Famous photographers from the 20th century

The Greatest 20th Century Photographers

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Find out more about the greatest 20th Century Photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Ansel Adams, Helena Christensen, Jacques Cousteau and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Birthdate: February 20, 1902

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: San Francisco, California, United States

Died: April 22, 1984

Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. Best known for capturing the beauty of the American West, Adams helped found the Group f/64. He also formulated a photographic technique called the Zone System, which helped photographers come up with clearer images. For his photographic work and advocacy for environmental conservation, Ansel Adams was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Annie Leibovitz

(Portrait Photographer Who is Known for Her Engaging Portraits of Celebrities in Intimate Settings)

Birthdate: October 2, 1949

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Waterbury, Connecticut, United States

Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer whose career is defined by intimate photographs of celebrities, as exemplified by her famous portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, hours before the English musician’s murder. The Rolling Stone magazine provided the platform for her photographic talent during the early years of her career. She was involved in a controversy over an apparent topless photo of Miley Cyrus.

Birthdate: March 14, 1923

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Manhattan, New York, United States

Died: July 26, 1971

Robert Mapplethorpe

(American Photographer Best Known for His Black-And-White Photographs)

Birthdate: November 4, 1946

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Floral Park, New York, United States

Died: March 9, 1989

Best known for his black and white photographs, Robert Mapplethorpe chose homoerotic themes to express himself. His male nudes reflected the gay BDSM subculture of New York. His works also included flowers, still lifes, and portraits of celebrities. The gay photographer-artist eventually died of aids.

Birthdate: October 22, 1913

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary

Died: May 25, 1954

Robert Capa was a Hungarian-American photojournalist and war photographer. Regarded as the greatest adventure and combat photographer of all time, Robert Capa is best remembered for covering five major wars, namely Second Sino-Japanese War, Spanish Civil War, World War II, First Indochina War, and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In 1947, he was honored with the prestigious Medal of Freedom.

Birthdate: May 26, 1895

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Hoboken, New Jersey, United States

Died: October 11, 1965

Cindy Sherman

(Photographer, Film director)

Birthdate: January 19, 1954

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Glen Ridge

Birthdate: August 22, 1908

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Chanteloup-en-Brie, France

Died: August 3, 2004

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer. Considered a master of candid photography, he pioneered the genre of street photography. He was among the earliest users of the 35 mm film. In 1947, he became one of the founding members of Magnum Photos, an international photographic cooperative. In his later years, he explored drawing and painting.

Vivian Maier

(American Street Photographer Whose Work was Discovered After Her Death)

Birthdate: February 1, 1926

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Died: April 21, 2009

Vivian Maier was an American street photographer whose works received critical acclaim after her death. Maier's photographs were unpublished during her lifetime. However, her works went viral on the internet when it was published on Flickr five months after her death. Vivian Maier's life and work have inspired documentary films like Finding Vivian Maier.

David Bailey

(Photographer)

Birthdate: January 2, 1938

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Leytonstone

David Bailey is an English portrait and fashion photographer. He is credited with co-creating the Swinging London movement along with Brian Duffy and Terence Donovan during the 1960s. Bailey is also known for his work with the famous Vogue magazine. The character played by David Hemmings in the 1966 mystery thriller film Blowup was inspired by David Bailey.

Birthdate: May 15, 1923

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: New York City

Died: October 1, 2004

Birthdate: October 31, 1920

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Berlin, Germany

Died: January 23, 2004

Helmut Newton was a German-American photographer whose works earned him accolades all over the world. His photographs were featured on popular fashion magazines like Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. He also worked closely with Playboy, shooting several pictorials of models like Kristine DeBell and Nastassja Kinski.

Cecil Beaton

(British Photographer, Costume and Production Designer)

Birthdate: January 14, 1904

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Hampstead, London, England

Died: January 18, 1980

Cecil Beaton was a British war, portrait, and fashion photographer. A multi-talented personality, Beaton is also known for his work as a painter, diarist, interior designer, and costume designer. Cecil Beaton worked with popular publications like Vogue before becoming a leading war photographer. His work as a costume designer for the theatre and films earned him Oscars and Tony Awards.

David LaChapelle

(Photographer)

Birthdate: March 11, 1963

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Fairfield

Birthdate: September 4, 1941

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Scarsdale, New York, United States

Died: April 17, 1998

Linda McCartney, the first wife of Paul McCartney, formed the band Wings with her husband, after the Beatles disbanded. An animal rights activist, she wrote several vegetarian cookbooks, apart from launching Linda McCartney Foods. She was also a skilled photographer and published a photo book. She died of breast cancer.

Alexandra Hedison

(American Actress and Photographer Known for Her TV Series ‘The L Word’ and ‘Prey’)

Birthdate: July 10, 1969

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States

Alexandra Hedison is a renowned photographer and has exhibited her creations at numerous galleries, throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has also appeared in the series The L Word and Nash Bridges. Openly lesbian, she has dated Ellen DeGeneres in the past and is now married to Jodie Foster.

W. Eugene Smith

(Photographer, Photojournalist, War photographer, Journalist)

Birthdate: December 30, 1918

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Wichita

Died: October 15, 1978

W. Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist whose major photo essays include photographs of the Second World War. His work, Country Doctor, which he photographed for Life magazine, is now widely regarded as the first extended editorial photo story. An organization named W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund has been established in his honor to support young photographers.

Birthdate: July 9, 1937

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Bradford

Painter, photographer, printmaker, and stage designer David Hockney is best known for his works such as Portrait of an Artist, which became the most expensive piece of art by a living artist ever auctioned, at $90 million. His works have explored themes such as homosexuality. He has synesthesia, too.

Birthdate: September 13, 1960

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Johannesburg

Died: July 27, 1994

Kevin Carter was a South African photojournalist whose photograph titled the vulture and the little girl, which depicted the 1993 famine in Sudan, earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994. Carter committed suicide in 1994 after suffering from depression. A book titled The Bang Bang Club, which was later made into a film, depicts his story.

Leni Riefenstahl

(Film Director, Photographer and Actress Known for Her Seminal Role in Producing Nazi Propaganda)

Birthdate: August 22, 1902

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Berlin, Germany

Died: September 8, 2003

Leni Riefenstahl was a German film director and actress best remembered for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. She made her directorial debut in 1932, becoming one of the few women to direct a movie during the Weimar Period. Riefenstahl is credited with directing two of the most technically innovative propaganda films of all time, Olympia and Triumph des Willens.

Birthdate: March 9, 1960

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Linda Fiorentino is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Bridget Gregory in the 1994 neo-noir erotic thriller film The Last Seduction, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a couple of prestigious awards, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

Gina Lollobrigida

(Actress, Photojournalist)

Birthdate: July 4, 1927

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Subiaco, Italy

Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress and photojournalist counted amongst the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. Considered a sex symbol in her youth, she had a successful career both in the film and TV industries. She later built a second career as a photojournalist. She is a recipient of the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Birthdate: March 24, 1886

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Highland Park, Illinois, United States

Died: January 1, 1958

Edward Weston was an American photographer and archer. Regarded as one of the most influential and innovative American photographers of all time, Weston became the first photographer to be honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937. Some of his photographs, such as Nude, 1925 and Nautilus, are among the most expensive photographs ever sold.

Sebastião Salgado

(Photojournalist, Painter, Journalist)

Birthdate: February 8, 1944

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Aimorés

Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian photojournalist and social documentary photographer. His photographic projects, which have appeared in numerous books and press publications, have taken him to over 120 countries. Sebastião Salgado is a recipient of several prestigious honors and awards such as the Oskar Barnack Award and Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal.

Helena Christensen

(Danish Model, Co-founder of 'Nylon' Magazine, Former Beauty Queen and ‘Victoria's Secret Angel’)

Birthdate: December 25, 1968

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark

Helena Christensen is a Danish photographer and supermodel. A former beauty queen, clothing designer, and Victoria's Secret Angel, Christensen has been featured on cover pages of magazines, such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Well-known for her philanthropic activities, Christensen has participated in campaigns to raise awareness about climate change. She has also launched fundraising campaigns to fight against breast cancer.

Margaret Bourke-White

(Photographer, War photographer, Photojournalist, Journalist)

Birthdate: June 14, 1904

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: New York City

Died: August 27, 1971

Ann Curry

(Journalist)

Birthdate: November 19, 1956

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Hagåtña, Guam

Born to a Japanese mother and an American father, journalist Ann Curry is best known for her extensive war reporting and has covered disturbances from areas such as Syria and Afghanistan. The Emmy Award-winning journalist has had a long stint on NBC. She also supports cancer research.

Zdzisław Beksiński

(Painter)

Birthdate: February 24, 1929

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Sanok, Poland

Died: February 21, 2005

Robert Frank

(Photographer)

Birthdate: November 9, 1924

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Zürich, Switzerland

Died: September 9, 2019

Robert Frank was a Swiss documentary filmmaker and photographer best remembered for his photographic book The Americans which earned him comparisons with the likes of Tocqueville. An acclaimed photographer, Robert Frank won many prestigious awards, such as Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 1996 and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 2002.

Susan Mikula

(Photographer, Rachel Maddow’s Partner)

Birthdate: 1958 AD

Birthplace: New Jersey, United States

Self-taught photographer Susan Mikula is known for using old Polaroids and pinhole cameras to create her masterpieces. She was an accountant earlier and has also worked for the U.S. consulate in Mexico. The LGBT icon is in a long-term relationship with her partner, journalist and TV personality Rachel Maddow.

Birthdate: August 24, 1973

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States

Lance Gross

(Actor)

Birthdate: July 8, 1981

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Oakland, California, USA

Koo Stark

(American Photographer and Actress)

Birthdate: April 26, 1956

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Renowned photographer Koo Stark has held numerous exhibitions. Her works have also been showcased at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has also been an actor and a model, and has been in the news for her relationship with Britain’s Prince Andrew. Stark is a cancer survivor.

Birthdate: April 9, 1830

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England

Died: May 8, 1904

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer best remembered for his contribution to photographic studies of motion. Muybridge achieved international prominence when he exhibited photographs of Yosemite Valley in 1868. He is said to have inspired several artists and inventors like Sol LeWitt, Thomas Eakins, William Dickson, and Francis Bacon.

Abbas Kiarostami

(Film director, Screenwriter, Photographer, Film producer, Poet, Film editor)

Birthdate: June 22, 1940

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Tehran

Died: July 4, 2016

Abbas Kiarostami was an Iranian screenwriter, film director, film producer, photographer, and poet. Over the course of his illustrious career, Kiarostami was honored with numerous awards such as the Jury Special Award at the Tehran International Film Festival and Best Film Award at the Iranian Film Festival for Children and Young Adults.

Birthdate: November 30, 1912

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Fort Scott, Kansas, United States

Died: March 7, 2006

Gordon Parks was a writer, photographer, musician, and film director. He was the first Black American to direct and produce major motion pictures pertaining to the experience of slaves and African-Americans. He is credited with co-creating a new film genre called blaxploitation and his works have influenced filmmakers like Spike Lee. He is also credited with co-founding Essence magazine.

Birthdate: July 26, 1956

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Cheshire, England

English sculptor, artist, and photographer Andy Goldsworthy has revolutionized outdoor art by creating masterpieces with naturally available material such as rain, snow, and rocks. A farm laborer in his younger days, he developed an early love for nature and the elements. Rain Shadows remains one of his best-loved works.

Dora Maar

(Photographer, Painter)

Birthdate: November 22, 1907

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Paris, France

Died: July 16, 1997

Born to a French mother and a Croatian father, Dora Maar spent her childhood in Argentina and later studied art in Paris. The renowned surrealist artist and photographer later gained fame as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse, and was featured in his paintings such as Weeping Woman.

Lewis Hine

(American Sociologist and Muckraker Photographer Best Known for the Documentary Images of Child Labor Practices)

Birthdate: September 26, 1874

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States

Died: November 3, 1940

Lewis Hine was an American photographer and sociologist. Hine's photographs played a key role in the passage of the child labor laws in the USA. He worked with non-profit organizations like Russell Sage Foundation and National Child Labor Committee and captured the plight of several child laborers in the steel-making districts. These photographs helped enact the first child labor laws.

Mary McCartney

(Photographer)

Birthdate: August 28, 1969

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: London

Mary McCartney is a British photographer best known as the daughter of Linda and Paul McCartney. McCartney is credited with capturing portraits of popular personalities like Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes, and Sam Taylor-Wood. Apart from being a photographer, Mary McCartney is also an animal rights activist. She is a Global Ambassador for initiatives like Green Monday and Meat Free Monday.

Gerda Taro

(The First Woman Photojournalist to Have Died While Covering the Frontline in a War)

Birthdate: August 1, 1910

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany

Died: July 26, 1937

Gerda Taro was a German Jewish war photographer who was active during the Spanish Civil War. As a young woman, she became interested in Leftist politics. She then became involved with photographer Robert Capa and began her own career in photojournalism. She died in 1937 while covering the frontline during the Spanish Civil War.

Chris Owen

(Actor)

Birthdate: September 25, 1980

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Houghton, Michigan, U.S.

Irving Penn

(Photographer)

Birthdate: June 16, 1917

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Plainfield

Died: October 7, 2009

Irving Penn was an American photographer best remembered for his portraits, fashion photography, and still lifes. He was one of the earliest photographers to pose his subjects against a white or grey backdrop. During his illustrious career, he worked for popular publications like Vogue. He was honored by the German Society for Photography with the prestigious Cultural Award in 1987.

Steve McCurry

(Photojournalist who gained fame for his work, Afghan Girl, which was featured in National Geographic magazine)

Birthdate: April 23, 1950

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Steve McCurry is an American photographer and photojournalist whose photo Afghan Girl has appeared on the cover page of National Geographic magazine on multiple occasions. Over the course of his illustrious career, Steve McCurry has won numerous awards and honors, such as the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and the Lucie Award for Photojournalism.

Melissa Auf der Maur

(Musician)

Birthdate: March 17, 1972

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Birthdate: March 21, 1922

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: San Leandro, California

Died: September 18, 2004

Russ Meyer was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, editor, and cinematographer. He is best remembered for directing a series of popular sexploitation films, such as Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! After his death, the majority of his estate and money went to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as per his will.

Chris Stein

(Musicians)

Birthdate: January 5, 1950

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Yousuf Karsh

(Photographer)

Birthdate: December 23, 1908

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Mardin, Turkey

Died: July 13, 2002

Tokugawa Yoshinobu

(15th and last shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan)

Birthdate: October 28, 1837

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Died: November 22, 1913

Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the 15th and last shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. During his tenure, he aimed to reform the shogunate but was largely unsuccessful. He resigned in 1867 and went into retirement, choosing to lead a private life away from the public eye. He had multiple hobbies, including photography, oil painting, archery, hunting, and cycling.

William Eggleston

(Photographer, Artist)

Birthdate: July 27, 1939

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Memphis

Greatest Influential & Famous Photographers of 20th Century – Bamboo Scenes

With the advent of digital cameras and smartphones, photography has become far more accessible to the average person. So it’s easy to forget that really good photography is truly an art, a form that requires serious skill and knowledge. It takes decades to develop this expertise and build a body of work that speaks to a photographer’s abilities. But a handful of artists around the world have done exactly that, leaving an everlasting impact on the world of photography through their enduring images and contributions to the field. Here are just a few of the most influential photographers of our time that everyone should know about.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Var Department', Paris (1932), Magnum Photos

A master of street photography and the “father of photojournalism,” Henri Cartier-Bresson is arguably the most important name in modern photography. A French humanist photographer that excelled in capturing powerful, candid moments, Cartier-Bresson defined the “decisive moment” where people’s “physical and psychological elements” create a brief, perfect moment. He literally wrote the “Decisive Moment” book that is still considered a bible for today’s aspiring photographers.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leivovitz, 'John Lennon & Yoko Ono' (1980), New York City

We’d argue that it’s impossible to talk about late 20th and 21st-century photography without mentioning Annie Leibovitz. Considered the greatest American photographer of her generation, Leibovitz is famous for her insightful portraits for “Rolling Stone” magazine, where she photographed celebrities in bold colors and unusual poses that truly captured their essence. As well as numerous album and magazine covers to her name, Leibovitz was the first woman to exhibit at Washington DC’s National Portrait Gallery, and took the last official images of John Lennon the day he was assassinated.

Ren Hang

Ren Hang, Untitled (2012), China

Despite his tragically short-lived career, Chinese photographer Ren Hang made an indelible mark on the world of photography. Uncomfortable in front of strangers, he instead chose to create nude portraits of his friends that offer insight and representation into Chinese sexuality. Despite his success—championed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Ren exhibited in Paris in 2014—Hang was arrested several times due to the erotic nature of his work and eventually died by suicide at age 29.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams, Tetons and The Snake River (1942), Grand Teton National Park

Most famous for his captivating black-and-white images of California’s Yosemite National Park—you’ve probably seen his many images of El Capitan— Ansel Adams was one part photographer and one part passionate environmental activist. With his focus on rugged, rural landscapes, Adams is a pioneer of contemporary natural photography. Along with fellow photographer Fred Archer, he also developed the Zone System for determining optimal film exposure and development.

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton, 'Thierry Mugler' (1998), Monaco, Helmut Newton Estate

German by birth and Australian by immigration, Helmut Newton was the darling of mainstream magazines in his heyday. The iconic photographer was known for his racy images inspired by boundary-pushing movements like Expressionism, Surrealism, and Film Noir. His critics might have derided his “unnecessarily risqué” images, but they were a staple of Vogue, Playboy, and many other publications.

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry, 'Maimana, Afghanistan' (2012-2021)

World-renowned documentary photographer Steve McCurry is perhaps most famous for his green-eyed “Afghan Girl,” which was taken in a refugee camp in Pakistan and covered National Geographic in June 1985. Far fewer people realize, though, that McCurry tracked down Sharbat Gula 17 years later. McCurry’s ability to capture extraordinary moments of everyday people is what turned him into an award-winning journalist who’s received accolades like Magazine Photography of the Year and the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal.

Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White, 'DC-4 Flying over Manhattan' (1939)

A pioneering female photojournalist—she worked for LIFE magazine—Margaret Bourke-White was the first foreign photographer to capture Soviet industry in 1930. She went on to photograph the turmoil of World War Two, the German invasion of Moscow in 2041, and later, the Korean War. While covering the fight for Indian independence, Bourke-White also made the last portrait of Gandhi, mere hours before he was assassinated. Her fearlessness in capturing the reality of seismic world events created remarkable images that still have the power to shock and awe, decades after her death.

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus, Susan Sontag & Her Son on a Bench' (1965), New York City, The Estate of Diane Arbus

A champion of marginalized groups, Diane Arbus ensured her photography focused on representation. Her work had a rare psychological intensity that made it impossible to ignore her images. During her lifetime, Arbus achieved some fame, publishing in Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar, winning a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and exhibiting at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). After Arbus’ death in 1972, her oeuvre went through a renaissance as she became the first photographer to be included at the Venice Biennale, and the most successful exhibition to date at MOMA.

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh, 'Winston Churchill', 1941, The estate of Yousuf Karsh

A skilled portrait photographer, Yousuf Karsh brought an unmatched humanity to his subjects, allowing a rare glimpse at the more vulnerable side of world leaders, royalty, celebrities, and artists. Born in 1908 under the Ottoman Empire, Karsh survived the Armenian genocide and began his photography career in Ottowa, Canada. His most enduring image, “The Roaring Lion” depicts Winston Churchill moments after he delivered a speech about World War Two to the Canadian Parliament and captures Churchill’s churlishness at having his cigar removed for the portrait. It was this larger-than-life image that catapulted Karsh to fame.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, 'Family Leaving their home in search of a better life due to a serious long-term drought in the region' (1938), Oklahoma USA, Getty Images

An American documentary photographer, Dorothea Lange’s photographs depict the hardship, pain, and resilience of Americans during the Great Depression. She got her start photographing America’s social elite before working with the Farm Security Administration to represent the rural poor and migrant workers. Lange later captured the mass deportation of Japanese-Americans to detention camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and went on to document developing countries in South Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle, Luxury Photoshoot, Washington Post

A prolific contemporary American commercial photographer, David LaChapelle is known for his bombastic, highly stylized images of the biggest celebrities of the last few decades. He shot to fame while working with Andy Warhol at Interview Magazine, where he refined his high-gloss style of pop surrealism with references to art history and religion.

At Bamboo Scenes, we’re thrilled to work with a tightly curated collective of eight of Hong Kong’s most influential photographers. Their unique style and abilities showcase the city in truly special ways in images that are a testament to what living here in the early 21st century is like. Whether you choose one of our carefully crafted photography art prints for your home or as a gift, there’s no doubt that they will be an enduring reminder of your connection to Hong Kong.

20 famous photographers you need to know

StoriesStories with picturesThe best

Nowadays, there is only one way to get rich, famous and go down in history as a photographer - by doing anything, but not photography. A hundred years ago, you could easily become a great photo artist, because there were two key prerequisites:

a) photography was a complex, troublesome and little known craft;

b) Slowly, technologies appeared and were introduced that made it possible to reproduce photographs in newspapers and (a little later) in color magazines.

That is, the glorious moment has come when you, having pressed the shutter button, already understood that millions will see this frame. But these millions did not yet know that they could do the same, since there were no digital "soap boxes", full automation and photo dumps on the Internet. Well, talent, of course. You have no competition!

The golden era of photography, perhaps, should be recognized as the middle of the last century. However, many of the artists listed on our list belong to other distant and modern eras.

Helmut Newton, Germany, 1920–2004

A little more than a great and famous fashion photographer with a very, very independent understanding of what erotica is. It was fiercely demanded by almost all glossy magazines - Vogue, Elle and Playboy in the first place. He died at the age of 84 after crashing his car into a concrete wall at full speed.

Richard Avedon, USA, 1923–2004

God of the black-and-white portrait, also interesting in that, digging through his galleries, you will find anyone. There is absolutely everything in the pictures of this brilliant New York Jew. They say that Richard took his first picture at the age of nine, when he accidentally caught Sergei Rachmaninov in the lens.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, France, 1908–2004

An outstanding photorealist, one of the patriarchs of photo reportage and at the same time an invisible man: he had a finely worked gift to be able to remain visible to those he photographs. At first he studied as an artist, where he felt a craving for light surrealism, which was then tangibly imprinted in his photographs.

Sebastián Salgado, Brazil, 1944

Creator of almost fantastic images taken from the real world. Salgado was a photojournalist who was especially attracted to anomalies, misfortunes, poverty and environmental disasters, but even such stories of his fascinate with beauty. In 2014, director Wim Wenders made a film about him called "Salt of the Earth" (special prize at the Cannes Film Festival).

William Eugene Smith, USA, 1918–1978

A photojournalist who is perhaps famous for everything a photojournalist can be famous for — from canonical military photographs to expressive and touching portraits of great and ordinary people. Below, as an example, is a frame from a session with Charlie Chaplin for Life magazine.

Guy Bourdin, France, 1928-1991

One of the most copied and imitated photographers in the world. Erotic, surreal. Now, a quarter of a century after his death, it is more and more relevant and modern.

Vigi (Arthur Fellig), USA, 1899–1968

Immigrant from Eastern Europe, now a great classic of street and crime photography. For any incident in New York, be it a fire, a murder or a banal scuffle, he managed to arrive faster than other paparazzi and often the police. However, in addition to all sorts of emergencies, almost all aspects of life in the poorest quarters of the metropolis are noted in his photographs. Based on his photo, the film noir Naked City (1945) was filmed, Stanley Kubrick studied from his shots, and Vigi himself is mentioned at the beginning of the comic film Watchmen (2009).

Alexander Rodchenko, USSR, 1891–1956

Pioneer of Soviet design and advertising, pioneer of constructivism. He was expelled from the Union of Artists for departing from the ideals and style of socialist realism, but, fortunately, it did not come to the camps: he died a natural death at the dawn of the Khrushchev thaw.

Irvin Penn, USA, 1917–2009

Master of portrait and fashion genre. He is famous for the abundance of his signature features - for example, taking pictures of people in the corner of a room or against all sorts of gray, ascetic backgrounds. Famous for the catchphrase: "Shooting a cake can also be art."

Anton Corbijn, The Netherlands, 1955

The world's preeminent rock photographer whose ascent began with iconic photographs and video clips for Depeche Mode and U2. His handwriting is easily recognizable: strong defocus and atmospheric noise. Corbijn also directed several films: Control (a biography of the Joy Division frontman), The American (with George Clooney) and A Most Dangerous Man (based on the novel by Le Carré). If you Google the famous photos of Nirvana, Metallica, or Tom Waits, there's almost a 100% chance that Corbijn's photos will come up first.

Steven Meisel, USA, 1954

One of the most successful fashion photographers in the world, whose name became especially popular in 1992, after the release of Madonna's photobook "Sex". Considered the discoverer of many catwalk superstars such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista or Amber Valletta.

Diana Arbus, USA, 1923–1971

Real name is Diana Nemerova. She found her niche in photography by working with the most unattractive nature - freaks, dwarfs, transvestites, feeble-minded ... At best - with nudists. In 2006, the biopic Fur was released, where the role of Diana was played by Nicole Kidman.

David LaChapelle, USA, 1963

The master of pop photography (“pop” in a good sense of the word) LaChapelle, in particular, shot videos for Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, so you will understand his style not only by photo frames.

Marc Riboud, France, (1923-2016)

Author of at least a dozen "prints of the era": you must have seen a hippie girl a million times hold a chamomile to the barrel of a rifle. Riboud has traveled all over the world and is most revered for his portfolio of filming in China and Vietnam, although you can also find scenes from the life of the Soviet Union.

Elliott Erwitt, France, 1928

A Frenchman with Russian roots, famous for his ironic and absurd view of our troubled world, which is very moving in his still photographs. Not so long ago, he also began to exhibit in galleries under the name André S. Solidor, which is abbreviated as "ass".

Patrick Demarchelier, France/USA, 1943

Still a living classic of fashion photography, enriching this genre with a particularly complex refinement. And at the same time, he reduced the transcendental degree of glamorous overdress, which was the norm before him.

Annie Leibovitz, USA, 1949

A master of fairy-tale plots with a very powerful charge of wit, understandable even to simpletons, far from hyperglamour. Which is not surprising, since the lesbian Annie started out as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.

Mick Rock, UK, 1948

The name doesn't deceive you: rock was the main theme of his work, at one time Mick Rock was even listed as David Bowie's staff photographer. In rock and roll and journalistic circles, he was nicknamed "The Man Who Filmed the Seventies."

Martin Parr, UK, 1952

A specialist in scenes from life, but who preferred to work in such rich colors and angles in which life is not shown to the average observer. It is necessary and sufficient for you to know that Martin's particular passion was the satirical examination of British social classes.

Richard Kern, USA, 1954

Underground photographer and filmmaker focused on sex, violence and rock and roll. In this field, he became one of the most iconic photographers of the New York underground, among the heroes of his photographs were even such extreme monsters as GG Allin. A regular contributor to major men's magazines, he also indulges in music video production, including videos for Sonic Youth and Marilyn Manson. His typical works are, to put it mildly, erotic, but not at all in the way we are used to in glossy galleries.

And the 21st artist at the end of the article is absolutely free! This is…

Andreas Gursky, Germany, 1955

The man who fetched $4,338,500 at Christie's for a picture of Rhein II. It was a phenomenal record. With finances, everything is clear here, but judge for yourself the artistic merits of the picture.

Oleg "Apelsin" Bocharov

20 Most Influential Women Photographers in 100 Years - Russian Photo

20 most influential
women photographers in 100 years

March 7, 2014
Photo: Sally Mann

On the eve of International Women's Day, we present an overview of the 20 most talented women photographers of the 20th century, who made a huge contribution to the development of world photography with their work.

Eva Arnold (1912–2012)

Eva Arnold was an American photographer and photojournalist, the first female member of the Magnum Photos agency.

Eva became interested in this kind of creativity in 1946. She took her first steps in professional photography two years later in Harper's Bazaar magazine under the guidance of its art director Alexei Brodovich. During her creative career, Eva has worked in China, South Africa, Russia and Afghanistan, shooting a variety of subjects, events and portraits. She gained wide popularity thanks to the shooting of Hollywood stars and politicians: Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Malcolm X, Jacqueline Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II and others. She was especially famous for her series of portraits of Marilyn Monroe.

In the post-war years, Eva Arnold held the unofficial title of Grande Dame of Photojournalism. She is considered one of the creators of the "golden age of news photography" associated with publications such as Life and Look. These magazines attracted attention not so much with texts as with highly artistic photographs taken by such masters as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Robert Capa and others.

Marilyn Monroe, photo by Eva Arnold

In 1980, the Brooklyn Museum in New York held the first solo exhibition of Eva Arnold's photographs taken in China. At 1995 she became a member of the Royal Photographic Society.

“Many of my stories were repeated. I was poor, and it was important for me to capture poverty. I was interested in politics, and I tried to understand how it affects our lives. Finally, I am a woman, and I wanted to know more about other women, ”Arnold said in an interview.

Inge Morath (1923–2002)

Inge Morath of Austria became a member of Magnum Photos in 1953 and was the second female photographer to join this legendary agency.

Inge published about 30 monographs in her lifetime. She worked in various genres, shooting landscapes, portraits, architecture, reporting, but she became famous primarily as a street photographer.

Inge became interested in the art of light painting in the early 1950s while working in post-war Vienna with photographer Ernst Haas. She was inspired to her own work by viewing the works of the great Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Inge traveled a lot. She has traveled to Europe, Africa, the USA, South America and the Middle East. “Photography is strange... You just trust your eye, but you can’t help but bare your soul,” she once said.

Photo: Inge Morath

Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971)

An American photographer and photojournalist, pioneering reportage, she became Life magazine's first female photojournalist. In addition, she was the first Western photographer to visit the USSR in 1930. She can also be called the first woman who was allowed to work at the front. During the Second World War, Margaret took pictures very actively and was the only foreign photographer present in Moscow during the attack of Nazi Germany; she later accompanied American troops.

Her book "Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly", in which Margaret showed all the horrors of war, gained worldwide fame, and her autobiography "My Own Portrait" became a bestseller.

As contemporaries noted, Margaret always revealed the objective essence of the event and filmed in such a way that each frame reflected her attitude to what was happening. A master of dynamic journalistic photo essays, she was incredibly perceptive and able to convey vivid emotions in pictures. As Margaret herself said, the camera was her salvation, a barrier between her and reality. Today, her photographs are kept in the US Historical Museums and the Library of Congress in Washington.

Soviet Union, August 1941, women harvesting hay. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White died at the age of 67 after suffering from Parkinson's disease for a long time.

Lillian Bassman (1917–2012)

Lillian Bassman was an American photographer and artist. She was born in New York to Jewish immigrant parents.

In the 1950s and 60s, Lillian worked at Harper's Bazaar as a fashion photographer and art director, but soon decided to radically change her style and became interested in high-contrast black and white photography. She began to use this technique in fashion shootings, thanks to which she gained considerable popularity.

Lillian was very interested in pictorial photography. Perhaps this explains the picturesqueness and graphic nature of her works. She was known as an experimenter who spared no time to process shots, and tried to shoot out of focus and at slow shutter speeds.

Lillian Bassman is often described as a self-taught photographer who, as she herself said, was trying to "get rid of the heaviness in photography."

Photo: Lillian Bassman

At the end of her career, Bassman discovered color abstract photography and mastered Photoshop.

Diana Arbus (1923–1971)

Diana Arbus was an American photographer known for her black-and-white square photographs of “deviant individuals and marginals (dwarfs, giants, transsexuals, nudists, circus performers) as well as ordinary people who look ugly and surreal. " The catalog of her work published by Aperture magazine is still one of the best-selling in the history of photography.

Diana started her career in photography together with her husband Alan. At 19In 1941, they visited a photography exhibition at the Alfred Stieglitz Gallery, where Diana first heard names such as Matthew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan, Paul Strand, Bill Brandt and Eugene Atget. Alan already had some experience in this area: during the Second World War, he completed an army photography course. The couple decided to try their hand at photography. Their first collaboration was an advertising shoot for Diana's father's department store.

In 1946, Diana and Alan opened their own photographic studio, Diane & Allan Arbus, where she became artistic director and he became photographer. Very soon, they began to receive orders from Glamor, Seventeen, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar magazines, but this was not what interested young creators. In their own words, they "detested the fashion world. "

Photo: Diana Arbus

Soon Diana started working alone and found her subject very quickly. She showed the world those people, when meeting with whom most of us turn our eyes away. Dwarfs, giants, nudists - the gallery of images shown by her is impressive... Being a very sensitive and receptive person, Diana suffered from depression throughout her life, and in 1971 she committed suicide.

In 2004, her photograph of Identical Twins was sold for almost half a million dollars.

Vivian Mayer (1926–2009)

American street photographer Vivian Mayer is one of the most enigmatic photographers of the 20th century.

She took her first photographs back in France at the turn of the 1940s and 50s. In the US, Vivian began shooting city views and soon bought a Rolleiflex camera. During her lifetime, she did not care about publishing her photographs, most likely regarding them as a hobby.

Vivian Mayer's work reflects New York from the 1950s to 1980s. Thanks to her works, viewers can see the streets of this city of those times. Mayer has a lot of images and photographs. She almost did not print her works, and at the end of her creative activity she did not even develop films, but simply folded them.

Vivian Mayer worked as a nanny, and almost no one knew about her passion for photography. According to the testimony of contemporaries who knew her, she was a very modest, secretive and nevertheless eccentric person. So, being very tall, she wore long clothes and large men's shoes, which made her figure even larger and more unusual.

Photos by Vivian Meyer

In addition to photography, Meyer was interested in cinematography and even made several plotless videos about the life of the city. In addition, she recorded interviews with people she spoke to. All these works are still in the research stage.

The world owes the unexpected discovery of the name of this photographer to John Maloof, who bought her pictures at an auction for $400, not even suspecting the value of his acquisition. He counted more than 100,000 negatives, which he is still sorting out and subsequently plans to publish. Since there were many photographs and their storage is difficult, John had to sell some of the pictures to the collector Jeff Goldstein.

Lisette Model (1901–1983)

Lisette Model was an Austrian-born American photographer.

Lisette was born into a good Viennese family, studied music with the famous composer Schoenberg. After her father's death, her family moved to Paris, where she earned her living by singing. But very soon the girl got bored with music, and she took up photography.

Lisette studied with André Kertész's first wife, Rogi Andre, and it was from her that she learned the main rule: "Never film something that you are not passionately interested in."

The model is considered one of the founders of street photography, her gaze is always fierce.

She told her students: “Take pictures from your intestines!”. By the way, the most famous of them, Diane Arbus and Bruce Weber, just managed to find their own style, "shooting the insides" and showing the world what no one wants to see.

Photo by Lisette Model. 1939

The urban environment was Lisette's main source of inspiration. In her portfolio, we see reflections in the windows of skyscrapers, crowds of passers-by, portraits of beggars, the fading beauty of wealthy ladies. Up to 1950 years of Model's work were published in the glossy magazines Look and Harper's Bazaar, and in the post-war years this style was considered too rigid and went out of fashion.

Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)

Imogen Cunningham is an American photographer known for photographs of plants, nudes and industry, one of the founders of the informal association of California photographers "Group F64", which included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke and others.

Imogen Cunningham was one of the first women to dare to call photography her profession. Her career began in 1901 at Edward Curtis' studio in Seattle, where she printed photographs. In 1909, Imogen went to Germany to study at the Higher Technical School, and after her return she opened her own portrait gallery in Seattle, which quickly became famous.

In 1906, Imogen really shocked the local public by publishing her nude self-portrait. Since then, nudity has become her favorite genre, although not the only one. Many pictures of Imogen were scandalous.

In the early 1930s, Cunningham joined the F64 Group, which established photography as a separate art form and emphasized photographic aesthetics. After a while, she opened a new gallery and began teaching at the Art Institute in San Francisco. In 1974, Imogen Cunningham published a retrospective monograph of her photographs. She died in 1976 without completing her last series, Life After 90.

Portrait of Martha Graham. Photo by Imogen Cunningham

Francesca Woodman (1958–1981)

Francesca Woodman is an American photographic artist, daughter of painter and photographer George Woodman and ceramic artist Betty Woodman.

Francesca started taking photographs at the age of 13. She graduated from design school and often visited the Roman avant-garde bookstore-gallery "Maldoror", where the first exhibition of her work took place. In 1981, in Philadelphia, a series of photographs of her "Several examples of detuned internal geometry" was printed, which remained the only lifetime publication.

Photo: Francesca Woodman

Francesca's work is often called phantasmagoric and even insane. Very often she herself is present in her pictures. The mystical house with a fireplace, windows and mirrors personifies an unfamiliar frightening world. In a sense, each of her photographs is an attempt to look at her own life as if from the outside, and by observing, to catch the elusive. According to researchers, Woodman's work was particularly influenced by surrealist painting and photography, self-portraits by Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo, works by Hans Bellmer and American masters Clarence John Laughlin and R. Y. Mityard.

Ilse Bing (1899–1998)

In the early 1920s, Ilse Bing was collecting materials for a dissertation on the history of German architecture. She needed a camera, and soon she wandered through the "Leika" - at that time a completely new camera, which few people used yet.

Assessing the compactness of the camera, Ilsa began to shoot a lot. Soon the level of her skill grew so much that Bing's work began to be published in German periodicals. In 1930, despite family resistance, she decided to become a professional photographer and moved to Paris.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ilse Bing was one of the only professional photographers to use a narrow format camera, and to such a degree. It was for this that she began to be called the “Queen of Leica”. Ilsa's works were equally well received by both the general public and representatives of avant-garde European art. Her photographs have been featured in European exhibitions along with those of Man Ray, André Kertész, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Photo: Ilsa Bing

With the outbreak of World War II, Ilsa Bing emigrated to the United States, changed her Leica to a large-format camera, and soon became a talented portrait photographer. In 1959, she stopped filming and until her death in 1998, she was engaged in poetry and painting.

Elena Mrozovskaya ( died in 1941, the exact year of birth is unknown )

Outstanding domestic “light painting artist”, the first official photographer of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, founder of her own artistic and photographic workshop.

Portrait of Countess M. E. Orlova-Davydova, 1903. Photo by Elena Mrozovskaya

Elena started her career as a teacher and saleswoman. But, always being indifferent to photography, in 1892 she decided to complete the courses of the V Department of Light Painting at the Russian Technical Society, and immediately after them she received a specialized education in Paris from the famous master of photography, Felix Nadar. Mrozovskaya is the author of a large number of portraits of famous artists, painters and writers. She was a photographer at the famous costume ball 1903 years old in the Winter Palace, filmed performances of the theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya. She was also very good at portrait photography of children.

Sabina Weiss (born in 1924)

Today Sabina Weiss herself does not remember how, back in 1936, an ordinary twelve-year-old girl from a tiny Swiss town got a completely irrepressible desire to take pictures of everything around. She just always liked to watch the world around her, and she was not going to hide her feeling of admiration for it. Paris through the eyes of Sabine Weiss is a truly magical city. After the war, it seemed to be saturated with energy, every corner became interesting, and every event significant. And Sabina tirelessly traveled around Paris, filming everything she saw around.

One day she will say that a huge part of her photographs belongs to the environment that created them. But that will be later, when her landscape shots, taken for herself, without an eye to the future, will become a sensation in many exhibitions, and Sabina herself will become a recognized master. Meanwhile, she already had something to do without it: since 1952, she collaborated with Vogue magazine and worked at the famous Rapho photo agency under the supervision of Robert Doisneau himself (perhaps the author of The Kiss was also influenced by Sabina's sincere love for Paris). She shot a lot for commercials, as well as for leading European and American publications: Time, Life, Newsweek, Town and Country, Holiday, Paris Match.

Photos by Sabina Weiss

Now Sabina Weiss is already an undisputed authority in the world of photography, whose exhibitions are invariably sold out, and many of her photographs are kept in museums around the world - in New York, Paris, London, Zurich, Chicago, Kyoto... A vivid illustration of her talent is the story of one of the most famous photography exhibitions in history. We are talking about the Family of Man Biennial held in 1955, for which various photographers from all over the world sent over 2,000,000 photographs. However, only 503 works were included in the final version of the exhibition, and Sabina Weiss was the author of three of them.

She herself admits that she was always most interested in the naturalness of the situation and the true feelings of people. And therefore, in general, she does not hide her cool attitude towards modern photography, which, in her opinion, is too keen on constructing a frame and objects in it.

Sarah Moon (born 1940)

French Sarah Moon's real name is Marielle Hadan. Being a successful model, she actively looked for herself in another field. Usually, after leaving the modeling business, girls become not very successful actresses, but Sarah Moon was an exception - she became a sought-after photographer.

At first, she almost jokingly took pictures of her fellow fashion models, but soon she became interested in this and began to spend more and more time behind the camera, mastering the difficult skill of a photographer. In 1967, Sarah ended her modeling career, focusing entirely on fashion photography. In the 1970s, she became the first woman to be invited to shoot the Pirelli calendar, a project at the intersection of advertising photography and art.

Around the same time, since 1979, Sarah also tried herself as a cameraman and director, first in commercials, and then in documentary and even feature films. In photography, she gradually moved away from the world of gloss to art shots. Her style was very non-standard for those times and impresses even now. The study of art was not in vain for Sarah, and she transferred to her photographs, as far as possible, the style of French impressionism of the early 20th century, which became her signature style.

Photo: Sarah Moon

Sarah herself jokes that the reason for the blurry pictures is her short-sightedness: she allegedly simply could not focus the lens. Sarah Moon shoots almost exclusively black and white photographs, deeming color to be completely unnecessary to convey the idea of the picture. She has a large number of exhibitions on her account, she has repeatedly received awards for her work, for example, the Clio award as the most creative French photographer.

Sally Mann (born 1951)

Now a well-known American photographer, she received a bachelor's degree in literature from Hollins College in her youth, but still decided to connect her life with photography. Her creative career began with a picture of a naked classmate. Probably, this is where Sally's scandalous fame originates.

At the beginning of her work, Sally studied in a small room measuring 5x7 meters, which her father provided her with. There she carried out her experiments with the help of old photographic equipment.

She rose to prominence with the publication of her 65-shot "Next of Kin" series of photographs of mostly vacationing members of Sally's family. Very often she created something that did not always find understanding in society. For example, Sally did not consider her pictures of her own naked children, which were criticized by so many, to be something unnatural. She took on various genres of photography, including landscapes, which also sometimes evoked polar opinions.

Photos by Sally Mann

In 2001, Sally Mann was named America's Best Photographer. It seems that this woman is unstoppable: in 2006 she was injured while riding horses, but even while being treated, she took some interesting self-portraits.

Astrid Kirchherr (born 1938)

German Astrid Kirchherr is known as the artist and personal photographer for The Beatles.

Astrid became interested in black and white photography right after graduation, although she planned to become a fashion designer. After several years of study, she worked for four years as an assistant to her photography teacher, Reynard Woolf.
Astrid was “introduced” to the legendary Beatles by her friend Jurgen Vollmer, who himself once went to a concert of a young group quite by accident. As the girl's friends recalled, her mere appearance in the club always attracted all attention to her. Once she asked the musicians if they would like her to conduct their photo session. They, of course, agreed, because at that time they did not have professional photographs. The very next morning, Kirchherr was photographing The Beatles with a Rolleicord camera.

Throughout her life, Astrid maintained friendly relations with this group. It is she who is considered the inventor of The Beatles' unusual hairstyles, although she herself denies this fact.

In 1964, Kirchherr became a freelancer. With her colleague Max Scheler, she photographed The Beatles during the filming of "A Hard Day's Evening" for the German magazine Stern.

Kirchherr later described how difficult it was to become a female photographer in the 1960s: “The editors of every newspaper or magazine demanded that I shoot The Beatles again and again. Or they asked for permission to publish old photos of the band, even if they were poorly captured and indistinct. Nobody wanted to look at my other works. It was very hard for a girl photographer then to earn a living. In the end, I gave up. From 19For 67 years, I haven’t taken almost a single shot.”

The Beatles. Photo by Astrid Kirchherr

It is known that Kirchherr decided to make a collection of photographs When We Was Fab (2007) with her last publication: “I finally created the book completely by myself. A book with my favorite photographs, arranged the way I designed them, right down to the captions and cover design... This book is myself. Therefore, it will be the last. The latest,” Astrid said.

Nina Sviridova (1933–2008)

A teacher of Russian language and literature at school, she once picked up a camera to show the world a whole gallery of beautiful images of Soviet reality together with her husband Dmitry Vozdvizhensky. For the first time professionally executed works of Nina Sviridova were published in 1961 in Teacher's Newspaper. The editors of the Sputnik newspaper immediately noticed this miraculous "transformation of an amateur into a professional, a Russian language teacher into a professor of photography. " In the same year, her photograph "At the Kremlin Wall" appeared in "Soviet Photo".

Nina Sviridova and Dmitry Vozdvizhensky were rightfully included in the honorary list of that era along with V. Gende-Rote, N. Rakhmanov, V. Akhlomov, G. Kolosov, L. Sherstennikov, E. Kassin, V. Reznikov and many other masters , whose works adorned newspaper and magazine pages and exhibition halls of domestic and foreign photo expositions during the thaw period.

Photo by Nina Sviridova and Dmitry Vozdvizhensky

Nina Sviridova traveled a lot, she visited all corners of the Soviet Union: Transcarpathia, the Urals, Belarus, the Baltic States...

The creative union of the spouses lasted for about 40 years. Nina Sviridova defined her attitude to photography as follows: “It seems to me that every photojournalist, in addition to working on an editorial assignment, must necessarily work on his own topic, especially close to him. For me, it was human happiness. I love the manifestation of optimism in people, a joyful, bright perception of the world around us.

Nina Sviridova and Dmitry Vozdvizhensky did not change this postulate all their lives.

Viktoria Ivleva (born in 1956)

Viktoria Ivleva is one of the most prominent Russian photojournalists. After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University in 1983, she very quickly gained considerable prestige among her colleagues in the workshop.

Photographer Victoria Ivleva
At the turn of the 80s and 90s of the last century, she worked in all the hot spots of the USSR, and then in Russia. In 1991, Victoria became the only journalist to shoot inside the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. For this piece, she received the most prestigious award for a photojournalist, the World Press Photo Golden Eye.

Victoria Ivleva's works have been published by many leading Russian and world-class publications, in particular, New York Times Magazine, Stern, Spiegel, Express, Sunday Times, Independent, Die Zeit, Focus, Marie Claire and others.

“During filming in dangerous places, you are usually separated from the event by the camera and work — purely photographically, you need to think at the same time, there is simply no time to be afraid,” she says.

Photo: Victoria Ivleva

Svetlana Pozharskaya (born in 1951)

For more than 25 years, Svetlana Georgievna worked as a leading specialist in the photography department of the State Russian House of Folk Art. At the moment - Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, curator of children's and youth photography, jury member, participant and winner of international, all-Union, Russian photo exhibitions, festivals and competitions.

Svetlana is the author of numerous articles and publications on photography, the author of books: "Photobook" (in collaboration with A. Agafonov), publishing house "Children's Literature" (1993g), "Photomaster", Moscow, publishing house "Penta" (2001), "School of the photographer. Anthology of Children's and Youth Photography", "Photo Masters Gallery", Moscow, GALART Publishing House (2008) "Photographer's School" (2nd edition), Moscow, Indexmarket Publishing House (2012).

More than 20 solo exhibitions of Svetlana have been held in Russia and abroad. Her works are kept in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (GMII), the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), as well as in private collections. Svetlana taught photography at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Russian State University for the Humanities), at the Izvestia School of Journalism she taught courses on the Fundamentals of Composition and Photography Style.

Photo by Svetlana Pozharskaya

“Today every shot requires a lot of inner preparation from me. Only when the triangle "feeling - thought - reality" "closes" do I press the camera shutter. This moment is the moment of truth that I am trying to catch and stop,” Svetlana says about the magical art of photography.

Galina Kmit (born in 1931)

Galina Kmit is a Soviet and Russian photographer, photo artist, photojournalist, Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation (2003), member of the Union of Cinematographers and Journalists of Russia, academician, member of the Russian-Italian Scientific and Ferroni Research Academy, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In the world art of the second half of the 20th century, it is difficult to find a celebrity who has not been captured by the camera of the Honored Art Worker of Russia Galina Kmit. She knows perfectly well what it's like to walk the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival.

Photo exhibitions by Galina Kmit have been organized dozens of times in Russia and around the world. Galina's cycles of photographs "These Magnificent Men" and "My Rivals", dedicated to famous artists, gained particular popularity.

She is called a living legend of photography. And she herself is very reserved about this. Here, for example, is what Galina said in an interview with the correspondent of Uchitelskaya Gazeta: “Maybe I really am a legend, you never know what happens in the world. Here your brother reporter tried. Someone once called me that - and off we go. And I don’t mind, it’s not insulting. And who could have imagined that everything would turn out like this. At first I was a writing correspondent, I started in my own editorial office of Moskovsky Komsomolets ... ".

The merits of Galina Vasilievna are not limited to photographs of stars. A real newsreel, she visited every corner of the Soviet Union. Her beautiful works from Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Komi were presented at the exhibition "Russia is my Motherland"...

Alla Pugacheva. Photo by Galina Kmit

“It's always a shame when people think about me that I shoot only stars. I risked my life, almost died in the tundra when our helicopter made an emergency landing. 19She sat there for hours, almost died from the cold, pulled on some flea skins. The guys that - drank alcohol and were fine. And I only had a can of condensed milk. But they were looking for us, but the helicopter with the correspondent was missing. Found. And by that time, you can imagine, I had already written a will, my son was small. In all seriousness, I thought that was all. Nobody knows about this, but they know what Depardieu filmed. It's a shame," Galina told the same Teacher's Newspaper.

Resolute, strong-willed, talented - Galina's merits can be listed for a long time.

“I don't think paparazzi are bad. Nothing like this. Paparazzi is a person who professionally performs his duties. Another thing is ethics, journalistic, human. I can film everything, but I can’t publish everything, ”Galina once shared her opinion.

Annie Leibovitz (born 1949)

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American photographer best known for her celebrity portraits. Today, she is recognized as the most sought-after female photographer. The fame of Annie Leibovitz is so great that it has turned into a different quality: some of her works simply separated from the personality of the creator and began to live their own lives.

A was born Annie Leibovitz in 1949 in Connecticut, USA. Her father was a military man, and the family often moved from place to place. Annie later said that it is not difficult to become an artist if from early childhood you see the world in a ready-made frame, through a car window. The family eventually returned to the United States, and in 1967 Annie entered the San Francisco Art Institute, intending to become an art teacher. A year later, she also enrolled in photography courses, where they not only taught theory, but also sent students to the streets, and in the evening they discussed the pictures taken. At 19In 69, Annie dropped out of school and left for Israel with an archaeological expedition. Oddly enough, it was there that her desire to become a photographer strengthened.