Real Raw: Weegee&Law

“Weegee the famous” is quite an amusing character. His short stout self had an uncanny ability to consistently arrive at crime scenes as they occurred - the ultimate perfect timing (I prefer to ignore the assumption that he owned a police scanner as it ruins his mysticism to me). His large and harsh flash provided a high contrast that produced often comical, spontaneous pictures. He captured not only unattractive double chins, amusing expressions, and awkward positions, but also the unfortunate realities of the 1930s and 1940s. Weegee’s idiosyncratic rawness settles with me and I find him inspiring and entertaining. His photos are definitely worth looking at.

Alicia

André Kertész was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1894. After being severely wounded while serving the Hungarian army in WWI, he moved to Paris and began working as a freelance photographer. In 1936, him and his wife Elizabeth moved to Manhattan, which was their home until his death in 1985.

This photograph (Distortion #70) is from his Distortion series, which he continuously worked on from 1933 until 1984.

For much of his work: http://www.higherpictures.com/artists/Andre_Kertesz/

Marcela Taboada is a freelance photographer who has lived in Oaxaca city, Southern part of Mexico. The picture shown above is from her series called “Women of Clay”. The series is about this village called San Miguel Amatitlan, and how the moment she stepped on that village she knew she had entered to the truth of a Mexican truth. Women feed this earth and their life is made of clay. Clay ovens for clay pans and pots, everything is touched and transformed by hands which are also the colour of clay. In this photo I see an aged hand on the girl how she is passing on what she will be doing in the future, which is to build new houses. I find her work fascinating, the portraits are great and especially how she photographs them in their home.

-Betzy

ABRIL PEIRETTI

Abril Peiretti is a young photographer from Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She dropped out of high school at 17 to get a job and buy herself a camera.
I came across one of her photographs on Tumblr, which was linked to her flickr page. After looking through a number of her photos and reading an interview with her I decided I wanted to share her work with you all.
In an interview with Kaltblut magazine, she talks about her inspiration being nature, the 1940s and 50s, femininity, rooms, bedrooms, dreams and nightmares and many more things. It looks to me like all of her work is taken with a film camera which I find very appealing and aesthetically pleasing. Read the full interview: http://www.kaltblut-magazine.com/abril-peiretti/ 
Her work creates a feeling of nostalgia (which is what she aims for) and calm feelings for me. I want to enter her world and live the life she seems to create or depict in her work. According to Abril, she both documents real life moments as well as situations she creates herself. I think I partially like her so much because I can relate to that aspect of her work.

The photograph I chose to attach with my post is a part of a story called Ami. 

You can see more of her work on her website here

-Melkorka 

Liz O. Baylen is a photojournalist who is particularly drawn to photographing psychological trauma and other mental health illnesses. This photograph comes from her series titled “The Art of Remembering” in which she effectively captures the different reactions that alzheimer’s patients have to artwork. Liz O. Baylen worked alongside Elizabeth Cockey in helping those suffering from alzheimer’s disease to use art as a coping mechanism, and something tangible that they can use to aid their memory. I thought this project in particular was very interesting because you can see art being used as not just a creative outlet, but also as guidance and comfort for  suffering patients.

http://www.lizbaylen.com/stories.shtml

-Anna

Bruce Davison is an extremely well known and respected American photographer. Works of his include Brooklyn Gang, The Dwarf, East 100th Street, Subway and his documentation of the Civil Rights Movement around the country. This photograph is taken from Subway, a series of photographs taken in the NYC subway in the 1980’s. I was introduced to this photographer in a photo class a few years ago, and was immediately drawn to his style and technique. I became especially interested in this series based on the way he captures his subjects so vividly, and because it offers a stark contrast between mta transit then and now. 

-Frankie