Famous Photographers: which ones do you admire?

famous photographer
are you familiar with KARSH ? he was a well known canadian photographer (born in armenia). he was best known for his photogr of famous people - churchill sat for him, he asked churchill to remove his cigar, when churchill didn't oblige, karsh took away his cigar and the famous picture of a scowling churchill came into being. i don't know much about photography, i just like looking at his work. he had his studio in the chauteau laurier hotel in ottawa and whenever we visited ottawa , we stopped in the hotel lobby to admire the photographs being exhibited. here are some of his pix : KARSH ... sorry, the link does not seem to work. try GOOGLE : [canada photographer karsh] and it should work. hbg

My very favorite is Mary Ellen Mark. You can see a lot of her work at www.maryellenmark.com - click on books, then click on the book you want to look at and you can see all the photos.

I like the very documentary approach she has but it really goes so far beyond the typical document. Her work really stands best as a visual essay on whatever subject has caught her attention.

I like that she is not so caught up in technique that her images lose power.

Our very own Algis Kemezys.

thank you both - I looked at the work of Karsh and saw that Churchill portrait with a better knowledge - thanks for that story


I also looked at mary ellen mark and liked her work a lot - humour and humanity without any cuteness (which I hate)

He mightn't be one of the most famous, but I really like Anthony Harrison - perhaps, because he photographs very similar to "my style" :wink:

Anthony Harrison

My shortlist would include - in off-the-top-of-my-head-order:

Ansel Adams, The Westons( the whole "f/64 school" thing really appeals to me; I'm a zone shooter myself - and I really believe in composing through the viewfinder, not on the enlarging easel - big difference between makin' photographs and just takin' pictures, IMO), and Jacques Lartrigue, WeeGee, Herb Ritts, Adre Keresz, Bruce Weber, Paul Strand, Imogene Cunningham, August Sander, Julia Cameron, Alfred Steiglitz, Dianne Arbus, Bill Klien, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Joel Meyerowitz, Leonard Missone, William Mortensen, August Sander, Maggie Bourke-White, Roy Stryker, Marion Post-Walcott,Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Minor White and all the rest of the FSA and WPA photographers of the '30s and '40s, Irving Penn, and indeed Karsh,and Carl Mydans, Eddie Adams, David Douglas Duncan, Dickie Chappelle, Bob Capa - just about anyone who shot for National Geographic, or for MAGNUM, or for the Hollywood glamour mill.

And that's just my shortlist. Too lazy to link 'em - but copy-and-paste any of those names into google - trust me, they're all there.

Great subject Vivien. My mother was a child portrait photographer so we had tons of photography books in the house. My finalist list comes down to Eugene Smith, my favorite. I've posted some of his best work on A2K.
And Diane Arbus and WeeGee and lastly, Robert Capa, who got some of the best action shots ever taken.

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/index.html

That website has some great photographs to view. I'm fond of Ansel Adams, but I also like Imogen Cunningham... both western photographers.

Cunningham was famous for her nude shots on Mt. Rainier... here's one:

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/423903366/Imogen_Cunningham_On_Mt_Rainier.html

thanks ebeth - of course Algis

Boomerang do you have a site? I like your work - if you do would you pm me?

Walter thanks I like his work very much and have forwarded that along with all the other names and links

please keep them coming ... I'm enjoying looking at them as well as my daughter

I really like David Seidner too. His portraits are so painterly. Very classic. Very society. Unfortunately not a lot of his work can be found online. His lighting is so dreamy.

Here is a nice one though: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/2843231523/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-0143408-8920741#reader-page

One nice site for browsing is www.masters-of-photography.com

Oh gosh. Thank you so much for saying so, Vivian.

I don't have a site now but maybe in a few months....

Oh here! I found one of Seidner's portraits:

thanks for that fantastic list! it will be sent on to daughter any minute and will keep me busy for hours!

I absolutely agree with the quote above - and the lenses needed to do this vary so much person to person - my need is so often for a zoom lens so I can close in and close in more - my father (a very good photographer) finds a wide angle absolutely essential.

thanks to all of you for the links that are going to keep us very very busy!

i find those society portraits a bit porcelain - that's the nearest description I can think of - not very clear but I hope you understand, I think they are very good but I don't warm to them. I prefer your work Boomerang - you've done some beautiful close ups, natural and full of life and beautifully composed. I really would love to have your web address if you get around to having one

Until christmas, I mostly used my 17 - 35mm lens.
But now I've got a 2.8/28-70mm as standard lens ... starts at 33 cm(thanks to the 'christkind' :wink: ).

Dunno about "famous", but I love the work of Vitas Luckus, Lithuanian photographer.

A. loves the work of Antoine D'Agata.

Famous/brilliant Dutch photographers are Ed van der Elsken and Johan van der Keuken; I like 'em both much, perhaps Van der Keuken even more (made a pretty impressive documentary too).

I find a wide-angle suits me best - something in the neighborhood of 75° to 85° field-of-view, which would be the 35mm equivalent to a 28mm or 24mm wide-angle lens. The greater depth-of-focus is real handy for grab-shots as well. Gotta pay attention to perspective and framin' - a wide-angle will really emphasize horizontal and verticle mismatches within the photo frame - but its usually more practical to move closer to fill the frame with a a subject than to move a wall or other obstruction in order to get far enough away from a subject to get it all in the frame

For portaiture and general scenics, and for macro work, I've found the 35mm-equivalent of a 105mm lens to be just about my ideal. My favorite all-around 35mm lens is a fast (f/2.8) 28-200 zoom; sorta pricey and a bit bulky, but covers just about any shootin' situation I'm likely to get myself into. To each his own, of course, but that's the way I like it.

Couple more names for 'The List" (embarrassed I overlooked 'em):

O. Winston Link and Dr. Harold Edgerton.

looked through my bookcases and found quite a number of german photography books that i brought to canada over the years. most of them deal with photography from about 1820 to 1910. some of the pix are quite stunning. one of the books also contains pictures of some of the photographic apparatus being used in the early days, including a 1841 PETZVAL-VOIGTLAENDER and an 1891 BAUSCH & LOMB 'UNIKUM' . quite fascinating to have a look at it again. i would think that your local library/university/museum might be able to supply you with additional information. second-hand bookstores might also be a good source of supply for books on photogr(that is where my books came from - whenever we visit in hamburg i usually spend a few hours in a store where i know my way around - 'proper' used book stores are called ANTIQUARIAT in german). hope this will be of some help and will keep you busy for a while. hbg

I forgot...I have a Civil War book with 600 photos by Matthew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner...some of those are heart-breaking.

Bit o' trivia; a large portion of photographs credited to Matthew Brady in fact were the work of his enployees/assistants. It is not at all uncommon to find fotos dated identically, credited "M. Brady", yet taken 100's and 100's of miles from one another.