Today we will analyze photographs that were taken by recognized masters of photography. 10 great photographers. 10 famous photographs.

Philipp Halsman and his Dali Atomicus, 1948

A brilliant artist must have a brilliant portrait. Perhaps Halsman was guided by this. Perhaps he was inspired by Dali's unfinished work Leda Atomica by that time, which can be seen in the photo, perhaps he wanted to transfer surrealism to photography ... In any case, he needed a studio, additional sources of artificial light, several assistants who splashed water from buckets, calmed cats between takes and kept chairs in the air, 6 hours of work, 28 takes and, of course, Salvador Dali himself.

"Dali Atomicus", Philipp Halsman, 1948

Advice: Do not be afraid to make a large number of takes - one of them will definitely turn out to be successful.

Irving Penn and his Girl in Bed, 1949

Despite the apparent simplicity of this picture at first glance, it fascinates. Is not it? Yes, perhaps, all the work of this brilliant photographer can be described in his own words: “If I look at any object for some time, then the sight fascinates me. This is the photographer's curse." And he was able to convey this fascination with the subject like no one else. Natural light from the window, model, contemplative position of the author - and, in this case, the masterpiece is ready.

Girl in Bed, Irving Penn, 1949

Advice:: To take a beautiful picture of someone or something, you have to fall in love with the subject.

Richard Avedon and his Judy, 1948

Almost all of Richard Avedon's photos show bright, but fleeting moments that we usually don't pay much attention to. But sometimes it is moments like these that can open a person's soul.

Judy, Richard Avedon, 1963

Advice: If you want to become a good photographer, try yourself in different genres - this will help you find your niche in photography.

Ansel Adams and his Tetons and the Serpent River, 1942

Talking about the great photographers and their work, we cannot ignore the creator of the zone exposure system and the famous author of books about photography, Ansel Adams. Let's take a look at one of his works: The Tetons and the Serpent River.

In addition to interesting composition, you can see how skillfully Adams uses his system for choosing the ideal exposure of a shot. If you look closely, you can see each of the 10 zones from absolute black to white.

The Tetons and the Serpent River, Ansel Easton Adams, 1942

Advice: even when working with a digital camera, do not ignore the traditional recommendations. You can't always rely on automatic exposure.

Henry Cartier Bresson

Naturally, this post simply could not be complete without Henry Cartier-Bresson. The legendary photo reporter, creator of the Magnum Photos agency, said: “I don't like organizing and managing events. This is terrible. We cannot imitate real life. I adore the truth and shoot only the truth.” We can think about Bresson's photography endlessly, but it's even more useful to read his books The Decisive Moment and Imaginary Reality in the English edition.

Advice: Waiting for a good moment, do not miss it!

Alfred Eisenstadt and his Times Square Victory Day

Alfred Eisenstadt became famous thanks to a photo of a sailor kissing his girlfriend. One photo taken at a turning point made him real star. And it doesn't matter if the photo is blurry. The photographer did a great job capturing the atmosphere.

"V-J Day in Times Square", Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945

Advice: Always carry your camera with you.

Ernst Haas

Ernst Haas is a pioneer of digital photography. His famous quotes:

• Photography is an expression of your ideas and feelings. If the high has no place in your soul, you will never notice them in the outside world.
• Beauty speaks for itself. When the process reaches its peak, I take a picture.
• I don't take pictures of new interesting objects. I try to find something new in familiar things.
• When photography appeared, a new language was born. Now we can talk about reality in the language of reality.
• Your camera type doesn't mean anything. Any camera can capture what you see. But you must see.
• There is only you and your camera. All rules and restrictions are in your head.
• Tell me what you see and I'll tell you who you are.

Ernst Haas. Kyushu Island, Japan, 1981

Advice: beauty is everywhere. Find and feel it.

Yusuf Karsh and his portrait of Winston Churchill

Yusuf Karsh is a famous Canadian photographer known for portraits of prominent political figures. The history of this photo is unusual. After a speech in the lower house of parliament, the British prime minister entered the meeting room and saw the photo equipment. He allowed me to take just one photo and lit a cigar. It is not known exactly why the photographer approached Churchill and removed the cigar from his mouth, but that is exactly what Karsh did. He returned to his camera and took a picture.

The photo shows all the skills of Yusuf Karsh. He managed to create an impression of depth and space with the help of light, perfect pose and gesture. The result is a dramatic, enchanting portrait that vividly shows the British Prime Minister's inner strength.

Portrait of Winston Churchill, Yusuf Karsh, 1941

Advice: don't be afraid to provoke your models to show themselves. You can see what is hidden from everyone.

Guyon Miley

Guyon became a popular photographer thanks to the unique mixture of "algebra and harmony" in his photographs and the effect of the moment stopped. Perhaps the light drawings gained popularity precisely because of Mili. Guyon practiced in different areas constantly experimenting. However, one thing remained unchanged. His ability to capture the grace and drama of the current moment.

Pablo Picasso masters light painting. Guyon Mily, 1949

Advice: do not forget that photography is not only an attractive drawing. Experiment with focus, exposure and shutter speed.

William Smith

We chose to mention this press photographer at the end of the article for a reason. His words should become the slogan of anyone who wants to become a good photographer: “Photography has no end. As soon as I reach the highest point of mastery, an even higher peak is shown in the distance. And I'm on the road again."

William Smith, Dr. Tseriani with a Wounded Child, 1948

Advice: never stop reaching your goals. Shoot not with a camera, but with your soul.

Always analyze the work of famous world photographers in as much detail as possible. Soak up their experiences and notice what expressions they use. One day you will notice how this knowledge is absorbed into your own photographs and becomes the quality of your work.

For a long time I was going to post the life stories and success stories of the most famous photographers in the past in the Tape. Actually, it was with this topic that I wanted to start maintaining my Topics.
Recently, I often think about the fact that everything we do (meaning as our professional activity, and our hobbies) is some kind of zilch that is unlikely to ever change something in the lives of current and future generations. Those. the question is, WHAT anyway is SELF-REALIZATION(including in photography?!)

Elliott Erwitt- the legend of world photography, became famous as the most talented author of black and white photographs. His works: lively, emotional, with a sense of humor and deep meaning, conquered the public of many countries. The uniqueness of the photographer's technique lies in the ability to see the irony in the world around him. He did not like staged shots, did not use retouching and worked only with film cameras. Everything that Ervit has ever filmed is genuine reality, through the eyes of an optimist.

“I want the images to be emotional. There is little else that interests me in photography.”Elliott Erwitt

Arnold Newman (Arnold Newman) devoted almost seventy years of his life to photography, not stopping working almost until his death: “Augusta (Newman is talking about his wife - A.V.) and I are busy and active as never before,” the photographer said in 2002, “Today I'm working again on new ideas, books, travel - it's never over and thank God. In this he was mistaken - on June 6, 2006 he died - a sudden cardiac arrest. As if anticipating this diagnosis, he once said: “We do not take pictures with cameras. We make them with our hearts."

« I think today's generation has one problem. It is so fascinated by objectivity that it forgets about photography itself. Forgets to create images like Cartier-Bresson or Salgado, two of the greatest 35mm photographers who have ever lived. To create a photo, they can use any theme, whatever it may be. They really create a photograph that you get pleasure from, great pleasure. And now, every time it's the same thing: two people in bed, someone with a needle in their hand or something like that, Lifestyles or nightclubs. You look at these and in a week you begin to forget, in two weeks you cannot remember a single one. But then photography can be considered interesting when it sinks into our consciousness.» Arnold Newman

Alfred Stieglitz

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Alfred Stiglitz (Alfred Stieglitz) "almost single-handedly pushed his country into the art world of the 20th century." It was Stiglitz who became the first photographer whose works were awarded museum status. From the very beginning of his career as a photographer, Stieglitz faced disdain for photography from the artistic elite: “The artists to whom I showed my early photographs said they were jealous of me; that my photographs are better than their paintings, but, unfortunately, photography is not art. I could not understand how you can both admire the work and reject it as miraculous, how you can put your work above just on the basis that they are made by hand, ”Stiglitz was indignant. He could not come to terms with this state of affairs: "Then I began to fight ... for the recognition of photography as a new means of self-expression, so that it would be equal in rights with any other forms of artistic creation."

« I want to draw your attention to the most popular misconception about photography - the term "professional" is used for supposedly successful photographs, the term "amateur" - for unsuccessful ones. But almost all great photographs are taken - and always have been - by those who pursued photography in the name of love - and certainly not in the name of profit. The term "lover" just suggests a person working in the name of love, so the fallacy of the generally accepted classification is obvious.Alfred Stiglitz

Perhaps it is difficult to find in the history of world photography a personality more controversial, tragic, so different from anyone else than Diane Arbus. She is idolized and cursed, someone imitates her, someone tries by all means to avoid this. Some can look at her photos for hours, others try to quickly close the album. One thing is obvious - the work of Diana Arbus leaves few people indifferent. There was nothing unimportant or banal in her life, her photographs, her death.

Extraordinary Talent Yousuf Karsh as a portrait photographer did their job: he was - and remains - one of the most famous photographers of all times and peoples. His books are widely sold, exhibitions of his photographs are held all over the world, his works are included in the permanent collections of leading museums. Karsh had a great influence on many portrait photographers, especially in the 1940s-1950s. Some critics argue that he often idealizes the character, imposes his philosophy on the model, talks more about himself than about the person being portrayed. However, no one denies that his portraits are made with extraordinary skill and the inner world - of a model or a photographer - has a bewitching attention to the viewer. He received many awards, prizes, honorary titles, and in 2000 the Guinness Book of Records named Yusuf Karsha the most prominent master of portrait photography.

« If, looking at my portraits, you learn something more significant about the people depicted in them, if they help you sort out your feelings about someone whose work has left a mark on your brain - if you look at a photograph and say: Yes, that's him" and at the same time you learn something new about the person - it means that this is a really good portrait.» Yusuf Karsh

Man Ray Since the beginning of his career as a photographer, he has constantly experimented with new techniques. In 1922, he rediscovered a method for creating photographic images without a camera. Another discovery of the photographer, also known long before him, but practically not used, was solarization - an interesting effect that occurs when the negative is re-exposed. He turned solarization into artistic technique, as a result of which ordinary objects, faces, body parts were transformed into fantastic and mysterious images.

“There will always be people who look only at the technique of performance - their main question is “how”, while others, more inquisitive, are interested in “why”. For me personally, an inspiring idea has always meant more than other information.”Man Ray

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry (Steve McCurry) has an amazing ability to always (at least much more often than it follows from the theory of probability) to be at the right time in the right place. He is surprisingly lucky - though it should be remembered here that the luck for a photojournalist is usually the misfortunes of other people or even entire nations. A more than prestigious education did little to help Steve in the profession of a photojournalist - he worked his way to the heights of skill by trial and error, trying to learn from his predecessors as much as possible.

“The most important thing is to be extremely attentive to the person, serious and consistent in your intentions, then the picture will be the most sincere. I love people watching. It seems to me that a person's face can sometimes tell a lot. Each of my photographs is not just an episode from life, it is its quintessence, its whole story.»Steve McCurry

"A mixture of algebra with harmony" made Gyena Mili (Gjon Mili) one of the most famous photographers in America. He showed the world all the beauty of a stopped movement or a series of moments stopped in one frame. It is not known when and where he became interested in photography, but in the late 1930s, his pictures began to appear in the illustrated magazine Life - in those years, both the magazine and the photographer were just beginning their path to fame. In addition to photography, Mili was fond of cinema: in 1945, his film "Jammin' the Blues" about famous musicians of the 1930-1940s was nominated for an Oscar.

"Time can really be stopped"Gyen Mili

André Kertész known as the founder of surrealism in photography. His unconventional angles for that time, and the unwillingness to reconsider the position in the style of his work, greatly prevented him from achieving wide recognition at the beginning of his career. But he was recognized during his lifetime and is still considered one of the preeminent photographers at the forefront of photojournalism, if not photography in general. " We all owe a lot to him.» - Cartier Bresson about Andre Kertesche.

« I don't adjust or calculate, I watch a scene and know it's perfect, even if I have to step back to get the right light. The moment dominates my work. I shoot how I feel. Everyone can look, but not everyone can see. » André Kertész

Richard Avedon

It's hard to find a celebrity who hasn't posed to Richard Avedon. Among his models are the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Nastassja Kinski, Audrey Hepburn and many other stars. Very often, Avedon manages to capture a celebrity in an unusual form or mood for her, thereby opening her from the other side and forcing her to take a different look at a person's life. Avedon's style is easy to recognize by the black and white color, dazzling white background, large portraits. In portraits, he manages to turn people into "symbols of themselves."

Peter Lindbergh- one of the most respected and copied photographers. You can call him a "poet of glamor." Since 1978, when Stern Magazine published his first fashion photographs, no international fashion publication is complete without his photographs. Lindbergh's first book, "Ten Women", a black-and-white portfolio of the top ten models of the time, was published in 1996 and sold over 100,000 copies. The second, "Peter Lindbergh: Images of Women", is a collection of the photographer's work from the mid-80s. until the mid-90s, was released in 1997.

From ancient times, the Czech Republic was a country of mysticism and magic, the home of alchemists, artists, they wove spells, they were the creators of fantastic worlds of imagination. World famous Czech photographer Jan Saudek not an exception. Over the course of four decades, Saudek has created a parallel universe - the Magic Theater of Dreams.

p.s. just now I noticed that the vast majority of the most famous photographers are Jews :)

What makes a photographer famous? Decades spent in the profession, acquired or invaluable experience? No, the only thing that makes a photographer famous is his pictures. The list of famous photographers of the world consists of people with a bright personality, attention to detail, and the highest professionalism. After all, it is not enough just to be in the right place at the right time, you also need to be able to correctly display what is happening. Being a good photographer is not easy, let alone professional level. We want to introduce you to the greatest classics of photography and examples of their work.

Ansel Adams

"What the photographer is able to see, and what he sees - to say, is of incomparably greater importance than the quality of technical equipment ..."(Ansel Adams)

Ansel Adams (Ansel Easton Adams Born February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer best known for his black and white photographs of the American West. Ansel Adams, on the one hand, was gifted with a subtle artistic flair, on the other hand, he had an impeccable command of photographic techniques. His photographs are full of almost epic power. They combine the features of symbolism and magical realism, inspiring the impression of the "first days of Creation". During his lifetime, he created over 40,000 photographs and participated in more than 500 exhibitions around the world.

Yusuf Karsh

“If, looking at my portraits, you learn something more significant about the people depicted in them, if they help you sort out your feelings about someone whose work has left a mark on your brain - if you look at a photograph and say: “Yes, it’s him” and at the same time you learn something new about a person - then this is a really good portrait” ( Yusuf Karsh)

Yusuf Karsh(Yousuf Karsh, December 23, 1908 - July 13, 2002) - Canadian photographer of Armenian origin, one of the masters of portrait photography. During his life he made portraits of 12 US Presidents, 4 Popes, all British Prime Ministers, Soviet leaders - Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, as well as Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Bernard Shaw and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Robert Capa

“A photograph is a document, looking at which one who has eyes and a heart begins to feel that not everything is safe in the world” ( Robert Capa)

Robert Capa (real name Endre Erno Friedman, October 22, 1913, Budapest - May 25, 1954, Tonkin, Indochina) is a Jewish photographer born in Hungary. Robert Capa was not going to become a photographer at all, life circumstances pushed him to this. And only courage, adventurism and bright pictorial talent made him one of the most famous war reporters of the twentieth century.

Henri Cartier Bresson

«... photography can capture infinity at one point in time... " (Henri-Cartier-Bresson)

Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 2, 1908 – August 3, 2004) was one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. Father of photojournalism. One of the founders of the photo agency Magnum Photos. Born in France. Was fond of painting. He paid much attention to the role of time and the "decisive moment" in photography.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (Dorothea Margarette Nutzhorn, May 26, 1895 - October 11, 1965) - American photographer and photojournalist / Her photographs, bright, striking in the heart with their frankness, nakedness of pain and hopelessness, are silent evidence of what hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans had to endure, deprived of shelter, basic means of subsistence and all hope.

This photograph has been literally the epitome of the Great Depression for many years. Dorothea Lange took the picture while visiting a vegetable picker camp in California in February 1936, wishing to show the world the resilience and resilience of a proud nation in difficult times.

brassai

“There is always a chance - and each of us hopes for it. Only a bad photographer takes one chance in a hundred, while a good photographer uses everything.

"Everyone has it creative person there are two dates of birth. The second date - when he will understand what his true calling is - is much more important than the first "

“The purpose of art is to elevate people to a level that they could not reach in any other way”

"There are many photographs full of life, but incomprehensible and quickly forgotten. They lack strength - and this is the most important "(Brassai)

Brassai (Gyula Halas, September 9, 1899 - July 8, 1984) was a Hungarian and French photographer, painter and sculptor. In Brassaille's photographs, we see the mysterious Paris in the light of street lamps, squares and houses, foggy embankments, bridges and almost fabulous wrought iron bars. One of his favorite techniques was reflected in a series of photographs taken under the headlights of rare cars at the time.

Brian Duffy

“Every photograph taken after 1972 I have seen before. Nothing new. After a while, I realized that photography is dead ... " Brian Duffy

Brian Duffy (June 15, 1933 – May 31, 2010) was an English photographer. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Caine, Sidney Poitier, David Bowie, Joanna Lumley and William Burroughs have all stood in front of his camera.

Jerry Welsman

“I believe that the ability of a person to convey things beyond the visible is enormous. This phenomenon can be observed in all genres of fine arts, as we are constantly looking for new ways to explain the world, which sometimes reveals itself to us in moments of understanding that go beyond the boundaries of our usual experience.(Jerry Welsman)

Jerry Welsman (1934) is an American theorist of the art of photography, teacher, one of the most interesting photographers of the second half of the twentieth century, a master of mysterious collages and visual interpretations. The surreal collages of the talented photographer conquered the world when Photoshop was not even in the project. However, even now the author of unusual works remains true to his own technique and believes that miracles are happening in a darkened photo lab.

Annie Liebovitz

“When I say I want to take a picture of someone, it means I want to get to know them. Everyone I know, I photograph" ( Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz)

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz (Anna-Lou «Annie» Leibovitz; genus. October 2, 1949, Waterbury, Connecticut) - famous American photographer. Specializes in celebrity portraits. Today it is the most popular among women photographers. Her work graces magazine covers. Vogue, Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Rolling Stone, she was posed naked by John Lennon and Betty Midler, Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore, Sting and Devine. Annie Leibovitz managed to break the stereotypes of beauty in fashion, introduce older faces, wrinkles, everyday cellulite and imperfection of forms into the photo arena.

Jerry Gionis

“Set aside at least five minutes a day to try to accomplish the impossible - and you will soon feel the difference” ( Jerry Gionis).

Jerry Gionis - the top wedding photographer from Australia is a real master of his genre! No wonder he is considered one of the most successful masters of this direction in the world.

Colbert Gregory

Gregory Colbert (1960, Canada) - a pause in our fast paced world. Stop on the run. Absolute silence and concentration. Beauty in silence and immobility. The feeling of delight from the feeling of belonging to a huge living being - the planet Earth - these are the emotions that his works evoke. Within 13 years, he made 33 (thirty-three) expeditions to the most remote and exotic corners of our vast and at the same time such a tiny planet: India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, Antarctica. He set himself one task - to reflect in his works the amazing relationship between man and nature, the animal world.

In fact, the list of the greatest photographers is quite long, and these are just a few of them.

What can the world do famous photographer even more prominent? Is it really the number of years that he / she has devoted to the profession of a photographer, the experience that has accumulated, or a certain chosen direction of photography? Nothing like this; The most important reason for this may be hidden in any photo frame that the photographer managed to capture.

Most of the most famous photographers most often try to remain silent on this topic. It is quite enough for them to have copyright signatures on their works so that these works become recognizable. Some famous photographers prefer to remain unrecognizable by not revealing their face for personal reasons. These reasons may remain a mystery to a growing audience of admirers, or maybe it all lies in the excessive modesty of these people. The most famous photographers are honored, as a rule, for a certain shot of an incredible, amazing moment that can literally last some milliseconds. People are fascinated by the fact that such an amazing event or incident can be captured in such a short time.

As the saying goes, "One photograph can express a thousand words." And so, each of the world's most famous photographers, once or twice in his career, managed to capture such a frame that can elevate him to the rank of greatness. In this article, some of the most famous photographers in the world who have succeeded in their profession are presented, as well as the very works that made them famous. These photographers managed to touch the hearts of many people in the world with their amazing, sometimes stunning photographs. Most Famous Photographers Peace.

Murray Becker, photographer for the Associated Press, became famous for his photograph of the Hindenburg airship on fire. He died of cancer at the age of 77.

(1961-1994) - South African Pultzer Prize-winning fine art photographer Kevin Carter spent several months of his life photographing famine in Sudan. As a freelance photographer for Reuter and Sygma Photo NY, and a former magazine illustration editor for the Mail and the Gaurdian, Kevin has dedicated his career to reporting on conflicts in his native South Africa. He was highly acclaimed at the prestigious Ilford Photo Press Awards for Best News Photograph of the Year in 1993.

One of the most important figures in contemporary photography is Helen Levitt. For 60 years, her calm, poetic photographs, taken on the streets of the city in which she lived most of her life, have inspired and amazed generations of photographers, students, collectors, curators and art lovers. Throughout her long career, Helen Levitt has captured her poetic vision, humor and ingenuity in her most sincere portraits of the men, women and children who live on the streets of New York.
She was born in 1945-46. She made the film "On the Streets" with Janis Loeb and James Azhi, the peculiarity of this film was that in it she presented a moving portrait of herself. Levitt's most important exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, and a solo exhibition of only color works was held there in 1974. Major retrospectives of her work have been held at several museums: the first in 1991, in association with the San Francisco Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and at International Center Photographs in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and 2001 at the Center for National Photography in Paris.

Philipp Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga Latvia Riga, Latvia. He studied engineering in Dresden before moving to Paris, where he established his photography studio in 1932. Thanks to his spontaneous style, Halsman has earned the attention of many of his admirers. His portraits of actors and authors have appeared on the covers of books and magazines; he worked in fashion (especially hat design) and also had a large number of private clients. By 1936, Halsman had become known as one of the finest portrait photographers in France.
From 1940 to 1970, Philippe Halsman made brilliant portraits of celebrities, intellectuals and politicians who appeared on the covers of magazines: Look, Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post, Paris Match, and especially Life. His work has also appeared in advertisements for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, NBC, Simon & Schuster, and Ford.

Charles O'Rear (born 1941) American photographer is widely known for his photograph of Bliss, which was used as the default wallpaper for Windows XP.
For 70 years he participated in the project of the Defense Agency Environment DOCUMERICA and photographed for National Geographic magazine for over 25 years. He began his career as a photographer in the wine industry and took photographs for the Napa Valley winegrowers organization. He then went on to photograph wine products around the world. To date, he has submitted his photographs for seven books dedicated to winemaking.

Roger Fenton (March 28, 1819 – August 8, 1869) was a pioneer of photography in Britain, and one of the first war photographers to cover events during the war. how this allowed him only to a small extent to display his talent for landscape photography. In addition, he played big role in the general development of photography.

David Barnett has been a photojournalist for 40 years. His camera does not hunt for beautiful landscapes and seals - it is aimed at important events that become symbols of the era. David's photographs allow you to look at the world from the outside. His works are a living textbook of history, which, instead of dry facts, demonstrates the bright events of our time.

I like David. While other pros are buying their own, he's wearing an ancient 60 year old Speed ​​Graphic camcorder. Of course, he has expensive professional equipment. But, apparently, he understands perfectly well: an expensive camera is a nice bonus, and not a prerequisite for a good picture. A real master can do good frame even a "soap dish" for 30 bucks.

• A simple example: in 2000, David won the Eyes of History competition by taking a picture with a cheap $30 Holga plastic camera.

When Helmut was a teenager, the Gestapo arrested his father. Newton fled Germany and moved to Australia, where he served in the Australian army until the end of the Second World War ... This seems to be the way to write a description if you were bitten by a Wikipedia moderator.

The biographies of talented people often look too impeccable, like a VIP room in a private clinic - just as sterile and far from real life. German-Australian photographer, worked for Vogue magazine, sometimes shot in the nude genre ... This sparse retelling does not give any idea of ​​who Newton Hellmuth was.

And he was a sincere snob without delusions of grandeur, who loved the glitter of high society. He preferred to shoot rich people and stay in luxury hotels. And he spoke honestly about this, considering himself a rather superficial, but truthful person.

Until he suffered a heart attack in 1971, Hellmuth smoked 50 cigarettes a day and could party for a week. But a heart attack revealed an incredible truth to the 50-year-old photographer: it turns out that a rampant “youthful” lifestyle can end very sadly with age.

Having been on the verge of death, Helmut quit smoking, began to lead a more measured life and promised himself to shoot only what was interesting to him.

Helmut Newton on things he hates:

• I hate good taste. This is a boring phrase, from which all living things suffocate.
• I hate it when everything is inside out - it's cheap.
• I hate dishonesty in photography: pictures taken in the name of some artistic principles are fuzzy and grainy.

Yuri Arkurs is one of the most successful stock photographers in the world. Instead of photographing sunrises and fog in a city park, he photographs what is for sale: happy families and pills, money and students. And on special sites called photo stocks, all this is sold and bought. And in this area, Arkurs became a real guru, who showed by personal example how you can earn money, achieve heights and even enjoy doing commercial stock photography.

Yuri was born and raised in Denmark. He began to earn money on photo stocks in his student years in order to pay for his studies. At that time, the only model he could shoot was his girlfriend. But soon additional income became the main one for Yuri: in a few years, in 2008, he was earning up to $90,000 a month on photo stocks.

Today this guy is selling his work large companies: MTV, Sony, Microsoft, Canon, Samsung and Hewlett Packard. His shooting day costs $6,000. And this whole story has become a real fairy tale about Cinderella for freelancers with a camera.

How realistic is it to repeat such a path to success? Who knows. We can only state that today Yuriy Arkurs is one of the most successful stock photographers.

Irvin Penn liked to take pictures, but did not attach much importance to this hobby. His main job was art design: Irwin designed magazine covers and even got a job as an assistant art editor at the popular Vogue magazine.

But cooperation with eminent photographers of this publication did not work out. Penn was constantly dissatisfied with their work and could not explain to them what he needed. As a result, he waved his hand and took up the camera himself. And how he took it: the pictures were so successful that the authorities persuaded him to retrain as a photographer.

Irwin was the first to shoot models on a white or gray background - there was nothing superfluous in the frame. Incredible attention to every detail earned him a reputation as one of the best portrait photographers of his day. This allowed Penn to shoot various celebrities, including Al Pacino and Hitchcock, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

Gursky inherited his love for photography from his father: he was an advertising photographer and taught his son all the intricacies of his craft. Therefore, Andreas did not hesitate with the choice of profession: he graduated from the school of professional photographers and the State Academy of Arts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about this because I've got the wiki moderator syndrome back on track. It's just that Andreas is one of the few photographers from our rating who thoroughly approached this occupation, and did not shoot by chance.

After completing his studies, Gursky began to travel the world. Experimenting and gaining new experience, he found his own style, which is now his calling card: Andreas takes huge pictures, the dimensions of which are measured in meters. Looking at their reduced copies on a computer screen, it is difficult to appreciate the effect that they produce in full growth.

Whether Gursky shoots a panorama of a city or a river landscape, people or factories, his pictures are striking in their scale and peculiar monotony of details in the photo.

For most of his life, Ansel Adams has photographed nature in the Western United States. He traveled a lot, photographing the wildest and most inaccessible corners of national parks. His love for nature was expressed not only in photography: Ansel actively advocated the preservation and protection of the environment.

But what Adams did not like was pictorialism, popular in the first half of the 20th century, a method of photography that made it possible to take photographs that looked like paintings. In contrast, Ansel and a friend founded the f / 64 group, which professed the principles of the so-called “straight photography”: shoot everything honestly and realistically, without any filters, post-processing or other bells and whistles.

Group f/64 was founded in 1932, at the very beginning of Ansel's career. But he was true to his convictions, so he retained his love for nature and documentary photography until the end of his life.

• You must have seen the screensaver on your desktop, which depicts the Teton Range and the Snake River against the backdrop of the setting sun:

So, Adams was the first to capture this landscape from this angle. His black-and-white photograph was included in 116 images that were recorded on the Voyager gold plate - this is a message from earthlings to unknown civilizations sent into space 40 years ago. Now the aliens will think that we do not have color cameras, but there are good photographers.

I like Sebastian's biography. This is a natural evolution that happens to any idealist throughout life.

Salgado himself told this story in an interview when he visited Moscow in February 2016. At 25, he, along with his wife, moved from Brazil to Europe. From there they planned to go to Soviet Union and enter the University of Peoples' Friendship in order to build a society without social inequality. But in 1970, their dreams were destroyed by a friend from Prague - the Czechs tasted plenty of communism in 1968.

So, this guy dissuaded the spouses, explaining that in the USSR no one is building communism. Power does not belong to the people and if they want to fight for happiness ordinary people, they can stay and help immigrants. Salgado listened to his friend and stayed in France.

He trained as an economist, but quickly realized that this was not his. His wife, Lelia Salgado, had more creative profession- she was a pianist ... but also became disillusioned with her occupation and decided to become an architect. It was she who bought their first camera to shoot architecture. As soon as Sebastian looked at the world through the viewfinder, he immediately knew that he had found his true passion. And after 2 years he became a professional photographer.

According to Salgado himself, economic education gave him knowledge in the field of history and geography, sociology and anthropology. A huge store of knowledge opened up opportunities for him that are inaccessible to other photographers: an understanding of human society in the most different corners our planet. He has traveled to over 100 countries, taking an incredible amount of documentary photography.

But do not think that Sebastian photographed exotic beaches and funny animals while relaxing on tropical islands. His travels are completely different. Initially, an idea is born: "Workers", "Terra", "Renaissance" - these are just some of the names of his albums. After that, preparations for the trip begin and the trip itself, which can take several years.

Many of his works are devoted to human suffering: he photographed refugees in African countries, victims of famine and genocide. Some critics even began to reproach Salgada for presenting poverty and suffering as something aesthetic. Sebastian himself is sure that the matter is different: according to him, he never took pictures of those who look pathetic. Those he photographed were in distress, but they had dignity.

And it would be fundamentally wrong to think that Salgado was "promoting" on someone else's grief. On the contrary, he drew the attention of mankind to those troubles that many did not notice. The situation when Sebastian completed Exodus in the 1990s is indicative: he was filming people who had escaped the genocide. After the trip, he admitted that he was disappointed in people and no longer believes that humanity can survive. He returned to Brazil and took some time off to recover.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending: the old idealist regained his faith in beauty, and is now busy with another project, photographing the untouched corners of our planet.

If you start typing in a search engine , then Google will display a drop-down box with the option "Steve McCurry Afghan Girl". This is rather strange, because McCurry is too mustachioed for a girl, albeit an Afghan one.

In fact, the "Afghan Girl" is Steve's most famous photograph to feature on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Even the Wikipedia article about this guy starts with a story about this:

• “Steve is a mustachioed American photojournalist who photographed an Afghan girl”. (Wikipedia)

Most articles about this photographer begin with a similar phrase, including our story about him. One gets the impression that he is a one-man actor, like Daniel Radcliffe or Macaulay Culkin. But it is not so.

Steve's career as a professional photographer began during the war in Afghanistan. He did not travel around the country in a Hammer, hiding behind the backs of the military, but stayed among ordinary people: he got local clothes, sewed rolls of photographic film into them and traveled around the country like an ordinary Afghan. Or as an ordinary American spy disguised as an Afghan - someone could consider this option. So Steve took a risk, but thanks to him, the world saw the first photos of that conflict.

Since then, McCurry has not changed his approach to work: he wandered around the world, taking pictures of different people. Steve captured many military conflicts and became a true master of street photography. Although in fact McCurry is a photojournalist, he managed to blur the line between documentary and art photography. His photographs are bright and attractive, like a postcard, but at the same time truthful. They do not require any explanations or comments - everything is clear without words. To create such photos, you need a rare flair.

Annie Leibovitz is a real specialist in portrait photography of stars. Her photographs graced the covers of the most popular magazines, causing stormy emotions and discussions. Who else would have thought to take a picture of Whoopi Goldberg grimacing in a bath of milk? Or a naked John Lennon cuddled up against Yoko Ono in a fetal position? By the way, this was the last picture in his life, taken a few hours before Chapman's fatal shot.

Annie's biography looks quite smooth: after studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, Leibovitz got a job at Rolling Stone magazine. She worked with him for over 10 years. During this time, Annie has earned a reputation for being able to photograph any celebrity in an interesting and creative way. And this is quite enough to achieve success in modern show business.

Having gained some fame, Annie moves to New York, where she opens her own photography studio. In 1983, she began working with Vanity Fair magazine, which sponsored her subsequent outrageous celebrity shots. Shooting naked Demi Moore at the last stage of pregnancy or smearing with clay and exposing Sting in the desert is quite in the spirit of Leibovitz. Like forcing Cate Blanchett to ride a bike or forcing a goose to take pictures with DiCaprio. No wonder her work is so popular!

Who else can boast that he photographed the Queen of England, Michael Jackson, Barack Obama and many, many other celebrities? And, mind you, he didn’t shoot as a paparazzi, hiding behind a bush, but arranged a full-fledged photo shoot? This is why Annie Leibovitz is considered the most successful, if not the best. contemporary photographer. Although somewhat poppy.

1. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Craving for art Henri inherited from his uncle: he was an artist and got his nephew hooked on painting. This slippery slope eventually led him to a passion for photography. What did Henri do that made him different from hundreds and thousands of other photographers?

He comprehended a simple truth: everything must be done honestly and for real. Therefore, he refused to staged photos, never asked someone to act out a certain situation. Instead, he kept a close eye on what was going on around him.

In order to remain inconspicuous during the shooting, Henri sealed the shiny metal parts on the camera with black electrical tape. He became a real "invisible", which allowed him to capture the most sincere feelings of people. And for this, it’s not enough not to attract attention - you need to be able to determine the decisive moment for a photo. It was Henri who coined the term, "the decisive moment," and even wrote a book with that title.

To summarize: Cartier-Bresson's photos are distinguished by lively realism. For such work, some professional skills are not enough. It is necessary to sensitively understand the nature of a person, to capture his emotions and mood. All this was inherent in Henri Cartier-Bresson. He was honest in his work.

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