Name of Artist: Harold Feinstein
Date of Artist's Life: April 17, 1931 - June 20, 2015 1. Personal Background: Harold Feinstein was born in Brooklyn, New York and started photography when he was 15. He joined the photo league and took classes with them. When he was 19, Edward Steichen had purchased his work for the Museum of Modern Art for a permanent collection. But, he turned Steichen down for being in The Family of Man exhibit. He exhibited at Helen Gee's Limelight gallery in 1958. He is most well known for his photography of Coney Island,but he has also done photo essays of the Korean war, documentary street work, nudes, and still life. He took photos at Coney Island for over 60 years, capturing many different people having fun. He has also published many photo books including ones such as One Hundred Flowers, and The Infinite Rose. 2. Style: Feinstein's flowers can be compared to Van Gogh's "Bouquet of Flower" with the light pinks and greens used. His work can also be compared to Georgia O'Keefe's painting "Red Poppy." That is because Feinstein takes his pictures of flowers up close, with detail. All of his pictures include very bright and colorful flowers with a black background. Many of them are so up close that you can see vein like structures in the flower petals. 3. Philosophy: With his photos he was not trying to "say" something, he simply just found beauty in flowers. In the late 90's he started using a digital camera and he was one of the first to use a scanner in a camera. His first book, One Hundred Flowers, consumed his thoughts and he often dreamt of flowers because of his book. He also included poems in his book because he thought they would pair nicely with his pictures. With his pictures he was simply showing the beauty of flowers to the world, not making some sort of statement. 4. Influences: Feinstein has inspired my work with his use of color. He always has a clean black background and has bright colors over top of that. He centers his flowers and that made me start to focus on where I put my objects in my pictures. I try to copy his way of lighting, with direct lighting on top of the object, but having the light fade near the edge of the objects. He shows all textures and he shows depth in the close up photos and I aspire to use a camera in the same way. |