Favorite Photographers

Off and on for the past several months, I’ve been working on fleshing out my list of favorite photographers. I had compiled an earlier version of this page a number of years ago when my understanding of the history of photography wasn’t quite well formed. Since then, I’ve been reading a ton of books and online sources, and I’ve been learning about photographers who I understood poorly or who I had yet to discover at all.

Seeking to gain a more comprehensive body of knowledge, I overhauled this section and transformed it into something that is less of a list and more of a multifaceted historical discussion. I also include several examples from the work of photographers who I admire. Check it out.

On top of everything I learned, one other thing became obvious to me: the degree to which most of these individuals were connected to each other in some form or fashion. Alfred Stieglitz knew Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston. Edward Steichen knew Willy Ronis, Frank Horvat, Elliott Erwitt, and Louis Faurer. Elliott Erwitt knew Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bression, and Ernst Haas. Louis Faurer knew Robert Frank. Robert Frank influenced Lee Friedlander. Lee Friedlander was friends with Garry Winogrand. And so on.

How many photographers operated in obscurity but created work that is the equal to or better than all of these others? How much of their work is lost and forgotten? Would we be celebrating them, too, if only the politics of art galleries and museums allowed for the exhibition of their work? How many others are active today but fly completely under the radar, content to produce equally good work that doesn’t turn up on social media?