Blog 2

Steve McCurry is a widely known American photographer. He was born on April 23, 1950 in a city not too far from Lycoming college, Philadelphia. Most of McCurry's work comes from his many trips to India and all over the world. His most famous shots are of war and of people. McCurry has won many awards for his bravery to shoot photographs of deep endeavors of the world we are hidden from. Some of the wars where he has bravely taken photos from are the Lebanon Civil War, the Afghan Civil War, the Gulf War, the Cambodian Civil War, the Iran-Iraq War, and more. Thus being said, this has led to his photos being shown and being the cover for famous magazines such as National Geographic.

 

One of McCurry's most famous photos is one of my favorites, but how could it not be everyone's favorite? The way he shot this photo is amazing. The eyes of the subject are hypnotic like as they are the first thing your eyes go to and do not want to move away from. The pose of the girl is also significant. The way the viewer can only see her head and the top/ headdress she is wearing is powerful. McCurry makes the viewer feel this ominous sense in the seriousness of the subject. Maybe he is trying to show us the seriousness of the wars through the subjects eyes? We do not know for sure, but what we do know is that this image is extremely mesmerizing and irresistible to not look at.



My final picture that I am going to talk about is another
one with similar meaning behind it. A picture of a little boy.
This boy is obviously from a third world country. As shown in the photo
captured by McCurry we can see the boy crying as tears stroll down his face.
The photo is another portrait, but almost like a head shot. We cannot tell if
the subject is nude, but we can tell that the subject is not seen with a shirt
which can be seen as a symbol for poverty and war. The boy
also seems to be dirty, so we can assume he does not have access to the daily needs
that normal humans have. Both of the images done by McCurry are absolutely
powerful and filled with symbols. His work is not like any other.
He captures the moments and times that are usually hidden by the media
and this is why he has become such an amazing and well known photographer.

Blog 1

When I think of photography and what I am going to shoot next, I think about the photographers who have inspired me to shoot some of my favorite things. My favorite thing to shoot are people portraits. Something that visually pleases me is beautiful portraits, but not just any normal portraits, although those can be beautifully taken too, but portraits that are unusual or non-normal. One of my favorite portrait photographers is Annie Leibovitz.

Annie Leibovitz was born on October 2, 1949 in Connecticut as she was one of six. Leibovitz landed her first job with a popular marketing called Rolling Stone in 1970. Not too long after this she moved her work to one of the most popular entertainment marketing brands called Vanity Fair. As she worked with Vanity Fair she became pretty popular for her photos, this made her be able to capture beautiful portraits of highly known people like celebrities', presidents, and popular icons. Leibovitz is known for her bold colors and wild and unique poses while capturing portraits. One of my favorite of hers is the portrait of Michael Jackson.

This photo is one of my favorite portraits. I love how this picture is so strong without the subject having to engage with the viewer. The position of Michael's hands on his arms and his glance down to the ground gives a sense of stability and shyness. This is funny because when I think of this man, I think of someone who is extremely bold with a big personality, but she was able to capture an image that was opposite of that and I adore that. 

One of my other favorites of Leibovitz's is the photo of Whoopi Goldberg. In this portrait we can see her wild pose in a bathtub completely nude, but covered in milk. Most of Leibovitz's work is extremely controversial, but that is what I find so interesting and visually pleasing. The portraits she capture are interesting and fun to look at. They are all controversial as we try to understand why that shot was taken. So, when I think of where to get my inspiration from, I think of famous photographers like Annie Leibovitz to give me ideas for what to do next. 

By. Bronwen Lewis