If you were born in February, you’d love to know that there are two famous photographers who were also born in this month. While I’m not saying that we should necessarily be channeling Aquarius energy, we can’t deny that it’s fun to think about. Of course, great photographers are born every minute. But there are two in history who are particularly exceptional and born in the month of February. In fact, these photographers embody the idea of, “If I have to explain it to you, then you won’t get it.” And we think that you’ll love what they do.
Norman Rockwell: Make Your Own Worlds
Normal Rockwell was born on February 3rd, 1984. Rockwell is primarily known as a painter — and his work has influenced folks like Bill Wadman. “I’m in love with the characters and light in Norman Rockwell paintings,” Bill told the Phoblographer in a 2013 interview, “They’re not real–they’re better than real. In fact, they’re perfect in that imperfect way: America in a bottle.” We can see the effects of his creative rivers in the work of cinema too. Clearly, it seems like Wes Anderson drank from the same fountain.
To reiterate what Mr. Wadman said, Rockwell’s worlds are perfect. This sense of perfection can often be seen in Wes Anderson’s movies. Isle of Dogs is one of the best showings of this applied to cinema — but it’s done holistically throughout all of his artistic efforts. Anderson, however, is a cinematographer and not a photographer primarily.
Bill, who is a photographer that then uses Photoshop techniques and such to make his final images look like perfectly made photographs, is well known for his images really looking like paintings and also encompassing a sense of Americana and perfection throughout his work. We can see this in his Portraits in a Corner series along with much of his conceptual work.
The above image was made by Bill Wadman and used in one of our interviews. We can draw a conclusion that Norman Rockwell’s world is brought into this in some way or another — but the image has Bill’s own ideas present in the photograph. When you quickly glance at the photograph, it’s easy to think about the movie American Beauty. That movie was very Rockwell-inspired in how it looked. However, it also showed a darker side of the American life that is much more real to what the experience is. In Bill’s photograph, it seems like that we see a bit of an ode to that — though in a different way. We see it in the simple use of colors. On a quick glance, I thought that maybe this woman was bleeding. But then I realized that it’s just the color of her clothing. She’s also almost going a dead-person’s float while the tub underneath her is breaking and falling apart.
From all this, we can draw of Rockwell’s idea of a perfect form of America for the time that his work was made. And with Bill’s conceptual work, we can see how the American dream has changed and evolved.
Both of these photographers made their own worlds. And while Bill also captures people in their own worlds with his portraiture, his past work shows that there’s still a place for creativity.
Rockwell’s influence can also be seen in folks like Gregory Crewdson — who has be said to have drawn on Rockwell’s ideas and added mystery to them in some ways. Crewdson’s work then went on to influence a photographer like Jaina Cipriano. However, Jaina’s approach involves doing everything in-camera.’
Both Bill and Jaina do their own unique work — but they approach it in much different ways.
Vivian Maier: Don’t Seek External Validation
Vivian Maier was born on February 1st, 1926. If there was ever a photographer who embodied the idea of an introvert, then it’s probably Vivian Maier. She’s the dream of so many: a street photographer who sometimes seems like just a fly on the wall and yet is quiet with beautiful work. She also often kept to herself. We’ve surely had some of our opinions about Vivian Maier — much of which stems from the idea that she needed to address her loneliness.
In 2024, we wrote a review of a book of her work. “I often wonder how Vivian might have benefited from a sense of community or at least positive feedback,” said Charlie Siskel, who made the documentary along with John Maloof, in an email to us. “As we showed in the film, as solitary as Vivian was (and as complicated), she still knew she was an artist and knew her work was good.” From this, we can tell that Vivian is the quiet, deep aspiration of so many right now.
Let me explain: photographers these days look constantly for external validation. In fact, our society is kind of based off of it. Instagram is a place where the attention economy thrives — and photographers these days believe that this is the only way that someone might think that their work is legitimate. It all stems from likes, hearts, shares, comments, etc. But did you know that some of the world’s best photographers didn’t have any major source of external validation until they passed? Maier is the embodiment of this idea.
Vivian Maier and her street photography are a constant reminder that you should be making photographs for yourself and primarily yourself. The images should be expressions of what you do. This is how your work becomes timeless — kind of like what we see from photographer Phil Penman. While he’s a master at using social media, he knows it’s not everything. “It’s tough to show certain kinds of images on Instagram; they often get lost on the feed on a small phone screen,” he states in an article on his blog. “I typically use a good eye-catching image that translates on the phone then show the other images in the carousel,” Phil told us that he’s drawn to old structures, and that’s part of how he makes his timeless-looking photographs.
Phil’s photos are a testament to the idea that you don’t need to make images to participate in a trend on social media. In the long, if you do this, all of your work will just look dated.