P1: Describe Professional Photographers and Their Work
P1: Describe Professional Photographers and Their Work
In this report, I am going to explain the techniques and equipment used by famous photographers. I will evaluate the work of Annie Leibovitz, Henry Cartier Bresson and Robert Capa.
Annie Leibovitz
American photographer from Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz shoots portrait photos of celebrities for many different companies such as The Rolling Stone Magazine in the 1970s-1980s where she started her career. She has also worked for Walt Disney, Vanity Fair Magazine, Vogue, Brooklyn Museum... She studied art at the San Francisco Art Institute. Being a modern photographer, she currently uses a Cannon EOS 5D mark III and IV. In the past, she has used the camera Mamiya RZ67.
This is a photo that she took in 2007 of Leonardo Di Caprio with a swan around his neck for Vanity Fair. The subject is on the right of the photograph, using rule of thirds which is more visually pleasing to see. The rain fills the rest of the photograph and the motion blur will have been achieved with low FPS/shutter speed. This is a medium camera shot to show the emotions of the subject and their face.
The overall style of the photograph is very elegant. The monochrome photography creates an old classy feel and ensures the swan and the rain stands out. Leonardo Di Caprio is a famous actor. He is most famous as Jack in the romance movie Titanic. In this photo, his hair is slicked back and he is wearing smart clothing. Swans symbolise love, beauty and elegance so having the swan around his neck adds to the romance/classy effect of the photograph.
This is a photo she took in 2022 for Vogue Magazine of the pop star celebrity, Rihanna. As you can see, Leibovitz chose to take a full camera shot of Rihanna. This shows that she is pregnant and also follows the conventions of a magazine (as this is a photo from Vogue magazine). This is an exception where rule of thirds can be broken since the model is the main focus on the magazine front cover. The foreground and background is visable, aperture is high so the background is not blurry.
She also took a photo of the Disney princess Tiana in 2013 for the Vanity Fair magazine. Again, a full shot photograph has been taken and rule of thirds has been used, Tiana is on the left of the photograph and the rest of the scene is in focus. This not only lets Leibovitz show Tiana's dress, but also the world she lives in. The photograph is heavily edited, you can see the behind the scenes above. This is fantasy photography.
Henri Cartier Bresson
Specialising in street/human photography, Henry Cartier-Bresson was a famous french photographer. He started his photography career in 1931 and died 3rd August 2004. Some of the companies he worked for are Vogue and Life magazine. He did a lot of freelance work throughout his career. Most of his photos are in black and white because technology had colour limitations back then. Furthermore, black and white photography ensures that you can see the light and dark contrasts of shadows, details etc which he uses a lot of in his work. He also co-founded his own company with Robert Capa etc called Magnum Photos in 1947.
This photograph is taken from a high angle shot looking down the stairs at the man on the bike. A lower shutter speed may have been used as the man on the bike has a slight motion blur. The photo does follow the rule of thirds with the man being on the right and the stair more towards the left. You can clearly see leading lines are also used with the stairs and the railing, you can see distinct lines in the photo. Both the foreground and background are in focus.
Leading lines is definately in play in this photograph. Although this does break the rule of thirds, the leading lines created by the road and the trees is asthetic and makes us feel like we are actually there, This brings the photo to life. The foreground and background is in focus. However, our eyes are automatically drawn to the road and the trees as opposed to the sky and the fields which frames the center of the photo. In a sense, this is a POV camera shot, as if we are walking down this road ourselves. It is also an establishing landscape camera shot since we can see the environment around.
This is a photograph Henri Cartier-Bresson took for Life magazine in 1955. This photo shows Cartier-Bresson's more human street photography. Rule of thirds is used to a degree. The main focus of this photograph is the two women on the right. They are at the forefront of the photograph as a full camera shot. The other people act as a background to this photo although they are visible (the man walking on the left) in the photo. Magazine conventions are followed with the masthead being at the top of the magazine (Life logo), a cover line at the bottom left (to tell the audience what will be included in the magazine) and a puff at the top right persuading audiences to buy the magazine because the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson took photos of people in Russia. The red stands out against Henri-Cartier-Bresson's photograph and establishes a colour scheme/house style for the Life magazine brand. The red also draws attention to the photograph using a pleasant contrast, ensuring the audience will look at everything on the front cover. I have created my own magazine for unit 3 and I also evaluated lots of magazines. This is how I have knowledge of magazine conventions.
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was an American war photographer (1913-1954). He famously took photos of war zones in the Spanish Civil War and World War 2. He co-founded Magnum photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson and others.
Robert Capa used a 35MM Leica camera to take his photographs early on in his career. He also used the Nikon S and Contax II cameras with 50mm and 35mm lenses.
This photograph shows soldiers rushing into war on D-day. The motion blur effect has been created using a low shutter speed. If a camera has a low shutter speed, the shutter is open for a while and more light is allowed in. This causes a blurred effect when the soldiers moved since the camera will see all these frames and try to create a photo by combining these frames. The photo has a vignette style (photo is darker around the edges) to create a sense of fear for the soldiers and we focus more on them rather than the sea they are running in. Capa breaks the rule of thirds by having his subject in the middle of the photo as apposed to the side. The photo looks nearly POV (Point Of View) as if we are running with the soldiers into war. This is just one of many photos that Robert Capa took for Life magazine. He had to take photos of the American army going to war for Life magazine.
In this photograph, you can see a family standing/sitting around a building that has seen the effects of war. The building has been ruined and destroyed by bullets. Here you can see the consequences of war and how it effects communities. This photo uses rule of thirds, there are children on the left and a woman on the right in the foreground of the photo with the building in focus in the background. This is a full/establishing shot since you can see the people in full view. They have left the building in view to show the damage caaused by war. The monochrome photography shows how bleak war is and it also creates a scary feeling of dread. The area is unsafe and we can see this from all the rubble on the ground.
This is a photo of Robert Capa that he took of himself ready to follow the soldiers. This happened on Obama Beach, D-day, June 6th 1994. Here you can see Capa looks very patriarchal while wearing US Military uniform and looking into the distance. This is a good example of breaking rule of thirds. The photograph's main point of interest is Capa. He uses a low camera angle, medium shot to show how superior and powerful he is. Again, he was used black and white photography. The photograph has a clear foreground and background to show the US plane. The diagonal line created by the plane in the background is harsh but shows a distinct contrast to the sky, also creating a more interesting photo.
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