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Research Aides for Photographic Masters 

Masters of Photography

On this website, there is a wealth of great information and samples of work from the "Masters of Photography." The site is a little bit difficult to navigate, but there is a trick to more easily viewing the samples of work: click on the name of the Master, click on the first "slide" of their work, click to enlarge the image, and then click on the arrow at the bottom right of each images to go through each Master's collection of work.

http://www.masters-of-photography.com

For a short description of each of the Masters' work: http://www.masters-of-photography.com/summaries.html

 

artnet

"artnet is the place to buy, sell and research fine art online.[They have] 100,000 works by over 25,000 artists from around the globe." Unless you are looking for an artist by name, use their Advanced Search.

http://www.artnet.com

 

Legends Online

Scroll down the page a bit until you see "PDN's archive of special photo projects from the past." Here you will find some amazingly inspirational biographies, galleries, Q & A sessions, and video clips from interviews with contemporary masters of photography.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/gallery/index.jsp

 

Blow Up

Historical articles about masters of photography, essays by the masters, and examples of their work make this website an amazing resource! Go to the "Portfolios" section to find a particular master.

http://www.designautopsy.com/blowup/

 

Canon Explorers of Light

A website gallery that showcases "the work from some of today's most influential leaders in the imaging industry." You'll see work from some amazing contemporary photographers.

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/explorers/lobby.html

 

Museum of Contemporary Photography

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is in Chicago, IL, but their website is amazing. In particular, check out their permanent collection (http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/) where you will find some great historical information about photography masters.

http://www.mocp.org/

 

George Eastman House Photography Collections Online

"A steadily growing digital image sampler and browsing resource for the vast photography holdings of George Eastman House." 300,000 images from photography masters that you can view online.

http://www.geh.org/

 

Guggenheim Museum—The Collection

You can search the Guggenheim's permanent collection (in New York, Bilbao, Venice, and Berlin) by artist, medium, movement, title, etc. According to the website's introduction, "Each work may be viewed at small, medium, or large resolution, and is accompanied by insightful commentary. The site also includes additional scholarly and contextual information, such as artist biographies, definitions of art-historical terms, concepts on art, and suggested readings, all of which form a searchable database."

http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/

 

The Getty Center, L.A.

The official site for the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

http://www.getty.edu

 

Technical Aspects of Photography 

Canon Digital SLR Basics and EOS Digital Rebel XT Lessons

Amazing interactive lessons both on the basics of digital SLR cameras and specifics of the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT cameras that we use in class.

http://images.photoworkshop.com/rebelxtlessons/interface.html

 

Glossary of Photographic Terms

http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_london_photo_8/0,8898,1258299-content,00.html

 

Making a Good Exposure

http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/PhotoLab/KnowledgeBase/DigiPhotoTips/MakingGoodExposure.htm

 

Interactive Demonstrations

 

How Stuff Works

 

Digital Photography and Other Fine Art Resources 

Color in Motion

This incredible Flash-based website is "an interactive experience of color communication and color symbolism." It is educational, creative, and really fun and it was one of the winners in the 2004 Communications Arts Interactive Annual.

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com

 

Articulation: Learning to Look at Art

The content of this website is wonderful (even if some of the image files are a little messed up). This website is a great place to do some research on the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design.

http://www.brigantine.atlnet.org/GigapaletteGALLERY/websites/ARTiculationFinal/SubHeadings/HomePage.htm

 

Principles of Graphic Design

This site, by Mundi Design Studios, has a neat and quick way to get an introduction to the principles of design. Topics include: color theory, composition and layout, perspective, and typography. Make sure you roll over everything, there is lots of information that is hidden!

http://www.mundidesign.com/presentation/index2F.html

 

CyberMuse

An amazing website from the National Gallery of Canada. It includes over 10,000 images of works in their collection, video and audio recordings of world famous artists (including photographers), art games, etc.

http://cybermuse.gallery.ca

 

Professor Jim Saw's Design and Composition Notes

Jim Saw is a design professor at Palomar College here in San Diego. At his website you will find "fundamental concepts for designing two-dimensional artwork. The theory is straight-forward and stripped to essentials."

http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/contents.html

 

A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius

Although this website is devoted to painting wildlife art, there are some great resources on this site that apply to photography (and any other visual art medium), especially the explainations and animations about the Principles of Design, a.k.a. the Principles of Organization.

Main site: http://www.wildlifeart.org/Rungius/index.html

Explanations of Principles of Organization: http://wildlifeart.org/Rungius/g_elemprinc.html

Animations of Principles of Organization: http://www.wildlifeart.org/Rungius/intro_movie.html

 

ArtsConnectEd

ArtsConnectEd is a very cool website by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center. They have a huge collection of art to view, articles to read, online activities to play, audio and video samples to listen to and watch, etc. Make sure you really spend some time exploring to find everything they have available.

http://www.artsconnected.org/

Also, make sure to check out their "Artist's Toolkit" which will help you with some of the the Art Elements and Principles of Design.

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/

 

ArtLex Art Dictionary

ArtLex is an amazing "art dictionary" with over 3,600 terms and definitions and articles on everything art-related, such as famous artists and their works, art techniques, art movements, etc.

http://www.artlex.com/

 

Sanford & A Lifetime of Color: Study Art

This website explains art concepts in a way that's very easy to understand. It also has fun little activities like a drag and drop face proportion Java game. This website is a good place to start your research of the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design.

http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/study.html

 

SenseBox

SenseBox is a comprehensive guide to graphic design schools. They have direct links to more than 290 visual communications programs in the US and more than 140 internationally. The website covers art schools, university programs, design institutes, online education, and other forms of graphic design instruction.

http://www.sensebox.com

 

Adobe Evangelists Photoshop Tips & Techniques

Julieanne Kost, Daniel Brown, and Tim Cole are "Adobe Evangelists." They work for Adobe, are power-users of Adobe's software programs, and their job is to pass that knowledge on to us! Their Photoshop section has lots of really cool tips, recommendations for books and magazines to read, actions you can download, and lots of inspirational websites you can look at.

http://www.adobeevangelists.com/photoshop/

 

Inspirational Websites 

Jerry Uelsmann—Photographer

"Vague, despite their sharpness and fine detail, and ambiguous despite our recognition of their constituent elements, his photographic montages are like dreams that slip past our perceptual defenses triggering a response but never quite revealing their meaning...Uelsmann's work has been exhibited in more than 100 individual shows in the United States and abroad over the past thirty years."

http://www.uelsmann.net/

 

Robert ParkeHarrison—Photographer

"In all of the works, ParkeHarrison demonstrates an ability to distill and redress complex environmental problems and failed technological systems with resourcefulness and dark humor."

http://www.parkeharrison.com/

 

Wm Kirk Moore—Photographer

A fine art photographer who does beautiful and colorful triptychs of still objects, amazing botanical abstracts, and a special kind of split image diptych (which looks like a triptych) of urban landscapes.

http://www.wmkirkmoore.com

 

Maggie Taylor—Digital Artist

"This site gives you a glimpse of an evolving series of images made using a flatbed scanner in place of a traditional camera. This body of work is my attempt to create a dreamlike world inhabited by everyday objects which take on new meanings unique to each viewer."

http://www.maggietaylor.com/

 

P.J. Saine—Digital Artist

"Photography has a rich tradition of revealing ‘the unseen’. As we view these images, our retinas are privy to a part of the body which is normally hidden. At the same time, this is art which is looking back at us."

http://www.pjsaine.com/FineArtPrints/PJSFineArt.html

 

Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego

An amazing resource, right in our own town (in Balboa Park)! Hopefully we will go there on a field trip...

http://www.mopa.org/

 

MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The official site for the Museum of Modern Art in New York which includes a collection of architecture and design, drawings, film and video, painting and sculpture, photography, and print and illustrated books.

http://www.moma.org

 

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

An off-shoot of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

http://www.ps1.org

 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The official site for the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.

http://www.sfmoma.org

 

Please email me if you find other sites that are inspiring and/or useful.

 

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Be advised that all text and images contained herein are
Copyright © 2005 Amanda Dahlgren
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Page last updated January 23, 2008 8:32 PM .