The Big Project

          For the big project this term I chose to write about and take photos like Paul Strand. He took his photos in black and white. I personally like most pictures in black and white and I just like the style of photos that Strand takes. I have already published some of my Paul Strand photos on my blog, but I plan to take a lot more. Now I'm going to tell you a little about Paul Strand's life and how he started his career. Paul Strand was born in New York in 1890 and died in 1976 at the age of 86. Lewis Hine was Strand's photography teacher and started teaching him when he was 17 years old. Hine was already a famed photographer. Alfred Stieglitz had a gallery called the 291 Gallery and it was in New York. Paul and Alfred became acquaintances and Stieglitz helped him with his studies. Later on, Paul was introduced to the capabilities of  the large format camera, also know as "straight photography". From the 1920's to the 1930's Strand had changed his career's path and went into cinematography. In 1934, Paul helped found Frontier Films which was a company that filmed documentaries. Two years later, Paul met with Berenice Abbott to create the Photo League of New York. Their main purpose was to provide the socialist press with union activities and political protests. In the early 1950's, Paul moved to Europe and spent six weeks in northern Italy and a few days off the northwest coast of Scotland where he documented families in poverty. In the 1960's, he also went to north and west Africa to document there lives. His work led him to be a pioneer of the 20th century who changed lives with his photography.

The Movie Hand Held

Hand Held is about a photographer named Michael Carroll who works for a newspaper business in Pepperell, Massachusetts. The newspaper company tells him to go to Romania to take some pictures. When he arrives he finds out that it is a lot worse then he had thought. The children there were very sick and the majority of them were orphans. The nurses at the orphanages had to reuse the syringes to inject the medicine that they needed, so kids there were getting sick even faster than usual. Children were dying almost everyday and the people there couldn't do anything about it. Michael Carroll returned with the photos and they were published in the newspaper. People all over the country who saw the newspaper wanted to try and help in anyway they could. They called Michael and wanted to donate clothes and medicine. Michael went back to Romania to bring the some clothes and other things. After he left, the people who worked in the orphanages took the supplies for themselves and their children. It was pretty bad in Romania during this time and it was all because of their leader Nicolae Ceausescu. The orphans in Romania are taken care of better now because Ceausescu was executed by his citizens in 1989.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California in February 20, 1902. His family was pretty wealthy and their house was right by the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1906, a great earthquake happened and threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose which marked him for life. A year later during the financial panic of 1907, the family fortune had disappeared and his father was very sad. Later on, he had trouble fitting in with the other kids at school. Ansel's father and aunt tutored him when he was out of school, but he was not very successful in the schools he was enrolled in. Eventually at Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School, he got a "legitimizing diploma" which is pretty much saying that he passed the eighth grade. He liked to go hiking or for long walks around his house and he loved nature. The national parks in the area were places where he liked to spend time. The Sierra Club was very helpful with Adams's success as a photographer. He realized that being a photographer could earn him a lot more money then his current job, a concert pianist. Adams died in 1984.
Ansel takes pictures that are dealing with depth of field and the landscape around him. My next assignment is actually taking photos like Ansel Adams did. His photography is very interesting and it deals with getting a wider shot than usual.    

Alfred Stieglitz

Stieglitz is an excellent photographer that was born in New Jersey in 1864. Him and his family moved to Manhattan in 1871 and to Germany in 1881. By then he was a student of mechanical engineering at a technical high school in Berlin. When photography first entered into his life, it was during a photo-chemistry course in 1883. At first it was mostly a technical and scientific challenge, but that changed to an artistic challenge later on. Stieglitz moved back to America in 1890 and took photography classes in New York. He also joined a photo club. Eventually, he left the club and opened a photo gallery of his own called Gallery 291. He closed the gallery in 1917 and married Georgia O'Keeffe in 1924. In 1925 Stieglitz opened the Intimate Gallery and 4 years later he opened his last gallery which was called An American Place. He stopped doing photography in 1937 because his health was failing. A few years later in 1946, Stieglitz died in New York.
His photos were mostly of peoples faces or of women. He must of taken many photos because he had to fill his galleries with them. Alfred Stieglitz had many different kinds of photos and they were all in black and white. All of the photos I take have to be in black and white unless the assignment needs it to be in color. His work is great and Stieglitz was great at what he does.

The Stop Action Assignment

In my next assignment I am supposed to take multiple photos of things moving. I have to set my camera on TV mode and make the shutter speed 1/400. The ISO can be 800 or higher and the aperture priority should be around F7. I think this is going to be a very interesting assignment and I will enjoy doing it.

Close Up Photos

These are my close up photos that I took of different plants that I found. This assignment was inspired by the photos that Imogene Cunningham took. I tried to get as close to the plants as I could.

Two Great Photographers

One photographer that I like is Paul Strand. I took some photos like him and I had a good time doing it. He took black and white photos and he liked to show how the light could affect it. Paul was around during the late 1800's and the early 1900's. One of his most famous pieces of photography is the Wall Street Photo. He is a very good photographer.

Imogene Cunningham is another good photographer, she takes close up pictures of mostly flowers. She has done other things as well. Imogene is actually the person who my class is doing their next photos like. We are going to have to take close ups of anything. Imogene is a great photographer.