Regan Cunneen
Mr Sandoval Photo 1 February 27 2013 Philippe Halsman Philippe Halsman, a Latvian born immigrant, was one of the greatest portrait photographers of all time. His images graced the covers of Life more than any other photographers. Born May 2 1906 in Riga, Latvia, Halsman initially showed little interest in photography, instead studying electrical engineering at the University of Dresden. In 1928 Halsman went on a hiking trip through the Austrian Alps. On this tour, his father, with whom Philippe had a bad relationship, mysteriously died from severe head injuries. While the circumstances were never completely resolved, he was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment in 1928. Philippe was released in 1931 under condition that he leave Austria. He moved to Paris, where he began to show promise as a portrait photographer. He used sharp focus, a marked difference from the “Soft Focus” commonly used at the time. He became well known in French high society and became very successful. When France was invaded in 1939, he was forced to flee due to his Jewish ancestry. When he arrived in the United States, he was quickly hired by Life Magazine, forming a life-long partnership. He also began to work with the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, a partnership that produced some of the most famous images of the mid 20th century, including Dali Atomicus, featuring Dali in mid air along with three cats and a bucket of water. His most famous portrait came in 1947, featuring Albert Eistein. During their session, Einstein reflected upon his regrets about how his research contributed to the Nuclear Bomb. His sadness about his lifes work reflected strongly in his final portrait, lending it its distinctive power. Drawing out a subjects emotion and turning into a picture turned into Halsman’s hallmark, as each of his portraits, be it of a comedian, movie star, or politician captured the subjects emotion and sense of self in a uniquely evocative way. In 1951 Halsman took a series of pictures capturing individuals in mid air. The success he had in this led to him asking every subject to jump for him at the end of each shoot. He stated: “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed towards the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears”. Later these images were compiled in an album titled “Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book”. In 1952, he had two sittings with the young John F. Kennedy. This resulted in the photograph used in his Senatorial campaign. One could argue that this photograph influenced his election directly affecting the course of history. In 1972, Halsman spoke of his fascination with the human face. “Every face I see seems to hide – and sometimes fleetingly reveal – the mystery of another human being. Capturing this revelation became the goal and passion of my life.” This basically sums up his work and how it came to be as great as it was. He passed away in June of 1979 in New York City. He is to this day considered to be one of the ten greatest photographers of all time. Regan Cunneen
Mr Sandoval Photo 1 Period 4 February 11 2013 In the six weeks we’ve spent in photo 1, we have learned many new things ranging from the basic internals of a DSLR camera to the methods involved in using light graffiti. In our first week, we got to know each other and what would be expected of us in class. We went on to cover briefly the history of photography. Week 2 dealt mainly with the rule of thirds and how to properly apply it. The second half of the week introduced us to Photoshop and some of its myriad tools. Week 3 taught us two very important photographic techniques, depth of field and shutter speed. We used the aperture to allow the camera to focus only on one object so that it would be highlighted more strongly in the image. Shutter speed was sped up to produce “freeze frame” action shots or to blur an image. Week 4 dealt primarily with light graffiti using very long exposure time in a dark environment. Week 5 covered diagonal images. |
