Edward Curtis

In 1885 at the age of seventeen Edward became an apprentice photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1887 the family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Edward purchased a new camera and became a partner in an existing photographic studio with Rasmus Rothi. Edward paid $150 for his 50 percent share in the studio. After about six months, Curtis left Rothi and formed a new partnership with Thomas Guptill. The new studio was called Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers.

In 1895 Curtis met and photographed Princess Angeline (c. 1800–1896), aka Kickisomlo, the daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle. This was to be his first portrait of a Native American. In 1898, three of Curtis' images were chosen for an exhibition sponsored by the National Photographic Society. Two were images of Princess Angeline, "The Mussel Gatherer", and "The Clam Digger". The other was of the Puget Sound, titled "Homeward". The latter was awarded the exhibition's grand prize and a gold medal. In that same year, while photographing Mt. Rainier, Curtis came upon a small group of scientists. One of them was George Bird Grinnell, an expert on Native Americans. Curtis was appointed Official Photographer to the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899, probably as a result of his friendship with George Bird Grinnell. Having very little formal education Curtis learned much during the lectures that were given aboard the ship each evening of the voyage. Grinnell became interested in Curtis' photography and invited him to join an expedition to photograph the Blackfeet Indians in Montana in the year 1900.

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark in 1849, and immigrated to New York in 1870. Unable to find work, he soon found himself living in police lodging houses, and begging for food. The conditions in the lodging houses were so bad, that Riis vowed to get them closed.

After three years of doing odd jobs, Riis landed a job as a police reporter with theNew York Evening Sun. He worked in the poorest, most crime – ridden areas of the city. These were generally neighborhoods where immigrants lived in deplorable tenement houses. He began to bring a camera with him to document what he found in these neighborhoods, and the conditions in which these people lived. For this, Riis is considered to be one of the fathers of modern photojournalism. His book How the Other Half Lives inspired then police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to close the police lodging houses. It also brought about many needed reforms in housing laws. So important was Riis’s work, that Roosevelt called him "New York’s most useful citizen."

I really love these pictures Riis took:

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was born in 1830 in England as Edward Muggeridge but changed his name to Eadweard Muybridge before traveling to San Francisco around 1852. After a brief return to England for health reasons, Eadweard Muybridge began working with Carleton Watkins in California. In the mid-1860s, he ventured to Yosemite Valley and made a series of photographs and stereoscopic slides which met favorable reviews. His technical achievement earned him enough attention to be appointed the Director of Photographic Surveys for the United States government, a job that sent him to unmapped western territories of Montana, Wyoming and the recent acquisition of Alaska.

Eadweard Muybridge is best known for his action pictures of human and animal locomotion. Supposedly prompted by a wager concerning a horse's gait made by ex-California governor Leland Stanford, Eadweard Muybridge made a study of a galloping horse in 1872 with fair results. Over the next five years Eadweard Muybridge traveled and photographed throughout Central America, finally returning to the U.S. and to the study of human and animal locomotion in 1877. His continuing work with models in motion eventually led to his invention of the "zoopraxiscope," a moving picture machine that showed a rapid succession of images. Throughout the 1880s, Eadweard Muybridge lectured and made thousands of locomotion studies. With the help of Thomas Eakins, he worked at the University of Pennsylvania where he continued to refine his technique and eventually published Animal Locomotion. Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies are considered to be a critical step in the evolution of photography to motion pictures. By 1900, Eadweard Muybridgeretired to his hometown in England where he died in 1904.

These are my favorite pictures he took:

Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for Arthurian and similar legendary themed pictures.

Julia Margaret Cameron's photographic career was short, spanning the last eleven years of her life. She did not take up photography until the age of 48, when she was given a camera as a present. Her work had a huge impact on the development of modern photography, especially her closely cropped portraits which are still mimicked today. 

I really like these pictures she took: 

So Cute!

I have some pictures of my cats that I took the last time I took out a camera. Just thought I'd share!

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born on August 22nd, 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France. He was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He was married to Martine Franck and Ratna Mohini.  

Here are some of my favorite photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson:

Hand Held : Michael Carroll

When I watched this documentary in class, I was very shocked. I had no idea any of this ever went on. The conditions that those children were living in was terrifying. I was glad to see that throughout the movie their situation, though still not ideal, did improve. These are some of my favorite Michael Carroll pictures:

Looking at the website for Romanian Children's Relief, it seems as if the children are doing a lot better. I don't think the living conditions will ever be perfect but I'm glad that things are improving. 

http://inocenti.ro/