Annie Leibovitz: Photographer When I think of a woman that has influenced my photography I turn to Portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. Born in 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz was moved around the country with her family because her father had re-enlisted in the military. She was two, and for the next continuing decade she was constantly moving and changing locations and finally settled not to far from M.I.C.A. in Silver Springs, Maryland where she attended high school. After graduation she enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute intent on studying painting. It was not until she traveled to Japan with her mother the summer after her sophomore year that she discovered her interest in taking photographs. When she returned to San Francisco that fall, she began taking night classes in photography. Time spent on a kibbutz in Israel allowed her to polish her skills further and allowed her to create a series of photographs on the subject of “The Family”.
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.
Carrie Mae Weems is an eclectic artist dedicated to exploring the themes of family, gender, racism, and class in America. Although she is well known in the creative community for her revolutionary photography series, she is also an award-winning artist who has worked with textiles, video, and more. Lorna Simpson is an innovative, multimedia artist who revolutionized the art world with her introduction of photography installations featuring text. Her work explored stereotypes of race and gender, most often with an emphasis on African American women.
Helen Frankenthaler was born in New York City December 12, 1928 and raised on the upper eastside. Her father was a New York State Supreme Court judge and her mother was a German immigrant. Both parents offered Helen and both of her older sisters a privileged and progressive style of living. Frankenthaler was exposed to culture throughout her life and along with her sisters were encouraged to prepare themselves for professional careers. Frankenthaler attended the Dalton school, in New York City, where she studied under the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and later graduated from Bennington College in Vermont. Soon after graduating from Bennington College she returned to New York City where she quickly became a part of the avant-garde art world and the New York School of Painters. Frankenthaler was surrounded by notable artists such as David Smith, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem and Elaine de Kooning and others. She also developed a ...
Frida Kahlo nació el 6 de Julio 1907 en la ciudad de México. Ella les dijo a muchas personas que nació el 7 de Julio 1910 porque quiso parecer más joven a los otros. Aunque sus padres fueron judíos, Frida nació en México. Frida fue una artista surrealista y sus obras vió de sus emociones de la tristexa y la cólera de su vida. Ella le encantó decir los chistes, reír, y sonreír. Frida Kahlo llevó las ropas de la cultura tradicional de México porque pensó que las ropas fueran una forma del arte. Todo el mundo admiró mucho a Frida, a causa de sus obras y su actitud.
Thesis Statement: I want to share the Life of Frida Kahlo that led to her recognition as an Iconic artist even today.
When the economy crashed in 1929, the majority of all Americans lost their jobs, money, and hope. With this great turn in economic stability Americans faced the harsh reality of bankruptcy or homelessness. As a result, citizens in need filled every street corner. Dorothea Lange, a young photographer at the time, found inspiration in the sad eyes of the needy. Through photos such as “Migrant Mother”, Lange captured the desperate sentiment of the decade that no words could demonstrate so clearly. Born on May 26, 1895, Dorothea Lange grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey. As a child of education advocates, Lange attended school, but never with much interest. After completing her academic education, Lange studied art form at Columbia University in 1917. Years later, she apprenticed with numerous well known photographers and eventually opened her first photography studio in California. Before photographing depression-era pieces, Lange focused on Native American culture. Howev...
Edith Stein was born on October 12, 1891 , Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement in Breslau Germany now Wroclaw Poland. She was born into an Orthodox Jewish family and was the youngest of 11 children. When she was not yet 2 years of age, her father suddenly died. This left Edith's mother to raise the seven remaining children since 4 had died in childhood and manage the family business. She considered her mother an example of the woman in Proverbs 31, who rises early to care for her family and trade in the marketplace. At around the age of 13 she no longer practiced her Jewish faith and became an atheist although she admired her mother's attitude of total openness towards God.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman grew up in suburban Huntington Beach on Long Island, the youngest of five children and had a regular American childhood. She was very self-involved, found of costumes, and given to spending hours at the mirror, playing with makeup (Schjeldahl 7). Cindy Sherman attended the state University College at Buffalo, New York, where she first started to create art in the medium of painting. During her college years, she painted self-portraits and realistic copies of images that she saw in photographs and magazines. Yet, she became less, and less interested in painting and became increasingly interested in conceptual, minimal, performance, body art, and film alternatives (Sherman 5). Sherman’s very first introductory photography class in college was a complete failure for she had difficulties with the technological aspects of making a print. After her disastrous first attempt in photography, Sherman discovered Contemporary Art, which had a profound and lasting effect on the rest of her artistic career (Thames and Hudson 1). Sherman’s first assignment in her photography class was to photograph something which gave her a problem, thus, Sherman chose to photograph her self naked. While this was difficult, she learned that having an idea was the most important factor in creating her art, not so much the technique that she used.
The issue of abandonment and the will that it takes to survive the hardship of it is a reoccurring theme in Toni Morrison’s writing. Tar Baby, Sula and Paradise all deal with the issue of abandonment and how it relates to the characters in her stories. “Through her fiction, Toni Morrison intends to present problems, not their answers” (Moon). Her stated aim is to show "how to survive whole in a world where we are all of us, in some measure, victims of something." (Morrison) Morrison's broad vision extends beyond the individual to one that explores self-discovery in relation to a "shared history." In order to dramatize the destructive effects of this kind of dependency, she intentionally exaggerates to find the limits. In a film interview, Morrison has stated, "I suppose that in many of my novels I tend to discuss one's dependency on the world for identification, self-value, feelings of worth. The abandonment that it takes for one to gain these qualities is prominent in my writing.” Toni Morrison has been consistently insightful and helpful critic of her work. With regard to her novels, she has indicated that her plan was to take love and the effects of its scarcity in the world as her major themes, concentrating on the interior lives of her characters, especially those of an enclosed community.
Born to Nettie Lee Smith and Bill Smith on December 18, 1918 in Wichita, Kansas was William Eugene Smith, who would later revolutionize photography. His mother Nettie was into photography, taking photos of her family, especially her two sons as they grew up, photographing events of their lives (Hughes 2). Photography had been a part of Smith’s life since he was young. At first it started out always being photographed by his mother, and then turned into taking photographs along with his friend Pete, as he got older. They often practiced developing photos in Nettie’s kitchen, and he later began to create albums with his photographs. His photographs diff...
Toni Morrison In the mid twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement influenced African-American writers to express their opinions. Most African-American writers of the time discussed racism in America and social injustice. Some authors sought to teach how the institution of slavery affected those who lived through it and African-Americans who were living at the time. One of these writers was the Toni Morrison, the novelist, who intended to teach people about all aspects of African-American life present and past.
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.
Art could be displayed in many different forms; through photography, zines, poetry, or even a scrapbook. There are many inspirational women artists throughout history, including famous women artists such Artemisia Gentileschi and Georgia O’Keeffe. When searching for famous female artists that stood out to me, I found Frida Kahlo, and Barbara Kruger. Two very contrasting type of artists, though both extremely artistic. Both of these artists are known to be feminists, and displayed their issues through painting and photography. Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s social and historical significance will be discussed.
A phenomenal writer’s work generates a powerful bond between their words and the reader. This is factual of Sylvia Plath’s poetry. It contains universal, timeless themes of depression and death that, in these dejected days, many people can relate to. Sylvia Plath was a confessional poet whose oppressive life led to her relatable story. She wrote many astonishing poems, such as “cut”, “Among the Narcissi”, and “A Birthday Present” that all chronicle and showcase her struggle for a release from the suppressed world she subsisted in, a world that many remain to live in today. Sylvia Plath’s poetry narrates both her distinct, individual story and yet universal tale of a woman who searches for a way out of her depressed state of mind.