# Who is your photography hero?



## tundrakatiebean (Apr 21, 2008)

..or your favorite photographer?

I've really just been introduced to film photographers and I am amazed at some of the images and people I have seen. In my last class we watched a documentary on Richard Avedon and we saw the images of his father - I literaly burst into tears, I found them that powerful.

I was wondering who's work touches you or inspires you in your film journeys!


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## jwkwd (Apr 22, 2008)

I don't have a favorite or hero, but after seeing some documentaries on the Sundance channel, Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Eggleston are unique individuals. I certainly like Eggleston' attitude toward photography.


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## christopher walrath (Apr 22, 2008)

My hero is Galen Rowell.  My mentor is Ansel Adams.


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## bapp (Apr 22, 2008)

It's good to see some discussion about photographers on here again, I tried to do this a while back and failed but thats another story...

My photography hero's are vast and differing and to pick one would be almost impossible. 

Id have to Say Eggleston would be up there as an inspirational guide.

For sheer genius in the sense of originality of ideas Guy Bourdin certainly should be on the list. 

and

The work am am most intrigued by, would have to be Diane Arbus, work of a total genius and holds endless talking points!

Photography is much more than just ascetics and people who do not realise this are really missing out!


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## Judge Sharpe (Apr 23, 2008)

Photo heroes? The military photographers who charged the enemy carrying just a camera. The ones who hung out of Huie doors in Viet Nam to bring us it home to us.  Also the old time news photogs who used Speed graphics to capture the images of history. Mo Boggs, major league ball player who took prewar pictures of Tokyo harbor with his 35mm while on tour there.  Mathew Brady and those of his generation.  Joe Rosenthal.
Judge Sharpe


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## gsga (Apr 28, 2008)

--Cartier-Bresson, aesthetically.

--David Wojnarowicz, politically and in general. documented the ravages of the aids epidemic on the LES nyc gay population. went where no one else would go... told the story of the waterfront lifestyle. he was the epitome of the political artist. unapologetic. so angry. so punk.

RIP


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## Alpha (Apr 28, 2008)

Among contemporary photographers, Smith and Chamlee. I haven't seen such wonderfully crazed technicians since Adams.


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## John_Olexa (Apr 28, 2008)

I've always been a big fan of Frans Lanting's work


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## Renair (Apr 29, 2008)

Steve McCurry, he did that Afghan Girl shot for the Geographic.  Also James Nacthwey for his war / environmental photography and Joel Satore for his work also.  Not really into much other photography, but if for fashion and portraits, my friend Alison is brilliant, she inspires me also.  www.alisonboland.com


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## JC1220 (Apr 29, 2008)

Alpha said:


> Among contemporary photographers, Smith and Chamlee. I haven't seen such wonderfully crazed technicians since Adams.


 

Cound not agree with you more. Except, they are much more akin to Weston than Adams. They do none of the rediculous darkroom manipulation that AA resorted to. 

Their work is truely about seeing.


.


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## gsga (Apr 29, 2008)

Renair said:


> Steve McCurry, he did that Afghan Girl shot for the Geographic.


man, that shot has haunted me. amazing. i think there was a recent update/article on going back to afghanistan to find that girl (now woman).


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## Renair (May 10, 2008)

There is a video on You Tube of the woman now.  She looks so different.


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## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 10, 2008)

My photography teacher because I wouldn't love this hobby so much if I didn't take her class. I like the guy who did pictures with his friends blood, he called them hiemograms I think. Can't remember the name though.


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## rubbertree (May 11, 2008)

christopher walrath said:


> My mentor is Ansel Adams.


What?? Mentor means someone with more experience who has taught you the ways. You must mean hero?


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## surrender (May 15, 2008)

Renair said:


> Steve McCurry, he did that Afghan Girl shot for the Geographic.


 

I ran into one of his former assistants once. I went berzerk when I found who she had worked for.


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## Sidewinder (May 15, 2008)

The photographers, I definitely admire most are Ansel Adams and Umberto D'Aniello.


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## The Don (May 21, 2008)

Son Mustafa... That Hasback Krew All day Errday... Check out the Site if you guys like...

www.hasback.com


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## AndrewG (May 22, 2008)

Andre Kertesz-in the style of Cartier-Bresson's 'decisive moment'.
Charlie Waits for outstanding landscapes.
Andreas H Bitesnich for fabulous nudes.

Not so much heroes but certainly artists to emulate.


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## AndrewG (May 22, 2008)

rubbertree said:


> What?? Mentor means someone with more experience who has taught you the ways. You must mean hero?


 
You can learn a great deal from studying the methods of those whose work you admire-a mentor need not be alive.


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## JC1220 (May 22, 2008)

Quote:
Originally Posted by *rubbertree* 

 
_What?? Mentor means someone with more experience who has taught you the ways. You must mean hero?_




AndrewG said:


> You can learn a great deal from studying the methods of those whose work you admire-a mentor need not be alive.


 
Actually, he is correct. A mentor / mentee relationship is a direct interaction and teaching between individuals. You may have studied the work of a photographer that is no longer alive, but they did not mentor you.


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## deanimator (Jun 12, 2008)

Apart from the list of important and influential photographers whose work we should all know and appreciate, there are those who attempted to expound the philosophy of photography...whose works we should also be familiar with, such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes...

...and then you can begin to understand what photography really is, or can be...


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## AndrewG (Jun 20, 2008)

JC1220 said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *rubbertree*
> 
> 
> ...


 
Agreed.


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## icassell (Jun 20, 2008)

Paul Caponigro
Imogen Cunningham
Edward Weston (Still love those peppers ...)


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## tirediron (Jun 20, 2008)

O. Winston Link!


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## AmFotog (Jun 23, 2008)

I have so many that i look up too....Mary Ellen Mark, Lauren Greenfield, Larry Clark, Lee Miller, Salgado, Robert Cappa, Joel-Peter Witkin, David LaChapelle, Atget, Bresson...the list is endless..


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## Rick Waldroup (Jun 23, 2008)

There are many photographers I admire, but Gary Winogrand is my favorite.


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## StillImage (Jun 23, 2008)

Me.


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## BPALMER (Jun 23, 2008)

Steve McCurry, Matthew Brady both are high on my list.. obviously for very different reasons.
          one documents cultures from parts of the world i am unfamiliar with while the other was a pioneer documenting what had happened right in our backyard ....


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## AdrianBetti (Jun 23, 2008)

David LaChappelle. Chase Jarvis. Robert Kappa. Dave Hill.


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## Iron Flatline (Jun 24, 2008)

Garry Winogrand or Sebastiao Salgado re. Hand-Held Photography

Andreas Gursky or Edward Burtynsky re. Urban Scapes

Simen Johan or Ruud van Empel re. Processing and Post-Production


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## AverageJoe (Jun 24, 2008)

Robert Cappa, man had ba... well you know.  They need to make a movie about his life.


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## icassell (Jun 24, 2008)

I think there was a PBS American Masters on Robert Capa.


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## kellylindseyphotography (Jun 24, 2008)

Sally Mann, some of Annie Liebovitz, Mark Selinger, Cartier-Brasson, Richard Avadon.  There are a few contemporary children's photographer's that I admire quite a bit.


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## Jedo_03 (Jun 25, 2008)

Cappa, Cartier-Bresson, McCurry, Adams: yeah - Capronigro...
But 'big-name' photographers aren't the only ones I admire... There are lots of photographers out there who make great images...
Some on this forum I admire...
Jedo


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## skiboarder72 (Jun 25, 2008)

Ken Rockwell


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## keedokes (Jun 29, 2008)

I'm a big fan of H.H. Bennet.  He was the first to take a stop-action photograph, back in 1886, of his son Ashley jumping Stand Rock in Wisconsin Dells.


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## icassell (Jun 30, 2008)

Hmmm ... did the next image show Ashley falling between the rocks? Oh wait, he couldn't have changed plates that fast ...


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## keedokes (Jun 30, 2008)

I know, doesn't it look like he missed?  But, no--he made it!  It took him a ton of tries to get it right, but Ashley ends up surviving and giving the man grandkids eventually.


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## TylerCacek (Jul 9, 2008)

nachtwey and zoriah hands down. they are two incredible conflict photographers. coming in at a close 3rd is Jim Lo Scalzo


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## Analog (Jul 12, 2008)

Adams, Atget, Hine, The three i enjoy the most.


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