Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was born in 1964 in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States and died in 1946 in New York, New York, United States. In 1883 he began studying in Germany. Edward Steichen founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York with him in 1905. Many photographers and other artists looked up to Stieglitz. He focused on pictorialisim when he began his career as a photographer. He also studied clouds which he named “Equivalents” and New York City. His wife was Georgia O’Keeffe who was a painter. He also did series of her portraits. He worked in a lot of areas in the art industry which a photographer was one of them. He worked hard all throughout his life.
The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles, (n.d.). Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864 – 1946) (Getty Museum). [online] Available at: < http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1815/alfred-stieglitz-american-1864-1946/ > [Accessed 12 Jan. 2016].
Joseph Nicephore Niepce
Joseph Nicephore Niepce was born in 1765 in Frace. He taught in the military but then later in 1801, he returned back home to his family. He worked with his brother, Claude and together they worked on different scientific experiments. They thought about using light for reproduction of images in 1793 while the actual experiments started in 1816. They invention that they came up with and took up a lot of their time was one called the “Pyreolophore” which was made to drive boats. He was the first man to make successfully a permanent photo from a camera in 1826 or 1827. ”The first results obtained spontaneously by the action of light”. Later he continued on more experiments where later he worked with Louis Jacques Daguerre for ten years. He also experimented more with heliography until he died in 1833.
Hrc.utexas.edu, (n.d.). Joseph Nicéphore Niépce: The First Photograph. [online] Available at: < http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/firstphotograph/niepce/ > [Accessed 12 Jan. 2016].
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre
Louis Daguerre was born in 1787 in Paris, France and died in 1815 in Bry-sur-Marne. He was a painter and physicist. He invented the daguerreotype which was the first actual process in photography. The daguerreotype had an image of sharp detail with mirrored glass plates. It took a few minutes of the a photo so it had shorter exposure time. He took the first picture of people but no one appeared in the photo because of the long exposure. The only man that appeared in the picture was a man who spent a long time shining his shoes who was the first man ever to appear in a photo. It took him about 20 to 30 minutes to take the picture, unlike others who took 8 hours. He later started working with Niepce, where together in 1829, they invented a heliographic process.
“Daguerre continued his experiments, and it was he who discovered that exposing an iodized silver plate in a camera would result in a lasting image if the latent image on the plate was developed by exposure to fumes of mercury and then fixed (made permanent) by a solution of common salt.” (Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014)
This was called the daguerreotype.
Encyclopedia Britannica, (2014). Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre | French painter and physicist. [online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Jacques-Mande-Daguerre [Accessed 12 Jan. 2016]
John Stezaker
John Stezaker is a contemporary artist who makes collages from images that he finds in magazines, books, etc. He was born in 1949 in Worcester and now he works and lives in London. These are called ‘ready-mades’. He takes the images that he found and interpret them the way he wants by creating a new meaning. For example; he used a lot of portraitures of stars and people that are in the eye of the public by mashing them both up together into a collage. He used male and female to create a new identity, something out of the ordinary, creating surrealism.
“Placed in contemporary context, his portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic ‘artefacts’ of an obsolete culture. Similar to the photos of ‘primitivism’ published in George Bataille’s Documents, Stezaker’s portraits celebrate the grotesque, rendering the romance with modernism equally compelling and perverse.” (Saatchi Gallery, 2016)
He holds his own exhibitions to show his work. One of his series is called ‘Marriage’.
Saatchi Gallery. (2016). John Stezaker – Artist’s Profile – The Saatchi Gallery. [online] Saatchigallery.com. Available at: < http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/john_stezaker.htm > [Accessed 12 Jan. 2016].
Kobas Laksa
Kobas Laksa was born in 1971 in Bialystok but now he works and lives in Warsaw. He is mostly know for his photography and collages but he is also a visual artist and a filmmaker. He graduated in 1996 from the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied painting, graphic design and drawing. He works with a lot of different media also including performance and film, he also is a director for music videos. He now holds exhibitions for his photography and collages. He is most famous for a series called Urban Projects Warsaw, where he photographs different places and turns them into a collage of impossible scenarios. He also did a lot of exhibitions and had a lot of other projects .
Laska commented on his method of working and the secret of a successful photo collage in an interview:
“I take pictures, I observe the details, search for associations in a seemingly chaotic structure. I try to understand how a given place has arrived at its particular form. It is an arduous work, which I later continue on the computer. I review a bunch of photographs in the context of light composition and perspective. I pay attention to the smallest details, as credibility is the key of a successful photo montage. In order to create a believable image of the University Library as a shopping centre, I set up my camera at a particular time and angle at the Blue City, as it was the only supermarket where the type of light and space resembled that at the Library.” Kobas Laska (Culture.pl)
Culture.pl. Kobas Laksa | Artist | Culture.pl. [online] Available at: < http://culture.pl/en/artist/kobas-laksa > [Accessed 12 Jan. 2016].
Sarah Galea Unit 3: Contextual and Cultural Referencing In Art And Design 