Timothy O'Sullivan

Proud to say, I have written a small paper on this fellow before. Here is an introduction to assist point of viewing and understanding for his work and where he was coming from.


He worked for M.Brady but eventually found himself fighting in the the war he used to take pictures of, the American Civil War. After his stint in the war, he was honorably discharged, he rejoined Matthew Brady.








Field where General Reynolds fell, 1863
























Dead Horses of Bigelow's Battery, 1863


















Harvest of Death, 1863





Did similar work as Brady, they both took pictures of the war. Struggles, battles, troups and such.
Upon some notice of fame, he joined Alexander Gardner’s (often famous for his photographs of Abraham Lincoln, one below) studio from which he first had his work published, around 30 pictures.

In the late 1860’s he became the official photographer for the United States Geological exploration crew. They started in Nevada and explored the southwest, the land features, the mines, the smelting houses, and so on.

Unfortunately, on a trip up the Colorado River, O'Sullivan and his colleagues found themselves in danger. One of the boats was taken under by the intense rapids, killing a few men and while this is terrible, it is also terrible that this was the boat that had most of the crews food supply and living materials aboard.

Black Canyon, 1871

Upon those adventures, he was part of a crew that surveyed the Panama Canal. The quality of photographs deminished a little, understandable due to rigorous conditions of living in the area for the crew.

Panama Canal, US Crew at work

Upon returning to the U.S. he took one more trip out to the West, completeing a long-awaited series of photographs of the far territories.
In the last of his life he was in Washington DC, where he was the photographer for the Treasury Department. After such a short, but adventurous life, he died on Staten Island of Tuberculosis around the age of 40.

Piet Zwart

Google Piet Zwart's name and these are some of the images that will pop up. Images that are highly graphic, colorful and fresh. For it to only be nearly the 1930's, Piet's work is fantastically inspiring. One can see its links even to today's work. Places such as Hatch Show and Yeehaw seem to be influenced by this Dutch take on typography. It's fascinating.

I am choosing Zwart because I am amused by the way he loosely places letters and picks bold colors, yet keeps balance. Images today seem to take on a similar style. He also incorporates collaged images above and below lettering. He used photo collage and typography instead of illustrative advertising or design,which was a big thing at the time. He helped to bring a new style to the game.
I would like to make a series of posters in the style of Zwart. These will be created mostly by silk screening, however, some may be produced with Adobe Illustrator. Using Zwart as a muse for these creations I will also incorporate information and images about him and the design world at that time. Also, I would like to make a short film of the process of making these posters and the specific influences of his that show up in each piece. I will also bring up how he came about making such designs, via my process which will be similar to what his was. The video will be around 2 or 3 minutes, editing done in Adobe Priemere.
My presentation will be a short introduction, a viewing of the video, and then a showing of my posters and a discussion about them.

Jar Goats Three Panels

Housed today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. This is a persian peice, showing one of the first heavily repeated icon. The mountain goat or ibex. Common to Northern and Central Iran.
Each panel (3) was seperated very geometrically. The structure of the jar itself shows much improvement of craftsmanship over time. Things become more asthetically pleasing rather than simply useful.