Photographers to study

[poker]

I've hit an artistic road block. Instead of forcing myself to go out and shoot, I would like to take a step back and study the works of accomplished photographers. Please share some names of well known photographers that you admire. If you don't mind, I ask only that there should be accessible information published on the web or print about the person.

Thanks.

[BlueRob]

Many to choose from....

Ansel Adams
Andrzej Dragan

There my two cents :thumbsup:

[Franglais]

I had a look through your gallery and your web sites to try to get an idea of who you might be most interested in (BTW I like your portraits best). And it didn't really help, which is interesting in itself. All the photographers that I have collected have their own style, a visual identity. You can usually tell that they did it.

So here's a list of some of the photographers whose books are just above my computer screen as I write:

Henri-Cartier Bresson
Raymon Depardon
Ralph Gibson
Hervé Lewis
Martin Parr
Robert Frank (twice)
Stephen Shore
Diane Arbus
Irving Penn
Walker Evans
Nadar
Jock Sturges (twice)
Nan Goldin
Harry Callahan (twice)
Mona Kuhn
Eugene Atget
Robert Mapplethorpe
Gabriele Basilico
Helmut Newton
Steve McCurry
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Jean-Pierre Gilson
Studio Harcourt
Robert Vano
Miss.Tic (not a photographer)

What a collection..

[apass]

Take a look to Remi Aerts… quite refreshing FMPOV

Antonio

[poker]

Wonderful. Thanks so much for the suggestions.

(BTW I like your portraits best).

Thanks.

[EOSThree]

Art Wolfe
John Shaw
Charlie Waite
Galen Rowell
Joe McNally

[LightBright]

I really like

Steve Bloom

Richard Avedon

[WesternGuy]

Freeman Paterson

Andre Gallant

George Mobley

Galen Rowell

Daryl Benson

Are some of my favourites.
=================================
WesternGuy

[Liz]

Just another favorite of mine - a bit different than the rest. I'm an old b&w film fan!

Walker Evans is my favorite.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Wa...ed=0CBgQsAQwAA

Liz

[Franglais]

Looking at the "people-portrait" specialists in my list, this might be a good sequence:

Mona Kuhn (French period) and Jock Sturges go together. They were doing their photos in the same area under similar conditions (nudity warning) but look at how Jock Sturges has imposed a sort of still calm on his subjects, instantly recognisable. He doesn't just do a portrait to please his subject. He imposes his vision. In fact they all do but the vision is different

Diane Arbus's vision is quite different, very edgy, borderline. Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe are also pretty extreme (nudity) but that was/is their lifestyle.

My Irving Penn book is "Worlds in a small room". He set up a mobile studio in all sorts of places and invited people in to pose in front of this neutral backdrop. Whereas for Studio Harcourt the studio is the place with the fancy lights and each subject was specially arranged.

I must get Malik Sidibe's book, same sort of thing but in Africa with whatever means were available locally..

[Old Timer]

My suggestion is to look back at the golden age of magazine photography. Look at the work of the famous photographers of Life and Look magazine.

[Liz]

My suggestion is to look back at the golden age of magazine photography. Look at the work of the famous photographers of Life and Look magazine.

Agreed! And don't forget National Geographic! Hope this fits in here!

Liz

[photophorous]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Annie Leibovitz yet. Not my favorite, but worth a look.

A bunch of my favorites have already been mentioned:
Steve McCurry
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Robert Frank
Galen Rowell (landscape)...

but here are few others:

Sebastiao Salgado
Robert Glenn Ketchum (landscape)
James Natchwey
David Alan Harvey
Elliot Erwitt
pretty much any of the photographers at Magnum.

Paul

[Franglais]

...
pretty much any of the photographers at Magnum....

Including Martin Parr?

I went to the Parrworld exhibition in Paris last year. It was quite a shock:

- We are almost the same age (and probably the same background but I might be going too far there)
- We seem to have been much the same places (or rather he has collected postcards of places I have been to)
- We have certainly admired the same photographers at the same time (Tony Ray-Jones for example)

I shall have to keep an eye open for him now I know what he looks like.

[drg]

Annie Leibowitz just sort of goes with Richard Avedon as she studied with him. Evolution or revolution as A.L. went to an extreme with her portraits. She's capable of very subtle 'straight' documentary work too.

When looking at the Magnum Photogs be sure to remember the fearsome five who started this whole realm of photography as the original partners:

David Seymour, the 'Godfather' nicknamed by all 'chim'
Robert Capa, the inventor if you will of modern war photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson the great street/candid photographer shooting for 'the moment'.
George Rodger, a war photographer know for documenting the London Blitz who would never shoot war again after a time and went to Africa following a childhood dream and sent back images unlike any before.
William 'Bill' Vandivert, the tall imposing great LIFE photographer who would be a founding member of MAGNUM.

Look at
Joel Meyerowitz a visionary of light.
Andre' Kertesz who raised candid and snapshots to a form of its own.
W. Eugene Smith.
Man Ray.

Don't shy away from the pretty girl photographer's of S.I., Playboy, Maxim, Cosmo, etc. This type of work takes incredible skill and lots of work to make it look that good every time.
Helmut Newton is one of my favorite 'classic' fashion photographers.

There's
Harry Benson (photographed the Beatles)
Berniece Abbott
Dorothea Lange (a FSA-WPA photographer)
Jaques Lowe (known for Kennedy photographs)

O.K. modern/current photographers of serious worth:
Mary McCartney Donald
Sam Taylor Wood
Huggy Ragnarson
Nancy Crampton

[poker]

This is great! I have lots to read up on. I truly appreciate your time to respond.

I hope this list will spark interest in others as well.

Thanks.

[draymorton]

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. So I'll just add...

Erwin Olaf
Chuck Close
George Hurrell
Jim Marshall
Jan Saudek
Steve Diet Goedde
Gregory Crewdson
David LaChapelle
Joe Buissink
Herb Ritts
Hendrick Kerstens
Greg Kadel
Natalie Dybisz
Camilla Akrans
Joanna Kustra
Nikola Borissov
Ashton Kutcher

[poker]

Ashton Kutcher

The actor? I had no clue.

[draymorton]

The actor? I had no clue.

:lol:

Remember those Nikon commercials?

[megan]

I spent 2009 in imaginary conversation with Francesca Woodman - it was a great exercise in learning image creation. I admire Man Ray greatly for his strong, graphic surreal work. Sebastiao Salgado's work is simply amazing to look at for his depiction of our humanity and inhumanity.

[draymorton]

Denis Darzacq, as well.

[Injektilo*]

Art Wolfe

QFT
It's worth getting his PBS series travels to the edge on DVD as well, simply amazing!

[philsmiley]

Thanks for these list, will look out for them.

[kobrien4]

One of my fav would have to be Chase Jarvis. He is a commercial photographer Hes pretty good.