''Genius of Photography''

I have recently watched the Genius of Photography where it explored the irrational and surreal sides to photography since the early 1900's. Through out the documentary I learnt about how photography changed since be for and after the world war, how it has been compared to a machinery like process and how photography become a complete propaganda, in certain parts of the globe more than others, such as Germany where alot more ahead of the times compared to Britain back in the 1940's through out till the 60's.

This documentary discusses a wide variety of photographers since the early 20th century, I am going to discuss a couple of photographers that stood out to me most.


Pastry Cook 1928.
The first photographer is August Sander who was referred to as a 'pioneer with a budget' His images are simple yet powerful, take the image above for example the bold contrast in tones make the image pop as the background is fairly dark and he has this clean crisp white uniform on which makes him really stand out. looking at the image it looks as though it has been lit from the left hand side and the background has also been slightly enhanced with a light. The concept of the image is basic but I find you can tell what sort of man this baker is, to me he looks like he enjoys his job even though he hasn't got a certain expression on his face he looks like he would have a good sense of humour and is a family orientated man.


Walker Evans, 1936.
Here is a photograph by Walker Evans, in the documentary Evans work was described as to show the deceptive sides of photography, Which i would have to disagree with personally, after researching into Walker Evans and seeing a variety of his images i find they are all extremely natural, in terms of the lighting, models and the whole mood of the image, the people he uses in his pictures are extremely powerful. I was most drawn to the image above. To me this image is mysterious, as though the people are not so much putting on a front but they don't like to share their business they are contempt with themselves, what you see is what you get and you can tell by the mans feet he obviously does alot of manual labour. The main attraction for me to this image is relating the house to these people. The man is sat in a door way but there is only blackness behind him where as the front of his house you can see immaculate detail, this to me gives of a vibe that they perhaps have a secret.