Sean Moran - Style Writing

Dennis Hopper:

            Dennis Hopper was an American photographer, as well as an actor, director, film editor, writer and artist, who was active from 1954 until his death in late may of 2010. Dennis hopper was a jack-of-all-trades, being in films with James Dean, taking portraits of celebrities for Vogue magazine, and even creating the cover art for the single “River Deep – Mountain High” by Ike and Tina Turner. Hopper however does have his first wife, Brooke Hayward, to thank for his first camera. He used a Nikon his wife gave him and mostly used black and white film for most of his work. He did also use a disposable drugstore camera for a project he completed while he lived in Taos, New Mexico. He mostly photographed far away when he was taking landscape pictures however he was relatively close to the subject when he was taking portraits.

            Hopper started his photography journey to escape the cruel, villainous, or difficult narrative that Hollywood seemed to display him as. While he was taking portraits he would often show softer, more intimate renderings of people, famous or not. His portraits usually always had this natural feel to them, almost like he wasn’t even there taking the picture. His landscapes often showed high contrast and depth to the world allowing him to escape the harsh words and drama of Hollywood through his pictures. Most of his photographs from the book I analyzed were showing intimacy, exploration and the raw beauty of a person in their natural element through his disposal camera’s film. I really appreciated how even though he could have used a Nikon, he still portrayed high quality images on a drugstore camera, and I really like how he captures everyday life in his photographs.

Henry Wessel:

            Henry Wessel was an American photographer and former educator at the San Francisco Art Institute. Henry was originally a psychology major at the Pennsylvania State University, until he found his love for photography from a book he bought at a store off campus. Wessel eventually graduated from the university in 1966. Wessel only photographed with one camera, one type of film and one specific lens. His camera was a Leica 35 mm camera, which he paired with a 28 mm wide-angle lens, and his only used black and white Tri-X film by Kodak.  Wessel spent most of his photography career exploring and photographing pictures of life in the west. He managed to capture the cultural differences between not only the people, but also the architectural differences between city to city in the west.

            Wessel’s photographs consist mostly of landscapes, with some occasional portraits, however almost all of his photography is taken outside. The best way to describe his photography is that it resembles what one would imagine when they remember walking down a street while they are at the beach or somewhere in the west. His photographs look like memories of being down the shore, or at the parade, almost like a tourist’s photo album. His portraits show intimacy and in some cases sexuality amongst his subjects. His landscape and architectural images often show depth, negative space surrounding the focus of his image or are extremely cluttered with multiple subjects. His photographs look like memories of mine and I just find his work so fascinating with how mundane and simple they are. Yet at the same time, his images feel so significant and special and really play with nostalgia feelings.

Anthony Friedkin:

            Anthony Friedkin is an American photographer from Los Angeles, California. He started his interest in photography at the age of 8 and was developing photos in a dark room by the age of 11. Friedkin is a contemporary photographer as his latest photographs were taken in 2006 although there is a rumor that he is still developing his “Hollywood Essay” project. In 1967, his father gave him a Leica 35mm M4 camera, which he used almost always used to photograph his images. He used his camera without a flash, or a tripod and tested the limits of his black and white film when it came to the exposure of his low light conditions of being in clubs, or at shows. He mostly used a shutter speed of an eighth or quarter of second so he could record the action of the intimacy of his subjects. He printed on silver-rich Varilour VLTW paper by DuPont to create dark, granny images. Sometimes he would add a diluted mixture of water and selenium toner to play with the intensity of the blacks and grays of his prints.

            Friedkin was very interested in capturing the essence of both surf and gay culture as well as photographing prisons and behind the scenes of cinema. He photographed people, landscapes and cities across California. In 1969, he started photographing for his project “The Gay Essay” which was to demonstrate gay culture and all the struggles, achievements, and hopefully help people understand the movement. His portraits are often taken in bedrooms, dressing rooms, backstage, or outside. Friedkins subjects show ranges of emotion, such as lust and want or the anxiety of being ready for a drag show within minutes. Regardless if the subject was nude, in full drag, or just simply dressed for the typical San Francisco heat, there was always an essence of romance and naturalness lingering within the image with their high contrast tones of creamy whites and pitch-dark blacks. His images are truly captivating as not only do you see the feeling of the subject, but also you feel what the subject is feeling.