30 Famous Photographers who changed the World
Photography is one of the most amazing artists that one can venture into and experience the most fun out of it. To some of the greatest artists, photography is not just a daily activity that brings food to the table, but an opportunity to explore the beauty in the creation. There are some of the most phenomenon photographers who have gone the extra mile and caused tremendous changes in the world of photography. Photography is one of the best ways that has been used during the past year to create memories and remember the good moments.
Below are the 30 famous photographers who changed the world
1. Nicephore Niepce
Nicephore Niepce was a popular French inventor who came up with the camera to capture outside of his window. He however had a problem convincing his contemporaries about the significance of his discovery. Later on, he partnered with Louis whose vast knowledge and skills had made photography easier and more accessible. He however passed on early before he could witness the magnitude of his invention.
2. Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Johnston opened her studio in Washington DC in 1894 and became the only female photographer in the city. It was that same year when the famous writer, Sarah Grand brought forth the idea of “new women” which resulted in several career-minded women. Three years later, she came up with the phrase “What a Woman Can Do with a Camera” an article that appeared in several women’s Home Journals. She also played a significant role in advocating for women in the photography industry to earn a living as modern women.
3. Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams was one of the landscape photographers who felt very comfortable in the terrains of Sierra Nevada. Some of the instruments that he was involved in were very key in the conservation of the wilderness in the American West. Although he spent about 18 hours in his photographic career, he was also devoted to the protection of the national parks. He also campaigned massively for the establishment of new parks.
4. Walker Evans
Walker Evans was a popular photographer who was recognized for playing a significant role in covering depression for RA/FSA. He proved to have one of the most influential works after his publications “American Photographs” were displayed at MoMA in 1938. His work later played a significant role in inspiring several American photographers such as Diane Arbus and Robert Frank.
5. Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh is a legendary American-Canadian photographer who significantly shaped the great memories of the Second World War. He was involved in several countless portraits with his most famous portrait being Winston Churchill in 1941. He only had one chance to take a picture that brought forth the unforgettable expression on Churchill’s face. He also took a photo of the popular artists, writers, and scientists whose work has defined the 20th century.
6. Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks is one of the talented photojournalists who had the opportunity to intersect with others on the list. He played a significant role in the FSA and Life. He is known to have created the most fascinating photographs from the Civil Rights Movement. He had the opportunity to create some phenomenon portraits for some great people including Malcolm X, King Jr., and Martin Luther.
7. Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret was the first ever female photographer in the United States who mostly took sharp and poignant pictures. The pictures she took later came to be the definition of American culture during the middle of the 20th century. She was also recognized as one of the greatest photojournalists in history after her work on the construction of the Fort Peck Dam was featured.
8. Consuelo Kanaga
Consuelo was one of the popular photographers who came up during the 20th century in the United States. She mostly focused on the political as well as the social struggles of the African-Americans. She also laid more emphasis on famous faces which included the likes of Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. Her spectacular work was mostly defined by the unique blend of social awareness.
9. Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange’s fascinating works in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s are a definition of what the phase of the great depression in the United States looked like. One of her greatest works named “Migrant Mother” not only brought the depression of the Americans in the living room but also distinguished the affected and those who were not yet affected. Her great shot is a pure revelation of the perseverance of a mother against all odds.
10. Carol Guzy
Carol Guzy is one of the most magnificent journalists to ever win the newspaper photographer award of the year. Not only was she the first female to ever receive the award but she was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize about four times. She has thus managed to capture both the triumph as well as the tragedy of humans in the entire world. Her work shows some significant features such as the Colombian volcano eruption and the effects of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
11. Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin was a great photographer who was mostly featured during the early 1980s and loved taking photos of her friends. In her series of photos, she has a collection of about 700 pictures taken across different parts of New York, Boston, and Berlin. She captured realities that showed the widespread AIDS and drug abuse crisis which most of her subjects had succumbed to by the 1990s. She also displays the various trials that young people underwent during the 1980s.
12. Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems is a professional photographer who mostly addresses the theme of gender, culture, and class as it relates to the history of the US. She has one of her projects named The Kitchen Table Series which features a woman’s life as she comes of age which eventually creates a narrative that strikes the heart of domestic life. From her fascinating works, she was awarded the MacArthur Fellows called Genius which is currently the most influential contemporary artist.
13. Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman came out to the limelight after her self-portraits collection named “Untitled Film Stills”. The pictures display the stereotypes of how women are made to portray in the film while giving some critique of the saturation of images in the media. Currently, Cindy is renowned worldwide as the most prolific artist of her generation and still produces other works which emphasized cultural critique.
14. Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins was a professional photographer who was able to bridge the gap that existed between the invention of photography and its role as a scientific component. With this technology, she was able to document some of her specimens through a process called cyanotype. She made history in the world by illustrating her book using photographs that proved the importance of the medium in sciences.
15. Julia Margaret Cameron
Julie Margaret was a unique photographer who claimed her position in the books of history for her work although her career was short-lived. The incorporation of literary and mystic themes was responsible for creating some of the magnificent pictures. This style of shooting however became very popular during the 19th-century era and attracted some popular subjects such as Lord Tennyson and Charles Darwin.
16. Gertrude Kasebier
Gertrude Kasebier was one of the phenomenon photographers whose portfolio was built over her entire lifetime. Some of her spectacular pictures, brilliantly capture the great theme of femininity and motherhood. Since Gertrude has prior knowledge of painting, she was able to incorporate some of her romantic poses and soft haziness into the new genre of photography which made her work exceptional.
17. Alice Austen
Alice Austen began her career in photography at a very tender age when she received her first camera from her uncle at the age of ten. During her lifetime, she took several pictures of places, people, and sights of New York City as well as the surrounding regions. Although she had a very successful career, she, however, slipped into obscurity and later became homeless and poor in her old age.
18. Berenice Abbott
Berenice began to pursue he career in photography immediately after she completed her school in New York City and left for Paris. In Paris, she found herself in the center of Europe’s avant-garde art scene which motivated her desire for photography. After receiving support from the US government her New York pictures captured America during a season of extreme flux which set the tone for street photography in the years that followed.
19. Lee Miller
Lee Miller was a Professional photographer who began her career at the tender age of 19 when she was almost hit by a car. After she was rescued from the terrible incident, she left for Paris where she pursued her career as a surrealist artist. Later in 1932 after completing her studies, she went back to New York and opened her new photo studio. She was also named the official photographer for Vogue during the Second World War. During the event, she managed to do some of the most terrible aspects of the war.
20. Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus was a unique photographer who came into the limelight during the mid-20th century in America. Although most photographers focused on the family-friendly phase, she tended to move toward the marginalized. She captured some of the photos that people would consider “freaks” including transgender people, dwarfism, and carnival performers. As a professor in the field of photography, she was able to inspire the entire generation of young people particularly to pursue imperfect in their work.
21. Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri is one of the most respected photographers who was the co-founder of the Mangum together with David Seymour and Robert Capa. Due to his photography career, he is credited as the father of the street photography movement. He is also known to have introduced the term “The Decisive Moment”. This was the term that was greatly adopted by the photographers to press the shutter button moments before the event.
22. Philippe Halsman
Philippe was a professional photographer who lived between 1906 and 1979. He is also recognized to have made a significant contribution to the fashion magazine as he departed from Austria to France. Soon after he was able to build a reputation as one of the greatest portrait photographers who ever lived in France. His foundation is a collection of wonderful works and one of his most notable works was that of Salvador Dali which are out-of-this-world images.
23. Brassai
Brassai was a well-known Hungarian-French photographer who was born in Transylvania and lived between 1899 and 1984. He also had a career in Journalism in Europe and became one of the few artists from Hungary to thrive in Paris between the first and Second World Wars. He is currently known due to his wonderful night photography that took place in France during the 1930s. His works are considered a great study of shape since they are all filled with subtle shapes.
24. Man Ray
Emmanuel Rasnitzky popularly known as Man Ray was born in the United States between 1890 and 1976. As a well-known photographer, he contributed massively to the Dada and Surrealist movements. May Ray was also recognized for his wonderful innovative techniques, portrait photography, and stunning fashion. After he left for Paris, he fell in love with Alice Prin and she became the subject of some of his photographs.
25. Weegee
Weegee who was a professional photographer was born in Zloczow and named Usher Felling but later changed to Arthur Felling. He later left for the United States where he was popularly known as Weegee. Weegee became popular for his black-and-white street photography that used to portray emergencies and crime scenes. Whenever an incident occurred, he would rush to the scene with the cops and that made his photographs more valuable to the members of the press.
26. Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen was an exceptional photographer who was popularly known for her work and lived between 1940 and 2015. Her photography career included documentary photography, advertising photography, portraiture, and photojournalism. Most of her photos depicted a sense of care and closeness she photographed her entire career. She was also very good at the composition of her framing although she, however, hated the idea of cropping pictures after she had captured the image.
27. Robert Capa
Robert Capa was an Austria-Hungary who was born in Budapest in 1913. He was a very significant Hungarian war photographer who left behind a comprehensive body of work. Robert was also a co-founder of Magnum Photos in corroboration with George Rodger and William Vandivert. Although he wanted to be a waiter while he grew up, he finally fell in love with photography during his early years.
28. Gerda Taro
Gerda Taro was a very talented photographer although she did not live long to explore the world of photography. She was also involved in war photography together with his companion Robert Capa who was a professional partner. She is very popular as being the first female to ever cover the frontline of the war. She is also recognized to be the first woman to ever die while taking photos on the frontline war.
29. Sally Mann
Sally Mann is a well-known American photographer who was mostly involved in the large format of black and white photographs. She has one piece of her work titled “Immediate Family” which contains about 65 images of her children. The book covers various topics of their childhood from joyful moments to gloomy ones. In her work, she also depicts some aspects of loneliness, injury, sexuality, insecurities, and death.
30. William Eggleston
William is an American photographer who was born in 1939 and became popular for his struggle to increase the recognition of color photography. His wonderful images were also presented to the Museum of Modern Art of New York and marked the beginning of Art photography. Although he had some great works, they were however critiqued by Hilton Kramer who termed his work as an “elegant snapshot”.
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