John Heartfield (ne ́e Helmut Herzfeld, 1891–
1968) subverted the notion of the candid photo-
journalist altogether. He made politically subversive
photomontages, most of which were published in the
magazineAIZ(Arbeiters Illustrierte Zeitung), that
mercilessly lampooned the militarist German gov-
ernment. They are unique in the history of photo-
history and in the history of art. Although Weegee
(Arthur H. Fellig, 1899–1968) was not the first crime
photographer, he was certainly the most archetypal.
His picture book,Naked City(1945), comprised of
lurid crime-scene images, became something of a
bestseller and was the basis of a movie and a televi-
sion series.
Pioneers of Motion and Color
Several photographers made inroads with new
techniques, which allowed them to photograph
their subjects in ways never before seen.
With their links to the Italian Futurist movement
(Futurismo), and the notion of ‘‘futurist photodyna-
mism,’’ brothers Arturo and Anton Giulio Bragaglia
are famous for applying the principles to the medium
of photography. In the 1930s, the electrical engineer
Harold Edgerton’s (1903–1990) advances in rapid
strobe lighting (sometimes to one millionth of a
second) produced stop-action images that were as
beautiful as they were scientific, popularizing both
photography and scientific research. His pictures
regularly appeared in Life magazine. They were
also displayed at a 1937 MoMA exhibition. The
Albanian-American Gjon Mili (1904–1984) trained
as an electrical engineer at MIT where he knew
Harold Edgerton. He later collaborated with him
and made artistic motion images of his own. Barbara
Morgan (1900–1992) is best remembered for her
dance photographs, for which she is regarded as a
master. Instead of taking pictures during perfor-
mances, she worked with dancers—Martha Graham
and Merce Cunningham among them—to capture
dramatic moments in the dance.
Eliot Porter (1901–1990) is important for the aes-
thetic and scientific value of his color nature photo-
graphs. Trained as a biologist, his works were
praised by Stieglitz. He became connected with the
Sierra Club and throughout his long career has pro-
duced several books of his lavishly colored pictures.
Helen Levitt (b. 1913) was originally influenced by
Cartier-Bresson’s ‘‘decisive moment’’ aesthetic and
took pictures of New York and Mexico City streets.
She was awarded two Guggenheim awards (1959,
1960) to make color photographs, and these figure
largely in her reputation. Although figures like Paul
Outerbridge had used color processes as part of their
art, William Eggleston (b. 1939) is considered one of
the first mature practitioners of color photography.
The images he made in the late 1960s and 1970s of
his native Tennessee are at once beautifully com-
posed and evocative of social issues. Trained as a
painter, and having worked with Robert Frank, the
color photographer Joel Meyerowitz (b. 1938)
became well known in the late 1970s for his pastel-
hued Cape Cod landscapes, views of St. Louis, and
Florida. Marie Cosindas (b. 1925) is a pioneering
color photographer, and one of the most celebrated
women photographers of the 1960s and 1970s. She
also was an early experimenter with instant film,
often heightening its color for more vivid effects.
She was given solo exhibitions in 1966 at MoMA
and at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the first for
a living Boston photographer.Pioneers of Home and Nation
Several photographers in the twentieth century
produced bodies of work that have become recog-
nized as singularly representative of their respec-
tive countries.
Martin Chambi (1891–1973) was Peru’s most
renowned photographer. His pictorial images
from the 1920s through the 1950s of landscapes,
natives, workers, and professionals in their cos-
tumes comprise a unique and invaluable record of
that society. The African portrait photographer
Seydou Keı ̈ta (1921–2001) made an invaluable
record of Mali culture through the works he pro-
duced in his studio.
The photographer Manuel A ́lvarez Bravo
(1902–2002) captured the street life and political
strife of his native Mexico. He had been encour-
aged by photographer Tina Modotti (1896–1942)
to show his pictures to her lover, Edward Weston.
A young film actress, Modotti became Edward
Weston’s lover and subject of his early images.
In the 1920s and 1930s, she produced her own
works, which utilized Weston’s crisp, straight
approach but in the service of Mexican, anti-fas-
cist subjects.
Ken Domon (1909–1990) was arguably the cen-
tury’s most influential documentary photographer
in Japan. In his images of ancient monuments and
Japanese life (including Hiroshima victims), he
advocated a new, crisp style in opposition to the
then prevailing Pictorialist style. He was also an
important organizer, the founder of the Shudan
Photo group (1950), and was important for show-
ing the works of western photographers in Japan.
The Japanese Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933) is important
in his own country and abroad. His 1960Man andHISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TWENTIETH-CENTURY PIONEERS