Alfred Palmer
One of my favorite photographers - most of his best work was in war propaganda, as seen below. I love the effect of the vignetting in this image - it makes the blimp look like a toy:
People don't talk a lot about Palmer's work these days (he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry), but he was really instrumental in helping to create the visual culture of America in the 1940s, documenting both military training exercises and the role of women in war production.
His bold use of highly artificial color and lighting schemes was a marked shift from the studied 'realism' of the FSA photographers.
Palmer was a government photographer as influenced by Hollywood glamour as anything else.
"An American pineapple, of the kind the Axis finds hard to digest, is ready to leave the hand of an infantryman in training at Fort Belvoir, Va." Fort Belvoir, the site of much of Palmer's work, is where my father was born in 1956.
Astonishing artistry, really.
All images originally found on Shorpy.com
Print This Post
October 21st, 2009 - 12:16
Love love love his work. Great post.