Reseach

Hippolyte Bayard invented direct positive printing and presented the first public exhibition of photographs. One of the drawbacks of the direct positive printing technique was a long exposure time. This caused people to look dead in their portraits because of blinking and movement of their eyes. One of Hippolyte Bayard's most famous portraits was Self Portrait as a Drownedman. In this photograph he pretended to have commited suicide, which was the first staged photograph. Unfortunatly the success of the daguerreotype photographic process overshadowed Hippolytes achievements.
Jeff Koons is a contemporary American artist. He is famous for his metal balloon animals namely his balloon dogs. Many critics do not like his work for its lack of meaning. He has had an interesting life. Marrying an Itallian pornstar. He has sold some of the most expensive art ever by a living artist. Recently he designed the 17th BMW art car. Koons has also had several problems with copyright infringement. http://www.jeffkoons.com/