All Of Our Featured Great Photographers

"Never think photography is easy. It’s like poetry in that it’s easy enough to make a few rhymes, but that’s not a good poem..."

Born in Rangoon, Burma, in 1947 he came too England aged two, growing up in Burnham-on-Sea.He went to Christ's Hospital and for one year studied chemistry at the University of York before leaving for a stay in Canada.

Returning to Britain, he joined the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he served as photographer and picture editor for a student magazine.

After graduating in psychology in 1970 he started to work as a freelance photographer, specialising in the theatre, while he also lectured in psychology.

By 1971, Steele-Perkins had moved to London and become a full-time photographer, with particular interest in urban issues, including poverty. He went to Bangladesh in 1973 to take photographs for relief organisations and some of this work was exhibited in 1974 at London's Camerawork Gallery.

But alongside his social documentary work Steele-Perkins served as the President of Magnum. With his second wife the presenter and writer Miyako Yamada Steele-Perkins has spent much of his time in Japan, publishing two books of photographs: Fuji, a collection of views and glimpses of the mountain inspired by Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji; and Tokyo Love Hello, scenes of life in the city.

Photography has lost a giant of the form.

This piece from the Magnum website is well worth a read.

André Kertész was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his (then) unorthodox camera angles and style probably prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. 

Kertész never felt that he had gained the worldwide recognition he deserved in his lifetime. Although he rarely received bad reviews, it was the lack of commentary around his work (that was groundbreaking in terms of its visual style) that also led to the lack of proper recognition.

Today he is considered one of the seminal figures of 20th century photography and the father of photojournalism.

Even other photographers cite Kertész and his photographs as being inspirational; Henri Cartier-Bresson once said of him in the early 1930s, "We all owe him a great deal."

When he was 90 years old, a person asked him why he was still taking photographs. He replied, "I'm still hungry."

Martin Parr is one of Britain’s best known and loved photographers and is now seen as a chronicler of our age. You might not know the name, but you certainly know his work. And once seen, it’s never forgotten.

Born in Epsom in 1952, his interest in photography led him to study at Manchester Polytechnic. Since that time, he’s worked on numerous photographic projects. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary, and his input to photographic culture within the UK and abroad.

In 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photo Agency and from 2013 to 2017 was its president. In 2017 he opened the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol and in 2021 received a CBE from Queen Elizabeth.

He has published over 120 books of his own work and edited another 30 while he has also long served as a model for the younger generation of photographers.

Definitely one worth checking out…

Born in Modana Italy in 1933, Franco Fontana didn't study photography - in fact he had no formal training at all. He worked as a decorator, a job that ironically shaped his sense of form line and - of course - colour.

His early works were more traditional - black and white and realistic, but something about it didn't sit right with him. He wanted to show what things felt like.

Then came a breakthrough - a trip to Basilica in southern Italy, where the landscape was empty, but alive with bold colours and strong lines. Suddenly his camera was no longer a tool for documentation, but a brush - and the world became his canvas.

From that moment on Fontana chased abstraction, minimalism and the emotional language of colour. His bold use of colour in minimal compositions created a unique visual language that would eventually influence generations of photographers. He's possibly the greatest colour photographer you've never heard of...

Franco Fontana Online

https://francofontanaphotographer.com/home

A great little YouTube documentary about Franco Fontana

The Most Influential Photographer No One Talks About

Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of photography, Robert Frank redefined the aesthetic of the still image via his pictures.

Soon after his emigration to New York in 1947, Alexey Brodovitch hired Frank as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. The position meant a lot of cross country travel and helped form Frank’s impressions of the United States.

After receiving his first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1956 (the same year as Todd Webb, but he's another story...), Frank embarked on a two-year trip across America during which he took over 28,000 pictures. Eighty-three of those images were ultimately published in Frank’s groundbreaking monograph The Americans. 

First printed 1958, Frank’s unorthodox cropping, lighting, and sense of focus attracted criticism. But his work, however, was not without supporters. Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg felt a kinship with Frank and his interest in documenting the fabric of contemporary society. Eventually “The Americans” jettisoned Frank into a position of cultural prominence; he became the spokesperson for a generation of photographers.

Robert Frank: Wikipedia

“I may be old-fashioned. But I believe there is such a thing as a search for beauty – a delight in the nice things in the world. And I don’t think one should have to apologize for it.”  Saul Leiter

The American artist Saul Leiter (1923–2013) became enchanted by painting and photography as a teenager in Pittsburgh. After he relocated to New York City in 1946, his visionary imagination and tireless devotion to artistic practice pushed him to become one of the iconic photographers of the mid-twentieth century. An innate sense of curiosity made him a lifelong student of art of all kinds, and he retained his spirit of exploration and spontaneity throughout his long career, in both his fashion images and his personal work. 

Find out more about him here: The Saul Leiter Foundation