Steven Meisel case study

Steven Meisel is an American fashion photographer, who obtained popular acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex. He is now considered one of the most successful fashion photographers in the industry, shooting regularly for both US and Italian Vogue.

Steven Meisel was born in 1955. His fascination for beauty and models started at a young age. At that time Meisel would not play with toys, but would instead draw women all the time. He used to turn to magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as sources of inspiration for his drawings. Meisel dreamt of women from the high society like Gloria Guinness and Babe Paley, who personified to his eyes the ideas of beauty and high society. Other icons he used were his mother and sister.
As he became obsessed with models such as Twiggy, Veruschka, and Jean Shrimpton, at the age of 12 he asked some girlfriends to call model agencies pretending to be secretaries of Richard Avedon, to get pictures of the models. For Steven Meisel to meet famous model Twiggy, the 12-year-old Meisel stood outside waiting for her at Melvin Sokolsky's studio. Steven Meisel studied at the High School of Art and Design and Parsons The New School for Design where he attended different courses but, as affirmed in an interview with Ingrid Sischy for Vogue France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Meisel

This picture shows 4 models playing around with balloons. They are also wearing stylish clothes. This brings a theme of partying. I like the way each model is posing differently to another one as it then makes the picture much more interesting.

This photograph shows 5 different models wearing flowery costumes. I like this picture because it's quite surreal and different to modern fashion photography. I like the way it captures movement on the left hand side.

This picture shows 5 models in a western theme, wearing western costumes and riding bulls. I like the way each character is doing something different. For example one is riding a cow and the other ones are using whips.

Henri Cartier-Bresson PHOTOGRAPHER CASE STUDY 2

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.



Henri Cartier-Bresson was trained as a painter, and began his career in photography in 1931 on a trip to the Ivory Coast. Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first photographers to shoot in the 35mm format with a Leica camera, and helped to develop the photojournalistic "street photography" style that influenced generations of photographers to come.


As a young boy, Cartier-Bresson owned a Box Brownie, using it for taking holiday snapshots; he then later experimented with a 3×4 inch view camera. Henri Cartier- Bresson was raised in a traditional French bourgeois fashion, required to address his parents using the formal vous. His father assumed that his son would take up the family business, but the youth was strong-willed and upset by this prospect.
He attended École Fénelon, a Catholic school that prepared students to attend Lycée Condorcet.


Cartier-Bresson gradually matured artistically in this stormy cultural and political environment. He was aware of the concepts and theories mentioned, but could not find a way of expressing this imaginatively in his paintings. Cartier - Brensson was very frustrated with his experiments and subsequently destroyed the majority of his early works.

From 1928 to 1929, Cartier-Bresson attended the University of Cambridge, where he then studied English, art and literature, he then became bilingual. In 1930, stationed at Le Bourget, near Paris, he completed his mandatory service in the French Army. When he returned to France, Cartier-Bresson applied for a job with a renowned French film director Jean Renoir. He acted in Renoir's 1936 film Partie de campagne and in the 1939 La Règle du jeu, which he played a butler and served as a second assistant. Renoir made Cartier-Bresson act so he could understand how it felt to be on the other side of the camera. Cartier-Bresson also helped Renoir make a film for the Communist party on the 200 families.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson

This photo shows a man running over a huge puddle of water. There is also a guy behind the gates in the background watching him. This picture tells us that the guy who is running has escaped from somewhere. I feel that this picture brings a message of how people are free when they are not controlled.

This photo shows a family having a picnic on a river bank. There is a boat in the background which tells us that once they have finished, the will get on the boat and go somewhere else. I think this picture fits the theme of summer because it shows a family sitting at a river bank having a picnic in summer clothes.

This photo shows a group of children playing in a smashed wall. I feel that this brings a message of poverty and how young children are affected by it.

PHOTOGRAPHER CASE STUDY 1

Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962) is an American photographer, who is best known for staged scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Crewdson was born in the Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. Crewdson attended John Dewey High School, and graduated very early. 

As a teenager, he was part of a pink rock group which were called The Speedies that hit the New York scene. 
Their song, "Let Me Take Your Photo" was proved to be prophetic to Crewdson's later career. In the year 2005, a guy called Hewlett Packard used their song in advertisements  to help promote it's digital cameras.
In the mid 1980's, Crewdson studied photography at a place called SUNY Purchase, which was near Port Chester, NY. In 2012, he was the subject of the future documentary film Gregory Crewdson: Brief. 
Crewdson is now represented by Gagosian Gallery worldwie and by White Cube Gallery which is stationed in London.

Crewdson's photographs usually take place in a small-town in America, but are dramatic and cinematic. The photos often feature disturbing, surreal events. His pictures are elaborately staged and lighted using crews familiar with motion picture production and lighting large scenes using the motion picture film equipment and techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson

This photo shows a lady in her house who is dead floating on water. I like this image mainly because the house is full of water or oil. It creates a very surreal image.

This picture shows a bride who is in her home sitting on her bed holding flowers. This tells us that her wedding either was a disaster or never happened. I think this image works really well as it creates an upsetting theme. The use of flowers all on the floor tells us that she would of been picking them thinking whether or not her man loved her or not. The lighting in this scene works well as it makes it have a gloomy look.

This picture shows a woman in a bath. She looks like she is in shock, and upset. From looking at the picture, it could also tell us that she may have been a mother who's child has died. I think this picture makes a lot of sense. The way that the room looks poor, dull / grey, creates and tells the viewers that something tragic has happened.

NARRATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Narrative photography  is the idea that photographs can be used to tell a story. 

Staged Photography is when people are set into postionions and frames. A Photographer who has been doing this for many years is Hippolyte Baryard. Hippolyte Baryard was a French photographer a pioneer in the history of photography. He invented his own process known as direct positive printing and presented the world's first public exhibition of photographs on 24 June 1839.

 

This black and white photo shows a group of people standing at a bus stop, flagging a bus down to stop.

The second picture shows a person lying down on the floor, either asleep or dead. He is wearing an orange jumpsuit and has also got a cardboard head with a face on it.