Who's your favorite photographer, and why?

[fparnold]

Edward Weston, for his landscape detail pictures, still-lifes, and luminous shadows and smoothly graded greys. I had the pleasure of hanging an exhibition of his prints in undergrad, which gave me time to study them off the wall and without being crowded. Inspiring in his elevation of quiet subject matter, and excellent technique with minimalist tools.

I would add, of course, St. Ansel, though while impressed with his perfect landscapes the monumental nature puts me off a bit. This is probably similar to a difference in taste between 18th century baroque chamber music and 19th century orchestral drama. He had an image in the recent show of moon over some rounded rocks in Joshua Tree Nat'l Monument which was very dark, but the tonality and detail in the blacks drew me back repeatedly to the image, though it was less monumental than the Yosemite Valley ones. Wynn Bullock's images, and their use of time and decay, beautifully printed with lots of detailed dark are also appreciated.

In Portriature, I would say Halsman and Arbus, with the observation that different subjects deserve different photographers. Many a wedding album would be enlivened by a disciple of Arbus.

[Brian]

Garry Winogrand - it may be through sheer volume, but some of his photos have left indelible marks on me. Can't remember the titles, but my favorites are:

Photographer in Central Park
Couple with Chimps
Black deliveryman juxtaposed against white businessman
The one where all the men are looking at the girls

and many others...

Clyde Butcher - for being a master of the landscape. Absolutely amazing images.

Dorathea Lange, Ian MacEachern, Emil Schildt, Dan Burkholder are other favs.

[4oto.m8]

I will vote for Helmut Newton for the way he seems able to portay women in a life force way......To me anyway.

[Ed Sukach]

At the moment - and this can, and probably will, change in a few minutes ... I'll vote for Alfred Cheney Johnston (1885-1971). Flo Ziegfield hired him as the official photographer of his show dancers, the Ziegfield girls. Breathtaking photographs of women.

"Johnston perfected a wonderfully titillating skill of making his dressed women look nude."

from: 20th Century Photography - Museum Ludwig Cologne.

[docholliday]

Mine?

AA for landscapes. Monte Zucker for portraiture. Sarah Silver (something about the way she uses color) but mostly her style.

[Donald Miller]

I would share that I recently reencountered the work of Charles Phillips. I am always in awe when I see his work. For those who have not encountered his work, he is a student of Ansel Adams, having studied under Ansel for two years back in the 70's.

Charles is a wilderness photographer who works in 8X10 black and white and enlarges his work. He has developed a system of masking the camera negative with very precise methods that allow so much more information to be imparted to the print. His prints carry an openess and realism that I have not seen on anyone elses works. His process entails up to seven weeks in creating printing masks before the first image is printed. Talk about dedication!!! I encourage all who have the opportunity to see his work to do so.

[brYan]

Wouldn't the simple thing for Charles to do would be to make contact prints on AZO? I'm only guessing that if he did, then several weeks making printing masks would not be necessary.

[Donald Miller]

Contact prints from Azo would certainly appear to be an alternative to his process. However I think that his efforts are almost in a league apart from others work, both in results and also in print sizes.

I believe that the advantage to what he does is that he gains greater tonal separation especially notable in the shadows and lower midtones. I have never seen any print to have the degree of tonal separation that he is able to produce.

The other advantage is that he produces large prints. Most commonly 30X40 and larger. So that would not be possible since Azo is limited in it's maximum size. He has indicated a fairly large segment of his sales are to corporate accounts and collectors.

The level of investment that he has in equipment is astounding. One of his enlargers cost $65,000.00. He has designed and produced some custom processing equipment in addition to what he has purchased. This fellow has a level of dedication that is admirable.

[Donald Miller]

I am particularly moved at a deep, almost primal, level by the photography of Misha Gordin (www.bsimple.com). I would appreciate hearing from others their reactions to his images. What is your initial reaction?, What does this address within you?, If his work moves you, Why does it move you?

While we are on photographers of the same genre...

What about the work of Jerry Uelsmann? Are you impacted? If so in what way? What does his work accomplish?

Look forward to hearing your responses.

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Feb 23 2003, 07:09 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I am particularly moved at a deep, almost primal, level by the photography of Misha Gordin (www.bsimple.com). I would appreciate hearing from others their reactions to his images. What is your initial reaction?, What does this address within you?, If his work moves you, Why does it move you?

While we are on photographers of the same genre...

What about the work of Jerry Uelsmann?&nbsp; Are you impacted? If so in what way? What does his work accomplish?

Look forward to hearing your responses.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
I visited his site. There is a lot of emotionl energy in his work: Somber, almost depressing.

It strikes me that he is making an heroic effort to bring some sort of regimented order to the world as he envisions it ... I would guess as a "reaction formation" to deal with a lot of previous chaos. There is a lot of pain here.
He is working on an alternate plane, and it is always a beneficial stretch to experience - "seeing thorugh the eyes of another.
Somber - and, removing one letter, sober(ing) images. Not "pretty", but successful in modifying my "view of te world" to some small extent.

Uelsmann is not nearly so "dark". What has always struck me about his work is that, while being a skilled technician in producing his work, the "mechanics" have never approached - better to say, "Never interferred with" his aesthetics.
He is a master of arresting our attention by means of incongruities.