Once anonymous "Prague Photographer" that became a lifetime nomad.
Josef Koudelka
What to learn from Masters?
Comparison of photoghic styles of the best. What makes them unique?
Russion invasion to Prague in 1968
"It was my country. I took these photographs for myself, not magazines. I knew it was important to photograph, so I photographed." ...as history started to unfold.
The photos were smuggled abroad anonymously because he was afraid of repression.
Gypsies: On the Margins of Society
Nomands since 12th century.
Focus on the strength in feelings on the basis of the struggle for survival rather than the surroundings conditions or reasons that led to it.
Becoming familiar allowed him to Focus on bonds over visible features, because subjects didn't consider him a stranger.
Exile & Ulysses
Continued to photographed "for himself" in his 20 years of exile from Czechoslovakia.
"I am the product of this continuous traveling."
Shared uprooting with his subjects.
Disappearing world
Wasted landscapes of the disappearing world.
Landscape as a reflection of man and how man shapes and influences the landscapes he touches.
Finding a heart amongs darkness.
One world is disappearing and I'm trying to photograph what's left. I have always been drawn towards ending and what will soon no longer be there.
Analyze and experiment to improve
Continuously analyzed own photos to improve.
Gordon Parks
Raw crime documentary
LIFE magazine assignment to explore crime in America.
Cinematic quality (also directed movies). Distancing to feel safe.
Empathy for humanity under given conditions.
Contrast to life style pictures of the era.
Larry Burrows
He was granted a special access „not because he's a photographer, but an artist“.
Art beyond documentary
He planned for photos in the war. Sometimes spent days to think about a single image. Fixed camera outside of helicopter in advance. Even commanded fighter jets to fly a certain formation just to create a great composition.
Emotions on the limits of the capability of pursuing a dream
Sports
William Eugene Smith
Humanistic and social essays capturing the action of life.
Caravaggio of photography.
Shade unimportant – light dodge and burn – crop to essence. Off-camera flash.
The front lines in the Pacific Theater of World War II
The pain, the fear and the angts.
"You can't raise a nation to kill without injury to the mind. It is the reason I am covering the war for I want my pictures to carry some message against the greed the stupidity and the intolerances that caused these wars."
Industrial & Urban
3 years instead of 3 weeks on urban Pittsbourgh renewal project
Caravaggio of photography
Photo essays:
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Spanish Village
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Death flows from a pipe: exposed Minimata disease from mercury pollution.
Jazz Loft Project
Shared a flat with jazz musicians. Focussing passion.
“My station in life is to capture the action of life, the life of the world, its humor, its tragedies, in other words, life as it is. A true picture, unposed and real... If I am shooting a beggar, I want the distress in his eyes, if a steel factory I want the symbol of strength and power that is there... I want my pictures to be symbolic of something. I realize that this is a pitiful effort to explain my philosophy of photography, but it is out of this haze that the fulfilling of my ambition will be. Long years are ahead, probably years of hardship, but what care I if I can succeed.”
Spectator
Part of the action
Perspective
Elements
Colors of desperation
Color gives photographs a sense of immediacy.
Black and white to distract less and quiet down even landscapes of a vivid Amazon forest.
Created series rather than individual photos. The group of pictures tells the story better.
Oddly flat yet contrasty vibe.
Sebastião Salgado
Social reportage – Workers
"I don’t want anyone to appreciate the light or the palette of tones. I want my pictures to inform, to provoke discussion – and to raise money."
Art as a way to bring attention to social issues.
Soft contrast with limited tones and muddy scenes make complex scenes blend into one organism.
Spent 4 weeks on his first photo essay, a gold mine, traveling at his own expenses.
"I’m not an artist. An artist makes an object. Me, it’s not an object, I work in history, I’m a storyteller."
Amazon & Genesis
Flat toning while keeping contrast to emphasize drama of the nature,
Closed aperture to keep everything in focus.
Portraits
Environmental portrait
“I tell a little bit of my life to them, and they tell a little of theirs to me. The picture itself is just the tip of the iceberg.
Born on a farm in Brazil, moved with family to a small town, then, in 15, to a bigger town, and after college to São Paolo and then left to France for political reasons.
"I am a migrant, too...."
Favorite film: Kodak Tri-x