Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz, a true maverick of the photographic arts, began her journey during a period of cultural and economic revolutions. It was at that point that she, as an artist, began to blossom conceptually. She studied at the San Francisco School of Art where painting was her preferred medium. It was later that she became interested in photographic arts.
Today she is one of the most respected woman photographers, her work has been exhibited in several museums and galleries around the world, and is easy recognizable as hers. Within the years she evolve a personal style whish we could name it as dramatic, with the sense of mystery. And that is true; when I am looking her pictures I feel that there is a whole story behind the image. It is like this image is the beginning of a story and in the same time is the end to. The story it self is left to unfold in the viewers mind. And as each viewer has his own mind has his own story. It is not accidental that Leibovitz had reproduced several scenes of well-known fairytales and middle age legends. By that way she succeeds to reach and bring back some of our earlier memories, when our parents were reading to us the same fairytales and our imagination was traveling to new unexplored worlds. These is the success of Annie Leibovitz she travels us back to these forgotten worlds.

Arnold Newman

When I was younger I was always staring the world with the maximum curiosity, and I always found very interesting images. After that the need to share this images with the people around me came and then I realized that photography was the medium that will help me to do that.
When I was doing the research for the blog I came up on Arnold Newman’s words “We do not take pictures with our cameras but with our hearts and minds” a phrase that explains the source of my love for photography and I suppose for Newman as well.
Arnold Newman started his career in Miami as a painter, after a point in his life moved to New York and started taking pictures to raise some money. The medium of photography attracted him and he decides to open a photographic studio and started to work as free launcher for several well-known magazines. His passion was to take pictures of people as he called it. The word portraiture sounded strong as his stated in one of his interviews. His very famous portraits of the very famous people that photographed in his life are instantly recognizable as his work. By the time he evolve a new style that came to be known as “environmental portraiture” which placed the subject in a carefully composed setting, most of the times this was the work environment of the subject, to capture the essence of their life and work. With his stick attitude he posed his subjects until a relaxed expression indicated to Newman that the subject was approaching the look of permanence that he was striving for. So his work is not only recognizable as his, but stays interesting and powerful through time.

Lytro a new technology http://www.lytro.com/

Lytro

A new technology is about to come out; the company’s name is Lytro. Their promotion communicates that they will change the way that we capture and view images. The motto of the company is “shoot first, focus later” basically this new technology does exactly what the motto says. They develop a new camera, which is able to shoot in seconds, the photographer has just to switch on the camera and press the button. Later on the computer or even on the camera, the user is able to click on deferent areas of the image and the special software that the company has developed focusing on the image on the selected spot. The whole idea appears to have numerous applications on many deferent kinds of photography, but not to all of them. Speaking as an artist I fill like someone is taking of my hands a powerful feature of a camera, that some times makes the deference between a good or a bad picture, this is the ability to focus.
As conclusion I believe that this new technology will truly improve the way that we interact with photography only if it delivers everything that so generously promises.