The Answer to Name That Photographer is…

ERNST HAAS
(1921-1986)

Ernst Haas was an Austrian-American photojournalist who was a pioneer in color photography. During his forty-year career he not only used the camera to tell a story, but to visually express his creativity through bold, abstract and impressionistic images.

Portrait of Ernst Haas

Haas was raised in the grand culture of Vienna before World War II. His parents placed a high value on education and the arts, and encouraged his creative pursuits from an early age.

His father, an avid amateur photographer, tried to inspire his son to pursue photography, but Haas had no interest in cameras until he was nearly twenty, when he started going through old family negatives after his father died. Haas was taken more by painting and drawing and studying things like poetry, philosophy, music, literature and science, which later informed his beliefs about the creative potential for photography.

Haas once said:

“I never really wanted to be a photographer. It slowly grew out of the compromise of a boy who desired to combine two goals—explorer or painter. I wanted to travel, see and experience. What better profession could there be than the one of a photographer, almost a painter in a hurry, overwhelmed by too many constantly changing impressions? But all my inspirational influences came much more from all the arts than from photo magazines.”

World War II complicated Haas’ education. He tried to go to medical school, but was only able to complete one year before laws changed and he was forced out due to his Jewish ancestry.

In 1946, at age 25, he obtained his first camera by trading a 20-pound block of margarine for a Rolleiflex on the Vienna black market. With that, he documented the war’s effects in Vienna, approaching the city as a reporter with a sharp, but empathetic eye. His photographs show the enduring human spirit in the face of a devastated urban environment.

Haas Prisoners Vienna

Haas hunchback Vienna

When Haas was thirty, he moved to the United States, which is where he started experimenting with color film. In 1953 Life published a groundbreaking 24-page color photo essay of his work on New York City, which was the first time such a large color photo feature was ever published in the magazine. Nine years later Haas became the first person to ever have a single-artist exhibition of color photography at the Museum of Modern Art.

Ernst Haas photo Traffic, New York 1963
Ernst Haas Photo New York City

Name That Photographer

See if you can NAME THAT PHOTOGRAPHER from the following five clues:

Name That Photographer Graphic1) He was talented at painting and drawing, but had no interested in photography as a child, even though his father tried to encourage him.

2) He created one of the most successful photography books ever published.

3) He was famous for bridging the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a means of expression and creativity.

4) He was considered a pioneer in color photography.

5) He was the first person to have a single-artist exhibition of color photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Leave your guess in the comment box below and check back tomorrow to see if you are correct.

The Answer to Name That Photographer is…

Portrait of Photographer Edward Curtis, 1889

Self-portraif of Edward Sheriff Curtis, circa 1889

EDWARD SHERIFF CURTIS
“Shadow Catcher” 
(1868-1952) 

Perhaps America’s best-known photographer of Native Americans and the West, Edward S. Curtis spent three decades immersed in the culture of our nation’s indigenous peoples during the early 1900′s .

His ambitious project involved photographing more than eighty tribal groups west of the Mississippi–everyone from the Eskimo (Inuit) in the far north to the Hopi and the Comanche in the southwest to the Ute and Cheyenne and a multitude of others in between.

Curtis was born in 1868 near Whitewater, Wisconsin where he lived until he was six years old. HIs father, a Reverend and Civil War veteran, then moved the family to Minnesota.

Around that time more than 200 battles were being fought between US troops and Native American tribes–from the Dakota Territory down to Mexico. When Edward Curtis was eight years old Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated General George Custer and his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Edward Curtis photo of Princess Angline, 1896Curtis went to school until sixth grade then dropped out. Soon after he became interested in photography and built his first camera. The lens for his camera was brought back from the Civil War by his father. He and his father also shared a love of the outdoors and spent time together camping and canoeing. At seventeen, Curtis became an apprentice photographer in St. Paul, then two years later, when his family moved to Seattle, he became a partner in a photo studio.

His first Native American portrait, created in 1896, was of Princess Angeline, the elderly daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle. It wasn’t long after that he launched into his epic project documenting the Native American traditional way of life–their dress, ceremonies, food, clothing, dwellings, burial customs, manners, and daily life.

Though he struggled to gain funding, eventually J.P. Morgan offered him $75,000, to be paid at $15,000 per year for five years, to create his 20-volume series entitled The North American Indian. It would comprise over two thousand photogravure plates and narrative about America’s indigenous, and Curtis feared, vanishing people. Native Americans were considered “savages” by many at the time, forced from their land and stripped of their rights.

Edward Curtis Native Americans Photograph

Curtis would later write the following foward to Volume I of The North American Indian.

“The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other; consequently the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of future generations, respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once….”

During this ambitious project, Curtis became known by some tribes as the “Shadow Catcher” as he captured the likeness of many important and well-known Indian people of that time, including Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, Medicine Crow and others. Not only did he create thousands of images, but he recorded hours of rare ethnographic information, including some 10,000 wax cylinder sound recordings of Indian speech, music, and tribal mythologies.

Edward Curtis Photo of Medicine CrowEdward Curtis Photo of Chief JosephEdward Curtis Photo of Geronimo

It took far more than five years to create all twenty volumes, and far more money. Curtis sacrificed much in order to fulfill his dream of documenting America’s indigenous peoples. Not only was he perpetually broke, and continually trying to find financing for the project, but his family life took a beating as well. His wife divorced him after twenty-seven years and his four children grew up essentially with an absent father much of their childhoods.

Curtis’ photographs, while recognized as some of the most important work of its time, have received criticism because they are said to be romanticized versions of Native American culture, and contrived reconstructions rather than true documentation. He was known at times to remove “modern” items from an image to make it more authentic.

Below are images selected from The Library of Congress’s Edward S. Curtis Collection. Some were published in The North American Indian. Others were not.

Photo of Qagyul Wedding Party by Edward S. Curtis

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Name That Photographer

Name That Photographer GraphicSee if you can NAME THAT PHOTOGRAPHER from the following five clues:

1) This photographer dropped out of school in sixth grade and soon after built his or her first camera.

2) This photographer famously said: “Optimism, unaccompanied by personal effort, is merely a state of mind and not fruitful.”

3) This photographer was born in Wisconsin, moved to Minnesota, then later to Seattle, eventually settling in Los Angeles.

4) To earn money this photographer worked as an uncredited assistant cameraperson for Cecil B. DeMille during the filming of The Ten Commandments.

5) This photographer’s collection at the Library of Congress offers us an extensive look back into our history with more than 2,400 silver-gelatin, first generation photographic prints – some of which are sepia-toned – made from original glass negatives.

Leave your guess in the comment box below and check back tomorrow to see if you are correct.

The Answer to Name That Photographer is…

MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE
(1904-1971) 

Margaret Bourke-White Portrait 1943Margaret Bourke-White was an extraordinary photographer and a woman of many firsts. Not only was she the first female photojournalist for Life magazine and the first photographer  for Fortune magazine, but she was also the first female war correspondent allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and also the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union.

Before becoming a photographer, she attended five different universities in pursuit of a degree in Herpatology (the study of reptiles), eventually receiving her degree from Cornell in 1927.

She was born in the Bronx to intense parents, Minnie Bourke and Joseph White, who believed in reading and improving the mind. They did not allow things like comic books or chewing gum. Bourke-White enjoyed photography as a hobby and had a father who supported her interest. She studied with Clarence White, a leader in the pictorial school of photography, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio to launch her career. Her first job was as an industrial photographer at the Otis Steel Mill, which brought her much acclaim.

She married twice, once at a young age, then again to writer, Erskine Caldwell, whom she collaborated with on several book projects, including You Have Seen Their Faces, documenting the depression.

Margaret Bourke-White Photo

“Utter truth is essential and that is what stirs me when I look through the camera”–Margaret Bourke-White

Bourke-White photographed everything from apartheid and the horrible working conditions in South Africa’s gold and diamond minds to Nazi death camps to the U.S. fight against Communism in Korea. Her work in the Soviet Union was ground-breaking, and her images of America were dizzying.
Margaret Bourke-White Louiseville
Margaret Bourke-White cameraMargaret Bourke-White
“The camera is a remarkable instrument. Saturate yourself with your subject, and the camera will all but take you by the hand and point the way.”–MBW

Margaret Bourke-White Camera Queen

Margaret Bourke-White clearly made a huge mark on photography, and proved that women are just as capable as men, even in the most difficult situations.

To see additional photos by Margaret Bourke-White, click on the highlighted link. You can also check out her work on Amazon (click on this book to get started).

Here’s a list of some of the books she created:
You Have Seen Their Faces, 1937 with Erskine Caldwell
North of the Danube, 1939 with Erskine Caldwell
Shooting the Russian War, 1942
They Called it “Purple Heart Valley”, 1944
Halfway to Freedom; a report on the new India, 1949
Portrait of Myself, 1963
Dear Fatherland, rest quietly, 1946
The Taste of War (selections from her writings edited by Jonathon Silverman

FYI: I just read that Barbara Streisand is hoping to direct her first movie in 16 years–”Skinny and Cat,” a love story about Margaret Bourke-White and her late husband, writer Erskine Caldwell. You can read about it here.

Name That Photographer

Name That Photographer GraphicSee if you can NAME THAT PHOTOGRAPHER from the following five clues:

1) She was an American photographer born in 1904.

2) She was the first female war correspondent and the first female permitted to work in combat zones.

3) She created this iconic image of Gandhi at his spinning wheel.

Photo of Gandhi at his spinning wheel

4) She was the first Western photographer allowed to take pictures of Soviet industry.

5) She battled Parkinson’s disease for 18 years and died of it at age 67.

Leave your answer in the comment box and find out tomorrow if you are correct!

The Answer to Name that Photographer is…

DOROTHEA LANGE

She has been called America’s greatest documentary photographer.

Photo of Dorothea Lange in 1938 with 4x5 camera

Photo of Dorothea Lange

This photo of Dorothea Lange was taken by Rondal Partridge, son of Imogen Cunningham. She is holding a Graflex 4×5 single lens reflex camera, which takes sheet film.

After being educated in photography at Columbia University in New York City, Lange moved to San Francisco and opened a successful portrait studio.

She married, had two sons, then once the Great Depression hit, she turned her lens from the studio to the streets. Her images of unemployed and homeless people captured the attention of many and led her to work for the Farm Security Administration.

In 1935 she divorced her first husband and married her second, Paul Taylor, a professor of Economics at UC Berkeley. Both were passionate about social and political issues and worked together documenting rural poverty and the exploitation of sharecroppers and migrant workers.

Dorothea Lange's photo of a Migrant motherLange’s best known photograph titled, “Migrant Mother, 1936″ captures this thirty-two year old mother whom she described as “desperate and hungry.” She recounted her conversation in a 1960 magazine article: “…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.”

In 1941 Lange won a Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in photography, but when Pearl Harbor was attacked she gave up this prestigious award to photograph the forced relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps like Manzanar. Her powerful photographs were so clearly critical of the government’s policy that the Army impounded them.

Dorothea Lange's photo of Japanese Internment

Dorothea Lange photo of a Japanese internment camp

Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of the Japanese American Internment– a book with about 100 never before published photos from her 800 picture archive, is available on Amazon, as are many other classics with her images.

Dorothea Lange Impounded Book CoverDorothea Lange_Heart Mind Book CoverDorothea Lange A Visual Life Book Cover

Check out some of Dorothea Lange’s work if you can, and see the raw emotion she captures in the human condition. There’s a reason she has been described as American’s best documentary photographer.

Name That Photographer

Name That Photographer GraphicSee if you can Name that Photographer from the following five clues:

1) She was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895 to second-generation German immigrants.

2) She contracted polio when she was 7 years old, which left her with a permanent limp. She once said of her altered gait: “It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me. I’ve never gotten over it, and I am aware of the force and power of it.”

3) She lived most of her life in Berkeley, California.

4) She was very shy, yet independent and always interested in people.

5) She is best known for her documentary work of the Great Depression and Japanese internment camps like Manzanar, and she co-founded Aperture magazine.

Leave your guess in the comment box and check back tomorrow to see if you are correct.

Name That Photographer

Name That Photographer GraphicSee if you can NAME THAT PHOTOGRAPHER from the following five clues:

1) He was an American photographer born in 1923.

2) He once said, “If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.”

3) His portraits are easily distinguished by their minimalist style, where the person is looking squarely in the camera, posed in front of a sheer white background. He is also distinguished by his large prints, sometimes measuring over three feet in height.

4) His obituary published in The New York Times said that “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century.”

5) His son was famous for writing a book about an exotic and distant land.

Find out if you know the correct answer by clicking here: ANSWER. After you take a peek I’d love to know what you think of this legend’s work. Which are your favorite photographs? If you’d like to see more, click here: MORE PHOTOGRAPHS.

The Answer to Name That Photographer

Clearly I made yesterday’s photography quiz WAY too easy. As many of you guessed, the answer is ALFRED EISENSTAEDT, a legend affectionately known as “Eisie.”

Portrait of Alfred EisenstaedtFor those of you who don’t know about Eisenstaedt, you will make your life better if you take a moment to discover his work. He was a master in every sense of the word.

Here are a few links to check out his way of seeing the world:

This beautiful YouTube video-Masters of Photography (click on link to see it) is well-worth watching.

Or you can simply click on this Google search of his images. and marvel at the breadth of his portraiture–from Marilyn to Einstein to Kennedy. Or take a peek at this  Wikipedia page and learn a bit about his background.

Here is my favorite Eisenstaedt photograph: Children at Puppet Theatre, Paris, France, 1963. It sits next to my desk so I look at it every day. I will never cease to be amazed at the diverse range of emotions expressed by these children while they are all experiencing the same moment.

Photo of Alfred Eisenstaedt's Children at Puppet Theatre

I will leave you with one of Eisie’s quotes, which I think not only relates to photography, but to writing and many other aspects of life as well.

“Once the amateur’s naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur.”

- Alfred Eisenstaedt

PS: If you missed yesterday’s quiz, take a peek here to read the clues and learn a few more fun facts. The next quiz won’t be nearly as easy!