Paul Strand

Paul Strand is one of the influential photographers who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. He lived from 1890-1976, and therefore, documented a wide range of subject matter and social changes over time.

Strand is also known as a modernist photographer. He used his work in a variety of ways and experimented with multiple modes of photography. He is widely known as a documentary photographer, but he also went beyond that.

He had a desire to promote photography as art and largely experimented with photographic abstractions, but he also used it as a tool for social reform. He was one of the founders of the Photo League- designed for photographers to promote their art toward political and social reforms.

His black and white imagery shows a vast knowledge of composition and use of light. His subject matter varies from people to landscapes, to experiments with shadows and abstract close-ups of objects. He seems to have mastered almost every area of photography and his photos are still very powerful today.

Charles Sheeler

Charles Sheeler was a modernist photographer who lived from 1883-1965. He was also a precisionist painter, an attribute that came out in his photography. He worked in the midst of the Industrial Age, which accounts for his subject matter.

Sheeler's work it very interesting in that at first glance, it seems simple and straightforward. But when you really look into it, you see that he is trying to convey certain messages. His images are mainly comprised of machinery and man-made material things and structures.

What is strangely ironic about his photography of these machines is that there is usually no sign of human presence. There are giant structures of iron and steel, obviously constructed by man, and yet no people are found around these machines. They stand alone is if they are just a part of nature and have always been there. His imagery really causes you to think.

Galen Rowell

Galen Rowell lived from 1940-2002 and was a renowned wildlife and nature photographer. His love of photographing the outdoors came from his love of adventure-especially climbing mountains. He was never formally trained in photography,but began to pursue it full-time in 1972. He began a new take on photography,referred to as adventure photography. Rowell considered himself to be a part of the landscape,and the landscape part of the adventure. He was not just a mere observer of what was there. Rowell was been considered the Ansel Adams of color photography,having many characteristics in common with him.

Rowell's imagery is beautiful-capturing light in a very effective way. Looking at his photographs,the viewer feels like they are either part of the landscape or are actually there.




His talent of composing his subject and bringing out the color in just the right way surely accounts for much of his success. Rowell's images are from all over the world from his travels,but the majority come from the American West.

Keith Carter

Keith Carter is a black and white photographer,often called a "transcendent realist". His photos tell stories and are very narrative. The majority of his work deals with southern folklore and depicts stories Carter either read or heard. His images incorporate feeling and sentiment,and human relationships with other people or different things are often easily found.


Carter's photographs,overall,tend to have a dreamlike quality. He plays with depth of field to dramatize his subjects. He has a wide range of subjects- people (clothed or unclothed),animals,landscapes,objects.






Many of his photos that do include people seem to give us less information than what may be desired. Sometimes,they are not much more than silhouettes within the image. It seems as though he uses this technique more often than he gives more detail and information about the subject. However,much of his work does include detail. This is an example of how diverse a photographer Carter is. He is able to photograph a wide range of subjects using multiple techniques,and still tie them all together somehow in the end.

Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna is a photographer from Britain,primarily known for his landscapes. His black and white images have an ethereal,dreamlike quality to them. He rarely photographs people and they are never seen within his landscape photos. In the sense that humans are absent from the scene,the subjects Kenna is photographing-whether trees,houses,statues,or architectural structures-tend to have their own personality and take on a kind of humanness.


Each scene he captures seems to be completely solitary,having complete peace and no disruptions in the midst of a chaotic world. Kenna is able to photograph even the simplest subject in a way that makes it seem dreamlike. One reason for this is that he typically photographs in the early morning light or late in the evening,using very long exposures. Without his mastering of and ability to toy with light for specific effects,his photography surely would not be the same.

Kenna's images are also uncluttered,having no unnecessary or unwanted elements within the frame. This allows the viewer to understand the subject at its core-exactly what it is and no less. Being able to focus only on the subject to which focus is being called for,and having effects of light help emphasize and dramatize that subject is what makes Michael Kenna's images so effective.

Jerry Uelsmann

Jerry Uelsmann is my favourite black and white photographer. He uses multiple negatives and prints them onto single pieces of photo paper with multiple enlargers. His imagery is fantastic and surreal, and it seems that he stretches his imagination for every image he creates.

Uelsmann was born in 1934 and was one of the first people to take photography to a different level. He was getting heavily involved with photography during the time when it was still, for the most part, being used as a documentary medium. There were not too many photographers who ventured outside the conventional realm of photography, and Uelsmann was daring and creative enough to make his own art form with it.

I like to work with in-camera multiple exposures with my black and white film, and sometimes some of my images remind me of Jerry Uelsmann's work (though far from the same quality). He is an inspiration to me because I love surreal photography- being able to make scenes that never actually existed out of things that do exist, and images that force you to use your imagination. Uelsmann's method of printing and combining just the right images creates a powerful, other-worldly effect.

Beth Maynor Young- Conservation Photographer

Beth Maynor Young is a conservation photographer. She has been taking photos of the outdoors for many years. Using the landscapes of the South as her subjects, she captures the beauty of the natural world.



Her hope is that her photography will remind people that not every beautiful place is protected and that without our help, these places may one day be destroyed. In allowing people to see what a rich heritage the natural world of the South has, by going to places many of us will never go, Beth Young hopes that we may grow a desire to preserve it.



Beth's digital nature photography shows a great understanding of light and use of color. She is able to capture still and simple beauty amidst a busy, overlooking world. Her photographs are peaceful and calming, showing nature as it really is- not just how we perceive it.

When I look at her photos, I feel inspired to go out into nature to find places such as these to capture and share with people. I love taking outdoor and landscape photos, so Beth Young is definitely an inspiration for me. I also love knowing that nothing is contrived. It is all natural- every photo shows exactly what is there, and Beth Young very effectively captures the reality of nature's beauty.

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