Where to begin?

Soulphotography

Senior Member
One of my assignments this semester involves choosing an internationally renowned photographer and do an analysis of their style and work etc.
I need ideas.
Hit me with your favs!
 

Eye-level

Banned
Cindy Sherman, Steiglitz, and Avedon...

James I agree with you that Ms. Maier is indeed very intriguing but she is only reknowned now because someone is exploiting her production and marketed it to go viral on the net...Ms. Maier was very well known to NOT show her photos to anyone...very few folks ever seen them during her lifetime...she did not want them displayed...ole boy paid $400 for a huge lot of negatives...started whipping up interest on the net and has now wormed his way into national galleries selling HER prints for upwards of $2000 a piece (please note she could not afford to pay rent on her storage building and thus lost the negatives at auction)...and to be completely honest with you most of her shots are like many of ours not saying that we suck but you know...we're not Steiglitz either.
 

bluenoser

Banned
Cindy Sherman, Steiglitz, and Avedon...

James I agree with you that Ms. Maier is indeed very intriguing but she is only reknowned now because someone is exploiting her production and marketed it to go viral on the net...Ms. Maier was very well known to NOT show her photos to anyone...very few folks ever seen them during her lifetime...she did not want them displayed...ole boy paid $400 for a huge lot of negatives...started whipping up interest on the net and has now wormed his way into national galleries selling HER prints for upwards of $2000 a piece (please note she could not afford to pay rent on her storage building and thus lost the negatives at auction)...and to be completely honest with you most of her shots are like many of ours not saying that we suck but you know...we're not Steiglitz either.

Hi Jeff. Absolutely agree with everything you've said. However I do think it makes for a topical and interesting profile for a class project. Her background, the images she's captured and the controversial circumstances surrounding her rise to fame would make (at least in my opinion) for an interesting paper about the very issues you brought up. I really love street photography and quite enjoyed what I've seen of hers. She's certainly not a giant in the industry but intriguing nonetheless.
 

Eye-level

Banned
Yes you are absolutely correct in saying that it would be an interesting project because it definately would. A few weeks back on another site there was a thread about Maier. Well that day I had heard an interview with a man who had just wrote a book about J Edgar Hoover...during one part of the interview he went into this spiel about how radically different it was to be homosexual back in the 40's 50's 60's...it hit me like a ton of bricks that perhaps because of her sort of darker side subject matter and her "singleness" and being a very private person and all of many other eccentricies that perhaps she was homosexual. I posited this on that thread and man o man you talk about taking over a thread! So yeah there is a whole whole lot to Maier for sure probably but the problem is the information is scant and the main sources of info are the guys who are exploiting her. An aside many folks took me to task for taking the exploitation stand...the general argument was let the man make a little money off his find and spread her work and legacy a bit...I don't buy it at all...if she would have wanted her life's work displayed she would have done so...I think the greatest question a person could ask about Vivian Maier is "what exactly did her pictures mean to her (because no one else really got to see them)" ?
 

Eye-level

Banned
Another "internet sensation" as of late who is very interesting and would make a great subject is Hugo Jaeger...Hitler's personal photographer who shot with the latest and greatest Leica and Contax gear and used the latest and greatest Kodachrome and AGFA color slide film and was one of the very first photogs to seriously work with color...his pictures are sort of run of the mill stuff but the subject makes up for it bigtime. It is very scary when you start weighing Hugo's photographs...particulary poignant, menacing, and down right scary are the few of folks wearing hand sewn stars of David...I believe that Hugo Jaeger's only wife and child were killed during the raid on Dresden but I am not for sure on that one...definately a fascinating modern photographer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56090579@N02/sets/72157626236184820/
 
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