Black Star (photo agency)
Encyclopedia
Black Star is a New York City-based photographic agency that offers photojournalism
, corporate assignment photography
and stock photography
services worldwide.
Black Star was founded in 1935 by Kurt Safranski, Kurt Kornfeld, and Ernest Mayer, three German Jews fleeing the Nazi regime. When Life
was launched in 1936, Black Star became an important supplier of photographs to the new magazine.
According to photo historian Marianne Fulton, Life brought Black Star 30 to 40 per cent of its business. Black Star, in turn, contributed to Life becoming the most popular magazine in America for nearly three decades, with tens of millions of readers.
Noted Black Star photographers include Robert Capa
, Andreas Feininger
, Germaine Krull
, Philippe Halsman
, Martin Munkácsi
, W. Eugene Smith
, Marion Post-Wolcott, Bill Brandt
, Henri Cartier-Bresson
, Charles Moore
, and Mario Giacomelli
.
In recent decades, corporate assignment photography has emerged as the largest segment of Black Star's business. The company claims to have captured more photographic images for more annual reports than any other photo agency or service in the world.
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
, corporate assignment photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and stock photography
Stock photography
Stock photography is the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer. Today, stock images can be presented in searchable online databases. They can be purchased and delivered online...
services worldwide.
Black Star was founded in 1935 by Kurt Safranski, Kurt Kornfeld, and Ernest Mayer, three German Jews fleeing the Nazi regime. When Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
was launched in 1936, Black Star became an important supplier of photographs to the new magazine.
According to photo historian Marianne Fulton, Life brought Black Star 30 to 40 per cent of its business. Black Star, in turn, contributed to Life becoming the most popular magazine in America for nearly three decades, with tens of millions of readers.
Noted Black Star photographers include Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
, Andreas Feininger
Andreas Feininger
Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger was a German American photographer, and writer on photographic technique, noted for his dynamic black-and-white scenes of Manhattan and studies of the structure of natural objects....
, Germaine Krull
Germaine Krull
Germaine Krull , was a photographer, political activist, and hotel owner. Her nationality has been categorized as German, Polish, French, and Dutch, but she spent years in Brazil, Republic of the Congo, Thailand, and India...
, Philippe Halsman
Philippe Halsman
Philippe Halsman was an American portrait photographer.-Life and work:Born to a Jewish family of Morduch Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal, in Riga, Halsman studied electrical engineering in Dresden....
, Martin Munkácsi
Martin Munkácsi
Martin Munkácsi Kolozsvar, Austro-Hungary, May 18, 1896, died July 13, 1963, New York, NY) was a Hungarian photographer who worked in Germany and the United States.- Life and Works :...
, W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...
, Marion Post-Wolcott, Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt was an influential British photographer and photojournalist known for his high-contrast images of British society and his distorted nudes and landscapes.-Career and life:...
, Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
, Charles Moore
Charles Moore (photographer)
Charles Lee Moore was an American photographer most famous for his photographs documenting the American civil rights era.-Life and career:...
, and Mario Giacomelli
Mario Giacomelli
Mario Giacomelli was an Italian photographer born on 1 August 1925 in Senigallia, Italy. He died on 25 November 2000 in the town of his birth.Known for:Photographs of Italian seminaries and a poetic transcription of everyday life in Southern Italy...
.
In recent decades, corporate assignment photography has emerged as the largest segment of Black Star's business. The company claims to have captured more photographic images for more annual reports than any other photo agency or service in the world.
External links
- The Black Star Collection Lives On
- Ryerson University: Black Star Historical Black & White Photography Collection
- Hendrick Neubauer, Black Star: 60 Years of Photojournalism
- Black Star Web site
- Zoe C. Smith, The History of Black Star Picture Agency: Life's European Connection
- Matt Lutton, "Intern Diaries: Black Star," Sports Shooter, Sept. 6, 2005
- digitaljournalist.org - The Black Star collection lives on