My Essay

The two different movements that I have chosen are as follows:

Minimalism

Documentary Photography

I decided to choose a few artists/photographers that have contribute to the specific art movement, one is a current artist and one is an artist who was one that was well known back when the art movement was beginning.

Minimalism as a movement is changing all the time, it has a very different meaning and outcome from when it was started to nowadays, the technology and other materials have been in proved meaning that the new artist can create very opposite pieces of work to the people who were making there work earlier. Minimalism is an art movement that emerged in the 1950s, but back then it was associated with painting and sculpture, whereas these days it is more computer generated using the wide range of editing programmes available, also it is meant to be in big scale but with the smallest amount of components going on as possible.

One of the artists that I have chosen that is historical, which is linked with minimalism in my opinion is Henri Matisse, although he started by painting when he became ill his style of work changed and he went on to create very colourful and simple shapes on different coloured pieces of paper, however, the meaning behind what the piece was meant to be and what it was. He created his book called “Jazz” where he explained the meaning behind all of his pieces of work by the use of cut out pieces of paper. He said that work he done was like ‘painting with scissors’.

The other artist that was in the band of minimalism is Eve Sand, this artist who is well known but not as well known as Henri Matisse’s work. Her work has been drawn and painted, finally enhanced digitally to make it look its best. She is able to sell them to people all over the world, because her work is cheaper and available for anyone whereas Henri Matisse’s work is on of a kind and cant be made more than once.

But on a different medium to capture minimalism is photography and Steve Johnson, a photographer whose images are of everyday objects, which can be found around the house. But the angles in which they are taken give them a different appearance. As well as being in black and white, which gives the image a different characteristic.

All three of these artists/photographers, have shown their own take on the art movement ‘Minimalism’ either abstract or literal. Their work is linked with surroundings because of what they have focussed on. Henri Matisse focussed on the real things, like the ‘Snail’ and also fictional ‘Icarus’. His is shown in its simplest form possible, whereas Eve Sand has created landscapes that might existed, but they are of real things like hills, mountains and stones which includes ‘Lavender Fields’ and ‘West Coast Beach’.

There is also Steve Johnson who captures actual items that can be found in pretty much any house. Steve’s work is very different to the other two artists, because his work is in black and white, and no colour at all really whereas the other two use lots of different bright colours.

Documentary photography is a popular form of photography used to show historical events and everyday life. Professional photography journalists, or real life reporters typically captures it, it can also be taken by anyone who is amateur. As well as that, someone who has an artistic, or academic reasoning behind why they are doing it.

A documentary photographer that is well known because of their pictures, is Nick Ut, his photos are in black and white, which added to the tension and devastation that is going on in the scene captured. He is documenting the happenings of the tragic incident in Vietnam with the napalm strikes and general war. His photography is very dangerous because of what he captures on his camera. The camera that he uses is a film camera, so his pictures were not 100 percent confirmed to come out perfectly and the way he wanted them to.

Another photographer, who is well known as a documentary photographer, is Steve McCurry. He is best known for taking pictures of people from India in particular the ‘Afghan Girl in Pakistan’ which is a very famous picture that has been used all over the world for various medias. The colours in his photographs are crisp which makes the person stand out from the background. He is a current photographer, whereas Nick is more of a historical photographer because of the events that he captured.

The other photographer that is linked with the art movement Documentary photography is Poras Chaudhary, he has taken pictures of various events, but one in particular is his set of pictures where he captured Holi, The Festival of Colour, which is located in India, this photographers concept and angles are the opposite to the other two, his photographs show the positive parts of the world. As well as showing the amazing festivals and other events happening at a certain time, of the year. Not only does he capture images of special events that take place over the year, this photographer Poras, he captures images of the other days where people are going a by doing their normal routine in the day.

All three of these photographers, all part of the one particular movement; Documentary Photography; show three different views, angles and their own take on this movements, showing the happenings from the current day, last year, all the way back to over 30 years ago.

Although they are doing the same movement, they have put their own take on it and show what they feel is Documentary Photography, one photographer shows the tragic and devastating happenings all those years ago, where as nowadays, that is being done but more so by the media, and it is more shown through the pictures of people in different cultures and countries all over the world.

The cameras involving technology, have progressed through the years, from film camera where the images were not viewable so had to wait until developed to see if any of the pictures taken were any good, whereas nowadays the photographers use digital images therefore they can be viewed and deleted and retaken.