Bob Martin

Bob Martin has won several photography awards. He specialised in action, editorial and graphic pictures for advertising, corporate and editorial clients.

During his twenty year-long career, he has photographed at every major sporting event from the summer and winter Olympics, to horse racing on ice and elephant polo. Having photographed at this amount of sporting event, he has had the chance to travel to all four corners of the globe and has had his work published in many major media products such as ‘The Sunday Times’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘Time’ and ‘Life Magazine’. As a resident of the UK, he is the only sports illustrated located outside of the USA.

Bob Martin’s exceptional talent in this area of photography has helped him to be recognised by more than 53 nation and international awards. He has also won ‘British photographer of the year’ three times. In 2005, he won 23 awards alone including sports photograph of the year in the world press photo awards. Also in 2005, he chose ‘cake-factory’ to be his worldwide representative of his advertising and commercial work.

Man Ray – Fine Art Photography

Man Ray (Born Emmanuel Radnitzky)  is an American artist, but spent most of his time in France, mainly Paris. Although his ties were informal, he is a significant contributor to the Dada and surrealist movements. Ray produced a variety of media products, but considered himself a painter above all but was also a well-known fashion and portrait photographers well as photograms, which he renamed to become rayographs after himself.

He was named one of the top 25 most influencial artists of the 20th century in 1999 by ARTnews, “citing his groundbreaking photography as well as "his explorations of film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and prototypes of what would eventually be called performance art and conceptual art" and saying "Man Ray offered artists in all media an example of a creative intelligence that, in its 'pursuit of pleasure and liberty,'"—Man Ray's stated guiding principles—"unlocked every door it came to and walked freely where it would.“[1]

Jim Brandenburg – Landscape Photography

Jim Brandenburg is an American photographer from Luverne, Minnesota. After studying art history he graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth. From here, he began work as a photojournalist for the ‘Worthington Daily Globe’. After just a few of working there, he began to submit work as a freelance photographer to the National Geographic Society and in 1978, he finally became a contracted photographer for the National Geographic Magazine. The National Geographic Society published his photography in many of their books such as “Journey Into China”, “Discovering Britain and Ireland” and “Heart of a Nation”.

He has also had his work featured in many magazines such as ‘Life’, ‘The Smithsonian’, ‘Newsweek’ and ‘GEO’ as well as major television stations such as ABC’s Prime Time Live, Dataline NBC and CBS News Sunday Morning and ‘All Things Considered’ on National Public Radio.

One of Brandenburg’s biggest achievements is being commissioned by the US postal service to create a set of wildlife stamps. These stamps were released on 14^th May 1981.  

Sports Photography

This form of photography is what it says on the tin – photography that covers all types of sport. There are two main branches that come from this genre. These are photojournalism which is professional sports photography whilst amateur sports photography is known as vernacular photography.

The majority of professional sports photos are taken for the purpose of being used in a media product such as a newspaper, specific sports magazine or in an advert.

Fine Art Photography

[2]“Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist”. This genre of photography is primarily used to advertise a service or product.

"In reference books

Among the definitions that can be found in reference books are:

·   "Art photography": "Photography that is done as a fine art -- that is, done to express the artist's perceptions and emotions and to share them with others".

·   "Fine art photography": "A picture that is produced for sale or display rather than one that is produced in response to a commercial commission".

·     "Fine art photography": "The production of images to fulfill the creative vision of a photographer. ... Synonymous with art photography".

·   "Art photography": A definition "is elusive," but "when photographers refer to it, they have in mind the photographs seen in magazines such as American Photo, Popular Photography, and Print, and in salons and exhibitions. Art (or artful) photography is salable.".

·    "Artistic photography": "A frequently used but somewhat vague term. The idea underlying it is that the producer of a given picture has aimed at something more than a merely realistic rendering of the subject, and has attempted to convey a personal impression".

·     "Fine art photography": Also called "decor photography," "photo decor," or "wall decor," this "involves selling large photos... that can be used as wall art".

·     "Art photography": "Euphemism for nude photography".

In scholarly articles

Among the definitions that can be found in scholarly articles are:

·   Two studies by Christopherson in 1974 defined "fine art photographers" as "those persons who create and distribute photographs specifically as 'art.'"

·   A 1986 ethnographic and historical study by Schwartz did not directly define "fine art photography" but did compare it with "camera club photography". It found that fine art photography "is tied to other media" such as painting; "responds to its own history and traditions" (as opposed to "aspir[ing] to the same achievements made by their predecessors"); "has its own vocabulary"; "conveys ideas" (e.g., "concern with form supersedes concern with subject matter"); "is innovative"; "is personal"; "is a lifestyle"; and "participates in the world of commerce."On the World Wide Web.

Among the definitions that can be found on the World Wide Web are:

·    The Library of Congress Subject Headings use "art photography" as "photography of art," and "artistic photography" (i.e., "Photography, artistic") as "photography as a fine art, including aesthetic theory".

·    The Art & Architecture Thesaurus states that "fine art photography" (preferred term) or "art photography" or "artistic photography" is "the movement in England and the United States, from around 1890 into the early 20th century, which promoted various aesthetic approaches. Historically, has sometimes been applied to any photography whose intention is aesthetic, as distinguished from scientific, commercial, or journalistic; for this meaning, use 'photography'".

·    Definitions of "fine art photography" on photographers' static Web pages vary from "the subset of fine art that is created with a camera" to "limited-reproduction photography, using materials and techniques that will outlive the artist".

·    Discussions of "fine art photography" in Usenet newsgroups, Internet forums, and blogs have not come to a consensus regarding the definition of the term."

Landscape Photography
This genre is used to show the extent of the weird and wonderful place we live through photographing not only the beauty of nature, but the beauty of some people’s imagination which goes into creating man-made structures too.
Landscape photography very rarely includes human activity, but instead uses light, weather and the subject of the image instead. As landscape photography is a very broad genre, it has been broken down into sub-genres such as encompassing urban, nature, macro and industrial. Generally, the inspiration for landscape photography comes from traditional landscape paintings.

Bibliography:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray

[2] http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/fine-art_photography