Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz was born on October 2, 1949 in Westbury, Connecticut to her mother Marilyn and father Sam.  In 1967 Annie enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. At the institute she studied painting but was introduced to photography.  This is when she realized she had a love for photography.  Then in 1970 she applied for her first job with Rolling Stone Magazine.  They were extremely impressed with her portfolio and offered her a job as a staff photographer.  Just two years with Rolling she was promoted to chief photographer.  Here she picked up her trademark technique, the use of bold primary colors and surprising poses.  She left Rolling Stone about ten years later to work for the entertainment magazine Vanity Fair.  She had the opportunity to shoot a larger variety of subjects.  Some of these subjects included presidents, literary icons, and teen heartthrobs.  Her photographer causes a lot of controversy but I feel like she strives for controversy. She allows sitters to become involved in her work and I think that is very interesting she is very open to ideas and suggestions to help herself get the most successful shot.  Some of the photos shot that caused controversy were Demi Moore when she was very pregnant.  This was a cover on Vanity Fair and many people thought it was ridiculous and strange to see.  Many stores took the magazine out and wouldn’t sell it.  But Demi herself loved the photo and said she felt sexy and powerful.  Another one was of Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath tub of milk.  Along with working for Vanity Fair she also worked on some high- profile advertising campaigns.  She did the American Express “Membership” campaign which was portraits of celebrity cardholders.  She also earned a Clio Award.  Annie has many accomplishments and has really made a name for herself. Many people want to be photographed by her because she is Annie Leibovitz. 

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles Eames was born on June 17, 1907 and died on August 21, 1978 in Saint Louis, Missouri.  Here he studied architecture at Washington University and later opened an architectural practice.  He was an American designer, architect and filmmaker.  Him and his wife Ray are responsible for many iconic designs of the 20^th century.  His wife Ray was born on December 15, 1912 in Sacramento and died on August 21, 1988 in Los Angeles.  Ray’s artistic talent was recognized very early on in her life.  She is a US American designer.  Charles was actually one of Ray’s teachers and mentors at the Art Academy in Cranbrook, Michigan.  Charles divorced his first wife and married Ray in 1941 in Chicago.  The couple then moved to Southern California where together they opened a design office.  This creative partnership resulted in innovative designs for furniture, houses, monuments, and exhibitions.  Together they designed countless exhibitions and directed over 80 experimental films.  The furniture they designed was very unique and interesting to look at.  I remember talking about Charles in on of my classes and looking at different chairs he designed. I feel like this couple really inspired eachother with their talents and I think that is what made them so successful.  Their work was both displayed in museums and very popular.  As said before they both passed away.  The crazy thing is they both passed away on the same day but different years.  I find that very strange but very interesting at the same time.  It must of been true love and talent.

Vogue Magazine

Vogue magazine was started in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure.  Turnure passed away in 1909 and when this happened the magazine was acquired by Conde Nast.  Vogue is the worlds most famous fashion magazine and is published in eighteen different countries and in one region.  In 1960 Vogue was known for keeping women up on the contemporary fashions of the day, and launching the careers of super models.  By 1988 Vogue’s audience was changed.  Vogue’s cover was also changed.  Vogue was known for its front cover being a zoomed in shot of a models face but that changed when the editor in chief Anna Wintour decided to put a model on the cover wearing jeans in a full body shot. The reasoning behind this change was because she wanted people to focus more on the models body and fashion instead of just his or her face.  Apparently that cover changed peoples views on the magazine forever.   Vogue magazine is so popular and so fun to look at.  I know when I’m in the grocery store I always pick a copy up of it and just start looking through it while I’m waiting in line.  Most of the time I get so interested in what I’m looking at that I then end up just buying it.  I know a lot of my friends use this magazine a lot for outfit ideas and that is the whole purpose behind this magazine.  I get fashion photography ideas from this magazine as well its very inspiring and it really helped me when I did my fashion shoot.

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was first born, one of 11 children and the son of a clergyman, on January 27, 1832.  He began at an early age entertaining himself as well as others.  He really enjoyed entertaining his family with things that he taught himself.  Some of these things included magic tricks, marionette shows, and poems written for homemade newspapers.  Carroll attended rugby school from 1846 to 1850.  He then graduated college at Christ church college, oxford in 1854.  Carroll decided to remain there and lectured on mathematics as well as writing treatises and guides for students.  Among his other qualities he also enjoyed photography.  His passion included photographing children.  One of his greatest models was Alice Liddell.  Alice was one of the three daughters of Henry George Liddell.  Henry was the dean at Christ church.  Another great work of Carroll was his children’s works.  These included “The Hunting of the Snark”, two collections of humorous verse, and the two parts of Sylvie and Bruno, and also it was said that he had unsuccessful attempts to recreate the Alice fantasies.  Lewis Carroll is remembered as an author.  He wrote the famous children’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, that he wrote in 1865, and it sequel, Through the Looking Glass. (1872) These were both published under his pseudonym.  The books were both illustrated by Sir John Tenniel. Researching Carroll was a great opportunity because I learned a lot about him that I honestly didn’t know before.  For example I had no idea he first photographed children.  I also had no idea he was the author of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland.  This was very interesting news to read and research about.  

References

Lewis Carroll biography. (n.d.). Insite Soluções Internet | Bot de Inteligência Artificial, Salas de Chat, Serviço de webmail e Mailing (e-mail marketing), Fóruns de discussão e desenvolvimento de software.. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from http://www.insite.com.br/rodrigo/text/lewis_carroll.html

 Newhall, B. (1982). The History of Photography. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Mass Production

Mass production is the process or method of producing goods in large quantities.  This is done at a very low cost per unit.  This doesn’t mean that the large quantities of merchandise or goods are produced at low quality but produced at high quality.  This is a great way to produce more than one image or photograph in photo history.  This process could be done in a number of ways.  One being with machine tools and interchangeable parts and another way would be an assembly line.   These machines were used to make machines and this precise tolerance was brought about by a series of 19^th century innovators.  They figured out a way for industrial machine tools to be capable of cutting and shaping hard metals.  This was a great way for a lot of goods to be produced.  In factories we all think of assembly lines and this was also be traced back to the 19^th century.  The assembly line was used for meat packing and after observation of this assembly line and the mass production of this product, Henry Ford designed an assembly line that began operation in 1913.  This genius idea helped the American automobile manufacturer out a great deal in producing large quantities of high end cars.  Mass production was the rise of producing and producing mass quantities and this became a very important process to many people.  In photography they found out that instead of producing just one image or photo they could have several printed of the same image to make more money.  As mentioned before this process didn’t reproduce low quality but it produced high quality and that was a great selling point.  I feel that mass production was probably a great way for more money to be made and also made life and time a lot better for this time period.  Everything before this was done by hand which we all know took a lot more time than it needed to.  Since mass production was established less time was taken to produce more product of high quality and performance and this was a great key factor.

 References

Mass Production. (n.d.). Willamette University. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from http://www.willamette.edu/~fthompso/MgmtCon/Mass_Production.html

Newhall, B. (1982). The History of Photography. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Camera Obscura

The camera obscura is a very large version of a camera, said to be invented before the year 1300 by Roger Bacon.  Camera Obscura is Latin for dark room.  The camera obscura was invented before lenses were and the purpose of this invention was to produce images just like cameras would today.  These objects were very large, about room size.  The way this worked was each camera obscura had a very small hole on one side and the light from an outside scene would pass through the very tiny hole to create an image on the opposite wall on the inside.  This technique was used for drawings.  The image that was projected on the inside was actually seen upside down but could be traced on paper that was hanging on the opposite wall.  This invention helped lead up to what photography is today.  Camera obscuras were improved in the 16^th century and became portable boxes, which included lenses and mirrors.   Room size camera obscuras were very popular because images projected were a lot larger and could be viewed from inside the room.  By the end of the 20^th century camera obscuras decreased in popularity.  There aren’t many room size camera obscuras left today but few still remain in the United States.  After researching the camera obscura, I found this technology very interesting.  It seems like it is just like a pinhole camera that we sometimes use today but obviously room size is a lot large.  I think it would be a very cool technique to try to use and see what the image actually looks like on the inside of the room.  I wonder how clear the image actually is when it’s projected inside.  I guess ill have to create my own room size camera obscura to find out!

References

Gernsheim, H., & Gernsheim, A. (1965). A concise history of photography  . New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

Leggat, R. (2008, September 23). A History of Photography, by Robert Leggat: CAMERA OBSCURA. Some of the sites managed by Robert Leggat. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/cameraob.htm