Modernism

Modernism is a general term used to describe trends in photography from around 1910-1950 when photographers began to produce works with a sharp focus and an emphasis on formal qualities, exploiting, rather than obscuring, the camera as an essentially mechanical and technological tool.

Paul strand was an American photographer born in 1890 in New York, who was one of the pioneers of photography in the 20th century. From the 1950-1960 he travelled around producing different photo books. One of Strands most well recognised photos is “wall street” which was taken in 1915. It shows a moment in time where workers are walking past the J.P. Morgan and Co. building in new York on Wall Street, where the image takes its name. The photograph is most famous for its reliance on the sharpness and contrast of the shapes and angles that lead to its abstraction. This photograph is considered to be one of Strand’s most famous works and an example of his change from pictorialism to straight photography. Strand moved from the posed to portraying the purity of the subjects. It is one of several images that stand as marks of the turn to modernism in photography.

Post-Modernism

Postmodernism is defined as a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a postmodernism photographer born in japan in 1948 his most famous work is his seascapes work which has a minimalistic approach. One image from this work is the Aegean sea, pillion image, which shows an image of an ocean taken from a spot around japan which many of his images were like in this project.