Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Early 20th Century
Lewis Hine
• Lewis Hine was an American
sociologist who took up
photography in 1905.
• He used it as a documentary
tool, to show the working class
conditions of the poor
immigrants (especially
children) from Europe.
• By the 1930’s, with the help of
his photographs, child labor
was controlled.
Jacques Henri Lartigue
• He started taking photos when he
was 6, his subject matter being
primarily his own (privileged) life
and the people and activities in it.
• Born outside of Paris, he is most
famous for his stunning photos of
automobile races, planes and
fashionable Parisian women from
the turn of the century.
Alfred Stieglitz
• Owned Gallery 291 which
helped bring art photography
to the same level of
appreciation in America as
painting and sculpture.
• Published the magazine
Camera Work
• Later used this space to
introduce to the United States
the early modernist art works
from European artists such as
Matisse, Rodin, Rousseau,
Cezanne, and Picasso.
• Also known for his marriage to
painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
Edward
Weston
• Cofounder of F64.
• Began as a Pictorialist,
but later renounced it
in favor of “straight
photography”.
• Known for his nudes
and inanimate objects
reminiscent of the
human form.
Minor White
• He became involved with a circle
of influential photographers
including Stieglitz, Weston, and
Ansel Adams; hearing Stieglitz's
idea of "equivalents" from
Stieglitz was crucial to the
direction of White's work.
• The "equivalents" of White were
often photographs of barns,
doorways, water, the sky, or simple
paint peeling on a wall: things
usually considered mundane, but
often made special by the quality
of the light in which they were
photographed.
James Van Der Zee
• James Van Der Zee (born in 1886)
was an African American
photographer best known for his
portraits of Black New Yorkers.
• He was a leading figure in the
Harlem Renaissance.
• Harlem Renaissance was a
flowering of African American art,
literature, music and culture in the
United States during the 1920’s &
30’s led primarily by the African
American community based in
Harlem, New York City.
Henri CartierBresson
• Henri CartierBresson French
photographer known for capturing
the “decisive moment”.
• CartierBresson is considered to be
the father of modern
photojournalism.
• He was one of the first serious
photographers to shoot in the
smaller 35mm format.
• He helped to develop the "street
photography" style that influenced
generations of photographers that
followed.
Man Ray
• American artist who spent most of
his career in Paris, France.
• Perhaps best described simply as a
modernist, he was a significant
contributor to both the Dada and
Surrealist movement.
• Best known in the art world for his
avantgarde photography, Man
Ray produced major works in a
variety of media and considered
himself a painter above all.
André Kertész
• André Kertész, born in 1894,
was a Hungarianborn
photographer distinguished by
unusual compositions and by
his early efforts in developing
the photo essay.
• Used unorthodox camera angles
and symbolism.
• Kertész is now recognized as
one of the seminal figures of
photojournalism.
The W.P.A. Works Progress Admininstration
• During the Great Depression
of the 1930’s, the US
government (under FDR)
hired photographers to
document the struggle of its
citizens.
• Best known were Dorothea
Lange and Walker Evans.
• The image on the right,
“Migrant Mother” may be
the best known of all images
made during this time.
Dorothea Lange: About Migrant Mother
The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of
photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo,
California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor
around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave
this account of the experience:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do
not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she
asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same
direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty
two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields,
and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.
There she sat in that lean to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to
know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality
about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Life Magazine
• Life was the first all
photography U.S. news
magazine and dominated the
market for more than forty
years.
• The magazine’s place in the
history of photojournalism is
considered its most important
contribution to publishing.
• The image depicted on the
cover is by Eugene Smith.
W. Eugene Smith
• William Eugene Smith (1918
1978) was an American
photojournalist known for his
refusal to compromise
professional standards and his
brutally vivid World War II
photographs.
• On Okinawa, Smith was hit by
mortar fire. After recovering,
Smith continued at Life and
perfected the photo essay from
1947 to 1954.
Robert Frank
• Swiss photographer
• His most notable work, the 1958 photographic book titled simply The Americans,
was heavily influential in the postwar period
• Skeptical outsider's view of American society.
• Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with compositing and
manipulating photographs.
Irving Penn
• American photographer
born in 1917.
• Known as “The aristocrat
of fashion photography”.
• Penn is known for his
fashion, portrait and still
life photography that blurs
the line between
commercial and fine art
photography.
Arnold Newman
• Arnold Newman is famous for
portraying artists, writers,
actors, composers, politicians in
his unique style.
• places the subject in a carefully
composed (rule of thirds)
setting to capture the essence of
their work and personality.
• Has become one of the world's
most renowned portrait
photographers.
• *End of Section 2