I would be interested to see which photographer inspired you!
This could be inspiring based on the taken motives, inspring because of certain technique or inspiring because of their mindset, etc…
Now, as I don’t like long lists of names, I would ask you to just name one photographer (or artist, or cinematographer if those inspire your photography) and to tell why she/he inspires you.
I think his videos are very informative, not so much on a technical level, but on an approach level. I do like that he goes out with the aim of taking one great image. And he actually does take very few images. I like that he’s really searching for that image and not just shooting around and then checking later if ther is something worth showing. Thhis also translates to his processing, which is almost nil. He just takes good images and does little t no postprocessing. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like postprocessed images, I do like them, but this challenge to look for the right image and then take is, I find, inspiring.
I also like that he looks for spwcial things in his landscapes, he calls it intimate landscape photography, and that he doessn’t only go the same seen before epic vistas (though he has those as well).
Given what I like to shoot, this shouldn’t be a surprise. His subject matter, use of flash and gels and color, I love it. His location scouting is amazing.
His technical skills and tonal nuances are mind boggling. There is a certain quality to his photos that feels like you are seeing the scene out of your window! This blog of his is a wealth of information. In particular, check out his video on shooting in Havana.
My dad bought me my first camera in 1961 as a 10 year old.
As I progressed into my teens, in the swinging 60’s, my choice has to be David Bailey.
He is still going strong in his late seventies and still only uses film.
He must have inspired a whole generation to try photography. (he always had the most glamorous women)
Being to photography, what David Hockney is to art, being popular always bought criticism from the purists, but his work with celebrities still shines today.
My father. He has been ill for much of my life but while he still could he would take photographs of family, friends and strangers, and deliver prints to them. His sole reason was to go out of his way to bring people joy, not just with the camera. He hasn’t been able to take photos for more than a decade. He is the reason that I enjoy photography and this community.
I’m a big fan of Dan Winters and his portraits. He commands his lights in interesting ways and often finds wonderful views of his subjects. His control and flagging of his key lights is always visually striking.
@s7habo, I’d never heard of this guy but those images really stopped me in my tracks. I went to his site to see more of his work, and his work is definitely worth studying. Thanks!
Thing is, when I look back on my experiences making images, what inspires me today is rooted in what he did and wrote about:
Subject: His renditions of the American West are one of the reasons I sought to live there.
Composition: Large and compelling compositional objects are a scattered all over the landscape, so to speak, and he was a master of organizing them in the frame. In my early years I admired the color work of the Arizona Highways photographers; Adams was the black & white corollary.
Technical: He very much advocated the understanding of the medium in order to effectively use it, which inspired a lot of my study in the day. I’ve recently enjoyed revisiting The Negative, his book on exposure and film development, and exploring the corollaries between film and digital imaging.
Even today, I’ll grayscale a digital image to explore what it might do in the context I learned studying Ansel Adams.
This is a great idea for a thread! There are many inspirations I could list. My dad got me into it as a kid, so that’s the first. In terms of classic photographers, I’ve always been very inspired by Sebastao Salgado:
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