Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo is a South Afarican photographer known for his punch in the gut photography. His photography speaks on genocide, AIDs, and other issues many people dont understand or dont want to know about. What drew me to him was his "The Hyena and Other Men" series. He found these men through a cell phone forward and decided to track them down. It turned out they where a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. The men where performers that used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. Pieter talked them into letting him travel along and earned theyre trust.






http://www.pieterhugo.com/selected-work/the-hyena-other-men/37.jpg/

Alfred Eisenstaedt

Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German Jew, photographer and photojournalist. He is known for his candid photographs, best known for his photographs capturing the V-Day Celebration. Eisenstaedt lived and worked very successfully in Germany as a photographer before WWII broke out. He was well-known for his skills and even took photographs of a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini of Italy. But when the war broke out his escaped to New York where he lived until he died in 1994. He was able to get a job with LIFE magazine. He had over 90 of his photographs displayed on the front page of the magazine over the course of his 36 year long career with the company. Without a doubt though, his most recognized work took place on V-J Day. He went out onto Times Square with his camera and was able to photograph a sailor kissing a girl as people were celebrating. It showed the excitement and enthusiasm that the entire country had for winning the war. His photos have a movement and energy to them that most photographs dont. When you look at his work you can hear the sound of the cheering and laughter. Its not just a photograph, its a thousand words.

Robert Doisneau

"The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street."- Doisneau


Le baiser de l’hotel de ville.

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. He passed away in 1997. Hes one of Frances most well known and recognizable photographers. Hes known for his playful, light-hearted style. What I enjoy most about Doisneau's work is that he rarely takes serious pictures. Most of his work is taken on the streets of Paris of everyday people. Kids playing with mothers watching close by. He captures the world in action. There is no deeper meaning behind the frame. I believe sometimes people get carried away. Everything always has to have a purpose. It cant just bring someone joy and i feel that he does that, without asking for anything more. He's just celebrating life.

Dorothea Lange

I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.


Dorothea Lange's photographs are some of the most influential work of all time. She began her career by opening a portrait studio but once the Great Depression began she decided to head outdoors to capture what people were going through. Shes known for her photography The Migrant Mother and is almost always used to depict the Great Depression in history books.



Dorothea Lange was a natural photographer. She could look at something as simple or as boring as a clothes line and make it seem beautiful and magical. I find her mesmerizing. I think that she is a real, honest to God Hero.

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people
how to see without a camera."

I Build a Pyramid

"It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected... For the length of these few sentences, we meet here. It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me."

- Duane Michals

Christ in New York, 1982
Christ Sees a Woman who has Died during an Illegal Abortion, 1982
Christ Eats Dog Food with an Old Ukrainian Lady in Brooklyn, 1982
Christ is Beaten Defending a Homosexual, 1982
Christ Sees a Woman being Attacked, 1982

Christ is Shot by a Mugger with a Handgun and Dies. The Second Coming had Occurred and No One Noticed, 1982

Duane Michals was born during the depression. He is a self taught photographer, he was 26 when he borrowed a camera from a friend and went to Russia to capture the Cold War. The best known photographers in the time were Ansel Adams and Robert Frank. What makes Michals a master at what he does is the way he choose his own way. He asks the questions most photographers never think about. He digs deeper than a pretty print. Blurring the lines between photography and philosophy, using a completely unique and legendary approach. He tells a story with his photographs.

- Duane Michals