There are many talented photographers in the world, and it is difficult to name the “best”. The choice is subjective and depends on personal taste and on what you value in a photograph: technical perfection, emotion, timing, ideas or social impact. Still, some photographers are widely recognised for their contribution to the medium. Here are eight of them, each from a different corner of photography.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams was an American photographer known for his black and white landscapes of the American West, particularly Yosemite. He helped develop the Zone System, a method for controlling exposure and development, and his prints are admired for their rich range of tones. He was also a committed conservationist.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who is considered one of the pioneers of modern photojournalism and street photography. Working with a small Leica camera, he became famous for the idea of the “decisive moment”, the instant when form and meaning come together in the frame. He was one of the founders of the Magnum Photos agency.
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American artist known for her conceptual self-portraits. In series such as “Untitled Film Stills” she photographs herself in costumes, make-up and settings that turn her into invented characters, raising questions about identity and about how women are represented in film and media.
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer whose work focused on social issues, particularly the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Her photograph “Migrant Mother” became one of the defining images of that era and shows how a single portrait can represent the experience of many people.
Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry is an American photographer known for his colour portraits and his work in regions affected by conflict and crisis. His best-known image, “Afghan Girl”, appeared on the cover of National Geographic and is one of the most recognised portraits in the world.
Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer known for her photographs of celebrities, artists and politicians. She began her career at Rolling Stone and later worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Her portraits are carefully staged and often built around a concept that says something about the person.
Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian documentary photographer whose work focuses on social and environmental issues. His long-term black and white projects, including “Workers” and “Genesis”, document manual labour, migration and the planet’s untouched landscapes on an epic scale.
W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for powerful images that shed light on social issues. He is regarded as a master of the photo essay; “Country Doctor” and his later work on mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan, remain models of how to tell a story through a sequence of pictures.
What We Can Learn From Them
- Master your craft. Adams’s control of exposure and printing shows that technique serves vision.
- Be patient and observant. Cartier-Bresson’s pictures depend on waiting for the right instant.
- Have something to say. Lange, Salgado and Smith used the camera to draw attention to people and problems they cared about.
- Develop a personal style. Sherman, McCurry and Leibovitz are recognisable at a glance.
- Commit to long projects. Much of the most memorable work comes from years spent on a single subject.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and there are many other talented photographers, past and present, who have made significant contributions to the field. The best way to improve your own photography is to look closely at the work of those you admire and ask why their pictures work.
