Introduction
Photography is truly “the people’s art.” Just as nearly anyone can become a teller of stories with words and voice, a photographer can be defined as someone who owns a camera and knows how to shoot it. The ability to grab any image of the world and call it yours is a heady experience. New ways of sharing images through social media fuel the flames of telling visual stories by bringing an audience to the table.
Our book celebrates the fact that photography seduces us by its accessibility, while illuminating the brilliant minds among us who have carried the art to new heights. While anyone can take a picture, it takes a gift of perspective, patience, and visual acuity to create iconic images that transcend the ordinary. Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Sally Mann all placed their unique fingerprints on the art and have much to teach us.
The following pages offer information, instruction, and visual storytelling from talented photographers and writers. Through accounts of photography’s history as well as its deep power to change public opinion and question social norms, you will discover a new perspective of life around you, whether you are behind the camera or not.
Erika Kotite, Editor
PHOTOGRAPHY 101
Photography can be more than taking pretty pictures. It can be recording a special moment in time and documenting memories important to you and your family. It can be an artistic outlet, an exploration of colors and light. For the luckiest of us, it can be a career.
No matter the purpose, the result will be the same. We’ll go over some basic camera instruction without getting too mired down in technical terms and then we’ll work on how to capture pleasing, well-composed photographs.
To adequately understand the concepts that will be covered, obtaining a basic 35mm or digital SLR camera is suggested. If you don’t own a camera, you’ll still be able to understand the concepts, but it may take a bit more effort on your part.
The sophistication level of the camera does not matter for the purposes of Photography 101. Maybe you’ve inherited grandpa’s old trusty Nikon with several confusing dials or have been gifted with a new digital camera with so many bells and whistles you don’t know what to touch first. The basic concepts apply fairly evenly to this family of cameras.
Welcome to class!—Christine Walsh-Newton (CWN)
HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Pardon the pun, but photography did not “develop” overnight. The history of photography is long and complicated, filled with fascinating characters from ancient China, Greece, and Arabia; Renaissance Italy; 18th- and 19th-century France, England, and the United States; and 20th-century Germany and Japan. The history of photography involves science, technology, art, and business.
Photography differs from most other ancient art forms because it is a mechanical art. In the way that painters use paint and sculptors use tools, the practice of photography requires a machine: a camera. So evolving technology and mechanical invention is as important in photography history as the trail of images themselves.
From the camera obscura to the camera phone, Daguerreotypes to digital, photograms to Photoshop®, the ways in which we make pictures today differ dramatically from the methods used even a generation ago. But high-tech as it is, modern photography belongs to a rich tradition of innovation, of shutter snapping and image making that mirrors nothing less than our development as human beings. —David Greenberg (DJG)
FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS
The pages of Famous Photographers will take you on an inspiring journey of creative excellence. Each of the following artists defined and shaped the art of photography into what it is today. There are those who created the mold for others and those who did something completely unprecedented. Regardless of which route was followed, their pioneering, creative brilliance led them to create memorable images. Each of them contributed to the world of photography in a significant way, and forever changed our view of the world.
While it is impossible to address every aspect of the lives of these photographers, it is interesting to note the defining characteristics of their contributions to the field of photography. For some, success came quite easily, while others struggled tirelessly. All, however, share the common denominators of persistence paired with passion, and vision honed with focus. The result is photographs that speak to every human heart.
Each photographer’s journey leads somewhere: the peaks of Yosemite, remote deserts, Parisian city streets and cafés, even the underbelly of society. The simple forces of inspiration and desire can lead to some very unusual places. But when an artist is willing to follow these inner promptings, magic ensues. —Grier Cooper (GC)
NATURE & LANDSCAPES
For those who enjoy photography, the natural world provides an almost unlimited supply of subjects. From sunrises and sunsets to flowers and wildlife . . . from snow, fog, and mist to ice-covered trees or vast panoramas stretching to the horizon, the variety is astounding and limited only by imagination. What else beats the satisfaction of preserving a breathtaking natural scene that will bring pleasure for many years to come?
Nature and landscape photography can be enjoyed by everyone, from amateurs to professionals, and is an affordable way to practice photographic arts. The quality of digital cameras is constantly improving, while the price drops. You get both immediate recognition of success or failure when you snap the shutter, and less expense by not having to buy film or pay for processing. If the shot didn’t work, delete it and try again. For the traditionalist, this new technology has caused the price of film cameras to drop dramatically. A nature photographer couldn’t ask for a better deal.
Whether stalking a wildflower or trophy elk, contemplating an ocean sunset or desert sunrise, trekking through a forest carpeted with fallen leaves or meandering along a snow-covered stream, nature’s beauty calls to the photographer “Take my picture. Remember me.” —Bill Diller (WTD)
PORTRAITS
Modern portrait photography can be seen everywhere, from your driver’s license to your own Facebook page. In terms of a career in photography, portrait photography is still the most popular profession and very much in demand. The best portrait photographers are not only able to make a technically perfect image, they can also make an iconic, dramatic, or even humorous one. They do this while allowing the sitter to enjoy the experience.
The portraits in this book exemplify the varied subgenres within the portrait genre itself, from a simple black and white image to a complicated strobe set up to freeze the motion of a jumping shot. All the subjects shown here represent my collaborators in their portrait photograph, and as such I thank each one for working with me and making my life as a photographer a rich and joyous one.
Some say a great portrait photograph shows a window into the soul of the person being photographed, others argue that a photographer can only hint at the essence of a personality. Make up your own mind and be inspired to try some of the subgenres yourself and see what you can accomplish. —Simon Alexander (SA)
SPORTS & PHOTOJOURNALISM
Photojournalism is the process of telling stories through photos. Very often, the one thing that draws a reader into an article is a photograph.
Assignments, although sometimes self-generated, are typically initiated and guided by a photo editor. It is not an easy business—obstacles such as location access, time restrictions, other photographers, and the never-ending worry about the weather are always present. Planning the shot and visualizing how it will be used is a good way to temper the challenges and have fun in the process.
The photographer sets out to capture people and events objectively; however it is nearly impossible to not allow your feelings about the subject to be represented in the image. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; essentially it is the human element that distinguishes one photojournalist from another.
Besides sharing the story behind each assignment, the Sports & Photojournalism category explores the mindsets and techniques used in pursuit of the perfect shot. These images are the results of timing, anticipation, and what I call “prepared luck.” The reward after all your hard work? A shot that you envisioned in your mind’s eye becomes the visual complement to a writer’s article. —Tom Hauck (TH)
FASHION & BEAUTY
Fashion and beauty photography is a fast-paced, ever-changing, and thrilling art that almost every aspiring photographer contemplates and is influenced by during his or her career.
Fashion photography is a team effort, in which the photographer is the visionary and leader in executing a concept. As director of the entire image-making process, a photographer must cast models who have the right look and posing ability, convey the image concepts to the makeup artists and hair stylists, and find the right clothing and accessories. The final image ideally is greater than the sum of its parts.
Defining, creating, and capturing that which is aesthetically pleasing to a viewer is the essence of beauty photography. The process is much the same as fashion photography, with less emphasis on the clothing and more on the quality of the model’s skin and facial features. Like a Renaissance painter, a beauty photographer uses light as a paintbrush to emphasize and celebrate the sensuality of the body and the unique features, symmetry, and bone structure of the subject’s face.
A photographer starts the journey into fashion and beauty photography by mastering each one independently. It’s a worthy goal: joining other image-makers who capture the elusive and mercurial beauty of clothing and the human form. —Matthew Roharik (MR)
PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES
Long before the age of digital editing, intrepid individuals had devised clever methods for falsifying and altering photographs, with motives ranging from the benign to the nefarious. Photography often treads the delicate limbo between reality and fantasy—and defies our definition of both. As an art form, it allows the photographer to create images that have never been materially possible. Many of these creations show us deeper dimensions of reality beyond the accidental details of this material plane.
For some, photography is more than a medium for self-expression—it is a tool for shaping the very metaphysics of the world around them. New creations take on a life of their own in the fashion of the Tibetan tulpa or the Jewish golem.
Likewise, the scores of contemporary legends involving photography challenge our concept of verisimilitude. Many of these stories, while never traced to an historical occurrence or actual photographer, express deeper messages that transcend the historicity of an account. Photographic lore, as you will experience in these pages, brings to mind the apocryphal account of the Native American storyteller who used to preface every legend with this prologue: “I don’t know if this story ever happened before, but it’s still true.” —David J. Schmidt (DJS)
GALLERY OF INSPIRATION
Photography has entered a new age, further expanding the definition and result of picture-taking. Our Gallery of Inspiration is where we showcase the work of contemporary photographers who are exploring the medium in new and exciting ways.
There are three places in the evolution of a photographic image where innovation and opportunity converge—before the shot, in composition and subject matter; during the shot, in exposure techniques; and after the shot, using the rich processing tools in the darkroom and through image-editing software.
With techniques ranging from High Dynamic Range (HDR) to tampering with old-school papers and process for new results, nothing is beyond the scope of a photographer whose favorite two words are “What if...?”
Just like a true gallery where the image is the thing, this category is extremely visual in nature, with just a brief description of a technique, an inspiration, or perhaps the story behind the art.
Just be warned: We didn’t call it Gallery of Inspiration for nothing. —Walter Foster Publishing
SOCIAL & POLITICAL COMMENTARY
Photographs centered around social and political commentary afford a moment of reflection about life and the times we live in. Social and political commentary require the same elements of composition found in any other photograph but with an added layer—they are meant to inform, affect, and change the lives of the viewer.
Approaching topics of a social nature with a camera in hand provides a profound opportunity for growth on the part of the photographer. Not only is the photographer examining her own world, she is also investigating the world of her subjects. Figuring out how to do this requires some thought about one’s personal beliefs and barriers, both real and perceived.
Political power is fleeting and therefore the photographs may be context-specific—what was an object of political power in one era may not be so in the next. Yet the images can become buried in the minds of a nation and hold power long after they are presented.
How does a photographer step inside a social topic? Where is the entry point? How does a photographer discover the story behind the topic? What compositional techniques might be used for certain political or social issues? How are the photographs presented here affecting you? Will you ever look at photographs the same way again?
Photograph your world and create your own social and political commentary. —Melissa LaRose (MLR)