Visual Art
The Visual Art Page is open for photography, digital art, short films, and everything in between. To submit material please contact the editor.
This is an example of Photographer profiles and art critics that we hope will soon bless this page.
Alex Webb Photography Analyzation
By Alexander Krinsky
Alex Webb is a prolific street photographer a long time member of Magnum Photos, he was born in San Fransisco in 1952 and was raised around the North East. At a young age he attended the Apron Workshops in Millerton, New York. He majored in history and literature at Harvard University, where he was also studying photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. In 1974 he began working as a professional photojournalist and was invited to join Magnum Photos, as an associate member just two years later at the age of 24. In the mid 1970’s Webb started to photograph the American South, showing daily life and conditions with photos taken in black and white. He also worked in the Caribbean and Mexico early on in his career. As Webb’s life as a photojournalist progressed so did the aesthetics possible through color photography. Webb captured these new possibilities while keeping the traditional values of street photography and photojournalism true. With his gripping photographs Webb captures beauty and desperation, violence and exuberance.
“I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner. ” - Alex Webb.
Webb photographs complex situations in a complex way. Doing all he can to truly capture every angle of a moment and environment. He uses color in prolifically, using blazing yellows, and blood reds. He won the Leopold Godowsky Color Photography Award in 1988.
Webb has photographed politicians, celebrities, and soldiers – truly capturing the situation and moments for what they are through his lens. He has captured all throughout the Americas as well as much of Europe and East Asia. He has published seven books and received many grants and fellowships over his career. Today he works alongside his wife Rebecca Norris Webb.
This photo was taken by Webb in 1979 in GRENADA. Gouyave. Bar. This is actually the cover photo of Hot Light- Half Made Worlds. It is a photo with striking color. The reds and greens are balanced and the subjects are bathed in an almost unreal light. While it could be said that it is a little under exposed due to the extreme darks but I think it is appropriate due to the feeling of mystery and unknowing of the situation this photo gives. You can’t clearly make out the features of any of these three men clearly. The light is coming from the back of the room. The eye is led to and met by the main subjects left eye, the light hits it dramatically. The man is looking right at the camera confronts who ever is looking at the photo with a one eyed stare, he has two people coming out from behind him as if they have his back. The bar that splits the windows runs down his spine as if he is supported like a building. This photo gives off a feeling of protection of ones ground and strength while providing a colorful scene with a dark contrast.
This photo which was taken in the same year in San Isidro, California, Portrays Webb’s mastery of color and situational awareness. This second photo is of Mexican men being captured after illegally crossing U.S. Mexican border. There is a deep depth of field and the focus starts with the two men that are being arrested. A sprawling field of yellow flowers stretches as far as the eye can see, all the land looks as if the concepts of borders and crossing rights would be meaningless. A helicopter hovers in the middle ground over another arrest. There is so much going on in this photo it almost overloads the brain. This photo struck me not just because of the subject matter or the hovering helicopter, but because of the yellow in the clouds. This place is so beautiful and a systemized act is occurring and tainting the world with this moment. Webb has stated that he purposely travels to places where there is color and that in those places, like Mexico, color has not only a cultural but an almost spiritual importance to the region. The yellow in the sky and on the ground gives great balance to the complexity of the situation and the depth captured in this photo.
The third photo is much more recent than the previous two, though not “new” considering Webb’s constant array of photos that continues to this day. It was taken in 2003 in Thessaloniki Greece. I feel this photo is an incredible representation of the beauty that we overlook every day. This is such a simple environment but so many thoughts flood my mind. There are two frames like paintings made from the glass popcorn stand. The pink cotton candy mirrors the color on the water. There is so much light that is being played with here, the sun the lit frames of the box, the overhead lamp in the popcorn box, the single lightbulb over the salesperson. The color and differences caused by these light sources is amazing. I don’t think this photo could’ve been taken a moment sooner or later, this photo is so balanced and gentle it truly captures the value of a single moment no matter how calm or simple.