Lecture on Contemporary Photography

Photographers goal: to capture a moment
Photographers main focus: exuberance of nature

Edward Weston - photographer from the 1930's who was interested in physical form of subject matter more than the content

Ansel Adams - black and white photographer who worked w/ glass plate negative

Henry Cartier Bresson - street photographer who specialized in action shots and utilized blur caused by movement to his advantage

"Ouiega" - news photographer in NY, had a reputation for being first on the scene because he had a police scanner, specialized in pictures of murder victims and untouched crime scenes

Dorothy Elange - documented the poor as well as the Japanese hostages in US war camps during WWII, took the photo "Migrant Mother": in this photo exists a "ghost thumb" where she attempted to erase someone's thumb that was accidentally caught in the picture which shows evidence of her being aware of composition

Walker Evans - took pictures of buildings, farm implements, and people; in 1981 Cherry Lavigne photographed a picture of Walker Evan's picture and displayed it in a show which was just as controversial as Duchamp's "Fountain", pushed the limit and asked the question "what qualifies something as art?"

Richard Prince - was made famous for taking pictures of Malboro ads, this helped appropriation gain even more credibility in the art world, but was the first make large scale prints of photographs

Thomas Debonz - made paper sculptures and took pictures of them, also made war scenes out of figurines and took pictures of them

Jeff Wald - attempted to make art that would overpower a painting through the use lighting and photo manipulation, he played with the veracity photographs possess

PHOTOGRAPHY: what is true versus what is illusion

Personal Narrative in photography investigates personal life
Nan Golden - herion and sex addict who documented events and people in her life whether they were good or bad

Robert Matherford - was involved in the New York S&M scene, specialized in making beautifully crafted photos of socially unacceptable things

Richard Billingham - made commentary on social standpoints though portraiture, was made famous for taking photographs of his family and home life