Three favorite photos

[Ranchu]

Other people's photos, the first three you think of?

 

[peterm1]

1) Almost any image by Max Dupain an Australian photographer who was one of the great masters of light. If I must pick one photo only it could be the following shot of Sydney made in 1938. (I am afraid this is a poor low res copy but in real life the image has lovely tonal values that match Ansell Adams at his best) Many non Australians on this forum may not have heard of Dupain but I find it hard to name a photographer who mastered such a wide range of photographic subjects - but then again he worked from the early 1930s through to his death in 1992.

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/collection_images/1/152.1982%23%23S.jpg

2) This shot by HCB which opened me up to the importance of composition, timing and the way people interact with their built environment.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/henri_cartier_bresson_bicycle.jpg

3) And maybe this one by Saul Leiter because it typified his quirky approach to photography and showed how he marched to the beat of his own drum. In reality every one of his images are favorites of mine just as with Dupain's images so this test to come up with three favorites has to be interpreted in that light.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0jPWfz3Ep...Q/yXp4_N52BZ8/s1600/2934726408_46c2cdc2a1.jpg

 

[Pherdinand]

must be mainbocher corset from horst p. horst + they are coming! from helmut newton + a few from robert capa but there i have trouble picking one only

 

[Richard G]

Peter, that's a wonderful shot of Sydney by Max Dupain. Great you flew the flag there. I am further influenced by your choices.

1. Andre Kertesz: Chez Mondrian
2. Andre Kertesz: Meudon 1928
3. Took a while to decide on a third one and had to go with Saul Leiter too: Joanna.

 

[Ranchu]

I wanted to put mine in the mix rather than make them part of the OP. These are what ocurred to me...

Winogrand, Los Angeles

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/winogrand/winogrand_la_sidewalk_full.html

Avedon, Dovima with the elephants

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/dovima-with-the-elephants/

McCullin, Homeless Irishman, Aldgate, East End, London

http://artblart.com/tag/don-mccullin-old-vietnamese-man/

 

[kbg32]

My all time favorite - Windowsill Daydreaming, by Minor White. This image always sets me right....

 

[Erik van Straten]

 

[mfogiel]

The first, by a wide margin, is a photo by Eugene Smith:
http://museografo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/w_-eugen-smith-2.jpg
Then, there are many great photographs, this one by Cartier Bresson from Sumatra for example:
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16121/lot/118/
The list would not be complete without a female nude - this one by Weston is probably the first that comes to my mind:
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/weston/weston_nude_1936_full.html

 

[rhl-oregon]

My first choice (springs to mind unbidden) agrees with Marek: Eugene Smith's Minamata pieta (link above). I understand it far better in my 60s than I did in my teens.

Dorothea Lange's Okie mother/kids. It stands for the significance of the Farm Security Administration project, and goes back (in my visual memory) as far as I can remember: http://bit.ly/1zbpZCR

Avedon's white-out portraits. The double one of Ezra Pound will do, but there are so many more, and the best ones strip away everything but the surface of the spirit and character (e.g., his portrait of William Casby or Ronald Fischer the beekeeper.)

 

[kxl]

Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" and other photos from the FSA project.

Just about any image by Sebastiao Salgado.

 

[Roger Hicks]

But you may remember things from when you were younger and your tastes were different.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Ranchu]

The first three you think of, Roger. If you want to wank, do it elsewhere.

 

[Erik van Straten]

I love the Cartier-Bresson picture above very much of the man with the bowl-hat at the side-walk café.

In the reflection of the window you can see Cartier-Bresson himself with his Leica equipped with a right-angle finder WINKO. Incredible. Can you see it too, or is it just me?

Erik.

 

[DominikDUK]

1) Mainbocher Corset by Horst P.Horst is for me the epitome of elegance and erotism
2) Bewegungsstudie by Rudolf Koppitz another very elegant picture that really is a portrait of its time Beauty, Death and Decay
3) Kentucky Flood by Margaret Bourke White

Too bad I couldn'thave chosen a fourth one as Erwin Blumenfeld's color work is just sublime

 

[tunalegs]

If I think three most memorable photos, three which come to mind immediately are the people running for the lifeboats on the sinking S.S. Vestris, Forman's Fire on Marlborough Street, and Lartigue's distorted race car.

None of which are pleasant photos to look at, but which leave a permanent impression on the viewer.

Three photos that came to mind from my faves on flickr (of which I have over 4000 now)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinenter/14723225044/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mexad/2129465213/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacquesdevos/6404027481/

I should make a book - My favorite 100 photos of flickr.

 

[RichC]

Lee Miller in Hitler's bath by David Scherma [link]
(Miller was not only a brilliant photographer but led an amazing life - except after WW2, when she suffered from what we'd now call post-traumatic stress disorder, resulting from her experiences as a war correspondent)

"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange [link]
(Hmm - not noticed before but Lange's focus is off!)

"Glyndebourne, 1967" by Tony Ray Jones [link]
(A quintessentially English photographer who sadly died young)