Annie Leibovitz Analysis

After viewing these six pictures, I consider that it is almost impossible to feel sad or depressed when looking at Elliott Erwitt work. Finally, the essay will be finished by mentioning a quote of him that I believe perfectly represents what photography is about and how it reaches out to most people: "It's about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.

Taking photographs may seem simple, but being a photographer is more than browsing through the viewfinder and pushing the exposure button. A photographer needs to know how to analyze the scene, speak in words that language cannot, and reach to the souls of people through a picture. During the Great Depression, many photographers captured the scenes of poverty and grief. However, there was only one photographer that truly captured the souls of Americans. According to Roy Stryker, Dorothea Lange "had the most sensitivity and the most rapport with people" (Stryker and Wood 41). Dorothea Lange was a phenomenal photographer that seized the hearts of people during the 1930s and beyond, and greatly affected the times of the Great Depression.

To begin with, Lange helped perceive the poor living conditions of the 1900’s through her photo of the migrant mother and three children. For instance, Lange with her photo of the migrant mother helped raise awareness, for the federal government gave the pea pickers camp, where the migrant mother had been distinguished, “twenty thousand pounds of food”. (Starr 48) The photo of the unfortunate pea pickers helped people realize how hopeless they really were. This creating a willingness to help. Showing Lange's photography ability to create empathy through a simple photo. In addition, the mother was so desperate for help that when the picture was taking place, “there she sat in the lean-to-tent” motionless. (Starr 47) The migrant mother was so

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is a photograph that documents a moment of distress within American history. The image works as a visual representation of suffering for those who were lucky enough not to live within the Dust Bowl region. To many it is uncertain if Lange’s image became an American Icon because of the struggle it presented or because of the eye capturing composition of it. However, with this image came forth the issue of a photos validity after photo manipulation, as Lange edited the image by removing the thumb of the mother who was a large subject. Despite the slight manipulation in Migrant Mother, the photograph still presents the situation truthfully, making the photograph function as both a work of art and a historical document.

It seemed to amaze her how they could tell her how they did theirs, but wouldn’t teach her how it’s actually done. All her paintings came from her traveling experience. I remember her saying how the clouds looked solid as she looked up and just imagined. She lived until she was 90, she died of old age. I admired the fact where she talked about how early she would wake up and what time she would be back after being out working as an artist because it showed how dedicated she was to her craft. There was a time when her drawings were put up in a museum without her knowing and she found out from someone else and got down to the bottom of

While emotions were extremely high in the sense of angst for a better life, photography provided a new sense of reality to Americans and for others around the World. Photography all around the World is unlike anything else of its kind. People are able to tell stories and elicit emotions that bring the audience to that desired response. Throughout the 1930’s, photography from governmental institutions or advancements alone brought a new beginning to the end of a terrible time that Americans all around the nation

One image in particular is of a family of 6 standing outside next to their car. While taking the photo I heard the wind blowing from the southern plains and the rumble of the car engine. I remember the smell of dust, sweat, and gasoline from the many passing families in the area. While taking it, I felt very tired and dirty thinking of what these families had been going through. Before I left after talking to the family I remember hearing one young boy say “ Daddy, how much longer do we have to drive before we can eat” and hearing those words just broke my heart. Families starving and traveling, trying to create a better future for their children.This family left their home due to a terrible drought in the 1930s, which well over 500,000 people fled the Southern Plains and of that over 200,000 were drawn to California because of the cotton crop that promised jobs in the

And for the other half of the assignment, in this part I choose contemporary photographer Sheila Pree Bright. The reason I selected Sheila Pree Bright is largely her work, which not only was amazing but also portraying wide ranges of contemporary society and its flaws. Moreover, she seems to found a way to show what Generation Y’s view on society look like as if it were a documentary kind of like the photos of Dorothea Lange. Therefore, the next paragraph I will talk about, her works and what are my thoughts on them.

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

In her most famous photograph Untitled Film Still #21 she produced an expressionistic self-portrait by portraying as a small-town girl, supposedly lost in the “Big City”. The elements and principles, though lacking in visual colour, she makes it up by having other significant elements such as the lines of the windows and structures with the subject’s eyesight directing observers throughout the picture. There is very little negative space, in addition, the subject is placed near the lower right acting as the focal point creating an asymmetrical balance to expose the uncomfortable sense of being “misplaced”. Furthermore, the camera angle from a downwards view stresses how large the surrounding is and that she is merely lost. In consideration, the background simply highlights the atmosphere that is instilled within the audience helping viewers understand the ambience of the image. It genuinely is a narrow depth of field to clarify the expression of the subject she has chosen to represent, in which is being supported by the scenario of towering skyscrapers and not vice

There is a old saying that says your eyes are they key to your soul, that saying must have came to the mind of this photographer when he say the eyes of this young lady. Even if she wasn't holding a cigarette, seeing only this girls eyes would be enough to make the most prideful of men cry their eyes out. Here eyes haunt anyone who looks at them and will make you feel sorry for her even without knowing any context around this story. The reason photographs become so iconic in our society is because you are able to capture a hole seen from one event in time, even if that event was from one hundred years ago, and still be able to have people feel so contented to this event. This photo can mean something different for every eye that sees it but the main message the author was trying to convey by taking this photo is a loss of youth and innocence.

The violent markings of the photo album and its images, however, produce an equally powerful message that jars the memory as it disrupts and distorts the photographic chronicle of her life and that of her family and friends. The result is a complex visual experience that addresses the use of images in producing knowledge and making history.

Set against the backdrop of World War II and its aftermath, the episode examines how photographers dealt with dramatic and tragic events like D-Day, the Holocaust and Hiroshima, and the questions their often extraordinary pictures raise about history as seen

Susan Sontag said photographs sends across the harmlessness and helplessness of the human life steering into their own ruin. Furthermore the bond connecting photography with departure from life tortures the human race. (Sontag 1977:64)