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Who are the masters of street photography?

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yeknom02

yeknom02

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I'm trying to become a student of the art of Street Photography. My favorite photographer is Garry Winogrand, though I haven't had much experience with others. That's why I want to ask everyone who they consider to be the masters of the genre. Surely there of plenty of people I haven't heard of, and I was hoping that some of you who are more familiar with the genre can enlighten me as to who I should check out...

Street Photographers I know, in order of decreasing affection for what work of theirs I've seen:
Garry Winogrand
Elliott Erwitt
Vivian Maier
Diane Arbus
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Robert Frank
Walker Evans

Photographers I know of but haven't looked at their photographs:
William Klein
Daido Moriyama

I'm especially having a hard time finding out who are the best of street photographers of today.
 
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Do not forget Robert Doisneau (my favourite) and Gianni Berengo Gardin (I had the honour and the pleasure to have a chat with him. A great Man and a great Artist)
 
August Sander, did a lot of work on the street, he is one of my all time favorites.
Brassai is right up there as well as Shawn points out.

Saw a Garry Winogrand print in Kentucky this year along side of hundreds of master prints and have to say his image and print totally blew me away. Four or five people sitting on a park bench. This print if I could afford it would be on my wall for sure. I was so surprised about my reaction to his work.
 
Bob Carnie said:
August Sander, did a lot of work on the street, he is one of my all time favorites.
Brassai is right up there as well as Shawn points out.

Saw a Garry Winogrand print in Kentucky this year along side of hundreds of master prints and have to say his image and print totally blew me away. Four or five people sitting on a park bench. This print if I could afford it would be on my wall for sure. I was so surprised about my reaction to his work.
Click to expand...

Hi Bob,

This one? http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/winogrand/winogrand_worlds_fair_full.html

I'm sure it must look incredible in print. The good old days..nothing like being a street photographer in the '40s, 50s and 60s.

Best,

Max
 
Also Walker Evans, Tod Papageorge, Henry Wessel, Paul McDonough, Lee Friedlander, John Gutmann, Josef Koudelka, Mark Cohen, Frank Paulin, Tom Wood.
 
I think it's probably a little bit of a disjointed genre at the moment. Best and known are incongruent. I'd bet flickr is the go-to place right now.

Lots of variety on the Internet such as here: http://www.beauty-of-feminine.com/ ;lots of great stuff by people completely unknown. Nothing naughty or illegal, just street photography from all over the world focusing on the tasteful female subject.
 
How did you guys forget Lewis Hine?! check out "America & Lewis Hine"

ISBN-10: 0893810177
ISBN-13: 978-0893810177

Amazing stuff, in the foreward they mention his setup in Ellis Island, a 5x7 view camera, rickety tripod, a flash pan and powder, zero retakes.
 
.
Since I joined Facebook I've been admiring the work of Orville Robertson,
from Astoria New York. And I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Robertson
at The Center for Alternative Photography last month. I think this was the first
time ever that two Jamaicans got together, and nobody got cut, or shot.
I think, but I'm not 100% sure ...

And My APUG Brother JohnMeadows, and I recently interviewed him for an
upcoming episode of The Film Photography Forecast.

Ron
.
 
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I would look at:

1) Lee Friedlander, my uncontested favorite. Subject matter for his street work is generally not people, specifically. It is often based on visual trickery, such as layering to block the subject. As such, his street work is really about perception and photography themselves.
2) Willy Ronis, a master of strong and often graphic composition; far better than Cartier-Bresson in that regard, IMHO.
3) Brassaï, for a different take on street photography. Beautiful night cityscape shots in addition to his great people shots.
4) Weegee, obviously. Heavily stylistic, brash, usually humorous take on things.
5) Clifford Coffin, for a street fashion photographer. Not true street photography, but one of the first to incorporate the street, and urban ruin and decay into his high-end fashion work, so worth mentioning in this discussion IMO.
6) Walt Girdner, just for the sake of mentioning a personal and local connection. He was the department head where I went to school for years, and where I now work.
 
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Jeff Kubach said:
I enjoy Lee Friedlander also.

Jeff
Click to expand...

A couple weeks ago I happened to see a print of the image of the dog bisected by the street(light?) pole; one of my favorites. And, every Photo 101 student has shot their own shadow. For me, Friedlander owns that.

sa
 
I think the definition here is blurred. To me there's a lot of good, even great photographers mentioned here. Masters? Maybe 30% of what's mentioned....
 
CGW said:
I'm very partial to Fan Ho who caught a now long-gone Hong Kong arguably better than anyone. His Hong Kong Yesterday is marvelous.

http://www.modernbook.com/fanho/images.htm
Click to expand...

Fan Ho is definitely a great photographer. I love his work. First met him at a big Photo/Dealer show here in San Fran a few years ago and got his book, signed. Just a week or two ago a new show opened for him here in SF and I met him again and he signed his latest book for me too. Fred Lyon was there for Fan Ho's opening and he signed his own book for me as well. Had a very nice conversation with Fred too. Heck of a nice guy.
 
CGW said:
I'm very partial to Fan Ho who caught a now long-gone Hong Kong arguably better than anyone. His Hong Kong Yesterday is marvelous.

http://www.modernbook.com/fanho/images.htm
Click to expand...

Im a sucker for sepia toning, and I love his shots with long shadows and hard geometric shapes. Those market scenes with the hazy lighting are great too.

FHHKYApproaching-shadow.jpg
 
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