A freelance photographer, writer and a teacher, Eugene Richards is a storyteller of the common people. Twice named U.S. magazine photographer of the year, he is often considered one of the world’s best documentary photographers for his hard hitting explorations of our society. Richards currently works with Time Life, national history and the New York Times and is the author of nine books including “below the line”, “American we” and “the knife and gun club”. All in which he uses a combination of photograph and elegantly written narrative to show an idiosyncratic portrait of the American people.
Richards focus is that of the ignored; a people that otherwise have been forgotten. It’s his compassion to his subjects and his commitment to them that surpasses the act of making a pretty picture. Spending days with his subjects in the slums of Harlem or the hardly developed mountains of West Virginia he immerses himself into the frequently bitter life of his next award-winning photo. Often including word for word text of testimonials recorded by junkies and destitute farmers, Richards is able to provide an unbiased portrayal. All he has done is to select and make us look at the faces of the ignored, opinions and reactions are left to be made by the viewer.
Have you ever been at the beach safely shielded by a dark pair of sunglasses and just watched? Being a silent third party to a father screaming at his seven-year-old daughter for putting the inner tube in the wrong place. People watching has for a long time been one of my favorite activities as third party you are able to see people for what they are, unbiased by already having known the person. Eugene Richards’s book has made me look at my hobby from an artistic vantagepoint. He’s made me start to think that one day I would like to be one behind a telephoto lens capturing those moments that people don’t think anyone else saw. Richards photographs have made me relies that photography is more then a point a shoot process.
Richard Allen was enslaved at birth to a family in Philadelphia of a prominent lawyer and officeholder, Benjamin Chew. Allen was sold with his family to Stokely Sturgis, a farmer in Delaware in 1768. In 1777, Allen experienced a religious conversion to Methodist. And then he later purchased his freedom in 1780. Allen was co-founder of the Free African Society in 1787, he helped many during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia in 1793, and he established Mother Bethel’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the ‘eyes’ of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the ‘other half’ is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale.
Work, Exchange, and Technology: How did the Market Revolution impact the country? How did the continuing dominance of agriculture and the slave system affect the southern economy?
The North feared this expansion while the South strived for it. The South was made up of slaves to help tend to the fields and the homes. The number of slaves in the South really started to grow with the, “Age of Enlightenment and the American Revolution which led to more Americans to equate the slave’s rights to freedom with the colonists demand for independence;” and while the south was acquiring more slaves, “the Northern states began the gradual emancipation of their slaves” (McKivigan). With the American Revolution, the cotton gin and other useful inventions were invented. In turn, these inventions, caused slavery to increase. This is supported by, “Improvements in technology—the cotton gin and sewing machine—increased the demand for slave labor, however, in order to produce more cotton in Southern states” ("Abolitionist Movement."). With the escalating need for more slaves in the South, the southern people began changing their views regarding slavery, “many Southerners had shifted from, "Slavery is a necessary evil," to "Slavery is a positive good" ("Abolitionist Movement."). As their mindset evolved towards slavery, the hope for slavery to come to an end was beginning to
The rising of the market economy occurred between the end of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It was a time of uprising for Americans of the United States. There were changes in the vast improvement in transportation, the growth of factories, and there were important developments of new technology that increased agricultural production. Americans advanced into new areas and produced an agricultural surplus that went to market farming. In the nineteenth century, manufacturing was the most important factor because it brought about industrialization. The expansion of both economic and technological advances also brought about the changes in American society. The growth and eventual dominance of market capitalism in the United States changed the lives of all Americans fundamentally. The Market Revolution and the rise of market capitalism influenced the working class because of new inventions, like the cotton gin, and it encouraged farmers to raise more cotton in the South, and brought people in the North greater opportunities in the work field.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” (Albert Einstein). “Flavio’s Home,” written by Gordon Parks, can be considered one of Parks’ most memorable photography works. Parks’, enduring much hardship of his own as a teenager, turned his struggles around and used it as inspiration for others. His article tells of a twelve-year old boy and his family, stricken by poverty. Through an acutely informative and subtly persuasive article, Parks adequately uses pathos, diction, syntax, and imagery to tell his readers about why and how poverty “is the most savage of all human afflictions.” Speaking to his Life Magazine readers, Parks’ purpose for writing this article is to first
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
To best analyze the works of James and Dreiser, the terms realism and naturalism are critical to comprehend. Realism, as noted in the Norton Anthology, emphasizes, “the interior moral and psychological lives of upper-class people” (9). Accordingly, realism reflects a natural depiction of self, relationships and social interactions (and the class-system). Realist writers explore true interpersonal dilemmas, interactions and experiences within society, highlighting the character rather than a story’s plot. These writings focus on truthfully depicting the mundane aspects of human society. Contrarily (though equally “real”), naturalism seeks to capture “human life as it was shaped by forces beyond human control—our environment” (10). Inclined to favor characters outside of the wealthy caste, naturalist literature underscores lower-class individuals dependent on external factors and their conflicts with environmental conditions out of their control. Literary naturalists, unlike realists, “wanted to explore how biology, environment, and other material forces shaped lives” (11). Naturalists present how humans interact with outside elements, survive and flourish in their environment. Together, realism and naturalism has endeavored to reduce the sensationalism of impoverished life and depict its presence and effects on lower-class society realistically. Late nineteenth century photojournalist Jacob Riis and his publication How the Other Half Lives is one example of naturalist literature and its “intervention that strives to make lower-class lives comprehensible to the middle-class readers” (11). Thus, realism along with naturalism exposes society to a wide variety of authentic experiences.
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.
The fear stems from his and his fellow blacks’ alienation from a culture dominated by whites. The races are so far separated that Bigger and his friends even play a game imitating “the ways and manners of white folks” just to imagine what it would be like to live that way (17). A separation of this magnitude inherently breeds mistrust, and with mistrust comes defensiveness. When Bigger goes to see the Daltons for the first time he brings “his knife and his gun” to “feel the equal of them” (43). This proves that blacks at the time clearly, and rightfully, feel as though whites have the upper hand. Bigger is constantly scrambling for traction in a world in which he is destined to keep slipping. He knows he cannot control or change the way society looks at him, so the only
The first half of the 19th century witnessed a huge economic transformation—the Market Revolution—initiated by rapid development in multiple domains in the United Stated. The most decisive driving force was, first of all, the invention of the cotton gin processing machine which easily separated cotton and accelerated cotton production. Meanwhile, transportation revolution such as the emergence of steamboat and railroad conveniently connected the different regions for the exchange and complement of different goods. The development of bank and credit system also promoted the Market Revolution by providing support to farmers to purchase cultivated land (Takaki 76). Although the Market Revolution created interdependent economic structure and boosted
The Southern economy can be described as a continuous cycle of increased crop production, leading to increased profit, which results in purchasing more slaves. The plantation owners of the South had a free labor force to do their work on the fields, therefore resulting in higher profit. However, heavily relying on manpower to do the work stifled the South’s motivation for industrialization. This was a significant drawback to the use of slaves. Although the cotton
If it wasn’t for him loving to write, there may not have been these great books in the world today. As an adult, he set his life’s work on exposing social ills, using his boundless talents and energies to spin engaging, poignant tales from the streets (pbs.org). Charles introduced new forms of publishing that became popular and influential really fast. Dicken’s keen observational style, precise description, and sharp social criticism have kept his large body of work profoundly enduring (pbs,org).
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.