Tuesday, December 30, 2008

this blog is on break

I will be teaching history of photography at pratt manhattan again for the spring 2009 semester. The blog will return when the new class begins.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

post wwII developments

Some of you were either late or exhausted from presenting your b & w finals and ended up missing (part of) class. So, here are some photographers we discussed, look them up for more information.


Eliot Porter, subtle color studies of birds in nature. His work was appreciated for both its artistic and scientific qualities.


Ernst Haas, an Austrian photographer producing some of Life's earlier color photo essays.


Minor White, influenced by Weston's beliefs of photography's descriptive powers and Stieglitz emotional expressiveness.


Aarom Siskind, another photographer who found himself being influenced by the Abstract Expressionist style many painters were experimenting with.


Harry Callahan, like Siskind paid a lot of attention to linear form and also taught at the Institute of Design, the school that had been started in 1937 in Chicago by Moholy-Nagy as the New Bauhaus.

Some students from the Institute of Design:


Gary Winnogrand


Ken Josephson


Barbara Crane


Bill Brandt, english photographer often shooting the human figure up close and working with pattern / abstract design.


Otto Steinart, German working with a lot of close up photography.


Shōmei Tomatsu, working in Tokyo, doing a lot of street photography as well.

I'll put up part 2 of what you guys missed on wed. or thurs.

Next class we will meet in room 304 @ 1pm. There will be a guest lecture presented for the alternative process class we have been invited to.

Monday, December 1, 2008

African American Sharecroppers

Last class Robbie was asking about if there were any photographers documenting the African American sharecroppers of the south during the time of the FSA and after.

We spoke of Alfred Eisenstaedt, who many of you were already familiar with because of this photo



But he was also creating ones documenting the African American sharecroppers of southern states such as the family of Lonnie Fair in Mississippi.