Edward Steichen; The Evolution of an Artistic Photographer Edward Steichen was well known for the abrupt various changes in subject and the ability to adapt to different mediums throughout his portfolio in a lifetime. Steichen has expressed such great vision and experiences through his photographing of landscapes, architecture, theater, dance, and war. Edward Steichen was both a painter and a photographer and “attempted to expand the painterly potential of this medium, using such techniques as carbon, platinum, and gumbichromate printing, as well as colored photography” (Peter Stepan, 50 Photographers You Should Know, 2008, Prestel Publishing,46-47). Steichen joined both Pictorialist and Modernist movements throughout his lifetime. Some …show more content…
He changed the style of Vogue by exposing modernism to the magazine and the world through commercial photography. Steichen brought “a sharper edge to his strategy of playing simple elegant lines against the dramatic geometric backgrounds and had the ability to achieve a modernist refinement through simplicity, linearity, geometry, and tonal contrast”(Brandow,239). Though Steichen didn’t invent fashion photography, an argument can be made that he created the template for the modern fashion photographer. Steichen was viewed by his peers as a perfectionist. Howard Schatz, a photographer whose portraits of famous actors appear in Vanity Fair stated, “His precise eye for lighting and design makes his pictures from the 20s and 30s, though clearly of their time, still much admired by fashion photographers today”. Steichen’s sharp attention to detail and “designing with his camera” brought sharp focus to bear and had a tremendous effect on the field. Steichen’s new modernist style is evident in his image of Dancer and Choreographer Desiree Lubovska Wearing a Dress of Georgett Crepe by Patou taken in 1925. In this image “The dancer stands against a simple background divided into vertical and horizontal rectangles by architectural elements. The deep shade of her dress contrasts with the lighter color of the wall behind her, drawing attention to the model and fashion” (Brandow, 239). These photographic elements are what strengthened Steichen’s success in his commercial photography career. He became one of the most sought after photographers of his time. Many advertising companies also wanted him to do campaigns for them. From 1923-1937, he was a chief photographer for Conde Nast Publications, shooting crisp, high-contrast photographs. (Karen Rosenberg, New York Times, 1). In 1928, Steichen did an advertising campaign for Douglas Lighter. He used the angularity of the
During Vincent Van Gogh’s childhood years, and even before he was born, impressionism was the most common form of art. Impressionism was a very limiting type of art, with certain colors and scenes one must paint with. A few artists had grown tired of impressionism, however, and wanted to create their own genre of art. These artists, including Paul Gaugin, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Cezanne, hoped to better express themselves by painting ...
Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist painter, as well as a fine draftsman. He was born and raised in a wealthy family in Paris on December 2, 1859. He lived a short life of thirty-one year of age, and in his time, Seurat not only invented his style of pointillism, but he also became the first Neo-Impressionist. In pointillism, Seurat used miniscule dots of various colors on a base color to produce the local color. This creates an optical mixture from afar for the viewer and makes the image livelier. As the first Neo-Impressionist, he systematically painted his works instead of the rough brushworks of the earlier Impressionists (Chu 410-411, Gage 452, Georges). Since Seurat first started to dig deep into the arts when he was merely sixteen, he really changed the modern art world within 15 years; barely half of his life! Seurat truly worked hard to get the reputation he has today and his works are unquestionably phenomenal through his techniques he used.
Jerry Uelsmann has impacted society culturally and ethnically with his surreal engineering photography. His personal beliefs and surrealistic perspective defined his photography. He bases his creative process and how he engineers his photographs around his philosophy and morals. He used many techniques that challenged his will to work so extensively because of the complexity of his photographs, and paved the way for surrealistic photography in the present. Jerry Uelsmann’s photography surpasses the state of reality so much it looks perfectly photo shopped, but his photography took place decades before Photoshop. He is a photographer who pioneered the art of multi layered imagery years ahead of anyone else. He uses only his own negatives from the pictures that he shoots, and he says that he does this often without a specific composition in mind. Uelsmann was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 11th 1934. Jerry is best known for his in black and white images that he layered skillfully without the use of Photoshop. His photographs combine several negatives to create his landscapes that mix images of trees, rocks, water and human figures in new and sometimes unexpected ways. He has impacted society culturally and ethnically with his surreal engineering in photography. Through Jerry Uelsmann's inspiration and creative process he assembles elements of pictures together, rather than just taking a normal photograph to make a profound and thought provoking photography. His personal beliefs and surrealistic perspective defined his photography. He always based his creative process and how he engineers his photographs around his philosophy and morals. Jerry Uelsmann paved the way for surrealistic photography in the present, impacting society ...
Glamour photography is a genre in photography that creates a sensual picture through creative nudity to emphasize the charm of the female body. With the male audience as its main target, the breast and the buttocks are given with much exposure to capture its erotic nature. Body shape and size are the primary assets of the glamour models. The projection of their ideal body creates an imagery of eroticism and seduction that is surely enticing and captivating. Ranging from full-clothed to nude, glamour photography finds means to emphasize the flawlessness and perfection hidden in the female body—an iconic figure and a ideal of the time.
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).
Georges Seurat was a French painter and an important figure in exceling the neo-impressionism movement. Seurat spent the majority of his life studying color theories and the effects of different linear structures (Pioch). By studying color theories and the effects of (Vora) different linear structures, Seurat was able create his own technique that would later make him famous and unforgettable.
A couple years after having his photographs displayed, he continued to produce his prints in black and white. He also started producing color photographs by using the dye-transfer process. He used color photography to produce photographs that are more realistic. He became famous for encouraging the acceptance of color photography, which was to be considered as artistic at that time. The photographers viewed color photography as splashy, commercial photography with bright and unrealistic prints, whereas black an...
The photos of Baker, Florida are probably meant to highlight the economic problems in Florida during the 1920s. One photo shows a building that used to be a bank but is now a barbershop. The descriptions that come with the photos describe Baker as a town that used to be prosperous until the railroad tracks were torn up. This is further emphasized by another photo that makes Baker look like a ghost town. During the depression over 150 banks in Florida closed. In addition “the operating revenues of two of the largest railroads in Florida went into receivership.” This would explain the pitiful condition of Baker in the photos. The purpose of the photos is to show the dismal economic conditions in Florida. Therefore, it’s possible that they were intended to convince people that something had to be done about Florida.
Irving Penn has always strived for the best presentation of his work, he has become a master printer, revitalizing the platinum-palladium process as well as working with new techniques. The combination of innovative photography and meticulous printing has made Irving Penn one of the most significant photographers of the twentieth century. "Photographing a cake can be art," Irving Penn said when he opened his studio in 1953. Before long he was backing up his statement with a series of advertising illustrations that created a new high standard in the field and established a reputation that has kept him in the top bracket ever since. Penn has won renown as much in editorial photography as in advertising illustration, and his innovations, especially in portraits and still life, have set him apart stylistically.
...nce Klein's death Tillmans has experimented more and more with abstraction in his work, perhaps in a subconscious effort to distance himself from the corporeal. His photographs for the Royal Academy's `Apocalypse' exhibition last year were predominantly flaming sunsets abstracted into colour schemes of bruised claret and clear vermilion. It was a far cry from the searing realism of his early images. The man who had been called `the chronicler of his times' seemed to be turning his back on his times. It was only a natural progression insofar as Tillmans is an artist who refuses to remain static. Rest assured that his future work will be as qualified by stylistic tangents as his past work admits to them.
He began his career in fashion photography in 1945 with Harper's Bazaar, switching to Vogue magazine in 1966. A retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted in 1978 at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Richard Avedon was the first staff photographer in the history of The New Yorker in 1992. Avedon’s work was a very unique and new way of photography. He was wid...
Throughout the 1920's, art, through dancing, singing, painting, photographing and acting became a pastime and provided individualized entertainment and lively joy for those of the time. Many had the ability to discover passions that were previously unavailable for everyone to explore, due to the need to be working harsh hours to provide for their families. Edward Harper became immersed in art, with a simple beginning of an illustrator. He was born in 1882, from small town Upper Nyack in the state New York. He took interest in art from a very young age, and would draw extremely well at a young age. His strict, religious, but caring parents were able to support him, and they sent him to school to become an illustrator, as it was the most realistic
As the century changed, so did the fashion world. The 1900’s was a huge decade for growth in both the fashion industry and everyday fashion. Before the twentieth century, only those in the upper class could afford to be fashionable. Everybody else wore what was called “costume,” a more plain, practical, and made-at-home kind of dress (Fashion Encyclopedia). This century, though, brought with it the widespread use of magazines, which showed all of the public what was considered to be “in ...
...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.
Advertisers look also to the photography of the past century when designing ads for magazines.