Project 36 - defining a style

Eliot Porter

Although known as a Fine Art photographer Porter was, at heart, a naturalist and scientist having studied Chemical Engineering and Medicine. His scientific background is apparent in his use of the dye transfer process that allows for great control over the colour process. (For an explanation of this process see www.cartermuseum.org/collection.php?sec=dyetrans). ) His naturalist inclinations are evident in his photographic studies of birds and in his landscape photography. There is an elegance about his photographs which, combined with his mastering of colour production, make it easy to see why he is considered a Fine Art Photographer.

Dorothea Lange

Beginning her career as a portrait photographer Lange is best known for her work recording the Depression era in America. She was employed by the Resettlement Administration (later to become the Farm Security Administration FSA) her images concentrate on the individual or families suffering the worst effects of the Depression. Her early work as a portrait photographer is evident in her work during this time with stunning images of people facing a hopeless future. The underlying simplicity and the use of black and white grainy film underlines the message she is attempting to put across. Similar work can be found in her photographic record of Japanese Americans being forcibly evacuated to Resettlement Camps following Pearl Harbour in 1941.

Walker Evans

Evans goal as a photographer was to offer photographs that would "liberate, be authoritative , and transcendental". Like Dorothea Lange he was employed by the FSA and produced similar work providing images of rural poverty. He used a 10" x  8" large format camera and the qualities that such a camera provides is evident in his photographs. His images range from straightforward portraiture through images that used heavily cropped images such as the legs of four men from the knees down to buildings. Like Lange he was a photographer of conscience.

Ansel Adams

Adams work is notable above all else for his control of focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure and his skills in the darkroom. Creator of the 'Zone System' to maximise tonal contrast he used a large format camera which offered, for him, the best chance of achieving his aims. His photographs of Yosemite National  Park are probably his 'famous' ones but his real impact is created by his almost obsessive attention to detail. He argued that the photographer should pre-visualise the image he wanted to have before actually using the camera.

General Observation.

One has to ask oneself whether there is, or ever could be, a unique style that would be recognised as the work of one person without attribution. Whilst Adam's images of Yosemite are almost universally recognised as his work there is still the requirement that in some way there should be authentication of any image as his work. The best that can be said without this authentication would be to say the image was in the style of..... If you look at the work of Lange and Evans there is insufficient difference in their work for the FSA to say which photographer was responsible. Clearly where an image has become synonymous with a particular photographer, such as Lange's images of the ShareCroppers family, then recognition is immediate but this is not the same as being shown an image and asked to state who was the photographer.