Eve Arnold (by Elyssa Marcus)

Eve Arnold was born in 1912 and was the first female member of the Magnum Photo agency in 1951.  She is still an important and active figure on British photography at 97 years old.  Arnold's claim to fame come from her photographs of Marilyn Monroe, continuously coming for over a decade.  The reason for the strength of her photographs of Marilyn is due to the amount of trust that they shared.  Arnold and Marilyn were friends, and had a close relationship which showed.  Her key to success was being able to show the intimacy through her photographs and capturing the closeness with Marilyn that was unattainable by any other photographer.  Eve Arnold did not just photograph Marilyn Monroe, she did photojournalism (China, Russia, South Africa, Afghanistan to name a few), and also captured Queen Elizabeth II, and Malcolm X, and a series on many president's wives.

© Eve Arnold
© Eve Arnold
© Eve Arnold
© Eve Arnold

Linda McCartney (by Elyssa Marcus)

Yes, she was married to the Beatle, Paul McCartney. Linda McCartney may be well-known thanks to her famous last name, but she is also an accomplished photographer.

Linda McCartney photographed artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Who, Neil Young, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel, The Doors, Grace Slick, and Eric Clapton.  The photo of Clapton was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, making her the first female photographer to be on Rolling Stone's cover.  She famously was photographed on the cover of Rolling Stone with Paul in 1968, making her the only person to have been both photographed and to have taken a photograph for the cover.

Some of McCartney's photographs were exhibited in over 50 international galleries.  She also published a book entitled, Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era.

© Linda McCartney
© Linda McCartney
© Linda McCartney
© Linda McCartney

Helen Levitt: Sidewalk Drawings (by Elyssa Marcus)

Helen Levitt got her start in photography in Brooklyn, where she was instantly inspired by the sidewalk chalk drawings that children were drawing.  She saw it as culture and took still photographs of her favorite ones.  Levitt then branched out and photographed the children who made them.  This series was made into a book entitled In The Street: chalk drawings and messages, New York CIty 1938-1948.  It was not published for nearly 40 years after that.  These photographs allowed for a smooth transition to other types of photography such as documentary photography which she spent the remainder of her career working on.  

Later, Levitt was rewarded with two grants from the Guggenheim Foundation to photograph the chalky streets again, but this time in color.  Unfortunately, most of her 60's color work of the sidewalks was stolen in 1970 when her house was robbed.  However, the remaining ones were published as a book entitled Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt.  Subsequently, she segued into the world of film and created several award winning documentaries.

© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt
© Helen Levitt

Rinko Kawauchi (by Elyssa Marcus)

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese female contemporary photographer.  Kawauchi's photos are of ordinary objects that every person comes across in daily life.  These things are usually deemed 'trivial' or 'banal' but when photographed by Kawauchi, they become beautiful works of art that deserve to be recognized.  When something is ordinary, it loses importance and it is not acknowledged after a while, Kawauchi's photograps reverse this cycle of ignorance and gives individuality to a normally unexciting subject.  This attention to detail in small things is what makes Rinko Kawauchi one of the most celebrated artists in Japan of this decade.   Her work is often presented with Haikus that she writes to join her art.

Her attention to detail extends past the subject and reaches the color of her photographs.  Depending on what the subject is, she will try to capture this object with the right color tone.  When she is unsatisfied with the natural light she will bring the photograph to photoshop until it meets her standards.  Kawauchi has been reported to say: "For a photographer, it's a necessity that you can shoot stuff magically. Accidents are necessary, but after I take a photograph, it is not all done. I continue to work on it."

© Rinko Kawauchi
© Rinko Kawauchi
© Rinko Kawauchi
© Rinko Kawauchi
© Rinko Kawauchi

Bianca Brunner: Limbo (by Elyssa Marcus)

Bianca Brunner is an untraditional photographer in the sense that she does not document things she sees as others do.  In her series titled, Limbo, her photographs are taken on a set, or atleast altered by the artist.  The situation she has set up is imaginary, and is more for the artistic value and meaning as opposed to an anthropologic project.

The models are dressed and posed abstractly which forces the viewer to draw their own conclusions about what Bianca Brunner was trying to get across in her photographs. 

© Bianca Brunner
© Bianca Brunner
© Bianca Brunner
© Bianca Brunner