What are your influences?

[paul_chefurka1]

Originally: HCB, Gene Smith, Larry Burrows, Philip Jones-Griffiths

Now: James Natchwey, Don McCullin, Dave Harvey

 

<p>

 

I also have a soft spot for the work of Pete Turner and Jay Meisel.

And it was David Hemmings' character in the movie "Blowup" that

promted me to turn pro :-/ Oh, the shameful secrets we carry...

[Alex_Es]

I am impressed that literature--fiction, poetry, creative non-

fiction, has been a major influence on a lot of you. So it has been

with me.

 

<p>

 

Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Henry Miller, James Joyce, George Orwell,

I know have all influenced me as a street photographer. Also John

Donne, Emily Dickinson, Yeats, Roethke, Wallace Stevens, Robert

Frost, Alan Ginsberg, whose poems often pass through my mind

when I am deeply at work. Paul Cezanne has been my most

important influence in terms of visual structure. The photographers

I love include H C B (of course), Salgado, Steiglitz, Aget, Weegee,

Eugene Smith, and a host of others.

 

<p>

 

My most important influence was my friend Roger, who I lost track

of many years ago. I did not even own a camera when we were

working together at the Japanese university. He insisted that I blow

my first bonus on an SLR. Roger was from Nebraska. I visited him in

Nebraska once and saw his major black and white work. This

included people shots with a Soviet era Horizont. It was stunning;

absolutely stunning. Roger, like myself, was a literary man.

 

<p>

 

Leica photography is something I fell into when wishing to shoot

quietly at conferences. My first Leica was a IIIf, bought at K & S in

Palo Alto and met my other major influence, Paul, who is a Leica M

photographer of great talent.

 

<p>

 

In Japan, Mr. Kato, a painter, first took my photography seriously

when I was using slides to teach him English and arranged for a one

person show. He also introduced me to Mr. Shibata who gave me

direction. Photograph people, he insisted. I was doing everything:

flowers, landscapes, people. But he told me I was best at doing

people.

[msitaraman]

Satyajit Ray, Ali Akbar Khan, Raghubir Singh, Mr. Kato. And that's

about all the non-Westerners in this long list.

 

<p>

 

Very impressive how self-sufficient and inward looking this Western

Civilization is in this supposed age of globalization...

 

<p>

 

Either that or artists from the 5 billion odd people in other non-

Western cultures are

 

<p>

 

a) few or largely non-existent

 

<p>

 

b) hopelessly marginal, incompetent and feeble in their work

 

<p>

 

c) mysteriously silent

 

<p>

 

d)dismissed reflexively by Westerners

 

<p>

 

e)economically disadvantaged in their reach to an unbelievable degree

or

 

<p>

 

f) oppressed and silenced by as yet unknown means and mechanisms.

 

<p>

 

I can't think of any other possibilities, can you?

[raymond_tai]

Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, Sabastiao Salgado; HCB;

Raghubir Singh and especially Edward Hopper the New

England painter whose art conveyed a mood I still try to capture.

[paul_chefurka1]

Mani, while I understand your disappointment I think there are a

couple of mundane reasons you've overlooked. The first is that an

artist from one's own culture is more likely to couch their works in

an idiom that is more accessible to you. The second is that it's

easier for western photographers to get book and distribution

contracts with western companies due to simple proximity. No books,

no familiarity. No familiarity, no influence.

 

<p>

 

You can legitimately ask why western publishing companies don't go

out of their way to discover and promote more non-western

photographers, but my bet is that it's simple inertia - if they have

all the material they need readily to hand, there's little incentivre

to go further afield looking for more.

[raymond_tai]

Mani, I agree completely with Paul. In the photography section

of Any town, Any state in the US what will you find today? Ansel

Adams, HCB, Anne Lebowitz, William Wegman, Linda

McCartney, Dennis Hopper, Richard Gere, Karsh, Helmut

Newton, Mapplethorpe, Weegee and your Rolling Stone cover

collection. At least that was what I found last time I was in

Green Apple, Cody's, BarnsNoble, etc in the Bay Area, and I

found the same titles here in Hong Kong last week. But here I

also find books by local photographers though they are local

interests only will never make their way to Amazon.com.

[MTC Photography]

Lao Tsu, Sun Tzu, Li Bai, Wan Wei, Zhen Ban Qiao, Frederick Engels,

Pan Tian Shou, Edward Weston,Alfred Eisenstaedt, Freeman Patterson

Ralph Gibson

[Spearhead]

<i>And that's about all the non-Westerners in this long list. </i><p>

 

Bravo and Iturbide, while they do live in the Western hemisphere,

are hardly "western" in their cultural outlook. Otherwise I agree

with you, but in terms of influences, most non-western photographers

weren't being shown here they way they should have been. I only

recently discovered Daido Moriyama, for instance, I don't think he

his work has been easily viewable in the US until recently, and have

been extraordinarily impressed by his work. He would probably have

been an influence at some point, had I known about him.

[msitaraman]

Paul, that is a good point. Proximity is still an important issue,

and globalization is less of a pervasive state than we would be led

to believe from newspaper reports.

 

<p>

 

By the same token, one might complain that newspapers in India and

China use only local talent.

 

<p>

 

Not withstanding that, I think there is a certain reluctance, not

particular to any group, to take an active and serious interest in

non-western talent, or more precisely, to be stimulated or be excited

by novelty outside of the culture. Maybe this is an art patron thing,

or maybe a publisher thing, or maybe the audience. An Andreas Gursky,

with a pedigree from Berlin and London will cause a stir. Somebody

with a resume that speaks of Mumbai, Shanghai or Lagos is not going

to create anything of a buzz. While it is hard to pin a racism label

on such a phenomenon, the 'reluctance/preference reflex' (if I can

call it that) is driven more by ethnic factors, rather than purely

artistic or aesthetic ones.

 

<p>

 

And I would go further, as to say that this kind of "reflex" is

<b>not</i> universal to all cultures. Believe me, a Cartier Bresson

or a Eugene Atget exhibition will cause huge interest or at least

stimulate considerable curiousity amongst people with interest in

matters artistic or cultural in a non-Western city.

 

<p>

 

Overall, I agree with the innocuous explanation, but with the

reservation that it explains only part of what is going on...

 

<p>

 

Jeff, you are very correct in removing Iturbide and Bravo from that

list. Their influences and aesthetic are so very clearly indigenous

to the Indian cultures of Mexico.

[msitaraman]

</b> Bold begone?

[terry_rory]

Influences...

 

James Ravilious (English photographer 1939 - 1999)

 

Eric Ravilious (Artist , father of above 1903 - 1942)

 

Chris Chapman (English photographer based in Devon. Active)

 

Fay Godwin (English Landscape Photographer and former president of the Ramblers Association. Still active)

 

Don Mccullin (English Landscape and still life photographer previously famed for his photojournalism in 1960s and 70s. Active)

 

Thomas Bewick (18th Century English Woodcut Engraver)

 

Simon Schama (English historian teaching in Columbia University in NY. Author of Landscape and Memory)

 

Luc Delahaye (Magnum photographer , author of 'Winterreise'. Active)

 

Martin Parr (Magnum photographer based in UK. Active)

 

Bill Brandt (No introduction necessary)

 

No apologies for the fact that most of my influences are English.

 

My passion is for English landscapes , people , culture , history , parish churches , Englishness and all that entails. If you know of any photographers who do exciting work on this theme then let me know , whatever their nationality. If a Corean or Chinese or Mexican or African photographer has done great stuff about England or the English then I will happily buy the book , attend the exhibition , visit the website etc..