Elliot Erwitt

Elliot Erwitt is an American photographer well known for his black and white photos of everyday situations. He captures the ironic or absurd moments and this gives it a different perspective to these common occurrences. 

He uses black and white photography to bring out the fine details in the images. In this photo of a couple rather than take a photo of them he uses the side mirror of the car to view them. He also puts the background out of focus and adds noise to it. This brings more emphasis on the couple.

In this photo he captured a kid and an adult, possibly the father on a see saw. He captured them as the father was going up and the kid going down.Normally this wouldn't happen as the father is bigger. This means that the father helped the little girl out to make her feel better. He also uses reflective surfaces as a recurring motif in his photos. This can be seen in the first photo and the one below.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann is known for her black and white photographs. Going through some of her photographs, i realized that her photos have an eerie feeling to it and the main theme appears to be disorder, decay and death. She uses sharp contrast between the edges and the center of the photo to bring out more detail and her is of lighting is impeccable. 

 In the photo of the river, the contrast and the detail in the rocks was interesting to me. I like how she has the corpuscular rays coming in from the side. The picture has more of a dark tone on the left side and then it brightens as we move to the right. Another one of her photos that appealed to me was the picture of the tree trunk. In it, just the trunk is in focus while the background is out of focus and a little blurry indicating movement. I feel like it shows how the tree is constant as everything around it changes. Also the mark on the trunk adds to the photo and gives somehow personifies the tree.

Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman is an American photographer well known for his "environmental portraits" of his subjects. He also worked with abstract images and he used this experience to capture the essence of the subject in his portraits. 

 His portraits are usually black and white with a sharp contrast and the subject is in focus. The portraits are well lit and this brings more focus to the pictures. This can be clearly seen in the portrait of Pablo Picasso, a renowned painter and sculptor. In his portraits he also tries to capture some element that shows more about the subject and what they do. This can be seen in his portrait of Salvador Dali, who is a famous surrealistic painter. Newman captured the line art that shows what Dali does in his paintings and how abstract he is.

Ernst Haas 

Ernst Haas, an Austrian photographer was a pioneer in his field. His photos were a medium for expression and creativity. His innovations in color photography, during a period where it wasn't widespread, revolutionized the field and opened up new avenues to photographers worldwide.

 He experimented with different exposure and shutter speeds to capture and portray an astonishing amount of detail in his photos.The two photos to the right are an example of this. The first one is of a rodeo and the second is that of a carousel ride at the London Festival Garden. In both these photos he used a long exposure and shutter speed to capture the movement. The blurry feel to it, rather than take away from it, has added much more to the photo. The rider and the bronco are moving so fast and it has been portrayed in this photo. Compared to the normal still photos we see at the rodeo this one conveys more to the viewer about the pace at which things happen. The second photo shows the same where the movement of the carousel is clearly captured and gives the viewer a sense of actually being on the ride themselves. 

Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna is a world renowned photographer best known for his black and white photographs. His photographs have a surreal feeling to them. His photos have a soothing symmetry that is amplified by the contrast and exposure. 

The first photo is from his collection 'Silent World' whereas the second one is from his collection of photos of locations in Japan. In the first photo we see a walkway covered in snow with scaffoldings on either side. This image has marked symmetry which appeals to me. The scaffoldings help the viewer focus in the middle of the photo and draws us to the far end of the walkway. As characteristic of Kenna, the image has a very sharp contrast and the exposure is just right to bring out all the details.

In the second photo, Kenna portrays the Taushubetsu Bridge in Hokkaido, Japan. This photo is part of a series of images that portray locations in Japan and all over the world. The symmetry is apparent in this photo - the bridge and its reflection. In addition to this the water reflects the image which adds more symmetry. In the distance the faint outlines of mountains can be seen which means that the light source is behind it and it is clear that the photo was most likely taken during sunrise with plenty of ambient light. 

Another detail that both these photos have in common is the clouds. The clouds in both images are not static. They portray movement and this is achieved by long exposure times, probably a few hours. This long exposure time brings more light and contrast to the picture to clearly delineate even the small details. 

Here is another one of his landscape photos taken in my hometown, Dubai, UAE. The photo depicts the iconic skyline of the city. The contrast and exposure in this photo shows the details of the buildings and even the construction going on in the buildings to the right which shows that the city is constantly rebuilding itself to make it better.

Here again we can see all the characteristics like long exposure and sharp detail.