Historical Black and White Photographers
Biography of Minor White: Minor White was born in Minneapolis on July 9, 1980 and died June 24, 1976 in Cambridge Mass. Minor White started taking photos in 1937 but before he started photography he studied botany and later poetry. After serving in the army during World War II in 1945 he moved to New York City and that's when he became part of a circle that influenced the influential photographers including Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz and his contact with Stieglitz during that time helped him discover his own style in photography. Both in his writing and photographs Minor White would present his work creating arrangements that he hoped would inspire different moods, emotions, and associations in the viewer. Ever since 1945 and meeting people in New York City he has traveled throughout the United States and met many other fantastic photographers that inspired him. In 1965 he decided to settle in Cambridge Mass where he became a professor of creative photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Biography of Sally Mann: Sally Mann was born in Virginia and in 1969 completed her studies at The Putney School. She attended Hollis University and there she earned a Bachelor in Art degree in 1974 and a year later Masters a degree in creative writing. Her father had always supported her interest in photography so he would let her use his camera for learning the basics. After Sally graduated she photographed the law school building durning construction which led to her to a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and they were later on part of her first book in 1984. In the 1990's Sally found great interest in shooting landscapes using her own techniques and then in 2003 had another book come out which featured different topics that related to decomposition, dead bodies, bloodiest battles, and close up of children's faces. Throughout all the years Sally Mann had kept publishing books that showed scenes in black and white by showing her techniques of landscape and using her topics to make them more interesting. Her photos have even been featured in The New York Times Magazine cover twice (1992 and 2001). To this day Sally Mann is one of the most leading photographers working today.
Sally Mann's Photos
2006-2007
Black Eye Photograph, 1991 (Printed 1992)
Minor White's Photos
Pavillion, New York (1958)
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco (1951)
Portland, 1939
Birdlime and Surf, Point Lobos, California (1951) (Printed 1975)
Compare and Contrast: With Sally Mann's photos and the one she take she focuses more on faces and action. She captures interesting photos but also uses the person face expression to help make the photo more interesting, She also uses selective focus in most of her photos which is when the background is blurry so the main point of the picture stands out more. For example, in one of her photos there's a picture of a girl holding a cigarette with a kind of blank and mad expression on her face and then everything in the background is blurry which makes her face and what she's doing stand out more and become more of the focus. Then, when you see Minor White's photos he focuses more on landscapes and adding more detail to his photos. By adding more detail I mean the way he uses all the lines, shadows, and objects all together to make the photo more interesting. For example, in one of his photos he has a picture of a flower and then has some kind of stem or twining around it which makes the flower stand out more and also the twining and flowers are lighter than the background or table it's on so he messed with the contrast to make stuff stand out more and more interesting.
Critique: For both of these photographers they both have a great technique on how to make the photos interesting and catch your eye but if I had to pick one I would chose Sally Mann's. The reason why I would chose Sally Mann's is because I like how she uses pictures of peoples faces to explain the scene rather than taking pictures of a landscape. She also blurs out the background so that the person's face and what they're doing/how their face looks stands out more than what's behind them. I feel like the expression on their faces or what they're doing in the picture makes it more interesting and can catch someone's eye better than what Minor White chooses to do. Minor White's photos are amazing but if I had to pick one I would chose Sally's.