Most Famous Photographers You Need To Know

VD October 10 2021

Before starting your career in photography, it is crucial to understand the significance of inspiration. Looking at the work of industry masters can aid you in being more creative, competitive, and professional in your career.

We have made a list of famous photographers that are the all-time favorites of the related people. This list will help you in setting goals and identify the ways to achieve them. Let's get started!

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American national photographer, and she is famous for her work on nature and history. The work she has done is rated among the world’s ten most expensive images.

The Internet and top magazines are flooded with her modern photography. She believes that photography is not just about enhancing your skills. It is more about being creative and consistent.

Besides, she is a perfect example of a multitasking woman, being a makeup artist, a hairdresser, and a model. One woman's army would be the right choice of words to explain her skill set.

Robert Frank

Robert Frank was based in Zurich, Basel, and Geneva. Although he is no more with us, his work still inspires photographers all over the world. He initially worked as a commercial artist, but later, he chose fashion and street photography.

After Frank focused on photojournalism and street photography, his work started getting recognition all around the world. He traveled in many countries to produce a masterpiece like “ the Americans,” which started his fame.

He was a close companion of a famous personality Walker Evans which brought him more fame in the street photography industry. The style of his photography included text on negative prints.

Eliot Porter 

Eliot Porter was born in America, and he was famous for his unique way of capturing nature. His work brought a revolution in nature photography.

Porter has been passionate about photography since childhood. He started a Kodak box camera as a kid. Later his passion for photography took him to exhibit his work in the American palace in 1939.

Imogen Cunnigham

Imogen Cunnigham introduced a stream to the photographers that were called industrial landscape. She initially worked on soft focus and blurred images. His photography was focused on providing the abstract idea of imagination. Cunnigham also worked on nude photography and shifted her style to a sharp focus later on.

Frans Lanting 

Frans Lanting is a living legend currently doing wildlife photography with full passion. He is a Dutch photographer, but he operates his office and studio in the USA.

It's never easy to be a wildlife photographer as you are risking your life in it. To be on the list of famous photographers, you might have to put your life at risk. Frans Lanting worked in different dangerous parts of the world to capture creativity. His work gets featured on national geographic and discovery where he was previously photographer in residence.

Lanting’s famous work includes a photograph of elephants gathered around water and pink sky.

Paul Strand 

Paul Strand was an American photographer whose work spanned not just the one generation but for all the coming generations. He was a versatile artist who covered genres like the urban bustle, street portraits, and formal abstractions. His approach towards photography was different from the others. Maybe that was the sole reason behind his massive success.

Weegee 

In the 1930s and 1940s, when people were not into photography, Weegee chose the profession of photojournalism. Most of his work was on street crime, uncensored images, death, and more. 

Weegee got famous from the photograph he captured of people looking at the crime scene. The crowd around the person showed how people react to the crime scenes. Nobody was found helping. Instead, people were just standing around.

Richard Avedon

This is a legendary American national fashion photographer who is famous for capturing beauty, style, and culture.

The first thing which took Avedon to the height of fame was his photography for Harper’s Bazaar. After that, he was able to open up his studio in 1946. His photography was later published in Vogue and Life magazines.

Avedon introduced large-format pictures and did the photography of the most famous people of the time.

Don McCullin

Sir Donal McCullin was one of the most known photographers of his time. He highlighted the issues of unemployment, poverty, and other problems in urban life.

Photography on the horror war of Africa and Asia brought him most of his fame.

He also worked on nature and moving landscapes, and his versatile style was another reason for his respect and fame. 

Edward Western

Edward Western was a very well-known photographer in the 20th century. He started creating content at a young age; maybe that was why he had a professional career of 40 years.

Wester started spending time in trees and rocks to understand the landscape and nature better. He was able to earn a Guggenheim fellowship in 1937.

His photography is still considered a masterpiece.

Man Ray

Although Man Ray was a USA national, his professional career was primarily based in France. He was not just a photographer but a skilled painter as well. He is known for his photograms derived from two words, ‘photo’ and diagrams.’

David Bailey

The story of David Bailey is a bit different from the other photographers. He achieved his dream of getting into the London School of Fashion. However, he showed with his photography that a school doesn’t matter if you convert your passion into a profession.

David LaChapelle 

David LaChapelle was one of his kind photographers, since most of his work points out the mistakes in our social systems. He worked closely with the top commercial galleries, and his work was shown in the leading institutions of the time.

Anne Geddes

Born in Australia, Anne Geddes is a photographer who specializes in capturing babies and toddlers. Her work frequently uses flowers as backdrops (a technique she calls the ""Flower Head""), and her photographs usually depict both children and their parents as small, delicate people with oversized heads.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography. 

Annie Leibovitz

One of America's most influential portrait photographers. To date, she has published several books of her work which include famous celebrities and movie stars who have worked with Leibovitz on various magazine shoots over the years. Annie Leibovitz is known for her use of old-fashioned aesthetics; rich colors, studio lighting, and props are always visible within the frame.

Steve McCurry

McCurry is an internationally acclaimed photographer and photojournalist best known for his 1985 photograph of the "Afghan Girl". He is a member of the Magnum Photos agency and frequently works for National Geographic magazine. His work has been featured in many other magazines as well, including Life, GEO, The New Yorker and Paris Match.

Mario Testino

Testino has shot many famous people and brands. His work includes a variety of areas including, fashion, advertising, beauty, and glamour photography. He often uses androgynous models and well-known British celebrities in his work, such as Kate Moss. His work has been featured in top magazines including Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Marie Claire.

André Kertész

Considered by many to be the father of modern photography, Kertész's innovative ideas and techniques influenced many photographers who followed. He did not enjoy the bulk of recognition until later in his life when he moved to New York City. Most of his most famous work was produced during the 1930s and 1940s. Kertész died at the age of 86 in New York.

Andreas Gursky

Gursky's large-format images have a panoramic aspect ratio similar to the human field of vision. He began his career as a freelance photographer in 1982 while still working as a scientist at the Siemens laboratories. His first major exhibition was of industrial architecture and landscape, which gave him access to a large-format camera. His large prints of these images were first published in 1986. Gursky lives in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Considered a master of portraiture and one of the most influential photographers of his generation. His creative style incorporated nudity, flowers, and skulls. He was well-known for his large-format black and white images of male bodybuilders, flowers, self-portraits, homo-erotic imagery, photographs of well-known personalities in the art world (most notably his lover Sam Wagstaff), and his controversial depictions of African-American men. He died at 42 from AIDS-related complications.

Henri-Cartier Bresson

One of the earliest adopters of 35mm format, Bresson helped to establish photojournalism as an artistic genre. He is particularly known for his concept of 'the decisive moment' - a split second when any given photo should be taken.

Sebastião Salgado

A Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has won many awards for his work including, Hasselblad Award (1994), W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant (1993) and Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal (2004). His work is currently held in the collections of various museums around the world including, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), International Center of Photography ( New York), and Stedelijk Museum ( Amsterdam).

Brassaï

Brassaï was a Hungarian photographer who rose to international fame in France during the 30s and established his career as one of the most significant photojournalists of his generation. He was one of the first people associated with surrealism. His work includes a wide range of subjects from landscapes to portraits, nudes, and still lifes. His unique darkroom technique involved exposing light-sensitive paper directly under the enlarger's lens, which produced a heightened sense of shadow and form.

Ansel Adams

Best known for his landscape photographs of the American West and especially Yosemite National Park, in California. He is generally considered one of the greatest photographers in history and his images are widely used on commercial packaging, posters, and in magazines. His original photographic prints are valued at millions of dollars.

Robert Capa

The co-founder of the Magnum Photos agency and a war photographer renowned for his brutally realistic images. That style was epitomized in his most well-known photograph, 'The Falling Soldier', which depicted a Republican soldier during the Spanish Civil War. Sadly, it has since been revealed that the photo was staged after Capa heard the position of the soldier changed as he took two successive shots.

Conclusion

As we have mentioned some of the top photographers of all time, we are sure you would be impressed by their work. If you are now motivated and want to invest your time in photography, spend your time in the courses that enhance your photography skills. Learning from professionals is always a good choice!