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Who are your favourite photographers?

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi All,

Inspired by this thread and many others before that, I thought that it would be nice if we can make a long list of all the photographers by whom you are inspired. Who are your heroes and why? Do you have any links to their works? Share these with us please.

I know that many of you have given an answer to this question before, but since the answers are spread over various fora and threads it would make sense to compile them into a central location like this one for reference and search purposes.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you :)

Cheers,
 

Jack_Flesher

New member
In no particular order,

1) Lucien Clergue
2) Salgado
3) Weston
4) Kenna
5) Misrach
6) while he's become a cliche, I love some of his work: Adams
7) Roman Loranc

Cheers,
 

Daniel Buck

New member
Ansel Adams - yea it's probably the answer that most people will give, but his images truly are an inspiration. I feel that some "holy grail" figures of the past (in any field) after time passes aren't really impressive accept in name alone, but I think Adams' work really still holds it's own. I don't always entirely agree with his 'minds eye' concepts that he often wrote about, but that doesn't stop me from greatly admiring his work.

http://www.anseladams.com/ansel_art/AA_slideshow.html


John Sexton - like Adams, his black and white landscapes and tree photos are a big inspiration for me. I think what I like about Sexton's work is that quite often he will not capture the entire grand scene, but just a select crop of it. Where as when I think of Adams work, I think of the grand open scenes. Both photographers do shoot both sides of the spectrum at times, but I think from Sexton I enjoy his closer shots and single or cluster of tree shots.

http://www.johnsexton.com


David Perry - he appeals to my love for hotrods and old cars. I have always loved old cars and hotrods, and David captures them wonderfully. Really capturing the spirit of rodding even though some of the images seem a bit cliche, they are wonderful to me. And strangely enough, the photographs David shoots of girls next to cars is one of the few times that I enjoy looking at photos of girls and cars together in one photograph. Usually I say keep them separate, but the subjects and style that David shoots them just seems to work well for me. Possibly because the girls really fit the scene, not just a bimbo in a bikini next to a random expensive car :)

http://www.davidperrystudio.com/hrp/index.htm


These are the 3 that have been an inspiration to me. Though David Perry I have only recently 'discovered'. I don't really try to mimic any of the photographs or capture their likeness from either of these 3, but just looking at these 3 photographers work gets me fired up and wanting to get out in the open and go shooting!


Clyde Butcher - is another photographer who's work I really admire. I think I like his photography so much because he tends to focus on trees (my favorite subject) and alot of the swamp photos remind me of my home in Louisiana.

http://www.clydebutcher.com/online-g...ory=4&subcat=1
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Cem and Jack,

Thanks for starting this exciting topic. I have not yet assembled my list as I wanted to answer to myself who my heroes really are and then why. The first question is doable but the hardest part is saying why!

While I'm mulling over my response, Cem you should present your guys and maybe Jack you might add the influences that stand out for you to choose these great photographers as your heros. Without this "why" for each of us, we are short-changed of what really is personally thrilling in each of these photographers.

I promise not to forget my own contribution!

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
...I have not yet assembled my list as I wanted to answer to myself who my heroes really are and then why. The first question is doable but the hardest part is saying why!

While I'm mulling over my response, Cem you should present your guys ...
Hi Asher,

I knew that this would be a tough challenge, especially for me. The reason is, up until the 80s, I have been ignorant of any photographers out there except for Ansel Adams and the famous Turkish photographer Ara Guler who was a Magnum member and a friend of HCB and Marc Riboud. I was raised in Turkey where there wasn't much to read and learn about photography in the 60s and 70s. I've received my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, from my uncle as a gift in 1969 and started shooting with it. Everything I did was self taught. When I was 10 years old, I have visited an exhibition of Ansel Adams in the American Cultural Society in Ankara. I can still remember the huge impact those pictures have made upon me. I have spent a very long time there and a particular one I remember was the full moon over some village with mountains in the background (I don't know the title of this picture but it was impressive in many ways). I guess that was the moment when I've started to look at photographs consciously. So obviously, Ansel Adams is my photographical hero number one, also literally.

In the 70s, I'd go to the library each and every day where they had periodicals such as Time-Life and Paris Match and of course National Geographic. I would immerse myself for hours in them and since I did not read English well at that time nor French, I would mainly enjoy looking at the fantastic photographs. It has never occurred to me that actual people with names were behind those photographs, I did not bother. Besides Adams, I knew one other name, which was Ara Guler. The reason was, he was the defining photographer of Istanbul and I was born and raised there. My early photography revolved entirely around Istanbul as my main subject. So at least in that respect, I have developed an appreciation for the photographs of Ara Guler. He is my hero number 2.

At the University, I have joined the photography club where I have met a fellow named Nuri Bilge Ceylan. He was my class mate and a much better photographer than I was. He was also very good in the dark room and has taught me how to develop and print my own pictures. Later, he became a film director and is one of the best in Turkey now. His newest film three monkeys has won the best director award in Cannes 2008! So I am very proud of the fact that he had been my friend and mentor in the 80s and has really given me a push into more serious photography. So Nuri Bilge Ceylan is my hero number 3.

I'll then conveniently skip the 90s during which I have learnt much, much more about photography than ever before although there are no particular names which immediately come to my mind as my heroes. Except for maybe Henri Cartier-Bresson. I had developed a liking for most of the Magnum photographers during that period.

So finally, I can mention a few names whom I could call my current heroes.

Enter Martin Parr. This guy is amazing and his pictures are mind boggling in simplicity and blandness but still oh so good. I really like how he makes the mundane and the excessive something so special.

The Belgian Stefan van Fleteren has blown me off my socks when I saw his exhibition last year in the photography museum of Antwerp. His bigger than life portrait of lonely and old people living at the fringes of our society has grabbed me right there and since then does not let me go.

And there is more, maybe I'll add them later. Thanks for being patient and reading so far.

Cheers,
 
not in a particular order...

459.1051.jpg


IMAGE BY Yasumasa Morimura

Shibata-toshio.png


IMABE BY Toshio Shibata

65698061_a9c056621d.jpg


IMAGE BY KENNA, MICHAEL

sugimoto3.jpg

Sugimoto Hiroshi
 
Remember this one, It has to go in my list...

home_horz.gif


IMAGE robert mapplethorpe

...there are so many...

image_pepper_index.gif


Edward Weston ..
 
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Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Ansel

Cem,

I have been to many Ansel Adams exhibits.....


08_lg.jpg


Ansel Adams "Moonrise", Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941

....and I think it goes without saying his work is beyond iconical.
The image you probably are referring to is Moonrise over Hernandez.
Once seen in person, you cannot ever forget it.
 
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Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Cem,

I have been to many Ansel Adams exhibits.....


08_lg.jpg


Ansel Adams "Moonrise", Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941

....and I think it goes without saying his work is beyond iconical.
The image you probably are referring to is Moonrise over Hernandez.
Once seen in person, you cannot ever forget it.
Yes Kathy, that's the one! :))

Thanks for helping me to rediscover this magnificent picture which has been lingering in my head for some 37 years now. It was about 40" wide, as I saw it at the exhibition, IIRC. The detail I remember best is the little white cross in there which looks as if it is shining.

Cheers,
 

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Annie Leibovitz- for the obvious reasons and I love love to watch her interact with her clients
Her passion is beyond beautiful!!

Annie-Leibovitz1.jpg






Charlotte-
 
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doug anderson

New member
Walker Evans
Dianne Arbus
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Andre Kertesz
William Eggleston
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Graciela Iturbide
Marguerite Yampolski

These are who I think of right now. The list will expand.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Walker Evans
Dianne Arbus
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Andre Kertesz
William Eggleston
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Graciela Iturbide
Marguerite Yampolski

These are who I think of right now. The list will expand.

But why? What's important for you? That's the telling part!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Minor White: supreme technical control plus the capacity to show not only what things are but what ELSE they are.
Maris,

So who might you put forward with such technical excellence and yet show what is not there, what's behind or beyond the subject that's lit and recorded?

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Ara Guler's pictures

Hi,

Asher has asked me to show some work from my heroes I have mentioned before. Since everybody knows Adams, I'll share some pictures by Ara Guler first.

.... I knew one other name, which was Ara Guler. The reason was, he was the defining photographer of Istanbul and I was born and raised there. My early photography revolved entirely around Istanbul as my main subject. So at least in that respect, I have developed an appreciation for the photographs of Ara Guler. He is my hero number 2. ...

1956 - City of Edirne, Mosque wall with an inscription of Allah on it and religious women wearing a burqa:
ag1.jpg


1954 - Istanbul, Porters of all sorts waiting to hopefully get a job
ag2.jpg


1960 - Istanbul, Husband and wife going back to their home in the evening
ag3.jpg


1955 - Istanbul, Salacak harbour and fishermen
ag4.jpg


I hope you'll like them. It was very difficult to choose just four to share here :)

Cheers,
 

Jack_Flesher

New member
and maybe Jack you might add the influences that stand out for you to choose these great photographers as your heros.

First off, "heros" is probably too strong a word for me. I do not have any photographic heros per se, but many photographers whose work and artistic vision I respect.

In that, folks can Google the names I've listed and find a plethora of examples of their work so I'll avoid that exercise and simply add some comments on why and what...


Lucien Clergue. Lucien does very artistic environmental nudes and also has a portfolio of montages. The interesting thing about his montages is that they are not done in Photoshop, but rather done "in-camera" using film. He'll expose several rolls, and then head off to a museum, re-load the exposed rolls and shoot works of art over the existing latent images. Every now and again he gets what he refers to as a "happy accident" and a quite remarkable image. I respect him for his artistic creativity and vision. He's also a very nice man and has a charming wife -- his wife BTW is the curator for the Van Gough museum in Arles, France.

Salgado. Self explanatory, some of the most incredible images of human strife ever captured.

Weston. Iconic, for sure, but what i respect of his images is how he made such ordinary garden vegetables into such great still-lifes. While he's probably best known for his pepper images, I prefer his cabbage series.

Kenna. His images convey a Zen-like peacefulness that entrances me; I can stare at them for hours and not tire of them.

Misrach. Simple slices in time catching natural beauty and oddities.

Adams. Iconic for sure. But Moonrise remains my single favorite image of all time.

Roman Loranc. I am amazed how this artist can visualize (and create) the most incredible images out of what I used to consider a worthless dearth of photographic possibility in my own backyard --- the San Jauquin and Sacramento river valleys in central California. For example, previous to his series from the Consumnes wildlife preserve, I had driven by that very location perhaps 20 times with camera gear and never would have even bothered to stop to photograph the tiny bit of "crap" vegetation that is there. Seeing that series awakened me to the plethora of artistic possibility in everything... See his central Calfornia gallery here -- most of the shots with trees in or around water were made in the area I am referring to: http://www.romanloranc.com/photographs.html

Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Pictures

Next photographer whose pictures I want to share with you is Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

... At the University, I have joined the photography club where I have met a fellow named Nuri Bilge Ceylan. He was my class mate and a much better photographer than I was. He was also very good in the dark room and has taught me how to develop and print my own pictures. Later, he became a film director and is one of the best in Turkey now. His newest film three monkeys has won the best director award in Cannes 2008! So I am very proud of the fact that he had been my friend and mentor in the 80s and has really given me a push into more serious photography. So Nuri Bilge Ceylan is my hero number 3....

Nude by the sea, 1989
nudebythesea.jpg


Curved street in winter, Istanbul, 2004
curvedstreet.jpg


Children riding bicycles, Midyat, 2004
childrenridingbicycles.jpg


A Winter Day on the Galata Bridge, 2007
awinterdaygalata.jpg




Enjoy.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Next photographer whose pictures I want to share with you is Nuri Bilge Ceylan.


Curved street in winter, Istanbul, 2004
curvedstreet.jpg



A Winter Day on the Galata Bridge, 2007
awinterdaygalata.jpg



Enjoy.

Cem,

These two pictures, looking so different have a remarkable feeling of watching time go past. These are both reflective. The first shows passage of time and contemplation as so many birds fly past. The second shows people, huddled against the snow, along their paths, each going where they need to go, using up time.

I'm impressed! I wish I could afford the prints!

Asher
 

Rene F Granaada

New member
the curved lines and seagulls feel as if time stood still

Cem,

These two pictures, looking so different have a remarkable feeling of watching time go past. These are both reflective. The first shows passage of time and contemplation as so many birds fly past. The second shows people, huddled against the snow, along their paths, each going where they need to go, using up time.

I'm impressed! I wish I could afford the prints!

Asher

I agree with Asher, whether you see it as time go past or time standing still, the timeless feeling is impressive.

Heartfelt compliments to you Cem!
 

doug anderson

New member
But why? What's important for you? That's the telling part!

Asher

Cartier-Bresson because of his instinct for people and architecture, the way he could go find a "set" and wait for people to walk into it; Kertez because of sheer poetry and penetrative imagination; he was not as fast as HCB, but he had a way of penetrating his subject, of bringing out levels of self and culture; Dianne Arbus because she cut through all the bourgeois pretensions of the time and could see what we refused to see; Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide and Marguerite Yampolski because they could see magical realism in Mexican culture before there was such a word, could see a maguey plant as a supernatural being, etc. All of these have in common an ability to make the ordinary extraordinary in the way great poetry does.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cartier-Bresson because of his instinct for people and architecture, the way he could go find a "set" and wait for people to walk into it; Kertez because of sheer poetry and penetrative imagination; he was not as fast as HCB, but he had a way of penetrating his subject, of bringing out levels of self and culture; Dianne Arbus because she cut through all the bourgeois pretensions of the time and could see what we refused to see; Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide and Marguerite Yampolski because they could see magical realism in Mexican culture before there was such a word, could see a maguey plant as a supernatural being, etc. All of these have in common an ability to make the ordinary extraordinary in the way great poetry does.

Thanks Doug. The personal view you have helps to build a sense of what might be important.

Asher
 

Wendy Thurman

New member
Edward Weston- he intuitively understood the medium. "I see no reason for recording the obvious," is a favorite thought. The work he did with Tina Modotti in Mexico is fantastic and her photographs are quite good in their own right. I've tinkered around with the "Weston look" with large format film and pyrogallic acid as a developer; the difficulty of working with that chemical gave me a very great appreciation for Weston's craftsmanship.

Brassai- just amazing images of the underbelly of Paris after WWI. Brassai would completely immerse himself in the world of his subjects and his images dispay an intimate understanding of that world.

Man Ray- the image of Kiki with the black mask/figure, Marcel Duchamp at a chessboard, James Joyce sitting portrait, and the experimental non-camera constructs with the photographic process remain today very cutting edge works.

There are many more, but these three come immediately to mind.

Wendy
 

Philippe Paquet

New member
In alphabetical order:

Annie Leibovitz
Brassai
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Jeanloup Sieff
George Hurrel
Robert Doisneau
Roman Loranc
Salgado
Serge Lutens
Steve McCurry

I'm very surprised that I'm the first to mention Doisneau, McCurry and Sieff.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
and a favorite of mine, the photographer who worked around the 1900's photographing Native Americans for the mining co. he was working for, Edward Curtis.

Here is his photo portrait of a Cheyenne chief:

cp19013r.jpg


Credit:
Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's 'The North American Indian': the Photographic Images, 2001.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/curthome.html


Thanks René-Frank for introducing us to this monumental (albeit controversial) collection.

I notice this picture of a woman

cp16029v.jpg


Acoma woman (The North American Indian; v.16) credits as above

Now you have probably pencilled out days from my calendar to try to get some inkling of this monumental resource.

Thanks,

Asher
 
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