who's the best b&w photographer

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shadow314

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I started photography in the film days and one photographer that amazed me with his work was Ansel Adam. I was wondering who inspired you when it came to b&w. I felt he did it thru the lens and the darkroom but the photographer today in the digital world has a big advantage over days of old. I would appreciate your opinion.
 
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Sooooo many…and Ansel Adam was just one of them… mind you,
he did pioneer some important aspects of photography but he was
waaaaay not the only one… :cool:
 
Edward Weston - but there are many others. I would very seriously question that digital photographers have any advantage over the older photographers, let alone a big one.

I found Beaumont Newhall's History of Photography enlightening.
 
shadow314 said:
photographer today in the digital world has a big advantage over days of old
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With digital photography there are so many more ways of getting it wrong compared to using film.
 
There are really too many to name. Looking at my bookshelf though:

Irving Penn
Sally Mann
Sebastiao Salgado
Ralph Gibson
Daido Moriyama
Trent Parke
James Nachtwey
Mary Ellen Mark
Shinya Arimoto (unknown compared to the above, but realllly great B/W work and printing)
 
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André Kertész and Ian Berry.

Not because their photos were in black and white but because their photos are great. They had little option other than to use black and white in those far off days.

As far as I'm concerned, today, black and white is as dead as film. :D
 
shadow314 said:
the photographer today in the digital world has a big advantage over days of old
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Yes in some ways but not in others.

I seen two b+w prints of the same set of statues in London done by a retired pro. One was modern digital and the other was a really old film camera.

The old film print looked absolutely stunning and the digital one looked nowhere near as good.
 
Probably Man Ray and Bill Brandt more than anyone, though I don't shoot in their styles at all.

GTG said:
Yes in some ways but not in others.

I seen two b+w prints of the same set of statues in London done by a retired pro. One was modern digital and the other was a really old film camera.

The old film print looked absolutely stunning and the digital one looked nowhere near as good.
Click to expand...

TBH that's probably more down to ability with post processing unless there was something special about the camera and lens used for the film image - I use some film era Nikon primes, and really like the way they render an image.
 
Eamon McCabe, Don McCullin
 
So many black and white photography books on my shelves, mainly documentary and photo journalism, but the odd landscape as well. I don’t really have a favourite but I guess they’ve all inspired me to a greater or lesser degree:

Michael Kenna
Don McCullin
John Blakemore
Colin Jones
John Davies
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Eugene Smith
Sebastio Salgado
Winston Link
Ian Beesley
Michal Cala
Denis Thorpe
Bill Brandt
Brassai
Paul Gallagher

And that’s just the ones you might have heard of, I’ve a few other less well known ones as well.
 
shadow314 said:
I started photography in the film days and one photographer that amazed me with his work was Ansel Adam. I was wondering who inspired you when it came to b&w. I felt he did it thru the lens and the darkroom but the photographer today in the digital world has a big advantage over days of old. I would appreciate your opinion.
Click to expand...

Many of the photographers in the film days didn't do their own darkroom work - most of the Magnum photographers including Capa and Bresson had someone else to do it. Likewise Salgado*, who I believe also has other people do his RAW processing now he's gone digital (and also make 'negatives' from RAW files for darkroom prints).
It's a shame these darkroom printers don't get much if any recognition.



*I'm not knocking these guys for it at all - Salgado is one of my photography heroes
 
Ste_S said:
Many of the photographers in the film days didn't do their own darkroom work - most of the Magnum photographers including Capa and Bresson had someone else to do it. Likewise Salgado*, who I believe also has other people do his RAW processing now he's gone digital (and also make 'negatives' from RAW files for darkroom prints).
It's a shame these darkroom printers don't get much if any recognition.



*I'm not knocking these guys for it at all - Salgado is one of my photography heroes
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Yup, printer/photographer relationships are very important, you do have a similar thing going on with retouchers nowadays too.

Here's a good article on Voya Mitrovic, who printed for many of the big names mentioned in this thread:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/08/voya-mitrovic-part-i.html
 
Ste_S said:
Many of the photographers in the film days didn't do their own darkroom work - most of the Magnum photographers including Capa and Bresson had someone else to do it. Likewise Salgado*, who I believe also has other people do his RAW processing now he's gone digital (and also make 'negatives' from RAW files for darkroom prints).
It's a shame these darkroom printers don't get much if any recognition.



*I'm not knocking these guys for it at all - Salgado is one of my photography heroes
Click to expand...
I can remember going to a Don McCullin exhibition a few years back and I was struck by the photo of the Marine with the "thousand yard stare". Next to it was the original print as sent to the darkroom staff, it was almost completely covered with written instructions of how he wanted the printing to be done in different areas of the print. Amazing attention to detail.
 
I dont think it possible to pick the best as there are so many people taking great photos in different genres. Some others that I like however:

Sebastião Salgado (uses both film and now digital both excellent)
Minor White
Bill Brandt
Fay Godwin
Nick Brandt
 
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