portraiture

A portraiture is an artists representation of a person or an object. Most commonly they were of wealthy or high class people, and were taken as a repersentation of the power that person held. They were usually of people such as, kings, queens, the pope or other religious people and were posed to show power to the public. This was the persons repersentaion of them selfs. 

Also there were portraits where it was the artists veiw of the person.This usually showed the person in a bad way and added a two sided argument on the peoples veiw.

Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 - July 26, 1971) was an american photographer & writer. She was known to take photos of steriotypicals 'abnormal people' who seem surreal. These were people such as dwarfs, giants, tranvestites, nudists and circus performers. A Friend sais that Arbus said she was " afraid... that she would be knows simply as the photographer of freaks.

However apart from this she was asked to photograph a rich family over the christmas period. This family was the Matthaei family. She took many photos of the family and spent time with the children of the family. One of the photos taken of the young girl was very well interpreted, as when she grew up she agreed that she had caputed the mood and feelings she was experianceing at that age; misery.

Unfortuantly Diane Arbus experienced depression during her life similar to those experienced by her mother. On July 26, 1971, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor. Marvin Israel found her body in the bathtub two days later; she was 48 years old.

 

photo-jornalism.

Photo-journalism in general is a form of journalism, it's the taking, editing & publication of images to tell a story to the public.  The truth behind photo-journalism is not necessarily what people are led to believe. I personally believe that there is no truth behind photo-journalism as now days due to the technology change photos can be altered, edited and changed. Lately there is much debate on the truth behind photographs, as disagreements have been raised. 

During the taking of the photo, there is what is called a 'decisive moment' this is the moment chosen by the photographer to press the shutter and take the photo, this one one of the reasons that pictures were named 'untruthfull' as when taking the photo a second later or earlier would change the whole entire view of the photo.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 - August 3,2004) was a french photographer considered to be the 'godfather' of photo-journalism. In 1993 Bresson took one of the most famous pictures of the 20th century. The photo was of a man jumping over a puddle. This was later interpreted to 'Europe' jumping in to the unknown, and this was the reason the picture became so well known.


Bresson was considered as a surrealist, he took his pictures using a 'Leica' camera, and in the 20th century this was considered as new technology and a way to move on with photo-journalism.  The Lecia enabled you to look through the shutter with one eye and to see the picture being taken with the other.

Since technology  has developed it has allowed photojournalism to move on and develop even further.

Robert Capa.

Robert Capa (October 22, 1913 - May25, 1954) was a Hungarian war and combat photographer. He covered photos from many different wars such as the Spanish Civil War & World War II. His photos taken during the war portray the violence of war.

Capa is famous for capturing famous and precise moments during the war period. The things that captured his viewers was the fact that Capa was willing to risk his life to take photos during combat. People believed his photography and he became a truthful photographer.



Tony Vaccaro.



Tony Vaccaro (b. December 20, 1922) is an American photographer who was a soldier/photographer and took photos in Europe during 1944 and 1945 and in Germany immediately after World War II. After the war, he became a renowned fashion and lifestyle photographer for U.S.magazines.

 He took famous, precise pictures which are still well known to this day including ones taking from the Dday landing. Unfortuanly during the landing 3 out of four films were destroyed, but Vaccaro manged to find an abandoned photography shop where he was able to find the inks he needed to develop his last film. He did this in his helmet and the helmet of the other soldiers.

The two photographers helped the public understand the war, and war related incedents and also showed us that theres more than meets the eye.

intro to photography.

Laura Marshall;

The word photography to me, states the ability to express yourself in a way that is hard to describe in words. Also it allows the photographer to capture a moment or an emotion.