Web Work #5 - Barbara Morgan... Photographer & Painter.

Since very soon we will be tackling our Fast-Slow projects, I thought I would share a bit about an amazing woman who was very good at capturing images of dancers in movement, but doing it in such a way so we are able to see the image clearly - for a lack of a better word - Frozen. (Which is how I will feel if we get anymore snow :)

Barbara Morgan was born in Buffalo, Kansas in 1900... Died in 1992. She lived in both California and New York. Married Willard Morgan ( writer/photographer), met Ed Weston (photographer) which after seeing his work - she realized the value/potential of Photography as Modern Art.

She probably best know for her...Light drawings, photo montage and dance photography. These themes are shown throughout her work which was based on movement and living energy.

A Quote and an image for you to enjoy - "Previsualizing is the first essential of dance photography. The ecstatic gesture happens swiftly and is gone; unless the photographer previsions in order to fuse dance action, light and space simultaneously, there can be no significant dance picture."

I love these pictures (above and below) - the detail is amazing - she most likely used the fastest shutter speed her camera had. The model must have been really moving to get that large dress flowing so smoothly. I bet she had to "previsualizing" a lot - it must have taken many rolls of film to capture these images correctly. But so worth it, truly amazing images.

Barbara Morgan has a great history - she received art training at UCLA (1919-23), Joined the UCLA Faculty in 1925, was an advocate for modern art - when many others veered toward a more traditional approach to art. Assisted her husband in photographing modern architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra. In the beginning she just thought Photography was only useful as a record, not as an art and Lucky for Us...When she helped Weston set up for a showing, she realized that photography is an Art.

Just a few things that Barbara Achieved.

1941 Awarded American Institute of Graphic Arts Trade Book Clinic Award.
1945 Solo Exhibition Modern American Dance, Museum of Modern Art, NY.
1959 Art archaeological trip to Crete, Greece, Spain, Italy, France and England.
1972 Solo Photography Show, Museum of Modern Art, NY.
1978 Included in a book and exhibit, Recollections: Ten Women of Photography.
1988 Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by American Society of Magazine Photographers.
1968-88 Prepared major exhibitions and delivered numerous lectures and seminars.

Barbara also did Light Drawing and Photo Montage, here a few examples of that..

She described herself as a “kinetic light sculptor,” creating light drawings with an open shuttered camera in her darkened studio.

This is a video of Lois Greenfield images -Couldn't find a good one on Barbara Morgan but this one show excellent examples of capturing movement in dance.



I think Barbara would have enjoyed this type of Light Sculpting. Very similar to what she was doing but in video format.