Taryn Simon : An American Documentary Photographer

"Never Just Pictures" by Susan Bordo, is about how today's society looks at different types of media to get an idea of what they should look like. In this essay, the author tries to get the readers to take a closer look at today's

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.

Winogrand took photos of everything he saw; he always carried a camera or two, loaded and prepared to go. He sought after to make his photographs more interesting than no matter what he photographed. Contrasting many well-known photographers, he never knew what his photographs would be like he photographed in order to see what the things that interested him looked like as photographs. His photographs resemble snapshots; street scenes, parties, the zoo. A critical artistic difference between Winogrand's work and snapshots has been described this way, the snapshooter thought he knew what the subject was in advance, and for Winogrand, photography was the process of discovering it. If we recall tourist photographic practice, the difference becomes clear: tourists know in advance what photographs of the Kodak Hula Show will look like. In comparison, Winogrand fashioned photographs of subjects that no one had thought of photographing. Again and again his subjects were unconscious of his camera or indifferent to it. Winogrand was a foremost figure in post-war photography, yet his pictures often appear as if they are captured by chance. To him and other photographers in the 1950s, the previous pictures seemed planned, designed, visualized, understood in advance; they were little more than pictures, in actual fact less, because they claimed to be somewhat else the examination of real life. In this sense, the work of Garry Winogrand makes a motivating comparison to Ziller's

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

For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the

The article summaries the life and careers of Matt and Katie Ebenezer, who run Shadow-play a photography and videography company along with Katie’s Company, Katie Finn Photography located in Toowoomba,Queensland, Australia. Matt grew up in a remote, rural part of the Country. As a teen he spent time with David letterman making highlight reels of the late show. Matt’s day job at the time was an IT network administrator at a private girls’ school. He also taught the students how to edit their own videos using windows movie maker. Matt was wrapping up nine year run with the school and was ready to try something new. He dropped back to part time at the school. He took out a loan to purchase his own gear to pursue the idea of wedding videography. After five short months Matt discovered he had surpassed his goal to earn as much from video production as he did from his IT job. With his goal fulfilled he would quit his IT job and jump straight into wedding video production full time. During that time he and Katie become partners in business and in life. Katie maintained her children’s Photography using her unmarried name Finn. Matt soon realized he could make better money making corporate videos and TV commercials. To Shield his other business from his corporate clients, he and Katie came up with Shadow-play. After doing corporate work for three-years he was starting to lose the creative side to his work, so he gave

It’s crazy to think how one of the greatest super powers in the world is home to probably the most superficial, show off, easily influenced group of people in the world. From the very beginning America has been a melting pot of adaptations with nothing in our culture, even our blood line, being true American. We have this desire to show off to everyone around us about or trips and wealth whether it be with t-shirts and pictures or pink flamingos. In an essay entitled “The Plastic Pink Flamingo…” Jennifer Price uses these 1950’s lawn ornaments as a way to demonstrate her views on American culture.

When examining American photography you must discuss the Farmer Security Administration-Office of War Information, also referred to as the FSA/OWI. This administration was the single and most significant documentary photography project in the history of United States. Photographs taken by members of the FSA/OWI all display and represent American society in different ways to help give a better understanding of major historic events occurring in the United States at this time. The members of the FSA use many formal elements to help illustrate society and its cultural that will enhance our understanding of the FSA/OWI project and United States. In addition, these formal elements such as lighting, framing, subject matter, and detail are used

In 1890, Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant worked as a police reporter and photographic journalist in New York City. “How the Other Half Lives,” prompted legislative reforms, focused attention on the desperate lives of poor urban immigrants and left an enduring mark on the history of documentary photography.” (NY TIMES). During this time, America was going through social and economic stress due to rapid industrialization. It was a time full of greed and neglect from the wealthier class leaving the middle and poor class helpless and suffering day to day. Jacob Riis used his photography to document real lives that were being affected by this crisis and presented these photos to the public to open their eyes to what was going on. The economy, society, and government started to be controlled by large corporations who were owned by immigrants filled with greed and materialism. With this industrialization, Riis documented the over worked lower class who were given low wages and placed in overpriced slums. The real world did not notice the truth behind this madness until Riis’s photography opened their eyes.

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.

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.

Curated by Edward Steichen and first shown in 1955, The Family of Man Exhibition is claimed to be the most powerful and “greatest photographic exhibition of all time.” This said to be "culmination of his career" brings forward an overall idea or theme of unity and relation among all globally. The exhibition 's layout and works all display people rendering or displaying recognizable actions, as a result, having a great impact on the many people who have viewed the show. Two photographs in particular from this collection are shown to have a strong similarity to many. Both photos China. by Eastfoto and Turkey. by Herman Kreider. Black Star Agency1 display people carrying out the function of voting. Both these photos fall under the photo-essay genre and originate from different places and different times. This comparison reveals Steichen 's view on politics as abstract and universalized, helping bring us together by showing us that we are not that different from others who may be far away. They help us communicate and connect to one another, once again displaying this idea of one universal medium. In his exhibition, Steichen displays the common themes of life through photos from around the world. Despite culture or background, this exhibition 's goal was to use photography as a medium of universal language. Furthermore showing that despite these barriers mankind shares common themes; the need for love, shelter, food and so forth.

In order to compare and contrast the influences and issues through photography that affect the lives of contemporary American females to Iranian females we first need to consider the history of both countries and how that has influenced their roles in society.

One of the most exciting things about studying more recent history is almost intrinsically connected to the advent of the photographic camera, which offers spontaneous imagery of events in the moment that the artwork of the past could only attempt to recreate. The transition from black and white with a burst of color following the Second World War offered to the public eye a realistic representation of events that they had not had the opportunity to experience before. Color photographs boomed in the decades following the war, which provides historians today with a wide breadth of visual sources with which to corroborate other materials. This is especially true when examining the documentation of the counterculture in the 1960s. A book called Hippie compiled by Barry Miles offers a composite portrait of hippies in America in the 1960s, contextualized with other images from other key events outside of the realm of the

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