Eight greatest photographers of 20th century

Terry Christian · Feb 3, 2013

I recently came across a t-shirt design that sported the first names of the greatest, most influential dance choreographers of the 20th century. Bold black letters, centered on a gray shirt:

GEORGE
MERCE
MARTHA
AGNES
BOB
JEROME
TWYLA
ALVIN

I was just thinking about which eight photographers we would pick to be on a similar shirt. Everyone's lists would differ, I'm sure, according to the genre of photography favored, but whom would you say are the indisputable masters of the 20th century?

batwister · Feb 3, 2013

Influential is a difficult word. But here goes:

O'Sullivian (the survey aesthetic has been re-appropriated by many contemporary LFCN guys)
Atget (same reason as above)
Evans
Bresson
R. Adams
Shore
Eggleston
Soth

I've defined 'influential' as those photographers who are clearly visually referenced the most in modern work.
I haven't included Ansel or Weston for the same reason I wouldn't include The Beatles in a music list - goes without saying.

Mark Crabtree · Feb 3, 2013

I like your list and was surprised to see the first post not being AA, EW, PS,...

I was ready to make the statement myself about influence. Still, I'm not sure at all about the idea that influential has to mean they are referenced in most modern work. Does that hold up in art, music? For how long? Things do move on.

I was glad to see Walker Evans in your list, since so many people wouldn't think of him. He is not really one of the "popular" photographers, though everybody knows his greatest hits.

But Ansel Adams was extremely influential and that style of photography was a major current through the 20th century. Hard to leave him out, though it makes a less tidy list. And Terry's question did ask about the indisputable masters. On that note I'd include Edward Weston. I guess it is where you want to put the emphasis.

I do like your list for the solid thread that runs through it, but I think you'd have to put Robert Frank in there as a stepping stone after Walker Evans. Maybe O'Sullivan could free up a space since he wasn't 20th century. And Alec Soth really is more this century.

removed-user-1 · Feb 3, 2013

Atget
Arbus
E. Weston
Cartier-Bresson
Bourke-White
Winogrand
Mary Ellen Mark
Karsh

And...

Eggleston... I know that's nine but if the question is the masters of the 20th century, he's also on my list.

Mark Crabtree · Feb 3, 2013

My list would have these. No particular order. This is only six, and plenty of other names come to mind, but none seem quite as solid in the firmament. I'm sure some other very obvious choices will be suggested that I'm forgetting about. And Ansel of course, but I have trouble seeing him fit on this list.

Walker Evans
Edward Weston
Gary Winogrand
Diane Arbus
Henri Cartier Bresson
William Eggleston

batwister · Feb 3, 2013

Mark Crabtree said:
I like your list and was surprised to see the first post not being AA, EW, PS,...

I was ready to make the statement myself about influence. Still, I'm not sure at all about the idea that influential has to mean they are referenced in most modern work. Does that hold up in art, music? For how long? Things do move on.

I was glad to see Walker Evans in your list, since so many people wouldn't think of him. He is not really one of the "popular" photographers, though everybody knows his greatest hits.

But Ansel Adams was extremely influential and that style of photography was a major current through the 20th century. Hard to leave him out, though it makes a less tidy list. And Terry's question did ask about the indisputable masters. On that note I'd include Edward Weston. I guess it is where you want to put the emphasis.

I do like your list for the solid thread that runs through it, but I think you'd have to put Robert Frank in there as a stepping stone after Walker Evans. Maybe O'Sullivan could free up a space since he wasn't 20th century. That does still leave several others that it would be hard to ignore.

Ah, thanks for pointing out O'Sullivan. Robert Frank was a blind omission, being slightly off my radar - but definitely agree with that suggestion, in relation to the rest.
Being quite well versed in traditional landscape photography, for me, Ansel's influence is most directly referenced in this sphere. But I feel, for everyone, his true legacy is perhaps one of theory.
Aesthetically/subjectively it's much harder to pinpoint references to him - it might be too deeply ingrained. I see his influence as a kind of broad ideological undercurrent, rather than anything tangible at this point.
But that's just my perspective.

My list certainly considers these photographers in a lineage of influence - an aesthetic recipe. Yum.

Terry Christian · Feb 3, 2013

In my original post I did assume that the t-shirt with choreographers referred to the "greatest," "most influential," "masters," etc. Maybe in retrospect I shouldn't have steered the list in any certain direction.

Let's start over.
A t-shirt is to have the first names of eight photographers of the 20th century on it. Who are they?

jp498 · Feb 3, 2013

I hope it's a V-neck T-shirt.

This list comes up from time to time, especially after an article goes up somewhere in the news stating a list of some sort, which invariably misses some important talent.

Eliot Porter
Clarence H White
Karsh
Hurrell
Burtynsky
Stieglitz

For 21st century, I think the greatest are still mostly undiscovered so far, some of the folks on flickr, lff , here, and at workshops I've learned with have talent and images that would be easy to envy. It might have never been shared in the 20th century, and faces getting buried in the clutter in the 21st century.

Mr Bill · Feb 3, 2013

It looks like I'm sort of the odd man out, with my choices. I'd want to fill up the list with Life Magazine photographers, at least the ones who show the atrocities of war, and the like. But then I'd have to make room to fit in fashion and whatnot photogs, such as Avedon, Halsman, and Irving Penn. Lewis Hine has to fit in somewhere; his photos of working children led to child labor laws in the US. Then my favorite portraitists, Karsh and Arnold Newman. And I can't forget some of Roy Striker's FSA photographers: Gordon Parks and W. Eugene Smith are already on the list from Life Magazine, but is there a place for Walker Evans and Dorthea Lange? I think I have to have Ansel and Weston, but is there room for Steichen and Stieglitz, who got photography recognized as an art? Harold Edgerton's photographs by high-speed strobe enabled motion studies by means never seen, so he's pretty important (although largely unknown to art or photojournalistic photographers). In comparison, the Hollywood guys don't seem so important, sorry Hurrell, Laszlo, Clarence, et al. Also sorry to you, Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartie-Bresson, I couldn't find room on my list. I'm also leaving Horace Bristol off, as he is relatively unknown. Bristol had an idea for a Life Magazine story, he enlisted John Steinbeck to assist by writing the text. Unfortunately, Steinbeck stiffed him, saying that the story is "too important;" he wrote his own version, The Grapes of Wrath.

I can't decide who else to knock off, so I'm going to cheat and put all the rest of 'em in (the tee shirt has a front and a back, right?)

Ansel Adams
Richard Avedon
Robert Capa
Harold Edgerton
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Walker Evans
Philippe Halsman
Lewis Hine
Yousuf Karsh
Dorthea Lange
Carl Mydans
Arnold Newman
Gordon Parks
Irving Penn
W. Eugene Smith
Margaret Bourke-White
Alfred Steiglitz
Edward Steichen
Edward Weston

cliveh · Feb 3, 2013

Terry Christian said:
In my original post I did assume that the t-shirt with choreographers referred to the "greatest," "most influential," "masters," etc. Maybe in retrospect I shouldn't have steered the list in any certain direction.

Let's start over.
A t-shirt is to have the first names of eight photographers of the 20th century on it. Who are they?

Henri
Eugene
Arthur
Dorothea
Robert
Jacques
Josef
Man

Mark Crabtree · Feb 3, 2013

The trouble with first names is that we may well be into a biggest names, rather than just greatest. Even then the emphasis would almost have to be on distinct first names. Already, I'm unsure of at least half of cliveh's list; I've got some good guesses, but some half multiple likely possibilities.

Terry Christian · Feb 3, 2013

Okay, so we can make the list have last names only if necessary then. I was tempted to break the list up by genre, which would be nice for people who only shoot or are fans of a certain style, but the dance shirt had no such breakdown. So feel free to break your lists up accordingly if you think they may be biased toward a certain style.

brucemuir · Feb 3, 2013

I figured all the dance names out

stormpetrel · Feb 3, 2013

Here is my selection for you teeshirt

August
Ansel
Dorothea
Eugene
Henri
Man
Robert
Sebastião
Walker
William

benjiboy · Feb 4, 2013

How can they be the eight greatest when everyone has their own opinion ?, " comparisons are odious ", and what yardstick do you use to compare one with another ?.

batwister · Feb 4, 2013

Michael R 1974 said:
"Greatest" is a ridiculous list. "Influential" might be slightly more realistic if we try to be somewhat objective. For example, I'd put HCB in the list of 8 most influential. I have to accept that. But he probably wouldn't be anywhere on my list of greatest photographers, no matter how long the list is.

Thinking more about this, even making a list of influential photographers is not easy. Do we mean influential in some sort of complex academic way, or do we define it more simply as someone who has influenced many people to take up the hobby (and the style)? If it is the latter, I'd have to say Ansel Adams 8 times.

For hobbyists, admittedly, Ansel is probably the biggest influence. But that makes for a boring list.
I tried to think in terms of those who have influenced other notable practitioners - or the lineage of photography.

Who cares who influenced Jim Bob Fine Art Photographer from South Dakota? Probably his high school chemistry teacher...

removed account4 · Feb 4, 2013

MAN (ray )
LAZLO (maholy nagy )
STARN (twins )
El (Lazar) (Morduchovitch Lissitzky)
MIROSLAV (Tichý)

sorry, i can't think of anymore worth mentioning

Mark Crabtree · Feb 4, 2013

Robert
Robert
Robert
William
William
William
Gary
Diane

Substitute Ansel to taste.

dpurdy · Feb 4, 2013

Have to give a nod to William (henry fox talbot)
Then there is Louis (Daguerre)
Then Mathew (giving us the civil war)
Alfred (who is famous for being influential and advanced photography as an art)
from here it is more and more a matter of personal taste.
Edward
Ansel
Irving
Richard

TheFlyingCamera · Feb 4, 2013

I notice we keep dipping back into the 19th century for some of these. For strictly 20th century, I'd say, in no particular order,

Robert (Mapplethorpe)
Imogen (Cunningham)
Sally (Mann)
Diane(Arbus)
Helmut (Newton - note inclusion does not mean endorsement)
Richard (Avedon)
Paul (Strand)
Ansel (Adams)/Edward (Weston)/Aaron (Siskind) Three-way tie.

I'm leaving Stieglitz and Steichen and the Pictorialists off of the 20th century list because Pictorialism was already dying by the 1920s, and the dominant 20th century aesthetic has been Modernist/post-Modernist.

benjiboy · Feb 4, 2013

Michael R 1974 said:
"Greatest" is a ridiculous list. "Influential" might be slightly more realistic if we try to be somewhat objective. For example, I'd put HCB in the list of 8 most influential. I have to accept that. But he probably wouldn't be anywhere on my list of greatest photographers, no matter how long the list is.

Thinking more about this, even making a list of influential photographers is not easy. Do we mean influential in some sort of complex academic way, or do we define it more simply as someone who has influenced many people to take up the hobby (and the style)? If it is the latter, I'd have to say Ansel Adams 8 times.

+1 I agree entirely Michael, "the eight greatest" is a far too simplistic approach, because what criteria do you use to compare one with the others ?
"some are born great. some achieve greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them" -Shakespeare- Twelfth Night

AndreasT · Feb 4, 2013

I am rather surprised that my name doesn't show up here.

stormpetrel · Feb 4, 2013

"famous" would be more appropriate.

mooseontheloose · Feb 4, 2013

Way more than eight, and not all 20th-century, but here's some fun I had a while ago while thinking of some ideas for a t-shirt I'd like to wear...

Dali · Feb 4, 2013

OK, let's try without specific order...

Henri (Cartier-Bresson)
Duane (Michals)
Diane (Arbus)
Alexander (Rodchenko)
George (Brassai)
Gilles (Caron)
Alfred (Stieglitz)
Edward (Weston)

As it is a personal list, there is no disagreement possible...

Eight greatest photographers of 20th century

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