Lexi Wilson- Holly Andres

Holly Andres uses photography to capture the complex aspects of childhood, the fleeting characteristics of memory, and female introspection. She doesn't shoot moments as they occur in real life, but carefully orchestrates a scene and shoots at the height of a dramatic instant, particularly before or after major event. For most of her pictures she uses an 8x10 large format camera to photograph these moments.

Andres uses her childhood memories and female experiences to create certain photographic narratives. Growing up in rural Montana being the youngest of ten siblings, these scenes usually take place in a domestic and suburban setting with children and young women as their main protagonists. Each photo is constructed to enact a specific moment and depict a psychological portrait. Many of her photographs resemble scenes from a Nancy Drew book.

Kevin Carter- Charlotte Laurance

Using a few different Google searches I came across Kevin Carter. Carter was a South African photojournalist and a part of The Bang Bang Club. The Bang Bang Club was a label primarily associated with four photographers active within the townships of South Africa between 1990 and 1994, during the transition from the apartheid system to government based on universal suffrage. In 1993, Carter received the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph that depicts the 1993 famine in Sudan. Unfortunately, Carter committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 33. The Bang Bang Club movie follows his journey (played by Taylor Kitsch). When Carter started in photography, he was photographing weekend sporting events, later he moved to Johannesburg to work for the Johannesburg Star in order to depict the horrors of the apartheid. "I was appalled at what they were doing. I was appalled at what I was doing. But then people started talking about those pictures... then I felt that maybe my actions hadn't been at all bad. Being a witness to something this horrible wasn't necessarily such a bad thing to do." The photo that won Carter then Pulitzer prize depicts a starving young girl trying to reach the feeding center when a vulture landed nearby behind her. Carter was told not to touch any of the children because of diseases that could be transmitted in the area. It was reported that after he made the photo, he waited 20 minutes for the vulture to leave, when it didn't, he chased it away. 

Gordon Parks- Cody Huff

  This week I’ve decided to write about photojournalist and film director Gordon Parks. Parks began practicing photography at the age of 25, and was soon making a living doing freelance photography. He worked for many different companies and magazines, but is most famous for his work in Life. Gordon Parks also directed several Hollywood films including the 1971 film Shaft.

            Parks’ work focused a lot of attention on the struggles of poverty in America and abroad. Parks was amazing at exploring a space with his camera. His work is incredibly narrative and typically elicits strong emotions in the viewer.  

          

Alex Kreher: Sebastian Bieniek - Doublefaced

These photos draw my attention and at the same time disconcert me. The German photographer Sebastian Bieniek created interesting and extraordinary portraits by disorienting the viewer by only showing one eye and drawing the rest to the side of the face. Through the perspective one gets the impression that they see a face but immediately realize something is off.

More photos: http://www.sebastianbieniek.com/

Kristen Wrzesniewski- Shannon Roulet

  

  Kristen Wrzesniewski is a portraiture photographer who experiments heavily with double exposures, film, and heavy saturated colors. Wrzesniewski focuses mostly on people, and creates interesting portraits that tell stories and uses different techniques to develop moods within each photo.
    Wrzesniewski spends a lot of her work investigating relationships between people and their surroundings. She does this both through including two or more people in the photo, or overlaying an image of a flower(her flora/fauna set) etc, and creates a collaboration of the two images. I think that Kristen Wrzesniewski has a distinct style of portraits that resonates throughout all of her work, and makes original imagery. 

KW portfolio

Sarah Retchin: Adam von Mack

I can’t remember if we talked about von Mack in class, but one of his focuses is familiar, as Liesa is interested in this specific type of portraiture. So this artist might be of interest to you, Liesa (check out the portfolio labeled “The Raw”).
Back to the photographer: Adam von Mack is both a commercial and fashion photographer who originally went to school to study biology, but now fully focuses on photography. He likes revealing genuine expressions from his models and says that he is, “always looking for the face behind the face.” He’s influenced by artists like Martin Munkacsi, Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, and Irving Penn. He mainly works digitally, but has a few black and white analog photos on his website. He definitely has a fashion aesthetic—most of the lighting used in his photos seems to intentionally flatter the models’ angles. There’s a very beautiful, romantic feel to most of them. I should also note that a majority of his photos are taken vertically, which is something I've been trying to focus on myself.

George Hurrell- Charlotte Laurance

George Edward Hurrell was born on June 1, 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio.“As long as I can remember I wanted to be an artist.  As a boy, I was drawing all the time, in school and out.  Art was my favorite class in high school.”  Following graduation from high school, that summer he enrolled at the Chicago Art Institute, and later took night school classes at the Academy of Fine Arts studying painting. Hurrell became acquainted with the camera while in art school because his fellow painting students kept photographic records of their work. Hurrell moved from Chicago to Laguna beach, bringing along with him a second hand view camera so that he could photograph various potential scenes during the warm spring and summer months. Hurrell photographed the local artists and their art in the Mediterranean climates. Hurrell's first famous portraits were photographs of Ramon Navarro, the highest paid celebrity during the time. Ever since these pictures became known, Hurrell was commissioned by other famous people such as Greta Garbo, Carole Lombard, and Julie Andrews. His portraits, all classic looking, capture the beautiful nature of the glamorized people of the 20's-40s.

http://georgehurrell.com/gallery/

Hannah Nees - Steven Klein

Steven Klein studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. Later, he left the painting field to pursue a career as a photographer. Once beginning his interest in photography, his career grew rapidly while becoming a popular fashion photographer. Today, Klein is one of the most widely recognized fashion photographers, having shot campaigns for companies such as Dolce & Gabanna, Vogue, and W. Another interest of his is the world of filmography, where he has directed the videos for Lady Gaga's fragrance campaign, as well as her music video for Alejandro. Today, he works close with Lady Gaga, becoming one of the main contributors of her "Haus."

Klein chooses to shoot with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark 3, while digitally manipulating his images in certain programs such as Adobe Photoshop. He also chooses to use harsh studio lighting in his fashion shoots for companies such as Dolce & Gabanna. Another camera that he uses is a medium format with a 50mm lens and Kodak Portra 400nc film while utilizing a tripod for balance.

http://kleinstudio.us/

Abbey Reddington- Kate Pulley

I came across the photography of Kate Pulley completely on accident. Upon browsing images of a more renown photographer, I found this gem of a young lady. Kate experiments with film, Polaroid's, and digital. All of her images maintain a soft, dreamlike appearance. I found myself super attracted to her Polaroid's, which demonstrated her understanding of light and color. The narrative isn't super direct, which I find refreshing. The eye accepts the mood from the images without trying to dissect them too much for a deeper meaning.

The color pallet of her work relies upon neutrals. Soft skies, almost non existent, create a lack of grounding. It appears (especially in the last ex.) that the location could be anywhere, further adding to her dreamlike nature. Most of the work has a deep depth of field, keeping the viewer far from the action  and creating a sense of being a spectator. I chose to really look into the young photographers work, because she understands portraits in a less literal sense, and that is what I am currently working on.

Jim Mangan - Natalie Kohlhepp

Jim Mangan was born in Illinois in 1973. Mangan has an extensive background in the snowboarding industry, which tends to poke out in his work. Bedu, is the third part of Mangan’ series on rebirth, shot in the Little Sahara Desert, Utah.  Mangan uses a perspective that does remind me of snowboarding/skiing photography, the way he pulls back and shows more of the minimalist nature surrounding the subject.

             His subjects feel like his friends, and much of his work feels like his own memories of these extreme trips they all take together. I can relate to his work in the way that he has this artistic relationship with the people around him, because I also feel that my strongest photos come out of a collaboration of my style of portraiture and my friends’ understanding and willingness to be subjects. Also, nakeds are a reoccurring theme in Mangan’s work; I find nakeds to be far more fascinating than nudes in photography. 

 

Lexi Wilson- Judith Fox

Judith Fox is an award winning photographer, public speaker, and writer. Her book, I Still Do, focuses on the problem of Alzheimer's and how it has affected her and her husbands relationship. Included in this book is a series of photographs that she has taken using a large format camera of her husband. There is a very specific use of lighting in these images, as the lighting accentuates certain attributes of her husband.

Fox uses the camera to connect with her husband and love him through this difficult time. In these photos exists a sense of intimacy as Fox explores the disease. They capture memories that the two are experiencing. The disease is confounding as it changes every minute, and Fox hopes to capture these moments in an effort to connect with her audiences.

Tierney Gearon - Liesa Collins

Tierney Gearon is an American photographer that blew up when the public thought her work to be controversial because of the use of her naked children. She has done series of works that follow her kids, her mother, and herself. Gearon uses a Mamiya 7, which is a medium format camera that is very expensive. We just watched a documentary video on her in our darkroom class and I became fascinated with her. She is such a free spirit yet she will do anything for a picture. Many people call her selfish and that she doesn't care about her children the way she should. Coming from an art student's perspective, I see it as using the resources you have to make the best art possible, but I know from a mother's perspective, how she exposes her kids is very wrong. 

I think Tierney Gearon makes the work that she does because she has some sort of tunnel vision that only allows her to look at the world as everything having an opportunity to photograph. In the documentary, every moment of her kids' and her mother's lives were being documented and she was never without a camera in hand. She will do anything to get the image she wants and has battled with herself in response to people telling her that she's a bad mother. No matter what he reasoning is, Tierney Gearon is an amazing artist that deserves respect for her work. 

Nikki S. Lee: Jessica Aicholtz

Nikki S. Lee was born in South Korea in 1970.
She is now based in New York city. Her most well known work, Projects, started while she was still in school. She poses with various ethnic and social groups, including drag queens, punks, swing dancers, senior citizens, Latinos, hip-hop musicians and fans, skateboarders, lesbians, young urban professionals, and Korean schoolgirls. Her main focus wasn't to create beautiful photographs but more about investigating identity. She immersed and transformed herself to be these different types of people.

Alex Kreher:

Selfies from famous people on the cover of newspapers: 

Taylor Stevenson: Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethrope was an American photographer, who is mostly known for his photography. He is mostly known for the underground BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early1970s of New York. His work was very controversial however very beautiful. One of my favorite projects from his is The Black Book. Within this project Mapplethrope works with the black male body, capturing its detail. 

Mapplethrope captures depth and texture by using harsh lighting and interesting angles. I really enjoy the way he works with the form, even though the subject is put in a studio setting its posture and movement adds a story to the figure. The placement of the male form in the studio creates the allusion of the body being on display as a sculptor.  Mapplethorpe inspired many artist to challenge the way the black male figure is perceived in media.