Photography is marked by great photographers. Meet 5 photographers, who influenced me in the way I see and photograph. I have written posts about these and other photographers in the past. Let me give you a bit more background about each of them.
1 Henri Cartier-Bresson
Born: 22 August 1908 – Died: 3 August 2004
Henri Cartier-Bresson was legendary for his photography of the “decisive moment”. He was on of the really great photographers and almost every photographer has seen at least some of his pictures. The quality of his work is outstanding.
He had an eye for instant composition and did it without rearranging the environment, but by finding the right angle. Until he decided to return to painting as art form, he used mostly a Leica with a standard 50mm lens and occasionally a wider angle lens.
By minimizing the amount of equipment he used, he increased his chance of the getting the photo he wanted. Why? Well, for one he wouldn’t change a lens or camera and miss out on the opportunity of the decisive moment. I also believe that limiting choices, helps in working with what you have available and find creative ways of composing images. Thirdly, the less complicated the gear, the less you have to focus on the technical aspects of photography. You work more organic with the camera.
Another aspect of Cartier-Bresson’s work that fascinates me, is his dislike for flash photography. He didn’t use flash for his own work and still created some of the most amazing imagery in photographic history. Wikipedia offers a good overview about Cartier-Bresson and his work.
2 Alfred Eisenstaedt
Born: 6 December – 1898 Died: 24 August 1994
Alfred Eisenstaedt started his career in Germany in the 1920 and migrated to the United States in 1935 after the Nazis took power in Germany. The image on the left is probably the most popular of Eisenstaedt’s photographs. It was taken on 14 August 1945, when President Truman announced the end of the war with Japan.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is known as the photographer with the largest number of title images for Life Magazine. Eisenstaedt was another Leica photographer and throughout his career also had a great sense of humor.
I remember watching a short documentary about his work and was fascinated by his photography and him as character. He would almost randomly take a box of images, take the images out and tell stories surrounding those images.
In one of his books, he describes on how nervous he was when he photographed Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer and frankly forgot to put film into his camera. He realized his mistake, sneaked out of the room pretending something was wrong with his camera and loaded film into it.
His humor and humbleness display an attitude a lot of us photographers can learn from. You can also find a good article about him on Wikipedia.
3 Ansel Adams
Born: 20 February 1902 – Died: 22 April 1984
Henri Cartier-Bresson and Alfred Eisenstaedt were people photographers. Ansel Adams was the most successful landscape photographer. Ansel Adams is probably the best known photographer in this list. His iconic images are famous for their technical perfection. Ansel Adams created the zone system, which in short help pre visualizing the final image, before you even shoot the image. Adams fine tuned his technique and not only pre-visualize the images, but made technical decisions on how to develop the film right in that moment. He worked mostly with large format cameras and did not have ( nor needed) the luxury of testing different exposures.
Other than Cartier-Bresson, Adams saw the photographic process from exposure to print as one. He printed his images himself. Cartier-Bresson believed in composing and creating the image in the camera. That was the beginning and end of the creative process. For Adams, exposing the image was only the very first step in the photographic process.
You might not know two things about this great photographer. For one, Adams worked also as commercial photographer, photographing interior design etc. The second fact might be more amazing. He created a couple of color landscape images as well and was quoted that in another life, he would love to be a colour photographer.
4 Ernst Haas
Born: 2 March 1921 – Died: 12 September 1986
Ernst Haas grew up in Austria and Germany and migrated later to the United States. He, later would work for the Magnum Photo Agency, which was co-founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Ernst Haas, is in my opinion the first photographer, who used colour photography as creative medium. Even though the technology of colour photography was around for many years – the first Kodachrome film was produced in 1935 – it only became more common in the 1970s. The first pictures by Ernst Haas, I saw were part of the Creation series. These images followed the 7 days of creation by photographing nature and nature closeups. It was a search for symbols in his environment to tell the story of creation.
Ernst Haas was not only art photographer, but also editorial and commercial photographer. To a wider extent than Adams, he proves that commercial work does not limit creative work.
Ernst Haas has a dedicated website, which is worth more than one visit.
5 Sebastião Salgado
Born: 8 February 1944
Sebastião Salgado’s work encouraged me to buy his book Other Americas in 1987. Why is this so memorable for me? Well, I had to order the book from overseas in a period before the Internet and Amazon. It was quite a process to order a book overseas in those days. I first noticed Salgado in a documentary on photography on German television. It was a close up observation of his work, when he photographed amongst others workers in a Chines bicycle factory. His imagery was so different to many other photographs I have seen before. Even though he just met these workers, he was able to connect with them across language barriers and portray them as if he had known them for years. The other observation for me, was that he was singing while on assignment, interchanging singing with smiling and thanking his subjects with a small bow for allowing him to photograph them.
Sebastião Salgado started his career relatively late in his life. He is an economist by trade. He photographs mostly in black and white and his technique is exquisite. For a while he worked with Magnum Photos, but started his own agency called Amazons Images. His work is deeply socially involved.
These are the 5 photographers, I wanted to share with you. They are mostly natural light photographers and often their images are just the beginning of a story. Share with me, which photographers you admire. Who did you miss on this short list? I look forward to your comments.
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