There were a lot of good photographers in the early 20th century. Of the three hhat I know the best, two lived at almost exactly the same time. One operated in France, especially Paris, and the other was active in America. The other was about 20 years younger.
Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász) was born in Transylvania in 1899. Today this is in
Romania. He moved to Paris when he was 25. Brassaï rose to fame in France primarily for his skills as a photographer, but he also wrote many articles and seventeen books. He published his first book of photographs in 1933. In the 1950’s he made motion picture films, and in 1961 he stopped with photography completely and devoted his energy to being a sculptor. He died in 1984 in the south of France, and is buried in the cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassai-
Ansel Adams was born 3 years later in 1902, in San Francisco and died in the same year as Brassaï, 1984. His goal in life was to be a concert pianist. Although very good at the piano he finally had to recognize that his skill would never allow him fame as a concert pianist. So he decided to dedicate himself to photography. Much of his most famous work was done during the 1930s and 1940s. Adams was an active environmentalist all of his life, and served on the board of directors of the Sierra Club. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams
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Helmut Newton was born in Berlin in 1920, so he was later than Ansel Adams or Brassaï. He struck up a close friendhip with Brassai. Newton was an excellent photographer specializing in fashion photography and oddly posed nude beautiful women. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Newton
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Although I grew up in El Paso, Texas I spent a total of almost 20 years of my adult life living in Europ
e. Several times when I was in Paris I tried to duplicate Brassaï’s famous picture of the stairs at Montmartre next to the funicular. He called this photo Escalier de la butte Montmartre.And now that I have moved back to America I have done the same with Ansel Adams’ famous 1947 picture of the Guadalupe Mountains that he called El Capitan, Texas.
I am reading a technical book on natural light photography right now that AA wrote in 1952. It is amazingly current despite the fact that in the 21st century most pictures are shot to a digital sensor rather than to film emulsion. Other than that 97% of it is the same.
The exact same problems face me today that AA dealt with 60 - 70 years ago. Direct sunlight versus reflected light, shadows, lens length, depth of focus, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity to light, proper framing, etc.
In fact I find it absolutely fascinating how current this 56 old year technical instruction book is.
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This morning I took a few pictures at the El Paso, Texas Municipal Rose Garden.-
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I couldn't help but think about Ansel Adams' book and the phrase he used, "Photography may be employed in a great variety of work including...the revelation of the minutiae of nature.
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The intangible elements of insight and emotion are expressed in a good photograph."
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