Admiration Society

[Bill Pierce]

What are the traits of the photographers you admire the most? I’m lucky. My job put me into contact with many of the photographers that I admire and, thus, am able to see a common thread that may not be immediately obvious from just looking their photographs

Avedon, Penn, Smith, Vestal, McCullin, Nachtwey, Erwitt, Winogrand, Mydans and Arbus are/were incredibly hard workers, just about the least lazy folks in the world. I have no idea where talent resides, but it’s certainly invisible if you don’t work. That’s the lesson learned from these folks.

Who do you admire, and what have they taught you?

 

[gdmcclintock]

Atget, who proved artistic growth never ceases.

 

[ChipMcD]

Atget, who proved artistic growth never ceases.

Lee Friedlander, for the same reason and for his sense of humor as well.

 

[SciAggie]

That is an interesting question. I cannot comment on photographers that are well known in a larger sense like those mentioned. But as I read the first post, a particular photographer came to my mind. Thomas Metthe is a photographer for one of the papers in my area. Not a large publication by any measure. I admire him a great deal.

He takes sports images for the paper. He also takes pictures for the writers at the paper. He ALWAYS has images that I admire. He ALWAYS seems to get a great sports shot. He gets the shot of the touchdown, interception, or fumble. In the human interest pieces he always seems to capture part an attitude or personality or quality that makes his images more than just a recording. I have visited with him and he has been generous with advice and was very humble.

The best compliment I can give him is that when I open the Sunday paper, I look for his work first, then read the paper second.

What he has taught me is that there are stories/ pictures all around us in the people we know and the events that take place. The trick is to have the interest to see the pictures and then the skill to capture them in a way such that the final image is more than the sum of its parts.

 

[Tom Rymour]

Phillip Jones-Griffiths was a Welsh mensch. I hung around with him a little in '65 in Rhodesia, and used to visit him in London later on. His fascinating and disturbing tales of Vietnam were spot-on, as were his predictions of how it would all end. Phillip was a photo perfectionist and a steely seeker after truth. The guy had brains, a lot of guts, and he could charm the birds out of the trees. He had a great sense of humour and a love of irony. As for what he taught me, I have most of his books, especially Vietnam Inc.

 

[rogerzilla]

Jane Bown.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2009/oct/22/jane-bown-photography

I think she uses an old Nikon SLR with a 50mm lens for everything. There's a shot of HCB with a Leica M3 in the gallery.

 

[kshapero]

Jane Bown.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2009/oct/22/jane-bown-photography

I think she uses an old Nikon SLR with a 50mm lens for everything. There's a shot of HCB with a Leica M3 in the gallery.

Never heard of her until now, she is an amazing photographer.

 

[twopointeight]

Nice to see Philip Jones-Griffiths name above. I too spent time with him, in Asia, including a great trip to Angkor Wat. A Welsch mensch, I like that.