Tag Archives: Black & White Photography

Top Photographers: Matt Jacobs’ Award-Winning Cinematic Artistry

Matt Jacobs PhotographyHis work has been exhibited in art galleries in London’s Mayfair and his photographs hang in countless homes in countries and continents around the world.

In 2014 he won the Panasonic Lumix Videographer Of The Year for his underwater film Red Sea.

Matt Jacobs Photography

Matt has been around cameras all his life due his father’s photographic passion.His images are strong, bold and with an attitude and style that pulls the viewer into the scene. He is influenced more by cinematographers and directors rather than photographers and as  such his images have an almost cinematic feel to them.

Website: http://www.narcosispictures.com/

New Photography Books: Ansel Adams’ Yosemite – The Special Edition Prints

From a AnselAdams.com online release:

Ansel Adams' Yosemite special edition printsMaking the Special Edition Photographs is an assignment I continue to this day, with Ansel’s vision and standards always in mind as I work. The prints are still made directly from Ansel’s negatives and in the “traditional” way: in a wet darkroom with amber safelights, chemicals and running water. The prints are still silver-gelatin prints, meaning that the image-forming element is literally metallic silver. Precious.

And after nearly 40 years, I can honestly say that I never tire of seeing these images come up in the developing tray. It’s an honor and privilege to play a small part in continuing Ansel’s legacy.

This collection, entitled the Yosemite Special Edition Photographs, proved immensely popular and over the years, Ansel added more images to the set until the total was capped at 30 at the time of his passing in 1984.

Today, Best’s Studio is known as the Ansel Adams Gallery, and continues as a family-run business. Ansel’s Special Edition Photographs of Yosemite are a mainstay of the Gallery’s offerings and heritage. Each print is still made by hand directly from Ansel’s original negatives, using his approach and methodology to ensure strict adherence to his standards and aesthetic.

To read more: http://anseladams.com/ansel-adams-yosemite-special-edition-photographs/

Documentary Photography: Robert Frank Chronicled Post World War II America

From a New York Times online article:

Mr. and Mrs. Feiertag, Late Afternoon, 1951.CreditRobert Frank; National Gallery of Art, WashingtonRigorously unsentimental in his attitude to the world around him, Mr. Frank deviated from form in 1950, taking what was arguably his most romantic picture. He had his reasons. He was in love. The year before he had met artist Mary Lockspeiser, who became his first wife. In “Tulip/Paris,” he photographed a young man who is holding behind his back a tulip — presumably intended for the woman standing in the background. An old man, at the other end of life’s arc, approaches the viewer. It is a classic romantic Paris street photograph.

Robert Frank kicked documentary photography into the present with a loud clang. In place of the detached formalism of Walker Evans and the poetic lyricism of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Andre Kertesz, he brought a moody, cool intensity that stamped his pictures with a readily identifiable hallmark. Using a 35-millimeter Leica, he could compose images as elegantly framed as if he’d set up a tripod, or as blurry and off-center as an amateur snapshot. He took whatever means he needed to express a vision that was alternately empathetic and obstreperous, as contradictory as the man himself.

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/arts/design/robert-frank-photographs.html?module=inline

Collectible Books: “Gold” By Sebastião Salgado Chronicles The Brazilian Gold Rush (Taschen)

From a Taschen.com online release:

Gold Sebastiao Salgado gold workers“Salgado’s photographs project an immediacy that makes them vividly contemporary. We know that the mine at Serra Pelada is now closed, yet the intense drama of the gold rush leaps out of these images.”

For a decade, Serra Pelada evoked the long-promised El Dorado as the world’s largest open-air gold mine, employing86-11-46-32.tif some 50,000 diggers in appalling conditions. Today, Brazil’s gold rush is merely the stuff of legend, kept alive by a few happy memories, many pained regrets—and Sebastião Salgado’s photographs. This signed edition gathers the complete black-and-white portfolio in impeccable, grand-scale, museum-quality reproductions.

To read more: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/86908/facts.sebastio_salgado_gold.htm

Top Photographers: Christian Vizl Shot The World’s Oceans In Black & White For Three Decades

From a MyModernMet.com online article and interview:

Silent Kingdom A World Beneath The Waves Christian VizlI have always loved the ocean and also photography. I started taking pictures as a teenager and was very inspired by black and white masters like Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson, but didn’t combine these two passions until 2010 after a dive I did with an underwater videographer friend. During this trip, we made an immersion when he suddenly gave me his camera and left. After a while, I turned it on and loved the feeling of having a camera underwater. That’s when I decided to buy my first underwater camera…

Award-winning underwater photographer Christian Vizl has been inspired by the ocean since childhood. Born in Mexico City, his career spans more than thirty years and in that time he’s earned an international reputation for his artistic documentation of life underwater. In particular, he’s recognized for his powerful black and white underwater photographs, which harness light and shadow to reveal different aspects of marine life.

https://www.christianvizl.com/index

In his new book Silent Kingdom, published by Earth Aware Editions, Vizl shares his vision of the underwater world. Schools of fish, sea lions, jellyfish, and manatees all get equal treatment in the book. Vizl manages to capture the elegance of life below sea level by using his keen eye for symmetry and composition.

To read more click on the following link: https://mymodernmet.com/christian-vizl-silent-kingdom-underwater-photography/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2019-08-29