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Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men. The frank homoeroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks. [Wikipedia] · Website · Artfacts · Guggenheim
Nathan Wirth, a native San Franciscan, is a self taught photographer who uses a variety of techniques— including long exposure and intentional camera movement— to express his unending wonder of the fundamental fact of existence. Wirth, who earned both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English Literature from San Francisco State University, brings a deep appreciation of poetry to his explorations of place (especially the sea). Poets such as George Oppen, James Schuyler, Seamus Heaney, Lorine Niedecker, Elizabeth Bishop, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, and George Mackay Brown have played a fundamental role in shaping his attention to the things and places that he photographs. Often returning to the same locations many times, Wirth seeks to explore the silence and the sublimity of those places.
In addition to poetry, Wirth is profoundly influenced by the paintings of Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, Caspar David Friedrich, and Camille Pissarro and the photography of Michael Levin, David Burdeny, Michael Kenna, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams— as well as the wonderful photography of his friends Ian Graham and Joel Tjintjelaar.
Wirth makes his living teaching English Composition at City College of San Francisco. Website · flickr · 500px · google+
Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his photograms, which he renamed “rayographs” after himself. [wikipedia] Official Licensing Archive · Man Ray Trust
Joan Colom i Altemir (born 1921 in Barcelona) is a Catalan photographer renowned for his portraits of Barcelona’s underworld and working class, especially in the infamous neighbourhood of Raval. Colom was a self-taught photographer, and produced his best-known pictures while working during the week as an accountant. In 1957 he became a member of the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya (AFC), and co-founded in 1960 the artist’s group El Mussol (“The Owl”). In 1962 he was presented in Paris along with fellow photographers Xavier Misserachs and Oriol Maspons as part of the “New Avantgarde” movement, strongly inspired by masters such as Brassaï, Francesc Català Roca, Henri Cartier-Bresson or Man Ray. He was awarded the National Photography Prize by Spain’s Ministry of Culture in 2002, as well as the Golden Medal for Cultural Merit by the Barcelona city council, the National Visual Arts Prize by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2006. In 2011 the MNAC was granted by the artist part of his photographic material. [wikipedia]
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (5 December 1891 – December 3, 1956) was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.
Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” [Wikipedia] Rodchenko on danyanovikov · Peter Schjeldahl on Alexander Rodchenko
