Alfred Stieglitz & Henri Cartier Bresson

                      

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was born in New Jersey in 1864 (died in 1946). He went to engineering school in Germany but later returned to New York to pursue photography. His wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, was a famous painter, and he often photographer naked photos of her. Alfred worked hard to make photography an accepted form of art, as it wasn't in 1864. He eventually created a magazine called the Camera Notes, which was an amazing photography magazine.

Henri Cartier Bresson was born in 1908 (died in 2004 (wow he lived awhile)) and was seen as a very influential photography figures. His work started around 1930, and helped to define the creative potential in modern photography. He spent most of World War Two as a prisoner of war, however after that he Robert Capa in the founding of Magnum photo agency. He took a lot of street photography, and also took photos of people when they were unaware that they were being photographed. 

Backlight

Johnny Patience 

The photo on the right is a backlit photo. The only light is coming from the window. The photographer most likely metered on her, because she is visible, however had she metered on the wall, I think she would have become more of a silhouette. In making her a silhouette, it might take away from the "calm saturday afternoon" vibe that I felt. It might make it more of a dark, sad vibe. 

Do you think a single photograph has the power to change something?

I do think an image can hold the power to change something. Many times throughout our history we have had photographers publish photos that evoked change. There are so many photographs I have seen that show injustices around the world, historical events, and such that make people want to make a change in their world. A good example of this is a photo from 1956 of a brave woman named Dorothy Counts. Dorothy was one of the first black students to go to school at Harry Harding High School in North Carolina. She suffered a lot of harassment from fellow white students. Her parents later forced her to withdraw from the school due to extreme harassment.