objective: Students will understand the significance of several famous photographers and will emulate their signature style in their own original photographs.
Eadweard Muybridge
- English, 1820-1904
- Began as a well-known landscape photographer in the American West.
- Best known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion.
- Began photographing motion after he was asked to take a photo of a horse in motion to prove that all four hooves elevated from the ground while galloping.
- Before Muybridge, certain movements, like the galloping of a horse, were too fast for the human eye to see and understand.
- Invented the Zoopraxiscope in 1879, a circular device with photographs around the edges, that when spun created motion pictures. It may be considered the first movie projector.
Your Assignments:
Click the link below each assignment for detailed instructions.
alfred stieglitz
- 1864-1946
- Born in Hoboken, NJ
- Formed the Pictorialist Movement- a group of photographers dedicated to proving that photography was a medium as capable of artistic expression as painting or sculpture.
- Pictorialists believed it was not the camera that made photograph, but the photographer. They argued that the camera was merely a tool, just as a paintbrush was a painter's tool.
- Pictorialists tried to show that they were part of the art tradition by manipulating their photos in the darkroom, paying close attention to composition and depicting subjects often used by painters- such as landscapes and still-lifes.
- Stieglitz often photographed cityscapes with special attention on composition and atmosphere, clouds, and a series of portraits of his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe.
stieglitz Assignment:
Take a series of "fine art" photographs inspired by Alfred Stieglitz's work.
When you are finished taking photos, follow the instructions in the link below to mimic the look of Stieglitz's photographs in Photoshop.
- Focus on composition.
- Find beauty in unexpected places.
- Photograph subject matter inspired by traditional "fine art" subjects- landscapes, still life, portraiture.
- Rather than merely recording the world around you, create an image that shows an original, creative or meaningful take on the subject matter... put your own "stamp" on it.
When you are finished taking photos, follow the instructions in the link below to mimic the look of Stieglitz's photographs in Photoshop.
ansel adams
- 1902-1984
- From San Francisco, CA
- American photographer and environmentalist
- Known for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park.
- His photographs are characterized by their clarity, depth and contrast.
Adams assignment:
Take a series of BLACK & WHITE landscape and nature photographs inspired by Ansel Adams' work. (You will shoot in color and then covert to black and white)
After shooting your images, edit one landscape shot, and one macro nature shot. Convert to black and white and adjust the image contrast, sharpness, brightness, etc. to try to achieve the same clarity, depth and dramatic contrast seen in Adams' images.
What you will turn-in:
See the link below for instructions on editing your photo in Photoshop....
After shooting your images, edit one landscape shot, and one macro nature shot. Convert to black and white and adjust the image contrast, sharpness, brightness, etc. to try to achieve the same clarity, depth and dramatic contrast seen in Adams' images.
What you will turn-in:
- One black and white LANDSCAPE SHOT
- One black and white up-close or MACRO NATURE SHOT
See the link below for instructions on editing your photo in Photoshop....
dorothea lange
- 1895-1965
- From Hoboken, NJ
- Influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist
- Best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA)
- Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.
Lange assignment:
You will go and take a series of black and white "documentary photographs" inspired by Lange's work. Your photographs should not be posed or set up, rather try to capture and document students and events around school as they naturally are. (Remember to ask student's permission before photographing them, but urge them not to pose and to pretend that you are not there) Shoot in color and then convert to black and white.
richard avedon
- 1923-2004
- New York, NY
- American fashion and portrait photographer
- An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century".
avedon assignment:
For this assignment, you will choose an actual photograph taken by Richard Avedon and try to re-create it as closely as possible.
You will be expected to:
For detailed instructions for this assignment, click the button below...
You will be expected to:
- Mimic the composition
- Mimic the pose
- Mimic the lighting used
- Mimic the style in Photoshop
For detailed instructions for this assignment, click the button below...
annie leibovitz
- Born 1949
- From Waterbury, Connecticut
- American portrait photographer
- Took a night class in photography and soon after landed a job as the Rolling Stone Magazine photographer.
- Her graphic, black and white portraits soon became the signature look of Rolling Stone Magazine.
- She went on to tour with the Rolling Stones as their tour photographer.
- Leibovitz went on to work for Vanity Fair magazine, where she continues to create portraits of many famous celebrities.
leibovitz assignment:
For this assignment, you will shoot a series of black and white portraits of yourself, or classmates. Look through some of Leibovitz' portraits to get inspiration for different compositions and poses that you may want to incorporate. You will shoot in color and then covert to black and white.
