As Wayne and Garth would act out, their fingers going from raised to lower, saying "doodle do doot, doodle do doot." Hit the fast forward button now 50-75 years into the future. Lets look at Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz.

Manipulation was a charge that was often leveled against him. (Avedon)There is
an often-told story that when he had the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in his
studio they started out the session putting on their best royal faces, the
public masks that concealed their private despair. If they thought they
could
get away with this practiced deception, they were up against the wrong
photographer. Avedon told them a lie that would shatter their defenses,
namely
that his dog had just been killed by a taxi. The resulting look of
horror and
grief destroyed their protective coating, because, as Avedon
himself put it,
"they loved dogs more than they loved Jews." Is the
resulting image an accurate
representation of their inner selves?

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0410/howe_avedon.html

Annie Leibovitz, many years ago, did a series of American Express commercials. One of her models was John Elway. I remember reading an article about the encounter and how Leibovitz had come into town 24 hours earlier, simply to get to know John so she could depict him as he was. As John had a ranch and he was a Bronco, one thought was to go out to his ranch and photograph him in western garb. The day of the shoot, it started raining. To make use of the time she did some indoor portraits of John from the waist up, without a shirt, holding an infant daughter. Rather than telling the subject how she felt or thought they were, she allowed the subject to tell her.

"Where your memories come first, to make them last." A commercial jingle posted by Robert Waxman Camera and Video. This was a company I worked for, here in Denver, from 1985 through the time the jingle was popular and after the company's demise as well. The owner, Ross Leher, noted prior to this jingle being aired, that they sold car stereos, computers, cameras, etc., but one day it dawned on him, what they were most successful at, were those hard goods that produced memories.
This thought came back to me as I have been starting to investigate two Native American photographers, Edward S. Curtis, and Frank Matsura. Curtis, started photographing Native Americans, in 1895. His depiction of them was to preserve what they were and not let it be lost. His representation was what was in everyone's mind (see http://www.curtis-collection.com/curtis.htmltion.com/curtis.html)
His devotion to the project was admirable by both whites and Native Americans as he frequently lived with the tribes. Curtis learned photography in a time of pictorialists and used the vaseline and sepia styles of the day. While the representation of Native Americans by Curtis may have been how they were, was it truly who they were at the time the photos were taken? http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/essay3.html
In contrast, a Japanese photographer, Frank Matsura, comes to the United States, also makes friends with Native Americans, and shoots them how they were in daily life. Many times the shots have European dress. How do Native Americans see themselves? Some long for the glory provided by Curtis, some are angry at Curtis and appreciate the realism and straight photography provided by Matsura. http://gradschool.unc.edu/natam/panels/keynote.html

I hope to compare and contrast the photographic styles of Edward S. Curtis and Frank S. Matsura, Native American photographers as well as modern popular photographers Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon. While Curtis photographed the Native American in a way most people wished was true, Matsura photographed Native Americans as they were in everyday life. Leibovitz has the tendency to photograph famous people as they see themselves and Avedon would photograph people as he perceived them to be. Two things I hope to find in this research are why the photographer felt compelled to choose this style. Was the need to create an image of a person in the eye of the photographer a need for control? Opposite that, was the need to photograph a person as they truly were a search for the truth? The second area is in the legacy the photographer leaves with regard to the viewer. How does this perception of the person effect the viewer and/or subject of the photograph and the representation of the original subject. What is the perception of the viewer toward Native Americans if they have only seen a Curtis photograph. What is a viewer's perception of a sad picture of Norma Jean?