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.