Gordon Parks

Gordon parks was a renowned photographer, writer, composer and film maker best known for his films shaft and learning tree. 

Born on 30^th November 1912 in Kansas City (birth name) Gordon roger Alexander Buchanan parks was born on November 30^th 1912 as his father (Jackson parks) who worked as a vegetable farmer and lived a very modest life.

As a young black American Gordon faced great racial discrimination as a child as he attended through the whole of secondary school and was not allowed to take place in certain activities throughout his school life just because of his skin colour. The teachers also took a great roll in discrimination of Gordon as they would constantly discourage Gordon (and anyone who was of African American decent) from seeking any form of higher education. Later on in life Gordon’s mother sadly pasted away when he was at the age of 14, causing Gordon to leave home and live with relatives before setting off and looking for whatever odd and strange jobs he could find

At the age of 25 Gordon invested in in first camera after getting inspiration form images of migrant workers in magazines. Gordon’s original photos ended up catching the eye of Marva Louis who was wife of the very famous boxing champion Joe Louis who encouraged Parks and his wife (sally) to move to Chicago in 1940

Once parks moved to Chicago he began to gain great interest in the low-income black neighbour hoods on the south side. Parks then won a fellowship with the ‘Farm Security Administration’ for the images he produced in the inner city. In his fellow ship parks created some of his best work including one of his most famous pieces “American Gothic Washington D.C.” which showed a picture of one of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.

Once the FSA had broken up Parks continued to follow and peruse his passion for photography turning a freelance photographer for vogue. Parks ended up working for Vogue for a number of years, creating a name in which he developed a distinctive style in which emphasized the look of models and garments in a motion shot rather than just a boring static pose.

Parks then ended up relocating to Harlem where he continued to document city images and characters whilst also working in the fashion industry. While working an photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader which won him a position as staff photographer for Life Magazine. He ended up working for Life Magazine for the next 20 years, producing photos on subjects such as fashion and racial segregation and discrimination.       

ben eine

   Ben Eine

Ben Eine spray painting letters onto a wall

Ben Eine (ben Flynn) was born in London, England in 1970. Ben is mostly known for his lettering on the shutters of shops in places such as brick lane and Shoreditch. Ben is a street artist however does not believe his work to be “graffiti” as he believes that “graffiti makes the streets look ugly whereas street art beatifies it”.

Ben Eine started off his love for street art from the age of 14, tagging trains and street walls and being arrested for vandalism 14 times putting him under the category of “artistic fugitive” at a very young age. However ben stopped tagging when becoming a young adult as a few of his fellow graffiti friends were arrested and then sent to prison. Because of this he only displays his work on walls when he receives permission from the owner.

the screen print that Ben Eine sent to Barrack Obama

When Bens street art career kicked off he knew that all the strret artists work out there at the time was all too similar and therefour wanted to do something that would have been entirely different, he loved and specialised in lettering especially as there was such a wide variation of different shapes and words that the possibility was endless.

Ben eine rocketed to success when prime minister, David Cameron gave prime minister of the United States a screen print with letter which spelt out “twentyfirstcenturycity”

In my opinion Ben Eines work is very simple however it gives a very lively and colourful feel espesually on the dirty streets of London and provides the streets with joy. Bens work is very geometric and edgy with a wide range of colours, smooth texture and thick and bold mark making 

around most of the letters.

All of his work is done straight onto a wall or instillation, making the outlines and colouring in the inside of the shapes of the letters bold and bright buy using spray paints, which he heavily applies to create bold colours. All of his letters are very stylised in a very simple and effective way especially as his letters have no tone and are bold colours which are very great in size.  

I have chosen this artist as I am using ben eine as inspiration for both the lettering on my box and for the fashion project in which we will be designing a front cover for a fashion magazine. 

man ray

Man ray  

Man ray was most famously known for his contribution to photography with the dada movement and the serialism movement

Man ray was born Emmanuel Rudnitzky and s son of Russian immigrants, however ray moved to Brooklyn when we was very young. Throughout the early years of life man ray showed great artistic ability and knowledge all the way through school. Once finishing school in 1908 man ray immediately chased his passion for art and ended up studying with Robert Henri at the Ferrer Centre when studying at the Ferrer centre he was greatly influenced Stieglitz's photographs where man ray adopted a similar style snapping images that provided an “unvarnished” look at the subject. Man ray also found great inspiration from the Amory show of 1913 when seeing pieces by artist such as Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Marcel Duchamp.

In 1914, Ray married Belgian poet Adon Lacroix and made many many close and long lasting friendships with people including artist Marcel Duchamp.

Man ray achieved most of his success in Europe and the United States .he’s art spanned from a wide range such as painting, sculpture, film, prints and even poetry. In his long career he contributed to movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Dada Surrealism. He was also very successful in the world commercial and fine art and came to be a sought-after fashion photographer. However man ray gained most of his fame through what he called “Rayographs” but he always thought of himself as a painter.

His multiple attempts to promote avant-garde art movements in New York widened the horizons of the American art scene. His serious yet quirky imagery has influenced a broad audience through different iterations of his work in pop culture. Many of his important works were donated to museums around the world through a trust set up by his wife before her death in 1991. Most importantly, his process-oriented art making and versatility have influenced a number of modern and contemporary artists, from Andy Warhol to Joseph Kosuth, who like Ray strove to continually blur the boundaries between artistic disciplines.

rembrandt

Rembrandt

 

Rembrandt, (full name: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn) was born in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1606. At the age of 14, Rembrandt began to study at the famous University of Leiden which was unusual for a miller's son however the academic life did not suit him, after a few months he left to begin an apprenticeship as a painter. He did this because Leiden (the school he was at) did not provide the artistic talents that Rembrandt wanted at the time therefor Rembrandt traveled to Amsterdam to study with Pieter Lastman. Shortly after he moved back to his home town of Leiden however it was a hard climate to work in it was Following the Protestant Reformation, the local churches no longer provided artists with any commissions as the Catholic Church did in other countries. Because of this he had to take commissions from private individuals because of this Rembrandts name became quickly known as a painter of portraits of historical subjects. 

Rembrandt decided not to follow the common way of moveing to italy to learn italin art from first hand as he stongly belived that all he could learn everything from his native home (Leiden).

Rembrandts portraits of other people are very detailed and has a very smooth texture, however he manages to use any different tones and hues in the skin and clothing. Rembrandt also never really incudes a background, by doing this he forces all attention to the detail of the face which is based just off center of the picture.