Top 10 contemporary photographers

[Terry Hull]

Mary Ellen Mark?

[Mark Sawyer]

I note that no one has mentioned Richard Prince, who still holds the record for the most expensive photograph by a contemporary photographer, over a million dollars at auction.

Guess he wouldn't make my list either, though...

[tim atherton]

I note that no one has mentioned Richard Prince, who still holds the record for the most expensive photograph by a contemporary photographer, over a million dollars at auction.

Guess he wouldn't make my list either, though...

Nah - nowhere near

Gursky's 99cents (ironically) for 3.3 million dollars

[Richard Kelham]

Not to forget the work Joe Cornish
http://www.joecornish.com/

I'm trying very hard to....

[Bruce Watson]

I have to admit that it was with some discomfort that I chose my top 10 because it seems to me that the really "hot" field of photography "where its at", which is most relevant to our society as a whole at the moment, is news or war photography and so the top spots in any such list should include a hefty number of photojournalists covering Iraq.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Art doesn't have to be relevant. Photojournalism, while an admirable profession, is one subset among many in photography. It hasn't earned any special treatment here. Neither have the others.

Regardless of your political views about the Iraq war (REPEAT: REGARDLESS OF POLITICS) you have to admit that the significance of the work of Iraq war photog is far above the rest, ...

I do not have to admit any such thing, nor do I.

[cyrus]

I wholeheartedly disagree. Art doesn't have to be relevant. Photojournalism, while an admirable profession, is one subset among many in photography. It hasn't earned any special treatment here. Neither have the others.



I do not have to admit any such thing, nor do I.

Ok it doesn't have to be exclusively news photog, but surely there are a few contemporary news photos who are sufficiently important to at least make someone's list of top ten, right? But I don't see too any . . .
Could it be that as LF photogs we have a biased view of the field which favors art/landscape etc and tends to downplay news photogs?

[Pete Watkins]

Oh Tim, all the time and effort that you put into slagging me off and defending Jock Sturges images and you don't even rate him. Neither does anyone else up to now, amazing!
Pete.

[tim atherton]

... I'm actually not hugely into portrait photographers - Cameron, Sander, Avedon (may have made the list if he were still alive), maybe Dijkstra. So Sturges is good, but there just aren't many portrait photogs I would include in such a list ( or at least people who do virtually "only" portraits)

[Rainer]

... and almost any of their websites really suck ...

All this superslow superstylish flash bullsh#t!
Great photographers and a lot of lousy websites.

[E_Aiken]

no order... and just today's list, really.

Gene Richards. Can I just name him three times?
Mitch Epstein
Joel Sternfeld
Alex Webb
Jonas Bendiksen
Stevie Boy Shore
Alec Soth
...