Elliot Erwitt - Colorado USA 1955 (Review)

ELLIOTT ERWIT

Elliott Erwitt – Colorado USA 1955

Legendary Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt is one of the world’s greatest commercial and documentary photographers. He is well known for his often ironic black and white images of everyday life.  Elliott Erwitt is a photographer that shows what interesting means. When you see a photograph from Erwitt, it might make you think, make you laugh, make you sad, but you will always experience some sort of emotion and you want to come back and take another look. Erwitt has a lot of patience. He sees the potential for something and he’ll sit and wait for it to happen. He’ll rarely direct a photograph, although he has been known to occasionally bark at dogs or blow a bike horn to get the attention of a passerby. A lot of his personal work is almost comical and you wonder if they are staged or Photoshopped. They aren’t. He is simply a master at capturing perfect moments.

This picture is called Colorado USA 1955 by Elliot Erwitt. In "Colorado, 1955," a small boy inside a truck stares out the window, his right eye obscured by a smashed fracture in the glass. The violence of the crack gives the illusion that a bullet had just passed through to strike the boy, who hasn't had time to register his demise. This picture draws attention to viewer’s eyes because of the clever angle Erwitt put on this photo so the crack in the wind shield looks like it is the boy's eye. Erwitt seems to be in the right place at the right time but he must have done something to seek boy’s attention and then cleverly framed the shot.  The boy might be in his early teens and wears clothing not typical to 1950’s although we know it was shot in 1955 In Colorado, USA. It is difficult to say exactly what is going on in this image it is very powerful and evokes many connotations. Mine being violence, innocence, child abuse, loneliness, disconnection, a boy that wants to be heard, war, mental illness, blindness, shattered life/home etc.

Elliot Erwitt is famous for his frames; most of his pictures are framed through car’s window and mirrors. He likes to show reflections in his pictures as well as he composes the picture in such a way that subject looks really meaningful. Elliot Erwitt is a famous street photographer who catches a moment and when we talk about right timing of Elliot, it is just because he carries his camera all the time with him. His habit of carrying a camera every time he goes out results in extraordinary photographs. Most of the subjects in his pictures might be ordinary, but he cleverly turns ordinary into extra ordinary with his amazing composition. Elliot Erwitt captures a moment but his pictures have a lot to say about specific subject and that’s what makes his photographs unique.

-Kamran Yousaf

Garry Winogrand - Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1957 (Review)

GARRY WINOGRAND

 Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1957. PHOTO: The estate of Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand, a man who defined street photography as an attitude as well as style, was born in January 1928 in the Bronx. In 1948 he enrolled at Columbia University to study painting, before taking a photojournalism course, where his passion for photography began. He was obsessive and prolific. He worked as a freelance photojournalist and advertising photographer in the 1950s and 1960s.Winogrand said ‘Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame.’ He loved to capture moments. Winogrand’s style is, in a way, the most difficult style, because the world he depicts is often so different that you yourself wouldn’t stop to look at it.

This image is called Albuquerque, New Mexico by Garry Winogrand. There is some kind of mystery behind this picture which is brilliantly captured by the photographer. This picture depicts a small child standing in a drive way of a house labeled 208. Inside a driveway there is an abandoned tricycle. Behind the house there are beautiful mountains of New Mexico, Sandia Mountains. There are heavy clouds casting a shadow on the mountains. Next to the building near the bottom of the photo is a small bush. In the photo you can only see the garage, but there are no neighbors in sight, only the small child in the driveway, lifting its arms. Garry Winogrand seems to be in the right place at the right time for this picture and it is not just a matter of luck as Winogrand’s eyes were fully trained to see things differently.

When we first look at the picture, our eyes see the highlights in the picture i.e. a small child with a mysterious pose in a drive way and then we see the mid tones i.e. mountains in a picture then we look back at the highlights and a mysterious surrounding which creates the tension in a picture. Because of its composition this photograph leaves a viewer with a sense of wonder, mystery and perhaps a feeling of darkness. Winogrand succeeded to capture a once in a life time moment in this photograph. This was a modern building in the middle of nowhere, but it is now in the middle of surrounding city and neighbors aged with time. Winogrand loved paintings and his pictures definitely depict his sense about paintings. This picture is a true photograph. We can’t paint this photograph because it is actually a wonderful and mysterious moment captured by Garry Winogrand. 

-Kamran Yousaf

Ansel Adams Moonrise - Review

Ansel Adams Moonrise, Hernadez, New Mexico

Picture the scene: it’s autumn 1941 and you and your assistants are approaching the end of a fruitless day’s work trying to capture the beauty of the US landscape for the Department of the Interior. After hours of failed exposures and missed opportunities you spot, just off Route 84 in New Mexico, a beautiful scene. The white clouds and snowcapped mountains on the far horizon reflect the setting sun; in the foreground an assortment of gravestones also throw off the sinking rays; and, in the sky above, a gibbous moon is on the rise. With the right film, set at the correct exposure, you think it could make for a truly great landscape photograph. Only, where have you put that light meter?

Ansel Adams is one of the most beloved and well known landscape photographers of the United States; his popularity has only increased since his death. By the time he wrote his first guide book Making a Photograph, he had already established the subject matter - the natural environment of United States. Adams is well known for his nicely composed landscapes which include an amazing tonal range. He loved to play piano and we can see that vibe flowing in his pictures. The way he composes the pictures is similar to the music that is produced by the keys of piano, smooth yet sharp at the same time. His work is not similar to any Street life photographer because most of his picture are pre planner unlike other Street life photographers. 

Moon rise, Hernandez, New Mexico is one of his most famous photographs. Moonrise was made on a typical Ansel trip to the Southwest in the fall of 1941 combining two commercial assignments: one for the U.S Department of the Interior at Carlsbad Caverns and the other for the U.S. Potash Company. Ansel used to make his own chemicals to print the pictures and that is something he was perfect at. We can't call anyone perfect but Ansel was probably the Picasso of printing images. Most like all of his pictures, Moonrise is also pre planned picture as its a landscape, but it has that element of realism in it. It lacks the humanity aspect but the picture is incredibly realistic. Looking at the beautiful moon, sun almost below the horizon, filling the sky with its smooth light but not fading moon's beauty, these are the things can drive you crazy and are enough to blow off your mind and fill it with freshness and happiness. The graves and the houses in the picture with perfectly composed tones give the picture more realistic touch.

Ansel Adam's Moonrise is a perfect example of well composed photograph and the reason we are calling this a photograph is the realism of the picture. According to Ansel's own words, "Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs." This picture doesn't look like a painting because of its sharp focus. No one can call this picture a painting. Talking about Ansel's hardwork, what Adam has achieved in his life is just unachievable. No one can even come closer to Adam's art and what he has done for the sake of Landscape Photography is truly remarkable. He gave landscape photography a new life and it won't be unfair to call him the Best landscape Photographer of the century.

- Kamran Yousaf                  

Ansel Adams Snake river Review

Ansel Adams The Testons and the Snake River

Ansel Adams is quoted as saying, "You don't take a photograph, you make it." Adams is well known Photographer because of his impressive black and white landscapes which fill your eyes with immense pleasure and freshness. These photographs earned him the admiration of Photographers past and present. Adams had the ability to work exceptionally on higher ISO. His photographs were mostly pre planner but all of them had a message in them and he was really consistent with that. Adams spent his whole life conveying message of Beauty of nature and he did his job remarkably. He was like many artists, brain nervous child but full of energy and he had been doing photography since his childhood that is what made his work exceptional and mature. His work was about America, his thoughts were about America. He showed the beauty of America in his pictures. 

The Tetons and the Snake River is one his most famous pictures. This photograph of the Tetons and the Snake is really different than other common landscape pictures, as it is composed black and white, the photo makes the viewer focus on what the picture focal point actually is and not just the colours of the photo. Adams wants to show us how much meaning nature can truly have in our lives. Adams often went on walk in the wilderness and admired his environment and surroundings. I think that's what his pictures are about, placing us in the places he's been. His pictures give viewer the feeling as they are really present at that place and can feel what Adam felt while taking a shot. The connection between river and the mountains create tension in the picture. The flow of river has worked as a guiding lines in the picture that leads the viewer to the main subject and that is the most perfect example of well composed picture. Adam's photographs have everything to change the perspective of the viewer. It can actually change the way of viewer's thinking. Adams' photographs are very perceptual and tremendous art form. Adams actually succeeded to transform fragrances into pictures.

We won't be doing justice to current Photographers by saying that we can't reproduce his pictures. The main point is, what Adams has done in his time no one can ever compete that. He has done it before any one even think of it and that's what makes Adams one of the most successful Photographers of the century. 

- Kamran Yousaf