Photographers that inspire me #3

This series of posts is to give you an insight into the photographers, and their various styles of photography, that inspire me to go and take more photographs. i hope these photographers help to give you ideas and inspiration.

Alfred Stieglitz (b, 1864-1946)

Alfred was instrumental in getting photography accepted by the art world as art in its own right, giving photography the same status in art as say painting and drawing. He achieved this with the movement of which he lead called Pictorialism, where their understanding of photography is that a photograph is created when the camera used as a tool, much like a painter and their brush.

He ran a number of art galleries in New York, where he introduced, to the United States, many avant-garde European artists. During this time he married the artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

In 1887 he wrote his first article was called “A word or two about amateur photography in Germany” for the magazine, The Amateur Photographer. From this wrote many regular articles, for magazines in England and Germany, on the technical and aesthetic sides of photography.

During this period Alfred won many Awards such in exhibitions such as The Boston Camera Club, Photographic Society of Philadelphia and the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York.

In 1892 he bought his first hand held camera which opened up a whole new world of possibilities for his work now that he didn't have to lug about his an 8 x 10 plate film camera that required a tripod at all times. 

This photograph "Winter on 5th avenue", is credited as being the first photograph that captures the falling of snow. He stood for three hours just waiting in the cold for something picturesque to come moving through the snow. Instead of using a special soft-focus lens (called a “Lens of Atmosphere” in advertisements), Alfred wanted to take straight, hand-held photos of real, observed moments. 

He needed naturally-occurring atmosphere to create a mood, situating his pictures squarely in the realm of the art world. Weather provided the atmosphere, the fuzzy, soft-focus effects that could double as brushstrokes. Weather could be means to his artistic ends and Alfred would turn to it again and again.

Here is just a small selection of the many photographs by Albert Stieglitz.

Diego Uchitel

Diego is a highly acclaimed fashion photographer from Argentina.

He started his photography by taking countless documentary style photos of the hospitalized patients under his father’s care. He was just so fascinated by the beauty of the human form, I guess this would explain his progression into the world of fashion photography.

Diego moved to America where in time he has become known for his ethereal, emotive and painterly signature style, photographing some of the world’s most fascinating and beautiful subjects.

www.diegouchitel.com

Albert Kahn (b, 1860-1940)

Whilst not a photographer himself, I feel he still should be in this post as he is reasonable for a major body of photographs.

Albert was a millionaire French banker that used his vast wealth to embark on a project to capture, in colour, the people of the world. He used the new autochrome process to promote cross-cultural peace.

Hiring photographers, he covered more than fifty countries and captured many crucial junctures in their history. Going to countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, Mongolia, Ireland and Norway. Also capturing key moments in time such as the First World War trenches.

Between 1909 and 1931 his team of photographers had collected over 72,000 colour photographs and more than 183,000 meters of film, this became to be known as “The Archives of the Planet”.

Eventually due to economic crisis, the “Great Depression” Albert became ruined and this put an end to such a important and historical project. 

www.albertkahn.co.uk

Below is a selection of the many photographs taken by Albert's photographers.

I hope you found the photographers in this post as interesting as I do.

You can purchase books by the photographers in these posts HERE

Written by Paul Casey Hemming @ Big World Picture Dot Com

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