Richard Avedon

Till date, Richard Avedon is remembered as the photographer who shaped and defined America’s sense of fashion and style in the late 20th century, captivating energy, freedom and excitement through his clicks. Best known for his minimalistic and probing portraits, Avedon acted as the driving force who added a sense of vibrancy into the realm of fashion photography. His breath-taking and awe-inspiring photographs have filled the pages of numerous prestigious magazines in the United States of America. One of the most renowned photographers in the world, Avedon was endowed with a brilliant sense of imagery and insight. He delved deep into the subjects he shot and created some of the most intensive and creative photographs for the world to behold. He gave photographers around the world a new vision in portrait photography, something that was quintessentially seen in his works. Avedon’s large gamut of work has been exhibited at various prestigious exhibitions all over the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of American History, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and the like. To learn more interesting and intriguing facts about his childhood, personal life and achievements in the field of photography and fashion, scroll down and continue to read this biography.

Alfred Stieglitz

A vital force in the development of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz's significance lies as much in his work as an art dealer, exhibition organizer, publisher, and editor as it does in his career as a photographer. He is credited with spearheading the rise of modern photography in America in the early years of the twentieth century, publishing the periodical Camera Work (1903-17) and forming the exhibition society, the Photo-Secession. He also ran a series of influential galleries, starting with 291, which he used not only to exhibit photography, but also to introduce European modernist painters and sculptors to America and to foster America's own modernist figures - including his later wife, Georgia O'Keeffe. Insistent that photography warranted a place among the fine arts, Stieglitz's own work showed great technical mastery of tone and texture and reveled in exploring atmospherics. In later years, influenced in part by Cubism and other trends, he became interested in straight photography, favoring more clarity and less lush effects.

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Paul Strand

Along with Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand was one of the defining masters of early American modernist photography. Strand was introduced to photography by the renowned social documentarian Lewis Hine, who instilled in him an understanding of the photograph as a powerful tool that should be used for the betterment of humanity. Finding his own vision, in the early 20th century Strand began taking the photographs for which he is best known: scenes of urban hustle and bustle, formal abstractions, and street portraits.

DOROTHEA LANGE

Dorothea Lange was a natural photographer in the truest sense because she lived, in her words, "a visual life." She could look at something: a line of laundry flapping in the wind, a pair of old, wrinkled, work-worn hands, a bread-line, a crowd of people in a bus station, and find it beautiful. Her eye was a camera lens and her camera--as she put it--an "appendage of the body." During her last illness, as a friend sat near her bed, she suddenly said to him "I've just photographed you." Lange had engaged in this camera-less sort of photography for decades, from the time she was a young girl, and it served as both the foundation of her art education and her first apprenticeship.

Gordon Parks

Born Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, KS; died of complications from high blood pressure and prostate cancer, March 7, 2006, in New York, NY. Photographer and director. A creative pioneer in several fields, Gordon Parks first became famous for his affecting photographs in the 1940s. He became the first black staff photographer at the prestigious Life magazine and eventually one of the most influential photographers of the mid-20th century. After 20 years chronicling the civil-rights movement and the suffering of the poor, he became Hollywood's first black director, producing a semi-autobiographical film and the classic black detective film Shaft . "No matter what medium he chose for his self-expression, he sought to challenge stereotypes while still communicating to a large audience," wrote Andy Grundberg of the New York Times . "In finding early acclaim as a photographer despite a lack of professional training, he became convinced that he could accomplish whatever he set his mind to. To an astonishing extent, he proved himself right."

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark is perhaps one of the best known female photojournalists. Her career has included portraiture and advertising photography in addition to her photo-journalistic pursuits. Mark became a unit photographer on movie sets and focused on production stills for over 100 films including Alice’s Restaurant, Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Apocalypse Now and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Mark's involvement in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prompted her to request permission to live inside the facility where the movie was actually filmed. Mark spent two months there, befriending and photographing women who were patients. These photos were later compiled into a book entitled Ward 81. It is almost impossible to name all of the various awards that Mark has been given over the years. These include a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, An Excellence in Journalism award, The Phillipe Halsman Award for Photojournalism from the American Society of Magazine Photographers, a Cornell Capa Award, and a Distinguished Photographer’s Award, Women in Photography.

William Klein

This photo is very interesting to me. There are 2 women who honestly look like they are walking the stage or modeling. The black and white lines looks like a pattern on in the background but is actually the crosswalk. The photo is also interesting because the colors correspond with each other.

Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady and his associates, most notably Alexander Gardner, George Barnard, and Timothy O'Sullivan, photographed many battlefields, camps, towns, and people touched by the war. Their images depict the multiple aspects of the war except one crucial element: battle. Photographs show camp life, routines, war preparations, the moments just prior to battle, and the aftermath of battle.

Robert Frank

I like this picture because I've never got to experience a real drive-in movie. I love that it is black and white, bc it set a mood in the pic. & I love that it was took in Detroit because the cars.

Ansel Adams

This beautiful black and white photograph is hand made from Ansel Adams' original negative, and available exclusively from the family-owned Ansel Adams Gallery. This is as close to an Ansel Adams original photograph as most people can purchase, and it is spectacular.

I like this picture because it is very mysterious. It makes you think whats down the dark, foggy road.

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was born on March 14, 1923, in New York City. An artistic child, she learned photography from her husband, actor Allan Arbus. Together, they found success with fashion work, but Diane soon left and worked on her own. Her raw, unusual images of the people she saw while living in New York created a unique and interesting portrayal of the city. She committed suicide in New York City in 1971. Diane Arbus is the best known female photographer of her generation. Her photography is very unique and diverse. There are many faces that might of had many stories, but you never know..

This phot is an example of f-stop. You can see that the buck is the main point in the photo. The buck is very crisp and the & the background is blurred so the buck could be focused on.

F-stops in particular have a tremendous effect on image characteristics, some of which may not be obvious to amateur shooters. For the bulk of this article, we'll discuss and improve your grasp of the mysterious f-stop. When you take pictures, you're using the interplay between shutter speed, ISO and f-stop settings to control exposure. F-stops especially seem to baffle many novice shooters, perhaps because of the weird alphanumeric symbols used to indicate these settings. Happily, figuring out f-stops is really pretty simple once you disassemble the term and break it up into understandable parts.