Your 10 Most Influential Photographers

[Kirk Gittings]

Following the thread on 100 Most Influential photographers, here's a chance to start your own list.

This personal list is more in terms of aesthetics than format or technique i.e. I learned allot from how they see.

1) Alfred Steiglitz
2) Paul Strand
3) Wynn Bullock
4) Clarence John Laughlin
5) Edward Weston
6) Ansel Adams
7) Manuel Alvarez Bravo
8) Robert Adams
9) Richard Mizracak
10) Alec Soth

[Robbie Shymanski]

No particular order.

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
Walker Evans
Aaron Siskind
Edward Weston
William Eggleston
Barbara Crane
Harry Callahan
Edward Steichen
Charles Sheeler
Ray Metzger

Yes, I am from Chicago. With a nod to Keith Richards, perhaps this is more about who's work you started out copying.

[rdenney]

1. Ansel Adams, simply because he articulated so much about how he does things, both in art terms and in craft terms.
2. Brett Weston
3. Strand
4. Eliot Porter
5. John Sexton
6. Philip Hyde
7. Edward Weston
8. Stieglitz
9. Paul Caponigro
10. Minor White

Rick "limited by what is available to be seen" Denney

[Heroique]

1-9) Claude Lorrain influences how I compose trees, water, architecture and their shadows in the rural landscape.

10) Ansel Adams (Sometimes he moves up to #9 depending on my shot. My field notes indicate he was once #7.)

[Emil Schildt]

Josef Sudek
Sally Mann
Irvin Penn
Kirsten Klein
Frantisek Drtikol
Edward Steichen
+ 4 more....
(I'm actually more influenced by artist like Rodin - Munch - Leonardo - and more....)

[Brian Ellis]

Ansel Adams - the zone system, Aperture magazine, Museum of Modern Art, workshops, Group f/64, books, lectures, videos - he's everywhere and he's influenced everyone directly or indirectly, for better or for worse, whether they know it or not.

After him it gets tougher. But in no particular order and off the top of my head I'd say Harry Callahan, Berenice Abbott, John Sexton, Edward Weston, Ralph Gibson, Walker Evans, George Tice, Eugene Atget, and Ray McSavaney. But I could probaby compile another list of nine entirely different people that would be about as valid.

[bob carnie]

No order

Avedon Richard
Corjbin Anton
Sander August
Cameron Julia Margaret
Weston Brett
Brassai
Salgado
Strand Paul
Sudek Joseph
Man Ray

[Mark Sawyer]

This personal list is more in terms of aesthetics than format or technique i.e. I learned allot from how they see.

That's a big part of it; some will be most influenced by aesthetics, others by process or technique or format or lens choice. I suspect for a lot of us, our biggest influences aren't even photographers or visual artists. (And it would be kinda sad if they were...)

But photographers look at other photographers, and we react to something...

My list...

Josef Sudek
Alfred Steiglitz
Paul Caponegro
W. Eugene Smith
Paul Strand
Edward Weston
Sally Mann
Robert Adams
Frederick Evans
Minor White
Linda Connor
Joel Peter Witkin (even if he does make me say "eewww!")

[Kirk Gittings]

perhaps this is more about who's work you started out copying.

Learning from how someone else sees does not necessarily equate with copying (though that happens), but more IME broadening your horizons by learning how other artists make different subject matter, tonal palettes, environments, etc. visually work.

[Eric Rose]

Ok here goes my list. At the end of this someone should tally up the score and post the collective all time top 10.

1. Edward Weston
2. Paul Strand
3. Walker Evans
4. Minor White
5. Diane Arbus
6. Bill Brandt
7. Bruce Barnbaum
8. Irving Penn
9. Robert Mapplethorpe
10. Arnold Newman

[mortuus]

Edward Curtis
Roger Fenton
Joel Peter Witkin
Michael Kenna
Robert Demachy
Edward Weston
Sally Mann
Morten Haug
Nick Brandt
Tim Flach

[Eric Woodbury]

Oliver Gagliani
Hunter Witherill
Morley Baer
Al Weber
Ted Orland
Ansel Adams
Brett Weston

[Kirk Gittings]

At the end of this someone should tally up the score and post the collective all time top 10.

Great idea-any volunteers?

[Rain Dance]

André Kertész
Sebastiao Salgado
Richard Avedon
Man Ray
Daido Moriyama
Junku Nishimura
Eduardo Masferre (the most interesting for me)
Yousuf Karsh
Dmitri Baltermants
Vivian Maier

[mdm]

Atget, Sudek, Strand, Shore, Friedeman, Paul Caponigro, Walker Evans. Paul Strand is god. Specially love Steven Shore because when he was making his best work I was a small child, his subjects are lifted indirectly from my childhood and his colour pallete, that of the 1 hour print, is mine. The shag pile carpets, horrific furniture, fashionable dress, all satisfy me. All are very much people of their time. And Imogen Cunningham for her magnolia.

[Merg Ross]

Here is my short list, in no particular order and for different reasons. Seven of them I knew personally during my formative years as a photographer, perhaps unaware of their influence at the time. Looking back fifty years later, I can fully measure their influence.

Brett Weston
Edward Weston
Wynn Bullock
Ansel Adams
Imogen Cunningham
Aaron Siskind
Morley Baer
Paul Strand
Andre Kertesz
L. Moholy-Nagy

[Brian C. Miller]

Yeah, sure, I'll compile the list. It isn't a problem when you know things like command prompts and scripting. Basic stuff. :)

Guys, could you please use the photographer's full name? Thanks!

[Heroique]

Guys, could you please use the photographer’s full name? Thanks!

And check your spelling! After all, this isn’t about grammar; it’s about photographers listing their most influential photographers. :rolleyes:



1) Alfred Steiglitz


My list...Alfred Steiglitz

Before this one gets out of control, it’s “Stieglitz” (my #11 on Wednesdays & Sundays).

[Robbie Shymanski]

Learning from how someone else sees does not necessarily equate with copying (though that happens), but more IME broadening your horizons by learning how other artists make different subject matter, tonal palettes, environments, etc. visually work.

Imitating in the mirror until you say "oh, I get it now. That clever bastard!"

[darr]

1. Dorthea Lange (in 3rd grade while exploring an encyclopedia I saw one of her images that changed my life from that point forward)
2. Edward Curtis
3. William Clift
4. Michael Kenna
5. Richard Avedon
6. André Kertész
7. Paul Caponigro
8. Edward Steichen
9. Linda Connor
10. Nick Brandt

[Vaughn]

Thomas Knight
Thomas Joshua Cooper
Ansel Adams
Edward Weston
Carleton E. Watkins
Peter Britt
Geir and Kate Jordahl
Wynn Bullock
Duane Michaels

The list can easily change. drop Duane, add Linda Conners, for example. The first two gents were also my teachers -- lots of influence!

[cdholden]

In no particular order...

1. Richard Avedon
2. Ansel Adams
3. Yousuf Karsh
4. Salvador Dali
5. Alfred Stieglitz
6. Josef Sudek
7. Man Ray
8. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
9. Robert Capa
10. Edward Steichen

[Allen Rumme]

In no particular order:

Minor White
Aaron Siskind
Edward Weston
Fredrick H. Evans
Paul Caponigro
Carleton E. Watkins
Laura Gilpin
Paul Strand
Wynn Bullock
Brett Weston

While not in my top 10, some of the early pictoralists such as H.P. Robinson, Clarence H. White, or P. H. Emerson follow directly on the heals of those listed.

[Robert Hall]

I think this is about the right order...

Virgil King (great grand father)
Kathryn King (mother)
Tim Rudman
Jonathan Bailey
Emmet Gowin
Josef Sudek
Jock Sturges
Keith Carter
Carleton Watkins
Edward Weston

[austin granger]

Like others have said above, I think my pictures are influenced as much by things outside of photography than they are by other photographers, but with that disclaimer, here are ten photographers who move me:

Edward Weston
Ansel Adams
Walker Evans
Paul Strand
Minor White
Wynn Bullock
Brassai
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Lewis Baltz
Richard Misrach

Hard to limit it to ten; ask me again tomorrow and probably five of those would be different.

It might be interesting to do a companion thread of ten photographers that, try as you might, you just don't 'get' at all, or photographers whose work you really, really despise. On second thought, that might get a little nasty...

[r.e.]

Can only come up with seven, and three of them are cinematographers. In no particular order:

Nestor Almendros
Vittorio Storaro
Sven Nykvist
Jeff Wall
Irving Penn
August Sander
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Two photographers whose work is not well-known, but who made a distinct impression on me, are Aaron Rose and John Deakin. I have a book of Rose's work, but I have had very little success getting information on him. His pinhole photographs of New York are quite remarkable. He deserves to be rediscovered.

[Darin Boville]

Ansel Adams (that's how I learned technique)
Weston (for when I outgrew Adams)
Duane Michaels (for when I outgrew Weston)
James Fee (for underlining that I have no excuses)
Dürer (he would have been a photographer if he was born later)
Stanley Kubrick (a photographer early on but I'm really cheating and talking about his films)

top of my head, no doubt forgetting important entries...

--Darin

[bigdog]

Brett Weston
Edward Weston
Imogen Cunningham
Wynn Bullock
Berenice Abbott
Sonya Noskowiak
Aaron Siskind
Paul Outerbridge, Jr.
Margaret Bourke-White
Richard Avedon

I'm tempter to add Margreth Mather, but that would be based on only one print. However, it was one print in an exibition from Group f64 (at the CCP in Tucson) that stopped me cold, it was so perfect!

[Heroique]

Stanley Kubrick (a photographer early on but I'm really cheating and talking about his films).

That reminds me, I should add Orson Welles to my list – he’d be #12.

[Armin Seeholzer]

August Sander
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Man Ray
Salgado
Elliot Erwitt
Sugimoto
Sara Moon
Jerry Uelsmann
Albert Watson
Irving Penn

[CantikFotos]

In no order:

Edward Weston
David Bailey
Kishin Shinoyama
Nobuyoshi Araki
John Swannell
Bill Brandt
Don McCullin
Wynn Bullock
Jan Saudek
Philip Jones Griffiths

[Robert Hall]

Oh, man, I totally forgot to mention Jim Collum. (he pointed that out for me.) :D

[Jim collum]

no order

Bernd and Hilla Becher
Richard Misrach
Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison
Hiroshi Watanabe
Josef Koudelka
Paul Caponigro
Alexey Titarenko
Roman Loranc
Oliver Gagliani
Irving Penn

(oh.. 11th is Robert Hall.. he'd of made top 10 but for an unfortunate omission on his part :)

[Richard M. Coda]

Edward Weston
Brett Weston
Ansel Adams
George Tice
Walker Evans
Aaron Siskind
Harry Callahan
Edward Steichen
Paul Strand
Larry Golsh

[Emil Schildt]

My God, there's a lot of names I have never even heard about.....

[Mark Sawyer]

Stanley Kubrick (a photographer early on but I'm really cheating and talking about his films)


That reminds me, I should add Orson Welles to my list – he’d be #12.

If we were talking about cinematography, I'd put Gordon Willis at the top of the list...

[Michael N. Meyer]

I want to play too. In no particular order:

Robert Adams
Alfred Stieglitz
Walker Evans
Daido Moriyama
Ken Schles
Eugene Atget
Richard Avedon
Ray Metzger
Osamu Kanemura
Wim Wenders (both films and photos)

For some of them, I can think of a particular show or particular book that sent me off in a new direction or changed my perspective on the world.

[Darin Boville]

Ansel Adams (that's how I learned technique)
Weston (for when I outgrew Adams)
Duane Michaels (for when I outgrew Weston)
James Fee (for underlining that I have no excuses)
Dürer (he would have been a photographer if he was born later)
Stanley Kubrick (a photographer early on but I'm really cheating and talking about his films)

top of my head, no doubt forgetting important entries...

--Darin

Hiroshi Sugimoto!

--Darin

[r.e.]

As the only person who has mentioned Jeff Wall, let me tell a little story.

Some years ago, I was on a plane, seated in business class beside a gentleman who was very much the business class archetype. For some reason, the subject of photography came up. As we got into the discussion, he told me, somewhat warily, that his son was working on set design and lighting. I asked him, "For whom?" He said, "A fellow named Jeff Wall." At the time, Wall had just won the Hasselblad award, and I said "Wow, that's pretty cool". Then he smiled, and started asking me questions about Wall and his son's work. The easiest, for me, was to explain his son's work in cinema terms. Anyway, he was taken aback that someone on a plane would know who Jeff Wall was, and might think that his kid wasn't a complete screw-up. I think that he left the plane feeling pretty good.

[johnmsanderson]

Seeing Edward Burtynsky's manufactured landscapes show at the Brooklyn Museum in 2005(?) was a revelation for me, I saw what a huge beautiful color print could be and I was off on large format. Very few photographers really grab me in terms of constantly wanting to look at their work in reproduction form-- the few being O Winston Link, Winogrand, Friedlander, and maaaybe Joel Sternfeld. I really have to see Ansel Adams prints to enjoy his work.

[pdmoylan]

I am out of step with most here, mostly into color, but here it is:

Porter
Hyde
O'Hara
Clifton
Dykinda
Salgado
McCurry
Sexton

[r.e.]

Seeing Edward Burtynsky's manufactured landscapes show at the Brooklyn Museum in 2005(?) was a revelation for me, I saw what a huge beautiful color print could be and I was off on large format. Very few photographers really grab me in terms of constantly wanting to look at their work in reproduction form-- the few being O Winston Link, Winogrand, Friedlander, and maaaybe Joel Sternfeld. I really have to see Ansel Adams prints to enjoy his work.

Hey John,

We've talked about Burtynsky, and I would have included him in my own list if it was a list of important photographers rather than personal influences.

There's a very particular sense in which I might have included Robert Frank in my list. I saw the exhibit of The Americans at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and purchased the catalogue; the so-called "extended" version of The Americans, including the contact sheets, etc. What Frank did in creating The Americans is a serious education in creating a coherent artistic vision. And it is all the more an education because he was vilified for it, and presumably knew, or at least suspected, that he was going to be vilified.

On my own list, Cartier-Bresson is a proxy for photographers like Frank, Capra, Davidson, Salgado, but neither Cartier-Bresson, nor any of the others in the foregoing, did anything as pointedly political as Frank.

Off topic, if you want to check out a great book about photography, get your hands on a second-hand copy (it's out of print) of Nestor Almendros's A Man with a Camera.

While people are in the mood, maybe Kirk would create a thread on 10 most influential books?

[dasBlute]

1. eugene atget
2. walker evans
3. ansel adams
4. andre kertesz
5. josef sudek
6. paul strand
7. edward weston
8. michael kenna
9. josef koudelka
10. dorothea lange

honorable mention: roman loranc, w. eugene smith, carleton watkins

stieglitz for his ideas
bullock and baer for their california work
cartier-bresson for his timing
caponigro, barnbaum, and sexton for their prints
fredrick h. evans for the churches

[jcoldslabs]

Adams (not my favorite now, but as far as influences go....)
Strand
Steichen
Avedon
Mark Klett
Gregory Crewdson
Keith Carter
Lucas Samaras
William Garnett
Len Jenshel

Wow, all guys. Not intentional, I assure you. As for the ladies:

Julia Margaret Cameron
Margaret Bourke-White
Imogen Cunningham
Berenice Abbott
Gertrude Kasebier
Mary Ellen Mark
Diane Arbus
Cindy Sherman
Sally Mann
Anne O'keefe

[John NYC]

In no particular order...

Andre Kertesz
Lee Friedlander
Walker Evans
Henri Cartier Bresson
Jeff Wall
Robert Adams
Ansel Adams
William Eggleston
Irving Penn
Stephen Shore

[jp]

OK, in no order:

0. Eliot Porter
1. Paul Caponigro
2. Clarence H White
3. Steichen
4. Edward Curtis
5. Steiglitz
6. Karsh
7. Hurrell
8. Walter Iooss
9. Margaret bourke white

[Michael Graves]

Following the thread on 100 Most Influential photographers, here's a chance to start your own list.

This personal list is more in terms of aesthetics than format or technique i.e. I learned allot from how they see.

1) Alfred Steiglitz
2) Paul Strand
3) Wynn Bullock
4) Clarence John Laughlin
5) Edward Weston
6) Ansel Adams
7) Manuel Alvarez Bravo
8) Robert Adams
9) Richard Mizracak
10) Alec Soth

For me,

1. Wright Morris
2. Wynn Bullock
3. Fred Picker
4. Walker Evans
5. W. Eugene Smith
6. Edward Weston
7. Paul Caponigro
8. Cornelius Keyes
9. Eugene Atget
10. Dorothea Lange

[Scott Walker]

Ansel Adams
Edward Weston
Man Ray
Annie Leibovits
Salvador Dali (for his film work)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Yousuf Karsh
Paul Strand
Walker Evans
Helmut Newton

That's a tough list to come up with. I think for myself it would have been easer to list the 10 artists most influential on how I photograph things.

[Emil Schildt]

Following the thread on 100 Most Influential photographers, here's a chance to start your own list.

This personal list is more in terms of aesthetics than format or technique i.e. I learned allot from how they see.



as I see this thread (I'm ignorant, I know..) I don't know whether all the names dropped, are supposed to be influential to photography or to the photographer mentioning them.

Reading Kirk's first comment, I think he mean the photographers that have influenced him - not photography as a whole...

I just went to Götheborg and saw the latest Hasselblad winner... and was left even more ignorant than before... Didn't understand anything. Just mentioning this as a comment on whether a photographer is a winner - is famous, then I don't often get why - I could be influenced of it anyway, but in a sub consious way.. don't know.

"our" local Kirsten Klein has definitively influenced me more than most of the photographers mentioned in this thread. But noone seems to know her...

A couple of photographers, well known slipped my mind in my first post:

G Hurrell
R Koppitz
and then I have a lot of people stating that I am influenced a lot by JP Witkin...

Don't know - I made my "witkin" pictures long before I knew of him...

[edtog]

1. Don McCullin
2. Martin Parr
3. John Davies
4. Paul Graham
5. Brian Griffin
6. Mark Power
7. Denis Thorpe
8. Bill Brandt
9. Anna Fox
10. Nick Waplington

[Robbie Shymanski]

as I see this thread (I'm ignorant, I know..) I don't know whether all the names dropped, are supposed to be influential to photography or to the photographer mentioning them.

More interesting to the photographer. Leave "to Photography" to critics writing books and grad students writing their theses as it is an academic thought.

[jcoldslabs]

The two most influential photographers in my life were:

1. My grandfather, who gave me my first ever camera at age eight (a Kodak X-15 126 Instamatic) and showed me how to use it both literally and by example.

2. The mother of a good friend, an established (though not much published) photographer herself, who instructed me in the use of her 4x5 and her Mamiya RB when I was all of 16 years old.

The work of famous photographers (listed in a post above) certainly influenced me as far as illuminating the possible, but the two people mentioned here had the most direct effect on setting the course of my photographic life.

Jonathan

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Not in order-
1 William Clift
2 Brett Weston
3 Paul Caponigro
4 Ansel Adams
5 Irving Penn
6 Ray McSavaney
7 Laura Gilpin
8 John Sexton
9 Edward Weston
10 Morley Baer

These have been an influence to me, maybe not to the history of the art but they represent people who I feel have been important to my understanding and development.

[Ari]

No one, really, but when I started taking photography seriously, I couldn't get enough of Avedon, and, to a lesser extent, Penn.

[David R Munson]

Also not in any particular order:

Minor White
Daido Moriyama
Nobuyoshi Araki
Toshio Shibata
James Fee
Bill Henson
Keith Carter
Gregory Crewdson
Phil Marco
Mark Laita


Those are the 10 that come to mind most directly who have clearly influenced my work, bit I actually have a lot more than 10. In fact, the following photographers are important enough to require addition to the list:


Michael Kenna
Eikoh Hosoe
Shomei Tomatsu
Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Tim Flach
Toshihiro "Tommy" Oshima
Craig Cutler
Danny Clinch
Todd Hido
Bert stern
Art Kane
Mark Seliger
The photographers at Hedrich Blessing (esp. Nick Merrick)


Clearly the two biggest groups by which I have been influenced are post-war Japanese photographers and American commercial photographers.

Edit: I forgot Sam Abell! He definitely belongs somewhere on that top 10 list.

[Merg Ross]

Here is my short list, in no particular order and for different reasons. Seven of them I knew personally during my formative years as a photographer, perhaps unaware of their influence at the time. Looking back fifty years later, I can fully measure their influence.

Brett Weston
Edward Weston
Wynn Bullock
Ansel Adams
Imogen Cunningham
Aaron Siskind
Morley Baer
Paul Strand
Andre Kertesz
L. Moholy-Nagy

I should add, as suggested by others, that much of my photography influence in a visual sense, came from those engaged in other disciplines: most prominently, sculptors, painters and architects.

However, each photographer on my list was influential during my formative years, those being my teenage years. They are not necessarily my favorite photographers for their vision; in that case, my list today might be quite different.

Edward Weston, through his work, I was introduced to the beauty of a contact print. It was later I learned that not every photographer made such prints. Also, the range of subjects intrigued me; a toilet, a pepper, a nude, a rock, there were no limits.

Wynn Bullock, his experimental work with solarization and photograms. I spent hours making similar imagery, learning that there were no limits to creativity, and more than contact prints. Wynn Bullock would be on my present day list of favorites for his vision.

Morley Baer, who taught me that one could do "personal" work and still make a living at commercial photography without artistic sacrifice. I followed his example for many years with a career in architectural and commercial photography.

I could bore with the rest of the list, but these were my influences and I thank them, all now departed.

[mortensen]

well...
1. Bas Princen
2. Peter Bialobrzeski
3. Sze Tsung Leong
4. Andreas Gursky
5. the Becher's
6. Nadav Kander
7. Michael Wolf
8. Friederike von Rauch
9. Olaf Otto Becher
10. Axel Hütte
11. Toshio Shibata
12. Thomas Demand
13. Naoya Hatakeyama

... oops, couldn't stop

[bob carnie]

I know Ed Burtynsky is a local hero and inspiration to photographers in our region.
He is a local photographer and it has been interesting watching his career.
So on this level Ed is very much influential to me.

More interesting to the photographer. Leave "to Photography" to critics writing books and grad students writing their theses as it is an academic thought.

[Bruce Watson]

Ansel Adams
Margaret Bourke-White
Elliot Porter
Edward Weston
Imogen Cunningham
Ruth Bernhard
John Sexton
William Corey
Tyler Boley
QT Luong

Interestingly, all of these are LFers. Might explain something about me. Heh.

[Brian C. Miller]

As of Mortensen's post, here's the top group of photographers receiving three or more votes:

20 Edward Weston
15 Ansel Adams
13 Paul Strand
11 Walker Evans
9 Wynn Bullock
8 Paul Caponigro
7 Brett Weston
7 Edward Steichen
7 Irving Penn
7 Richard Avedon
6 Alfred Stieglitz
6 Minor White
5 Aaron Siskind
5 Eugene Atget
5 Josef Sudek
5 Man Ray
4 John Sexton
4 Michael Kenna
4 Morley Baer
4 Robert Adams
4 Sally Mann
4 Yousuf Karsh
3 Andre Kertesz
3 Berenice Abbott
3 Bill Brandt
3 Carleton E Watkins
3 Daido Moriyama
3 Dorothea Lange
3 Edward Curtis
3 Elliot Porter
3 Harry Callahan
3 Henri Cartier-Bresson
3 Imogen Cunningham
3 Keith Carter
3 Margaret Bourke-White
3 Salgado

There were nearly 200 different photographers in the lists.

[SW Rick]

Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art, will be speaking in Phoenix next Wednesday night (Feb. 22nd), on "The Ten Most Exciting Photographers I Learned About the Last Year".

Phoenix Art Museum, 7pm Wednesday, Feb 22. Free admission/voluntary donation every Wednesday, 3-9pm

[seabee1999]

In no particular order:
Ansel Adams
John Sexton
Edward Weston
Galen Rowell
David and Cissy Spindler - University Instructors
Greg Cook - Close, personal friend
John Shaw
Michael Keena
Steve McCurry
Dewitt Jones


David

[paulr]

Not in order

Stieglitz
Strand
Weston
Walker Evans
Robert Adams
Timothy O'Sullivan
Atget
Friedlander
Steven Shore
Kertesz
Eggleston

I'm annoyed that the youngest blood on my list had its heyday in the '70s ... confirms that I need to get out more.

I'm going to come back and pick through some of your lists that have younger photographers, including unfamiliar ones (mortensen's list, edtog's David R. Munson's...)

[Acheron Photography]

Following the thread on 100 Most Influential photographers, here's a chance to start your own list.

Hmmm, 'influential' is an interesting word. Someone who inspires you to make images not at all like them; someone whose images inspire intense dislike: they can be influential. But I don't want to be mean, so here are my ten influential-because-I-liked-them in no particular order

William Eggleston
Andreas Gursky
Elger Esser
Jeff Wall
Thomas Ruff
Bernt and Hilla Becher
Philip-Lorcia diCorcia
Joel Sternfeld
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Rineke Dijkstra

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Steve Shore, Lewis Baltz and Ed Burtynsky nearly made it too.

Interesting thread this, thank you.

David.

[SamReeves]

Edward Weston
Ansel Adams
AJ Russell
Timothy O' Sullivan
Richard Steinheimer
O Winston Link
Dorthea Lange
Helmut Newton
Joe Rosenthal
David Plowden

[Vaughn]

My most influenital photographers have been mentors, teachers and fellow photographers, so most of my list would not be known to most people.

[John Conway]

Bill Brandt
Ralph Gibson
Sally Mann
Robert Demachy
Yousuf Karsh
Julia Margaret Cameron
Ansel Adams
Clarence Sinclair Bull
Herbert Bayer
Clarence H. White

[lenser]

Adams
Steiglitz
Hurrell
Julia Margaret Cameron
Tim O'sullivan
William Henry Jackson
Edward Sherrif Curtis
Steichen
Arnold Newman
Karsh

[Oren Grad]

David Vestal

William Clift
Carl Weese

that's all

[zoneVIII]

Ansel Adams
John Sexton
Brett Weston
Howard Bond
Chip Forelli
Alan Ross
Henry Gilpin
Stu Levy
Bruce Barnbaum
Salgado

[Duane Polcou]

Kyle Von Strappenhorn
Howie Kaiser
Alice Schleppenfeld
Helena Valenasia Glick-Hurn
Ricky Cutterman
Dick "Dicky" Dixon
Andreas Vosslightner
Gabriel Gelb
Sid Snake
Lucy Rumminswick

[mdm]

Killer list. Never heard of any of them. Do they exist?

[johnmsanderson]

lol

[Duane Polcou]

Noooo. But if they did I am sure they would be most influential.

[Curt]

As of Mortensen's post, here's the top group of photographers receiving three or more votes:

20 Edward Weston
15 Ansel Adams
13 Paul Strand
11 Walker Evans
9 Wynn Bullock
8 Paul Caponigro
7 Brett Weston
7 Edward Steichen
7 Irving Penn
7 Richard Avedon
6 Alfred Stieglitz
6 Minor White
5 Aaron Siskind
5 Eugene Atget
5 Josef Sudek
5 Man Ray
4 John Sexton
4 Michael Kenna
4 Morley Baer
4 Robert Adams
4 Sally Mann
4 Yousuf Karsh
3 Andre Kertesz
3 Berenice Abbott
3 Bill Brandt
3 Carleton E Watkins
3 Daido Moriyama
3 Dorothea Lange
3 Edward Curtis
3 Elliot Porter
3 Harry Callahan
3 Henri Cartier-Bresson
3 Imogen Cunningham
3 Keith Carter
3 Margaret Bourke-White
3 Salgado

There were nearly 200 different photographers in the lists.

What if the thread has been and why?

Your 10 Most Influential Photographers, and why?

1) Paul Strand
2) Brett Weston
3) Edward Weston
4) Edward Steichen
5) Eugene Atget
6) Joseph Sudek
7) Ralph Gibson
8) Ansel Adams
9) Wynn Bullock
10) Paul Caponigro

This is my list in roughly an order; not because of the photography specifically but because of the personal life of the photographer and how the work influenced me.

Note that two on the list are living and eight have passed away. I would also say that Merg Ross is someone who has work that I admire and although I've not seen it in person as I have the the ones on the list, what I've seen in print and on his web site put him on the list. I also would add Vaughn Hutchins work, some of which I've seen. There is a highly personal nature to his perception of the world. Both his treatment of the natural world in his images of the Redwoods, and his portrait photography which show great sensitivity. Last I would add Jim Fitzgerald who works in Carbon Transfer as does Vaughn. I was privileged to see many of his prints personally at his home in California not long ago. Jim's current Carbon prints of the Yosemite Valley are beyond words. Carbon printing can leave a relief in the image that can be seen when viewed up close and is difficult to realize on a computer screen. They are tactile. His Black Oaks series is stunning. I believe his prints are well seen and very strong in presentation. This is an important series because the Oaks are in decline there. Merg Ross has me wishing I had applied more of myself to Abstract Expressionism, not to say that his work is categorized as that but I see more in them than I do a vast majority of photography today. Merg's work goes beyond the mere visual, the more I look at an image of his the more I see. That's not an easy thing to do, to elicit that response. Brett Weston has that effect on me also. That's the way I see. Photography has brought the better part of life to me and I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a part of it. There are a lot of great photographs out there from a lot of excellent photographers. Sometimes a single photograph from some one person can play music to me. Mark Barendt made a photograph of a church in Espanola NM which glowed with beauty; that is one such image. Michael Clark made a photograph in California of a single tree overlooking the Pacific Ocean. These single images stay in my memory and I see them at times when I'm sitting in a quiet room. I hope to see more great work before I'm history. In the mean time, thanks all.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Curt, thank you for your kind words about my work. I am truly honored. One must "feel" the images. Passion for my work and how I present it is just the way it has to be. Hopefully I can inspire someone else just as so many of the amazing photographers have who are on the wonderful list I have seen.

[Curt]

Jim, you're very welcome.

[Michael Wynd]

In no order
Elliot Porter
David Muench
Ansel Adams
Edward Weston
George Hurrell
C.J. Broadbent
Joe Cornish
Ruth Bernhard
Michael Kenna

[Michael Wynd]

I should've added Domenico Foschi and Gandolfi...but that makes 12.

[wclark5179]

1. Monte Zucker
2. Joe Zeltsman
3. Jean Everson
4. Norman Phillips
5. Rick DeLorme
6. Greg Rademacher
7. Anne Leibovitz
8. Doug Box
9. Ken Sklute
10. Rod Oman

[Merg Ross]

Merg Ross has me wishing I had applied more of myself to Abstract Expressionism............ the more I look at an image of his the more I see.

Curt, thank you. To be mentioned among such a dsitinguished group is indeed the highest compliment.

Best,
Merg

[soeren]

Kirsten Klein
Tine Harden
Emil Schildt
Salgado
Fie Johansen
Ansel Adams
You Guys/Gals
++
++
++
++

Best regards

[jnantz]

not really in any order, and i can't really come up with 10
that have really effected me except these folks who
have taught me to think a little more about what i do and how i do it ..

karsh
schildt
starn
starn
lynch
atget
nadar
mcclure

[Duane Polcou]

These would be the most influential to myself, regarding landscape photography:

In B/W:

Brett Weston
John Sexton
Howard Bond
Ansel Adams
Alan Ross
Bruce Barnbaum
Chip Forelli
Michael Plyler
Chris Honeysett
Steve Mulligan

In Color:

Eliot Porter
David Muench
Jack Dykinga
Joe Cornish
Charles Cramer
Gary Ladd
Nathan Farb
Joel Meyerowitz
Carr Clifton
Philip Hyde

[Terry Hull]

How is it possible that Walker Evans name isn't mentioned?

[Brian C. Miller]

Walker Evans came in at 4th place, with 11 mentions.

[Curt]

Curt, thank you. To be mentioned among such a dsitinguished group is indeed the highest compliment.

Best,
Merg

Merg, you are welcome. What you have brought to the world of photography in terms of personal style most certainly places you on the list.

The very best,
Curt

[alexn]

In no particular order... Its a bit of a weird bunch, all over the place a bit but I love so many different styles and images its hard to find a "genre" if you will, that suits my taste

Clive Nicholas (my dad)
Ansel Adams
Ken Duncan
Brett Weston
Peter Lik
Peter Jarver
The fine people on LFphotography.info
Eliot Porter
John Sexton

[Doremus Scudder]

I can't narrow it down to 20, much less 10!

But since I don't see Robert Rauschenberg here, I'll mention his name. A book of his photos in my "formative years" made a big impression.

Best,

[Robert Brummitt]

Pass
Ansel Adams
Edward and Brett Weston
Imogen Cunnigham
Ruth Bernhard
Stieglitz
Eliot Porter
Bullock
Karsh and
Margrett Burke-White

Living
John Wimberley
John Sexton
Bruce Barnbaum
Charles Cramer
Martha Cassinave
Ryuijie
Lorraine Richey
Christopher Burkett
Bill Schwab and
Brian Kosoff

[sun of sand]

never heard of any of these people before

[John Olsen]

1. Ansel Adams, because he wrote it all down and then said "that's just my way"
2. Richard Avedon, because he showed that the result is not necessarily what the sitter wanted
3. Diane Arbus, because she showed total disrepect for social conventions
4. Arnold Newman, for Krupp
5. Sebastiao Salgado, for the Southern half of the world
6. Joel-Peter Witkin, sometimes "Eewww" is a good reaction
7. Edward Weston, but what a jerk!
8. Manuel Alvarado Bravo
9. Andre Kertesz
10. Kirk Gittings, how about that?

[Alan Gales]

For me to narrow it down to 10 would be awful hard. How about if I mention the one that inspired me most, Myrtle Badura.

Myrtle's husband died young due to diabetes and left her struggling to support two kids. She remarried but her new husband soon left her for alcohol. Still with all her difficulties she always managed to own a camera (mostly a kodak brownie) and take photographs.

I know that none of you probably ever heard of Myrtle and to be honest she was not at all famous and never even sold a print.

Myrtle Badura was my grandmother. She is the one who instilled the love of photography in me.

We can all be influential, sometimes without even knowing it.

[Kirk Gittings]

1. Ansel Adams, because he wrote it all down and then said "that's just my way"
2. Richard Avedon, because he showed that the result is not necessarily what the sitter wanted
3. Diane Arbus, because she showed total disrepect for social conventions
4. Arnold Newman, for Krupp
5. Sebastiao Salgado, for the Southern half of the world
6. Joel-Peter Witkin, sometimes "Eewww" is a good reaction
7. Edward Weston, but what a jerk!
8. Manuel Alvarado Bravo
9. Andre Kertesz
10. Kirk Gittings, how about that?

Thanks for that John.

[Lynn Jones]

Hi Kirk, very good thought and about which none of us will ever agree.

I'll give you an un-numbered list because they did such wonderful things in very different ways.

Ansel Adams, Frank Sutcliffe, Julia Margaret Cameron, Richard Avedon, Philippe Halsman (125 Life covers and very creative outdoor fashion), Walker Evans, Edward Steichen (both a great photographer, but especially the creation of the "Family of Man"), Wynn Bullock (not many knew that he was a very successful traditional portraitist as well as being a great fine art photographer), Brett Weston (first major show at age 15 and I personally think, a much better photographer than his dad), William Mortenson (one of the truly creative fine art photographers as well as a superb professional photographer), Josef Karsh (perhaps the greatest of all classical portraitists), Dorothea Lange (great photojournalist), Robert Capa (perhaps the greatest photojournalist), David Douglas Duncan (very few can even compare with DDD) , Alfred Stieglitz (stunning early work), Carl Mydans (a mere 50 Life covers while being great in PJ), Margaret Bourke-White (the same age as my dad, I loved her personally and professionally), last but certainly not least, a lady with whom I was acquainted, Mary Ellen Mark. Forgive me folks, I forgot my late friend George Hurrell.

I teach Photo History, these photographers and others, but these I feel personally about as photographer of over 6 decades, and a few of these I knew personally.

Lynn

[cpercy]

1 edward weston
2 irving penn
3 frederick sommer
4 imogen cunninham
5 harry callahan
6 linda connor
7 eugene atget
8 aaron siskind
9 karl blossfeldt
10 doug koch

[ajmiller]

1. Walker Evans
2. Harry Callahan
3. John Blakemore
4. Raymond Moore
5. Eugene Etget
6. Alec Soth
7. Jeff Brouews
8. Carl Weese
8. Sally Mann
9. August Sander
10. John Gossage

cheers, Tony

[Leszek Vogt]

More cinematographers influenced my vision than still photographers. N. Almendros, G. Willis, V. Zsigmond, S. Nykvist, etc. The only two still photogs that I'd elevate would be E. Curtis and R. Bernhard.

I have no desire to talk bad about A. Adams, though I respect him more as naturalist (using his photo influence) than photographer. What's even more oxymoronic is that I have couple of his prints. Much like Yosemite that became so popular....Adams too (at least in my eyes)....I saw his work nearly everywhere and it lost its luster in my eyes.....So, I'd put him further back.

Les

[Nicholas Whitman]

Order depends on the day:

Alfred Stieglitz
Edward Weston
Wynn Bullock
Minor White
Alvin Langdon Coburn
Carleton Watkins
Aaron Siskind
Paul Strand
Clarence John Laughlin
Fredrick Sommer

[Darin Boville]

More cinematographers influenced my vision than still photographers. N. Almendros,

I've been hunting a cheap(er) copy of Man with a Camera for several years. They go for around $75 used here....

--Darin

[Frank Petronio]

Diane Arbus
Irving Penn
Richard Avedon
Dan Winters
Peter Lindbergh
Nandav Kander
Paolo Roversi
Walker Evans
Terry Richardson
Arthur Elgort

And Weston was an early influence but I don't think I'd like him as a person. I liked Ansel Adams when I first started but more so as an educator than an artist.

[Alan Curtis]

George Curtis- My father
Ansel Adams -Pretty good photographer and friend of my father
Jim Bones- Wonderful Dye Transfer Artist and environmental photographer
John Sexton- Another level of Black and White
Merg Ross- Great Vision that I never really appreciated before seeing his work
Clyde Butcher- Wonderful Florida environmentalist photographer
Brett Weston-Seeing things we didn't
Bruce Barnbaum- Mathematician works at photography
Fred Picker- Not great photographs but, great developer and promoter of black and white equipment
Laura Gilpin- wonderful early New Mexico photographer

[Helcio J Tagliolatto]

Oren,
Almost my list! I'll include Josef Sudek, too.

[Nicholas Whitman]

This exercise has been surprisingly interesting. For me the top five were easy but the real horse trading came with slots 5-10. Caponegro or White - White did it first and with more intensity. Walker Evans or Wright Morris - Morris did less volume but boy when he hit it he really hit it dead on. Paul Strand's 1st half strong enough to carry the second? (yup)

I'd say my pool of photographers that matter would be more like 25 names deep. Also there are some who rate high as teachers but who's imagery might not earn them a slot. There are contemporaries whom I would not necessarily list as no one else knows of them.

Regarding greats who were jerks, well I just ranked based on the photographs which actually influenced me. Seems in many fields, and especially the arts, some people rise to the top on the backs of others. Or at least they live a life so self centered that people around them are used and hurt.

Two in my top five were jerks. Edward Weston as a "family" man and Alfred Stieglitz for blind siding the pictorialists. If I'd known them in person they might not have made the list - but I didn't.

Knew 'em just through the photographs - which spoke to me.

[Gordy]

No particular order:

Timothy O'Sullivan
William Henry Jackson
Mark Klett
Robert Adams
Paul Caponigro
Edward Weston
Stephen Shore
Joel Meyerowitz
Richard Misrach
Harry Callahan

[Frank Petronio]

I forgot this guy: http://maxaguilerahellweg.com/ he is quite significant and I invite you check him out. He was/is an editorial photographer who used a view camera - an Ebony no less - to photograph surgeries. He got so into that he went to Med school and became a doctor.

[DougD]

My top 10, in no particular order:

Michael Kenna
Brett Weston
Albert Watson
Peter Lindbergh
Helmut Newton
Horst P. Horst
Arnold Newman
Richard Avedon
Sally Mann
Manuel Alvarez Bravo

This has been a great thread to make me remember to look at some other photographers too.

[Joe Smigiel]

Top 10 personal influences, in order:

1 - George H. Seeley
2 - Edward Weston
3 - Anne Brigman
4 - Nadar
5 - Edward Steichen
6 - Southworth & Hawes
7 - Jan Groover
8 - Elizabeth Opalenik
9 - Richard Avedon
10 - John Pfahl



These folks also popped up as rounding out my top 25 while thinking about it:

Robert Demachy
Frank Eugene
Sheila Metzner
William Eggleston
Joel Sternfeld
Francesca Woodman
August Sander
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Lars Tunbjörk
Gary Winogrand
Gertrude Kasebier
Josef Sudek
Edward Curtis
Harald Mante
Arnold Newman


I'd have to list W. Eugene Smith as the all-time best photographer although he isn't on my list of personal influences.

This is an interesting thread and I'll be investigating some listed by others who are unknown to me.

[Peter De Smidt]

William Mortensen,
George Hurrell,
Wynn Bullock,
Paul Strand,
Karsh,
Mark Sawyer,
jeanloup sieff,
Tim Rudman,
Brett Weston,
Jock Sturges

[Frank Bagbey]

Wynn Bullock
Ansel Adams
Jack Dykinga
Sally Mann
Judy Dater
Emmet Gowin
Joel Peter Witkin
W. Eugene Smith
Dorothea Lange
Jock Sturges

[Ginette]

Old topic but interesting.

It is pretty hard to keep only 10 names because of the differents styles.

Here are my "coups de cœur" :

Ansel Adams
Paul Strand
Brett Weston
Diane Arbus
Eugène Atget
Bill Brandt
Gertrude Kasebier
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Berenice Abbott
Frederick H. Evans

[h2oman]

OK, I'll play too, in no particular order:

William Clift
Brett Weston
Ansel Adams
Jay Dusard
Frederick Evans
Huntington Witherill
Fay Godwin
David Plowden
Michael Kenna
Eliot Porter

Can you tell what my favorite genre is?

[John Kasaian]

Off the top of my head-
Ansel Adams
John Sexton
Vittorio Sella
Andre Kertesz
Roman Loranc
Bob Kolbrener
Kerik Koulis
Fredrick Evans
Morley Baer
Andrew Sanderson
There's a lot of names missing!:o

[John Kasaian]

Off the top of my head-
Ansel Adams
John Sexton
Vittorio Sella
Andre Kertesz
Roman Loranc
Bob Kolbrener
Kerik Koulis
Fredrick Evans
Morley Baer
Andrew Sanderson
There's a lot of names missing!:o
Like Bradford Washburn!

[DrTang]

Diane Arbus

Bill Owens

Robert Frank

August Sander

Richard Avedon

Walker Evans

Sally Mann

Bob DeBris

Gary Winogrand

Larry Clark

[Ari]

Richard Avedon
Irving Penn
Nick Knight
Dominique Isserman
Tony Fouhse
Rob Hornstra




That is all.

[Ed Bray]

Mine are, in no particular order:

Sebastiao Salgado
Ansel Adams
Henri Cartier Bresson
James Ravilious (I would bet not many here have heard of him)
Robert Capa
Joseph Karsh
Paul Strand
Bob Carlos Clarke
David Bailey
Alfred Stieglitz

[Scott Davis]

In no particular order:

F. Holland Day
John Dugdale
Robert Mapplethorpe
Reuven Afanador
Herb Ritts
August Sander
Frederick Evans
Julia Margaret Cameron
Alexander Gardner
Mathew Brady

[DrTang]

Diane Arbus

Bill Owens

Robert Frank

August Sander

Richard Avedon

Walker Evans

Sally Mann

Bob DeBris

Gary Winogrand

Larry Clark



OH CRUD..left out the one guy who is to blame for all the crap I been buying lately:

Alfred Cheney Johnston


then, might as well throw in Irving Penn and his mudmen

[Scott Davis]

I also forgot George Platt Lynes.

[Michael Graves]

Wright Morris
Wynn Bullock
Walker Evans
Ansel Adams
Dorothea Lange
Berenice Abbot
W. Eugene Smith
Gordon Parks
Ruth Bernhard
Eugene Atget

[kgm]

Eugene Atget
Andre Kertesz
Paul Strand
Walker Evans
Carlton Watkins
Frederick Evans
Timothy O'Sullivan
Lee Friedlander
Ansel Adams
Elliot Porter

Uh, we're not including the influence that the guys who shot the [I]Playboy[I] centerfolds had on us as teenage boys, are we?

[MDR]

1)Brett Weston
2)William Henry Jackson
3)Ralph Gibson
4)Rudolf Koppitz
5)Dorothea Lange
6)Masao Yamamoto
7)Werner Bischof
8)Peter Lindbergh
9) Irving Penn
10) Joyce Tenneson

A purely personal and incomplet list

[JMB]

I think that I am influenced the most by

Edward Weston,
Ansel Adams, and
Man Ray

[civich]

Not 10 but the ones which first struck me as special long before I started shooting LF:

Ansel Adams - for making the grand landscape mythic (Moonrise, Clearing winter storm.)

George Tice - for making it real (that Oak tree, that gas station!)

Weston - well, I never pass the bell pepper bin at the grocery store
without appreciating the mis-shapen ones.

Robert Adams - who proved it can be sold if you are committed and
persistent.
-Chris

[JMB]

It seemed strange to provide an incomplete picture of primary influences (i.e. a picture that is sort of misleading because it leaves out important non photographer influences). Also, I don't know how I managed to omit my first photographer influence from my list. With your indulgence for the diversion for the sake of clarity and completeness, here is the full picture:

My Father
Edward Weston
Ansel Adams
Man Ray


Jesus
Socrates
Plato
Michelangelo
Rembrandt
Van Gogh
Gauguin
Rodin

[chassis]

Not 10, but here they are:

Ansel Adams - powerful landscapes, excellent technician and lifelong passion with photography and music
My 6th grade summer photography teacher - he got me started and had a passion for photography
The guy who shot our wedding - his passion for photography and generosity in advice
Annie Liebovitz - I don't like what I know of her public persona, but she seems to have a passion for photography which I admire
You all here on the LF site - great artists and technicians whom I learn from; thank you!
Myself - I learn from my own work and try to improve.

[Alan Curtis]

After my trip to Santa Fe this summer I have to amend my list to include William Clift. Truly remarkable photography.

[Scott Davis]

Under non-photographic influences, I'd like to toss in, well, pretty much the entire Italian Renaissance in particular, and Renaissance drama and poetry in general.

[Otto Seaman]

Don't forget the late, great, and banned Frank Petronio... an icon of the 21st Century.

[Taija71A]

____

~~ Pour moi ~~

(*In 'Alphabetical' Order)...


Ansel Adams
Tom Baril
Edward Burtynsky
Harry Callahan
Dean Collins
V. Tony Hauser
Joel Meyerowitz
Fred Picker
Stephen Shore

and

Philip Trager.

__________

[Moopheus]

I'll give it a go: Weegee, Arbus, Frank, Anonymous, Atget, Jan Tschichold (okay, a designer, not a photographer, but almost certainly the single most significant influence of my whole visual sensibility--I'd have to count Paul Rand along those lines as well), Evans (but who is not?), Hines.

[Ari]

I'll give it a go: Weegee, Arbus, Frank, Anonymous, Atget, Jan Tschichold (okay, a designer, not a photographer, but almost certainly the single most significant influence of my whole visual sensibility--I'd have to count Paul Rand along those lines as well), Evans (but who is not?), Hines.

Who's Anonymous? Never heard of him.

[Taija71A]

Who's Anonymous? Never heard of him.

____

Ari, if you got out 'More Often'... You Would Know! :D :D :D
(*Just joking of course!).
________

[mike rosenlof]

in no particular order.

Edward Weston
Ansel Adams
Imogen Cunningham
HCB
Robert Frank
Walker Evans
William Egleston
Dave Rosenlof My dad. Not notable as a photographer, but a major source of my original interest.

only nine, enough for now. or add Bruce Davidson and Minor White.

------ Added ----

I posted this without reading the 13 pages before me, now that I have there are a whole bunch of "oh yeah, I forgot..."

[Jody_S]

I've been thinking about this for a couple of years... I grew up in a small, French-speaking town in rural Quebec. There was a library, but nothing on photography (except for a single volume on basic B&W darkroom technique). There were no art galleries. The newstands had the usual gearhead mags from the '70s, but nothing at all with images- with 2 exceptions: National Geographic, and the French (Paris) mag Photo (http://www.photo.fr/magazine.html). So I bought Photo, through the early '80s. My influences were:

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Robert Doisneau
Brassai
Helmut Newton
Annie Leibovitz
Robert Mapplethorpe
Weston (Brett)
David Hamilton (!)
Roswell Angier
Rene Magritte
Jeanloup Sieff
Bettina Rheims

There are a few others whose names escape me at the moment, specifically regarding war reporting and use of color (Guy Bourdin et al).

[Robert H]

110572

Michael Kenna /
Gregory Colbert /
Eikoh Hosoe /
Aurelio Amendola /
Hiroshi Sugimoto /
Josef Sudek /
Eugene Atget /
Josef Koudelka

[Greg Y]

Vittorio Sella -
Bradford Washburn
Paul Strand
Edward Weston - for his elegant simplicity & purity of vision
Jay Dusard
Richard Avedon - above all for the 'In The American West'

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

I don't know that I admire photographers so much as I must admit that I am jealous of them for all of the places they got to go and the things and people they got to see and photograph. Would have loved to been able to ride around with Adams and Weston and Paul Strand on a few of their trips.

[alavergh]

Alan Curtis, thank you for mentioning Clyde Butcher! He's my favorite. I got tired of seeing all of the "old masters" of photography in my classes. Stieglitz, frank, etc. Bleh. I mean, good, but I got tired of it. There's something about they way they photographed people that's difficult to do today. People are much more aware of cameras and don't tend to be themselves.

[evan clarke]

Howard Bond
Ray McSavaney
Bruce Barnbaum
John Sexton

They all helped me develop my approach rather than just showing me pictures

[Dugan]

Sorry to bring a necro-thread back to life... But here are some of mine:

Arthur Tress
Oliver Gagliani
Mark Kauffman
Richard Misrach
Paul Strand
Margaret Bourke- White
Charles Sheeler
Frantisek Drtikol
George Hurrell
Yousuf Karsh
Bob Carlos Clarke

[Benjamin]

1. Dawoud Bey
2. Gordon Parks
3. Robert Frank
4. Stephen Shore
5. W. Eugene Smith
6. Alec Soth
7. Alex Webb
8. Garry Winogrand
9. Walker Evans
10. Diane Arbus

Interesting for me to note that had I done this exercise when this thread started, different names would have been there, such as Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Robert Capa and Josef Koudelka.

[John Kasaian]

In no particular order:
Ralph Barker
Ansel Adams
John Sexton
Merg Ross
André Kertész
Roman Loranc
Eugène Atget
Bradford Washburn
Jim Galli
and many, many more!

[Michael Graves]

Wright Morris
Eugene Atget
Walker Evans
Ansel Adams
Edward Weston
David Plowden
Austin Granger
Berenice Abbot
Dorothea Lange
Imogen Cunningham

[Jim Noel]

I have lived so long I can't reduce my list to 10, but I did the best I could.
Those who I know, or knew:
Al Weber
Ray McSavaney
Cole Weston
Ansel Adams
Imogen Cunningham
Morley Baer
Suda House
Pirkle Jones

Those I wish I had known:
Clarence White
Paul Strand
William Mortensen

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I have lived so long I can't reduce my list to 10, but I did the best I could.
Those who I know, or knew:
Al Weber
Ray McSavaney
Cole Weston
Ansel Adams
Imogen Cunningham
Morley Baer
Suda House
Pirkle Jones

Those I wish I had known:
Clarence White
Paul Strand
William Mortensen

Jim, I want to hear the stories when we get together! What a great list.

[jmdavis]

Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Michael Smith, Ansel Adams, Tom Daniel, Sally Mann, Michael Miley, Catherine Leroy, W. Eugene Smith, Walker Evans. I would certainly add Wynn Bullock, and a few more with more space.

[Durst L184]

Edward Weston
Ansel Adams
Man Ray
----------------
Roberto Rosselini
Lionel Rogosin
_____________
Rodin
Dostoevsky
Nietzsche
Van Gogh

[drewf64]

In no particular order .......

Edward Weston
Wynn Bullock
Paul Strand
Irving Penn
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams (for exposure & development control)
Weegee
Imogen Cunningham
Emmet Gowin
Mark Cohen (my Professor for Photography 101 in college)
Harry Callahan

[jnantz]

not really in any order, and i can't really come up with 10
that have really effected me except these folks who
have taught me to think a little more about what i do and how i do it ..

karsh
schildt
starnx2
lynch
atget
nadar
mcclure
I have another name
or two
Kertész
James
and a few others that are on
the tip of my tongue. but my fingers
don't type out ..

[martiansea]

Eadweard Muybridge -> Etienne-Jules Marey -> Marcel Duchamp (Kazimir Malevich)
Henri Cartier-Bresson -> Alexander Rodchenko -> William Eggleston
Edward Steichen -> Edward Weston
Irving Klaw -> Richard Kern
Bernd & Hilla Becher -> Andreas Gursky
Man Ray -> Laszlo Moholy-Nagy -> Barbara Kasten

In no particular order.
There's alot of other photographers that I appreciate, but they're not necessarily any influence on me.
I have a tendency to do Harry Callahan kind of random abstract photos, but that's more by coincidence than by influence. I enjoy the comparison, though.

[Peter Lewin]

Mine are split into two groups: those, some lesser known, who I have learned from in person, and those whose work inspires me:

Those with whom I have taken workshops:
Fred Picker: mediocre photographer, but very influential for us LF photographers in the 1970s and 80s
Bill Abranowicz: one-time assistant to George Tice, successful commercial photographer, taught me a lot about how to print
Sally Mann: simply an amazing person (and photographer), taught at the Maine Photo Workshops when I attended in the 1980s
Nancy Ori: founder of the NJ Photography Forum, commercial photographer and author, curator, instructor at the Ansel Adams Workshops, critiques my current work

Those whose work I love (restricted to 6 to make the total of 10):
William Clift
Paul Strand
Linda Connor
Jock Sturges (some dislike his subject matter, but he is a superb printer if you have seen actual prints, and very facile with an 8x10!)
Doug Petersen (friend at the NJ Photo Forum, published "The Last Light of Day," "Fortress," "Public Sculpture in NJ" excellent LF photographer and printer)
G.E. Kidder Smith (whose "Looking at Architecture" is my favorite monograph on the subject)