Skip Bolen

Skip Bolen
Seeing as how next semester in 209 I'll be learning about black and white photography, I wanted to find a black and white photographer who inspires me. I came across Skip Bolen the other day and I'm really fond of his work. Bolen is mainly known for his photographs that represent the lifestyle and culture in News Orleans. He recently has been traveling to NYC and Los Angeles on occasions to keep taking photographs of the same landscape as it disappears over time. One of his well known collections is the one where he went to Six Flags in New Orleans five years after Katrina hit and documented what happened to the place. Out of all his collections, that one has to be the most interesting for me. What I like about the pictures of Six Flags is how he managed to take such a happy place, even though it went through a disaster, and really capture the eerie side of it. He photographs things that will make you think of Six Flags and having fun, yet he has turned what could be a happy place into a very depressing place through his photos. He has excellent composition and always seems to have the right things in the right spots. He also has great lighting and manages to play the shadows of the roller coasters off one another making the image more interesting. Overall, my favorite image has to be the one with the "Enjoy Your Day" sign. At the top of the sign it says New Orleans so while the sign is laying in the debris, right away you can image this photograph was taken after Katrina. The image is so powerful because the sign is telling people to enjoy themselves, but how can them enjoy themselves in such devastation? I'm really fond of his work and can't wait until I can make images like his.

Joe MCNally

Joe McNally
McNally is photographer who has been doing what he loves for the past 30 years and is known internationally for his ability to create complex photographs with his expert use of color and light. Over the years, his images have been on the covers of New York Entertainment Weekly, TIME, Fortune, Newsweek, Men's Journal, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. They have also been featured in National Geographic too many times to count. McNally is very well known of due to his "Faces of Ground Zero" project. He took the only life sized polaroid camera in the world and took pictures of over 200 people involved in Ground Zero. The life sized portraits then traveled the world and to this day are considered one of the most important artist efforts involving the 9/11 tragedy. In the past two years of his career, McNally has had two books published, The Hot Shoes Diary, and The Moment it Clicks, which is the one I came across of. I absolutely love everything about his images!! While looking through his pictures you can tell he's an expert at color, lighting and flash. (I happen to come across him while we had the flash assignment and he truly inspired me to work 10x harder than I already was) His composition of his images are outstanding. With his portraits, a lot of the time he puts the subject in their environment, but then in an unusual place after that. For example, a ballerina dancing on a roof, or a gymnast on a balancing beam in a wheat field. I think that is so creative! No one thinks of doing stuff like that but it makes amazing pictures. The ballerina has an elegant background to go with her elegant posture and the color of the wheat field makes the balancing beam with the gymnast so it's a very settle touch. With the gymnast it also can symbolize how wheat blowing in the wind can almost look graceful and when a gymnast is performing, they look graceful too and make what they're doing look easy. McNally also manages to capture stories in almost all his photographs. He even gets up high with those people who change the lights in radio towers to capture their stories. Which brings me to my next point, his point of view! McNally's point os view is so creative, artistic and original. He crawls down into spaces that I would image to be uncomfortable, just to get the shot. He truly is thinking outside the box whenever trying taking pictures. Another thing that I really like about him is that he seems like a down-to-earth guy. In his books he tells you how to get the shot he is showing! He also doesn't sugarcoat anything, he tells it exactly like it is. Besides all that, he has workshops all the time teaching people how to take landscape pictures and how to use a flash. (It is now my goal to one day go to one of his workshops :] ) Out of all his pictures, my favorite is this one of the firefighter. The colors are a complete chaos, but it works because that's how a fireman's life is, or so I'd imagine, everything is moving so fast around them but they still have to remain calm and focus. McNally has captured that feeling with the dark spot of the firefighters face and all the colors moving fast all around him. You get the sense that he's in a hurry. You almost get the feeling that he's ready for a fire or something since he's face is red too. I have no idea how McNally managed to get this shot but I feel that's part of the beauty of it, it's perfect.

I think I've finally found my favorite photographer.

Robert Glenn Ketchum & Richard Misrach

Robert Glenn Ketchum
Robert Ketchum received his Masters of Fine Arts from the California Institute of Fine Arts in 1974 and then began working on his landscape photography. Today, he is a very well known photographer-environmentalist who has been shaping the way people view our natural landscape for more than 30 years. In his career, he has received the Master Series distinction from American Photo. Besides Ketchum, only four other photographs have received that award since the magazine began publishing. I personally found Robert's photographs to be absolutely breath taking and there isn't a single picture that I've seen that I haven't loved. Unlike other photographs, he goes around taking photographs of the type of nature we don't typically see everyday. For example, it's not everyday we see a giant snow cap mountain top up close with all it's natural beauty. He has a remarkable way of making every bit of land look beautiful as if he's trying to preserve the land and all it's natural beauty. When trying to pick out my favorite image of his, I almost had to stop looking at pictures all together because the more I looked, the more I loved!! Even though it was very tough to decide, I feel the best image of his is this image of the trailer and the dog. It's so simple, yet who would image taking a picture of that? Plus, the monochromatic tone of it sets an extra calming mood for it which is really nice.

Richard Misrach
Misrach is an American photographer who is best known for his on going series, Desert Cantos, along with some of his other work including, Cancer Alley. He was also one of the very few photographers who was very influential during the renaissance of color photography and larger displays of images. Richard has such an interesting way of photographing the desert that I enjoyed a lot. With his photographs he isn't just showing the scenery of a place, but he is showing what man is doing to that place. With his images he is showing all the different types of ways man leaves marks on the desert and other parts of the earth. He also manages to capture the beauty of how mother nature leaves her own mark on the earth after a disaster has struck. The image that stuck out to me the most was this one below. I feel like this was something Misrach probably just walked up to in the desert, but the way he positioned it in the camera really captures it's beauty. The tire marks in the sand make a very appealing pattern which then leads your eye to the sand mound in the background. Only a true professional could have seen tire marks in the sand and turned it into a photograph.

Annie Leibovitz & Chris Verene

Annie Leibovitz
When Leibovitz came to the United States she got a job at the Rolling Stone magazine just as a regular cast photographer. However, in 1973 she was bumped up by the publisher and became the chief photographer for the magazine, where her work helped shape the magazine into what it has become today. She is very well known for her photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1980. After spending some time looking at her work, she really inspires me. I feel like one of my biggest challenges when taking pictures of people is putting them in an environment of their own. In her photographs it seems like she doesn't have any problem putting people in their own environment. And even if she doesn't place the subject in a environment of their own, she has the ability to tell a story in all her images. I really admire her work because she is doing something I wish I could do with all of my portraits. Out of all of her photographs, the one I saw that I liked the most was her famous photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. After reading about this image I learned that at first both Lennon and Ono planned on being naked, however Leibovitz asked Ono to keep all her dark clothes on. The way she photographed them is amazing. She made it look as is Ono is just a giant cold, black, void and Lennon is gripping onto her for dear life. The only part of Ono's body you can see is her face and I don't think that just happened on accident, something that powerful had to have been planned. Plus, she took this photograph only 5 hours before he was shot and killed. It's absolutely amazing and will forever be a famous image.

Chris Verene

Verene is a very well-known American photographer that has been taking pictures since the mid 1990's. Chris is known for his Camera Club performance that started his Self-Esteem Salon and also his monograph about the Galesburg family. To this day, Verene's collections are still displayed in many New York studios and he continues to add more photographs to them as the years go by. What I enjoy about his work, is his ability to control the flash. At first it looks like his photos are a bit too bright, but all his images are the exact same, showing that he knows what he's doing and he's controlling that extra brightness. I also admire his ability to document a family's or community's spirits just through his images.  He doesn't sugar coat the American life in his photographs; he shows the nitty gritty of things not exactly everyone wants to see, but I think that is what makes his photographs so powerful. One of my favorite photographs of his is this image of the basement. I love how he took such a trashy and unpleasant place to photograph, and he turned it into a beautiful photograph. That's something I want to be able to do, so seeing images like this really inspire me. Another thing I really like about his photographs is how he puts little captions with them and writes about them. I always like to read what he has to say about them. It makes me a bit more interested.

Garry Winogrand & Ralph Eugene Meatyeard

Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand was mainly known for being a street photograph with a majority of his images taking place during the 1960's (even though some to this day are still not developed). He soon published a book called, The Animals, which was a collection of images from Coney Island and Bronx Zoo showing the interactions between animals and humans. After receiving many awards for his photographs, he went on to teach photography classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin where he later passed away. To me, Winogrand seems like a cookie-cutter example of being at the right place at the right time. His images are so entertaining to look at because his was able to photogenically capture the environmental feel you get while walking down the street. You can tell he didn't try and pose anyone, yet the composition is still very on point and every thing seems to stay very well balanced in his images. The photograph below would have to be my favorite. I personally think the thing that makes this picture really work and stand out to me is the lighting coming from behind the girls and the way it crosses in front of them. This isn't something that happens often, or for very long for that matter. He really was always at the right place at the right time.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Meatyard was not the typical photograph who starts taking pictures of anything and every thing from a very young age;  he didn't get his first camera until the 1950's to take pictures of his son. He was soon sucked into the photography world and began joining photography clubs and attending summer workshops. He had his own darkroom where he did most of his work which was inspired by the jazz era. He continued taking pictures right up until his death in 1972. I don't really care for Meatyard's work overall. He has a lot of pictures of people in masks which I've tried to figure out some type of meaning for them for awhile now and I can't think of anything, I just don't get them. Plus, they're kind of creepy looking. Then his motion pictures in the woods are just a bit too blurry for me. Yes, I do understand it's the woods and every thing, but I feel the image looses something when the camera is moved around that much. Some of his other motion images like the child jumping out the window and the other child standing in front of the decaying window, just seem to lack a story and interest in me. His pictures just don't grab my attention like I wish they would. Out of all his photographs though, I did enjoy this one, maybe because it made me giggle. It shows a funny story, even though it's a sad situation. The guy has a hook for a hand, but in the other hand he is holding a mannequin hand. The way he is holding that fake hand almost makes it look as if some woman is standing outside the frame, but once you look closely you can see it's a fake hand along with his. Unlike the rest of Meatyard's photographs, I felt like this one was very creative and had a cute little story to it. Plus the title is called, "Hands," I mean what's not to love?!

Stephen Shore & William Eggleston

Stephen Shore
Stephen is a self-taught photographer who started taking his first few photographs at the young age of nine. By the time Shore was 24, he was the second living photographer to have a solo exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since then, he has published many books and taken a few trips cross country photographing his journey as he goes. I really enjoy all of Shore's work. His images are perfect examples for not only what we're learning in class right now, but everything we've learned in class so far. I really like how every thing in his photographs are in focus. Even though it almost makes them look like snap snots, he pulls it off to make them look beautiful. He also has a very creative way of showing space along with the place. A perfect example, is this picture. The place itself is very crowded yet yet Shore does an excellent job framing the image with the trucks and including all the food in front of the building, yet is still able to show the building. This photograph shows the environment in it's whole and is very successful when it comes to space and place.

William Eggleston

While growing up, William was always interested in visual media but didn't really get into photography until he was introduced to it while attending college. He started photographing in black and white but then moved on to color in the mid 1960's. Soon after, in the early 1970's Eggleston taught at Harvard and while there he made his first portfolio. Since then he published numerous photography books and portfolios. I'm kind of on the edge when it comes to Eggleston's photographs. I really like his point of views because he photographs places I would never think of. Looking at his photographs gives me ideas of things I could try in the future next time I shoot. On the other hand though, sometime I don't understand why he puts certain things in certain parts of the frame. Every once in awhile there will be a picture with the subject in the middle and I really don't care for it. Compared to the rest of his work, those images don't look like he took them. My favorite photograph of his has to be this one. I love how the fabric of the old woman's dress and the coach clash yet it makes such a classy picture. This picture can be so dated just by what she's wearing and what she's sitting on. I don't think Eggleston posed her either, making this photo more like a snap shot, but he seemed to make it work and it came out awesome.

Joel Meyerowitz & John Phahl

Joel Meyerowitz
Joel is a New York photographer who was one of the first to start shooting in color despite not many people supporting him at first. He continued to shoot in color and became one of the first photographers to shoot in color exclusively. All together, in his life he has written 16 books on photography which have become very well known. He was also one of the first and only photographers at the site of 9/11 right when it happened. When it comes to Meyerowitz's images, there are some I really enjoy, and others I don't care for at all. I don't love all his work, but, I do love a handful of it. I love how his photographs are so simple, yet so elegant. He has a bunch of things I personally think anyone could take a picture of, but I don't think anyone could pull it off like he does. I also don't think many people would have a creative eye like Meyerowitz. My favorite picture by him has to be this diner picture. I like how the cars date the pictures, but the quality and resolution of the picture make it look like it was taken yesterday. I also enjoy the way the colors work with one another. You have the yellow lights coming from the diner, the red sign and then the blue sky in the background. They all are very balanced and one isn't overtaking the other. Overall, it's a very well thought out photograph.

John Phahl
I couldn't find out much about John except he is also a New York photographer, and has been taking pictures the past 30 year. I read that he is now a photography professor but I was unable to find out at what college. I really admire John's work and I think it mainly is because it's so creative. It's something I never would have thought of doing and the final result always looks fantastic! He finds unique ways to make nature more interesting but only adds simple changes so nature keeps it's natural beauty. My favorite photograph of his has to the be this one with the palm trees. Everything is perfectly lined up and it must have taken him a lot of time to get it just perfect. Then the way the cool palms are up against the cool blue sky really make the beach pop out to me. I absolutely love it.

Andreas Gursky & Muhammed Muheisen

Andreas Gursky
Gursky is a son of a German commercial photographer, along with a photographer himself that's been around since before the 90's. In his photographs, Gursky has a great handle on how he uses color. Everything is balanced and mixes well together. If he was doing this project with us he wouldn't have had a problem. He has also been known to have a high point of view in a majority of his photographs. Typically, a view you wouldn't think to look at, let alone photograph, making his points of view very interesting. To me it seems as if Gursky has the ability to take a picture of something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary.  For example, he has lots of pictures of architecture that seem to be very simple, yet, it isn't nearly as easy to pull off as he makes it. I can't just go off an take a picture of apartment porches and make it look as photogenic as he did. However, at the same time seeing images that have the same kind of feel to it over and over to it get kind of boring after awhile. Don't get me wrong, I do like his work, but I think I can only handle a little of it before I get bored. Out of the pictures I saw of Gursky's, this image of the hotel has to be my favorite. The way you can look down you can see the carpet on the floors and when you look up you can see the ceilings, really catches my eye.

Muhammed Muheisen
Muhammed Muheisen is a Pakistani photographer that is known for taking pictures of other Pakistan people where some of his most famous pictures come from the recent war going on in Iraq. Even though he isn't that well known of a photographer and hasn't been around too long, he's been given lots of awards for his images including photo of the year in 2007. What I noticed in Muheisen's photographs was he has the ability to create designs even in war images where you wouldn't expect to find designs. It's not like he can stage half of the stuff he sees. Plus, the things and people he is photographing are so intense and violent, yet he seems to make it all appealing to the eye. Muheisen even seems to be able to take pictures of people dying with their dignity, instead of just shoving a camera in their face for their last few moments. His use of colors in his pictures I feel are either very good in some, or just okay. The ones that work very well together seem to have the same color scheme and blend very well. My favorite photograph of Muheisen's was this one with the little boy and the toy guns. It's just ironic that the guns are pointed at the little boy as he's wearing a shirt that says America and colors of the wall, along with the tone of the wall, all the match.

Paint Chip Critique

Before the critique I felt like I hadn't done the best job ever, but I still thought my photographs of "Yesterday's Yellow" were good. However, after the critique I realized that even though there were some good images, there were a lot of spots I could have improved on. I also learned from what was said about a few other photographs from other students on things I could try in the future or improve on.

Weaknesses:
Two of my five photographs looked like someone else took them because they weren't strong at all compared to the rest. One was a picture of an old fashioned diner that was said to have looked just like a tourist took the picture. After looking at it longer, I have to agree. I had taken other angles of the diner but there was some lens flare in them. I should have paid more attention and either gone back to shoot it again, or try even more angles. The other one that wasn't as strong was a picture of a an old soccer goal; from the angle I took the photograph it looked like I was focusing mainly on the rusted pole of the goal, instead of capturing the entire goal itself. That is another one I could have gone back and taken even more pictures of or printed out one with a better angle which portrays what I was trying to say better. Another thing I realized during critique was I need to get adjusted to printing on Red River paper. One of my pictures was a little too bright. But I'm sure with practice I'll be able to fix that in no time.

Strengths:
Three of my five photographs were said to be very strong due to the way I was able to capture almost the essence of a story. I had a picture of an old mailbox on a yellow house which you never see anymore. Everything in the picture seemed to be spot on. Another photograph was of an old yellow house with broken windows and a crooked stairway. Someone stated in the class it would have looked better if the windows were centered but I had them off centered on purpose and I personally feel that's what helped make the photograph successful. I didn't want everything to be completely centered and was trying to do the rule of thirds. Another strength I had during this project was my depth of field, especially in my photograph with the tractor. The name of the tractor was up close, then you were able to see the tree growing in and around the tractor, and finally the old house in the background, making it very successful.

Overall, it was a good critique and I have a few ideas on what I can do in the future to improve my photography.