Who's your (photographic) inspiration?

[jlw]

Oldie: Merlyn Severn, who during the 1930s through '50s made pictures that should have been nearly impossible with the RF technology of the day. She was not a "technical" photographer at all, but got great photos purely through ingenuity and empathy.

(Example: she decided to photograph a chameleon's tongue as it caught a fly, something that never had been photographed until then. Today we might use a set of high-speed strobes and a laser trigger. The way Merlyn did it was to buy a chameleon, keep it as a pet, and watch it carefully as she fed it every day until she knew when and how it would react. Then she was able to make the photo with nothing more than a Contax II, a simple close-up attachment, and her shutter finger.)

Current: Lois Greenfield, who does brilliant work, has a deep intellectual understanding of the aesthetics of photography, is an articulate writer and speaker as well as an insightful photographer, and as a bonus is a terrifically nice person (not always a given; Cartier-Bresson, for example, was an exploitive scumball...)

 

[Kin Lau]

"insert sound of sucking up"... the photographer's here on RFF have been an influence.

Freeman Patterson and National Geographic for Nature, Ansel Adams for b&w and landscapes.

For specifically the RF style (PJ), it's Life magazine, RFF and also the Leica, Street & Doc and Wedding forum on Photo.net

 

[taffer]

"insert sound of sucking up"... the photographer's here on RFF have been an influence.

No kidding, RFF and the members here have probably put more photography in my life than anything else 🙂

Oh, and I forgot, they have also put a lot of cameras in my life 😀

I still have too many work to check, but so far I find something special in Doisneau's pictures.

 

[bmattock]

Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Seriously.

http://www.geh.org/ne/str085/htmlsrc8/meatyard_sld00001.html

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Note: I have to say this - every time I mention Meatyard, it's like I just farted in church. Everybody gets quiet and looks away. What is it that nobody gets Meatyard? I can't help it if Diane Arbus strikes me as terribly boring and ordinary and <i>pedestrian</i>. I look at Paul Strand's work and expect to see some deeper meaning, but they're just pretty pictures. Adams and Weston were pioneers, but you see one...blah blah blah. Steichen - interesting for the role he played, ushering in the Photo-Secessionists and so on - but worn out and useless by the end. I look at Atget and see something interesting, but not enough of it. Capa? Sorry, don't get it.

I have found the most interesting photographers in the pages of magazines like Shots or Amateur Photographer or Juxtapoz or the Australian magazine Photo Life. I like a lot of what I see here - some of it blows me away and makes me ashamed of my pathetic attempts.

But Meatyard says something to me - and it is not just the 'masks' he often put on his subjects. He understood, he 'got it.' I don't know why nobody else seems to like him. I guess I like him for the same reason I like Charles Bukowski as a writer. Anyway, that's my rant. Sorry!

 

[oftheherd]

I have to agree with the previously stated ideas that there are many whose photographs have inspired me. Not usually all their photographs, but some, and that includes some of the greats. I also include folks like those of us in RFF and other internet sites. Some really interesting things to be seen and tried and adapted to our style (whatever that may be).

I was surprised to see W. Eugene Smith and Edward Weston not in most everone's posts. But AA was much mentioned. He did some great things, no doubt. But I don't find all his work setting me of fire. Oh well, I am always different that others I guess.

 

[scottgee1]

Well, all of the above have certainly influenced me. I'll add a few that haven't been mentioned.

David Douglas Duncan was my first conscious inspiration. Dad bought me a book club edition of Yankee Nomad when I was ~12 years old and it transported me into other worlds. Still have that original copy. I revisited DDD recently via Photo Nomad which is not as well printed, but a better overview of one of photography's great shooters and curmudgeons.

Duane Michals made me think about how imagery can be used in a totally different way.

Avedon for his amazing combination of technical skill and ability to connect with people in a unique way. Watch the WNET video "Darkness and Light" while he conducts a master class. Also for his ability to reinvent his work over a career that spanned more than half a century.

Salgado has already been mentioned so I'll add that he somehow communicates the emotional core of his subject in a way that bypasses my intellect and goes straight to my emotions.

Sheesh! This question makes me realize how many wonderful photographers work I've seen over the years and how many ways there are to use the medium!

Thanks!/Scott

 

[Peter]

I guess all the talks on our favourite photographers depend on our approach to photography. I like documentary since young (still and motion) that is why I like the raw feeling of Capa's work and the moment (reality) capturing ability of Cartier-Bresson. We just see what we want to see.

 

[Bertram2]

I still have too many work to check, but so far I find something special in Doisneau's pictures.

Ahh, a related soul 🙂
Excepted HCB the french heroes do not seem to be very popular here..

 

[Sean Reid]

BTW, speaking of inspiration...I had been fascinated by Walker Evans' subway pictures since I first saw them in 1984. In 1992 I began to photograph people on the subways in NYC and Budapest, Hungary. The pictures, of course, assumed their own direction but I owe the start to Evans. Evans, whenever possible, used to bring Helen Levitt with him on the trains so that he looked less suspicious. Helen later went on to make her own subway pictures and was still making them when I started to meet with her in the early 90s. If anyone's curious, some of the pictures I made during that time are on-line. I'm afraid the print quality is uneven as the web pictures are mostly scans from work prints. Still, if anyone's interested: http://www.still-photo.net/archive/subway/

Cheers,

Sean

 

[ddutchison]

Josef Sudek remains the photographer I admire most, especially his still lifes, which play so well with optical illusion, and evoke a wide range of emotion. To make so much out of such simple subjects...

There are a group of photographers I find inspirational for their courage, and refusal to "turn a blind eye" to what was before them; Robert Frank, Eugene Smith, and especially Kryn Taconis. He was a photographer who documented the Nazi occupation of Holland, using a Rollieflex hidden in a briefcase.

One amazing shot he took was pretty much a head & shoulders portrait of one very "P"'d-off looking German Military Policeman, standing in front of newly pasted poster from the Dutch resistance. He later went on to shoot for Magnum, but was expelled (or quit) when his photographs of Algerian rebels were deemed to be too anti-French. Not many Photographers would give up a seat at Magnum over its editorial policy.

I also like Weegee for his complete and utter lack of artistic pretention, and his bizzarre and dark sense of humour.

Finally, those great French photographers who captured life so well, Lartigue, HCB, and Doisneau. What is it about France and photography?

 

[Skinny McGee]

Walker Evans, Moholy-Nagy, Ezra SToller, Robert Capa,Cartier Bresson, and some 5 year old with a homemade pinhole camera.

 

[back alley]

it's questions like this that make me wish i had a better memory!

shooters that have influenced me with their photos...atget, doisneau, gene smith, walker evans, ddd, hcb, kennerly, salgado, probably winogrand too,

photographers that have influenced with their words, weston, ralph steiner, feinenger (sp?) david vestal,

a couple that i think are so over rated and do nothing for me, karsh, ansel adams,

more to come if my memory returns.

joe

 

[HBC]

robert frank shows me that a great photograph does not always need be in focus, eugene smith especially his work after life, hbc, sabastiao salgado, edward weston his photos and his life for his art the man ate beans so that he could buy film and paper, since coming to this forum our own allen gillman and ed lavikus.....

 

[Rick Waldroup]

HCB springs to mind immediately. Others that I really admire are Salgado, Cindy Sherman, Donna Feratto, Diane Arbus, and Robert Frank. However, Elliot Erwitt is great because of the humor and humanity he brings to his photos. There is so little humor today in a lot of photography I see. It really is a hard emotion to capture on film (or digitally if that is your style).

 

[Allen Gilman]

Sean, thanks for the link!

Bill - I'm with you on Meatyard.

William Klein.

 

[Russ]

Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Seriously.

http://www.geh.org/ne/str085/htmlsrc8/meatyard_sld00001.html

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Note: I have to say this - every time I mention Meatyard, it's like I just farted in church. Everybody gets quiet and looks away. What is it that nobody gets Meatyard? I can't help it if Diane Arbus strikes me as terribly boring and ordinary and <i>pedestrian</i>. I look at Paul Strand's work and expect to see some deeper meaning, but they're just pretty pictures. Adams and Weston were pioneers, but you see one...blah blah blah. Steichen - interesting for the role he played, ushering in the Photo-Secessionists and so on - but worn out and useless by the end. I look at Atget and see something interesting, but not enough of it. Capa? Sorry, don't get it.

QUOTE]

Bill

I agree, Meatyard is good. I like his work. And Diane Arbus bores me to death too...

Russ

 

[ddimaria]

Anyone here ever hear of Mario Giacomelli? Very original and always an 'amatuer'.

 

[Roman]

Hmmm, influenced my own photography? Hard to tell... Ansel Adams was the one that got me into photography in the first place, and I still like his work (and love his autobiography), though my own landscape photography bores me immensly now... I absolutely love Sebastiao Salgado's work, and that of James Nachtwey, as well, though I would never have the courage to do something like that. Anton Corbijn is a big hero of mine, and I tried to emulate his portrait style once. I never was a big fan of HCB (heresy, I know...), some nice pictures, but a lot of other ones I can't relate to at all. I love Richard Avedon's portraits from the American West (and don't like his commercial work), but it is not what I try to do myself. Bill Brandt is another favorite and I like Albert Renger-Patzsch' stuff but neither is an influence. Mary Ellen Mark is another favorite, and some of the pictures I take at work are similar, but I cannot show them her for privacy rules. I also like Kertesz, and William Claxton's older stuff. Nick Hermanns, a little-known photographer from Munich, about whose stuff I heard on a German B&W darkroom forum, is another favorite. Oh, and I almost forget W. Eugene Smith, but after I heard how he manipulated his images, I'm not too sure about him any longer...

I guess there's a lot of photographers whose work I like, and from some I borrowed consciously, some may have influenced me without my knowing, but I could not pinpoint one or two as inspiration for my own pictures - since I guess I have not found my own style yet, right now there is a major shift in what I want to do, from classical landscape (preferably bleak, empty and abstract) to a bit more street-style found images (though I'm still not that interested in photographing people in the street), while I continue to like lith-printing (however stylish and neo-pictorialist it may be...)

Roman

 

[Allen Gilman]

HBC - just saw your post on second perusal - thanks!

 

[jlw]

What is it about France and photography?

Well, it was invented there, so they had more time to get good at it.

Or maybe it's just that they have such great locations...