Major Influences ???

John Bragg

John Bragg

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Apart from the Magnum photographers, I guess there was one overriding influence in my choosing to become a Rangefinder user. I became enamoured of the documentary style and sheer talent of James Ravilious. His ability to document a disappearing rural life fascinated me...........

http://www.jamesravilious.com/gallerypic.asp?gallery_id=12

Who would you cite as your inspiration ?
 
You asked so difficult that no one answered...

I am afraid that I just like making pictures. Influence? I do not know but one of the photographer I most admire is Sandy Skoglund...

GLF
 
In my case I started to use a rangefinder before starting my photographic education. Willy Ronis is certainly someone I look up to but I think he uses a Rolleiflex.
 
influence all the dudes HERE!

I never really studied other's photos, I know the one's that impressed me [THE FLAG on Iwo Jima, the soldier as he was hit [WWI? Spanish war cannot remember] the Viet Nam officer shooting a Viet Cong, the girl running from the napalm, ok and most of Ansel Adams stuff


but How I got involved with RFs here and here alone
 
HCB and Ansel Adams were my early influence.

other influences: Irving Penn, Kertezs, Walker Evans, Eugene Smith, Karsh, Newman, Newton.

Later influences: Salgado, Friedlander, August Sander, Mary Ellen Mark
 
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I had a highschool class in motion picture studies, especially Film Noir. It lead me to look at some of the inspirations and that meant getting into biographies and history... and in the literature/history books they rely on those classic b/w photos. Badda bing. My earliest "photo books" were MOMA's 'The Family of Man' and Life magazine's "classics" collections. And now I collect National Geographics.

Some of the attraction to older shots is nostalgia and sentimentality for the pic's context and/or the subject (admit it, are there any bad shots of Audrey Hepburn) and the styles of shooting.

As to particular shooters... so many!
 
Interestingly the opening of this thread suggests that we are inspired both by a photographer and the camera he uses at the same time. Or if by owning his instrument we could inherit his/her talent too.

But in my case it never worked this way, and the camera used by photographers I admired and admire today, has always been for me a folkloristic detail.

I gravitated from slr to rf in pursue of quiet cameras.

As for influence of photographers on me, I will not claim that the following folk is the best, but definitely he has gave me a tremendous inspiration, sparking my imagination and pushing me towards his photographic genre: our RFF member Beniliam.

I happened to come into some relationship with this kid, and upon our exchange I can testify, that in contrast to those cases in which a highly popular artist happens to be just a single talented flat mind, Beniliam is a full phylosopher of photography, art and life, very much sharp in what he looks for. And an extra ordinary humble man too. Unfortunately his English control limits his written contributions here to random technical issues here and there. But ask him in Spanish about his opinion on x camera or x photographer and you will get from him the real ABC of the issue.

I don't need to be a HCB, a tenth of Beniliam will suffice.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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dostacos said:
influence all the dudes HERE!

I never really studied other's photos, I know the one's that impressed me [THE FLAG on Iwo Jima, the soldier as he was hit [WWI? Spanish war cannot remember] the Viet Nam officer shooting a Viet Cong, the girl running from the napalm, ok and most of Ansel Adams stuff


but How I got involved with RFs here and here alone
Click to expand...

I'd have to give a ditto here. Sure, I can name off a handful of photographers whose work I admire, but nobody's influenced me more than amateur photographers, hobbyists, and photobloggers who share their work and interact with others on the internet.

I guess being a relatively newcomer with photography (~3 years), technology can have that sort of effect.
 
Lately i'm into James Nachtwey. Being that he still shoots partially film so you know his images are real, and have dimension and character to them. As well as his dedication and philosophy behind his work.
 
Art movements in general. Painters like Renoir, Picasso, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Vermeer, etc in particular. Now also Rodchenko, Moholy-Nagy, and many many more. But also tangkas, illuminations, video clips, collage, etc. And then comics, literature, poetry, song lyrics, music in general, and all the other forms of human expression.
 
I was first drawn to rf photography when I came across Alex Webb's book "Crossings." I have never tried to emulate Webb's photographic style. But from the outset, I have been very inspired by his approach to photography and by his sense of how to communicate through photographs.
 
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Jaroslav Rossler
Josef Sudek
Frantisek Drtikol

I got the RF bug because I discovered that the Yashica GSN had certain advantages over an SLR, which I had previously used pretty much exclusively, except for some TLR work. I found RFF more or less after I started playing around with rangefinders.
 
My first rf was an Olympus model which was stolen within a year. It was nice sometimes to carry it rather than a lot of SLR gear or the Yashica MAT. Both were stolen at the same time. An acquaintance from Japan talked me into a Super Press 23. I had never hear of them, only the Universal. I have loved that camera ever since.

But I am not into rf as an end to itself. It is another tool. The canonet is fun to carry sometimes. But to me they are tools. (Ducks behind the nearest protection and prepares for incoming).

As to photographers, I am like many in that there isn't just one. W. Eugene Smith, Ansel Adams, Jerry Ulhsman (spelling?), all with their own styles come to mind. However, many photographers have inspired me to try different things. That would include some here and some at Pop Photo's BB. Good photographs are inspiring no matter who does them.
 
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