Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936
Dorothea Lange, American, 1895-1965
Gelatin silver print, 1936; this print hand-pulled dust-grain photogravure, ca. 1975
"One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind. To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. I've only touched it, just touched it." -- Dorothea Lange

Harvest (Death Mask)
Joel-Peter Witkin, American, 1939-
Toned gelatin silver print, 1984

"Witkin is considered by some to be the most profoundly religious photographer in the history of the medium and probably the most god-haunted American artist of the twentieth century." -- John Wood

Rodin - Le Penseur
Edward Steichen, American, born in Luxembourg, 1879-1973
Original photograph, 1901; this half-tone from Camera Work,
"Steichen Special Edition," April 1906

According to Steichen, Rodin's atelier was too crowded to be able to create the pose that he envisioned, so instead he took two exposures. As he wrote in his memoirs, A Life in Photography: "I made an exposure that included Victor Hugo with Rodin. Then I moved the camera over and photographed 'Le Penseur' separately, explaining to Rodin that I was going to join them both in one picture later." -- Isabella Geist for Forbes.com

Friends under Mussolini Posters
Nachum Tim Gidal, Israeli, born in Germany, 1909-1996
Silver gelatin print, 1930s; Rome

A Chief's Daughter, Nakoaktok 1914
Edward Curtis, American, 1868-1952

For complete access to digitalized images of Curtis' The North American Indian see the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/curthome.html

Paul Strand, American, 1890-1976

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
Henri Cartier-Bresson, French, 1908-2005
Silver gelatin print

"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject." -- Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment

Andre Kertesz
American, born Kertesz Andor in Hungary, 1894 - 1985