Apprentice with past photographers

<p>I'd like to modify the very good thread to ask "which of the famous photographers who have left us" would you, if you had a time machine, apprentice with?</p>

<p>My first would be Cartier-Bresson, especially because of his "decisive moment". Brassai had incomparable photographs from Paris as well.</p>

<p>Any/all of the FSA photographers.</p>

<p>Educate me: FSA = ?</p>

<p>Robert Frank before and during his Americans. I'd love to watch and be part of the progression of a person redefining photography</p>

<p>Farm Security Administration. For me, Minor White.</p>

<p>During the Great Depression, the FSA sought to explain to the public and Congress its programs and the problems that they faced. To vividly show that, they hired photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, John Collier, Jr., Carl Mydans and Gordon Parks. Over the course of the next 8-9 years, these photographers amassed thousands of photos, among them, probably my all time favorite: Dorothera Lange's "Migrant Mother."</p>

<p>Larry Burrows, who worked for the Londons Life magazine bureau; was shot down in Laos during the viet Nam war, with him was Hans Horst, another well known photographer.</p>

<p>Eugene Smith.</p>

<p>Mathew Brady, O.W. Link and "Snowflake Bentley". All three were technical geniuses, that achieved high art.</p>

<p>Brassai. He seemed to know some interesting people and places. I could party with him.</p>

<p>Gerda Taro, the first PJ of rockstar proportions, including dying at the at the magical age of 27 for all tragic rockstar celebs and artists (well, a few days shy of 27, but close enough). She also was acquainted with some interesting folks.</p>

<p>W. Eugene Smith for me also.</p>

<p>Gosh so many,Diane Arbus,Robert Capa,HCB,Helmut Newton,Edward Weston.................. and so many others.</p>

<p>My other "knee-jerk" reaction (I have knees and may be a jerk!) would be Ansel Adams, but I don't have large format equipment! His long exposures of Yosemite are amazing.</p>

<p>Sir John Hershel. The man who gave us the word "photography," he was the discoverer of fixer and inventor of cyanotyping. Son of the famous astronomer, Hershel was himself an all-around thinking man. I have no idea what kinds of opinions he had, or what his personality was like. It would have been interesting to find out and to see this guy in action. He knew Talbot and some of the others who made innovating contributions. He thought about and worked in a variety of topics in the natural philosophies and sciences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herschel</p>

<p>My only would be Ansel Adams; otherwise Galen Rowell.</p>

<p>Another William Eugene Smith fan. Very pleased to see him listed several times. Perhaps it's just me...but quite often he seems to be a bit overlooked on lists such as this.</p>