Favourite Photogs: Gillian Laub

I’ve gotten lazy the last few weeks with my Favourite Photogs series. I’ve been trying to organize stuff with leaving, which means seeing people and figuring out what I do/n’t need, the list goes on. But! I’ve got the next few posts prepared, so at least there’s that! (I feel like getting the hang of scheduling posts is kind of like ironing: you find yourself doing it and go, “Oh man. This is a new level.”)  Gillian Laub is intense. By that I mean her photography is intense. She doesn’t hold back and hits you square between the eyes with all that intensity she creates in her photos. Which is good because sometimes, a lot of times, you need more than photos of perfectly lined books and delicious looking dishes. Laub delivers that and through several different series of photographs, from both far away and out of sight and right close to home.

Favourite Photogs: Eve Arnold

I was flip flopping between posting a new-t0-me photographer, or else going with someone whose work I was familiar with when Eve Arnold‘s name came up and my decision was made.  Most famous for her photographs of Marilyn Monroe, specifically those from the actresses time filming The Misfits in 1961 though she had been photographing her in 1951. Another photographer  who also took photos of popular 20th century figures, Arnold shot Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm X and Joan Crawford.

Favourite Photogs: Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro was born Gerta Pohorylle to a Jewish-Galician family in Stuttgart. She fled Nazi occupied Germany  for Paris in 1934, where she met Friedmann Endre. He taught her photography and together the two of them invented Robert Capa and Gerda Taro as a ruse to earn more money off their photographs, as Americans were paid more than Europeans for their work.  They were found out, but the two of them kept their altered names, the names they eventually became famous by. 

Favourite Photogs: Larry Towell

My friend Sarah is the one who introduced me to Larry Towell.  I say ‘introduced’ but what I mean is ‘consistently referred to and I really had no choice but to pay attention’.  Which is how favourite photographers should be talked about, in my opinion and part of the reason I started this weekly bit. But, she talked about him and I looked him up and I’m glad that she/I/we did. 

Favourite Photogs: Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was part of a grade 9 assignment on famous Canadians where I received a list of about 200 names and had to pick five to do a PowerPoint presentation on. I don’t remember who the other four were, but Karsh, him I remember. Part of it was how impressed I was with who he had photographed. If you were to look at a full list, it’s a who’s who of the 20th century, everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Georgia O’Keefe to Pope John Paul II to Audrey Hepburn.