Silver Belles: Holiday Show

Lillian Bassman Biography Lillian Bassman (1917 - 2012) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents she once described as “bohemian.” This fashion photographer fell in love fast with the photographs of dancer Isadora Duncan in her flowing, floating gowns, inspiring Lillian’s affinity for scarves which she attributed to Isadora’s sinuous, constantly moving fabrics.

Lillian worked as a textile designer and fashion illustrator before working at Harper’s Bazaar in 1946. In 1949, she photographed her first Paris couture collection, which led to Lillian Bassman’s distinguished career as a photographer of the era’s leading models. However, she once claimed it... View artist page

Ruth Bernhard Biography Ruth Bernhard, a German-born American photographer, began her artistic career at the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1925. After two years of studying at the Berlin Academy of Arts, Bernhard moved to New York, New York to live with her graphic designer father, Lucian Bernhard. It was there she landed a job as a darkroom assistant to Ralph Steiner, head of the photography department for Delineator magazine. While her role as the darkroom assistant to Steiner was brief, she eventually found herself making her first camera equipment purchase shortly after, beginning her journey in freelance photography.

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Harry Callahan Biography Harry Callahan was born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 22, 1912. Upon graduating from the public schools of the Royal Oak suburbs, Callahan would attend Michigan State College for three semesters to study engineering. In 1933, Callahan would leave school and start working for Chrysler Parts Corporation as a shipping clerk. This same year, Callahan would meet his wife, Eleanor Knapp, who eventually served as a primary subject in many of his works throughout his photography career.

Though Callahan never formally studied photography in the classroom, he found great interest in it as a hobby at... View artist page

Alfred Eisenstaedt Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German-born American photographer whose photography and photojournalistic skills made him an international household name. He was born in 1898 to a Jewish family. Born in West Prussia, the family moved to Berlin in 1906. Eisenstaedt developed a passion for photography from an early age. As an 11-year-old, he took photos using an Eastman Kodak Folding Camera. However, his career as a photographer took a massive boost after he started freelance photography at Pacific and Atlantic Photo's in Berlin.

Over the years, Alfred amassed a lot of experience as a photographer. He quickly rose... View artist page

Elliott Erwitt Biography

American documentary photographer Elliott Erwitt was born Elio Romano Erwitz in 1928 in Paris to Russian parents. Often considered a master of style, Elliott Erwitt's photography is best known for the candor and humor that shines through his black-and-white pictures. Elliott Erwitt began dabbling in photography as a teenager living in Los Angeles, shooting weddings. Later, Elliott Erwitt shot photos for the Army in France and Germany; later living in New York, he met fellow war photographer Robert Capa, who invited him to join the Magnum Photos agency. Elliott Erwitt is responsible for making some of the...

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Walker Evans Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1903, photographer Walker Evans took up photography in 1928.

Walker Evans is best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration of the U.S. Department of the Interior documenting the effects of The Great Depression. His focus was the government-run resettlement community that housed unemployed West Virginia coal miners.

Much of Walker Evans' change to photography from the FSA period in 1935-36 uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera. His goal was to show Americans how the government was helping fix the myriad of problems associated with poverty during The... View artist page

Lee Friedlander Lee Friedlander, an influential American photographer, is known for his innovative scenes of city streets which often feature candid portraits of people, signs, and reflections of himself in storefront windows. Friedlander has the ability to organize an endless amount of visual information in dynamic compositions and makes humorous and poignant images among the chaos of city life. Friedlander’s street photography captures the abrupt overlaps of light and content in urban landscapes.

Born in 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington, Lee Friedlander began photographing when he was only fourteen years old. He studied photography at the Art Center School in... View artist page

Ernst Haas Biography

Ernst Haas (March 2, 1921 – September 12, 1986) was a photojournalist and a pioneering color photographer . During his 40-year career, the Austrian-born artist bridged the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression and creativity. In addition to his prolific coverage of events around the globe after World War II , Haas was an early innovator in color photography. His images were widely disseminated by magazines like Life and Vogue and, in 1962, were the subject of the first single-artist exhibition of color photography at New York’s Museum of Modern...

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Horst P. Horst Biography

Horst P. Horst (1906-1999) was in Weissenfels-an-der-Salle, Germany. Originally channeling inspiration for shooting fashion from Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst eventually developed his own style, particularly manipulating light to highlight subjects’ features. By 1931, Horst P. Horst was shooting regularly for French Vogue, as fostered through a friendship with Hoyningen-Huene. Eight years later he made one of his most famous works, Mainbocher Corset, which featured a woman’s back strapped into a corset and published in Vogue. Horst P. Horst primarily worked in the studio, sometimes taking days to strike the right balance of light and...

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William Klein Biography

Born in New York City a year before the Depression started, French photographer and filmmaker William Klein’s (1928 - present) first forays into art were through painting. Although he eventually switched gears towards the camera, he never formally studied photography, which explains his abstract approach. William Klein won his first camera during a poker game in 1946 while part of the U.S. Army stationed in Germany. He worked a brief stint as assistant to French painter and sculptor Fernand Léger’s in Paris in 1948. William Klein’s photography in fashion has appeared in magazines, books and documentary and...

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Herman Leonard Biography

Herman Leonard was born in Allentown, PA in 1923. At the young age of 9, he witnessed an image being developed in his brother’s darkroom and became enthralled with the magic of photography.

In 1947, after a stint in Burma during WWII, Herman Leonard graduated from Ohio University with a BFA in Photography, the only school in the nation to offer such a degree at the time. He then drove straight to Yousuf Karsh’s house in Ottowa, Canada and asked for a job. Karsh wasn’t hiring but was impressed enough with young Herman Leonard to take him...

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Sally Mann Biography

Photographer Sally Mann (1951-present) has become synonymous with the American South, beloved for capturing its landscapes and people alike with her camera. Born and still residing in Lexington, Virginia, Sally Mann's photography — especially intimate portraits of her family — has attracted controversy but always pushes the art world's envelope, informing other young photographers' eyes. Sally Mann explored many aspects of the photographic medium throughout the 1970s, however her work exploring everyday elements of childhood remains some of her most famous and moving photography work. The photographer has worked with color, yet seems most drawn to producing...

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Tommy Nease Biography Tommy Nease is a young soul who uses his obsession with imagery to unearth deep secrets within his subconscious. Born in 1992, one might think a modern photographer would use all of the latest gadgets and digital photography. Tommy Nease’s photographs defy modern convention, but with gorgeous results. Silver gelatin photographs, made famous by the likes of Rachel Carson and Arthur Leipzig, are Tommy Nease’s specialty.

A human hand coming out of ocean foam. An endless sand dune (or is it snow?). Long-dead volcanoes that teach us we are at the mercy of nature and not... View artist page

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Steve Schapiro Biography

American photographer Steve Schapiro (1934-present) was born and raised in New York City and discovered photography at age 9. The photojournalist is often celebrated for his work documenting the American Civil Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery march. LIFE Magazine called Steve Schapiro to Memphis to document the tragedy unfolding after Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Although typically associated with civil justice documentary work, Steve Schapiro created some iconic portraits of figures like James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett, Ray Charles, and more, all of which appear in his book Heroes (2007); the collection won an Art...

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Mark Steinmetz Biography

Mark Steinmetz (b. 1961) is an Athens, Georgia-based photographer whose work captures black-and-white images of Southern Americana as seen in urban, rural and suburban landscapes. “I like to stress the poetry and ambiance of a place, while still trying to be truthful,” he has remarked, and his candid shots of everyday life reflect this statement. Examples of this sentiment are strikingly portrayed in Steinmetz's new photo series Terminus, showing the everyday moments of people passing through airports. “At the airport, people from all over the world and from all walks of life can be found in the...

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Yamamoto Masao Biography

Yamamoto Masao's photography is known for evoking emotional power in the form of small-scale photographs. Yamamoto Masao (1957-present) was born in Aichi Prefecture in Japan and was originally interested in pursuing painting, studying oil painting specifically under Goro Saito. Though Yamamoto Masao eventually transitioned into photography in 1980, his painting background is apparent in his works’ painterly look, incorporating blurs and experimenting with printing surfaces; with many Yamamoto Masao photographs, he manipulated the silver gelatin prints through analogue processes such as dying the images with tea or actual paint and tearing them. Subjects vary wildly, ranging from...

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