Robert Doisneau was a French photographer in the early 1930's. It is said that him and Henri Cartier-Bresson were the pioneers of photojournalism. In part of his career, Doisneau photographed on set for films such as René Clair's Le Silence est d'or. He has said that the ''poetic realism'' of these films influenced his work. He is most famous for his 1950 image, Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville.
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| Robert Doisneau 1950 |
One of Doisneau's well known traits is bringing humor into his work. The following image, ''The Sidelong Glance'' shows the reaction of the public as they walk past a shop and notice a picture of a half naked woman. It shows the differences of the reactions between the men and women. The women look shocked, some horrified. The men have quite the opposite reaction. This is one of my favorite images as he captures the true emotions of the people that are looking at the photograph.
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| "The Sidelong Glance'' (Romi's Shop) by Robert Doisneau (1948) |
Doisneau is known for photographing things together that have a contrasting effect.
When taking the photograph below, little did Doisneau know, by photographing this woman using her typewriter, he had actually captured a contrast in time. The photographs below, two young women, both sat working by the waterside. What stands out as the only real difference in the images are the machines they are using. A reminder of how the world has progressed from then to now.
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| ''Typist'' 1947 Robert Doisneau |
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| Robert Doisneau 1953 |
In the image to the left, Doisneau shows the contrast between the young married couple in the photograph against of the older married couple in the background. I believe he purposely used the mirror image to show the contrast in the relationship between the two framed images. It could be that he wanted to show how the relationship had changed between the young couple on their wedding day and the now older couple, that seem to not want to share any lines of communication with each other. Or it could merely be nothing more than a reflection showing a contrast in time.
Joel Meyerowitz
In the early years, Meyerowitz would talk about how he would walk the streets of New York (A recording of Joel Meyerowitz, Taking my time, Life on the streets would never cease to amaze me). In the early years he would walk the streets with Tony Ray-Jones, later, after Jones returned to England he became friends with Garry Winogrand and they started photographing together. Meyerowitz was 24 years old at the time. They would start at 7.30am and stay out all day watching the different crowds of people as they walked by, not one crowd was ever the same. Eventually, Meyerowitz could anticipate how people would react to certain situations and their natural gestures. ''You almost develop a 6th sense to how they are going to react.'' - Joel Meyerowitz
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| Joel Meyerowitz - date unknown |
In this image, the woman reacting defensively towards the man dressed as a giant shoe coming towards her broken leg, is clearly an indication of how she is protecting herself from anymore harm. Meyerowitz looked at this situation and knew instinctively how she would react, therefore capturing the moment before it quickly passed.
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| Joel Meyerowitz 1975 |
Meyerowitz's work is different from the likes of Cartier Bression. It is not perfectly organised, it captures the moment, and that moment passes so quickly, there isn't time to make sure the frame is perfect and equal on all sides.
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| Joel Meyerowitz - date unknown |
There is no centre piece to this photograph, merely a group of people all together. It shows how close they are together physically, yet mentally all in their own separate worlds, leading their own lives.
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| Joel Meyerowitz - date unknown |
In this image, rather that following suit and taking a photograph of the women like the other men, Meyerowitz sees the bigger picture and captures the whole scene. This shows his ability to see the quirkiness in everything he shoots on the streets.
Vivian Maier
There is very little known about Vivian Maier, her work first got discovered in 2007 when her personal items were sold at auction because she could no longer afford to pay for storage to hold her belongings. As with Lisette Model, Maier's mother was French and father Austro Hungarian. It has been said that Maier aspired to Model, possibly because they shared the same parental heritage. Model shot many of her subjects off guard, often revealing the negative aspects such as loneiness and sadness. Maybe Maier saw this in herself as she was such a solitude person. Maier seemed to shoot extremes in contrasting classes of people, but as with Model, she too could bring out the emotions of people in her photographs.
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| Vivian Maier 1959 |
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| Vivian Maier 1955 |
In the two photographs above, the contrast in social classes are extreme, on the left, a wealthy woman against the man on the right, that looks to have health problems and very little money. The woman looks almost annoyed that Maier has photographed her, yet the man does not seem to care.
Influences
There are very mixed opinions about Maier's work, and if she aspired to any other photographer. One possibility could have been Lisette Model. In the 1950's, model was teaching in Lower Manhattan, but there are no photographs to suggest Maier was near where Model was teaching. There is evidence to suggest Maier attended the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, The 5 French Photographers in 1951. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Doisneau, Ronis and Izis. At this point, she is using her old box camera, one year after this exhibition she starts using a Roliflex, which was the camera all serious and professional photographers used at the time. It is possible she took a year out to learn this new and complicated camera. Her work is remarkable when her photographs appear again in 1953.
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| Vivian Maier 1953 |
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| Vivian Maier 1953 |
Photographs Maier took in 1953 with her new Roliflex.
Another clue to if Lisette Model influenced Maier are the similarity of their self portraits. Both images (below) have been taken in a bathroom of some description, the only differences I see are of the women's characters. Model looking seductive with her underwear visible shows confidence, where as Maier, even though set in a similar scene, is not quite as daring as Model and is fully clothed.
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| Lisette Model 55 Manhattan 1940's |
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| Vivian Maier 1956 |
Self Portraits
One way we could try to figure out the person Maier was and how she felt about herself, is how she portrayed herself in her photographs.
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| Vivian Maier - date unknown |
This image was clearly captured on a warm day. Maier has noticed a young woman, who's priority seem to be her looks. Rather than taking a photograph of the woman, she also captures her shadow. You can tell by the bulkiness of her shadow she is wearing a coat, and a hat. Quite the opposite to the woman sunbathing. It is possible she liked the contrast between her shadow and the woman, or maybe it was something much deeper. I personally feel she sometimes felt like a shadow in life, never really being seen, possibly not wanting to be seen and using her camera as her hiding place. Due to her strict privacy, it is something we will never really know for sure.
Bibliography
G, Jean-Claud (2012). Robert Doisneau . Koln : Taschen GmBh.
Meyerowitz J. (2003-2012). Photography . Available: http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/. Last accessed 11th November 2013.
Meyerowitz J. (2012). Retrospective. Available: http://www.deptm2.com/home/joel-meyerowitz-retrospective.html. Last accessed 11th November 2013.
Maier, V. (unknown). Vivian Maier Photographer. Available: http://www.vivianmaier.com/. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
Unknown. (1951). Press release. Available: http://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/press_archives/1573/releases/MOMA_1951_0091_1951-12-13_511213-77.pdf?2010%29. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
Shefsky, J. (2012). Searching for Vivian Maier. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwmRbImDgEw. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
Maier, V. (unknown). Vivian Maier Photographer. Available: http://www.vivianmaier.com/. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
Unknown. (1951). Press release. Available: http://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/press_archives/1573/releases/MOMA_1951_0091_1951-12-13_511213-77.pdf?2010%29. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
Shefsky, J. (2012). Searching for Vivian Maier. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwmRbImDgEw. Last accessed 12th November 2013.
