What photographers do you like ??

shannensdaddy

shannensdaddy

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I am dong a photography course and as part of a workbook that I have to produce i have to include references to photographers that I like and who,s work
I would like to emulate in style. Question is who do you like and why ?



shannensdaddy:nikon::jaffa:
 
Paul Wilkinson (paulwilkinsonphotography), not just for his technical qualities but also by the way he captures the emotion and engagement in his portraits.
 
Hi , I checked out some of Paul Wilkinson work and he is very good indeed...
 
If I had to choose just one, probably Henri Cartier-Bresson. His street photography was fantastic and his timing incredible - 'the decisive moment'. Check out some of his work, and remember he was using an entirely manual film camera, with no auto focus in those days! If his work doesn't inspire you to some extent, I don't know what will... whether it can be truly emulated is quite another question! :)
 
This is the problem with modern photography, people exist in echo chambers, spending time on forums or Flickr etc. We should all have some knowledge of the great photographers who got us here.

So @shannensdaddy

What genre of photography are you interested in?

It won't help if we recommend a dozen portrait photographers if you're into wildlife or landscape.
 
The photographer with the greatest influence on my photographs is Bruce Gilden. I like the way he puts himself into his photographs, the way the photographs work across the frame and the way they put me right into the scene.
 
One of my favourites is zdzislaw beksinski, I like his art and his later photography. I love the way he never gave titles or explained the meaning in his work. You either got it, imagined you got it, or just didn't.
I like when photography is truly art and just the tool to express what it is in the photographers head.
 
Hi Phil
I like a mix of Steve McCurry & Richard Avedon & Annie Leibovitz. .. I like all type of unusual images and specially like portrait photographery. Its difficult to say what I like as I like that much.
 
They're all fairly 'classic' portraitists.

If that's the route you want to go down, it's not difficult 'photographically ' but clearly relies on getting a connection with the subject.

You're probably also aware of David Bailey and Jane Bown.

Do you have studio gear or are you looking at natural light?

If the latter, Jane Bown is probably the best to emulate, she had a canny knack for finding nice light in a short time.

Check out Jeff Ascough and a few other modern wedding photojournalists, they use similar techniques.

Sue Bryce has done a lot of instructional stuff with natural light, but she retouches heavily so you have to take her results with a pinch of salt.
 
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I love something with a bit of quirk and love baby photography. I really like Russ Jackson and Meg Bitton to name a couple. I really love however Alicia D'Amicos Pure Emotion. Her underwater shoots are epic and I love how her colours pop.
 
Thanks Folks this is turning out to be a real education.. some people to look up now also.

Natural Light Phil at the moment but hopefully leading into studio lighting in the near future. Messing with flash also.

all help appreciated.
 
Since moving away from landscape and general photography and concentrating on "People" photography, Damien Lovegrove does it for me; I like his approach, his enthusiasm and his delivery. One day, one day...
 
Phil V said:
If the latter, Jane Bown is probably the best to emulate, she had a canny knack for finding nice light in a short time.
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The film "Looking for Light: Jane Brown" should be compulsory viewing for all photographers. It's quite simply both brilliant and beautiful.

I still rate her shot of Beckett as one of the greatest editorial portraits of the last centuary.
 
I like the work of all sorts of photographers. Some I like for their formal compositions, some for their spontaneity, some because they have an eye for the quirky. That said these days I mostly look at stuff that could be classed as reportage or social documentary.

As Phil mentioned, the internet can be a limiting place to look at photography if you are mainly looking at stuff that hobbyists tend to like and at Flckr or 500PX (or whatever it's called), which is ironic when there is so much more to photography than that. Too many people, IMO, tend only to look at what is currently trending.

Here are some of my faves. None are what you'd call 'portrait' photographers, but that doesn't mean they haven't taken great photos of people.

Andre Kertesz
Elliot Erwitt
Jacques Henri Lartigue
Walker Evans
William Eggleston
Joel Meyerowitz
Tony Ray-Jones
Tom Wood
Ken Grant
Martin 'Marmite' Parr :D
Keith Arnatt (his dog walker portraits are brill)

I could go on, and on!
 
Ed Sutton said:
Here are some of my faves. None are what you'd call 'portrait' photographers, but that doesn't mean they haven't taken great photos of people.

Andre Kertesz
Elliot Erwitt
Jacques Henri Lartigue
Walker Evans
William Eggleston
Joel Meyerowitz
Tony Ray-Jones
Tom Wood
Ken Grant
Martin 'Marmite' Parr :D
Keith Arnatt (his dog walker portraits are brill)

I could go on, and on!
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I could probably go with most of the names on that list. Walker Evans and William Eggleston have had particular impacts on the way I take photographs; I should say in the way I observe the world and make photographs of those observations.

There is a line of continuity between the two that passes via Robert Frank. Without Walker Evans' American Photographs we wouldn't have Frank's The Americans, which directly inspired Eggleston's early work.

What ties them all together (along with other photographers like Stephen Shore and many other names on Ed's list) in their relation to what I do, is their concern with finding ways of photographing the ordinary and everyday. It is perhaps an antidote to obsessions with technique, glamorous subjects and locations and finding the 'perfect light'.

In a similar vein, I make no secret of my admiration of Eugène Atget - I put a thread up a while back exploring one aspect of my response to his work.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/urban-trees.639282/

Edit: It must be said that Walker Evans became obsessed with Atget's views of Paris in 1929, and drew upon Atget's work when developing his own photography through the 1930s, so the line I described can be further extended backward.
 
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DemiLion said:
The film "Looking for Light: Jane Brown" should be compulsory viewing for all photographers. It's quite simply both brilliant and beautiful.

I still rate her shot of Beckett as one of the greatest editorial portraits of the last centuary.
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:agree: and I would add "Faces" as well, looking at some of the portraits in that you get the feeling that you are looking into their souls.
 
I like the work of, in alia, Ansel Adams, August Sander and Edward Weston. On the other hand, I wouldn't personally want to emulate anyone else's style but my own.
 
shannensdaddy said:
I am dong a photography course and as part of a workbook that I have to produce i have to include references to photographers that I like and who,s work
I would like to emulate in style. Question is who do you like and why ?
Click to expand...

Here's who I like and why...

Don McCullin: Because of his autobiography, his photojournalism photos, and his B&W landscape photos.

Time Page: Because of his autobiography, the television mini-series Frankie's House based on his life, his travel photos, and his books.

HRH Prince Andrew (well you never said if they should be professional or amateur photographers): I've seen his book showing his photographs.

Kos Evans: No way in hell I would want to climb up a ship's mast and take photos of the yachts/ships below, I admire her skills and her guts for going up a tall mast, to take those kind of photos.

Richard Cooke: For his aircraft photos.
 
I really like Alan Barr''s street photography. He is not well known, but he does a lot of great street photography in his native Philadelphia.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/abarr

Recently he has done some colour stuff but I prefer his mono work. Worth a look through his photostream imo.
 
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Elliot Erwitt. Has a sense of humour I identify with and I love reading his interviews.

For portraits, other than those mentioned above, Andy Gotts is one of my favourites. He draws great character out of some famous faces. Degrees is a great read if only for the anecdotal stuff on how he dealt with difficult locations and famous people.
 
Tom Wood; Rinko Kawauchi; Philip Jones Griffiths; Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Josef Koudelka; James Ravilious; John Blakemore - to name but several. An original vision may be the hardest thing to find. Also, it must be meaningful in some way.
 
There are lots of well respected photographers from the past and present.
however I have not met them, so I don't know if I would like them or not.
 
A huge amount of various photographers across so many genres, but the contemporary photographers who I think are working at the top of the game that I'm working towards but a long way from include Sam Robinson, Jake Stangel and Dana Neibert. Their work approach, aesthetic and attitudes on set and to their clients and life is where I aspire towards.

As for the art world, Ryan McGinley's fascination with abnormal beauty and youth is wonderful.
 
I suppose we all gravitate to photographers who take the photographs that we take (or aspire to), but it's good to look at a variety of work and draw inspiration from different genres, something I should do more of really.

Photographers whose work I've liked enough to buy their books include:

John Davies - urban and industrial landscapes
Don McCullin - news and documentary
John Bulmer - documentary
Ian Beesley - documentary
Sebastio Salgado - documentary
Michael Kenna - landscape
Bill Brandt - various genres
Henk van Rensbergen - urbex
 
Alexei Titarenko and Sebastio Salgado are two current favourites. Don McCullin's conflict photography is powerful, and in complete contrast I love the minimalist images of Michael Kenna. And then there's the grandaddy of landscape photography, Ansel Adams.
 
Also, I'm astonished that Gregory Crewdson hasn't popped up in this thread. Amazing work, check it out.
 
I tend to focus on my own work and what I like but I'd list these two

1. Colin Prior
2. Ian Cameron

I like the travel images of Elia Locardi too.

If it's landscape you are into we have lots of talent on here. Stu meech, longlensphotography, Steelo, Nick Watson, Nick Livesey and Neil Burnell and finally Niel Almond stand out.
 
I find that I tend to link what I like. I have been to a number of exhibitions and some of a photographers work I can think wow but then the same photographers work can make me just go Meh.

I went to an exhibition of Dennis Hoppers work and 25% i like the other 75% I thought was mundane.

The Rhine II - the most expensive photo ever sold I just don't see anything special. It might be technically perfect but just doesnt work for me.
 
Phil V said:
This is the problem with modern photography, people exist in echo chambers, spending time on forums or Flickr etc. We should all have some knowledge of the great photographers who got us here.
Click to expand...
I guess the other issue is that flickr, insta etc are bombarding us with so many that its sometimes hard to focus. Thats why exhibitions are so valuable as they get the images off the screen that we look at for 2 seconds before being able to move on to having the additional element of how an image is presented (what border, what paper, what frame, what light is in the exhibition hall) these are all part of the viewing experience of an image that is lost by the option to swipe right!
 
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