Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Family of Man

After perusing my Family of Man magazine (I recently found a copy of the original magazine from the 1950's at a book sale) I found countless images that I absolutely loved. This one image in particular really left a big impression on me:

Jerry Cooke, Life

I feel so much emotion coming through in this photograph taken by Jerry Cooke. The girl in the photo looks completely heartbroken and alone. The compostion is exquisite and also adds to the feeling of lonliness that comes across in the photograph- the girl sits near the bottom of the frame while the vast black wall fills up most of the photograph.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Photography in the Atomic Age

Wynn Bullock, Child in Forest, 1961

This is a very striking image. I love how the stark white body of the child is placed in the foreground amidst the dark, shadowy landscape that stretches out behind the figure of the child. The light in this photo seems to hit in just the right spots, making the photo have an overall magical and surreal feel to it.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Photojournalism as Art

Eddie Adams, Saigon, 1968

This photograph taken by Eddie Adams during the Vietnam War is perhaps one of the most famous photographs of all time. This photograph was taken from a photojournalist's perspective, but it is also recognized for its artistic photographic qualities. The heart-wrenching emotion captured in this photograph is undeniable; one knows that in a single moment this Vietnamese man will be shot dead. Due to its superior photographic qualities, this photo became an iconic image of the Vietnam War.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Nabbing Time

Harold Edgerton

During the 20th century, faster shutter speeds made it possible for photographer to capture moments they had never captured before. Photographers could now photograph split seconds in time and an entirely different world of photography opened up. The above photo was taken by Harold Edgerton. Edgerton experimented with this notion of a split second in time, and he even took that idea a step further by taking photos of occurrences that happen so quickly that the human eye can't even see them. In the above photo, a bullet has just been shot through an apple that is actually resting atop another bullet. Surely the bullet holding up the apple would have fallen down after this photo was snapped. The photography of Harold Edgerton is a perfect example of how photographers of the 20th century began to take photos that "nabbed" time.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Social Documents

E. J. Bellocq, Storyville Portraits: Untitled, 1912

In the beginning of the twentieth century, photographers began using photography as a method of documenting the filthy conditions that some people lived in as well as some of the hardships they had to go through. The living conditions of American immigrants was a popular subject, and some of these photos were used as "social documents" and used as evidence in various courts around the nation. In the The above photograph is part of a series by E. J. Bellocq. Bellocq wanted to showcase the lives of prostitutes in New Orleans and the terrible conditions they lived in. In the above photo, the prostitute is depicted in a dingy hotel room. She is wearing a mask, which I believes makes the woman a more universal figure.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Eugene Atget



Eugene Atget

Pictured above is one of my favorite images by the photographer Eugene Atget. The deserted carousel makes a wonderfully eerie image; the image is extra creepy by the fact that there are no people riding the carousel at the moment the photo was taken. Even though the carousel was probably still and not running when the photo was taken, I feel a sense of movement encompassing the photograph, which gives the photo a kind of a "haunted fair" feel.



Above is a photo that I took in downtown Macon a couple of years ago. This photograph is something that I believe Eugene Atget would definitely approve of. First of all, the photo has urban subject matter, which Atget delved plentifully in. Also, the alley feels completely deserted and as that eeriness to it that so many Atget photographs have. The fact that the alley seems to stretch backwards nearly infinitely only makes it seem more surreal and eerie.