Arnold Newman: The Environment Is The Portrait

Right around the same time that photographer Yousuf Karsh was working on his incredibly evocative and minimalist portrait style, another portraitist was taking a different approach. While Karsh relied solely on the subject to bring out the portrait within, fellow portrait photographer Arnold Newman believed that the opposite was true. For Newman, placing equal emphasis on the subject's environment was just as important to producing a great portrait.

Gjon Mili and Pablo Picasso: Light Paintings

This past week has seen just a fraction of the awesomeness that comes when one takes inspiration from art while working on photography. From recreating iconic artworks as in the case of RES, or using the old styles of painting to create new portraits as in the case of Eugenio Recuenco, the possibilities are endless. However, you can't talk about art and photography without featuring one of the 20th Century's most influential collaborations between the two fields: Pablo Picasso's Light Paintings or Light Drawings as photographed by Gjon Mili.

Eugenio Recuenco: The Old Ways Are New

Photography imitating art as in the previous post shows modern viewers how the techniques of the old masters are truly deserving of their accolade. While the photographer recreating these masterpieces is to be commended for his effort, most of the time it's the original artist that gets the praise. This is the case when photography directly recreates art instead of being inspired by it. Photographer Eugenio Recuenco takes the latter approach by borrowing the elements of the old ways to create something completely new.

The Sartorialist: A Visual Life

Some of you may remember my post on Scott Schuman's The Sartorialist blog a few weeks back. Well, Annette from Social Radius has asked me to share this short documentary video on the subject.

Claire Nouvian: Deep Sea Beauties

This week, The Reel Foto blog heads to the waters and seas starting with the deepest depths of the oceans. Here, a thousand fathoms below the water's surface where little sunlight invades the privacy of the darkness, where the intense pressure is enough to crush a man and the extreme cold embraces all, mysterious and beautiful sea creatures abound. Public knowledge of these animals would be found wanting today were it not for the efforts of many devoted researchers and scientists, most especially that of the work of Claire Nouvian.

Peter Granser: The American Dream

Tucked away in the heart of southwestern United States' Arizona is Sun City, a vibrant and exclusive community of senior citizens living off their retirement years. While the thought of old age might dampen the spirits of many readers, in this city it's only akin to getting your second wind as photographer Peter Granser discovered.

The Men on the Street by August Sander

Scot Schuman of The Sartorialist blog is noted today for singling out extraordinary men and women on the street with the aim of showing off their fashion creativity. Almost a century ago, someone else was doing something similar, although he took pictures of men on the streets, soldiers on rural foot paths and children on farm roads, all in order to document a whole generation on the photographic medium. His name is August Sander and he is widely acknowledged as one of Germany's finest portrait photographers of the early 20th century.

The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman

Some of the best fashion photography events happen not only in studios, but also out in the streets of the city. Through photographer Scott Schuman's lens, the dapper designs of ordinary people which would ordinarily go unnoticed are captured for posterity and presented on The Sartorialist blog.

Sebastião Salgado: The Modern Face of the Worker

The images of child laborers photographed by Lewis Hine in the previous post are like a faint memory from a distant past, but the reality of today's working man isn't so far removed from those of the previous feature. The harsh reality of manual labor as captured by Hine a century ago is still reflected in the faces of today's laborers as photographed by Sebastião Salgado.