Rosie Bellon - 3 photographers

Robert Frank

Robert Frank first started out photographing fashion for high end magazines. He grew tired of the lack of creativity and decided to take a break from that world and work on his own. Frank wanted to capture something more than just a single person posing, he wanted something with meaning. In 1955 and 1956 he traveled around America to capture his own style of photography. This is when he created his most famous book, The Americas. This book caused a lot of commotion when it was first published. It was unlike any other at the time for its realistic story telling photographs. Each photograph told a story, instead of having it planned out and posed, Frank capture the real hard truth of America at that time. His use of black and white film helped to capture the mood and feeling he wanted to portray. In the book I took out from the library called “Story Lines” is a collection of images he photographed in Paris, Peru, London, Wales, Coney Island, and Chicago from 1948-2004. Looking at these photographs you can feel a certain emotion in each. The books consist of polaroids, film still and contact prints which help capture the story.

Rocky Schenck

Rocky Schenck had started studying oil painting at age twelve, and began selling them professionally at age 13. He had also sparked an interest in photography around the same time. He began to progress into more than just photography and started directing, writing, and photographing short experimental films. If you ever looked at his photographs you can almost tell he was once a painter. The way each picture has a certain texture, and how each of them is almost set up like a scene, or painting. He tries to capture dreams, and not reality. Normally he does not like to tell people what he's thinking or feeling, he instead photographs it. He deals with his emotions with photography, it helps him feel better about himself when he can capture it. Looking at his photographs they are all super dark and eery looking. Some images have people and edited images, others are super dark beautiful landscapes. I choose this book because of the style he uses to capture his images, it gives me something to remember. He photographs on a 35 mm black and white film with special tools to put over the lens to create the dreamy effect. For the images with color he uses his talent of painting and paints on the surface with oils.

Jo Ann Callis

This book “Woman Twirling” ,a collection of photographs by Jo Ann Callis, stood out to me because of its weirdness and vibrant color. Looking through the photographs I get a sense of awkwardness. Almost like I'm looking in on something I’m not suppose to. Each photograph has its own uniqueness that separates it from the next. There are a set of photographs of random foods, and then next a photo of a woman screaming in a room with a plant. While each photograph is different there is the use of the color and weirdness that ties each one in together. Towards the back of the book there is a collection of photographs of different color beds with textured backgrounds. Each photo is framed with a different patter. The photos don’t make sense to me and are very strange, but its almost the weirdness of each one that make her stand out the most. Then there are these random head shots of babies that have nothing to do with anything else in the book, and don't even use any vibrant colors. Im not sure what these represent but it is kind of funny and weird which helps her gain attention. Not only does she photograph but she is also a sculpture and a painter. You can tell she is very well rounded by the detail and objects in each scene.