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Photographer Belinda Vecchio
Influenced by ModernismPhotographer Belinda Vecchio
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
James Francis Hurley
Hurley, James Francis (Frank) (1885–1962)
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (MUP), 1983
James Francis (Frank) Hurley (1885-1962), adventurer, photographer and
film maker, was born on 15 October 1885 at Glebe, Sydney, second son of
Edward Harrison Hurley, Lancashire-born printer and trade union
official, and his wife Margaret Agnes, née Bouffier, of French descent.
At 13 Frank ran away from Glebe Public School and worked in the steel
mill at Lithgow, returning home two years later. At night he studied at
the local technical school and attended science lectures at the
University of Sydney. He became interested in photography, buying his
own Kodak box camera for 15 shillings. In 1905 he joined Harry Cave in a
postcard business in Sydney and began to earn a reputation for the high
technical quality of his work and for the extravagant risks he took to
secure sensational images, such as a famous shot taken from the rails in
front of an onrushing train. He also gave talks at photographic club
meetings and in 1910 mounted the first exhibition of his work in Sydney.http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hurley-james-francis-frank-6774
David Moore
David Moore was Australia’s most renowned and widely travelled
photojournalist. His extraordinary archive covers both his homeland and
the many countries and subjects he visited over a sixty-year career.
Moore commenced his professional photographic career in Sydney with Russell Roberts' studio in 1947. Later he worked with Max Dupain before travelling to London in 1951. He was the first Australian photojournalist to work consistently for the international picture magazines during their heyday in the 1950s. For seven years he photographed on assignment in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and the USA, and his work was published in such journals as The Observer, Time-Life, Look, The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. He was one of only two Australian photographers included in the Family of Man exhibition in New York in 1955.
From 1958 Moore travelled the world for his New York agency, Black Star, working for Time-Life Books, National Geographic and corporate industrial clients.
From the 1970s onwards Moore was based in Sydney and here his work reflected his views of Australia. His photographs have been published in many books and are in many Australian collections including those of the Australian National Gallery. Collections are also held at the New York Museum of Modern Art, Le Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
http://www.davidmoorephotography.com.au/index.html
Some of my favourites
Moore commenced his professional photographic career in Sydney with Russell Roberts' studio in 1947. Later he worked with Max Dupain before travelling to London in 1951. He was the first Australian photojournalist to work consistently for the international picture magazines during their heyday in the 1950s. For seven years he photographed on assignment in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and the USA, and his work was published in such journals as The Observer, Time-Life, Look, The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. He was one of only two Australian photographers included in the Family of Man exhibition in New York in 1955.
From 1958 Moore travelled the world for his New York agency, Black Star, working for Time-Life Books, National Geographic and corporate industrial clients.
From the 1970s onwards Moore was based in Sydney and here his work reflected his views of Australia. His photographs have been published in many books and are in many Australian collections including those of the Australian National Gallery. Collections are also held at the New York Museum of Modern Art, Le Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
http://www.davidmoorephotography.com.au/index.html
Some of my favourites
Modernism
A general term used to encompass trends in photography from roughly
1910-1950 when photographers began to produce works with a sharp focus
and an emphasis on formal qualities, exploiting, rather than obscuring,
the camera as an essentially mechanical and technological tool. Also
referred to as Modernist Photography, this approach abandoned the Pictorialist
mode that had dominated the medium for over 50 years throughout the
United States, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. Critic Sadakichi
Hartmann’s 1904 “Plea for a Straight Photography” heralded this new
approach, rejecting the artistic manipulations, soft focus, and
painterly quality of Pictorialism and praising the straightforward,
unadulterated images of modern life in the work of artists such as
Alfred Stieglitz. Innovators like Paul Strand and Edward Weston
would further expand the artistic capabilities and techniques of
photography, helping to establish it as an independent art form.
https://artsy.net/gene/modern-photography
Some of my favourites
https://artsy.net/gene/modern-photography
Some of my favourites
Max Dupain
Max Dupain is one of Australia's most revered photographers. His work has
been collected by most of the major galleries around Australia and as well by
private collectors world-wide.
Born in Sydney in 1911, he lived there all his life, photographing the city from the late 1930s through to just before his death in 1992. There were a few sojourns to other countries, Paris in 1988 to photograph the Seidler Australian Embassy but mostly he was interested in photographing the architecture, the landscape, the beaches and the cities of Australia.
For many Australians, Dupain's photographs define beach culture, and it was the beach that was the inspiration for his most famous and enduring images. The Sunbaker, At Newport and Bondi all capturing that decisive moment.
However, it was not just the beach and Sydney that held his attention. Beginning in the mid thirties, Dupain took on most genres - portraits, nudes, still life and in particular, architecture. It was the latter in which his dramatically lighted portrayals expressed the abstract qualities, emphasising the simple shapes and design of a structure.
Dupain's philosophy could be summed up in two words, simplicity and directness. With this in mind, Dupain remained an adherent of black and white photography. He felt that colour was restricting in its objectivity and that nothing was left for individual interpretation. He continued to photograph until a few months before his death in July, 1992.
http://www.maxdupain.com.au/about.htm
Some of my favourites of Max's work
Born in Sydney in 1911, he lived there all his life, photographing the city from the late 1930s through to just before his death in 1992. There were a few sojourns to other countries, Paris in 1988 to photograph the Seidler Australian Embassy but mostly he was interested in photographing the architecture, the landscape, the beaches and the cities of Australia.
For many Australians, Dupain's photographs define beach culture, and it was the beach that was the inspiration for his most famous and enduring images. The Sunbaker, At Newport and Bondi all capturing that decisive moment.
However, it was not just the beach and Sydney that held his attention. Beginning in the mid thirties, Dupain took on most genres - portraits, nudes, still life and in particular, architecture. It was the latter in which his dramatically lighted portrayals expressed the abstract qualities, emphasising the simple shapes and design of a structure.
Dupain's philosophy could be summed up in two words, simplicity and directness. With this in mind, Dupain remained an adherent of black and white photography. He felt that colour was restricting in its objectivity and that nothing was left for individual interpretation. He continued to photograph until a few months before his death in July, 1992.
http://www.maxdupain.com.au/about.htm
Max Dupain's favourite image not the one we think
Some of my favourites of Max's work
Pictorialism
Compare
The Hand of Man with paintings from the era such as Monet’s “Train
in the Snow” 1875 (see above). What elements do the images have in common?
Consider
composition, subject and tone.
Most
noticeably these two images have the same subject of a steam train
with a large smoke plume coming from it. Both images have a haziness
to them with an almost monotone colour scheme creating a sombre
feeling. Although opposite to each other both trains seem to emerge
from the centre of the image and travel off to the side of the image.
Monet
was considered an “Impressionist” painter. What was, if any, the
relationship between impressionism and photography? (& then
photography and impressionism?)
How
does contemporary technology influence the style and aesthetics of
photographic image making? (like today?)
The
relationship between Impressionism and photography is the
Pictorialism movement. Not only were they both popular at the same
time in history but they also had similar aspects to them. They both
tended to depict landscapes or idealise life, and they also both did
not have clear outlines of images. Contemporary technology has made
photography easier to do and therefore more people attempt it, and
try to mimic other chemical techniques, rather then attempting the
original chemical technique.
What
part did pictorialism play in opening the way for photography to be
accepted as an art form? What are the current trends or standards
for a photograph to be considered art?
Pictorialism
played an important part in accepting photography as an art form by
showing that much need to be
done before pressing the shutter. Selecting the correct scene
and view point, selecting a shutter speed, chose a focus. Then after
the press of the shutter the development process also had an
important affect on the outcome. Photography has been saturated with
photos on social media, allowing anything to be art. However that is
not to say that people are not taking photography seriously as an are
form as there are more photography exhibitions then ever before.
Some
of the secessionists techniques used (see below)
Research
the characteristics of one or all of these methods - how can you
reproduce the effect digitally?
Bromoil
Images
tend to be cloudy and grainy
Carbon
print
images
are very sharp, black and white strong contrasts some grain.
Cyanotype
blue
and white images
Gum
bichromate
soft
grainy images like bromoil but then to be cream and blue tone.
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