Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Assignment #1 - Research on Portrait Photographers PART 1

Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895 – 1989)

Dior Ballgown, 1950, NY
Japanese Bath, 1954, NY
Mary Sykes in Puerto Rico, 1938.
Jean Patchett in Grenada, 1953.
California Desert, 1948
     Louise Dahl-Wolfe’s black and white images are formally quite beautiful, with simple, but striking compositions, which are often centered or just off-center. Showing the beauty of her time is a main aspect of her fashion photography.  Dahl-Wolfe was one of the first fashion photographers to decide to shoot her portraits outdoors and make use of natural lighting and put her models in realistic, and relatable situations, as well as having distant lands and countries as her backdrop. (Her style was then known as “environmental” fashion photography.) Her lighting is soft and not contrasty at all, giving her images a nice tonal range. I think this is the reason why she was so popular in her time and that her images are still timeless and beautiful today; many photographers today use that same concept she had and many were influenced by her, most notable Richard Avedon.


Richard Avedon (1923 – 2004) 


     Richard Avedon was well known for putting his models in real situations, but it seems like he took it one step further than Dahl, as he tried to engage his models and bring out their emotions, catching them in action, often laughing. This idea probably re-defined the idea of beauty, as he honored women and wanted to portray real situations with real emotions. Avedon’s black and white photography is also truly timeless, being a bit more punchy than Dahl’s but still looking realistic and not overly contrasty. In combination with his minimalist approach he didn’t clutter the frame, but really brought out the best features of his model as well as including the environment to make his images relatable. (The images posted are more about the environment and interactions; some of his other work is very minimal, but I wanted to focus on the ones where his models are really engaged and in real-life situations.)

     Both photographer’s had a great influence on the fashion world and even still influence photographers today, with their shared concept of portraying real-life situations while also showing the fashion pieces.
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Assignment #1 - Research on Portrait Photographers PART 2

William Albert Allard (born in 1937)

Tanya and Edouard, Paris, 1988
Girls on the swings, Surprise Creek Colony, Stanford, Montana, 2005
Stephanie Stahl at bat, Surprise Creek Colony, Stanford, Montana, 2005
Buckaroo T. J. Symonds, IL cow camp, Nevada, 1979
Minor league spring training, Phoenix, Arizona, 1990

     Being a National Geographic photographer, Allard’s job was to portray reality and the people he found in those situations. You can tell that often his photographs were spontaneous, and others were posed (e.g. the farmer at the Nevada cow camp). What I think is interesting about Allard’s pictures, is that he doesn’t go to distant lands to find interesting people that the majority of the population doesn’t know about, keeping his material refreshing. His pictures are successful, because he portrays real people living in their environment and this environment becomes part of the portrayal and identity of his subjects. His pictures often also capture unique moments, such as the young children swinging on the swings, which also prove to be relatable to most viewers. The reality of the situations is really what makes his photographs so interesting and let’s his viewers peer into the private lives of his subjects. I also like the bright colours and the great tonal range of his images, which portray the environment really well.


B. Anthony Stewart

Students from Five States Smile Through the Gate of Ashley Hall, 1939
Bobbing for apples at the Martinsburg, West Virginia, Apple Harvest Festival, 1940
Children hear a story about pilgrims in Chantry House in Massachusetts, where the treasurer of the Mayflower once lived., 1953
Scientists Examine Results of Tests of Chemical Pigment in Flowers
Couple Stands Beside Waterway in Blooming Azalea Garden

     Anthony Stewart, much like Allard tried to show the real lives of people in his photographs. What I really enjoy is that he takes a lot of pictures of the youth in his time and shows how carefree that time period was. The colouring of his prints gives the images a very vintage-y feel to them as well, which is very appealing even today. Another thing that I think is interesting, is that around the time he was taking photographs for National Geographic, the photography wasn’t purely documentary. They tried to tweak certain situations, or even stage them, to give the readers a view into these supposed lives of American states and cities. This of course is quite popular today in many other fields of photography (not documentary, as today they’re often more raw), but it reminds me of a predecessor of the lifestyle genre, where people can see a photograph and believe it’s relatable and true-to life, but is actually set up. I think that his images would’ve definitely influenced other National Geographic photographers, but looking at them now, I can imagine it may even influence certain fashion photographers, who decide to follow a similar concept as Louise Dahl-Wolfe, photographing outdoors and using natural lighting, showing the models in realistic situations.
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Assignment #1 - Research on Portrait Photographers PART 3

Sources Used:
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