light, position- fashion photographer. He also took on a great deal of freelance work at that time. David Bailey 2Along with Brian ing of the light, facial expressions, body language, so on and so Duffy and Terence Donovan, Bailey captured and helped create ‘Swinging London’ of the 1960s, which was a re- forth and the way he manipulates certain aspects make his work memorable and very recognisable. flection of the fashion and cultural scene of London at that time. The three photographers socialized with royalty, actors, and musicians, and their status was elevated to celebrity status. Together, they were called the Black Trinity, the first celebrity photographers. Later, David directed many TV commercials and documentaries as well. In 1976, he even published Ritz newspaper with with David Litchfield. In 2005, Bailey was awarded the Centenary Medal and https://www.artsy.net/artist/david-bailey Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society for his sustained and significant contribution to the art of http://www.blog.jewelryaccessories.com/fashion-photogra- photography. phers/378-david-bailey.html David Bailey Self protrait http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bailey Martin Parr

Biography

Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey, UK in 1952. He got into photography because of his grandfather who was an amateur photographer. In 1970 to 1973 Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. His early works in 1970 are exclusively black and white photographs. After 1980 he switched over to color film. Martin Parr has created an international reputation and is best known for his projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life. These projects mainly focus on simple and suburban life in England. Parr sees himself as a member of the middle class. He has been a part of the middle class environment since childhood and therefore it is easy for him to focus the lens of his camera on others who make up the middle class. In 1994 Parr became a full time member of Magnum Photographic Corporation, an international photographic coop- erative owned by its photographer members. In recent times Parr has become intrigued by filmmaking. He also recently started to place his photography is new areas such as fashion and advertising. A large portion of Parr’s work was initiated into the Barbican Art Gallery in 2002; touring Europe for five years. The University of Wales Newport selected Parr to be the Professor of Photography. In 2004, He was Guest Artistic Director for Rencontres D’Arles. Two years later Parr was awarded the Erich Saloon Prize and the resulting Assorted Cocktail show opens at Photoki- na. At the New York Photo Festival Parr was guest curator in 2008; he curated the New Typologies exhibition. Also in 2008 at Haus de Kunst, Mucich Parrworld opened. It exhibited Parr’s collection of objects, postcards and Parr’s personal photography collection of British and International artists, photobooks and his own photographs; it toured The primary content of the photograph is a young woman pet- I like this photo because of the unusual perspec- Europe for the next 2 years. Parr won the Baume et Mercier award in 2008 at PhotoEspana in acknowledgment of ting a dog, an older man with his hands on his hips looking tive . I think the colours make the photo look is career and contributions to contemporary photography. In October of 2010 he curated the Brighton Photo Bien- pleased and a little girl in red pushing a baby stroller looking cu- dynamic because they are so vibrant and remind nial. riously over. All of the subjects in this shot are well spaced from you of the seaside. The three people make a In 2013, Martin was appointed visiting Professor of Photography at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. one another and I love the vibrancy that the flash brings to the pattern and also a leading line to the sea and the More recently Martin has just completed a 4-year project documenting the Black Country, an area of the English shot even though it was during the day. Not only that, but the clouds in the background demonstrate the rule of West Midlands, in conjunction with Multistory. Phaidon have published the third volume of the highly influential His- red of the little girl’s shirt makes he pop out and be the main simplicity. I believe the meaning of this photo is tory of the Photobook in Spring 2014 and Martin is also working on a book about the History of Chinese Photobooks subject in the photograph. The best detail is of course, the fake pure relaxation and pleasure of peace and quiet. to be published by Aperture in Spring 2015. Martin Parr has published over 80 books of his own work and edited baby in the stroller which follows up well to the previous image I love the colours in this photo and the tranquilli- another 30. of the baby also in the photograph. ty it expresses however, I think there is too much open space. Other awards and accomplishments

In 1994, Parr became a member of Magnum Photos. Parr has published nearly 50 books and has been featured in over 80 exhibitions around the world, including the Barbican Arts Center in London. Parr’s retrospective exhibit was chosen to be an important monthly display in 2007 for Photography Asia. Parr received the Royal Photographic Soci- ety’s Centenary Medal in 2008 for his significant contributions to photography. He also received an Honorary Fellow- URL:- ship by the Royal Photographic Society that same year. Also in 2008, Parr became Manchester Metropolitan Univer- http://www.martinparr.com/cv/ sity’s Honorary Doctor of Arts in acknowledgement of his contributions to the university’s school of art and also for http://famous-photographers.com/martin-parr/ his photography. http://www.famousphotographers.net/martin-parr His equipment http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/film/peoplein/mar- tin_parr.shtml Until mid 1990s, Parr’s pictures were taken using 6 x 7 cm camera and daylight flash.Wide-angle format are often http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/cru- used to capture complex groups and social interactions.Later, Parr switched to a Nikon 35 mm camera, with mac- elandtender/parr.html ro lens to do close-up shots.For lighting and color, Parr uses ring flash to eliminate shadow from his subjects and http://www.uklandscape.net/features/MartinParr. theuse of slow film gives a great intensity to his pictures. htmlhttp://www.martinparr.com/index1.htmlPoy- nor His influence

Parr sees himself as a perfect middle-class pedigree. Living and surrounded by a middleclass environment since The colours in this photo are really brassy which add to the vintage ef- childhood, it’s natural for Parr to turn his camera on the middleclass consumers because he too is a middle-class fect. This is one of my favourite photos as it shows just a typical couple consumer.Martin Parr’s photos often exaggerate and reveal that we are living in a problematicworld. Consumer- waiting in a typical café, but the way in which the photo has been taken ism and propaganda are reoccurring themes in Parr’s work.His photos often illustrate signs of globalization, the makes the image really effective and interesting. There is a good balance problems of wealth and the society’sconsumption habits.Aside from editorial projects, Parr also photograph for between light and dark and people, there are leading lines which lead you commerce. He has done somefashion shots for New York Times and also some other advertisement. In an inter- to the main subject and the background is simple, this makes the fore- view,Parr honestly points out that the only reason why he’d do the commercial shots was because of the money. ground interest clearer. I think that this photo shows that there is extraor- For Parr sees no difference between artistic and editorial projects,Parr allows pictures made for other purposes to dinary out of the ordinary. be reused in commercial settings. For doing so, he has received severe criticism. He was accused of being a “gratu- itously cruel social critic who has made large amounts of money by sneering at the foibles and pretensions of other There is a pinkish pastel on the wall, juxtaposed against a teal green on people.” the wall– very soothing colors. But you see the older man on the far right, cigarette in mouth– staring off into the distance. And the woman in the left doesn’t seem very interested as well, inspecting her fingernails. Richard Avedon Synopsis

American photographer Richard Avedon was best known for his work in the fashion world and for his minimalist portraits. He worked first as a photographer for the Merchant Marines, taking identification photos. He then moved to fashion, shooting for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, demanding that his models convey emotion and movement, a departure from the norm of motionless fashion photography.

Biography

Richard Avedon was born in New York City to a retail businessman, Jacob Israel Avedon and Anna Avedon. It is believed that it was his mother who inculcated in him a love for art and fashion. By the time he turned 12, his interest in photography grew by leaps and in order to pursue his interest, he became a member of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association Camera Club. Soon, he began taking photographs using a Kodak Box Brownie. His first muse was his younger sister, Louise. Aca- demically, he attained his basic education from DeWitt Clinton High School in Bedford Park, Bronx. It was at high school that he developed a fancy for poetry and started penning some. In 1941, he was named, ‘Poet Laureate of New York City High Schools’. He enrolled at the Columbia University in 1941. However, his growing passion for photography and fashion led him to drop out of the university after his first year.

Avedon studied photography in the U.S. merchant marine (1942–44), where he took identification card pictures, and at the New School for Social Research. He turned professional in 1945 and became a regular contributor to Harper’s Bazaar (1946– 65) and Vogue (1966–90), in addition to working on many advertising campaigns. In 1992 he became the first staff photographer at The New Yorker.Avedon’s fashion photographs are characterized by a strong black-and-white contrast that creates an effect of austere sophistication. In his portraits of celebrities and other sitters, he created a sense of drama by often This image has been shot vertically, presumably using a stark, white background and eliciting a frontal, confrontational pose. Many of his photographs are collected in Ob- to enable the photographer to capture more of servations (1959), with a text by Truman Capote; Nothing Personal (1976), with a text by James Baldwin; Portraits (1976); the person in the image. The image may have Avedon: Photographs, 1947–1977 (1978); In the American West, 1979–1984 (1985), An Autobiography (1993); Evidence: been cropped, however, given the nature of a In this image Richard Avedon used a plain backdrop, by 1944–94 (1994); and The Sixties (1999). lot of Avedon’s images, I would say it was shot making this image a front- angle shot, it captures Marilyn in this way. The image has been shot pretty Monroe’s face. It also captures the intricate details of the In 1992, Avedon became the first staff photographer in the history of The New Yorker. “I’ve photographed just about ev- much face on, so the photographer would have sequins of her dress. You notice a contrast between her fa- eryone in the world,” he said at the time. “But what I hope to do is photograph people of accomplishment, not celebrity, been on the same level as the subject. The focal cial expression and the dress that she wears; it seems as if it and help define the difference once again.” His last project for The New Yorker, which remained unfinished, was a portfolio point is of course, the model himself, and the doesn’t fit. With her tired expression and her detailed cloth- entitled “Democracy” that included portraits of political leaders such as Karl Rove and John Kerry as well as ordinary citizens bugs that are all over him. ing, Marilyn somewhat resembles a little girl playing dress- engaged in political and social activism. Richard Avedon passed away on October 1, 2004, while on assignment for The New up. Yorker in San Antonio, Texas. He was 81 years old. The image is black and white, following the style of most of Avedon’s portraits. Avedon once This photo also looks like it has been cropped. Cropping this Till date, Richard Avedon is remembered as the photographer who shaped and defined America’s sense of fashion and style said that he did this to let the natural charac- image allows you to focus on the expression on Marilyn Mon- in the late 20th century, captivating energy, freedom and excitement through his clicks. Best known for his minimalistic and ter of his subjects flow through, and portray roe’s face. This picture was taken with a film camera and so probing portraits, Avedon acted as the driving force who added a sense of vibrancy into the realm of fashion photography. themselves in the image. The image looks like a the proportions of the image differ from the photo you are His breath-taking and awe-inspiring photographs have filled the pages of numerous prestigious magazines in the United straight print, with very little manipulation. looking at now. This image would not have had as much of States of America. One of the most renowned photographers in the world, Avedon was endowed with a brilliant sense of an impact had Avedon left it the original size because the imagery and insight. He delved deep into the subjects he shot and created some of the most intensive and creative photo- part that was cropped probably more of the wall in his apart- graphs for the world to behold. He gave photographers around the world a new vision in portrait photography, something ment that Marilyn Monroe was sitting in front of. There might that was quintessentially seen in his works. Avedon’s large gamut of work has been exhibited at various prestigious exhibi- have been images, paintings, etc. on his wall and that could tions all over the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, National Museum have distracted the viewer from the tired expression on Mar- of American History, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and the like. To learn more interesting and intriguing facts about his ilyn’s face. childhood, personal life and achievements in the field of photography and fashion, scroll down and continue to read this biography.

Pictorial Studies of Everyday Americans URL:- In his later work, undertaken for the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and published under the title In the Amer- http://www.iphf.org/hall-of-fame/richard-avedon/ ican West, Avedon used his favorite white background and flat lighting. But the sitters were ordinary people rather than ce- http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/rich- lebrities. Here he seemed to be following in the footsteps of the German photographer August Sander (1876-1964), who set ard-avedon-4086.php about cataloguing archetypal Germans—butchers, aristocrats, Nazis. Avedon, too, labelled his sitters with their occupations: http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photogra- housewife, coal miner, drifter. Like Sander, Avedon believed that the human condition is essentially tragic. phers/Richard-Avedon.html http://www.designboom.com/history/avedon.html Gentler but no less probing than his earlier portraits, these photographs explore the lives of marginal people, those scrab- bling to fulfill the American dream. Like his earlier work, these subjects were photographed in flat light against a white background. The figures are sometimes framed off-center as if they had accidentally sidled into the camera’s view, or they are cropped seemingly arbitrarily, reinforcing the notion that the viewer is seeing the people directly rather than through Ave- don’s eyes. The result is a sense of immediacy, of sincerity that is quite powerful.

Honors and Awards Avedon has received many awards and honors over the years for his work. In 1958, Popular Photography voted him one of the ten greatest photographers in the world, and more recently, in 1989, he received an honorary doctorate from the Roy- Image of Richard Avedon al College of Art in London. He was appointed as the first and only New Yorker staff photographer by editor Tina Brown in 1992. In 1996, he was profiled by Helen Whitney in a television special called Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light. Man Ray Biography n Ray, original name Emmanuel Radnitzky (born August 27, 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died November 18, 1976, Paris, France), photographer, painter, and filmmaker who was the only American to play a major role in both the Dada and Surrealist movements.

The son of Jewish immigrants—his father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress—Radnitzky grew up in New York City, where he studied architecture, engineering, and art, and became a painter. As early as 1911, he took up the pseudonym of Man Ray. As a young man, he was a regular visitor to Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” gallery, where he was exposed to current art trends and earned an early appreciation for photography. In 1915 Man Ray met the French artist Marcel Duchamp, and together they collaborated on many inventions and formed the New York group of Dada artists. Like Duchamp, Man Ray began to produce ready-mades, commercially manufactured objects that he designated as works of art. Among his best-known ready-mades is The Gift (1921), a flatiron with a row of tacks glued to the bottom.

In 1921 Man Ray moved to Paris and became associated with the Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles of artists and writers. Inspired by the liberation promoted by these groups, he experimented with many media. His experiments with in this image there’s a bunch of jumbled letters possibly placed with- photography included rediscovering how to make “cameraless” pictures, or photograms, which he called rayographs. out any second thoughts, a cocked gun that seems to be missing a He made them by placing objects directly on light-sensitive paper, which he exposed to light and developed. In 1922 trigger and a barrel, and three other identifiable objects. There is a book of his collected rayographs, Les Champs délicieux (“The Delightful Fields”), was published, with an introduction shadowing between the lettering and the gun which could possibly by the influential Dada artist Tristan Tzara, who admired the enigmatic quality of Man Ray’s images. In 1929, with his indicate a few things: The objects on the photographic paper were lover, photographer and model Lee Miller, Man Ray also experimented with the technique called solarization, which moved throughout the whole process,The distance and aperture Image of May ray renders part of a photographic image negative and part positive by exposing a print or negative to a flash of light dur- settings on the developer were changed throughout the process, ing development. He and Miller were among the first artists to use the process, known since the 1840s, for aesthetic diffusion of light or possibly two light sources instead of one, which purposes. created the shadowing effect. Although depending on the audience and how the individual interprets the photographers work, Man Ray’s Man Ray also pursued fashion and portrait photography and made a virtually complete photographic record of the ce- work was deliberately ambiguous and very random, having very little lebrities of Parisian cultural life during the 1920s and ’30s. Many of his photographs were published in magazines such or no meaning to his photograms. Simply capturing a moment. as Harper’s Bazaar, Vu, and Vogue. He continued his experiments with photography through the genre of portraiture; for example, he gave one sitter three pairs of eyes, and in Le Violon d’Ingres (1924) he photographically superim- posed sound holes, or f holes, onto the photograph of the back of a female nude, making the woman’s body resemble that of a violin. He also continued to produce ready-mades. One, a metronome with a photograph of an eye fixed to the pendulum, was called Object to Be Destroyed (1923)—which it was by anti-Dada rioters in 1957.

Man Ray also made films. In one short film, Le Retour à la raison (1923; Return to Reason), he applied the rayograph This photo is an extra close up that means every piece of detail technique to motion-picture film, making patterns with salt, pepper, tacks, and pins. His other films include Anémic counts to have it own separate meaning but also has to work cinéma (1926; in collaboration with Duchamp) and L’Étoile de mer (1928–29; “Star of the Sea”), which is considered a together to create his fine work as well. He allows you to feel a Surrealist classic. relationship with the photo and gives you that space to embrace it also. The fact that the pupil of the eye is looking up gives me Early Career real inspiration to feel that there is more to each photo and more to life and each persons destiny overall, but also my destiny. One Born Emmanuel Rudnitzky, visionary artist Man Ray was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father worked simple photo has so many layers to it that Manray allows you to as a tailor. The family moved to Brooklyn when Ray was a young child. From an early year, Ray showed great artistic strip down to your basic understanding. ability. After finishing high school in 1908, he followed his passion for art; he studied drawing with Robert Henri at the Ferrer Center, and frequented Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery 291. It later became apparent that Ray had been influenced by Stieglitz’s photographs. He utilized a similar style, snapping images that provided an unvarnished look at the subject.

Ray also found inspiration at the Armory Show of 1913, which featured the works of Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Marcel Duchamp. That same year, he moved to a burgeoning art colony in Ridgefield, New Jersey. His work was also evolving. After experimenting with a Cubist style of painting, he moved toward abstraction.

In 1914, Ray married Belgian poet Adon Lacroix, but their union fell apart after a few years. He made a more lasting friendship around this time, becoming close to fellow artist Marcel Duchamp.

URL:- MAN RAY LEGACY http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/2000/man-ray- american-1890-1976/Z Though often shadowed by his lifelong friend and collaborator, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray played a major role in Dada http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/man-ray.html and Surrealist movements in America as well as in Europe. His multiple attempts to promote avant-garde art move- http://www.abcgallery.com/R/ray/raybio.html ments in New York widened the horizons of the American art scene. His serious yet quirky imagery has influenced a http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ray-man.htm http://www.biography.com/people/man-ray-9452778#lat- broad audience through different iterations of his work in pop culture. Many of his important works were donated to er-years museums around the world through a trust set up by his wife before her death in 1991. Most importantly, his pro- http://artholdings.com/cgi-bin/ah/artists.bio.file?c- cess-oriented art making and versatility have influenced a number of modern and contemporary artists, from Andy c=ah&ac=2333 Warhol to Joseph Kosuth, who like Ray strove to continually blur the boundaries between artistic disciplines. Mario Testino Biography

Mario Testino, (born Oct. 30, 1954, Lima, Peru), Peruvian fashion photographer known for his evocative portraits and vivid advertisements.

Testino, who was of Irish, Spanish, and Italian descent, found his inspiration in the work of British celebrity and fashion photographer Cecil Beaton. Though Testino studied law and economics at the University of Lima and international affairs at the University of California, San Diego, he later made portfolios for up-and-coming models during the day and worked as a waiter at night. He moved to London in 1976 to focus on his career in fashion photography, and his clients soon included such fashion houses as Gucci, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent and publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, and W. Testino’s bright, sharp style of photography put an end to the fashion industry’s love affair with “heroin chic” and the accompanying dark, murky images that dominated magazine pages in the early 1990s. His work also helped mute the supermodel trend, as he preferred photographing then-lesser-known models such as Kate Moss, who did not command the same fees as the top models of the fashion industry. With stylist Carine Roitfield, his fre- Image of Mario Testino quent collaborator, in 1995 Testino helped Gucci creative director Tom Ford relaunch the then-lagging multimillion-dol- lar-generating Italian luxury line.

Testino, long famous among the fashion crowd, gained universal exposure in 1997 when Diana, princess of Wales, requested that he shoot her image for a Vanity Fair cover story. The iconic shots were among the most famous taken of This is one of Mario Testino famous image of a celebraty, i find this imge the princess, and, with her death later that year, Testino’s work became Diana’s last official photo shoot. In the May/ very striking and interesting because it show the bond and friendship be- June 1998 issue of American Photo, Testino was ranked number 12 among the industry’s 100 most influential people tween this two, i can tell by the way how they are posing and the way of 1998. Celebrities coveted the chance to work with the photographer; in 1998 his photo of the Spice Girls graced the they’re both hugging each other. I think this imge is partly staged but also, cover of American Vogue, and Madonna’s 1998 album Ray of Light featured Testino’s images of her. In 2010 Testino i think it captures a moment. This is owing to the fact that i think they took the official engagement photographs of Catherine Middleton and Prince William, Diana’s elder son. were told to hug but their facial expressions appear to be natural and not forced. The white baackground also plays a huge role in this image as it Testino has shot many celebrities including Madonna for Versace and the late Diana, Princess of Wales for her famous shows how effective it look; it really makes them standout. The lighting is Vanity Fair cover in 1997. His work has been featured across the globe in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and V high contrasting lighting, this means that the lighting is very bright and the and he has crafted and contributed to the imagery of leading fashion houses such as Burberry, Gucci, Versace, Calvin image doesn’t have many tones or shadows and so the image is more strik- Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Estee Launder, Hugo Boss, Miu Miu, Shiseido and Michael Kors, among ing. many others. His popularity with designers and fashion editors stems as much from his professionalism and good nature as his unerring ability to take beautiful pictures which sell clothes. Testino is also credited with bringing to an end the reign of the ubermodel: rather than pay the exorbitant fees demanded by supermodels, in the early Nineties Testino championed a new breed of more natural model, including Kate Moss and Stella Tennant.

As well as having published seven books of his work and edited one other dedicated to contemporary art and artists from his native Peru, Mario Testino has had many successful exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world. In 2002 The National Portrait Gallery in London staged the landmark exhibition “Portraits” by Mario Testino.

In March 2005, he was honored with a plaque on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, a distinction bestowed by the high- end Beverly Hills shopping area for contributions to fashion and show business. Testino’s plaque quotes his famous quote, “Chic is nothing but the right nothing.” Testino is also known for discovering the models of tomorrow; and launching the careers of models such as Georgina Grenville, Gisele Bundchen, Lisa Winkler, Carolyn Murphy, and Jac- quetta Wheeler. Mario Testino published his first book of photography; a collection of images entitled Any Objections, in 1999. In 2003, he published Portraits to accompany his exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery. In 2005, his exhibition of Diana photos, Diana: Princess of Wales, opened at Kensington Palace.

Career Highlights and Achievements

The Gucci campaign with Carine Roitfeld was Testino’s first big success in fashion. He and Roitfeld are often credited The colour made the image stand out to me and look more attractive to with bringing significant attention to Gucci as a big name in fashion. Testino met with further success as pop star Ma- the eye. I also liked the image because it has more than one colour and I donna requested him to work on her Versace ads. The photos were featured on the cover of the album Something to prefer seeing a more colourful image or photo rather than a back and white Remember and also in high profile fashion magazines. image. The thing what stood out to me the most was the bright blue eyes. This photo has more than one meaning to each and every person, my per- He worked with Madonna again in 1996 when she appeared as Eva Peron (first lady of Argentina) on the cover of ception to the image is to show pretty this woman is when you see her I a URL:- Vanity Fair in November that year. The next year brought his career to a peak when he photographed Princess Diana certain light. In this photo there Is fake light but it doesn’t cover her face http://famous-photographers.com/mario-testino-2/ for a charity auction. This was just five months before her death. as there are shadow lines on her cheeks and at her eyes from where the http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/mario-tes- hair covers her eyes. This photo is a broad depth of feel as there is non of tino-biography After the photo shoot of Princess Diana, he became a favorite photographer for the Royal Family. He did the official her face blurred and there is no fade in the background http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top- photographs for Prince Harry’s 18th birthday. He also took the official photograph of Prince Charles and his wife Camil- ic/588767/Mario-Testino http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/mario-tes- la on their first wedding anniversary. tino.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Testino Patrick Demarchelier Biography

Patrick Demarchelier is one of the world’s most coveted fashion photographers. He has created iconic portraits and photographed covers and campaigns for many influential publications and fashion houses. In 2003, he said: “I have The picture is taken in black and white it is taken away the col- no formal qualifications, just the school of life. I learned most by just taking pictures; a lot of pictures. I’ve made plen- ours of which distract us from looking at the subject matter, so ty of mistakes, but it’s often from your mistakes that you learn most. Being a photographer is like being an athlete. making it into black and white helps to focus on the whole pic- You must practice every day.” ture itself and the clear background helps to focus on the model The way th model has a lot of dark make up around her eye Born in 1943, Demarchelier was raised in the small town of La Havre, near Paris, by his mother. may suggest her way of trying to be a perfect model by putting an exceedingly amount of eye makeup and the facial expression His love of photography began aged 17 when he was given his first camera by his stepfather. He moved to Paris at the is neutral. The composition of the picture includes mid way of age of 20 to work for a photography lab, printing newspaper photographs. He later became the assistant to a pho- the model and her head is at mid point of the image. tographer who shot film magazine covers and eventually the assistant to Hans Feurer, a photographer who worked with Vogue.

He worked with Grace Coddington during her tenure at British Vogue and has credited her with helping to launch his career. “It was the best magazine in the world, the one you really wanted to work for, so to be with her was a big breakthrough,” he told the Telegraph in 2012.

In 1975, having won a reputation as a respected fashion photographer in France, Demarchelier decided to follow his girlfriend to New York, despite not speaking a word of English. He worked as a freelance photographer and assisted the likes of Henry Cartier-Bresson, Terry King and Jacques Guilbert. His work has since featured in numerous publications, including many Vogue covers, and he has shot campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Elizabeth Ar- den, Dior, Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton to name just a few.

In 1989, he became the personal photographer of Diana, Princess of Wales, who contacted him after seeing one of his photographs on the cover of Vogue. “I remember when she first contacted me. I had done a picture for Vogue in which a model was opening her coat to show a picture of a little, laughing boy tucked into the inside pocket. The boy was, in fact, my son, and Diana, maybe because of her little boys, loved that picture so much that she got in touch. We became friends. She was funny and kind - but fundamentally she was a very simple woman who liked very simple things,” he told the Telegraph in 2008. He was the first ever non-British official photographer to the Royal family. Patrick Demarchelier photography

In November 2007, he was honoured as an officier dans l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the French minister of culture. The following year his work was the subject of a major retrospective entitled The Cult of Celebrity at Paris’s Petit Palais. In October 2011, Demarchelier released the coffee-table book Dior Couture Patrick Demarchelier - a collection of photographs of Dior Couture pieces ranging from the very first collection by Dior himself in 1947 to those from Gal- liano’s tenure at the house.

Style Patrick Demarchelier has taken pictures of the most beautiful models of the world, among them Kate Moss, Nadja Auermann and Christy Turlington. During his photography sessions he always waits for the moment when the model forgets the presence of the camera. Thus he succeeds in capturing facial expressions that are entirely candid and natural. His words I like to shoot very fast, before they (the models) have a chance to think about their expressions describe his working methods very accurately. The attempt to capture natural emotions in the moment is one of the essential characteristics of Demarchelier’s approach to photography.

Other Projects Partrick Demarchelier was a primary photographer for a book called On Your Own. This is a beauty guide book written for young girls by Brooke Shields. Drom 1992, Demarchelier has worked with Harper’s Bazaar, becoming the publica- tin’s the premier photographer. Throughout his career, he has catapulted careers of several make-up artists such as Jason Marks, Laura Mercier and Pat McGrath.

Patrick appears in a documentary called The September Issue, which is a documentary of Anna Wintour and the American version of Vogue. This happened when he was called upon to do the last-minute photos for Grace Codding- ton just after Edward Enniful was not sufficient.

URL:- He has also appeared in a cameo of a film – Sex the City. Here, he is seen taking photos during Carrie Bradshaw’s http://a-galerie.fr/en/patrick-demarchelier-biogra- fashion shot for Vogue magazine. In episode six of the 15th season of America’s Next Top Model, Patrick is also fea- phy.html tured prominently. In March of 2013, The Guardian listed him as one amongst the 50 best-dressed over 50 year old. http://famous-photographers.com/patrick-demarchelier/ http://www.famousphotographers.net/patrick-demarchelier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Demarchelier Cecil beaton Biography

British portrait photographer and theatrical designer. Born in Hampstead, London, Beaton owned his first camera at the age of 11. His earliest portraits, set against home-made backdrops, were of his sisters Nancy and Baba. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, but did not graduate. His subsequent career made him one of those rare photographers whose name is well known to the general public. He succeeded initially as a society portraitist who could maximize the allure of debutantes. But the encouragement of the Sitwell family gave him access to the world of the arts, and a 1927 portrait of Edith Sitwell was one of his earliest published pictures. A visit to New York at the end of the 1920s led to photographic contracts for Vogue and, subsequently, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar. Beaton’s work focused on the cultural icons (both social and artistic) of his day, providing a record of its famous, beautiful, fash- ionable, and eccentric figures. His appetite for travel enabled him to build up a body of work that had international significance. Hollywood stars captured by his camera included Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Kath- erine Hepburn, while painters ranged from Salvador Dalí to Francis Bacon. His portraits spanned parts of six decades and reflected successive generations of the new and avant-garde, from Stravinsky, Cocteau, and Picasso to Warhol and Jagger. In the 1930s he was commissioned to take a series of pictures of Queen Elizabeth, and this proved to be a prelude to further royal photographs and the eventual status of official family portraitist. During the Second World War, in a phase of his career far removed from its usual glamorous milieu, he documented air-raid damage in London and served as a war photographer in Africa and Asia.

Beaton’s abilities extended beyond photography. He was a writer and illustrator (with a talent for caricature), and won The lighting plays a significant role in the success of this recognition as a costume and stage designer. Published collections of his photographs included The Book of Beauty photograph of actress, Julie Andrews. An angelic, vulnerable (1930), Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook (1937), Cecil Beaton’s New York (1938), and Persona Grata (1953), in which text feel is created by the soft lighting; allowing a gentle transi- to accompany the portraits was supplied by the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan. He also wrote a historical study, British tion between the darker and lighter tones. I believe butterfly lighting was used here to the right hand side of the actress The Oriental design on what I believe to be the bed sheets gives an exoticism Photographers (1944), an early autobiography (Photobiography, 1951), and published a series of extracts from his dia- to accomplish the look. The composition here was done per- to the image and in my opinion, introduces the theme of innocence to the im- ries. (The unexpurgated versions that appeared posthumously were considerably more caustic.) His set and costume fectly, by having the actress centered in the middle with her age as well as the theme of Asia. Monroe appears to be almost Geisha-like in head to the right hand side; not staring directly at the camera designs for plays, ballet, and opera were in demand on both sides of the Atlantic, and he served as costume and pro- this photograph; her pale skin mirrors the stark white of the sheets as well as draws more attention to the piece, inviting others to study it duction designer for a number of films, winning Academy Awards for his work on Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964). the obvious bleach blonde of her hair which leads me onto another subtheme and the expression shown. There isn’t much going on around in this photograph; the colour white. This also represents innocence and pu- In 1968 a retrospective of his work was mounted by London’s National Portrait Gallery, and in 1972 he was knighted. the picture, the background has been kept simple and gen- rity, which I believe to be key premises within this photograph. Even though A cerebral haemorrhage in 1974 resulted in frailty and partial paralysis, but in his last years Beaton taught himself to erally in the same tone. The part of the picture that I find Monroe is photographed lying on a bed, the whole image does not link to the the most powerful is the left hand side of the neck, there is write and use a camera with his left hand. connotations that it would normally have if someone was photographed on a something really beautiful here that Beaton captured, I think For more information about Mr. Beaton see: Vickers, H., Cecil Beaton: The Authorised Biography (1985). bed; her clothing is extremely modest, and even so, her hands are placed over it’s the way the light falls on it expressing a variety of tonal the top of the dress, gently caressing a rose, a symbol of femininity; almost ranges, showing a fair amount of detail compared to the rest in another attempt to delve into the theme of innocence as is the low contrast Professional Success of the actresses skin. The prop used in this photo seems to be and pale tones seen throughout the frame. the feathered tiara; the softness of the feathers corresponding to the soft lighting. The textures of the feathers variate due to Seeking to pursue his interest in photography, Beaton sent photos to editors and fell in with the Bright Young Things, This photograph, although showing innocence, is the epitome of sensuality as the power and closeness of the light, towards the top of the London’s bohemian crowd. He was eventually hired as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue, where he de- opposed to sexuality; not much flesh is visible at all, however Marilyn’s effort- head not much texture has been captured, yet when follow- less posture, minimal make-up and tousled hair still allows the viewer to par- veloped a unique style of posing sitters with unusual backgrounds. Beaton published his first collection of works in ing it out we get a realistic depiction on the look and feel of take in voyeurism. 1930 with The Book of Beauty, and his fame grew to the point where he was tapped to photograph the wedding of the feathers through the textures exposed. Could this be a subliminal message from Beaton, encouraging us to open our the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. The contrast to the media shown today is very obvious. This photograph is not minds to every aspect of life, showing us that the longer you overly sexualized; between the period of time that this photograph was taken, focus on something, the more your mind allows you I see. Beaton recorded the fighting in England, Africa and the Middle East for the British Ministry of Information during and today, society’s view of beauty has changed dramatically. Here, you do not World War II, his famous photo of a hospitalized 3-year-old air-raid victim named Eileen Dunne gracing the cover of see thigh gaps, rib cages or hollow cheekbones, but a seemingly healthy wom- Life magazine. He resumed shooting portraits of the rich and famous after the war ended, but also spent more time an with an hourglass figure. There is no photoshopping, and probably very little in the ways of post-production. This image is natural beauty rather than nurturing his passion for costume and set design. Proving highly adept in this field, Beaton won Tony Awards for his manufactured beauty at it’s finest. costume work for My Fair Lady (1957) and Coco (1970), and nabbed Oscars for Gigi (1958) and the big screen adap- tation of My Fair Lady (1964). Beginning in the 1960s, Beaton released a series of diaries that documented his rela- tionships with royalty and celebrities over previous decades. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

His Gear Beaton shot with the Kodak 3A folding camera, large format cameras, and the smaller Rolleiflex. Although technically proficient, he was never known for this aspect of his photography. He had an eye for tripping the shutter at the perfect moment to capture his subjects at their best.

His Final Days URL:- In 1972 Beaton suffered a stroke which permanently paralyzed his right side. He managed to learn to write and draw http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064100/bio left handed and had adjustments made to his camera so he could still work as a photographer. Concerned about his http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardenstovis- economic situation, due to his health, Beaton offered his photographic collection to Sotheby’s, in exchange for an it/10895943/Cecil-Beaton-legendary-photographer.... annual income to insure his financial stability. By the end of the 1970s, his health had greatly deteriorated and he and-gardener.html http://famous-photographers.com/cecil-beaton/ passed away in January of 1980 at Reddish House, his long time home. http://anthonylukephotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/ photographer-profile-cecil-beaton.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/57523/ Sir-Cecil-Beaton Image of Cecil beaton André Kertész In this photograph Kertesz focuses on Still life. By using a Biography limited amount of objects he is able to keep this piece simple. By photography most of the fork and only part of the bowl, the fork becomes the central image. Also to make these Kertész’s brilliant and innovative career began in 1912 and spanned 73 years. Trained for a career in the financial objects three dimensional he has taken this image at a low world, Kertész devoted his earnings and free time to exploring his fascination with photography. His early images of camera angle which makes the audience able to see the full family members and the Hungarian countryside reflect his rich interaction with contemporary Hungarian artists during shadow of the fork and plate. an amazing period of cultural and artistic growth in Hungary. His work reveals a finely developed vision, present from I think that Andre Kertesz would have used artificial lighting, the moment Kertész first picked up a camera. His ability to construct lyrical images, infused with wit and insight would as the shine from the fork looks like it comes from a direct remain a constant throughout his long career. light, which could could have come from a lamp. Using strong artificial lighting helps the objects to have a clear contrast André Kertész was born Andor Kertész (changed his first name to André at the age of 21) in Hungary, 1984. He between the lighter areas in the photograph, the shadows and tone on the fork. This helps to give the image a mysteri- bought his first camera and made his first photograph while working as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange in ous feel to it. Kertesz has used everyday images and a simple 1912. After years of amateur snapshot photography in his native Hungary, he moved to Paris in 1925 and began a flat surface for the background. By balancing the fork on the career as a freelance photographer. There the young transplant, speaking little French, took to the streets, wandering, bowl it creates a shadow on the table as well as part of the observing, and developing his intimate approach to imagemaking. He also met and began to photograph other artists, bowl which creates the subject matter for the photograph. including Brassaï and Chagall, and members of the Dada Movement. One of them dubbed him “Brother Seeing Eye”, in my opinion I see nothing amazingly interesting in this pic- an allusion to a medieval monastery where all the monks were blind except one. ture. If this picture was done by a digital photographer in this day and age, it would be disregarded and not given any form In 1918 he returned to the stock exchange. He remained there for seven years, supporting his recently widowed of attention whatsoever. Perhaps people were interested by mother. Then, in 1925 he made the fateful decision to move to Paris. Excited about an opportunity to participate in it because photographer had been a new art form when this photo was released and nothing of the sort had been seen the bohemian artist’s life, he worked as a freelance photographer. Working for dozens of different European maga- before hand. zines, Kertesz found Paris a welcoming and artistically inspiring place. Within a short time he met and made portraits of some of the great artists living in Paris, including Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, Constantin Brancu- si, Sergei Eisenstein, and Tristan Tzara.

By 1927 Kertesz’s scenes of the streets of Paris were beginning to attract a great deal of attention, and he had his first show at an avant-garde gallery. His humor and subtle humanity seemed to personify even the stone walls of Paris. Throughout the 1930s he remained in Paris studying the people and their inhabitation of the streets, and the play of light and shadow that so dramatically filled the urban landscape.

From 1933 to 1936, Kertész published three books of his own photographs. Immigrating to the United States in 1936 with his wife to escape the increasing tension n Europe that was leading to World War II, he settled in New York, where he earned his living photographing architecture and interiors for magazines such as House and Garden.

In 1936, after the death of his mother and his marriage to Elizabeth Saly, he moved to New York, where he had been engaged by the Keyston Agency. Though he canceled the contract only a year later, the progress of the war made his return to Paris impossible. Unable to leave and treated like an enemy by the government (which prevented him from publishing for several years), Kertesz was caught in tragic uncompromising circumstances. When the war ended Kertesz had lost the momentum of a supportive artistic community, but continued to live in the States due to health and familial considerations.

However, his personal photographic style did not mesh well with the straightforward fashion photography the Ameri- can public (and magazines) expected. He continued to exhibit his individual work as best he could but his reputation slowly faded, and he became disillusioned. This image is a part of a series of Distortion images made by Andre Kertesz in 1933 for Le Sourire magazine. Here he made Kertész then had a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1964 which relaunched his career and reputation. He over 200 images using this distortion effect for this magazine. Image of André Kertész caught the mood of the times and became something of an elder statesman to the photographers of the late 1960s The distortion creates a dragged effect in their arms and legs which looks like their body is merging into one. This makes and early 1970s. By the mid-1970s he was showing his work in galleries all over the world. Just as Kertész’s reputa- the photograph look abstract as the bodies creates unusual tion began to soar, his wife and lifelong companion, Elizabeth, died in 1977 after a long battle with lung cancer. Grief wavy shapes/patterns, similar to those in fun fair mirrors. It stricken by her death, Kertész turned to the Polaroid SX-70 camera to express his pain and sadness. Although these also creates elongated and stretched forms. elegant images are quite personal, Kertész’s keen sense of timing and delicate composition transforms these photo- Kertesz experimented with distortions by using different sur- graphs into archetypal imagery capable of making deep emotional statements about the world around him. faces such as water, mirrors and glass spheres. Kertesz mainly used mirrors to create his photographs the edges of the In 1983 the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, and the following year he passed away in his New mirrors were kept outside the frame of the photograph. Andre York home. Very few artists are able to witness the formation of their own artistic medium. Kertesz was not only able Kertesz’s series of Distortions are unique and reflect surreal- ism. During the time Kertesz made these photographs there URL:- to witness much of the beginnings of hand-held photography, but had a profound effect on it. With subtle and whim- were threats of World War II, there were tensions between http://www.biography.com/people/an- sical artistry, he took full advantage of a medium not yet sure of its own potential, and for that, contemporary pho- politics in Europe and Germany. Magazines focused on stories dr%C3%A9-kert%C3%A9sz-38017 tography remains in his debt. about political topics and stopped publishing Kertész’s work, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top- this could be one of the reasons he wasn’t widely recognised ic/315570/Andre-Kertesz for this particular series of photographs. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/epi- sodes/andre-kertesz/about-andre-kertesz/645/ http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/ Andre-Kertesz.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Kertesz This is an image of a child name Lucille was 10 years old when André Kertész Evans took her picture. He was down South because he was be- Biography ing paid to document the effects of the Depression by the Farm Security Administration, a New Deal agency intent on helping lker Evans, (born November 3, 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died April 10, 1975, New Haven, Connecticut), American photographer whose farmers. influence on the evolution of ambitious photography during the second half of the 20th century was perhaps greater than that of any other The first thing that struck me about the portrait is her eyes -- figure. He rejected the prevailing highly aestheticized view of artistic photography, of which Alfred Stieglitz was the most visible proponent, and with dark circles beneath. At age 10? What kept her awake at constructed instead an artistic strategy based on the poetic resonance of common but exemplary facts, clearly described. His most characteristic night? Many personality traits and mental illness tendencies can pictures show quotidian American life during the second quarter of the century, especially through the description of its vernacular architecture, be inherited. Perhaps, despite her sweet little smile and open its outdoor advertising, the beginnings of its automobile culture, and its domestic interiors. expression, Lucille was genetically prone to depression. The 8-by-10 negative of Evans’s view camera captures the textures Born in 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri, Evans dabbled with painting as a child, collected picture postcards, and made snapshots of his family and of the included elements with great specificity. The rust bleed- friends with a small Kodak camera. After a year at Williams College, he quit school and moved to New York City, finding work in bookstores and ing from the nails in the untreated wood is a clue to the family’s at the New York Public Library, where he could freely indulge his passion for T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and E. E. Cummings, as economic condition, but poverty is not evident elsewhere in the well as Charles Baudelaire and Gustave Flaubert. In 1927, after a year in Paris polishing his French and writing short stories and nonfiction es- picture. The straw hat is a woven halo, with strong suggestions says, Evans returned to New York intent on becoming a writer. However, he also took up the camera and gradually redirected his aesthetic im- of pastoral innocence. Likewise, the neat collar of the white print pulses to bring the strategies of literature—lyricism, irony, incisive description, and narrative structure (1972.742.17)—into the medium of pho- dress, a dress much too nice for every day, and put on just for tography. the picture. But it is her face, the center of the image, that holds our attention. Most of Evans’ early photographs reveal the influence of European modernism, specifically its formalism and emphasis on dynamic graphic struc- tures. But he gradually moved away from this highly aestheticized style to develop his own evocative but more reticent notions of realism, of the spectator’s role, and of the poetic resonance of ordinary subjects. The Depression years of 1935–36 were ones of remarkable productivity and accomplishment for Evans. In June 1935, he accepted a job from the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph a government-built reset- In this photo there is a young boy sitting on the edge of a bed. tlement community of unemployed coal miners in West Virginia. He quickly parlayed this temporary employment into a full-time position as an He appears to be dirty, and his hair appears to be greasy. The “information specialist” in the Resettlement (later Farm Security) Administration, a New Deal agency in the Department of Agriculture. bed is a old worn iron rod bed, with large strings and a thin matress. The boy appears young due to his small frame, but his Biography/Chronology of Walker Evans face appears old and wise somehow, and this could be evident through the hardships that he has already had to live through as 1941: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men a young boy. Evans has left the large shoes under the bed, that are clearly not the young boys but it could be symbol of being 1937 September: end of his contract with the FSA. From now on activity as independent photographer, partially, up to the summer of 1938, for weak and small in comparison to the shoes. The rough style of the FSA. clothes and the dirt is something we would expect from people that are working with the land, and therefore looking at it i can 1938 “Walker Evans: American Photographs,” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the first exhibition in this museum devoted to imagine that the boy lives on a farm. Back then we know that the work of a single photographer. Catalog with an essay by Lincoln Kirstein. First photographs in the New York subway with a camera hidden in farmers were richer than the ordinary so then i would assume his coat. that the child was the son of a farm hand.

1940 Ever more seldom use of a view camera; in its place a 2 1/4 twin-lens reflex camera and a 35mm camera. The black and white colour suit the photo and means that we can focus on the subject matter and not be distracted by bright 1941 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston after a long search for a publisher. The book meets with a colours that can sometimes distract us when looking at other reserved response since the sharecropper problem has been replaced by wartime themes. photos, although there is no way that this photo could have been taken with colour as it is before the digital cameras were popular. 1943 Articles for Time magazine (through 1944). I cant imagine things being cropped out of the photo as it feels to much like a natural glimpse into their lives. 1945 Continuous photo and text contributions to Fortune to 1965.

1948 Exhibition (retrospective) at the Art Institute of Chicago. 1950 Photo series of the American industrial landscape seen as though from the window of a moving train. 1955 Death of his friend James Agee.

1960 New edition of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men with expanded section of photographs. The book experiences a late success in the atmo- sphere of the 1960 protest movements and the beginning of a cult around James Agee. Through this edition a new generation also discovers Evans’s photographs.

Walker Evans: American Photographs, Exhibition of a selection of the photographs from the 1938 retrospective in The Museum of Modern Art, New York, on the occasion of the new edition of the catalog. 1965 Professor of photography on the Faculty for Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art and Architecture.

1966 Many are Called. Publication in book form of his subway photographs.

1971 Walker Evans, exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Catalog with an essay by John Szarkowski.

1975 April 10: Evans dies in New Haven, Connecticut.

Later life and work

In 1943 Evans was hired by Time, Inc., and he spent the next 22 years with that publishing empire, most of them with the business magazine Fortune, with whom he developed a relationship as a photographer and writer that involved a comfortable salary, substantial independence, and little heavy lifting. He continued to photograph architecture, especially rural churches, and he also began a series of revealing, spontaneous pho- URL:- tographs of people taken in the New York City subways; the series was eventually published in book form as Many Are Called in 1966. In 1965 http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/09/05/17- he began teaching in the School of Art and Architecture of Yale University, and in the following year he retired from Time, Inc. lessons-walker-evans-has-taught-me-about-street- photography/ During the 1940 and ’50s—the heyday of photojournalism in the magazines—Evans, with his prickly, superior intelligence and jealously guarded https://www.evi.com/q/facts_about__walker_evans independence, was not a useful role model for most working photographers. Yet, as the promise of the magazines began to lose its lustre, Evans http://www.leegallery.com/walker-evans/walker-ev- increasingly became a hero to younger photographers who were not comfortable as part of an editorial team. Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, ans-biography Diane Arbus, and Lee Friedlander are among the most significant later photographers who have acknowledged their debt to Evans. His influence http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/after-walk- on artists in fields other than photography has also been great. er-evans/ http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Walker_Evans. aspx