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What Photographer(s) inspire you

Yesterday, I was looking at a book on Eugene Smith's Philadelphia project. Whenever I see his work, I always get the impression that the man poured his entire soul into his photographs. And the results were great.

A name that I've not seen mentioned here is Edouard Boubat. I like his portraits and his street photography; there's so much feeling in them. And after reading his interview in Lenswork a while back, I admired his outlook and approach to life. There's a new book out on his work.

Dale
 
Neil Preston - one of the great rock & roll photographers of all time. Made his name in the early 70s by becoming Led Zeppelin's tour photographer...nice gig if you can get it! His B&W imagery captures perfectly the "power, mystery and the hammer of the gods" that Jimmy Page so eloquently coined. His books are definitely worth the investment.
 
Pittsburgh, instead of Philadelphia?

I think you mean his Pittsburgh project - see the book "Dream Street"....

images39 said:
Yesterday, I was looking at a book on Eugene Smith's Philadelphia project. Whenever I see his work, I always get the impression that the man poured his entire soul into his photographs. And the results were great.
Dale
Click to expand...
 
Edward Weston.
****************
Anscojohn, Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA
 
When I just came out of college I liked the work of Arnold Newman. I think he passed the torch on to Annie because she did great work a few years back.

As far as photojournalism goes I liked Salgado's human stuff and he's passed the torch to James Natchway.

Penn and Avedon round out my other top choices.

-Rob
 
Edward Weston and Paul Strand
 
The Weston's
Most currently Paul Strand

I just attended an exhibition of Strand's work and just bought a first edition of "60 Years of Photography". I learned some things I hadn't thought of and a lot of new ideas.

Someone said that there are only three really great photographers of the 20th Century.

Edward Weston
Alfred Stieglitz
Paul Strand

This seem true for me, this is what I would call the first tier of 20th Century photographers.

Second tier: Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Minor White. . .
you can add your own and in no particular order here.

How do you see it?

After a full review of Paul Strand the man and his work I can see how Ansel Adams, after seeing some of Paul Strands negatives in NM, decided to become a photographer and not a pianist.
 
I think I've admired the following the most

Brett Weston, for his photographs as much as his dedication to the work.

Mark Citret, for his subtlety and ability to elevate the everyday.

Edward, those Daybooks are priceless.

William Garnett, for showing us the bigger picture looks a lot like the smaller picture.

Fan Ho, for his vision of Hong Kong.

Sandy King, for willingness to share his wealth of knowlege of contemporary materials. Formulas, developing times, starting points... his posts on more than one forum have helped me and many others.
 
I haven't seen anyone mention Jock Sturges or William Mortensen. (I dislike many of Mortensen's pictures, but some are really great.) If you get a chance, read The Model and The Command to Look.
 
Minor White, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston.

I put together some brief and very informal "appreciations" of the first two for another site that can be viewed at the URLs below. These are just meant as rough intros, not as seriously researched biographies!

White

Kertész

My apologies if these links can't be reached from outside the site.
 
I went to the Half Price book store and found a new copy of Walker Evans "The Hungry Eye" and it's very good reading and the prints are printed very good to great. I paid $8.00 for a $52.00 book. It breaks down his life in periods and explains them in the context of the time and environment with the people and shifts in his personal life.

I also got my copy of Paul Strand "Southwest" this week and can't put it down. It's loaded with photographs that are A+ printed and in the back is a lot of other art with plenty of text and relationships to the people he knew.

These two books are sure to expand the base of anyone who is looking for a photographic education. Add them to the Daybooks, EW, Brett Weston, HCB an others for an in home education.

Curt
 
I would say just about anyone at the Chicago ID - Harry Callahan, Ray Metzker, Ishimoto, Art Sinsibaugh and Aaron Siskind.

Then there is Kertesz. There will always be Kertesz.
 
Shawn Dougherty said:
His book, "Hong Kong Yesterday" is on my list of must haves. You can view many of the images at the link below. How do the actual prints look, Brian? Do you know if he made them himself? Best. Shawn

Fan Ho Book Link
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Shawn getting the book itself is a no brainer, it's really well printed and the work is superb. Fan Ho prints themselves are more hit and miss, some are not as well printed as they appear in the book and many are printed on old style RC paper. It's a real crime that this guy doesn't have a really good B&W printer doing his prints today. I would not buy a Fan Ho print without seeing it firsthand.
 
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Unlike most of the folks here, my inspirations weren't artists. Besides my Mom and Dad who both loved photography and gave me my first camera, a staff photojournalist for the Toronto Star named Boris Spremo really inspired me to 'up' my game in photography.

Some other notables are (mostly commercial, fashion and glamour photographers):
Struan Campbell-Smith
Yuri Dojc
Yusuf Karsh
Howard Schatz
Antoine Verglas
Scuvallo
Melvin Sokolsky
Stan Malinowski
James Natchwey

Regards, Art.
 

That's dissappointing about his prints, but as I can barely afford the book I guess it won't impact me. Thanks for the heads up though. Best. Shawn
 
Sebastio Salgado & Eugene Smith.

Kiron Kid
 
What Photographers inspire me

I am partial to large format landscapes. Therefore my choices are:
John Sexton, Ansel Adams. Edward Weston, Bruce Barnbaum, and John Eric Hawkins. All have in my opinion, demonstrated the most inspirationally
pure landscapes that I would like to be able to do also.
Paul
 
These are the names photographers who continue to inspire me:

Harry Callahan
Paul Vanderbilt (Have you seen his book, "Between the Landscape and Its Other"?)
Joseph Sudek

Contemporary
Dead Link Removed
Debbie Fleming Caffery
Andrea Modica

Warmly,
Tsuyoshi
 
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