William Wegman example essay topic
448 words
William Wegman was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1943. Growing up as a boy he was always interested in cameras and the growing technology of photography. One year, William recieved a Polaroid camera for his birthday, which began his photography career. William Wegman attended the Massachusetts Collage of Fine Arts in Boston, and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting. In 1967 he attended the University of Illinois, and recieved his Masters of Fine Arts degree. William Wegman taught in Wisconsin for a few years, then moved out to California in 1970. There he got his first Weimaraner, which is a type of dog, and named him Man Ray. Using his polar iod camera, Wegman started taking pictures of Man Ray in all different perspectives. He wanted the dog to appear like a human. To accomplish this he would dress the dog up in many various ways tht were entertaining to look at. This dog became the central figure in his art.
In 1986, a new Weimaraner was brought into the picture, Fay Ray, and soon a whole family was being made. This provided Wegman with many more subjects for his photos. Once his photos were brought into the public, many people did not know what to think, for they had never seen such pictures. That was just the reaction that Wegman was hoping and expecting for. He wanted to give the public something they had never seen before. These pictures became popular so fast, that Wegman decided to expand his picture taking to videos, paintings, and drawings as well.
These pictures have become so popular and well know that even posters, calenders, and advertisements were made out of them. Much of his work had traveled throughout Europe and the United States, including the Whitney Museum of Art in New York. William Wegman has also done other work mostly in the feil d of television and literature. He created films for Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon.
In the past he also used to have regular skits for Sesame Street. Wegman has also re-written many classics using his dogs as characters such as Mother Goose, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Twelve Days of Christmas. William Wegman is a very interesting photographer. He uses animals to portray as human, and uses them in scene that are very creative. He also expands his artistic creativity, and does more than just take pictures. He created a type of photography that was unexpected, but became very popular and visually interesting to his audience.
