Alexia Casper Photography : Artist Profiles

Artist Profile #15

Robert Frank

Robert Frank is an American photographer who was born on November 9th, 1924. He is also well known for his documentary films. Frank was born in Switzerland. Living there during World War II, he saw the Nazism in Germany which affected his view of oppression. It especially hit close to home when his father became stateless after losing his citizenship in Germany for being a jew and having to apply for Swiss citizenship. Frank turned to photography and trained under various photographers and graphic designers until he published his own book of photographs. He then emigrated to the United States when he was 23 and worked in New York City as a fashion photographer. He temporarily left the States to travel South America and Europe. He made another photography book documenting Peru. He returned to the US three years later and met his wife, Mary Lockspeiser. They married and had two children. That year Frank also participated in an art show at the Museum of Modern Art. Living in America his photography of the country reflected his thoughts on America, that it is a bleak and lonely country contrary to the optimistic perception on it. He worked for various photojournalist magazines. Frank switched back and forth between photography and film, creating marvelous work in both categories. These are some of my favorite photographs of Robert Frank's:

Artist Profile #14

Irving Penn

Irving Penn, An American Photographer, Lived from June 16th, 1917 to October 7th, 2009. He is and was known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn was born into a Russian Jewish family and lived in Plainfield, New Jersey. He studied at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. There, he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts. He worked for four years in various jobs having to do with art, he then started his most well-known job, working a Vogue Magazine. He started on layout until he was asked to photograph for it. Throughout his Vogue career, he photographed covers, still lifes, fashion, and photo essays. He eventually found his own photography studio in New York. Later, he met a Swedish fashion model, Lisa Fonssagrives, who he married, and gave birth to his son, Tom Penn. Penn was best known for his fashion photography, but he contributed many other types of photography to the world. He did portraits, ethnographic photos, various still lifes of food, bones, bottles, metal, and other objects. He also did amazing photo essays on the places he traveled. Penn's work is known and celebrated and many of his pieces have been put on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Here are some of my favorite photographs of his:

Artist Profile #13

Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt, an American photographer, lived from August 31st, 1913 to March 29th, 2009. She was a street photographer and has been highly celebrated for it, but not very known. She was born and grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York. She learned about photography with a commercial portrait photographer, Florian Mitchell, who she worked for after she dropped out of high school. There she learned how to develop photos in the dark room. She studied, practiced, and taught art, especially photography, and was very inspired by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Levitt worked on street photography, and some were published in books and magazines. She received a couple grants and tried out color photography. A bump in the road come when her color photographs were stolen. Liking photographing in black and white better, she stopped working in color and continued with black and white. Levitt was introverted and quiet, she never married. Unfortunately, in the 1990s she had to stop making her own prints due to sciatica. She was also born with Meniere's Syndrome, causing her to feel wobbly all her life, making her work all the more inspiring. These are some of my favorite photographs of Helen Levitt: