Alfred Eisenstaedt
December 6, 1898 - August 23, 1995
Personal Background: Alfred Eisenstaedt grew up in Dirschau, West Prussia, now Tczew, Poland. He studied at Berlin University and then served in the German army during World War I. After the war, he went back to Berlin and started his career as a freelance photographer. He immigrated to New York City in 1935, where he became one of the first four photographers hired by Life Magazine. During his time working for Life Magazine, Alfred captured numerous photos, most of which are some of the most famous and prominent in photography history.
Style: Alfred’s work possesses many different and complex visual characteristics. Most of his work consists of candid photos that appear to not be staged. The subjects of his photos were sometimes famous personalities and sometimes just regular people who had experienced something. His photos seem quite loose and natural but are incredibly well composed and made use of the rule of thirds and symmetry. His style was quite unique for the time and still is unique compared to most modern day photographs.
Philosophy: The major idea behind Alfred Eisenstaedt’s work was "to find and catch the storytelling moment". He himself said that he found the most successful way to get a picture to invoke emotion was to not push the subject around. “I treat people like I like to be treated, with gentleness” Alfred said in an interview with NBC Nightly News. “When I photograph people, I'm not nervous. I talk to them, and I talk alone. I have only one little camera and no lights.”
Influences: This photographer has certainly influenced me in my work. When photographing portraits last week, I tried to make my subjects comfortable and confident. I let them do what they felt was best and only offered a few suggestions. The photos that I took aren't exact replications of Alfred’s, because the poses are different and the costumes and backgrounds aren't the same. But I feel like they were good reflections of his work because my subjects were loose and happy to be taking the photos. They all conveyed emotion which I think made them perfect.
Style: Alfred’s work possesses many different and complex visual characteristics. Most of his work consists of candid photos that appear to not be staged. The subjects of his photos were sometimes famous personalities and sometimes just regular people who had experienced something. His photos seem quite loose and natural but are incredibly well composed and made use of the rule of thirds and symmetry. His style was quite unique for the time and still is unique compared to most modern day photographs.
Philosophy: The major idea behind Alfred Eisenstaedt’s work was "to find and catch the storytelling moment". He himself said that he found the most successful way to get a picture to invoke emotion was to not push the subject around. “I treat people like I like to be treated, with gentleness” Alfred said in an interview with NBC Nightly News. “When I photograph people, I'm not nervous. I talk to them, and I talk alone. I have only one little camera and no lights.”
Influences: This photographer has certainly influenced me in my work. When photographing portraits last week, I tried to make my subjects comfortable and confident. I let them do what they felt was best and only offered a few suggestions. The photos that I took aren't exact replications of Alfred’s, because the poses are different and the costumes and backgrounds aren't the same. But I feel like they were good reflections of his work because my subjects were loose and happy to be taking the photos. They all conveyed emotion which I think made them perfect.
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Artist Statement
Overall, I feel like I did a pretty good job of recreating these classic photos taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt. While some of the technical aspects were not perfectly accurate, I think that the expressions on my friends and family members faces were able to make the images far more similar than I could have imagined. It was very hard to find backgrounds similar to those in Alfred's photos, so I opted to have the subjects positioned in front of reletivley blank walls instead. I did do some cropping of my photos to have them better match Alfred's and I also analyzed of the composition of both mine and Alfred's photos in order to find balancing elements and leading lines that would make them more alike.
Overall, I feel like I did a pretty good job of recreating these classic photos taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt. While some of the technical aspects were not perfectly accurate, I think that the expressions on my friends and family members faces were able to make the images far more similar than I could have imagined. It was very hard to find backgrounds similar to those in Alfred's photos, so I opted to have the subjects positioned in front of reletivley blank walls instead. I did do some cropping of my photos to have them better match Alfred's and I also analyzed of the composition of both mine and Alfred's photos in order to find balancing elements and leading lines that would make them more alike.