WALKER EVANS

Walker Evans was an American photographer born on November 3rd of 1903 in Missouri and he died on April 10th of 1975 in Connecticut. He is mostly known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. 

His goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative and transcendent". Most of his great photos were exhibited in famous museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art or George Eastman House.

He used to take pictures in black and white and most of them are specially portraits of people. In the photos anyone appear smiling or happy because as I have just said, the took pictures of the effect of the Great Depression.

The faces of the people on the pictures are very expressive, it seem that all of them have an interesting story to tell about their life.

   

                       

EDWARD J. STEICHEN

Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter and art gallery and museum curator. He was born on March 27th of 1879 and he died on 25th of 1973 of the same month.

He was most frequent photographer in Alfred Stieglitz's magazine "Camera Work". Later Stiegltz and Steichen opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which years after became famous.
During years 1923 to 1938, he worked as fashion photographer. His pictures were published in "Vogue" and "Vanity Fair" magazines. He also worked for many advertising agencies. During these years, he was considered the best photographer and the highest paid photographer on the world.
After World War II, he was the director of the Department of Photography at New York's museum of Modern Art. In MoMA museum, he made an exhibition which was seen by 9 million people.

His images are special. They are in black and white and some of them in a kind of vintage effect. Most of them are related with fashion. I really like them because of thet. The models seem so perfect.

Shutter Speed Priority -post assignment

Today ends our Shutter Speed priority assignment. This assigment was not very easy. We had to take pictures to people when while they were running or jumping and it was difficult to catch them in completety stop motion. We jumped from trees and walls, we ran outside the high school...it was very funny.

These are my final pictures.

Sunset

Last weekend I went out to see the sunset by the ocean, and I took these pictures. The sky was really beautiful, it was blue, pink and orange. I went at 6pm and at 6.30pm it was already dark. The fall is getting close!

GERTRUDE KASEBIER

Gertrude Kasebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century. She was born on May 18th of 1853 in Iowa, and she died on October 12th of 1934 in New York City. She is know for her images of motherhood and her promotion of photography as a career for women. Most of their pictures are portraits of Native American people.

Their pictures are in  mostly in black and white and there specially appear women. With all these women I think that Gertrude Kasebier wants to express that women can also be a photographer and that they are as powerful as men.

The first picture is my favorite one, it's just perfect.

  
  

EDWARD CURTIS

Edward Sheriff Curtis was born on February 16th of 1868 in Wisconsin and he died on October 19th of 1952 in Los Angeles. He was an ethnologist and photographer. He is know for taking pictures of the American West and specially of Native American people.

His family lived in poverty, and Edward Curtis had to leave school in the sixth grade. As soon as he could, he built his own camera.

When he got older, he became an apprentice photographer. Then he bought a new camera and he started forming a photo studio.

As I have already said, he used to take pictures to Native American people. Most of his pictures are portraits about those people. There are some in black and white, but most of them are like in a kind of brown color.
This ones are my favorite pictures of him. I like them because the people that appear in the photos transmit a lot with their eyes. They are very serious, but their dark eyes say a lot. They also give us to know about a different culture. We can see their costumes, necklaces, plume...

   

                                  

Shutter Speed Priority - pre assignment

Our assignment for this week is use the shutter speed to take pictures. We have to try to shoot to people when they are jumping, running or walking, and try to get them when they are in the air or if thy are running, the person foucused and the rest blur or in movement.

An example of this type of photography is Eadweard Muybridge. He was a British photographer, born on April 9th of 1830 and he died on May 8th of 19047, when he was 74 years old. He is known for his photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. He took lots of pictures of people or animals when they were moving, and with the shutter speed he got the animals and people stopped, in stop motion.

For this assignment our camera has to be in shutter speed priority (TV). The ISO starting in 400 and then we can change it if it's necessary because of the aperture.

For this assingment I'm going to take pictures to people jumping and running.

IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM - post assigment- my close-up photos

These are my final pictures for the close-up assignment of this week. I focused in flowers to take my close-up photos just because I think that flowers make the photos so nice. I really liked this assignment, it's the one that I liked the most so far. I love my pictures, I think they are so pleasant.

JACOB RIIS

Jacob Riis was a Danish American social documentary photographer. He was born in Denmark, May 3rd of 1849 and he died here in the U.S, in Massachusetts, on May 26th of 1914. He was also a social reformer and journalist. He used his journalist and photographic talents to help the impoverished in New York City, he is know for that. 

He is one of the first photographers who adopt the flash in photography. While he was living in New York, he experienced the poverty and he became a police reporter.

In his pictures there appear the bad living conditions of poor people of that time, he took those kind of photos because he wanted to show those bad conditions to the middle and upper classes.

His pictures are kind of hard, because there appear poor people living and sleeping in the streets, kids that don't have anything to play with and they have to take care of their siblings and try to survive...they are sad.

JULIA MARGARET CAMERON

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British woman photographer. She was born in Calcutta on June 11th of 1815 and she died on January 26th of 1879 in Kalutara. She is know for all the portraits she did. All those portraits are of the celebrities of that time. She is also know for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary and heroic themes. 
She started to take pictures and to make photography a hobby when she was given a camera as a present, at age 48. Her work wasn't appreciate when she was alive, but then it became very popular on modern photographers.

She took pictures with some different effects. Black and white, in some kind of light browns, which make the picture seem very old. They are like foggy too, like if it were fog that prevent us to see the picture clearly. This effect make the photos original and exclusive.

Here I post some of my favorite pictures of Julia Margaret.

 

Paul Strand - post assignment

This are my final 3 pictures for Paul Strand assignment. I focused specially in shadows and close-ups. I used the sunset light to take them. I took the photo of my dog while I was walking him, he is moving.
It wasn't as easy as I thought to take this pictures because you realize that light is essential to take them. Because I was focusing in shadows, I had to wait to the sun and tried to get the best shadow I could before it went. 
This is the best part of the assignments, taking photos, I like it so much and I learn a lot doing it.

 

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer. He was born on August 22nd of 1908 and he died the 3rd of the same month, in 2004. He is considered the father of modern photojournalism. He developed a photography style called ''street photography'' or ''life reportage'', which is basically taking pictures of people or objects in public places. Generations of photographer followed this new style.

As all the photographers that we are writing about, this one also took pictures in black and white. This ones are my favorite.The first one is really interesting, weird and geometrical. I think it's very original. The two others are very cute and lovely.

 

ANSEL ADAMS

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco on February 20th of 1902 and he die on April of 1984. He was an American photographer and environmentalist. He is known for his black and white pictures of landscapes of the West of America, especially of Yosemite National park. his pictures have appeared on books, posters and calendars.

To take those pictures, Ansel Adams used especially large-format cameras because they had a really high definition, so that helped ensure sharpeness in his photos.

This are my favourite pictures of him. I like all of them but I can't post all, so I'm posting the bests. I think they are amazing pictures, photos that not any person can take them. They are very pleasant, very quiet, like anyone is there, only the nature...