Showing posts with label photographer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photographer. Show all posts

Friday, April 8, 2022

Apr. 8: J. Smeaton Chase, English-American travel writer

BORN APRIL 8:

J. Smeaton Chase (1864-1923) was an English-born American author, traveler, and photographer. Born in London, he moved to Southern California in 1890, where among other jobs he worked as a tutor to the children of a wealthy rancher in the San Gabriel Valley. He traveled on horseback from Los Angeles to San Diego in 1910; in 1911 he rode from Mexico to Oregon, a journey chronicled in his California Coast Trails. Later came the publication of California Desert Trails, based on two years riding alone in that harsh environment. Another of his books--The Penance of Magdalena, of which I own a first edition--is a charming collection of five tales, each set in one of the southern California missions.

Navigation:


Topics , , , , ,

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Mar. 27: Edward Steichen, Luxembourgish-American photographer

BORN MARCH 27:

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a Luxembourgish-American photographer credited with gaining photography its status as a "fine art." I knew Steichen's name before that of any other great photographer (even Ansel Adams) because an aunt passed along a copy of the book based on the project he curated while Director of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art: The Family of Man. The exhibit, featuring 503 photographs from 68 countries, was seen by nine million people at MOMA, then toured the world for eight years (and has experienced several revivals). The book (actually the exhibit's catalog), which has never been out of print, has sold over 4 million copies. Steichen also won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for a war documentary, The Fighting Lady; in 2006, a print of one of his photographs sold for US$2.9 million--at the time, the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction.

Navigation:


Topics , , , ,

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Feb. 20: Ansel Adams, American photographer

BORN FEBRUARY 20:

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was one of America's best-known photographers, famed for his black-and-white images of the American West. With fellow photographer Fred Archer he developed the "Zone System," a way to calculate exposures to capture maximum detail in the shadows and highlights of an image. He not only photographed wild places; he was an environmentalist who worked to protect and preserve them through working with the Sierra Club and the U.S. Department of the Interior; a famous book title was My Camera in the National Parks. Famous shots include Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1927; and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941.

Navigation:


Topics , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)