Portraiture Tony Vaccaro

Tony Vaccaro more known for his war journalism turned to taking portrait photos later on in his career. Vaccaro believed that the photos he took would reflect his own opinion and not the person in front of the cameras opinion. Celebrities would always be on guard and Vaccaro tried to capture his portraits when the person was off guard. For example, Vaccaro was invited to Pablo Picasso house in France to take some portraits  Picasso would do all these poses which is exactly what Vaccaro didn't want. He pretended that his Leica wasn't working which made Picasso's face drop which is when Vaccaro finger hit the shutter. One of Vaccaros most memorable portrait assignments was when he photographed Senator John Kennedy for Look magazine, just before he became president.

Vaccaro also tried to take the portrait that fit that person exactly. His style of portraiture was different from any other portrait photographer at that time. It was as if his perfect camera would have been an invisible one, catching people with a natural facial expression not a setup one.

“I want a great person. Somebody who gives something to humanity.” This is how Vaccaro picked his subjects.

• tricking the person to reveal them selves
• “I want a great person. Somebody who gives something to humanity.”
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Thomas Hoepker - Karen Assignment

Thomas Hoepker born on the 10^th of June 1936 in Munich, Germany first started capturing images at the age of 16 years old in which he received an old 9x12 glass plate camera from his grandfather. He developed his photos in his family’s kitchen and bathroom which he then began to sell them to friends and classmates. Hoepker studied Art History and Archaeology at Goettingen in Munich, Germany between 1956 and 1956. It was in Art History where he was taught about understanding images and composition. He still continued to sell his images during this period of time to help finance his education. 4 years after he left education he began working for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall as a photographer between 1960 and 1963. During his time at Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall he reported from all over the world. After working for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall for 3 years Hoepker left and in 1964 he began working for Stern Magazine as a photojournalism, also in 1964 Magnum Photos began to distribute his archive of photographs. In 1968 Hoepker received the prestigious Kulturpreis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie.

In 1972 Hoepker worked as a cameraman and producer of many documentary films for German television. From 1974 and on Hoepker collaborated with his first wife, Eva Windmoeller who was a journalist. They first collaborated in East Germany and then in New York where they both eventually moved to work as correspondents for Stern Magazine in 1976 and from 1978 to 1981 he was director of photography for the American Edition of Geo. Working as an art director between 1987 and 1989 for Stern in Hamburg this is when Hoepker became a full member of Magnum Photos. Hoepker won many awards for his photographic work but in 1999 he received an award from the German Ministry of Foreign Aid of Death in a Cornfield for a TV film on Guatemala.

On the 11^th of September 2001 America had their worst terrorist attack in history as the twin towers were stuck down by hijacked airplanes and this is the reason why most people now know Thomas Hoepker and this is the reason why I am writing this. The photo that Hoepker took that day has been known as one the most iconic images of the horrific 9/11 attack. Hoepker chose not to the release the photo because he thought that it was too “confusing” to be release straight after the events and it wasn’t until 2006 on the fifth anniversary of the attacks the photo made its first appearance in a book and instantly caused controversy.

Hoepker used the Leica camera for much of his career because of its light weight, small in size and access to see everything. Later on in his caeer when Nikon and Canon came around he would mainly use the Lecia for wide angle shots and the Nikon or Canon for telescopic shots. Only in 2002 did Hoepker make the switch to using digital SLRs. In 2003 Hoepker became president of Magnum Photos but in 2006 he stepped down.

Thomas Hoepker now lives in New York with his second wife Christine Kruchen and now shoots and produces TV documentaries.

Henri Cartier Bresson

1) Why is he famous? - Henri Cartier Bresson was the godfather of photojournalism, famous for his decisive moment images, the king of the decisive moment. He believed if you waited you would get the image you want, "into this space life will come". He most famous image taken in 1932 of a man jumping over a puddle. Its described now as the man jumping into the unknown, as Europe jumping into the unknown.  

2) Why is his work significant in Photojournalism? - Henri's work is significant to photojournalism because photojournalism is about capturing that decisive image. Photojournalists would have to be in the right place at the right time and sometimes wait days at a certain place to capture that image that could tell a story. This is extremely similar to Henri's work and inspired lots of photographers at that time. Henri would stalk places out hunting for that image, he was like an animal ready to pounce at his prey.     

3) Find and upload to your blog some work of theirs -

4) What Camera/Technique did he use - Henri used a Lecia 35mm film camera which launched in Germany in 1933 it was; quite, light, very small and while modern day cameras now cover both eyes the Lecia would leave one uncovered so you could still look around for that decisive moment. He owned one of the very first Lecias and because he was quite wealthy he could afford this revolutionary camera. He would only shoot with a 50mm lens when shooting for himself.

Photojournalism War Photography

Robert Capa/Tony Viccaro

• Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2: Robert Capa sent into WW2 to photograph the war for Lifestyle Magazine he was able to drop in out of the war. Tony Viccaro, a soldier photographing the scenes for for personal use, he had no escape from the war. Both photographed for different reasons but together captured powerful images of the war. Both of their work was to get close, to close in some circumstances. They would risk their lives multiple times to capture these decisive moments, it was that important. Once these images were captured Capa would send them to Lifestyle Magazine to be processed in the dark room but not all went to plan. While being processed the images melted but being rushed and this ruined the photos but their was still one roll of film left and these are images that were released the rest would never be seen. Viccaro, not having the luxury of a magazine processing the images he had to them himself in the battlefield. He found a destroyed camera shop and scrimmaged around to find the chemicals and once he did he would wait until their was no moon light and poor each of the chemicals into soldiers helmets and then hang the images off trees nearby. Once it turned morning he would go to the trees and their was his images although, the army destroyed some of images as they didn't want photos of dead american soldiers being seen by the public.

• Find and upload to your blog some work of theirs:

  

  Robert Capa

  
  

  

  Tony Vaccaro

•  Describe the difference between the video footage and the photograph of the "Execution": The differences between the video footage and photograph are quite extensive in my opinion. The video is around 5 seconds long but when I look at the image is find myself looking for around 2 minutes. Video cant show a lot of emotion in a short space of time, you cant see the detail on the mans face as hes being shot, you cant see the muscles tensing in the arm of the shooter. These are all emotional attachments that you miss in the video footage. It like a film, you are just watching whereas as the photo its as though you are the there seeing this man about to be executed. Photojournalism is a way of telling you what has happened or telling a story in a single picture.