ARTH1100 History of Photography

We have seen many different photographs by many different
photographers on the subject of war. But the photographer that I believe that should be credit as the world’s greatest combat photographer should be Robert
Capa. His photographs are not only photographs that were documented during this time period of war but Robert Capa was able to capture the raw emotions of the soldiers
that he has taken during this hardship.

Example: http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html

Both Alfred Eisenstaedt and John Heartfield were
Germen photographers during the time of Hitler’s Nazi regime and although they may of had similar views on Hitler’s Nazi regime they approach the regime in completely
different ways. I personally believe Alfred Eisenstaedt approached the problem in the most appropriate and much more professional way. Unlike like John Heartfield who made fun of Hitler by placing his head on a butcher body and placing him in odd positions. Alfred Eisenstaedt took the approach of a photojournalist and kept his own personal emotions out of it. He went on to document actual
events and photographing the actual truth instead of taking a low blow.

David Lachapelle is the modern day stage photography with a
very extreme twist. His style is the most controversial but simply amazing photography. His style is nothing I have ever seen before using very bright colors with a very dark message.  He is
simply a very unique photographer trained by the one and only Andy Warhol.  David Lachapelle has worked for the top magazines
of the world and has been featured in Vogue magazine. He is stage photography of the 21th century.

Example: http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

In instead of cashing in your life savings for an EOS Camera
which has a starting price of around five thousand dollars go to your local toy shop and pick up a Toy Camera. I understand it may sound ridiculous because when I read an article in Practical Photography Magazine I thought so too. But one day I decided to give it a try and the results were amazing. I found that in
the right hands of an experience photographer these toy cameras can put that extra wow factor to your portfolio which show that you are no ordinary photographer.

Here are some examples

http://www.huskudu.com/diana1/pages/southland.html

I was recently introduced to a street artists named Bansky who apparently is very incognito and extremely difficult to disclose his identity because he has vandalized so much. His satirical street art and dark humour with amazing stencilling technique is absolutely fun to watch. When I watched a documentary that was nominated for an Oscar called “Exit through the Giftshop” I really enjoyed his work. In fact I wish he would vandalized the exterior of my house yet I don’t think the government feels the same way. Is it because they don’t consider it art? I feel like his work brings light and color to dim places and it also stimulates my mind, usually with humor but there’s usually a political and social meaning behind his work. Check out Bansky!

In my opinion, babies have been the most challenging but also one of the most rewarding to photograph. I’ve had to deal with popular personalities and for the most part they know what to do, you just have to connect with them and be professional but a baby could care less who you are what you’re there to do. So, I realized that they are easiest to handle when they are asleep. I once ran into a book called “Sleeping Beauties” it is really dope, I recommend all you parents out there to take alook and envision your baby in those poses. One of the tricks to keeping them asleep is to keep a portable heater close to the baby at all times. However, the heater will not prevent occasional golden showers from the infant but it will definitely help out alot. Which do you think is most challenging to shoot?

I ask myself this question because I don’t think I’ve ever been to a museum or have read any articles talking about the creativity of an album cover aside from Andres Serrano’s “Semen and Blood” photograph used on Metallica’s Load album cover. I personally feel that more album covers should be considered art and should be displayed in museums and such. When I began photographing I was fortunate to have someone teach me. My mentor was Daniel Hastings; he has shot classic hip hop albums suchs as Wu-Tang’s “Enter the Wu” to Big Pun’s “Yeeeah Baby” and many others. One of the things I learned from him wasn’t just how to be professional but how to add a personal touch to his work and how he connected with such diva personalities in an effective way in order to get the best outcome. I think this realm of photography is a bit understated, what do you think?

I was watching a behind the scenes special that HBO aired on the making of a sports illustrated shoot and how in the past they had used some of the top photographers. At this point I was not very familiar with photographic equipment but I knew that the equipment that Terry Richardson used did not look professional. If I’m not mistaken he had a point and shoot film Canon camera for this big editorial job and when he showed up to the set the production crew seemed amazed. So was I! I can’t picture myself doing a major gig with an amateur camera. But this opened up my eyes that there’s moe to photography than being a gear head. Check out some of terry’s dope work at http://www.terrysdiary.com/ . What do you think about his work?

Growing up as a child and even as a teen I remember attending weddings and my memories of the photographers would be older, pushy men that would direct very cheesy poses that would make me very uncomfortable to watch.  I used to say to myself these can’t possibly look good.  After evolving as a photographer, a photo editor of a local newspaper that I used to work for insisted that I take her pictures of her wedding.  I had no desire at first but then I ran into a photographer named Joe Buissink.  After seeing and studying Buissink’s work, I realized that I wanted to capture the type of timeless, fine images that he would capture.  I wanted to do this for my dear friend.  Bussinks style is very pictorial and at the same time journalistic and candid.  He shoots film and digital, and you can actually buy wedding photographs of strangers  on his website.  Check out www.joebuissink.com . I hope you like them.