Historical Photographers
William Klein
James Nachtwey
William Klein. He was born on April 19, 1928 in New York. He started off by studying sociology at the City College of New York. He joined the army and was stationed in Germany in 1946. He actually got his first camera by winning it in a poker game there. In 1948 he got moved to Paris. In 1945 when the art director of Vogue asked to see Klein after seeing some of his kinetic sculptures. This lead to Vogue publishing some of his photographs. This is when his career in fashion photography started. He started to take models out onto the streets and captured wide shots. He is commonly known to be an important factor in the innovation of photo books. He published Life is Good and Good For You in New York in 1956, which was his first book. It won an award the following year, the Prix Nadar award.
James Nachtwey. He was born March 14, 1948 in New York. He was raised in Massachusetts and studied Art History and Political Science at Dartmouth College where he graduated. He saw images from the Vietnam War and American Civil Rights movement and that is what eventually lead and inspired him to become a photographer. He mostly taught himself photography. He got a job as a newspaper photographer in 1976 but ended up moving to New York to become a freelance magazine photographer. In 1981 he was sent to Northern Ireland during the IRA hunger strike. After this he decided to focus mainly to document wars and conflicts. James has worked for Time Magazine since 1984. He has received many awards for his work one of the being the Martin Luther King Jr. Award.
Compare and Contrast, Critique
These two artists don't seem to be too similar, they only share a few similarities. This being they both were in some way involved in the war, and the war in one way or another influenced them into becoming photographers. They also share the fact that most of if not all of their photographs are in black and white. This probably having to do with the time period they were taking photographs in. The differences are pretty obvious from the start. Williams photos are mostly models, streets, NYC, etc. While James' photos are of war, issues, death, etc. He seems to try to show the true side of war and the casualties, violence, and despair. His photos are a lot more dark and have more feeling and emotion in them. But, because of this they are harder to look at and enjoy than Williams photos which are of models and the streets of NYC. I definitely like Williams photos more. This is because his are lot easier to look at and enjoy than James'. I also really like the style of Williams work, I like the energy that his photos have, the style of the photos, the models, etc. I really like him as a photographer. His photos just really have a certain type of energy to them that makes me want to live in the time they were taken. James on the other hand, I don't like too much. In no way is he a bad photographer. But, I don't like his style. I like feeling happy and wanting to be there when I see a photo and that is definitely not what I feel when I see his photos. I think what he does is brave and amazing, showing the world the real truth of war but there is a time and place for all photos and I don't see how one can just sit down, look at his photos, and enjoy them. I think that they would be perfect for a book or something like that. They do make me feel uneasy and upset, which is a good thing even though it doesn't seem like it would be.