American Photography Focus on Alfred Stieglitz Ansel Adams

American Photography

Focus on… • Alfred Stieglitz • Ansel Adams • Dorothea Lange • Ruth Bernhard • Scott Mutter • Richard Avedon • Annie Lebovitz

Alfred Stieglitz 1864 New Jersey Died 1946

The Steerage” 1907

• Composition • Focus • Recognize the subject?

Ansel Adams 1902 -1984 Photographer, conservationist; born in San Francisco. A commercial photographer for 30 years, he made visionary photos of western landscapes that were inspired by a boyhood trip to Yosemite

• I know that I am one with beauty And that my comrades are one. Let our souls be mountains, Let our spirits be stars, Let our hearts be worlds. Ansel Adams

• Aspens 1958 This fine example of Adam's photography captures his reverence for the majesty of the American wilderness. Adam's technical mastery of light, depth of field and composition lends power to the deeply spiritual aspects of nature he set out to present.

Dorothea Lange American Photographer/ Photojournalist Great Depression 1895 -1965

Ruby from Tennessee, daughter of migrant worker living in American River camp • American Photography: Features

• Born: May 26, 1895 Died: October 11, 1965 Photographer Dorothea Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1895. • Lange is best known for her work documenting poor conditions of the migrant workers who traveled in large numbers to California during the Great Depression of the late 1920 s and 1930 s.

Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded San Joaquin Valley, California 1935

• White Angel Bread Line 1932

Ruth Bernhard born in Berlin in 1905 - 2006

• My first photograph • Making pictures from things I liked for very little money • Spent time watching how the light played off of these objects.

• Simplicity is best. • See beauty in the light on the object.

Scott Mutter • Uses photomontage techniques to create a world of his own -- a more perfect world. The hallmark of Mutter's remarkable imagery is the distinct sense that the elements of each picture belong together, even though the combination may violate the laws of physics.

• Now the rules of the art game seem to have changed, as "mixed media" (collage and installation art, with photography, painting, and sculpture joined) and "new media" (video and computer) disrupt the old-fashioned divisions. Photography may be the new kid on the block, but the whole neighborhood is changing fast.

A More Perfect World • "This combination of images gives form to an abstract idea: that a culture and what it produces are made possible by and are reflective of the knowledge that underlies that culture. "

• I'm a pilgrim on the edge, on the edge of my perception We are travelers at the edge, we are always at the edge of our perceptions.

Richard Avedon • Born NY 1923 – died 2004 • Fashion Photographer & Portraitist • "Images that burn into the mind. . . " "At 79 he is the world's most famous photographer. "

I've worked out of a series of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no's force me to the "yes. " I have a white background. I have the person I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us. Richard Avedon, 1994

“Avedon long ago dispensed with backgrounds of civilizing halftones, let alone the clutter of props; he is a black-and-white photographer”

1948 1975 Musical funny face with Audrey Hepburn was a fictional account of his life

Tina Turner 1971 Bee keeper 1981

Annie Leibovitz • Born Connecticut 1949 • American portrait photographer • video

What are the rules?

One of the most popular 'rules' in photography is the Rule Of Thirds. • Imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both horizontaly and verticaly. You place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect. •

Use of lines • Lines have many uses in a photograph. They can divide, unify or accent. • Parallel lines that converge create what is known as a one-point or linear perspective

Mergers, avoid them

Your Assignment • Simplicity • See it in a new way • Play with light • Composition (rule of thirds, mergers) • Tell a story