Social Documents

Diane Arbus

Gordon Parks

Richard Misrach

Social Documents

Photography that is used to

chronicle society around us

Use of several techniques to

portray how they see society

Diane Arbus "I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself. "

March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971 American Jewish woman photographer Married Allan Arbus at age 18 Received photography lessons from

husband when he trained to be a photographer for the US Army

Was a well-known stylist in the fashion world

Diane Arbus

Began photography lessons at The New School in New York

Known for her portraits of people on the fringes of society

Beginning in 1960, she worked extensively as a photojournalist

Soon after, she started using the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex

Took her own life in 1971

Diane Arbus

Boy with Toy Grenade in Central Park (1962)

Identical Twins (1967)

Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in The Bronx, NY (1970)

Hermaphrodite with Dog (1968)

Gordon Parks “I had a mother who would not allow me to complain about not accomplishing something because I was

black. Her attitude was, ‘If a white boy can do it, then you can do it, too—and do it better, or don’t come home.’”

November 30, 1912 - March 7, 2006 He saw a magazine with photos of

migrant workers and was inspired He was discovered by Boxer Joe Lois’

Wife First successful African American

mainstream photographer

Gordon Parks

Started out taking portraits for society women

Worked as a freelance portrait and fashion photographer

Captured the civil rights movement He also became a director & author

Gordon Parks

Spanish Fashion

(1950)

American Gothic (1942)

Gordon Parks cover of Life Magazine,

03/08/1968

Richard Misrach “…perhaps it was the cocktail – the combination of the gritty, turbulent, political, historical moment mixed with the elegant, romantic fine print tradition of landscape photography – that established the poles that would inform my work.”

Born 1949 American photographer Started a career in the 70’s as a black & white

photographer doing portraiture in California In the late 70’s he discovered the desert at

night and started a career in color and moved to capture the desert and scars on the earth left by human destruction

Richard Misrach His photography is sometimes referred to

as cultural landscape photography or landscape documentary

He takes on “epic investigations”, capturing particular areas for years at a time

Has written books Chronologies, Golden Gate and Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West

Richard Misrach

White Man Contemplating Pyramids, Egypt (1989-91)

Stranded Rowboat, Salton Sea,

(1983)

World’s Fastest Mobile Home (96 MPH) (1992)

Dead Animals #1(1987)

Golden Gate book cover published 2001