Bailey Baier paragraphs

Joachim Brohm

Joachim Brohm was born in 1955 in Dülken, Germany. Joachim attended Folkwang University of Essen in 1983 where he studied communications. He proceeded to study at the Ohio State University where he achieved his Master of Fine Art in the Department of Photography and Cinema. After completing his higher education, he began doing freelance photography as well as teaching at colleges such as Northern Illinois University, Salzburg College, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since the 1980’s his photography has been concentrated on urban life as well as the suburban perimeter. His photographs are all made with a medium format film camera. In terms of photographic style, Joachim takes many of his images from eye level aside from a few images, such parking lots to provide a sense of detachment. Most of the subjects in his photography are architecture and vehicles. For Joachim is is all about the detail of the photograph. He likes to incorporate people into the landscape in a very subtle way that doesn’t detract from the landscape being the main focus of the image. He had once said in a interview that he was fond of photographing the things that aren’t so grand or beautiful, but rather the secluded, accessible, and everyday things. His goal of photography is to bring visibility to the things that are “invisible” or not payed attention to. He is most known for his photo books Ohio and Ruhr. He had began photographing in Ohio in the 1980’s, however, his images didn’t become popular until 25 years later when he published them around 2007. He explained that his images didn’t become well known until years later because people weren’t ready to look at his work and that no one in the 80’s or 90’s were interested in the type of subjects he was photographing. 

Clare Richardson

Clare Richardson is a London born photographer but she began her career working as a freelance photographic assistant. Her first solo exhibition, 'Harlemville’, was centered around a small community in North America in 2001. Harlemville is a unique community in which they have based their lives around the philosophy and Rudolf Steiner which places emphasis on spiritual values, social skills, and development of imagination. This community inspires uninhibited self-confidence and self-awareness within their children. This approach to education and way of life is not widely found in American societies. Claire Richardson observed this community for 24 months and found them to be inspiring. Most of her photos are portraits and narratives. Her images are based mainly on observance and happenstance, as opposed to constructed narrative photography. Clare intends for her photos to be nostalgic and represent the innocence of the children she is photographing, most of them too enthralled by playing in the world around them. There is also a cinematic element to her photos, such as horizontal orientation and subject matter, that references movies such as Lord of the Flies.

Henry Wessel

Henry Wessel was born in 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey. He attended the Pennsylvania State University where he discovered his love for photography and he began to take it seriously 1967. Wessel’s concentration was on landscape and documentary photography. He often photographed man-made scenes rather than focusing on the untouched nature that is often depicted in landscape photography. He photographed subjects that showed nature and culture intertwining. He made all of his images with a single film camera, using the same lens over the years which allowed him to learn about the way that light translates in photos. All of his images are also in black and white. An important aspect of his photography is the time of day and where he shoots due to the effect that light has on his images. He thought of his images as poems, creating this poetic effect using lines and lighting. He photographed everyday scenes and subjects such as people, nature, buildings, homes, and cars.