Documentary photography Contemporary art
Robert Adams is an acclaimed American photographer known for his profound exploration of the American West's changing landscapes. His work, which gained prominence in the mid-1970s, delves into the tension between the natural beauty of the land and the marks of human encroachment. Adams's photography is a reflection on humanity's relationship with the environment, offering both a critique and a celebration of the landscape.
Robert Adams's notable series, such as "Turning Back" and "The New West," showcase his unique perspective on environmental and urban development issues. His work extends beyond just capturing images; it is a thoughtful commentary on the balance between nature and industrialization. His photographs, often devoid of people, focus on the land itself, telling a story of alteration and resilience.
Exhibitions of Adams's work, such as "American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams" at the National Gallery of Art, provide insight into his 50-year career and his ability to capture the silent yet profound narratives of the American landscape. His pieces are part of major collections and have been featured in numerous retrospectives, underlining his influence and significance in the world of photography.
For art collectors and enthusiasts, Robert Adams's work offers a poignant perspective on the American West, blending aesthetic beauty with critical environmental commentary. Engaging with his work invites reflection on our interaction with the landscape and our role in shaping the environment.
If you're interested in staying updated on Robert Adams's work and exhibitions, consider subscribing to newsletters from galleries and museums that feature his art. This way, you'll be informed about new displays of his work and opportunities to engage with his insightful perspectives on the American West.
Richard Avedon was an American photographer and artist known for his iconic portraits and fashion photography.
Avedon began his career as a photographer in the late 1940s, working as a freelance photographer for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. He soon became known for his distinctive style, which was characterized by his use of simple, uncluttered backgrounds and his ability to capture the essence of his subjects.
Throughout his career, Avedon photographed some of the most famous people of his time, including Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, and The Beatles. He was also known for his fashion photography, and his work appeared in many fashion magazines, including Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.
Avedon's work was often controversial, as he challenged traditional notions of beauty and fashion. He was known for his willingness to push boundaries, and his work was often seen as a reflection of the social and political issues of his time.
Today, Avedon is regarded as one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, and his work continues to inspire artists and photographers around the world.
John Baeder is an American painter closely associated with the photorealist movement. He is best known for his detailed paintings of American roadside diners and eateries. His interest in small towns across America began when he was young by photographing old cars and other relics. He started working as an art director in Atlanta for a branch of a New York advertising agency in 1960, and subsequently moved to New York City in 1964. He went on to have a successful career in advertising through the early 1970s, while continuing to paint, draw and photograph on his own time. Baeder left the advertising field in 1972 to pursue his artistic career full-time. The same year, OK Harris Gallery in New York began exhibiting his artworks. Since then, he has had more than thirty solo exhibitions at art galleries. His work includes oil paintings, watercolors and photographs. Baeder’s work aims to chronicle the disappearing aspects of American culture. Baeder is the recipient of the Tennessee Governor's Distinguished Artist Award in 2009.
Peter Hill Beard was an American artist, photographer, diarist, and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journals that often integrated his photographs, have been widely shown and published since the 1960s.
Dieter Blum is a contemporary German photographer who has worked for well-known and influential publications (German magazines Spiegel and Stern, American Time, Vanity Fair). At the beginning of his career he took pictures of American cowboys, now he prefers to work with musicians and ballet dancers.
Édouard Boubat was a French photojournalist and art photographer.
In 1943, he was subjected to service du travail obligatoire, forced labour of French people in Nazi Germany, and witnessed some of the horrors of World War II. He took his first photograph after the war in 1946 and was awarded the Kodak Prize the following year. He travelled internationally for the French magazine Réalités, where his colleague was Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, and later worked as a freelance photographer. French poet Jacques Prévert called him a "peace correspondent" as he was humanist, apolitical and photographed uplifting subjects.
Miguel Rio Branco, full name Miguel da Silva Paranhos do Rio Branco, is a Brazilian photographer, artist, director and creator of multimedia installations.
His father was a diplomat and as a child Miguel lived in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and the USA, now living and working in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After earning a degree in photography from the New York Institute of Photography, Miguel first worked as a cameraman and then worked with the Magnum agency. Miguel is known for exploring and crossing two different art forms: painting and photography. He has also shot 14 short films and eight long films, he is recognized in the world as one of the best color photojournalists.
Miguel Rio Branco's photographs are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Mona Breede is a German photographer.
Mona Breede studied photography at the Bavarian School of Photography in Munich and at the Higher Art School in Karlsruhe. From 2001-2002 she taught photography and design at the Merkur Akademie in Karlsruhe. After working for some time in Chicago, in 2007 Mona Breede traveled to Asia and Russia and brought back a series of photographs from Shanghai, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Today, it is places and people that interest the photographer the most. As a photographer, Mona Breede has a receptive and sensitive eye. Her work interprets reality, imprints on it and has a great power of expression.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist renowned for his groundbreaking work in photography, particularly in the realms of photojournalism and street photography. Born on August 22, 1908, in Chanteloup, France, Cartier-Bresson's early artistic endeavors were in painting, which he began studying at the age of five. His transition to photography was marked by his adoption of a 35mm Leica camera in 1931, a tool that became synonymous with his work.
Henri Cartier-Bresson's photography is celebrated for its unique blend of spontaneity and composition, capturing moments that reveal deeper truths about their subjects. His theory of "the decisive moment" – that is, capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, yet significant – has had a profound influence on the field of photography. His work has been exhibited in prestigious venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and is held in high esteem in art collections worldwide.
In addition to his personal achievements, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a co-founder of Magnum Photos in 1947, a cooperative agency for worldwide photographers that significantly influenced photojournalism. Later in his career, Cartier-Bresson returned to painting and drawing, demonstrating his lifelong commitment to the arts.
For art collectors and experts, Henri Cartier-Bresson's work offers a pivotal exploration of 20th-century photography, blending artistic vision with the unguarded moments of life. His influence extends beyond his images, shaping the way we perceive and engage with visual narratives.
To explore more about Henri Cartier-Bresson's influential career and works, and to stay updated on exhibitions or sales featuring his photography, you might consider subscribing to updates from art institutions or galleries that frequently showcase his work.
Bruce Landon Davidson is an American photographer. He has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 1958. His photographs, notably those taken in Harlem, New York City, have been widely exhibited and published. He is known for photographing communities usually hostile to outsiders.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia is an American photographer and artist. He is known for his staged and cinematic photographs that often blur the line between reality and fiction.
DiCorcia's work is characterized by his use of elaborate sets and lighting, which he uses to create images that are both beautiful and unsettling. Many of his photographs feature everyday people in staged settings, and he often uses strangers as his subjects, adding to the sense of mystery and voyeurism in his work.
DiCorcia has been the recipient of numerous awards and his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. He has also been commissioned to create photographs for a wide range of clients, including fashion magazines and advertising campaigns.
DiCorcia's legacy as an artist and photographer continues to influence new generations of artists. His innovative techniques and approach to photography have helped to redefine the medium and have had a significant impact on contemporary art and culture.
William Eggleston is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Eggleston's books include William Eggleston's Guide (1976) and The Democratic Forest (1989).
Thomas Eigel is a German photographer living and working in Hamburg.
Thomas Eigel has been involved in photography for over 35 years, starting as an advertising photographer before becoming an art director and agency owner. Eigel explores the universality of transportation, offering a new perspective on recognizable forms, from airplanes to shipping containers, and suggesting to the viewer how we are connected through mechanics and technology.
Elliott Erwitt is a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1953.
T. Lux Feininger, a German-American artist. He was known for his multifaceted talents as a painter, avant-garde photographer, author, and art teacher. His artistic journey began at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he studied under influential figures like Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Feininger was also a member of the Bauhaus Band and had his first solo show in Manhattan in 1937.
T. Lux Feininger's work explored various subjects, including transportation and self-portraits, and he continued to paint in a semi-abstract prismatic style influenced by his father, Lyonel Feininger, and Wassily Kandinsky throughout his life. In addition to painting, he also pursued photography, focusing on transportation subjects and Manhattan street scenes, although he did not exhibit these later photographs.
T. Lux Feininger's contribution to art education was significant, teaching at prestigious institutions like Sarah Lawrence College, Harvard's Fogg Museum, and the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His written works include several books, notably one about his father and another reflecting on his life between the Bauhaus and America.
For collectors and experts in art and antiques, Feininger's work represents a unique blend of Bauhaus influence and individual exploration. To stay informed about exhibitions and news related to T. Lux Feininger's works, subscribing to updates from art galleries and museums is recommended.
David Goldblatt was a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the period of apartheid. After apartheid had ended he concentrated more on the country's landscapes. What differentiates Goldblatt's body of work from those of other anti-apartheid artists is that he photographed issues that went beyond the violent events of apartheid and reflected the conditions that led up to them.
Romuald Hazoumé, or Romuald Hutzoumck, is one of Africa's leading artists and winner of the Arnold Bode Prize (Germany). He was awarded the prize for his installation "Dream," a replica of a ship transporting economic migrants from Africa to Europe made of canisters. In his art he mostly uses old gasoline cans. Hazume also creates oil paintings, large-scale installations, videos, and photographs.
Walde Huth, née Waldberta Huth, is a German photographer known for her street photos and portraits of famous people and fashion models.
She graduated from the State School of Applied Arts in Weimar, and after World War II she became a freelance photographer doing portrait and art photography. Walde Huth is primarily known for her fashion shots of the '50s, she also took unique stills and advertising photos, and created portraits of famous contemporaries. Her iconic fashion shots were taken in Paris. She shot the most famous models of her time not in the studio, but on location in the city, in front of the Eiffel Tower, along the Seine River, in contrast to the architecture and street life.
Walde Huth was an exceptional woman, a creative artist and a versatile photographer.
Robert Hill Jackson or Bob Jackson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer.
Robert attended Southern Methodist University while pursuing a passion for photography. While serving in the National Guard, Jackson became a photographer for an Army general. In 1960, he began working as a photo reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.
On November 22, 1963, Jackson was assigned to cover President John F. Kennedy's arrival at Love Field and his motorcade through the city. He witnessed Kennedy's assassination, but did not have time to film it. Two days later, however, he was able to photograph the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Lee Harvey Oswald, by Jack Ruby in the garage of the Dallas police station. Robert Jackson was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Photography for these photographs.
André Kertész, born Andor Kertész, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. Kertész never felt that he had gained the worldwide recognition he deserved. Today he is considered one of the seminal figures of photojournalism.
Helga Kneidl, née Claus, is a German photographer.
Helga worked as a dancer in her youth and married stage designer Karl Kneidl in 1961. She then learned theater photography in Zurich and worked in theaters as a staff photographer. Helga Kneidl gradually gained a reputation for taking portraits of many famous people, and her work was published in newspapers and magazines.
In May 1973, Helga Kneidl spent three full days with actress Romy Schneider in Paris, taking a series of photographic portraits of her.
Since 1997, Helga Kneidl lives in Berlin and works mainly in portrait photography.
Robert Lebeck was an award-winning German photojournalist.
Lebeck became well known in 1960 after his report on the independence of the Congo "Afrika im Jahre Null" ("Africa in Year Zero") which included a photograph of an African man, Ambroise Boimbo pinching the ceremonial sword of Belgian King Baudouin. To this day that picture remains his "calling card".
Saul Leiter was an American photographer and fashion photographer, one of the pioneers of what was later called the New York School of Photographers in the 1940s and 1950s.
Saul Leiter began doing color and black-and-white street photography in New York City in the 1940s. He had no formal training in photography, but the genius of his early work was quickly recognized. His main subjects were street scenes and his small circle of friends. Leiter made a huge and unique contribution to photography during his prolific period in New York in the 1950s. His abstract forms and radically innovative compositions have a painterly quality that stands out among the work of his New York School contemporaries. His sense of color and densely compressed urban life represents a truly unique vision of those times. Leiter is now considered a pioneer of early color photography and is noted as one of the outstanding figures in postwar photography.
For 20 years Leiter also worked as a fashion photographer and was published in leading fashion magazines.
Danny Lyon is an American photographer and filmmaker.
All of Lyon's publications work in the style of photographic New Journalism, meaning that the photographer has become immersed in with, and is a participant of, the documented subject. He is the founding member of the publishing group Bleak Beauty.
After being accepted as the photographer for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lyon was present at almost all of the major historical events during the Civil Rights Movement.
Vera Mercer is a German-born photographer who lives and works in France and the United States.
In the early 1960s she became part of the artistic avant-garde in Paris, which later became known as the "New Realists" (Nouveau Réaliste), photographing movie stars and avant-garde artists of the time. Later she found a new inspiration.
Mercer creates extraordinary large-scale photographic still lifes of food. With the right lighting and carefully chosen compositions of china, cutlery, fruit, seafood and game, Mercer's photographs resemble still lifes in the Dutch Baroque style. With burning candles and artful arrangements, the paintings, flooded with mystical light, are also a reinterpretation of classic vanitas motifs.
Joel Meyerowitz is an American street, portrait and landscape photographer and a pioneer of color photography. He lives and works in New York and London.
Meyerowitz became interested in color photography in 1962, when color photography was not yet considered serious art. There have been documentaries about him, and he is the author of 43 books, including one on the art of photography. Meyerowitz was the only photographer who received official permission to photograph the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.
Meyerowitz continues to be an inspiration and a leader in photography today.
Daidō Moriyama (Japanese: 森山 大道) is a Japanese photographer best known for his black-and-white street photography and association with the avant-garde photography magazine Provoke. Moriyama’s rough, unfettered photographic style makes use of sharply tilted angles, grainy textures, harsh contrasts, and blurred movements to capture the rawness of human experience as seen through the photographer’s wandering gaze. Many of his well-known works from the 1960s and 1970s are read through the lenses of post-war reconstruction and post-Occupation cultural upheaval.
Stefan Moses was a German photographer living in Munich.
His documentary portraits of people and professions in West Germany (Germans) and later in East Germany (Farewell and Beginnings) made him accessible to a large audience. Moses took people out of their working environment and photographed them in front of a grey linen cloth — thus creating contemporary documents.
Richard Mosse is an Irish conceptual documentary photographer living in New York and Ireland.
He has a BA from King's College London and an MA in Photography from Yale University and has worked in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Haiti and the former Yugoslavia. Moss' photographs and films document armed conflicts, humanitarian crises and environmental crimes.
Moss works to visualize events, technologies and systems that often remain invisible, using a camera equipped with thermal imaging technology that obscures, abstracts and brings violence to the fore.
Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and LGBT activist.
She works in the fields of photography, video and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality, with the bulk of her work documenting and celebrating the lives of black lesbians, gays, transgender and intersex people in South Africa.
JR (French: Jean René) is the pseudonym of a French photographer and artist who does not give his full name. He lives and works in Paris and New York.
He describes himself as a "photograffeur" (photographer and graffiti artist in one word) and claims that the street is "the biggest gallery in the world". His work is flyposting large black and white images in public spaces. JR works at the intersection of photography, street art, filmmaking and social activism. Over the past two decades he has developed many public projects in cities around the world, from buildings in the slums of Paris to walls in the Middle East and Africa or favelas in Brazil.
JR places large-scale photographic images in public spaces. He started creating graffiti as a teenager on the streets and rooftops of Paris and on the subway. In 2007, he gained worldwide attention by placing huge photographs of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities on both sides of the separation barrier. In his works, the photographer always addresses current political and social issues in the world. For example, in 2019, JR worked with a group of inmates of a maximum security prison in California and created a large format piece with portraits of the inmates.
JR has traveled to many cities with his work, participating in exhibitions, he has collaborated with magazines and created films about his work. JR has also directed three feature-length documentaries, one of which, Women Are Heroes (2011) was nominated for an Oscar. At the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, he won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary.
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.
He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of his work have been presented throughout the world.
Salgado is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant in 1982, Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 1993. He has been a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the Institut de France since April 2016.
Shaweesh is a contemporary painter from Saudi Arabia. Shaweesh is a mixed-media artist who articulates the cultural diffusions between Saudi Arabia and the global community throughout history, measuring this intercultural dialogue through both visual arts and digital design. With the onset of the internet age, Shaweesh began using the web as a gateway into a new inspiration, as he incoroporated Pop Art and Western-branded graphics into his creations. In his newest series, he superimposes US cultural symbols ranging from Captain America to Darth Vader onto famous historical events. Growing up watching Western cartoons as a child while visiting his friends’ houses, he has incorporated this childlike humor into his work. While visiting street vendors in Riyadh, he bought old newspapers dating back to key years referring to Western and Saudi foreign relations. Evolving into a satirical harmony by addressing Saudi historical narratives, he then digitally incorporates cartoon heroes whose personas range from leaders, mentors and organizers, as they correlate to the initiatives raised at these historical events.
Alec Soth is an American photographer. He is known for his large-format color photographs that often explore the themes of American life, culture, and landscape.
Soth began his career as a newspaper photographer before transitioning to fine art photography. He gained recognition for his project "Sleeping by the Mississippi," which features photographs of people and places along the Mississippi River.
Throughout his career, Soth has continued to produce photographic projects that explore various aspects of American life, from small towns to suburban communities. He has also published several books of his work, including "Songbook," "Broken Manual," and "I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating."
Soth's work has been exhibited widely and is included in the collections of many major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has also received numerous awards and honors for his photography, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.
Philip "Snapdragon" Stern was an American photographer noted for his iconic portraits of Hollywood stars, as well as his war photography while serving as a U.S. Army Ranger with "Darby's Rangers" during the North African and Italian campaigns in World War II.
Bert Stern, real name Bertram Stern, is an American fashion photographer and documentary filmmaker.
His career began with the iconic and legendary Smirnoff Vodka advertising campaign in 1955. Using a well-equipped studio, Stern experimented with many of the latest techniques, including videotaping, screen printing, photo offset combinations and computer prints. His brilliant work made him a star in the advertising world, photographing advertising campaigns for Canon, Dupont, Pepsi-Cola, US Steel and Volkswagen brands. One of the high points of Bert Stern's career was working for Vogue in the 1960s.
Despite his drug addiction, the fashion photographer was sought after by Madison Avenue, Hollywood and the international fashion scene for decades.
Stern was one of the last photographers to shoot Marilyn Monroe in June and July 1962, six months before her death. Some of these photographs were published in Vogue magazine. In 1982, Bert Stern published The Last Sitting, a book that includes many of his more than 2,500 images, including those that Monroe did not like and were crossed out.
Stern directed and cinematographed the films Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959), A Date with an Angel (1987), and The Unknown Marilyn (2012).
Matthias Zölle is a German photographer.
Matthias studied German language, journalism, political science and novel studies in Düsseldorf and Münster. After working in a newspaper, on stage, in the kitchen, in a wine bar and in a design office, he began to work intensively in photography in 1977 and since 1992 he has been working as an independent art photographer.
One of Zölle's main areas of work is dance art. Together with his camera, he accompanied the famous choreographer Pina Bausch and the Wuppertal Dance Theater, among others, taking a series of photographs.