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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Who are your favourite photographers?

Ossi Raimi

New member
Ummmm....

There are some nice lists and some nice examples in this topic.... by me, I can't put my favorite photographers any order....

Some of them are:

Lisette Model and Diane Arbus
Whole FSA project
Robert Frank
Irwin Penn
Ikko Narahara
and hundred others........
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
To my pleasant surprise, I have just seen that this thread has already got more than 20.000 views. Apparently, the subject is an interesting one for many lurkers. Many viewers do not post since there has been only 30 replies so far. I have now made the thread a sticky, that way it can be found (and hopefully replied to) easily :)
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
A very quick one - James Ravilious - here or here

He spent 20 years documenting the disappearing way of life of the Devon in which he lived. He was friends with the people he photographed and not an outside rlooking in. He made beautiful art that also documented. He was a bit romantic, or at least didn't like blood, so no pig killings etc. He was a master craftsman as well as composer with light.

A great and quiet photographer.

Mike
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Calvino,

Your first post is unusual. It's good to introduce yourself and your own work in the Introduction forum.

The G.D. website is set up as a rather commercial effort. It makes a claim to art but the video by playboy hardly supports that. We all "love women" for their form beyond the erotic so G.D. is in no way remarkable for that. His glossy lips and feather's over the hair are standard fair for glossy magazines but that doesn't make them "not art". I've seen all that an d better with the like of Benjamin Kanarek's models and his work is presented not as art but as commercial fashion work for which he's paid well.

The good that I gleaned is the effort made to sketch beforehand and to look at work by artists and photographers, but that I already do myself. There's no doubt that G.D. is competent and capable. However, does he rise above so many other folk?

Asher
 
Hi,

i'm quite new with photography so for now, these are my favorite photographers. (i have no knowledge over great photographers all over the world... *sigh*)

Parc Cruz >> http://www.parconline.biz/photoart/
great lighting and post-processing techniques

Rarindra Prakarsa >> http://photo.net/photos/rarindra
some says it's all PP, nonetheless, still like the output.

Pilar Tuason >> http://pilartuasonphotography.com/
since i might likely fall in love with wedding photography, this might be a good start to get ideas and learn to reverse-engineering the lighting techniques.
 

Nigel Allan

Member
It is so long since I looked at others' work I honestly can't recall a lot of them. Most of my photography books have been boxed and left in the attic for years since we currently don't have the room to display them (heresy I know), but if I had to list a few off the top of my head they would be, in no particular order:

1) David Bailey
2) Robert Mapplethorpe
3) Henri Cartier-Bresson
4) Helmut Newton
5) Richard Avedon
6) Don McCullin or almost anyone from Magnum
7) Almost anyone who has ever been published in National Geographic

I was chatting about this the other while getting my hair cut. My hairdresser is very artistically and visually literate and has many of the same books in his waiting area for people to read. He saw me refreshing my memory of some of the iconic images of Helmut Newton and asked me this question about Newton's work,

"Is it art or is it pornography?"

Without blinking I replied that in my view all art is pornography since it invites (nay, demands) you to become a voyeur and derive some stimulation from it (sexual or otherwise is not the issue here).

Others might disagree due to their definitions or even socially derived prejudices around the words pornography and art.

One man's meat is another man's porno.

This could serve as the theme for a new discussion or even themed photo thread
 
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I am so new to photography I unfortunately have not even seen any of the works of many of the "greats". On that note, today, my wife and I are going to the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. They have the archives of some of the great 20th century photographers, Adams, Weston, and many more, so hopefully after today I will be able to at least start my own list of favorites. http://www.creativephotography.org/

James Newman
 

Nigel Allan

Member
I am so new to photography I unfortunately have not even seen any of the works of many of the "greats". On that note, today, my wife and I are going to the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. They have the archives of some of the great 20th century photographers, Adams, Weston, and many more, so hopefully after today I will be able to at least start my own list of favorites. http://www.creativephotography.org/

James Newman

Whilst no-one wants to be derivative, I think it is important to study the 'masters' of their craft or at least look at what they have done over the years to try and understand why one shot works and another doesn't. Our own game is raised by osmosis
 

Sandra Jones

New member
I haven't seen any mention of Yousef Karsh, so I will throw his name into the mix as my favourite portrait photographer. His work spanned over 60 years and he photographed all the great faces of the day. Karsh was a humble man, an autodidact apart from a brief period as an assistant to hs photgrapher uncle. When asked 'what is your greatest photo?', he'd answer 'the one I will do tomorrow.' When I look through his body of work (how cliche), I am tempted to think 'that's it then, all the great faces are in the past.'

Annie Leibovitz is one of the best celebrity photgraphers today, IMO. She is very creative and strives to be original, not easy when you think 'all the great faces are in the past.' ;)

Phil Borges says "My photographic projects are devoted to the welfare of indigenous and tribal people."
The image that brought him to my attention was this one, which I saw in print...absolutely stunning:

3.jpg



For landscapes no one can beat Ansel Adams. I have the book Ansel Adams 400 Photographs and I highly recommend it as a 'feast for the eyes'.

This book is the largest compilation of Adams' photographic works ever published. Organized chronologically, it presents the full range of his finest work, from early efforts in the 1920s, to his projects in the national parks in the 1940s, up through his last important photographs of the 1960s. Included are Adams' most popular images -- many of them icons of twentieth-century art -- as well as a number of masterly but little-known photographs.
 

charlie chipman

New member
I am a big fan of the absurd.

Guy Bourdin has been on my mind a lot lately. I recently indulged myself with his book A Message For You. Many of his pictures are playful yet there is a darkness hovering about his work that I am most intrigued with. I am not sure if it is the pictures themselves or that I have read a bit about the man himself. Probably both. David LaChapelle, who I am a fan of as well seems to have taken some influence, my speculation of course.

Last weekend I was at the Getty Center taking in the Irving Penn Small Trades exhibit. I like how many of the pictures present a real sense of pride about the people and what they do, a rather simple idea yet quite powerful in his execution.

Although not photography, a couple nights ago I was at LACMA and saw the Jeff Koons exhibit. This goes Back to the abusrd. I get so caught up in looking at pictures, pictures, and more pictures so it was a real treat to see art that it not a photograph but a 3d object sitting in front of me.

These are some of my influences as of late, and Rachel, I am a fan of Greg Gorman's work as well.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks Charlie for the pointers!

I am a big fan of the absurd.

Guy Bourdin has been on my mind a lot lately. I recently indulged myself with his book A Message For You. Many of his pictures are playful yet there is a darkness hovering about his work that I am most intrigued with. I am not sure if it is the pictures themselves or that I have read a bit about the man himself. Probably both. David LaChapelle, who I am a fan of as well seems to have taken some influence, my speculation of course.

Both are in the high fashion jet set circle and there is cross pollination. Guy is talented and organizes his shoots very well. I don't know him well enough and I cannot discriminate as to where he's original, but I do like his work enough to bookmark a bunch of images I like a lot.

Last weekend I was at the Getty Center taking in the Irving Penn Small Trades exhibit. I like how many of the pictures present a real sense of pride about the people and what they do, a rather simple idea yet quite powerful in his execution.

04066401.jpg


August Sander: Coal Carrier, Berlin German, Berlin, 1929 Gelatin silver prints 9 1/2 x 6 in. © J. Paul Getty Trust

Did you see the 2008 Getty exhibit of prior to World War II of August Sander (German, 1876-1964), People of the 20th Century. Here's the write up from the Getty website. Also look at this as a further reminder of his brilliantly staged work depicting what he considered common folk, including Nazis! Getty has a book on Sander's work too here. This is really worthwhile at $17.50 and the 47 pictures represents the core of that 2008 exhibit.

ASHitler-Youth.jpg


August Sander: Member of the Hitler Youth 1938
gelatin silver print, 24 x 17 cm, lent by Lothar Schirmer, Munich, Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

Read the haunting description of this photograph by Brian Appel here from an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. Also you'll discover the tragic death of Sander's son in a Nazi prison!

Although not photography, a couple nights ago I was at LACMA and saw the Jeff Koons exhibit. This goes Back to the abusrd. I get so caught up in looking at pictures, pictures, and more pictures so it was a real treat to see art that it not a photograph but a 3d object sitting in front of me.
Well, if it's still on, I'll have a dose of it too!

Thanks for sharing!

Asher
 

Steve Robinson

New member
I've missed this thread so I'd like to add some of my 'mentors.'

1. My father, who was an enthusiastic amateur and was first to show me the process of photography. He loved to shoot railroad yards and I still remember those today.

2. The early Life magazine photographers like Margaret Bourke-White whose images of the dust bowl and FDR's New Deal projects were the first to have an impact on me.

3. Ansel. What can I say? I love to look at his large camera images. It's still hard for me to imagine carrying all that gear around but they made wonderful pictures, which leads me to

4. William Henry Jackson who lugged around a 16 x 20 wet plate camera in the mountains of the still untamed western US to bring back images of the wonders of previously unseen places like Yellowstone.

5. And all the other photographers who are too numerous to mention, including some who post here.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Mark,

I just have been looking at Harry Kerr's blog. He does not add © to his pictures. It would be nice if folk added their own name at least to the IPTC file, LOL! Anyway I really lke his wedding work:p

SusannaMatthew1418-01.jpg

Harry Kerr: A Wedding Picture


What an artful combination of picturesque landscape and the newlyweds! I wonder whether he might have used a gelled flash to make the water that blue? Camera flash was used but we have no dea of what this was!

Asher
 

Mark Hampton

New member
Mark,

I just have been looking at Harry Kerr's blog. He does not add © to his pictures. It would be nice if folk added their own name at least to the IPTC file, LOL! Anyway I really lke his wedding work:p

SusannaMatthew1418-01.jpg

Harry Kerr: A Wedding Picture


What an artful combination of picturesque landscape and the newlyweds! I wonder whether he might have used a gelled flash to make the water that blue? Camera flash was used but we have no dea of what this was!

Asher

Asher,

It may have been Martha that made that image! They work together. Both are makers. Glad you liked some of there work.

cheers
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher,

It may have been Martha that made that image! They work together. Both are makers. Glad you liked some of there work.

cheers

Could be! I wondered about that myself. The blog uses the first person, I, all the time and not we!

I looked at the pictures for an identification in the IPTC file, but there's none. Do you know them? I'd love to know who does what!

Asher
 

James Cook

New member
Ah, so many to choose from, but certain names stand out for having inspired me;

Alfred Stieglitz:
stieglitz_terminal.jpg

Edward Curtis:
s-550f-170120.jpg

I own photogravures of this particular image and two others.

Arnold Newman:
artwork_images_376_208581_arnold-newman.jpg

Some years ago I got to spend two full days alone with Arnold at his home and studio. I can look back and see that my own work changed from those days forward. He took me across a threshold.

Joyce Tenneson:
contortion.jpg

I had the great fortune of having Joyce as my original photography instructor. She filled me with unforgettable discussions about developing one's own style.
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ah, so many to choose from, but certain names stand out for having inspired me;

Alfred Stieglitz:
stieglitz_terminal.jpg

Edward Curtis:
s-550f-170120.jpg

I own photogravures of this particular image and two others.

Arnold Newman:
artwork_images_376_208581_arnold-newman.jpg

Some years ago I got to spend two full days alone with Arnold at his home and studio. I can look back and see that my own work changed from those days forward. He took me across a threshold.

Joyce Tenneson:
contortion.jpg

I had the great fortune of having Joyce as my original photography instructor. She filled me with unforgettable discussions about developing one's own style.

James,

All these are wonderful additions and each covers a different experience in photography. Can you identify any particular qualities or way of working of all these photographers works that you have managed to have guide and inform your own work.

Asher
 
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