Lisette Model
Lisette Model is an austrian photographer born in 1901. She is best known for her striking black and white portraits and street photography. After moving to New York in 1939, Model made a series of photographs taken through glass shop front windows. Her photos perfectly capture 1930s/40s style; beautiful cars, high rise architecture and smart dress wear. Her photos remind me of a stylish Hollywood crime drama with smartly dressed figures lurking in the shadows. Model's photos perfectly encompass the cinematic style known as 'film noir'. I particularly like the first photo in the slideshow because of the mysterious silhouette whose reflected interior is filled with a maze of glowing bulbs and indistinguishable signs. The fact that the outline of the man's figure is so clear is what makes this photo striking, you can clearly tell from his clothing that this is probably an old photo, his particular style of trilby hat and the quality of the photo suggests it is most likely 1930s/40s. |
The second image in the slideshow is also my favourite. I think this photo looks fantastic, the car looks beautiful; a long and sleek shape slicing through the night, streaks of light reflecting off the gleaming bodywork. To me this car sums up 1930s extravagant style, I think the overly large, looming shape of the car is perfectly captured in black & white film. Although the focus is on the car the image is interrupted with silhouettes of numerous figures reflected onto the image, this is what turns the image into more than just a photograph. It is now an interesting mixture of shadows and shapes with only street lamps illuminating their outlines.
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The first photograph in the slideshow is my particular favourite. It is actually a selfie taken by Friedlander of his reflection in a shop window. In this photograph he captures the white head of a mannequin which along with its hand is the only part that shows up as the reflection of the street takes over most of the image. The part I like about this image is that Friedlander perfectly lined up the leaves of a palm tree with the mannequuin's head which makes it appear to have a hat/hair of spikey leaves. I really like the different textures and patterns in this photo, it may look chaotic at first but after taking it all in it is a rather clever image capturing more than meets the eye. |
Lee Friedlander Lee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s/70s Friedlander shot mainly black & white photographs on 35mm Leica cameras. Friedlander recently released his latest photos in a book called Mannequin. To take the photographs in this book he returned to the original 35mm camera he used at the start of his career. Friedlander walked the streets of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, photographing mannequins in shop front windows and focusing on the reflections caused by these windows. Lee Friedlander's mannequin photos have definitely grown on me, I was not that keen on the modern styled images at first when they are taken in black & white film. But after looking at them for some time I have understood the concept and realised the thought that has gone into taking these images. Each photo is carefully thought out and framed, capturing not only the mannequin but bringing the background into the photo as well. This creates some surreal effects and in one photo Friedlander has captured the building opposite in frame with the mannequins body to make it appear as if the building is her dress. |