Whos Your Favorite Photographer & Why?

<p>I love Richard Avedon. Although in my humble opinion Ansel Adams is the greatest of all time, my personal favorite is Avedon. The way he was able to transcend each genre of photography. With his imagery in fashion, he was able to elevate and change the whole way somebody photographs fashion now.</p><P>

<b>Moderator's Note:</b>Photo removed. Do not post photos that are not your own. Re TOU: "You may not use the Site to violate anyone's copyright, trademark, intellectual property rights, or privacy rights. The User Content that you submit must be your work in its entirety. "

<p>Avedon is certainly as influential as you say, and I admire his work. There are many many photographers in whose work I find something to admire, I could not pick just one, but my list would include Edward Weston for his groundbreaking abstract work (and also his very inspirational writings in his Daybooks), Minor White for the truly transcendental spiritual quality of his work, and William Eggleston for his personal use of color and the way he demonstrates there's much more to the mundane than there might at first seem to be. Cartier-Bresson was the guy who made me want to pick up a camera as a teenager, he had an extraordinary personal vision. I could go on for ever ...</p>

<p>Wynn Bullock, because he was a better photographer than I am (or am likely to ever be).</p>

<p>Irving Penn</p>

<p>Ruth Bernard, Ansel Adams, Eugene Smith and Edward Weston. Especially when you get a chance to see their actual prints. </p>

So many to choose from, and so many listed, but a couple more... Karsh, Arnold Newman, Pete Turner, Leibovitz for

constructing scenes to portray her vision, and a whole slew of painters.

Avedon, Eugene Smith, Walter Ioss Jr.

who may have been there and done

that for damn near everything.

Nachtwey. Those are the names I

always think of first.

 

Rick H.

<p>If I could choose only one it'd be Brassaï. As a kid I was already enamored of Weegee's nighttime urban photography but Brassaï's comprehensive vision of a city at night and how all of its people interacted with the city grabbed me in a way Weegee's didn't.</p>

<p>Moriyama. The harsh realities of post-Hiroshima Japan.</p>

<p>Probably Edward Weston. I like Warhol a lot too, but obviously for different reasons. He was sort of an anti-photographer, but that eye of his wouldn't let him take a bad portrait, even w/ those consumer cameras he liked to use. He was by far the greater artist though, as he changed the art world forever. Like it or hate it, it's a post Warhol world. </p>

<p>Duane Michels - for his humanity, his open mindedness, his poetical way of photographing and , most of all, for his humour</p>

<p>Jimmy Forsyth (Newcastle upon Tyne, England). Struggling against disability, illnes and poverty, he produced one of the greatest bodies of social documentary photography of late 20th century Britain.</p>

<p>Dead: Eugene Smith, because of his soul. I find him much more affecting than HCB. Horst was great, as was of course Beaton.</p>

<p>Alive: very few photographers are impressive but I like Sally Mann (her photos of her children are beautiful), and love Bill Henson (very haunting, dreamy images). Also, I think Thorsten Overgaard is excellent on account of his sense of composition - and he loves shooting into the light! I only discovered him a couple of months ago.</p>

<p><strong >George Brassaï </strong>and<strong> </strong><strong >Henri Cartier-</strong><strong >Bresson </strong>are both constantly with me, wherever I go and whatever I see, accompanied by <strong>Josef Sudek.</strong><br>

<strong>Leibovitz</strong> certainly, but not that much his early street photos, and <strong>Daido Moriyama </strong>too, surely, as mentioned already by Jeff. But also a mix of American photographers like: <strong>Gregory Crewdson</strong>;<strong> Minor White; </strong><strong>Steve McCurrry;</strong> and even<strong> Walead Besty.</strong></p>

<p> </p>

 

<p> </p>

<p>My favorite photographer on PN is <strong><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=3936461">Billy K.</a></strong></p>

<p>I chose a PN photographer because he's not out of reach and is not already established in the world at large as great.</p>

<p>I chose Billy K. in particular because his photos have a sense of mood and atmosphere, a sense of being deeply personal yet also universal, he doesn't overreach and thinks and sees for himself, and most of all there is passion and intimacy in his work. He is not a dispassionate observer. He puts himself right in the thick of his work.</p>

<p>me</p>

<p>Paolo Roversi - his images haunt me.<br /> <br /> Ansel Adams - taught me everything I know via the Trilogy. Along the way, his images grew on me a lot.<br /> <br /> Sally Mann - her images haunt me even more than Roversi's.<br /> <br /> Edward Weston - he made me look deeply at the print, as opposed to just the negative. Hard to explain.<br /> <br /> Anonymous - anyone who can take really good cat photos, from domestic kitties to the big maneaters. Good wildlife photographers in general. Wild animal portraits show a side of life that is refreshing when you live in the city.</p>

<p>edit: I forgot Anne Geddes, I love her old work.</p>

<p>Wright Morris. I have one of his prints on my desk. I read "The Home Place" in college and was moved by the combination of photos and text. His printing is extraordinary. </p>

<p>Sebastião Salgado</p>

<blockquote>Anonymous</blockquote>

<p>Anonymous is (or was) a very creative person indeed -- and a brilliant poet. That person's creativity is only surpassed by the renowned inventor, Pat Pending, to whom we can attribute multitudes of clever, labor-saving gizmos. In the sciences, I think Al has been an important collaborator in more ground breaking studies than I can count. He even collaborated with me a couple of times on some more obscure work (Fox et al.). Funny, though; I don't recall him ever being first author on anything (e.g. Al et Fox).</p>

<p> Without hesitation I vote for O.W. Link. He was the "Ansel Adams" of RR photography. Specializing in night photographs of (black) steam locomotives. He and his assistant would string sometimes miles of wires to many dozens of flash bulbs to allow his photos to be taken. His technical mastery of the medium and his artistry are just amazing to me.</p>

<p>Using what we now would consider primitive equipment. Graflex 4x5 cameras, slow 1950's B&W film and flash bulbs. He recorded the end of stream RR'ing in the US in VA / WV in the 1950's.<br>

<br>

<br /> Also an honorable mention goes out to Matthew Brady and his assistants. These guys had real primitive gear, and they had to invent photojournalism as they went along.</p>

<p> http://www.linkmuseum.org/collection.html#headline</p>

Sarah...huh? Are you gonna make me Google all of this or were you having a James Joyce moment? You collaborated

with Albert Einstein to make an obscure, and therefore anonymous, fox? Wouldn't Darwin or Mendel have been a better

choice than that? I mean, Einstein if he made a fox, it would glow! Not very discreet...

<p>LOL! Please ignore! Nuttin' serious! ;-)</p>

<p>A colleague to Marie Curie when she became pregnant: "Why Marie! You're glowing!"</p>

<p>I suppose I should offer a serious answer: My favorite photogs (perhaps in part because of the subject matter I find most compelling) were some of the documentary photogs of the Great Depression, including especially Dorothea Lange and Jack Delano. It's a period of time that's both familiar (from my parents' stories) and alien, and I view it with great fascination. I very much appreciate that there were a few photographers who took the time to show me their world, at least as they saw it.</p>

Yes, D Lange, amen. I try to steer clear of painful photography because photography is my way to find happiness. Nan

Goldin comes to mind, ironically since the entire 90s happened by way of her. Skinny girls, drugs, the supermodel. She

unwittingly made it all popular, when all she was doing was living her life.

 

The woman who originally photographed Kate Moss died lately, I forget her name. I wonder what was going through her

head, to strip down a child and sell it to the world? I'm not Christian and I have no issue with nudity, but I do worry about

Walt Disney these days. That's too young and you've indoctrinated young people to make millions selling your body. I

wonder what their screening process is....

<blockquote>

<p>Ansel Adams - taught me everything I know via the Trilogy.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Ansel Adams is my number one choice. Some of that choice is due to ignorance about other people's work, but a big chunk of my admiration for his work is the dedication and artistry that went into his images. With today's modern DSLRs and film cameras and emulsions it is stupidly easy to take a competent picture, even with medium format. But one really needs a deep understanding of materials and processes to produce what Adams produced. Adams to me was like a sculptor. He was not a lomographer or a Vivian Maier. He didn't just take a hammer and bang away randomly at a piece of rock thousands of times. He first learned his materials and then he previsulaized what he wanted to create. The he executed either a careful plan or made a well informed instinctual decision. I think we should separate the spray and pray crew from the true masters.</p>