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Showing posts from May, 2024

Peter Lindbergh

1.  I enjoy looking at Lindbergh's work, and appreciate his goal to portray women naturally, without the weight of oppressive beauty standards. While I don't believe that he fully did this, as most of his models still follow the conventional standards of beauty (skinny, some wearing makeup, little wrinkles, etc.), I believe that it is significantly better than other works which push for harmful practices and imagery. 2. I would categorize Lindbergh's work as ethical editorial photography, as he works for mainstream media, but is careful not to confine his subjects, particularly women, to the media's strict expectations/definitions of women. 3. Both Peter Lindbergh and Damien Baker try to capture their subjects in an honest manner. The difference between them seems to be that Lindbergh takes a step back to observe the bigger picture of how the world views women, and how he can change that perspective for the better. Baker's photographs, on the other hand, seem to be ...

Steve McCurry

1. My initial reaction to McCurry's work was awe at how vibrant each photograph is, and how vividly I could sense/feel the emotions portrayed by his subjects.  2. I would categorize McCurry's work as multicultural humanist photography, as he mainly captures people of all different backgrounds and their struggles/the culture that is retained within them even throughout conflict.  3. Henri Cartier-Bresson is also a humanist photographer, but I prefer McCurry's work more, due to his stunning use of vibrant colors, adding to his cultural themes. Bresson's work is mainly French street photography, therefore it misses out on capturing the beauty and pain of other cultures. 4. I honestly love McCurry's work, and I can't think of any changes that would make it better. However, someone else might want to try more candid photography of unsuspecting subjects, instead of making the connection with the subjects first. I think it would be less respectful and successful that w...

Josef Sudek

1 . The work is calming and a little whimsical. In my opinion, it perfectly captures the calm after the storm and the beauty in abandonment/isolation. The shots have a beautiful, dark gray aesthetic, which I enjoy a lot. 2.  Sudek's work is classified as neo-romantic, but if I had to categorize it I would say it is melancholy life photography, just based on the gray tones, solitary objects, and places relatively void of bustling city life/people, etc. 3.  Fan Ho and Josef Sudek have some similar shots in the way they capture rays of soft sunlight filtering between buildings/architectural structures, as shown below. Sudek has less work featuring this motif, but Ho often focuses on that. Overall, I prefer Fan Ho, but between the photos shown below, I enjoy Sudek's more. 4. If someone made Sudek's work today, it would more heavily focus on ruination and abandonment, really honing in on the decline of our world in terms of the current conflicts and division we face globally. 5...

Francesca Woodman

1. I was both spooked and impressed by Woodman's work. The majority of her pictures feature naked women in motion or blurred and merging with their surroundings. They seem melancholy and haunted, and that vulnerability seems to reflect Woodman's own state of mind. 2. I would categorize Wood man's work as storytelling female portraiture photography, because it isn't just a basic commercial headshot. Woodman poses her models with intention, and uses props, empty space, shapes/angles, to piece together a cohesive narrative with a purpose that is open for interpretation. 3. Although it is not photography, some of Woodman's work reminds me of the short story The Yellow Wallpaper , by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It follows the story of a w oman trapped within the cult of domesticity, which is represented by the yellow wallpaper in her room that she is metaphorically trapped within. Some of Woodman's photos capture women who are literally trapped behind ripped wallpaper ...