Vaniable❤Hally: critiquing

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Portrait Photographers

Philippe Halsman (2 May 1906 Riga, Russian Empire - 25 June 1979 New York City) was an American portrait photographer. He was born to a Jewish family of Morduch Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal, in Riga, Halsman studied electrical engineering in Dresden. Halsman had his first success in America when the cosmetics firm Elizabeth Arden used his image of model Constance Ford against the American flag in an advertising campaign for "Victory Red" lipstick. A year later in 1942 he found work with Life, photographing hat designs, one of which, a portrait of a model in a Lilly Daché hat, was his first of the many covers he would do for Life. In 1941 Halsman met the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and they began to collaborate in the late 1940s. In 1951 Halsman was commissioned by NBC to photograph various popular comedians of the time including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Groucho Marx, and Bob Hope. While photographing the comedians doing their acts, he captured many of the comedians in mid air, which went on to inspire many later jump pictures of celebrities including the Ford family, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marilyn Monroe, María Félix and Richard Nixon.His 1961 book Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas, discussed ways for photographers to produce unusual pieces of work by following six rules: "the rule of the direct approach," "the rule of the unusual technique," "the rule of the added unusual feature," "the rule of the missing feature," "the rule of compounded features," and "the rule of the literal or ideographic method." In his first rule, Halsman explains that being straightforward and plain creates a strong photograph. To make an ordinary and uninteresting subject interesting and unusual, his second rule lists a variety of photographic techniques, including unusual lighting, unusual angle, unusual composition, etc. The rule of the added unusual feature is an effort by the photographer to capture the audiences attention by drawing their eye to something unexpected by introducing an unusual feature or prop into the photograph. For example, the photograph of a little boy holding a hand grenade by Diane Arbus contains what Halsman would call an added unusual feature. Halsman's fourth rule of "the missing feature" stimulates the viewer by going against his or her expectations. The fifth rule enlists the photographer to combine the other rules to add originality to his or her photo. Finally, Halsman's literal or ideographic method is to illustrate a message in a photograph by depicting the subject as clearly as possible.In 1958 Halsman was listed in Popular Photography's "World's Ten Greatest Photographers", and in 1975 he received the Life Achievement in Photography Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. He also held numerous large exhibitions worldwide.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Q2W1 - Landscape Photographers

Gordon Wiltsie

After more than 25 years leading and photographing expeditions to earth's wildest corners, Gordon Wiltsie has achieved international acclaim for his visual artistry. His work appears regularly in leading magazines such as National Geographic, Life, American Photo, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Ski, Geo, and dozens of others. He also shoots on location for a broad mix of companies seeking creative, adventurous images for their products.

Some of his very famous projects have included documentation of famous mountaineering, skiing and dog sledding expeditions to the edges of the known world, where there is no room for error or reshooting. He gets it right the first time.

But even more than exploration, Gordon loves seeing familiar things in new ways through a camera. He is equally comfortable shooting ski areas, exotic cultures, family adventures and a wide variety of products being used outdoors.

Gordon is also relaxed with a palette of styles, from crisp, classic documentation to riskier, more flowing images that break the rules and push the limitations of cameras, lenses and flash.

Here are some his products.