Blog Archives

Irving Penn, American photographer, born on this day in 1917.

Weegee (Arthur Fellig), New York crime photographer, is born this day in 1899.  Weegee was known for stark black and white photos of urban life and death. He began as a freelance press photographer in the 1930s and followed police to the scene of crimes.  Just as Dorothea Lange’s 1930s migrant photos helped create the atmospheric backdrop for Depression-era films like Grapes of Wrath,  Weegee’s crime photos epitomized the dark and gritty urban life highlighted in film noir cinema classics like the Maltese Falcon.

Gruesome protest –  AP reporter Malcolm Browne takes photos of the suicide of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức on this day in 1963.  The monk had doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam, then under US occupation. Then-president John F. Kennedy said at the time that “no news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.”

Marion Post Wolcott, a photographer with the Farm Security Administration, is born on this day in 1910.  Wolcott, like Dorothea Lange and others in the FSA, documented poverty in the United States during the Great Depression. She was also an advocate for women’s rights. Her advice:  “Women have come a long way, but not far enough. . . Speak with your images from your heart and soul.”

Thomas Wedgewood, the first experimental photographer, is born this day in 1771.  Wedgewood had the idea of creating permanent pictures by capturing images on material coated with a light-sensitive chemicals. Wedgewood’s experiments yielded shadow image photos that were not light-fast, but his conceptual breakthrough and partial success were significant.

Mathew Brady, a photographer  known especially for photojournalism during the US Civil War, is born on this day in 1822. 

Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (actual name Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) is born on this day in 1820 in Paris. Nadar was a famously innovative photographer who, in 1855, opened a  studio on Boulevard des Capucines where the famous and powerful people of France had their portraits taken.  In 1858 he hired a large balloon and became the first person to take aerial photographs. During the siege of Paris, 1870-71, Nadar sent mail across enemy lines in hot air balloons, establishing the first air mail service.   In 1862, artist Honoré Daumier portrayed him in a balloon basket “Elevating photography to the height of the art.”

Edward Weston, American photographer, born this day in 1886.

Steve McCurry, American photographer, is born on this day in 1950. McCurry’s most famous image, a photo of Sharbat Gula was taken in 1984 in Pakistan. The photo appeared on the cover of National Geographic. McCurry says: “The first thing you need to do when you approach people is to see them and relate to them as real people, not somehow quaint or foreign,” he emphasizes. “If you can just relate to people as real people and establish some rapport, whether you joke around with them or whatever, people respond and open up, and are happy to be photographed. I don’t think there’s any mystery or trick about it.”

Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist, is born on this day in 1902. Adams’ pictures of western landscapes, especially Yosemite Park, helped with conservation efforts during the 1930s – 1960s. He said: “Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.”