Style
My favorite photographer is a great white and black photographer named, John Gutmann. Gutmann photographed all types of things such as, women dancing, people at the carnival and random street activities. I really like his style of photography because all of them were shot in black and white, but in most of the photos you can see that he captured the moment. I’m interested to see what it’s like shooting in this style and to see if I can “capture” the moment
John Gutmann was born in Germany on May 28th, 1905. Gutmann studied at the State of Arts and Crafts in Breslau, Germany. He received his diploma from this school in 1927, then moved to Berlin and attended the State Institution for Higher Education and got his master’s degree. Gutmann was raised up in a Jewish family, and when he started applying for jobs he was not accepted due to his religion and with the Nazis having control of Germany. So, he decided to move to America.
When Gutmann planned to moved to America he decided that he was going to take a new interest in photography. Gutmann settled in San Francisco in 1934. Later that year, he joined the California Camera club where he used their dark room for his photographs. Later, he traveled along the west coast to shoot for international magazines. In 1936 Gutmann took up a part-time job teaching art at the San Francisco State College.
During his teaching years, Gutmann traveled across the world and shot photos for all different types of events, and magazines. In 1973 Gutmann retired from his job at the San Francisco College and began to edit his photos that he had taken years ago. In 1984 his book of photos he took in the 1930’s, “The Restless Decades,” was published.
In my opinion, I think John Gutmann is a very underrated photographer. I’ve tried recreating several amounts of his photos, but it feels impossible to create the same effect of the photos that he takes. For example, when I was taking pictures of my cat I ended up with 150 photos just of him! The end results of those photos doesn’t even match up to the single photo John Gutmann took. Finding information about John Gutmann was also difficult because there aren’t many resources that tell the real story of his life, just the general basics.
My favorite photos John Gutmann took are ones he took in the city or at a carnival. My all time favorite image is called “Strange Visitors.” I just love how the image gives off a dark vibe. The setting of the photo, a carnival like place, is empty and these visitors are the only ones you can see, making them the “strange visitors.” I also love the photos he took during the 40s. He took photos of cities during World War and you can see that a lot of places held up the Nazi symbol on a flag. I personally love the World War II era, and seeing what cities in Europe looked like was very cool to see. The photos John Gutmann took during his lifetime make me feel as if I was there with him, experiencing all these different events.
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