VANITAS PHOTOGRAPHY

B photos

A Photos

Analysis'

In this photo Bresson is demonstrating that 60 years ago Paris was a really beautiful place to live and he does this by showing the straight lines of trees and the massive palace in the background. The focal point in this picture is, well there isn’t really a main focal point in this picture, I think that Bresson was just demonstrating that Paris is a beautiful place to be. Bresson uses the figure in the lower left hand corner to illustrate how big the trees and the palace really are.

In this Photograph Bresson is showing in the early 1900’s lots of people were too poor to afford to be able to go to plays. Also to go to plays and things held in the town, many people tried to sneak into them. In this photo Bresson shows a man sneaking into a play and the guard looking the other play. The focal point in this photo is the guard and also the man in the background. It is unusual to have space divided in this way. It appears to be two images collaged together. Here Bresson demonstrates innovation and an understanding of design elements.

Bresson in this photograph demonstrates how little houses and buildings and also people they’re were in Italy during the 1930’s. The focal point in this photo is the upper third of the picture because it has a large oval building. 30/60/10 in this photo would be:

60: the road and the pavement

30: The building

10: the stairs and the small group of people in the top left corner

In this photo Bresson is trying to show us that spain wasn’t the best place to live because it is quite a poor country, also in this photo the child in it and also the scratched wall provides an insight into spain during the 1930’s. Showing us that there was alot of poor families that had to live on the streets. The focal point in this photo is the child in the centre of the screen.

Arnold Newman's Bio courtesy of http://lumieregallery.net/wp/256/arnold-newman/

Arnold Newman (1918 – 2006)
Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, noted for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. Arnold Newman found his vision in the empathy he felt for artists and their work. Although he photographed many personalities, Marlene Dietrich, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Mantle, and Audrey Hepburn he maintained that even if the subject is not known, or is already forgotten, the photograph itself must still excite and interest the viewer.

Newman is often credited with being the first photographer to use so-called environmental portraiture, in which the photographer places the subject in a carefully controlled setting to capture the essence of the individual’s life and work. Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. A musician for instance might be photographed in their recording studio or on stage, a Senator or other politician in their office or a representative building. Using a large-format camera and tripod, he worked to record every detail of a scene.

“I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background,” Newman told American Photo magazine in an interview. “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”

Newman’s best-known images were in black and white, although he often photographed in color. His black and white portrait of Igor Stravinsky seated at a grand piano became his signature image, even though it was rejected by the magazine that gave the assignment to Newman. He was one of the few photographers allowed to make a portrait of the famously camera-shy Henri Cartier-Bresson.

My Photographer is Arnold Newman