The book I found most intriguing was Photographing the Second Gold Rush, Dorothea Lange and the Bay Area at War, 1941-1945. Dorothea Lange was a documentary photographer from New Jersey. She knew she wanted to become a photographer before college, and never really had formal training. She first started photographing the most wealthy and influential people in her area, then started to photograph street scenes, with a majority regarding the Great Depression and other historical events. She mainly used large format cameras, but is most well known for using the Graflex Series D. This book mainly shows portraits and candid photos of people on the streets of the Bay Area. Many of these photos are of workers, such as shipyard workers, which really shows us how important these jobs were during this wartime. It also shows people of many different races, which is significant because it means that there were so many jobs that needed to be filled that they let anyone of any race or gender work. Photographing the streets is a great way to show the different cultures in the area, the different personalities of the people in the area, and just the general way of life of the time. The Bay Area was a very busy and prosperous area during this time period, so this was a prime location for Dorothea to photograph in because there were many interesting images and people to observe. Dorothea captured the people in this book so well it is almost like you know them personally. Between their outfits, setting that they are in, facial expressions and body language, you can get a sense of the person’s personality or who they are very easily.
The book Aperture Masters of Photography, Berenice Abbott is another book I really appreciate. Berenice Abbott was born in Ohio, but lived in Paris for some time. started out working for famous photographer Man Ray doing darkroom work. She first photographed portraits of high status people, and then moved on to cityscapes. Berenice wanted to be remembered as a self taught risk taker. Her camera of choice was a large format view camera. This book includes a collection of black and white portraits and architecture, with a majority set in New York City. New York City is probably my favorite place in the world, so I instantly fell in love with these images. Berenice photographs a lot of street scenes, putting emphasis on signage, buildings and light and shadows. Half of these photos could be classified as high contrast, however most of them are more low contrast and grey. She focuses a lot on very detailed parts of structures. Her portraits are pretty standard looking and are mainly staged instead of candid. Her photos of landscapes are mainly taken straight on, however a few are from a looking upward perspective. The end of the book includes a few miscellaneous photos that play with light effects.
The book Photographs, Annie Leibovitz includes a series of staged portraits. Annie was a daughter of an Air Force colonel, and went to school in San Francisco. Many of these portraits were taken for magazine spreads, mainly because Annie worked for Rolling Stone magazine. Annie was able to show the director of Rolling Stone her portfolio, and was taken to New York to photograph John Lennon, which ended up on the cover of the magazine. Annie is most famous for her journalistic sensed magazine photography, which at that time were large format full color newsprints. Since Annie photographed in the late nineteenth century, she used various digital cameras. This book includes photos of famous individuals and groups, and Annie captures their personalities or the vibes they try to give off excellently. Since these photos were taken during the 1970’s and 1980’s, I did not know a few of the celebrities, but I could assume what kind of person they were just by the photo. Depending on the person or group, some photos were staged elaborately and dramatically, but others were photographed more naturally and casually. Most of these photos are in clear, vibrant, color, with the exception of a few close up black and white headshot photos.
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