Andre Giroux (1801-1879)
This famous French painter and photographer is best known for his representations of landscapes and restorations of medieval ruins. In fact, Andre Giroux was in some ways bred to be a photographer due to the fact that his dad invented camera equipment for Daguerre.
While he started out painting, Giroux also etched glass negatives to give his work a mechanical, industrial feel. He would then use his glass etchings as the basis for negatives from which he could reproduce countless photos, a technique that is known as cliché-verre. Keep reading to learn more about the life and work or Andre Giroux.
EJ Bellocq (1873-1949)
Although most of his work wasn’t seen until after his death, this wealthy Creole man is most famous for his photos of prostitutes, opium dens and other seedy areas. While most of his work was tragically destroyed after his death, some photos survived and were published in a collection entitled Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville (1996).
In general, EJ Bellocq’s photographs focused on a single woman, either nude or partially dressed. Also, in almost all of his pictures, the faces of the women are scratched out. Although there was some speculation that those who found the photos vandalized them, most experts agree that Bellocq himself was the one who scratched out the faces in order to protect the women’s identities. Read on to learn more about EJ Bellocq’s legacy.
Man Ray (1890-1976)
Although he considered himself to be a painter, Man Ray was an American photographer who did work in fashion and portrait photography. However, his most lasting legacy lies in his significant contributions to the Dada and Surrealist art movements.
The famous photographer Man Ray is best known for his work depicting images in the genres of Dadaism, surrealism, and avant-garde imagery. A master of fashion and experimental photography, Man Ray was also a painter, filmmaker, writer and philosopher. Respected as an artistic genius, Man Ray produced provocative and daring photographs.Emmanuel Radnitzky was born on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
While he started to dabble in photographic Dada work in 1916, as his practice evolved throughout the 1920s, he moved to Paris, claiming that New York was not the right place for him to produce Dada pieces. During his career, Man Ray worked with other great artists, including Picasso, Dali, Arp and Ernst. Keep reading to learn more about the life and work of Man Ray.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Without a doubt, Andy Warhol is one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century. Known as a leader in the avant-garde art world, Andy Warhol established the Pop Art movement, a trend in the art world that drew its subjects and themes from mass media and popular culture.
While Warhol is famous for his photography, he was also a prolific artist, writer, philosopher and music producer. Although he started out as an illustrator for an advertising company, during the 1960s, Warhol started painting some of his most famous works, including his pictures of the Campbell Soup can and Marilynn Monroe. Keep reading to learn more about the life and legacy of Andy Warhol.
Annie Leibovitz (1949-)
Famous for her portrait work for Rolling Stone magazine, Annie Leibovitz has photographed thousands of celebrities, ranging from John Lennon to Jack White. While her photos are famous for gracing the covers of major magazines, her work has come to be greatly respected in the art world for her ability to capture the personalities, egos and vulnerabilities of her subjects.
Over the years, Leibovitz has not only held exhibit shows at some of the nation’s most famous museums but has also published a number of books that contain collections of her work. Read on to learn more about Leibovitz’s life and work.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)
Born June 20, 1929, in Reims, France, Jean Baudrillard began his career as a translator, critic, teacher and, above all, a philosopher. However, his philosophical work often focused on objects and images, paving the way for his thematic focus in his later work in photography. In fact, his PhD thesis was called “Third Cycle Thesis: The System of Objects.” Baudrillard worked as a German teacher at a French high school.
While he is famous for his work in photography, Baudrillard is also a prolific writer, philosopher and cultural theorist. Although he refused to categorize his ideologies, some label Baudrillard as a post-structuralist, a line of thought that establishes that meaning and systems make sense only in their relationship to each other.
One of the highlights of his career was his installation and symposium entitled The Murder of the Image (2001). In this exhibition, Baudrillard claimed that photography is the perfect crime, in which the picture kills the image of the object by only leaving an illusion of the original. Keep reading to learn more about the prolific work of Baudrillard.
William Wegman
While you may have never heard of William Wegman, you have probably seen photos of his trademark Weimaraner dogs in funny, yet sincere poses. William Wegman Educational Background William Wegman was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts on December 2, 1943. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1965. Two years later, he received a Masters of Fine Arts degree… Read more >
Diane Arbus
New York photographer Diane Arbus was known for her powerful and emotional images of the outsiders in society, including the ugly, different or bizarre, as well as ordinary people she met on the streets. Arbus was regarded as a pioneer in flash photography, photographing her subjects close up in daylight. She would use a flash to isolate her subjects’ images and explore the themes of dysfunction and… Read more >
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989) was an American photographer whose elegant yet provocative black-and-white images challenged artistic conventions and sparked a national debate over public arts funding. Working primarily in studio portraiture, figure studies and still life, Mapplethorpe brought a classical sculptor's eye to his compositions, achieving extraordinary tonal gradation between blacks and whites.
Beyond his controversial Portfolio X series, Mapplethorpe served as staff photographer for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and produced iconic celebrity portraits throughout the 1980s. Keep reading to learn more about Robert Mapplethorpe.
Yutaka Takanashi
Born in 1935, Yutaka Takanashi is a Japanese photographer who pioneered a poetic approach to urban landscape photography. Rather than seeking beauty in nature, Takanashi turned his lens on Tokyo's metropolitan sprawl, finding quiet poetry in the city's streets, buildings and everyday rhythms.
His landmark series documenting Tokyo between 1978 and 1983 remains one of the most celebrated bodies of Japanese street photography. Keep reading to learn more about Yutaka Takanashi.
William Eggleston
Often called the father of color photography, William Eggleston (born 1939) transformed the medium by treating commonplace Southern American subjects — a pair of shoes under a bed, the interior of a pickup truck — with the same gravity traditionally reserved for grand subjects. His democratic approach to photography made the ordinary extraordinary.
In 1976, Eggleston's landmark solo exhibition at MoMA became the first major show devoted to color photography, a turning point that legitimized color as a serious artistic medium. Keep reading to learn more about William Eggleston.
Walter Iooss
Walter Iooss is an American photographer who defined the look of modern sports photography through his decades-long relationship with Sports Illustrated. Known for his ability to freeze peak athletic moments with striking clarity, Iooss earned his first SI cover at just 20 years old and went on to become one of the most prolific sports photographers in history.
Beyond the playing field, Iooss has also built a reputation for celebrity and music photography, bringing the same dynamic energy to portraits as he does to action shots. Keep reading to learn more about Walter Iooss.
Victor Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad (1906–1978) was a Swedish camera innovator and photographer whose revolutionary medium-format cameras changed the course of photography. His 1000F was the first 6×6 single-lens reflex camera with interchangeable lenses, a design that became the standard for studio and field photography for decades.
Hasselblad cameras famously accompanied the Apollo astronauts to the moon and remain the camera of choice on US spacecraft. An avid bird photographer himself, Hasselblad combined engineering brilliance with a genuine passion for the craft. Keep reading to learn more about Victor Hasselblad.
Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney (1941–1998) was a self-taught American photographer who captured some of the most intimate behind-the-scenes moments in 1960s rock and roll. Shooting with natural light and a candid, unposed approach, she photographed Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, and many others with a warmth and immediacy that set her apart from the era's more polished press photography.
Her ability to put subjects at ease produced images that revealed genuine personality rather than public persona. Keep reading to learn more about Linda McCartney.
Larry Clark
Born in 1943, Larry Clark is an American photographer and filmmaker known for his raw, unflinching documentary work capturing youth culture and marginalized communities. His landmark 1971 book Tulsa depicted the harsh realities of drug addiction among his own circle of friends, shot with a 35mm camera, wide-angle lens and natural light.
Clark's autobiographical, immersive approach — documenting his own experiences alongside those of his subjects — pioneered a confessional style of documentary photography that continues to influence the genre. Keep reading to learn more about Larry Clark.
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) is best known as the long-time creative director of Chanel, but his work behind the camera earned him serious recognition as a photographer in his own right. Beginning in 1987, Lagerfeld produced fashion editorials, portraits, nudes and Parisian cityscapes, publishing over 20 photography books throughout his career.
His photographic work brought the same meticulous eye for composition and elegance that defined his fashion design. Lagerfeld received the cultural prize from the German Photographic Society for his contributions to the medium. Keep reading to learn more about Karl Lagerfeld.
John Baldessari
John Baldessari (1931–2020) was an American conceptual artist who pioneered the use of photo emulsion techniques to combine photography with text and appropriated images on canvas. His work blurred the boundaries between painting and photography, often juxtaposing mass-media imagery with deadpan language to humorous and disorienting effect.
Among his best-known projects is the California Map Project, in which he photographed each letter of the word "California" at its exact location on a map of the state. Keep reading to learn more about John Baldessari.
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 1937) is a British artist whose work spans painting, photography and stage design, making him one of the most influential figures in the pop art movement. In photography, he is best known for his "Joiners" — composite images assembled from dozens of individual Polaroid shots arranged in a grid to capture multiple perspectives and moments within a single scene.
This technique challenged conventional single-point perspective and introduced a cubist approach to the photographic image. Keep reading to learn more about David Hockney.
Edgar de Evia
Edgar de Evia (1910–2003) was a Cuban-American photographer who merged fashion and fine art with a sophisticated visual sensibility. Originally trained in medicine, de Evia received his first camera — a Rolleiflex — from a mentor who taught him to see selectively, a lesson that shaped his entire career.
He became a master of soft-focus and diffusion effects, developing a signature style that brought an almost painterly quality to commercial and fashion photography. Keep reading to learn more about Edgar de Evia.
Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) was a German-born artist and photographer whose provocative work with articulated dolls made him a key figure in the Surrealist movement. He constructed life-size figures that he posed, disassembled and rearranged in unsettling configurations, then photographed the results — creating images that were equal parts sculpture and photography.
Bellmer's doll work began in part as a protest against the Nazi obsession with the idealized body, earning him the label of "degenerate" artist. Keep reading to learn more about Hans Bellmer.
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton (1920–2004) was a German-Australian photographer who revolutionized fashion photography by blending style, sexuality and cinematic drama. His bold, confrontational images — particularly his "Big Nudes" series of the 1980s, in which women faced the camera with authority rather than passivity — redefined how the female form was depicted in fashion and art.
Having fled Nazi Germany in 1938, Newton built a career spanning decades and continents, producing some of the most recognizable fashion images of the 20th century. Keep reading to learn more about Helmut Newton.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is widely regarded as the father of modern photojournalism and the photographer who defined the concept of "the decisive moment." Working with a small Leica camera, Cartier-Bresson developed a practice of patient, unobtrusive observation that allowed him to capture fleeting instants of perfect visual harmony on the street.
Originally trained as a painter, he went on to document some of the most significant events of the 20th century while co-founding the Magnum Photos agency. Keep reading to learn more about Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is a photographer who might be most well-known for her conceptual self-portraits. In her most recent series, from 2003, Sherman presents herself as a series of clowns. She has also posed as B-film, foreign film and film noir actresses. In addition to her self-portraits, Sherman has also been involved in fashion photography. In 2006, she created a series of fashion photographs for designer Marc Jacobs.
Keep reading to learn more about Cindy Sherman.
Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a photographer from the Netherlands who has worked with such well-known musical artists as Depeche Mode, U2 and Nirvana. Corbijn tends to prefer black-and-white images over highly polished glamour photography.
Keep reading to learn more about Anton Corbijn.
Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle’s work often depicts human vulnerability and examines identity and intimacy. Calle’s work, such as her projects The Hotel and The Address Book, have been known to generate controversy, as they tend to trespass into average citizen’s private lives.
In addition to photography, Calle is famous for her conceptual and installation art. Keep reading to learn more about Sophie Calle.
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is a famous German photographer who is well-known for taking photographs of large subjects, such as industrial plants and hotels, from high viewpoints. The only child of a commercial photographer, Gursky often practices photojournalism, although he sometimes uses digital editing software to manipulate his photographs.
In 2007, Gursky’s photograph 99 Cent II Diptychon sold for $3.3 million. Read on to learn more about Andreas Gursky.
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle practices fashion, advertising and fine art photography and is well-known for his humorous and often-surreal style. Throughout his career, LaChapelle has photographed such celebrities as Marilyn Manson, Uma Thurman and Drew Barrymore.
In addition to photography, David LaChapelle has directed music videos and advertisements. He has also directed films and published several books.
Keep reading to learn more about the career of David LaChapelle.
Uta Barth
Born in Berlin in 1958, Uta Barth is a German-American photographer whose intentionally out-of-focus images challenge fundamental assumptions about what a photograph is supposed to show. By blurring her subjects and stripping away recognizable detail, Barth forces viewers to confront the act of seeing itself rather than simply consuming a subject.
Her work mimics the way human peripheral vision actually processes the world — as soft, indistinct fields of color and light — making the viewer an active participant in constructing meaning. Keep reading to learn more about Uta Barth.
Sally Mann
Sally Mann (born 1951) is an American photographer best known for her intimate and often controversial family portraits and Southern landscape work. Her photographs of her own children, published in the collection Immediate Family, sparked fierce debate about the boundaries of art and privacy while establishing her as one of the most important American photographers of her generation.
In her later work, Mann turned to landscape photography using imperfect antique lenses and the wet-plate collodion process, producing ghostlike, pictorialist images of the American South. Keep reading to learn more about Sally Mann.
Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer whose vivid, snapshot-style color images document her own life and the lives of those closest to her with unflinching intimacy. Her landmark slideshow The Ballad of Sexual Dependency became one of the most influential works of documentary photography in the late 20th century, presenting love, loss and addiction through deeply personal imagery.
Goldin's work has been driven in part by personal tragedy — including the loss of friends to AIDS — and her belief that photography can preserve what memory cannot. Keep reading to learn more about Nan Goldin.
Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts (1952–2002) was an American photographer whose sculptural black-and-white portraits of celebrities and models evoked classical Greek and Renaissance aesthetics. His minimalist style — often shot outdoors in natural light against stark desert or beach backdrops — stripped away artifice to emphasize the form and beauty of the human body.
Ritts' career was launched in 1978 when an impromptu desert shoot of a then-unknown Richard Gere changing a tire became iconic. He went on to direct landmark music videos and produce some of the most recognizable fashion imagery of the 1980s and 1990s. Keep reading to learn more about Herb Ritts.