10 greatest living photographers

[Tin Can]

Made me LOL

Good point

I prefer

me

Oh, but to cause problems...

What if most of the greatest living photographers haven't reached the age yet to start using a camera?

[Doug Howk]

Michael Kenna
Robb Kendrick
Dick Arentz
George Tice
Kenro Izu
Steve Anchell
Tilman Crane
David Bailey
John Blackmore

[jnantz]

most of the greats were great some of them still are.. while I have some obscure names on my list
one doesn't need to be known to be great, I will only post 2 (3) that you might know

Starn Twins
Ndakasi

[Vaughn]

Vaughn, I fixed it for you with the rewording :-)

You're no fun! The Tralfamadorians would not be amused.

But sorry I can not contribute names -- Just too wide of a selection for me to define what great is. I would have to research the greatest living artists of each diverse type of photography. Greatest portrait photographer, best B&W landscape, best color landscape, etc. I would not include Sexton and Clyde both, for example...because only one can be the 'greatest' at B&W landscape (which might be Thomas Joshua Cooper).

[Hans Berkhout]

Happy New Year! Fifteen years ago, we had a thread asking you to name "top 10 living contemporary photographers". I feel the question was better asked without the ill-defined word "contemporary" and maybe "greatest" is a bit more precise than "top". It would also be interesting to see if a second attempt at that list would yield similar results.

So here is the question: list who you consider to be the greatest 10 photographers living today based on their existing work (LF or not).

Lists should be of exactly 10 photographers, one per line, first name and last name, in no particular order, and independent of other lists (meaning no "Add XX", and if you see YY name on other lists but think they belong, include YY in your own list).

Happy New year!



there can only be one greatest. The remainder is great, good or whatever

interesting topic

respectfully,

[Merg Ross]

I tend to agree with Vaughn's post above. (#14) There are too many categories of photography where certain individuals are quite proficient. However, there is no way of ranking the creative worth of an artistic effort, in my opinion. It comes down to influence and overall personal appeal. The implication of "greatest" is that one work is superior to another. There is work that we like best, or work that has influenced us, but "greatest" is hard for me to comprehend in the arts.

I'll give it more thought. Thanks QT, and best wishes for the new year.

Merg

[Pieter]

In no particular order, and maybe not the "greatest," but photographers whose work I enjoy and respect.

Elliott Erwitt and Lee Friedlander, though alive but I don't think they're taking many photos now.

Robert Adams, of course.

Josef Koudelka

William Eggleston

Thomas Struth

Stephen Vanfleteren

Rineke Dijkstra

Andreas Gursky

Bonus: Sally Mann

[FrancisF]

QT - great challenge for the group. Would not disagree with anyone on list, but would add Yaakov Asher Sinclair for consideration for those who might not be aware of his work. It is his landscapes that speak to me.

[Mark Sawyer]

All the greatest living photographers on my list are already dead.

[PRJ]

I agree with a lot of the above.

Daido Moriyama hasn't been mentioned yet.

Most of them are going to be real old. The real question is who are the young photographers that will be on the list one day? I don't think there will be a long list unfortunately.

I have a book around here somewhere that has work from the 100 best young photographers. A few years after that book was published you would be hard up to find even a couple that still make photographs.

My point is just that most of the great photographers have already lived, and the great masters that have already passed makes me sad for the ones yet to. It won't be long before most of the people mentioned in this thread will be gone.