Inspirational Photographers

[CatherineA]

I was wondering if anyone could share which photographers - in whatever genre and whether past or current - have inspired or moved you.

[Shadowman]

Helmut Newton, interesting life and interesting, inspiring photographs.

[CatherineA]

Thanks John, I’m loving looking at his work. Sure shakes things up. Ive been thinking in such tame terms recently - too tame.

[Manfred M]

Primarily:

1. Portraiture - Yousef Karsh the great Armenian-Canadian photographer, who spent most of his career in Ottawa, working in his studio in the Chateau Laurier Hotel. He is considered by many as being the best portrait photographer of all time.

2. Landscapes - Ansel Adams, the great American landscape photographer. His iconic images of the American west was one of my early inspirations in landscape work.

3. Steet Photography / Photojournalism - Henri Cartier-Bresson, the French great who is considered to be the "father of photojournalism" by many.


Getting into some of the newer generation of photographers

1. Joey L(awrence) - the young Canadian photographer who is now living in New York City. His work on the tribes of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia is one of the main reasons we visited that part of the world.

https://joeyl.com/overview/category/quick-portfolio


2. Elia Locardi - another fairly young American landscape photographer whose blending of exposures taken over a long period of time (sometimes hours) are really quite stunning.

http://www.elialocardi.com/

[FootLoose]

Saul Leiter

[Shadowman]

I was wondering if anyone could share which photographers - in whatever genre and whether past or current - have inspired or moved you.

Catherine,

Who are your favorites?

[RBSinTo]

Catherine,
My photo heroes, have been combat photographers and photojournalists: Larry Burrows, Robert Capa, Boris Spremo, Eddie Adams, Nick Ut, James Nachtwey, Margaret Bourke-White, Dorthea Lange and the like.
Robert

[george013]

It weren't the individual photographers that "inspired" me but more the content. What they tried to tell me. I remember many photos but can't tell who made them. Mostly journalism and documentary.

George

[Donald]

Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Fay Godwin, Michael Kenna, Hengki Koentjoro, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Hoflehener .... for starters.

And Sharon Reid (Daisy Mae on here), for her photography but also for helping me see life.

[Acorn]

Not in any significant order: Karsh, Bown, Donovan, Brandt, McCullin, Duffy, Burrows.

[CatherineA]

Thank you very much for these names. I am looking forward to sitting down and giving each of them time. Some I’ll be revisiting, many are new to me.

Aside: Many years ago the son of friends of ours worked as an assistant to Karsh. For one shoot Karsh was dangling over a railing in a building, high above floor level, and the young man had to hold Karsh by the legs while the great man took his photos. I now wish I had asked a bit more about that day.

John- Mostly what has stayed with me and had the biggest impact have been from combat zones and street photography. I didn’t pay sufficient attention to the photographers themselves and I also didn’t investigate the story behind the photograph. That meant, for example, that for years I totally misunderstood Eddie Adams’ intention with his photo of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing Nguyen Van Lem.

I’ll always be able to recall “Toffs and Toughs”... a photo of the deGaulle family at their dinner table....certain photographs of Helen Levitt and others from the New York School of Photography. Maybe it’s the glimpse given to other lives and other landscapes...Ansel Adams is stirring and stunning and makes me feel puny...

I feel extremely uncomfortable with Sally Mann’s work and called to make decisions that move me beyond being a passive viewer. Where and why do I draw the line? There is no way to be a passive viewer because viewing itself is a statement.

I enjoy and benefit from seeing many photos that are not as huge or demanding as these but I haven’t slowed down to pay attention to who took them and why they work. Being a better observer is more active than I’ve been towards photos to date.

[Urbanflyer]

freeman Patterson--Galen Rowell--

[zen]

Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, the top togs of Arizona Highways, and at least one man from THIS site - Donald MacKenzie . . . but too many to remember them all.

zen

[Donald]

Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, the top togs of Arizona Highways, and at least one man from THIS site - Donald MacKenzie . . . but too many to remember them all.

zen

Too get mentioned in the same sentence as those guys. Wow. I thank you.

[Shadowman]

Thank you very much for these names. I am looking forward to sitting down and giving each of them time. Some I’ll be revisiting, many are new to me.

Aside: Many years ago the son of friends of ours worked as an assistant to Karsh. For one shoot Karsh was dangling over a railing in a building, high above floor level, and the young man had to hold Karsh by the legs while the great man took his photos. I now wish I had asked a bit more about that day.

John- Mostly what has stayed with me and had the biggest impact have been from combat zones and street photography. I didn’t pay sufficient attention to the photographers themselves and I also didn’t investigate the story behind the photograph. That meant, for example, that for years I totally misunderstood Eddie Adams’ intention with his photo of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing Nguyen Van Lem.

I’ll always be able to recall “Toffs and Toughs”... a photo of the deGaulle family at their dinner table....certain photographs of Helen Levitt and others from the New York School of Photography. Maybe it’s the glimpse given to other lives and other landscapes...Ansel Adams is stirring and stunning and makes me feel puny...

I feel extremely uncomfortable with Sally Mann’s work and called to make decisions that move me beyond being a passive viewer. Where and why do I draw the line? There is no way to be a passive viewer because viewing itself is a statement.

I enjoy and benefit from seeing many photos that are not as huge or demanding as these but I haven’t slowed down to pay attention to who took them and why they work. Being a better observer is more active than I’ve been towards photos to date.

I too viewed many photographs from LIFE/Nat'l Geo and paid very little attention to the photographers, usually their bio or byline was in the index and flipping back and forth wasn't my idea of a good viewing experience. Another photographer who I discovered late but probably contributed to many of the LIFE images was Weegee (Arthur Fellig), Weegee's contributions to photography was probably as controversial as one of your mentions Sally Mann; however I think Weegee's work although somewhat exploitive (dead men tell no tales or wear plaid), his work was accepted as journalism where some of Sally Mann's was considered journalism/exploration and public acceptability/viewpoints of each photographer's style help frame their legacy.

[NorthernFocus]

I find inspiration in the photoGRAPH, not photoGRAPHER. Don't care who shot it, a good image is a good image. And there is something to learn from the work of the rankest amateur as well as the most seasoned professional.

[Manfred M]

I find inspiration in the photoGRAPH, not photoGRAPHER. Don't care who shot it, a good image is a good image. And there is something to learn from the work of the rankest amateur as well as the most seasoned professional.

In fact I can sometimes learn more from an amateur when he or she has done something that is not working.

[Shadowman]

In fact I can sometimes learn more from an amateur when he or she has done something that is not working.

I think we should also mention that the styles that we admire today or back then might be considered amateurish by todays standards, Weegee's flash was a necessity for the equipment he used but to adopt that style of glaring flash is sometimes looked down upon or considered rude; granted most of Weegee's subjects couldn't complain but for most journalists shooting at night the flash was the sun.

[mugge]

Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Dorthea Lange. Not in any order.
Cheers Ole

[Manfred M]

I think we should also mention that the styles that we admire today or back then might be considered amateurish by todays standards, Weegee's flash was a necessity for the equipment he used but to adopt that style of glaring flash is sometimes looked down upon or considered rude; granted most of Weegee's subjects couldn't complain but for most journalists shooting at night the flash was the sun.

I agree. I find that the Austrian photographer, Ernst Haas, probably falls into that category as well. While he was considered an early pioneer when it came to colour photography, a lot of modern photographers look at much of his work being rather trite.

I looked to some of his work when I started doing colour prints in the wet darkroom when I was in my late teens, so I was definitely influenced by him at the time.

http://www.ernst-haas.com/site/