Dorthea Lange

Artist: Dorothea Lange

Medium: Unknown

Year: Unknown



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?



Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) has been called the greatest American documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers. Dorothea Lange was a natural photographer in the truest sense because she lived, in her words, "a visual life." She could look at something: a line of laundry flapping in the wind, a pair of old, wrinkled, work-worn hands, a bread-line, a crowd of people in a bus station, and find it beautiful. Her eye was a camera lens and her camera--as she put it--an "appendage of the body."



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).



I think that it is interesting that she could look at basically anything and think it's beautiful! To me that is that something that a photographer needs because you need to have an eye for things. I love that she always said that the camera was an appendage of her body.





Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog):Katlin

Minor White

Title: Pacific Devils Side

Artist: Minor White

Medium: unknown

Year: 1947



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?



Minor White was born in Minneapolis Minnesota in 1908. He was an American photographer, educator, poet and a critic. He was recognized for this intense commitment of photography and his vision. Minor White was a textural photographer. Textural photographs are pictures of items such as a bush, a tree, cracks in the road, or even a rusted up car.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).



I think that it is interesting that Minor White was born right here in Minnesota. I like that he was a textural photographer and that he liked taking picture and did take pictures of items like a bush, a tree, cracks in the road, and rusted cars. I think that is interesting because you wouldn't think of taking pictures of that.

Alec Soth

Title: USA/CANADA. 2005. Falls 02.

Artist: Alec Soth

Medium:

Year:2005



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Alec Soth is an American photographer. His photography has a cinematic feel with elements of folklore that hint at a story behind the image. He has received fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center

Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

Alec Soth is an amazing photographer. The way he captured the water fall is very beautiful. The picture is so calming and relaxing to look at. It such an interesting angle the picture is taking at.





Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog):

Jerry Uelsmann

Title: Small Woods Where I Met Myself

Artist: Jerry Uelsmann

Medium:

Year:1967



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Is an American photographer. When he was in high school, his interest in photography sparked. He originally believed that using a camera could allow him to exist outside of himself, to live in a world captured through the lens. Despite poor grades, he managed to land a few jobs, primarily shooting weddings. Jerry Uelsmann dropped out of Indiana University. He began teaching photography at the University of Florida in 1960. In 1967, Uelsmann had a solo exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art which opened doors for his photography career.



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

Jerry's photography is most interesting. It's like not I've ever seen. I like that he can put three different people in the same picture. The way it's faded it looks so cool. And just the unusualness of the picture makes his work interesting.

Beth Dow

Title: Coaster (part of the "Ruins" collection)

Artist: Beth Dow

Medium:

Year:2009



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Beth Dow keeps most of her images black and white. I like her images, but they seems maybe a little low contrast, or that there are more grays than any solid black or solid white. However, by looking at most of her images, I think this works for her. She found a way she likes her images and I think it takes some getting used to, but I really found that I liked them. I chose a rather recent image, called Coaster, and before reading about it, I thought to myself, "this really looks like something from the theme park Mt. Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells. Turns out, most of the pictures taken in her "ruins" collection are in fact from around Wisconsin Dells. She and her husband took their children on a vacation and she got a little inspiration from the architecture around the Dells.







Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I think this image is really beautiful because it leaves me wanting more. I want to see more of the roller coaster, I want to be in that theme park, and I want to see what's next. As a whole, the "ruins" project was really interesting, especially knowing it was architecture from very touristy spots. I would have been easily fooled had I not been to the Wisconsin Dells myself a few years back.







Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Shannon

Sebastiao Salgado

Title: The Kamchatka peninsula (part of the Genesis project)

Artist: Sebastiao Salgado

Medium:

Year: 2004-2007



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Sebastiao Salgado shoots a lot of projects all around the world. I think his images really bring awareness to the cultures and way of life in other countries. I like how he keeps his images in black and white; it helps me focus more on the purpose and focal point of his images. I really liked his Kamchatka Peninsula image. The way the rocks are formed, it almost looks like a vortex, so the depth that the rocks play in the image is mesmerizing.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

Continuing from before, I really enjoyed the way he captured these rocks. I like the way the lines draw my eyes back and the path on the ground compliments it as well. I want to know more, like where the path leads to, what it looks like above the rocks, etc.


Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Shannon

Sandy Skoglund

Title: Revenge of the Goldfish

Artist: Sandy Skoglund

Medium:

Year: 1981



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?



Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer who creates surrealistic images and builds up her sets quite elaborately which takes months. The image that really stuck out to me was called "Revenge of the Goldfish." I liked this image because of the color scheme, as well as how the image told a story. However, the image's story was pretty vague, or should I say, open for interpretation. It gave the sense of being underwater, as well as the goldfish being angry or attacking. It makes me wonder what the people did to the goldfish or one goldfish in particular to make them want revenge.



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

In my opinion, Sandy's work is the most appealing or interesting to look at so far. (Besides Ansel Adams, of course) I think Sandy usually picks really bright colors and when she incorporates two colors together they always mesh really well. These images are all really eye catching and I could look at them for hours.







Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Shannon

Margaret Bourke-White

Title: March of the Dynamos

Artist: Margaret Bourke-White

Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print

Year: 1928



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?



From her naturalist father, an engineer and inventor, Margaret White claims to have learned perfectionism; from her mother, she claims to have developed an unapologetic desire for self-improvement. Her interest in photography began as a young woman's hobby, supported by her father's enthusiasm for cameras. She started a commercial photography studio and did architectural and industrial photography.



Her success was due to her skills with both people and her technique. Her experience at Otis Steel Company is a good example. The Otis security people were reluctant to let her shoot for many reasons: First, steel making was a defense industry, so they wanted to be sure national security was not affected. Second, she was a woman and in those days people wondered if a woman and her delicate cameras could stand up to the intense heat, hazard, and generally dirty and gritty conditions inside a steel mill. When she got permission, the technical problems began. Black and white film in that era was sensitive to blue light, not the reds and oranges of hot steel—she could see the beauty, but the pictures were coming out all black. She solved this problem by bringing along a new style of magnesium flare (which produces white light) and having assistants hold them to light her scenes. Her abilities resulted in some of the best steel factory pictures of that era, and these earned her national attention.



In 1930, she became the first Western photographer allowed to take pictures of Soviet industry. She was hired by Henry Luce as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine in 1936. Bourke-White was the first female war correspondent and the first woman to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II. She had a knack for being at the right place at the right time: She interviewed and photographed Mohandas K. Gandhi just a few hours before his assassination. Eisenstaedt, her friend and colleague, said one of her strengths was that there was no assignment and no picture that was unimportant to her.



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



Margaret Bourke-White broke many amazing barriers to get her photographs She was relentless at her pursuit of her craft. The picture called 'March of the Dynamos' caught my eye, it is very similar to a photograph I took 5 years ago at the Hoover Dam.





Name: Joe Ulwelling

David Goldes

Title: Hole in soap bubble film

Artist: David Goldes

Medium: Silver Geletin Print

Year: 2003



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?



Using the physical world as a metaphor, David Goldes uses his extensive scientific knowledge to create striking images of such things as water's surface tension. Using water, electricity, air movement, wind, and breath, Goldes manipulates and observes the phenomena to illustrate science's omissions, taking the descriptive aspect as his foundation and invoking metaphor, memory, narrative and emotion



Goldes is currently a professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He received a BA in Chemistry and Biology from SUNY at Buffalo, a MA from Harvard in Molecular Genetics and a MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop/SUNY-Buffalo in Photography. He has received numerous fellowships, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a NEA Individual Artist Fellowship, Bush Foundation Art Fellowships, McKnight Foundation Fellowships, residency at the City des Arts in Paris, and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Yale Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. His photographs have also been displayed in more than fourteen solo exhibitions and twenty-three group exhibitions.



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



It seems to me a somewhat rare combination, Art and Science, yet Goldes combines the two in amazing fashion. The art in his photographs are of objects that seem to defy science in some ways, and are in many ways exceptions to the rule.





Name: Joe Ulwelling

Eve Arnold

Title: Eve Arnold on the set of Becket

Artist: Eve Arnold (photo by Robert Penn)

Medium: Photograph

Year: 1963



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?



Eve Arnold is an American photojournalist.



Arnold is best known for her images of actress Marilyn Monroe on the set of Monroe's last film, The Misfits, but she took many photos of Monroe from 1951 onwards. An exhibition of her previously unseen photos of Monroe was displayed at the Halcyon Gallery in London in May 2005. Monroe trusted Arnold more than any other photographer.



Not only did Arnold photograph VIPs such as Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm X, and Joan Crawford, she traveled extensively around the world, photographing in China, Russia, South Africa and Afghanistan.



She currently lives in a London nursing home. When asked by Angelica Houston if she was doing photography anymore, Arnold replied: "That's over. I can't hold a camera anymore." She did say that she spends most of her time reading such writers as Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann and Tolstoy.



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



I am amazed at the variety of subjects she has photographed around the world. She seemed very dedicated to her work. It is nice to know that she is still alive.....





Name: Joe Ulwelling

William Mortensen

Title: Pictorial Photography – portfolio with 20 signed original portrait photographs

Artist: William Mortensen

Medium: gelatin silver print sepia-tone photographs

Year: 1935


Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)? William Mortensen was out of touch with the "popular" photography taken in his time. He drew criticism from members of f/64. Ansel Adams even pushed the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona to disregard his work and not archive it. He was made famous during his career as he was a photographer to many stars. At the time there was a purist movement in photography focusing on the "straight," "unadorned, print and a more documentarian style. Since Mortensen's photography illustrated a Gothic and Romantic edge he was routinely pushed away from the top photographers of the day. Mortensen "invented his own texture screams an abrasion tone process,the Metalchrome process and a non-silver pigment process.




Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words). His portraits of actresses were well done; all conveying a specific emotion, predicament, or lust. He doesn't seem to use a lot of darks in his photography, but he really captures the nuances in the clothing of his models or stars. His work uses a lot of romanticism. All showing the body in a purely beautiful way. He also created beautiful backgrounds in a lot of his work. To me it would seem hard to replicate nature as he does relying mostly on darkroom work. It's awesome.





Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Blaine Anderson

Sandy Skoglund

Title: Revenge of the Goldfish

Artist: Sandy Skoglund

Medium: Photograph

Year: 1980



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?



Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer and installation artist.



Skoglund creates surrealist images by building elaborate sets or tableaux, furnishing them with carefully selected small children, models and other objects. Finally, she photographs the set, complete with actors. The works are characterized by an overwhelming amount of one object and either bright, contrasting colors or a monochromatic color scheme.



One of her most-known sculptures, features numerous fish hovering above people in bed late at night and is called Revenge of the Goldfish. The piece was used as cover art for the Inspiral Carpets album of the same name.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



I was very impressed at the amount of work that went into the sets that she photographs. Everything is so meticulously placed so that they seem to belong there, even though it would be perposterous. They seem like a scene from one of our dreams.





Name: Joe Ulwelling

Dorthea Lange

Title: Migrant Mother

Artist: Dorthea Lange

Medium:

Year: 1936



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Dorthea Lange was known for her Depression pictures for the FSA. She was a photojournalist and photographer. In 1941 Lange was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for her amazing photographs. Lange switched to taking pictures of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Later on the Army impounded them because they are really critical. Lange was also a cofounder of the magazine Aperture.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I like the Migrant Mother picture because it shows how hard the immigrants work. It shows how bad their life style was because they didn’t have much money so they did anything to live. I think it’s interesting on how she hides the faces of the children I would think a face picture of the children would make it more noticeable on how their living is poor and unhealthy.







Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog):

Minor White

Title: Frosted Window

Artist: Minor White

Medium:

Year: NA



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Minor White was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and when to school and the U of M and majored in botany and minored in English. He then moved to Oregon and started learning photography. Minor White co-found the Aperture magazine along with Ansel Adams and others. He was also known as one of Americas greatest photographers when he died.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I love the frost on the window because it brings out so much detail. I liked how he brought out the white of the frost and then the window was dark so you kept your eye on the bright spots. I also love the way it actually looks like actual frost on a car window or something. The frost looks like it was taken with a different type of light source like the moon because it kind of looks like there is a reflection of the moon in the glass.







Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog):

W. Eugene Smith

Title:Unknown (possibly Wounded Solider)

Artist: W. Eugene Smith

Medium: Unknown

Year:1945

Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)? W. Eugene Smith was very signigicany in photographing the second World War. He did not follow the typical main stream media, and how they showed imiages of the war. He took very brutal, and realistic photos of the war, vitctems, etc. He eventually died of a stroke, possibly caused by his addiction to amphetamine and alcohol.

　

　

Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I personally enjoyed his work, and found it brutally vivid. I can really appreiciate that he did not "hold back" on what he wanted to photograph.. He wanted to show how brutal the war was, and what the 'truth' looked like. Even today we are very censored in media to see what is REALLY going on over seas, in wars, etc. We need more photographers willing to go against the grain of typical standard photo journalist, and bring the truth to light. His revealing photos is what allows people not in the war, to really see what was going on, and see the tragic and catastrophic events were taking place.

　

　

Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): BMJohnson

Lewis Hine

Title: Power House
Artist: Lewis Hine
Medium:
Year: 1920

Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Lewis Hine was a very decorated photographer (If there was such a thing). His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the US. Throughout his career he has worked with many organizations such as the American Red Cross, Russell Sage Foundation, National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), he document the construction of The Empire State Building. He also served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) National Research Project, which studied changes in industry and their effect on employment. Hine was also a member of the faculty of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.


Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I feel as if Lewis photographed what he believed in, such as equal humane labor laws for everyone. It's hard to believe he didn't have any children. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform, he photographed what was happening in the work place, it was as if he wanted everyone to see the "dirty work" and do something about it.


Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Rachel Desalegne

Imogen Cunningham and Russell Lee

Title: Dream
Artist: Imogen Cunningham
Medium: Not specified
Year:1910

Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)? Imogen Cunningham bought her first camera in 1901, but only applied herself to the art in 1906 when she was inspired by Gertrude Kasebier's work. Throughout her life Imogen's work covered a broad array of subjects. These included still-life, documentary, street photography, flowers, and nudes. Her mainstay was portraiture. She was a co-founder of Group F/64. There she helped push the notion of photography as a art form with "simple and direct presentation." She additionally worked for Vanity Fair and, at the request of Ansel Adams" the California School of Fine Arts



Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words). Looking through Imogen's work I was amazed by the clarity of contrast she captured in all of her images. She studied botanical photography in the mid 1920's, but soon turned to industrial landscapes depicting the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland. She later became more interested in the human figure and became a photographer for Vanity Fair. In her photographs it is easy to see that the hands always held an emotion emanating from their position. Belonging to group F/64 she helped modernize photography based on "precisely exposed images of natural and found objects."




Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Blaine Anderson

Title: FSA photograph
Artist: Russell Lee
Medium: Not specified
Year: 1937

Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)? Russell Lee's notoriety was gained by working for the Farm Security Administration. He criss-crossed the United States documenting the plight of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers during the dust bowl and great depression. These photographs were of both urban and rural areas. His team's photographs were used by newspapers, books, magazines, posters, and exhibitions. During World War II he helped the U.S. Airforce by using aerial photography to help train pilots. After the war he documented the life of the average coal worker. The conditions, stores, medical facilities, etc. His last years were spent teaching photography and the University of Texas. He was the first photography professor employed by the U of T.




Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words). Russell Lee's work seems to set apart major scenes in American History. He documented the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, segregation in the South, U.S. Airman, Japanese Internment, snake handling in Kentucky. The list could go on. He does a great job of expressing the realities of life in his work. Always focusing on the particular plight of his subjects. The framing of his photographs are always interesting and add a lot to the finished work.




Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Blaine Anderson

Ben Shahn

Title:

Artist: Ben Shahn

Medium:

Year:



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?





Born Sept. 12, 1898 — died March 14, 1969. As a youth he worked as a lithographer's apprentice; he later attended New York University and the National Academy of Design. In 1931 – 33 he achieved fame with a series of gouache paintings inspired by the Sacco-Vanzetti case, combining realism and abstraction in the service of sharp sociopolitical comment. In 1933 he assisted Diego Rivera with his Rockefeller Center mural and worked for the Public Works of Art Project. In 1935 – 38 he depicted rural poverty while working as an artist and photographer for the Farm Security Administration. After World War II he concentrated on easel painting, poster design, and book illustration.







Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

Most of his work looks like drawings to me or I should say posters. His work looks more like some art project or I might say some one with mental problems. They looked disturbing to me and I would have to say that his work is not my cup of tea…When I think of photos I want to see places or people and not what he was doing.









Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog):

lori

Marion Post Wolcott

Title: Two African-American children and their home located near Wadesboro, North Carolina, US.

Artist: Marion Post Wolcott

Medium: Photography

Year: December, 1938



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?





Marion Post was a noted photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation. Born in New Jersey, she was sent to boarding school, spending time at home with her mother in Greenwich Village when not at school. Here she met many artists and musicians and became interested in dance. She studied at The New School.



She trained as a teacher, and went to work in a small town in Massachusetts. Here she saw the reality of the Depression and the problems of the poor. When the school closed she went to Europe to study with her sister Helen. Helen was studying with Trude Fleischmann, a Viennese photographer. Marion showed Flieschmann some of her photographs and was told to stick to photography.



Because of the Nazi attacks on the Jewish population, she and her sister had to return to America for safety. At the New York Photo League she met Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand who encouraged her. Ralph Steiner took her portfolio to show Roy Stryker, head of the Farm Security Administration, and Paul Strand wrote a letter of recommendation. Stryker was impressed by her work and hired her immediately.



Her photographs for the FSA often explore the political aspects of poverty and deprivation. They also often find humor in the situations she encountered. Her work is some of the finest in the extensive archive.



In 1941 she met Lee Wolcott. When she had finished her assignments for the FSA she married him, and later had to fit in her photography around raising a family and a great deal of travelling and living overseas.





Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



When I look at her work I want to know what happened to the people she photographed. Where are they at today, for example the kids in the photo would be around 80 years old if they are still around. It would be very interesting to do a follow up photo and interview of some of these people.







Name: Joe Ulwelling

Danny Lyon

Title: "Bikeriders" collection

Artist: Danny Lyon

Medium:

Year: 1967



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Danny Lyon started as a self-taught photographer who eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. Soon after, he worked at photographing during events such as the Civil Rights Movement and committees to prevent violence, as well as many others. He also created books and films and photographed other subjects on his own time. One of his well known collections is called "Bikeriders." I really liked almost all of these images because each one was different, capturing a new view on what it means to be a part of a biker gang. The one I chose features the jackets of the late '60's bikers. While still appearing to be a completely "badass" image, it shows off the fashion of being accepted into the bikers. While the focal point is still the back of the man's jacket, it also give's an insight to a possible everyday hangout spot for all the bikers.







Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

Like I said before, I really like the fashion statement made here. I also really like the way the leather shines, and the overall amazing contrast in the image. Because the jacket has so much going on, the detail had to be brought out really well and I think Danny Lyon did a really good job on that as well. The picture is absolutely perfect- I love the way everyone's looking in the same direction because it leads your eye from the focal point (the jacket) to the left- all the way off the page, because I want to know what's going on and what they're all looking at. The ONLY thing I might change, if he wanted to bring the jacket more and make it more striking, is take out all the other people except the guy wearing the jacket. I think it would bring out the detail even more, but again, the image isn't staged which in this case seems like a good thing.









Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Shannon

Edward Steichen

Title: Wind Fire

Artist: Edward Steichen

Medium: Photograph

Year: 1921



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography?



Steichen was born Éduard Jean Steichen in Bivange, Luxembourg, and immigrated to the United States in 1880. At the age of fifteen, Steichen began a four-year lithography apprenticeship with the American Fine Art Company of Milwaukee. Having come across a camera shop near to his work, he persuaded himself to buy his first camera, a secondhand Kodak box "detective" camera, in 1895. Steichen and his friends pooled together their funds, rented a small room in a Milwaukee office building, and began calling themselves the Milwaukee Art Students League. The group also hired Richard Lorenz and Robert Schade for occasional lectures.

Steichen met Alfred Stieglitz in 1900. In that first meeting, Steiglitz expressed praise for Steichen's background in painting, and also bought three photographic prints of Steichen's. In 1902, when Stieglitz was formulating what would become Camera Work, he asked Steichen to design the logo for the magazine, with a custom typeface.

Steichen began experimenting with color photography in 1904, and was one of the first people in the United States to use the Autochrome Lumière process. In 1905, Steichen helped create the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession with Stieglitz.

In 1911, Steichen was "dared" to promote fashion as a fine art by the use of photography. Steichen then took photos of gowns designed by couturier Paul Poiret. This is now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot. That is, photographing the garments in such a way as to convey a sense of their physical quality as well as their formal appearance, as opposed to simply illustrating the object.

After World War I, during which he commanded the photographic division of the American Expeditionary Forces, he reverted to straight photography, gradually moving into fashion photography. Steichen's 1928 photo of actress Greta Garbo is recognized as one of the definitive portraits of Garbo.









Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work.



I was quite interested in the varied activities of Edward Steichen. Self taught artist, painter, photographer, calligrapher, etc. I am also very interested in his family history and ancestry. I seem to remember the Steichen name being mentioned in my background, and know they were from Luxemburg. I plan to pursue this investigation.







Name: Joe Ulwelling