Thursday, March 6

Today's class discussion focused on the body in photography. We began class by discussing images by Robert Mapplethorpe, particularly an image of Ken Moody. This image is particularly interesting because Moody has no facial hair and is featured with a neutral background, which creates a beautiful image. We also viewed a number of Mapplethorpe's other photos of the body (which are often nude), as well as flowers, and sculptures.

KEY WORDS/PEOPLE
*E.J. Bellocq- was a professional photographer who worked in New Orleans during the early 20th century. Bellocq is remembered for his haunting photographs of the prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans' legalized red light district. These have inspired novels, poems and films.

*Hans Bellmer- was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. He is also commonly thought of, in the art world, as a Surrealist photographer. His photographs are mostly of pubescent girls.

*Edward Weston- was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. Most of his work was done using an 8 by 10 inch view camera. After 1927, Weston worked mainly with nudes, still life and landscape subjects. He took many interesting photos of the human body (many nude, but some face photos as well).

*Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 –1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black & white portraits, photos of flowers and male nudes. The frank, erotic nature of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks. Most of his images feature a neutral background so that the subject stands out. Ken Moody is one of his models. He passed away from complications of AIDS.

*Minor Martin White (1908 –1976) was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His photos were often of barns, doorways, water, the sky, or simple paint peeling on a wall: things usually considered mundane, but often made special by the quality of the light in which they were photographed. One of his more popular photographs is titled Frost on Window, a close-up of frost crystals on glass. White co-founded the influential magazine Aperture in 1952 with fellow photographers such as Ansel Adams.

*Aperture is a quarterly photography magazine based in New York, New York, USA. The magazine is published by Aperture Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fine art photography. The foundation also publishes books on photography. Aperture magazine was founded by Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, Nancy Newhall and Beaumont Newhall, Melton Ferris and Dody Warren.