Richard Avedon Rsearch

Richard Avedon was an American fashion and portrait photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century"vedon became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker in 1992, where his post-apocalyptic, wild fashion fable “In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort,” featuring model Nadja Auermann and a skeleton, was published in 1995. Other pictures for the magazine, ranging from the first publication, in 1994, of previously unpublished photos of Marilyn Monroe to a resonant rendering of Christopher Reeve in his wheelchair and nude photographs of Charlize Theron in 2004, were topics of wide discussion.

David LaChpelle Research

David LaChapelle is an American commercial photographer, fine-art photographer, music video director, film director, and artist. He is best known for his photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages.

Jeff Koons Research

Jeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for working with popular culture subjects and his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces.
Koons developed a color-by-numbers system, so that each of his assistants could execute his canvases and sculptures as if they had been done "by a single hand".^[ "I think art takes you outside yourself, takes you past yourself. I believe that my journey has really been to remove my own anxiety. 

David Hockney Research

David Hockney, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He lives in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, and Kensington, London. Hockney made prints, portraits of friends, and stage designs for the Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Born with synesthesia, he sees synesthetic colours in response to musical stimuli. This does not show up in his painting or photography artwork, but is a common underlying principle in his designs for stage sets for ballet and opera—where he bases background colours and lighting on the colours he sees while listening to the piece's music.

Cedric Delsaux Research

Cédric Delsaux lives and works in Paris, France. After studying cinematography and journalism, he worked as a bookseller and in advertising. He has devoted himself to photography full-time since 2003. He received the Kodak prize for landscapes and architecture with his Star Wars on Earth series in 2005. Best-selling author Bill McKibben has written several hundred pieces for The New Yorker. His writings on nature have also appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and other national publications. He and his wife live in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Hannah Hoch Research

Hannah Höch was born Anna Therese Johanne Höch in Gotha, Germany. In 1912 she began classes at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin under the guidance of glass designer Harold Bergen.She chose the curriculum glass design and graphic arts, rather than fine arts, to please her father.^[ In 1914, at the start of World War I, she left the school and returned home to Gotha to work with the Red Cross.^[4] In 1915 she returned to school, entering the graphics class of Emil Orlik at the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Also in 1915, Höch began an influential friendship with Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement. Höch's involvement with the Berlin Dadaists began in earnest in 1917. After her schooling, she worked in the handicrafts department for Ullstein Verlag (The Ullstein Press), designing dress and embroidery patterns for Die Dame (The Lady) and Die Praktische Berlinerin (The Practical Berlin Woman). The influence of this early work and training can be seen in her later work involving references to dress patterns and textiles. From 1926 to 1929 she lived and worked in the Netherlands. Höch made many influential friendships over the years, with Kurt Schwitters and Piet Mondrian among others. Höch, along with Hausmann, was one of the first pioneers of the art form that would come to be known as photomontage.

Rut Blees Luxemburg Research

Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape.She is a Tutor at the Royal College of Art.

Her photograph, "Towering Inferno" was used as the cover art for The Streets' debut album Original Pirate Material. The photo depicts the beauty of a lit up council tower block. She also contributed "A Modern Project" for use as the cover of Bloc Party's second album, A Weekend in the City.

Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer who studied photography at London College of Communication and gained her last formal education at the University of Westminster. Luxemburg’s technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. Employing long exposures allows her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights.

Documentation Of Photography

Henry Cartier - Bresson

'For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to give a “meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize, simultaneously and within a fraction of a second‚ both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one‚ head, one‚ eye, and one‚ heart on the same axis.'

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.
Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.
The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.








Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. A pioneer in photojournalism, Cartier-Bresson wandered around the world with his camera, becoming totally immersed in his current environment. Considered one of the major artists of the 20th century, he covered many of the world biggest events from the Spanish Civil War to the French uprisings in 1968
Widely considered one of the leading artistic forces of the 20th century, Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. The oldest of five children, his family was wealthy—his father made a fortune as a textile manufacturer—but Cartier-Bresson later joked that due to his parents' frugal ways, it often seemed as though his family was poor.
Educated in Paris, Cartier-Bresson developed an early love for literature and the arts. Creativity was certainly a part of his DNA. His great-grandfather had been artist and an uncle was a noted printer. Even his father dabbled in drawing.
As a teenager, Cartier-Bresson rebelled against his parents' formal ways. Early in his adult life he drifted toward communism. But it was art that remained at the center of his life. In 1927 he began a two-year stint studying painting under noted early Cubist, André Lhote, then moved to Cambridge University to immerse himself further in art and literature courses.

Portraiture Research

Annie Leibovitz is a photographer who has worked with many of celebrities and winey shoots. Born in 1949, Annie had a job for Rolling Stones magazine in 1970. She then later in 1983 began working for Vanity Fair. Leibovitz started to work for high profile advertising campaigns. From the 90's to this present day she remains publishing and exhibiting her work.

Annie Leibovitz is considered Americas best portrait photographer. She published a book called 'Women' in 1999. Following the title she presented various photos from the Supreme Court Justices of women. Also farmers, coal miners and Vegas showgirls. Leibovitz has currently got her original prints housed in various galleries.

Leibovitz was very passionate about her photography, it is evidenced in some the of her famous quotes:

'A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.'

'The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.'

'I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.'

Here is some work of hers:

This is the cover from Les Miserables.

This is one of the most famous actresses; Angelina Jolie.

This is Taylor Swift doing a disney photoshoot.

However, Annie Leibovitz portrait photography is very different from another famous photographer called Alec Soth.

Alec Soth is an American photographer who made large scale projects featuring the midwest.Alec is known for having Folkfore in or behind his work (traditions/stories.) The New York times said that he has made a 'photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers.'
     Most commonly Alec's work tends to focus on off beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America.
So whilst Leibovitz focuses more on women, and for higher status people, Soth focuses on natural, abstract photos.

Vivian Maier Research

In my own view this picture could be considered art; the logic that she essentially could be inside someone else's space - their private doings, almost like being in someones mind. She is looking into someone else's life through guarded walls, hooded eyes - in this case the window.
The houses behind are like a past looming behind, everywhere she goes. Even if she is looking forward, she will always see her past, whats behind her when looking into reflections.
To me it is art, to me I see a woman looking forward into new, things, finding their self in new peoples lives. Despite this, her past, her background will always be there, it'll always be with her.




Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide.

"She was a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. ... She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn't show anyone" I think this reported description of Vivian says a lot. She was a feminist, standing up for womens equal rights, showing that she has as much worth as any man that passes by, I fee like this woman would be inspirational, confident and sure of herself. I think the fact that she includes herself in her pictures, (taken by herself of course) could represent that she doesn't want to photograph things she is just seeing, but maybe of things she is living. Like her being in that photography says something; it stand out, it says she was alive, she was living and she was there. 
  Her work seems to have a different concept to most work. I like that fact that she is different, that she includes herself in her art. Sometimes it is not the objects, but the person themselves that is the art.

Shape Bill Brandt Research

Bill Brandt was a british photographer and photo journalist. Although born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British society for such magazine as Lilliputand Picture Post, later his distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes. He is widely considered to be one of the most important British photographers of the 20th century.

The photo to the left we see a female form in black (negative) and white contrast. The small defined parts of the womans face are enlightened by light shaded os grey. The reason this picture stand out to Brundts audience is the femininity and emotions the woman portrays. The photo can be inferred in many different ways normally your impression will be connoted with the happenings and feelings in your life. I would not say this photo shows any sexual hints.

This photo is quite simply a photo of a womans legs in her presumable apartment. Though commonly, less is more.
My own personal impression of this photo would be a woman relaxed in her apartment, doing nothing or maybe there are sexual hints within the photo. The fact that the legs are bare and laying down could suggest sexual inferences. However it could be innocent and the theme may be her alone which is common for girl/women to be dressed in under garments whilst alone.

Brundt has negative space in the top right corners, whilst it molds into shape of the windows and view. The shapes are mostly geometric but the further distanced shapers are irregular.
Th obvious main focus is the legs which have a variety of different tones and contrasts.