HISTORY OF MODERNISM IN ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
THE IMPACT OF PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE MODERN ART WORLD (1910-1950's)
MODERNISM was a major shift in art, literature, and music, which evolved during the first half of the twentieth century. Modernism implies a rejection of previous traditional conventions in favor of radically different forms of personal and artistic expression.
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.
MODERNISM was a major shift in art, literature, and music, which evolved during the first half of the twentieth century. Modernism implies a rejection of previous traditional conventions in favor of radically different forms of personal and artistic expression.
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.
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The advent of photography is often credited with triggering this revolution in painting. Since the camera could produce such perfect transcriptions of reality, artists were suddenly forced to be more than clever copyists of nature. This led them to such new ideas as Impressionism. However, modern art as a term applies to a vast number of artistic genres spanning more than a century. Aesthetically speaking, modern art is characterized by the artist's intent to not only portray a subject as it exists in the world, but according to his or her unique perspective. This practice represents the beginnings of abstraction in the visual arts.
Photography, too, went through its own dramatic changes as part of the broader shift to Modernism. Most historians date the beginnings of Modernism in photography to the Photo-Secession, a movement founded by Alfred Steiglitz in 1902. The two images to the right demonstrate this shift in photographic conventions. On the top is a photograph from 1896 and the bottom was taken around 1935. What about the top image do you consider conventional? What is unconventional about the bottom image? http://www.photographymuseum.com/modernism1.html https://www.artsy.net/gene/modern-photography |
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Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
The Master of Modern Photography
- The distinctive place Paul Strand holds in the history of modern photography rests on his extraordinary artistic talent as well as his belief in the transformative power of the medium in which he chose to work. From his early experiments with street photography in New York to his sensitive portrayal of daily life in New England, Italy, and Ghana, Strand came to believe that the most enduring function of photography and his work as an artist was to reveal the essential nature of the human experience in a changing world. He was also a master craftsman, a rare and exacting maker of pictures.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
The Father of Modern Photojournalism
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The Decisive Moment - Read The Art Story
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Tina Modotti (Italian, 1896-1942)
Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976)
Edward Weston (1886-1958)
Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865-1932)
Whereas Blossfeldt, a German professor of fine and applied art, examined botanical specimens to the art of nature's design, Cunningham was not interested in plants but in pictures--in the art she could design with plants and light, and a camera.
Art Forms in Nature
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946)
Historical Modernist Photographers
(Selections from the Museum of Modern Art)
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Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991) - Architecture
Werner Bischof (Swiss, 1916-1954) - Photojournalism (WWII) Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865-1932) - Nature Still Life Henri Cartier Bresson (French, 1908-2004) - Street Photography Harry Callahan (American, 1912-1999) - Abstract Still Life Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976) - Portraiture and Still Life Roy DeCarava (American, 1919-2009) - Photojournalism (Harlem Renaissance) Robert Doisneau (French, 1912-1994) - Street Photography Walker Evans (American 1903-1975) - Architecture Heinrich Kuhn (German, 1866-1944) - Portraiture Dorothea Lange (American, 1895-1965) - Photojournalism (Great Depression) Tina Modotti (Italian, 1896-1942) - Abstract Street Photography |
Gordon Parks (American, 1912-2006) - Photojournalism (Civil Rights)
Irving Penn (American, 1917-2009) - Portraiture Arthur Rothstein (American, 1915-1985) - Photojournalism August Sander (German, 1876-1964) - Portraiture W. Eugene Smith (American, 1918-1976) - Photojournalism (WWII) Frederick Sommer (American, 1905-1999) - Abstract Still Life Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946) - Street Photography Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976) - Street Photography James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983) - Photojournalism (Harlem Renaissance) Brett Weston (American, 1911-1993) - Abstract Landscape Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958) - Portraiture |
Contemporary Modernist Photographers
(Selections from Artsy)
Xiaoyi Chen
Hiroshi Masaki
Franco Fontana
Brian Kosoff
Heather Boose Weiss
Bill Jacobson
Ian van Coller
Mitch Dobrowner
Hayley Rheagan
Rebecca Palmer
Daido Moriyama
Kate Breakey
Hiroshi Watanabe
Jill Peters
Julius Shulman
Hiroshi Masaki
Franco Fontana
Brian Kosoff
Heather Boose Weiss
Bill Jacobson
Ian van Coller
Mitch Dobrowner
Hayley Rheagan
Rebecca Palmer
Daido Moriyama
Kate Breakey
Hiroshi Watanabe
Jill Peters
Julius Shulman
