teach my about my masters...

<p>There are three kinds of photography I'm interested in and I'd like to acquaint myself with work of people who are/were doing this kind of stuff.<br>

<strong>The first one</strong> is "photography of life". I'm a traveler, hitch-hicker, and I'm documenting my journeys. I'm looking for people who were doing similar stuff - documenting their life.<br>

Biggest name i know is <strong>Nan Goldin.</strong><br>

<strong>The second one</strong> is creepy kind of document photography, very honest in brutal way.<br>

The best example is work of <strong>Diane Arbus.</strong><br>

<strong>The third one</strong> is much more typical - documental photography about issues of regular persons - but things less cliche than hunger or being poor.<br>

Good examples would be dealing with death of someone close, dealing with some kind of natural disaster, etc.<br>

I don't know any names.<br>

<br />I'm looking for both "grand masters", and contemporary photographers.<br>

<br />Help me please!</p>

<p>British photographer Jim Mortram is producing insightful and arresting imagery of his local community. He's attracted lots of praise for his honest and direct portraits and documentary series.<br>

His recent portrait of <a href="http://jamortram.posterous.com/market-town-simon-living-with-epilepsy-home-l">Simon Childers: Living with Epilepsy, Plans and Sufferance</a> is outstanding. <br>

His work is truly inspiring and worth a good long look at. Here: <a href="http://jamortram.posterous.com/">Jim Mortram/Market Town</a></p>

<p>In your third category, one of the greats of the Great Depression was Dorothea Lange. I also really like the work of Jack Delano from the same era. Somewhat later, Toyo Miyatake created a small collection of photographs documenting Japanese internment in the US during WWII. (He smuggled a lens into his camp, Manzanar, and cobbled up the rest while interned.)</p>

<p>Go and look at the pictures of James Nachtwey. Most of his pictures are on war, famines and human catastrophes and should fit into your category 2.</p>

<p>For the last category, first that came to my mind is Robert Frank's The Americans.</p>

<p>For the death theme, try Sally Mann and her "body farm" work as well as her documentation of her husband's illness and decline. Powerful stuff from my view.</p>

<p>For contemporary documentary photographers take a look at <a href="http://www.burnmagazine.org/">Burn Magazine online</a>, and <a href="lens.blogs.nytimes.com/">New York Times Lens blog</a>.</p>

<p>Alec Soth. http://alecsoth.com/photography/</p>

<p>Category 1: Manuel Alvarez Bravo</p>

<p>Category 2: Natacha Merritt</p>

<p>Category 3: Antonio Turok</p>