Which photographers inspire you?

Ragnar Axelsson: www.rax.is and James Ravilious: www.jamesravilious.com In both cases their focus has seemed to be on recording dying patterns of life in rural areas: Ravilous in South-West England and Axelsson in Greenland, the Faeroes and in his native Iceland. Ravilious died some years ago but Ragnar Axelsson is still working. From my perspective both have produced outstandingly beautiful images and both seem curiously overlooked. As far as I know, Ravilious used Leica rangefinders exclusively with older, uncoated lenses and I'm sure I've read that Axelsson has tended to use Leica M because of the extreme cold in which he often works in. They're both definitely worth exploring.
 
Ansel Adams, André Kertesz, James Ravilious, W Eugene Smith, Jacques Henri Lartigue -- so many more...

In many ways though I'm more informed by painters, the romantics and the impressionists when it comes to my landscapes though.
 
I am much more inspired by painters such as Edward Hopper. Most people know Hopper from his "Nighthawks". You can't help but react in some emotional level to his paintings . This is something I strive for but often in vain.
 
Roger Fenton. Margaret Bourke-White. Sebastiao Salgado. Early David Bailey. And about 10% of what I see every year at Arles, from the classics (Willy Ronis, for example) to relative unknowns such as Cécile de Corniquet. If you can stand Cécile's website, www.cecileetlaurent.com (it's slow, gimmicky and irritating) you'll fnd some great pictures.

Cheers,

R.
 
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