Photojournalism:
Henri-Cartier Bresson, The Decisive Moment: Born in 1908 Bresson grew up in France in a middle-class family. As a young boy, he would take pictures when on holiday, as well as having an interest in painting which helped him develop a sensitive eye a big help for his photography. It was at the age of 22 when he spent a year as hunter in west Africa that he discovered his keen interest in photography. Thus was the creation of one the greatest photographers of all time. He became well known for using the 'Decisive Moment' technique. The decisive moment are images taken with no meaning and no agenda. It reports on the event naturally as it happens. The decisive moment can be found in a large majority of his mages, including his most famous image called 'Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare'. Along with this he was also associated with a well know angecy; Magnum Picture Agency, where he was one of the founders and a former president of. |
 | Here is a still photograph of a person riding a bike. This is one example of Henri-Cartier Bresson's decisive moment photographs. The most significant part of the image is the timing of the image itself. Bresson has a keen interest in getting the image as natural as he can, and a couple seconds later or sooner and this image would not be a successful piece to show the decisive moment. Bresson once said, 'The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.' The person in this image is slightly out of focus showing a slower shutter speed has been used. A slower shutter speed simply means the shutter remains open for a longer period of time in order to capture the photo. The shutter speed that was used to capture this image would be about 1/60th. It Although it does not look like it, the person is the intended subject focus. The shutter speed was used to show this image in real time and give it a 'reality' feel to it. This image looks to make good use of the light that has been supplied. It looks like it may have been a somewhat sunny day when this photo was taken. The ISO for this image would have likely been set at 100/200 which is the standard setting for the sunny outdoors. |
Walker Evans:
Evans was born in 1903 and was the son of a successful advertising executive. Getting an education at Williams College and Phillips Academy, Evans moved to Paris. Failing to become a writer in Paris, Evans moved back to the United States with a new dream of becoming a photographer. In his photography years he was most recognised for his photography documenting the effects of 'Great Depression' in the 1930's. The visual language he showed the audience demostrated the slolwy decreasing belief in the 'American Dream'. Evans was hired to photograph the effects of America during the Great Depression by the FSA (Farm Security Administration), previously known as Roosevelt's New Deal Resettlement.
Naomi Klein (No Logo) uses Evans as an example in her book and calls Evans, Dorethea Lange, and Margaret Bourke-White as 'hard-core culture jammers'. She goes on to describe this group of photographers as documenting, 'the fragility of the capitalist system by picturing fallen businessmen holding up 'will work for food' sign in the shadow of looming coke billboards and peeling hoardings'.
This image is a classic case of a picture telling the story. We as the audience can see through the visual language that this woman is in pain, and rather poor, which shows the effect of the Great Depression. This is the exact USP in which Evans was going for. In times like today, people will be able to connect to this image in a emotional way, since this woman obviously is low in money as much of the world today due to the recession. The ISO is the image sensor's sensitivity to light in order to suit the light level that is supplied (whether outside light or lights used for staged photography). This image looks to have set the still camera at an ISO of 100/200 where it looks like light is apparent, perhaps a sunny day when this photograph was taken.
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This particular Walker Evans photograph is on which is a more complex image, it has more happening within it. This image has a long depth of field whilst the one above does not really have one, it is just a straight on shot. The depth of field is the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects which appear in focus. |
Martin Parr:
Born in 1952 in Surrey, England Martin Parr was raised in middle-class family. Being inspired by his grandfather, George Parr, Martin knew he wanted to be a photography by the age of 14. He studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. After the 70's where his work was mainly black and white photography he switched to colour and continued with this style. In the mid 90's he was welcomed as a member of the Magnum Agency Corporation.
An extensive amount of his work took a look at modern society. This includes, consumerism, tourism, food, family and relationships and more. Parr has be known for his extensive use of colour which contradicts the photography work of both Evans, and Cartier-Bresson as you can see above. He has a lot of books published including, Tutta Roma, and The Last Resort.
Unlike Cartier-Bresson, Parr's photography is not a natural realism interpretation, it is completely planned and staged to symbolise social context and it makes comments about the photograph. If we look at the flag in this photograph, we can tell it was moving although it is not blurred to show the movement itself. This signifies a faster shutter speed meaning the shutter stays open for a shorter period of time and captures the image in a split second to capture the image and to show the flag clearly. The shutter speed would have been about 1/1600th to completely freeze the flag. Here we see a long depth of field so instantly we know that Parr must have used a longer lens in order to achieve this. This has been used to show the reality of the world as it it exists. In the background there is an everyday working class man which contradicts the foreground of a higher class looking woman, both of which have similar cars. It just shows us, the audience that higher class people are no better than the rest of the world. |  |
Philip Jones Griffiths:
A Welsh photographer famously known for his photographs on the Vietnam war, Griffiths died at the age of 72 in 2008. Born in 1936 and raised in Wales, who studied to become a pharamcist. Leaving home at the age of 16, he lived in the United States for many years and moved back to London. At an early age he appeared to have interest in photography. He would take photo's using his Kodak camera
Griffiths was the President of Magnum Agency for five years, which is the longest length of time anyone has been the President for this agency. He started a full-time career as a photographer in 1961. In the mid to late 1960's he went to Vietnam where he took pictures of the war, and has since then published four books.
 | This photo features an injured Vietnamese fighter during the war. This particular type of photography is one that is not and can not be staged, it captures the realism of war. The shutter speed used n this photo was about 1/250th based on the fact that the image is shot still. We know that there was some movement although we can't see it in the photo. There is no blurriness in this photo, and blurriness would show signs of movement and action. A small depth of field is used within this photograph therefore a shorter lens was used and needed. There is no need for a long lens to establish a short depth of field. The depth of field in this image is not important as we can see the emotion in which the soldiers have. Philip Jones Griffiths wanted to capture the emotion of the soldiers. He did this and this itself created fear for those who saw this photograph back home. People did not know the extent of fear and violence of the Vietnam war until, war photographer's started capturing the moments. |
