Wright Morris
Wynn Bullock
Walker Evans
Ansel Adams
Dorothea Lange
Berenice Abbot
W. Eugene Smith
Gordon Parks
Ruth Bernhard
Eugene Atget
Wright Morris
Wynn Bullock
Walker Evans
Ansel Adams
Dorothea Lange
Berenice Abbot
W. Eugene Smith
Gordon Parks
Ruth Bernhard
Eugene Atget
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?
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
I think that I am influenced the most by
Edward Weston,
Ansel Adams, and
Man Ray
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
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
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.
After my trip to Santa Fe this summer I have to amend my list to include William Clift. Truly remarkable photography.
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.
Don't forget the late, great, and banned Frank Petronio... an icon of the 21st Century.
Bookmarks