100 most influential of all time

Mainecoonmaniac · Sep 20, 2012

Would any APUGers would like to change the order, remove or add photographers to this list?

http://www.professionalphotographer...00-most-influential-photographers-of-all-time

benjiboy · Sep 20, 2012

I must admit I didn't know that Elliott Erwitt who's work I've admired for many years is French, I thought he's American, I love the sense of humour in much of his work.

Mainecoonmaniac · Sep 20, 2012

benjiboy;1396669I love the sense of humour in much of his work.[/QUOTE said:
Me to. My kinda of ironic, wry sense of humor

Doug Smith · Sep 20, 2012

I would have included Berenice Abbott and Dorothea Lange on this list, and probably not had as many fashion photographers so high. But it's an interesting list and makes me want to take a look at some of these photographer's work again.

gandolfi · Sep 20, 2012

"Most influential"? To who? in what respect?

This is a baaad list to me - yes - there's a lot of photographers I'd add - and quite a few I have never heard about..

Any photographer that that misses Sally Mann - or Josef Sudek is flawed....

or what about Drtikol - Josef Koudelka - Ruth Bernhard -Jan Saudek - I don't get it...
...

voceumana · Sep 20, 2012

Perhaps the most influential of all: George Eastman. Though we don't remember him for his photographs, his influence was profound.

Missing, also, Matthew Brady, Timothy Sullivan, Atget, Margaret Bourke White, Dorothea Lange, ... all the National Geographic and Life Magazine photographers, etc.

Kevin Kehler · Sep 20, 2012

Ansel Adams is 23th and Cindy Sherman is 14th? Look at a 1000 Flickr pictures and tell me who is the more influential. Notice this is not about the greatest, which is very subjective, but about influential which is even more subjective. I bet if the magazine was published in New York or Tokyo, it was be a radically different list.

Andre Kertesz should be at the top (HCB said he did nothing that Kertesz didn't do first) and some of the exceptions (especially women photographers) shows me this is to sell a magazine, not to actually provide any meaningful thought.

fastw · Sep 20, 2012

Who compiled this list?
Maybe there really aren't any non English speaking, non Jewish photographers.

batwister · Sep 20, 2012

Surprised Bill Brandt was mentioned and Michael Kenna wasn't. Admittedly, Kenna only has an influence on amateurs.

jp498 · Sep 20, 2012

Influential doesn't always mean universally excellent. Which is why Cindy Sherman is high on the list. If you look at flickr stuff, she is influential... I still don't know why. Maybe lotsa women art teachers like her or something.

I'd say Clarence H White is missing from the list. He was a well respected photographer at the time of pictorialism and went on to teach the who's who of modern photography. Influential in more ways than making images.

I'm also surprised there is no Karsh on the list.

removed-user-1 · Sep 20, 2012

Hmmm. Harry Callahan? Berenice Abbott? Imogen Cunningham? Jerry Uelsmann? Margaret Bourke-White?

Most of the photographers I studied in History of Photography are not mentioned on this list.

MDR · Sep 20, 2012

They forgot pretty much all photographers of the 19th century. No Fox Talbot (father of Positive Negative), No Daguerre, No Niepce, No William Henry Jackson (the true photographer of Yellowstone), no Rejlander (father of the composite). This list is a Joke and not a good one.

Dominik

Mainecoonmaniac · Sep 20, 2012

Don't blame me

MDR said:
This list is a Joke and not a good one.

Dominik

I think the list is biased and incomplete too.

batwister · Sep 20, 2012

MDR said:
They forgot pretty much all photographers of the 19th century. No Fox Talbot (father of Positive Negative), No Daguerre, No Niepce, No William Henry Jackson (the true photographer of Yellowstone), no Rejlander (father of the composite). This list is a Joke and not a good one.

Dominik

Well, Fox Talbot, Daguerre and Niepce kind of... invented photography. To say they influenced it would be to do them an injustice. Don't ya think?

MDR · Sep 20, 2012

batwister said:
Well, Fox Talbot, Daguerre and Niepce kind of... invented photography. To say they influenced it would be to do them an injustice. Don't ya think?

Talbot influenced photography by creating the language of the medium and of course the negative/positive process. His book the pencil of nature (not the first photobook) certainly influenced other photographers. Daguerre created the first photograph of a person and together with Niepce the Daguerreotype. So not only were they great inventors but they also influenced the medium.

Bayard (one of the earliest Selfportraits and superb photographer) and Anna Atkins (first photobook) are missing as well.

Dominik

ParkerSmithPhoto · Sep 20, 2012

I think Eugene Smith is terribly overrated here. #4? Really?

Alec Soth is surely more influential than many of the names here. His "I'm living a life of ennui" portraits are now a mainstay among college photographers.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Fredrick Sommer, Keith Carter for God's sake?! Callahan, Metzger, Lee Friedlander!! All missing.

If influential, you mean taught and inspired, those names would all be in the top ten.

TheFlyingCamera · Sep 20, 2012

And what about Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan? Between the three of them and Roger Fenton they invented wartime photojournalism. And Brady was a pioneer in celebrity portraiture. Or Eadward Muybridge? And I'm sorry, Avedon, while perhaps deserving of being on a list like this, does NOT deserve to be #1.

Ian Grant · Sep 20, 2012

It's a UK publication so influences will be quite different to the US.

Beaumont Newhalls "History of Photography" was highly biased in it's US viewpoint to the extent that Peter Turner wrote a "History of POhotography" with a more European/'UK bias which was published in the UK.

So there will be big differences in opinions depending on the photo culture you've been steeped in.

I'd add Robert Adams and Robert Misrach, John Blakemore and Ray Moore quite high in that list.

Ian

Kevin Kehler · Sep 20, 2012

ParkerSmithPhoto said:
I think Eugene Smith is terribly overrated here. #4? Really?

I really like Eugene Smith but #4 is a little high. However, failing to include Bruce Davidson or Lee Miller is unforgivable; Robert Capa at 94 is too low as well.

batwister · Sep 20, 2012

Ian Grant said:
I'd add Robert Adams and... Ray Moore quite high in that list.

Absolutely. Robert Adams could easily be #1 for the breadth of his influence - landscape, social documentary, street, architectural, night photography...

ajmiller · Sep 20, 2012

Atget is missing and said to be the 'father of modern photography' and an influence on Walker Evans.
The (younger) students I went to Uni with were heavily influenced by Gregory Crewdson.

MDR · Sep 20, 2012

William Mortensen, Gordon Parks, as an Austrian I am missing Heinrich Kühn a pioneer of Autochrome photography. What is Rankin doing on this list. I love Fashion photography but the list has too much bias towards it. The nationality of some of the photographers has been mixed up as well.

Two23 · Sep 20, 2012

Any list that doesn't include Matthew Brady, EO Hoppe, and William Henry Jackson is bogus. My guess is who ever came up with the list doesn't really know much history.

Kent in SD

Newt_on_Swings · Sep 20, 2012

That's the thing with lists like this, they are heavily biased always in some way. I mean so many important and influential photographers were left out, but some like terry Richardson being on the list is just ridiculous. Besides all the ones mention by previous posters, how about Lewis hine? Or if more focused on fashion like this list is how about Lillian bassman? Flawed list, totally. And Capa being all the way down there, really?

cliveh · Sep 20, 2012

ajmiller said:
Atget is missing and said to be the 'father of modern photography' and an influence on Walker Evans.
The (younger) students I went to Uni with were heavily influenced by Gregory Crewdson.

How can you possibly miss Atget from this list?

100 most influential of all time

removed-user-1

Membership Council

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency