For this assignment, I want to share two portraits by two different photographers known for different styles but aesthetically I feel are very similar. The photographers that I choose are Vivian Dorothy Maier and Arno Rafael Minkkinen.

– J

Self-Portrait, 1954

Now known primarily as a street photographer, Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) spent her life relatively unknown in the photography world until 2008. This self-portrait I choose, I liked because it embodied her street photography, but also there’s elements of double exposure that I find interesting and amazing since this is pre-photoshop.

Fosters Pond, 1990

Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish-American photographer known for his unmanipuated nude self-portraits in the landscape (description provided by Prof. Maurides).  Going through his photographs I found that I quite enjoyed his photographs that had composition that included water. Mostly, I feel like I enjoyed it because I like reflections and how those reflections can cause a surreal effect. I picked this image because of those reasons, and also because like the image above, there’s a visual effect of double exposure with the water’s reflection. Both images share this “ghosting” reflection in their compositions and although they are similar in aesthetics, methodologically they were achieved quite differently; the image by Ms. Maier which was double exposed on purpose, Mr. Minkkinen’s image was done as a single exposure.