In this first blog, 4 different photographers of the early 20th century will be compared and analyzed. First, I will talk about Irving Penn and Yousuf Karsh, 2 photographers discussed in class and then 2 others I found while doing my own research, Joyce Tenneson and Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison.
 |
| Irving Penn-Beaton,Capote,Picasso |
Irving Penn (June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009) was a well-known portrait and fashion photographer. Penn's photographic style is characterized by a low-key lighting, starkness of the setting, and delicate choreography of gesture and pose that both gives information about the life of the subject. Most of his portraits has the same kind of grey ambiance.He creates this atmosphere by using grey walls, grey seamless paper and grey floor on most of his portraits. I find them to be playful and strict at the same time. Furthermore, I like how he plays with the composition. For example, Truman Capote looks like he has been backed into a corner by the camera, and seems to be shrinking even further into the folds of his overcoat. Finally, Penn is an accomplished photographer and he knows how to get the attention of the viewer. The ingenuity behind his portraits gives information about his subjects and makes him a successful artist.
 |
| Patrick Demarchelier's Elephant,1991 |
If we compared with an actual photographer, Patrick Demarchelier, he uses similar techniques in some of his work such as grey seamless, the use of graphic lines, the ''grey'' atmosphere, low-key lighting etc. One good example of this is the picture Elephant which is really similar to Penn's style with the edge of the seamless paper visible in the corner of the picture.
"A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it; it is in one word, effective." —Irving Penn.
Yousuf Karsh
 |
| Karsh-Casals |
 |
| Karsh-Einstein |
Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 –July 13, 2002) was a famous Canadian portrait photographer. He photographed several celebrities such as Einstein, Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso and John F. Kennedy. His pictures are easily recognizable because of his distinctive photographic style. He knew how to capture the humanity of his subject in every pictures. His portrait tells a lot about the subject. For example, the portrait of Einstein with his fingers crossed and a thoughtful stare let us know that he was a thinker and serious man. Churchill's portrait inform the viewer that he was a grumpy and serious man. Another unique element of Karsh portraits is his lighting techniques. He uses different lighting technique to depict the soul of his subjects. For instance, the portrait of Pablo Casals, a wonderful cellist, is very low. It gives the viewer a feeling that Casals was a mysterious and lonely man due to hours of cello practice. The way he framed and composed his subject draw the viewer's attention to the personality of the subject. On Casals' portrait, the cellist is framed in the middle of the picture, meaning that he is the center of attention when he performs. On the right side, there is like a black curtain, letting us know that behind the curtain, while not performing in front of many people, Casals is a lonely man with his cello. If we compared with Penn, I think Karsh's portraits more straight forward in the way they give information about the subject while Penn's portraits are more subtle and let place to more imagination.
 |
| Karsh-Churchill |
''Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.''-Yousuf Karsh
Joyce Tenneson
 |
| Tenneson |
Joyce Tenneson (born may 1945) is a fine art photographer famous for her nude and semi-nude portraits of women. Her portraits are very gentle, graceful and very pleasant to look at. She uses mostly soft lighting to make her photographs look like a painting. She wants to make the woman body look beautiful by putting the emphasis on the body's natural beauty. She uses props that give an organic feeling to the portrait such as soft fabric, flowers and halos of light. She also uses faded colours to give a more soft, angelic look to her portraits or sepia tones. Tenneson uses the curves of the body and plays a lot with arms to create graphics. Finally, I like her pictures because she knows how represent the natural beauty of women.
 |
| Tenneson |
 |
| Tenneson |
Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison
 |
| ParkeHarrison |
Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison are a couple of fine art photographers. Together, they explore many aspects of man's impact on the nature, especially relating to industrialization and technology. They use a creative process that involves researching ideas, collecting props, building sculptures and sets,staging outdoor photo sessions and finally, putting together multiple paper negatives into one powerful and often darkly humorous image. What I like about their work is that they do not create usual ''portraits'' but rather a portrait of ourselves. They tell a story without lecturing us about the environment. They get us thinking about what we are doing to the planet. Compared to Tenneson where she wants to show the natural beauty of women, ParkeHarrison wants to show k ind of the opposite. Both of them use fantasy as a way giving their message to the viewer.
 |
ParkeHarrison
|
 |
| ParkeHarrison |
My portraits
 |
| Isabelle Gadbois |
 |
| Isabelle Gadbois |
 |
| Isabelle Gadbois |
No comments:
Post a Comment