Fotogiornalismo tesina

Nel 1829 a Niepce si associa Louis Daguerre e insieme continuano le ricerche sui materiali

sensibili. Daguerre elabora un procedimento, che poi assume il suo nome: la dagherrotipia.

Essa consiste nell’impressionare la luce su una lastra di rame argentata, precedentemente

trattata con dei vapori di iodio. L’argento sulla lastra, esposto alla luce, impressiona la scena

ripresa in negativo, ovvero con le zone in luce annerite e quelle in ombra più chiare. Con

appositi Sali di mercurio inverte le tonalità dell’immagine: gli scuri tornano chiari e viceversa.

Il vantaggio del processo di Daguerre consiste nel fatto che la lastra abbia bisogno di essere

esposta soltanto per 4-5 minuti: il tempo di esposizione è dunque significativamente ridotto.

Contemporaneamente a Daguerre, l’inglese Fox Talbot realizza una carta fotografica

negativa, dalla quale si possono ottenere molteplici stampe positive.

La prima fotocamera prodotta in serie è costruita dal francese Alphonse Giroux nel 1839, un

parente di Daguerre. Si tratta di una grossa scatola in legno, sul fondo della quale viene

inserita la lastra spalmata con un’emulsione fotosensibile. La lente è montata anteriormente,

in un cilindro d’ottone, e un semplice tappo funge da otturatore.

Nel 1888 lo statunitense George Eastman mette in produzione la prima fotocamera portatile

destinata al grande pubblico. E’ una cassettina in legno di dimensioni contenute, la messa a

fuoco è fissa e si ha solo un tempo di otturazione, comunque sufficiente per ottenere

fotografie istantanee.

Nel 1925 la ditta tedesca di apparecchiature ottiche di precisione “Leitz”, immette sul mercato

la Leica, il cui nome è l’abbreviazione di Leitz Camera. Essa è piccola, leggera,

maneggevole, con corpo di metallo e un’ottica eccellente.

1.2 IL RAPPORTO CON LA PITTURA

La clamorosa invenzione e lo sviluppo rapidissimo della fotografia mettono in crisi l’arte

pittorica: molti ritrattisti e paesaggisti si trovano in difficoltà a causa di questo mezzo

meccanico, che produce risultati impeccabili. Nonostante le immagini siano ancora in bianco

e nero, i prezzi contenuti e i tempi notevolmente più brevi favoreggiano la scelta della

fotografia rispetto al ritratto dipinto. Tuttavia gli artisti più attenti colgono immediatamente la

straordinarietà dell’ invenzione, della quale cominciano subito a servirsi, non in antagonismo,

ma in aiuto della propria pittura, come ad esempio il famoso pittore Edgar Degas. In alcune

delle sue opere si riscontra il “taglio fotografico”, tipico di un’inquadratura realizzata con una

fotocamera, per esempio in “Assenzio”, (del 1875) e in “Lezione di danza”, (del 1873-75)

Grazie alla fotografia la pittura cessa di essere di tipo documentario e assume una forma

psicoanalitica, concentrandosi sulle emozioni che l’artista desidera trasmettere. La fotografia

d’altra parte deve alla pittura molte delle regole di composizione e di inquadratura, ponendo

particolare attenzione allo studio e al bilanciamento delle luci e delle ombre. Questo è reso

possibile dal fatto che inizialmente i fotografi lavorano in atelier molto simili a quelli dei pittori

accademici. Per le riprese in ambienti esterni vengono poi sperimentati modelli portatili, più

piccoli e maneggevoli, che rendono possibile fotografare en plein air : nascono così le

istantanee.

1.4 LA CORPORAZIONE MAGNUM

Nel 1947 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, David Seymour,Gordon Parks e Weegee

(Arthur Fellig), fondano a Parigi la corporazione Magnum Photos. Quest’agenzia si propone di

proteggere l’autonomia creativa dei suoi fotografi e diffondere a livello internazionale la

concezione reportagistca di Cartier-Bresson: immedesimarsi nella realtà per cogliere l’istante

in cui avviene l’evento emblematico.

Fin dall’inizio vengono stabilite tutte le norme legate ai diritti d’autore, alla sua indipendenza,

al controllo delle immagini pubblicate e alla proprietà di negativi e originali. In breve tempo

molti altri fotografi accomunati dagli stessi interessi e ideali si affiancano a loro, dando vita a

una delle più originali e prestigiose cooperative del mondo. Presenti in ogni continente, i

fotografi di Magnum catturano con la loro eccezionale visione gli avvenimenti importanti del

nostro tempo, dai conflitti alle rivoluzioni; ma anche la routine quotidiana, soprattutto dei più

umili e dei più sfortunati.

2. BIOGRAPHIES OF THE FOUNDERS OF MAGNUM

2.1 HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Born in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, Henri Cartier-Bresson developed since his young stages

a strong fascination for painting, and in particular for Surrealism. In 1932, after spending a

year in the Ivory Coast, he discovered the Leica and began a life-long passion for

photography. In 1933 he had his first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He

later made films with Jean Renoir.

Taken prisoner of war in 1940, he escaped on his third attempt in 1943 and joined an

underground organization to assist prisoners and escapees. In 1945 he photographed the

liberation of Paris with a group of professional journalists and then filmed the documentary Le

Retour (The Return).

In 1947, with Robert Capa, George Rodger, David 'Chim' Seymour and William Vandivert, he

founded Magnum Photos. After three years spent travelling in the East, in 1952 he returned to

Europe, where he published his first book, Images à la Sauvette (published in English as The

Decisive Moment). He explained his approach to photography in these terms:

'"For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master

of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by economy

of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression”.

From 1968 he began to curtail his photographic activities, preferring to concentrate on

drawing and painting.

In 2003, with his wife and daughter, he created the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris

for the preservation of his work. Cartier-Bresson received an extraordinary number of prizes,

awards and honorary doctorates.

He died at his home in Provence on 3 August 2004, a few weeks before his 96th birthday.

2.2 ROBERT CAPA

rd

On 3 December 1938 Picture Post introduced 'The Greatest War Photographer in the World:

Robert Capa' with a spread of 26 photographs taken during the Spanish Civil War.

Born Andre Friedmann from Jewish parents in Budapest in 1913, he studied political science

at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Berlin. Driven out of the country by the threat of a

Nazi regime, he settled in Paris in 1933 where he was represented by Alliance Photo and

eventually met the journalist and photographer Gerda Taro. Together, they invented the

'famous' American photographer Robert Capa and began to sell his prints under that name.

He met Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, and formed friendships with fellow

photographers such as David 'Chim' Seymour and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

From 1936 onwards, Capa's coverage of the Spanish Civil War appeared regularly. His

picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded earned him his international

reputation and became a powerful symbol of war.

After Gerda Taro, was killed in Spain, Capa travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New

York a year later.

As a correspondent in Europe, he photographed the Second World War, covering the landing

of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the battle of the

Bulge.

In 1947 Capa founded Magnum Photos.

On 25 May 1954 he was photographing for Life in Thai-Binh Indochina, when he stepped on a

landmine and was killed. The French army awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palm post-

humously. The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award was established in 1955 to reward

exceptional professional merit.

2.3 DAVID SEYMOUR

David Seymour was born in 1911 in Warsaw in a family of publishers that produced works in

Yiddish and Hebrew. His family moved to Russia at the outbreak of the First World War,

returning to Warsaw in 1919.

In 1948, he was commissioned by UNICEF to photograph Europe's children in need. He went

on to photograph major stories across Europe, Hollywood stars on European locations, and

the emergence of the State of Israel.

After Robert Capa's death he became the new president of Magnum. He held this post until

10 November 1956, when, traveling near the Suez Canal to cover a prisoner exchange, he

was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire.

2.4 WEEGEE

Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, was the son of an Austrian rabbi, who moved with his

family from Europe to New York City.

When he discovered photography, he transformed into a man with an obsessive mission.

From the 1930′s through the mid-1940′s, Weegee was a freelance crime and street

photographer for New York City tabloids.He loved the darkest hours, because then he had the

photographic turf all to himself, and also because the most evil of crimes are carried out at

night, under the cover of darkness.

Always prepared, Weegee stalked the streets in a car equipped with a police radio, a

typewriter, developing equipment, a supply of cigars and of course his camera. He was a one-

man photo factory: he drove to a crime scene, took the pictures, developed the film in his car

trunk and delivered the prints himself.

Weegee was well aware of social problems in the city, documenting the struggles of people

living through the Depression, the sufferings of those who experienced segregation and

violent racial attacks, the hardships of immigrants who lived in desolate and crime-ridden

neighborhoods of the city, especially the Lower East Side.

Eventually, the glamour of Hollywood beckoned, and Weegee moved there in 1946, where he

worked in the film industry as an actor, consultant and photographer. He met famous

Hollywood stars and got small acting parts in films, but he never really felt like he fit into what

he called “The Land of the Zombies” and moved back to Manhattan in 1951, where he lived

until his death in 1968.

2.5 GORDON PARKS

Gordon Parks was a unique narrator in America, his pictures revealed injustices and abuses

of power; as he brought the stories of those who had no voice to life. Parks was one of the

twentieth century’s most significant photographers: from the 1940s until his death in 2006, he

showed the world the difficulty of being black in a world of whites, segregation, poverty and

prejudice, especially through the pages of Life magazine.

As well as a photographer, Gordon Parks was a director, writer, musician and poet. His stories

are genuinely felt, created to bear on reality, to affirm his own opinion and his need to shout it

to the world.

Born into poverty and segregation in Kansas in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a

young man when he saw images of migrant workers published in a magazine.

After buying a camera at a pawnshop, he taught himself how to use it and despite his lack of

professional training, he found employment at the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A.),

which was then reporting the nation’s social conditions.

Parks quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated

photographers of his age: his remarkably expressive images that explored the social and

economic impact of racism were deeply felt among the black population. When the F.S.A.

closed in 1943, Parks became a freelance photographer. His 1948 photo essay on the life of a

Harlem gang leader won him widespread acclaim and a position as the first African-American

staff photographer and writer for Life Magazine, at the time the most prominent

photojournalist publication in the world.

Parks remained at Life Magazine for two decades, reporting subjects related to racism and

poverty, as well as taking memorable pictures of celebrities and politicians (including

Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael).

His most famous images, such as Emerging Man, 1952, and American Gothic, 1942, capture

the essence of activism and humanitarianism in mid-twentieth century America.