Arnold Newman

PDN has put together a fabulous resource on Arnold Newman - one of the greatest (environmental) portrait photographers of our time.

Here you can view galleries of his work, including portraits of Alfred Stieglitz, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe.

You can also listen to instructional audio interviews on how to approach a subject and setting up your portrait; as well as a clip in which Newman comments on being called the original "Environmental Portraitist."

Annie Leibovitz

Here is a PBS photo gallery showcasing some of Annie Leibovitz most known celebrity photographs, including Whoopi Goldberg in a milk bath and a naked John Lennon with Yoko Ono.

For new portraits published this month, check her new Hollywood portfolio in Vanity Fair.

Henri Cartier-Bresson and the “decisive moment”

"Photography is not like painting," Henri Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) is by many considered the father of modern photojournalism. He was a master of candid photography and at capturing “the moment”.

Often times, what may look like a photographer’s lucky break has taken careful planning. For example, in the photo Behind Saint-Lazare Station, Cartier-Bresson framed the shot first – i.e. he selected the background, including the big puddle – anticipating what might happen when someone needed to cross it. He then waited for a person to walk/jump into his picture. And: Voila!

Use Cartier-Bresson’s photos (as seen in class) for inspiration as you go about capturing “the moment(s)” in your subjects’ lives.

Emerging Photographer’s Fund grant 2010

Burn Magazine is now receiving submissions for Emerging Photographer’s Fund grant 2010 a grant of $15,000. The deadline is April 15.

Funding is designed to support continuation of a photographer’s personal project. This body of work may be of either journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperatives…

The Emerging Photographer Fund grant was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008, and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit created by the member photographers from Magnum Photos, Inc. Funding for the EPF has come from several private donors who have chosen to remain anonymous.

The EPF Jury for 2009 was: Martin Parr, Gilles Peress, Eugene Richards, Carol Nagar, Fred Ritchin, Maggie Steber, David Griffin, John Gossage and James Nachtwey…

The 2008 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to Sean Gallagher for his essay on the environmental “desertification” of China.

The 2009 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to Alejandro Chaskielburg for his essay on the Parana River delta.

Mary Ellen Mark

Continuing our study of environmental portraits and documentary photographers, we will look at the work of Mary Ellen Mark, including her ‘Mexican Circus’ and 'Indian Street Performer' essays.

Mark's images of the world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Her work from India, include her portrayals of Mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothels in Bombay.

Here's a link to Mary Ellen Mark's gallery online.

Books by Mary Ellen Mark:

Seen Behind the Scene: Forty Years of Photographing on Set (Photography)

Mary Ellen Mark: Falkland Road

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark: Twins (Aperture Monograph)

Photographers we'd like to connect with...

Hey thanks class for your entries about photojournalists and documentary photographers whose work you find interesting, fascinating, worth learning from or outrageous. Throughout the year, we will come back to them and study these photographers' work more closely. Here is a list of these photographers, in no particular order:

Peter Mugabane;
Annie Leibovitz;
Mikhael Subotzky;
Alf Khumalo;
Judy Griesedieck;
Zwelethu Mthetwa;
Sam Nzima;
Robert Leon;
Paul Weinberg;
Shirin Neshat;
Jonathan Torgovnik;
Johan Bavman;
Milton Rogovin;
Cathy Muiek;
Will Robson-Scott;
Sebastiao Salgado;
David Goldblatt;
Alon Skye;
Milton Brooks;
Bill Beall;
Peter Hugo;
John Robison;
Mariella Furrer;
Tim Hetherington;
Aida Mulench;
Steve McCurry;
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi;
W. Eugene Smith;
Jennifer Bruce;

W. Eugene Smith

"I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I speak to people, so I must desert that ivory tower. To do this, I am a journalist—a photojournalist. But I am always torn between the attitude of the journalist, who is a recorder of facts, and the artist, who is often necessarily at odds with the facts. My principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself..."

-W. Eugene Smith

American W. Eugene Smith, 1918 -1978, is a legendary photojournalist, who beyond his fine technical skills, is also respected for his integrity and passion to tell the truth. So much so that he was known for, at times, being at odds with photo editors, defending his personal vision on assignments.

The photographer captured emotionally-charged battle scenes during World War II, and created other great photo essays for Life magazine, including the The Country Doctor, essays which perfected the term. Smith spent an extraordinary amount of time with his subjects, immersing himself in their lives, something other photographers hadn't generally done up until then.

One of his most famous photographs "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath" drew world-wide attention to the effects of Minimata disease, which was caused by the Chisso corporation discharging heavy metals into the water sources around Minimata. To view pictures from the Minimata series, here is a link to Magnum's archive.

To read some more about Smith's work on Minimata and the Tomoko photograph, here is an article in the Digital Journalist by Jim Hughes, founder of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund,