Parts of a Whole

David Hockney- photomontage

jazz fest

IRVING PENN

Penn was an American photographer, most famously known for his portraiture and fashion photography. Penn also photographed still life objects in great detail- the arrangements create a visually interesting appearance. His photographs were always clear and visually interesting. I really like how diverse his works were. Also, his work with fashion, like for Vogue, is very creative and represents the hottest styles of his time. For example, this picture was taken for Vogue in 1949. Having high visual interest, the photograph shows both fashion of the time and creative use of a still life object.

DAVID HOCKNEY
Born in England in 1937, Hockney was one of the few artists who has embraced both art and photography effectively. He uniquely developed photomontages of visually interesting subjects. Hockney used hundred of shots of a single scene or still life—his goal was to create large mosaics of high visual interest using very small clips of a scene. I love Hockney's works, both the grids and collages. All the photomontages create illusions as first glance and cause the viewer to look very carefully.

AARON SISKIND
As a member of the NY Photo League, Siskind focused on nature and architecture. He produced a lot of images in 1930’s; the Harlem Document is his most famous as an abstract expressionist photographer. I like the illusion of the various shapes on the wall even though the photograph is just peeling paint. Siskind represented images of Harlem well, and he captured so much detail in his photographs and portrayed textures really well.