T here have been many great photographers throughout history who have left their mark on the industry. Cecil Beaton is an inspiring fashion photographer from the 1930s. He was born in 1904 in Hampstead, England, he moved to London and continued to live there until his passing in 1980.
This British photographer launched his career as a society photographer in 1926 (A Gallery for Fine Photography, 2001). His first camera was a Kodak 3A which was a very popular model in its time. Beaton used this camera to teach himself the basics of photography often using his family members as subjects. Ignoring his dislike of further education Beaton studied history, art and architecture at ST John’s College, Cambridge (Search.com Reference, 2010). In time he came to be known for his portraits of celebrities, royalty and high society (A Gallery for Fine Photography, 2001). His most popular images were his fashion portraits depicting elegance, glamour and style (National Portrait Gallery, 2009).
Beaton took his inspiration from the most successful magazine photographers of the 1910’s and 1920’s including E.O. Hoppe, Edward Steichen and Baron de Meyer (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2010). Vogue published its first portrait by Beaton in 1928 (Harrison, 1987). It was his exhibition in London that won him this contract that later led much of his work to appear in the magazine. He went on to work with Vogue for over fifty years with both the American and British editions (Patrick, 2009).
During this time he photographed members of high society such as Mick Jagger, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn as well as members of the royal family including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. His work portrayed elegance and grace, which he achieved by creat...
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...ry of a moment in history. Beaton was there to document the lives of the high society members in his time. His inspiring photographs and intriguing persona were the keys to his success. The link between flattery and portraiture influenced Beaton early on in his career. This influence is still clearly evident in the works of many contemporary photographers today. Beaton had an art for sculpting his subjects bodies, in a way that deemed quite effective. His creative styling of the body allowed his photographs to capture a different depth of atmosphere.
Beaton’s most memorable pieces were taken throughout the 1930s. Although many of his personal opinions were far from elegant this was not evident within his work. He is known as one of the great photographers of high society. And was, as I believe responsible for recording the elegance, glamour and style of his time.
For Emerson, the reticent beauty of nature was the motivator. To him, photography should be recognized because its still-life beauty was able to persuade the public’s appreciation of the life and nourishment
It was not until a trip to Japan with her mother after her sophomore year of studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute that Annie Leibovitz discovered her interest in taking photographs. In 1970 Leibovitz went to the founding editor of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner, who was impressed by Leibovitz’s work. Leibovitz’s first assignment from Wenner was to shoot John Lennon. Leibovitz’s black-and-white portrait of Lennon was the cover of the January 21, 1971 issue. Ironically, Leibovitz would be the last person to capture her first celebrity subject. Two years later she made history by being named Rolling Stone’s first female chief photographer. Leibovitz’s intimate photographs of celebrities had a big part in defining the Rolling Stone look. In 1983 Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazine’s first contributing photographer. At Vanity Fair she became known for her intensely lit, staged, and alluring portraits of celebrities. With a broader range of subjects available at Vanity Fair, Leibovitz’s photographs for Vanity Fair ranged from presidents to literary icons to t...
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Adams not only was an excellent photographer, but he even taught himself to play the piano and read music at only twelve years old. Not much after teaching himself how to play, he began to take lessons which became a “substitute for formal schooling” for him (Turnage). He spent twelve years of his life committed to the piano and even planned on making it his profession. Although, he ended up giving up on music, playing the piano brought structure and discipline in his life; the training and craft also helped enlighten his artistic vision. His artistic vision was not only enlightened by his practice of the piano, but by his love of nature as well. His love of nature began by ...
Born of Irish immigrants in 1823 in a little place called Warren County, New York; Mathew Brady is known as “The Father of Photojournalism.” While a student of Samuel Morse and a friend of Louis Daguerre (inventor of the “Daguerreotype,” a method of photography that the image is developed straight onto a metal coated surface), in which he had met while under the study of Morse, Brady took up his interest in photography in the year of 1839, while only seventeen years of age. Brady took what he had learned from these two talented and intellectual men to America where he furthered his interest in the then-growing art of photography.
3. His revolutionary nude studies, fashion work, and portraits opened a new chapter in the history of photography.
Juliet Margaret Cameron was a Pioneer Victorian photographer during the nineteenth century. She took up photography later in life at the age forty-eight when her daughter presented her with a camera. This simple gift sparked enthusiasm in Cameron and led her to become one of the most colorful personalities in photography.Cameron was born in Calcutta in 1815 to a well to do British Family. After being educated in Europe, she returned to the Cape of Good Hope in 1836. While she was there she met Charles Hay Cameron, whom she married in 1838.
Warhol was one of the top graphic designers and highest paid in the 1950's for his work. He worked for most of the top fashion magazines and was recognized as having an artsy style that s...
In 1958, Irving Penn was named one of "The World’s 10 Greatest Photographers" in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography Magazine. Penn’s statement at the time is a remarkable summation of purpose and idealism: "I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children."
The photographers like Bailey and Cowan were the string stop for the new era pf photography, “before the mini skirt and the classless ‘pop-ocracy’ of the Beatles and the Stones, there was David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton”- who took New York and Diana Vreeland, editor of American Vogue, by a storm in the frigid Jan of ’62 (Muir 2007)”, they were the products of a changing world. David Bailey also depicted his style and masculinity in the changing of photography. David Baileys breakthrough photography of the 1960’s was of Pauline Stone. The photograph depicts Pauline Stone feeding squirrel in a autumnal London Park. This photography was the anecdote that exemplified the mythology that would be 1960s fashion photography. Norman parkinson showed off his personality through is photography style as well. According to Michael Gross “ Parkinson dressed for the excess in caftans and gold jewellery or a decades old vanilla bespoke suit make for him by the British tailor Tommy Nutter (1995). Given his eccentric oriental persona, Parkinson never warmed to the formal “see pieces” favoured by French. Parkinson enjoyed photographing his models in natural settings and dynamic poses; “If a girl looks like a model, she is not for my lens” Parkinson said (quoted by Muir 2004). Terence Donovan also helped set up London as the place were people went to go gain inspiration. With the help of his gritty photographs, the whole “youth quake” was
From a young age, Richard Avedon was exposed to fashion. But little did the small boy sitting in his father’s 5th Avenue womens’ clothing store know, that he would later become the worlds’ biggest fashion photographer. He was born in New York City in 1923 to Jacob Avedon a Russian immigrant who worked his way up in the city to finally own his own clothing store. Avedon’s mother, Anna, was a musical and artsy woman who was his artistic muse. His sister, Louise, was also an inspiration to him. As a child, he constantly took pictures of his beautiful sister, his first model. His interest in photography began after joining a photography club at his local Young Men's Hebrew Association. After graduating high school in 1941, Richard attended Columbia University to study philosophy and poetry, but after just one year, he dropped out to enlist in the military marines. In the marines,he was a photographer in World War Two, taking pictures for identification cards.
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was one of the most successful painters of her time. Over the course of her life, spanning from 1755-1842, she painted over 900 works. She enjoyed painting self portraits, completing almost 40 throughout her career, in the style of artists she admired such as Peter Paul Rubens (Montfort). However, the majority of her paintings were beautiful, colorful, idealized likenesses of the aristocrats of her time, the most well known of these being the Queen of France Marie Antoinette, whom she painted from 1779-1789. Not only was Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun the Queen’s portrait painter for ten years, but she also became her close, personal friend. She saw only the luxurious, carefree, colorful, and fabulous lifestyle the aristocracy lived in, rather than the poverty and suffrage much of the rest of the country was going through. Elisabeth kept the ideals of the aristocracy she saw through Marie Antoinette throughout her life, painting a picture of them that she believed to be practically perfect. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s relationship with Marie Antoinette affected her social standing, politics, painting style, and career.
Born in Russia, Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971) is known foremost for his work as a graphic designer. His career started in Paris, then he decided to immigrate to the US in 1930, where he began to leave a significant influence on America graphic design and photography at the peak of his career as an art director of Harper’s Bazaar. The use of white space, asymmetrical layouts and dynamic imagery have made Brodovitch himself distinctive from other designers at the time, thus shifted the nature of magazine design into the next level. With the first poster “Bal Banal” in a competition, Brodovitch career as a graphic designer brought him many opportunities of various designers and agencies, as speaking of Harper’s Bazaar and Portfolio. Carmel Snow, an editor-in-chief of the Harper’s Bazaar once said when she offered him a job.
...r became more creative person in the fashion shoot, after the designer. The overall photograph would sell your garment to the best ability that the photographer could achieve. It was not just about being a beautiful model in the photograph, there had to be other ways of making the photograph appealing than the simple lacklustre way of being beautiful. Although, every woman wants to be beautiful, the photographer wanted to challenge the appearance of beauty. And also challenge the way we looked at people that were not beautiful, but had a unique quality to them. The fashion photographer had a lot of power in Fashion; they could make a normal street person become the key icon for desire and envy. The photograph had the power to sell the clothes using anyone the photographer pleased, and the designer didn’t mind as long as their clothes were being recognized, and sold.
"History of photography and photojournalism.." History of photography and photojournalism.. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .