Brian Twede- artist

Brian Twede is a commercial photographer and I chose him because, again, I wanted to look at something different. I can't save any images from his site, but you can go there and peruse yourself http://www.twede.com/gallery/other/

His images are bright, clear and obviously commercial. Some of them are cheesy, but they are for ads and brochures. I'm curious to see them as he took them, not the final product.
The food images are good, but I feel like I'm at Denny's looking at a laminated menu when I see them. I prefer the images done by Jennifer Silverberg, an artist who came to our classroom that blogged about previously. Her food images are more organic and actually make me hungry, for real food.

He has some Halloween images that I find appealing in an odd and can't really explain it kind of way. They are a little soft on the edges, which I typically see with baby pictures, but he did it on "scary" items and it has this weird but attractive quality. Those are the images I stared at the longest, trying to figure out how he could have done the lighting.

I also like reading the "bio" on photographers websites. I had to write one recently for my blurb book and it was harder than most essays I've done. And I like to see how photographers "sell" themselves on their website. Some are well written and some are desperate. Twede is in the middle. It felt more like a sales pitch and a plea for business. It wasn't bad, just more commercial than most I've read. Which is fitting because he shoots commercial...

Graham Mitchell- artist

Graham Mitchell is a fashion and editorial photographer. I chose him because I was tired of looking at documentary work and the traditional family/wedding/portrait work. He does some editing work too and my favorite is the police chase. Its funny, but I like the quality of the image. It has movement and the dark color gives it a criminal feel.

I dont know if this image is authentic or not, but for whatever reason I cracked up when I saw it (its late at night so maybe its one of those Monty Python Holy Grail kind of moments).

There wasn't a lot of fashion photos on his website but these 2 represent very different styles of his. The second one reminds me of the work that a classmate, Rachel, does. 

his website http://www.graham-mitchell.com/

Hungry Planet- artist/book

My photography professor, Kate, loaned me this book to flip through and I am just loving it! It's called "Hungry Planet", by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, and its about what families around the world eat, how they cook it, the space they cook and eat in, etc. I love exploring food from other cultures and I often have phases of what country I am trying out. Steve will be home in 3 weeks and Afghani food will probably be my next phase...

But anyways, this book was an eye opener for me. I think I had a more glamorous vision of where some of this food I am trying out comes from than what is reality. The authors made a point regarding the gluttony of Americans compared to other countries. As I look at the images, read the notes, and see the cost comparisons I am ashamed of how much we waste here. I have taken the opportunity to make a variety of food and eat in abundance for granted. I have a big clean kitchen (most of the time) to cook in, proper storage methods and I don't have to eat off the floor. I am seeing food in a whole new way...

As far as the images go, they are documentary in nature. They aren't meant to be creative, but informational and they do a great job serving that purpose. That doesn't mean they are dull and don't have any character, because the photographers have done a superb job in the details. Some follow the same format so there is a smooth flow through the book, but there is variety within that format that draws the eye in. The images are colorful and clear (some are a bit hazy but that is from the nature of the environment). I like the images that show the environment the families live in because that tells me a lot in addition to the food itself. I also like the portrait work of individuals gathering food, cooking and eating. There is a lot to enjoy and I'm adding the book to my wish list.

August Sander- artist

A fellow classmate, Connor, has chosen August Sander as his inspiration for his final project. I have seen Sanders work when Connor brings it in and I always find myself wanting to see more. So I'm getting off my horse Procrastination and looking him up. Like my last artists, he is German. I'm sensing a theme....(maybe because a few weeks ago my husband asked me about moving there?). Anyways, "Early in his career, perhaps after tiring of prizes that were too easily won, August Sander set for himself a problem that ranks among the most ambitious in the history of photography: He assigned himself the project of making a photographic portrait of the German people. He set about his task as systematically as a taxonomist, gathering, specimen by specimen, exemplary players of the roles that defined German society. Hod carrier, gamekeeper, confectioner, student, functionary, industrialist --- piece by piece Sander collected the elements for his composite portrait... Sander, however, was a very great photographer. His sensitivity to his individual subjects --- to expression, gesture, posture, costume, symbol, habitat --- seems unerringly precise. His pictures show us two truths simultaneously and in delicate tension: the social abstraction of occupation and the individual soul who serves it... Sander was a professional portrait photographer, but many of the subjects for his great project surely did not pay him. Some doubtless could not, and others, if paying customers, would have expected to be shown less fully revealed. In his professional role he must have made safe and routine portraits, but there are none among the two hundred or more of his published works.On the evidence of these pictures, it would seem that he found every station and every individual of consequence." http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/August-Sander.html

I know that was a long quote, but someone worked hard to write all that and did a great job so I'm not going to mess it up with a summary.

He was a great black & white photographer, another reason I am interested in his work. He didn't have the option to choose B&W or color, or film or digital. But I wonder what he would choose if he did have the choice? Removing the color takes some distraction away from content you don't want the eye drawn to, as well as keeping the focus away from where you do want it. I don't know if that is making any sense, its late and I'm up waiting for my husband to call from Afghanistan! But I appreciate Sanders careful consideration of what else went into the frame, beyond the person. Thats been a matter of conversation regarding Connor's images for his project. I have been asked to take portraits and its always at the park or in a "studio" but what I want is to take them in their own environment. If you really want your portrait to be about you it should give some hint to your personality and standing in front of a black drape reduces that. 

The Bechers- Artists

My teacher mentioned this duo that photographs architecture. I found the following info on a website http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=8095

"German photographers. Bern(har)d Becher (b Siegen, 20 Aug 1931) served an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Siegen, then studied painting and lithography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Stuttgart (1953–6) and typography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf (1957–61). There in 1959 he met Hilla Wobeser (b Potsdam, 2 Sept 1934), who had trained as a photographer in Potsdam and, after a period as an aerial photographer in Hamburg, had moved to Düsseldorf in 1957. They married in 1961. Together they developed a documentary approach to photographing their industrial surroundings that introduced new kinds of social, cultural and aesthetic questions about the increasing destruction of many late 19th-century buildings. They systematically photographed half-timbered houses, cooling towers, water towers, blast furnaces and derricks of the same or similar design, forcing the viewer to compare and judge the buildings from unfamiliar aesthetic standpoints. This photographic documentation was not based, however, on a system of encyclopedic thoroughness, nor on a theory of objectivity, but primarily on the desire to express their own social and political views. For this reason, they excluded any details that would detract from the central theme and instead set up comparisons of viewpoint and lighting through which the eye is led to the basic structural pattern of the images being compared. This principle, which is allied to the philosophy underlying the New topographics movement, is most obvious in the two published series, Anonyme Skulpturen: Eine Typologie technischer Bauten and Typologien, Industrieller Bau, 1963–1975, in which the images are contrasted in groups of three. Their work was also published in Die Architektur der Förder-und Wassertürme (Munich, 1971). In 1977 the Bechers began teaching at the photography department that they set up at the Düsseldorf Kunsthochschule."

Their work is very clean and consistent in composition and lighting. I don't know much about German weather, if its pretty constant (unlike here in Missouri). Maybe they were just very particular about the time of day and lighting conditions they shot under. That was something my teacher recommended to a classmate who was shooting buildings for his project. It got me thinking about my project, which I can't control in that manner. I have to take the moments as they come and make the best out of it, but how can I find consistency in uncontrolled environments? That is the question I ponder as I look at the Becher's work. 

Arnold Newman- Artist

So now I have the "right" Newman....Arnold Newman.
Taken from the website http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/ "Generally acknowledged as the pioneer of the environmental portrait, he is also known for his still life and abstract photography, and he is considered as one of the most influential photographers of the 20^th Century." So its no wonder Kate wanted us to study him!

I like his early work because the detail is good (I'm always impressed with someone who knows how to manually use a film camera and make it look good) but there isn't anything compositionally "wow" for me. He did a great job documenting with his images and while it may not be artistically creative, its important to history. The following picture is small because its the only size I could save, but see it bigger and more images on his website.

His portrait work isn't like most. He includes the subjects environment (hence the comment "pioneer of the environmental portrait), which adds another dimension to the image. You see the person, but then you see where they live or work, what they love or makes them happy, how they dress, and the time period. Some are in color and I can't say I have a preference for either. When it comes to stuff, color can add or subtract from the person and Its subjective. I'd like to see an image in each and then determine which works better. My teacher also likes "peoples stuff", so I can see why his work appeals to her (and to me, I'm a bit curious in that way too).

Inside the Shoot is my favorite tab from this website. I love to see how photographers set up their photo sessions. I want to know just how complicated or simple the process was, where lights and people were located, and try to learn from the environment. And even though I take pictures and know what you don't see in the picture, its still cool to see his image in the full environment it was shot in and as it was viewed (in magazine, paper, etc.).