Gary Winograd

Garry Winogrand photographed to see what things looked like photographed. He first picked up a camera in the 1950's and didn't put it down until his untimely death in 1984. During the 30 years he photographed, Winogrand created numerous images, produced five books, and exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad. He shot in the street, from the hip, up close with a wide-angle lens, often tilting the camera. He was a prolific shooter and his images capture what is known to photographers as the 'decisive moment.'

Winogrand's subject was America. He documented the city and the urban landscape, concentrating on its unusual people and capturing odd juxtapositions of animate and inanimate objects. Winogrand began photographing in New York, doing commercial work. He was inspired by Walker Evans' 1938 book American Photographs and for the first time realized that photographs could communicate something special and unique. Impressed by not only Evans, but also by Robert Frank, whose book The Americans also came out in 1958, Winogrand emulated their intelligent use of the photographic medium. And immediately set out to carve his own niche as an imagemaker who participated in, as well as documented contemporary life. Winogrand made the city, the zoo, the airport, and the rodeo his home, and spent endless hours photographing there. A photographer of this sort is a wanderer, constantly roaming the globe, clicking the shutter wherever he went.

Winogrand's photographs catch that odd moment where unrelated activities coincided, and it is the nature of these juxtapositions that sets his work apart from other photographers. He photographed all subjects with the same detached but observant eye, making complex compositions through which the viewer weaves. In his first book The Animals (1969), photographs of people and animals at the zoo are both a humorous and sarcastic look at the human race. The animals exhibit human-like qualities and when photographed in relation to humans it is often hard to tell who is performing for whom. In one shot an elderly woman wearing diamond studded pointy sunglasses looks out from the lower right hand corner of the image. Behind her two rhinos butt heads, their bodies echoing the shape of her glasses. In another zoo photograph a couple rests against an animal cage, their backs turned to the animal who visually will cross their paths, breaking their interaction apart. Much of the action on Winogrand's photographs is implied. The pictures exist before, in anticipation of that which is about to occur.

Winogrand's other books include Women are Beautiful (1975), Public Relations (1977), and Stock Photographs: The Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo (1980). For Women are Beautiful Winogrand photographed women on the streets of New York. He pictured them going about their business, unaware that they were being photographed. The women pictured are determined and fierce, and not necessarily feminine or beautiful. The pictures seem to be less about a particular subject than where the subject lies in space and how the light falls to illuminate them and their surroundings.

Public Relations was a project to "photograph the effect of the media on events." The photographs in this series include pictures taken at sports arenas as well as at special parties and events. Shot with a flash, these images not only document a particular time and place in American history (like a Muhammad Ali press conference, or a dinner for the Apollo 11 astronauts), but they give us a glimpse of how these situations were created for the media.

This exhibition juxtaposes a selection of the photographs he made in New York City with those from Los Angeles. Those of New York are dark and dense. Shot from the hip, often at an angle, they are packed compositions that usually feature a central figure or couple juxtaposed with peripherals that echo the central image. In photographing Los Angeles, Winogrand opened up his compositions, allowing light the fill the frame. These images feature the lure of Los Angeles--snake charmers on Venice Beach, tourists in Hollywood, the Huntington Gardens and the Santa Monica pier. The characters who populate these places, celebrating the complexities of their interactions, is the subject of these images. Winogrand might document a single small gesture or look, but the photograph makes that moment significant. And it is this collection of significant moments that constitutes Winogrand's unique view of the world.
I appreciate that I got to find the photographer of the famous iconic Marilyn Monroe on the subway grate in the white dress. Did you know that Debbie Reynolds now owns that dress and is putting it up for auction at the end of this summer? In the Animal's cover I think it is reaaly interesting how the elephants trunk is curved up to the childs hand and if you look behind it you see the wall which is curved upwards like the elephants trunk pointing to the title.

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited for the past thirty years. His career began at the early age of fourteen, when he made the precocious move of presenting his photographs to Edward Steichen, then curator of photography at MOMA. Recognizing Shore's talent, Steichen bought three of his works. At the age of 24 Shore became the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has also had one-man shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman House, Rochester, and the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His series of exhibitions at Light Gallery in New York in the early 1970's sparked new interest in color photography and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.

Most recently, Stephen Shore has photographed campaigns for Nike and Cadbury, fashion stories for Elle and Details, and a fashion story with world-renowned stylist Venetia Scott for Another Magazine. Other campaigns include Bottega Veneta S/S 06, Orange 2004/5 and Titleist 2004. A regular contributor to W Magazine, he's also picked up an SPD Gold Medal for a photo story in Details Magazine about a minor league baseball team.

Books of his photographs include Uncommon Places; The Gardens at Giverny; Stephen Shore: Luzzara; The Velvet Years, Andy Warhol’s Factory, 1965-1967; Stephen Shore: Photographs, 1973-1993; and American Surfaces, 1972. In 1998, Johns Hopkins University Press published The Nature of Photographs, a book he wrote about how photographs function visually. Since 1982 he has been the chairman of the photography program at Bard College where he is the Susan Weber Soros Professor in the Arts. He is represented by 303 Gallery in New York City.

Stephen Shore captures the most beautifiul lighting. The sky's in his portraits are breathtaking. I really enjoy his work because I feel like I can step into his work a be at that location visiting. I would be right there next that kid in the water taking a nice swim. Just like with his pictures of the pancakes I could sit down and just start eating. I find his work very enjoyable and fun!

William Eggleston

American photographer. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, he studied photography at Vanderbilt University, Mississippi, but had worked self‐taught since getting his first camera at 18. From 1965 he experimented with colour, using it exclusively from 1967. Influenced by Cartier Bresson, whose book The Decisive Moment (1952) made an early and lasting impression on him, he belonged, like Winogrand and Arbus, to the generation that succeeded Walker Evans. Eggleston presents his work mostly in small format, using the vibrant dye transfer process.He achieved a breakthrough with his first one‐man show, William Eggleston's Guide, at MoMA, New York, in 1976. Since then, notwithstanding some early criticisms of his work as trivial or vulgar, he has been regarded as a pioneer of artistic colour photography.He worked initially on his home ground, the Deep South, photographing what appear to be typically American scenes: nondescript interior and exterior spaces, in which ceiling fans, an open refrigerator, garage entrances, or a street intersection acquire a kind of iconic resonance. From the 1980s he has documented his regular journeys through Europe, Africa, and Asia in lengthy photo series. He captures his subject matter as if by chance, in a snapshot‐like manner, adopting a ‘democratic’ approach that does not privilege particular types of scene or object. 

 William Eggleston's Style to me is Unique. It at time reminds me of when my kids get a hold of my camera and take pictures of things that I don't normally see because they have such a different sense of perspective than me. I also think that his use of line to draw your eye throughout the photo is interesting. I bet I can find some interesting stuff around my house

PHO 208 Joel Meyerowitz

Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Born in New York in 1938, he began photographing in 1962, becoming a “street photographer” in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. However, Meyerowitz works exclusively in colour.

As an early (mid-60s) advocate of colour photography, Meyerowitz was instrumental in transforming a general resistance to colour film into an almost universal acceptance. His first book, Cape Light, is considered a classic of colour photography and has sold more than 100,000 copies over its 25-year life. He has also produced 14 other books, including Bystander: The History of Street Photography, and Tuscany: Inside the Light.

In 1998 he produced and directed his first film, POP – an intimate diary of a three-week road trip Meyerowitz made with his son, Sasha, and father, Hy. The central character of this odyssey is an unpredictable, street-wise, witty 87 year-old with a failing memory. POP is both a clear-eyed look at aging and a meditation on the significance of memory.

Within a few days of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Meyerowitz began to create an archive of the destruction and recovery in and around Ground Zero. The World Trade Center Archive now includes over 8,000 images, and will be available for research, exhibition, and publication at museums in New York and Washington, DC.

The only photographer to be granted unimpeded access to Ground Zero after September 13, 2001, Meyerowitz takes a meditative stance toward the work and workers there, systematically documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation.

The US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs asked the Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz to create a special exhibition of images from the archive, to send around the world.

The 28 images that make up “After September 11: Images from Ground Zero”, presented in a 30 inch x 40 inch format, relate the catastrophic destruction of the attacks to the physical, human dimensions of the recovery effort. Each is its own, succinct reminder of the magnitude of destruction and loss brought by the attacks, and the heroic nature of the response. Together, they serve as a stunning reminder of that extraordinary day, and the days that followed.

Between 2001 and 2004, the exhibition traveled to more than 200 cities in 60 countries, and was seen by over three and a half million people.

In addition to the travelling shows, Meyerowitz was invited to represent the United States at the 8th Venice Biennale for Architecture, along with images from the archive. In September 2002, he exhibited 73 images – some as large as 22 feet wide – in lower Manhattan.

The Venice show is now touring the US, and in September 2006 Phaidon Press published 450 of Meyerowitz’s World Trade Center Archive photographs in a monumental book: “Aftermath.”

Meyerowitz is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many others.

I find Meyerowitz work inspiring and think how brave this guy is taking risks walking the streets and taking pictures of random people and its works. He is a really accurate note taker as well. He will record the color that he is acutally seeing so he can replicate an image as closely as possible as to what he sees.
I really would love a housing for my camera so I can take some underwater pictures and do a mermaid collection.

John Pfahl

          John Pfahl was born February 17, 1939 in New York, New York. He received his BFA from Syracuse University, school of art in 1961. Later, receiving his MA from Syracuse University, School of Communications in 1968. He taught from 1968-85 at the school of photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. He resigned as a full Professor to pursue a photographic career. During, 1983-84 he was a visiting Professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. From 1986- present he is an adjunct professor, at the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.

         Pfahl  has participated  in over 100 group and solo exhibitions and his works have been displayed in at least forty four public and corporate collections. In his first series "Altered Landscapes" Pfahl has a innovative way of looking at nature. His use of geometric shapes transforms something ordinary into something completely unique. In his collection "Power Places" from 1981-84 Pfahl makes something beautiful out of something that is actually monstrous to society as a whole. He captures the unleashing power that nuclear power plants withhold. Environmentalists view his photos as chilling because of the damage to the planet. He  traveled many locations to shoot portraits of the nuclear power plants to bring them together in a collection.

                                                
         I really find it interesting how Pfahl can take something ordinary and see a correlation with something absolutely different. I never would have thought lace can look like a wave, but  Pfahl did and captured it with success.  Pfahl also inspires me to think up of new ways to think about collections. I plan on incorporating more nature into my next collection and possibly adding something to make the ordinary extraordinary.
    

PHO208 Muhammed Muheisen

In this photograph by Muhammed Muheisen I love how the colors are throughout from the small dot of red by the models foot. The dots carry my eye to the top left corner. I'm just wondering if that is a real model or a mannequin because, the title is a man cleaning a billboard? Is the man stagged cleaning the billboard because, he also happens to be wearing red and black? I love the car in this too.

PHO208 Adreas Gursky

I really like this photograph because it is at the beach. I am from florida so I grew up around the water my whole life until I moved to TX. Although, I have never seen a beach with as many patrons or umbrellas as this.  It seems like the umbrellas continue on for miles. I wonder if the umbrellas are staged or if they are really there all of the time and if so I want to go to this beach. I think that Andreas Gursky challenges me to look for beauty in everyday things that I see and turn them into art.