Photographic Idols

Jase_Face

Jase_Face

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Jase
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As with all things in life, there are people we look to as inspiration; someone who shows us how it's done and inspires us to go out shoot. I'm relatively new to photography, so my idols are perhaps cliches, but I look at the work of Cartier-Bresson, Capa and Vaccaro and I'm both amazed, inspired and in the case of Capa and Vacarro, terrified.

So, my question to you is who gets you out of the house and shooting away to your hearts content?
 
Hmmm so many, off the top of my head. Alec Soth, Martin Parr, Rineke Dijsktra, Diane Arbus, Don McCullin and from your choice I would always say Vaccaro over Capa :D
 
I am in a position where I have so much worry on my mind atm I cant use any of my artisic skills (the little that I have) to even create an image. However, my passion is with wedding photography, and I like many of the big guns in this genre. But my favourite is that Alexsandros Babi (spelling?) guy, who sometimes post on here.
 
Vic said:
Hmmm so many, off the top of my head. Alec Soth, Martin Parr, Rineke Dijsktra, Diane Arbus, Don McCullin and from your choice I would always say Vaccaro over Capa :D
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Aye, I think I would as well. None of Capa's images, although fantastic, made me go "Wow!" like this one by Vaccaro:

6267068-high.jpg


Just incredible.
 
I quite like Walker Evan's work. There are a fair few photographers out there that I forget the names of (have them written down somewhere)
 
Jase_Face said:
Aye, I think I would as well. None of Capa's images, although fantastic, made me go "Wow!" like this one by Vaccaro:

6267068-high.jpg


Just incredible.
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Not sure that it's incredible...composition's OK, but it's a burnt soldier by a tank...nothing terribly remarkable about that...

I've seen better images taken by any one of the hundreds of Wehrmacht PK photographers working for Signal and the other state propaganda organs...

Come to that, I've taken better photos of subjects like this...
Don't confuse the shocking subject matter with good photography...
Eddie Adams' photo of General Loan executing a VC suspect is shocking and brilliantly timed, but technically its a bit ho-hum... immediate-action Press photos often are... here, the photographer obviously had time to consider his subject, so to me, it has less immediacy than Adams' slightly flawed peice...

Now, if you want to see real War photography, look at Larry Burroughs' work... he da man...
 
Arkady said:
Not sure that it's incredible...composition's OK, but it's a burnt soldier by a tank...nothing terribly remarkable about that...

I've seen better images taken by any one of the hundreds of Wehrmacht PK photographers working for Signal and the other state propaganda organs...

Come to that, I've taken better photos of subjects like this...
Don't confuse the shocking subject matter with good photography...
Eddie Adams' photo of General Loan executing a VC suspect is shocking and brilliantly timed, but technically its a bit ho-hum... immediate-action Press photos often are... here, the photographer obviously had time to consider his subject, so to me, it has less immediacy than Adams' slightly flawed peice...

Now, if you want to see real War photography, look at Larry Burroughs' work... he da man...
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To me the composition is less important than capturing the moment. With Vaccaro's image, getting a shot of a man who's just been blown out of a tank not five seconds before is more authenthic and has more of a wow factor.
 
Whilst there are 'celebrity' photographers whose work I admire, most of my inspiration comes from forums. There's been several ideas/photo's on here that I've put away in my memory for use later on and I find I'm constantly learning and inspired, especially from other togs on here.
 
For me it's Ansel Adams, loved his work since being given a desk diary containg his pics years ago.

Tried to emulate his style after that when we only had film, gave up as I was crap at it, :lol:
 
Jase_Face said:
To me the composition is less important than capturing the moment. With Vaccaro's image, getting a shot of a man who's just been blown out of a tank not five seconds before is more authenthic and has more of a wow factor.
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And you know this how? Five seconds...? You were there...?
:shrug:
 
I think i can see smoke coming off his body Rob maybe that's why he reckoned it were 5 seconds.
 
Graelwyn and Kirk............:thumbs:
 
Arkady said:
Not sure that it's incredible...composition's OK, but it's a burnt soldier by a tank...nothing terribly remarkable about that...
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In comparisons to Capa, it is more remarkable. I like Vaccaro's more direct style of war photography to Capa's romanticized version. Agree with Larry Burroughs as well. I've seen a lot of good conflict photography come out in the last couple of years also.
 
Arkady said:
And you know this how? Five seconds...? You were there...?
:shrug:
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There was an interview with Tony Vaccaro for a BBC documentart called The Genius of Photography. He talked about that picture and how he saw the tank explode in front of him, that soldier fall out of the turret and then taking the picture as bullets were pinging off the tank.

It's all personal preference though innit.
 
Jase_Face said:
There was an interview with Tony Vaccaro for a BBC documentart called The Genius of Photography. He talked about that picture and how he saw the tank explode in front of him, that soldier fall out of the turret and then taking the picture as bullets were pinging off the tank.

It's all personal preference though innit.
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Fair enough...still looks a bit ordinary to me though...:shrug:

I'd say McCullin's photos of the Karantina massacre in the Lebanon are more direct...
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/contact/gallery-show/G0000JrKIiKsXm2s/
 
AliB said:
Bob Carlos Clarke............. :)
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I agree... his work is fabulous. :thumbs: I've got some ideas, bubbling away on the back burner, based on a few of his shots.

This week has seen me doing some shooting with speedlites off cameras, so I guess I've been drawing quite a bit of inspiration from Joe McNally's books and David Hobby's Strobist blog.
 
In no particular order:

Don McCullin
Philip Jones Griffiths
Bill Brandt
Henri Cartier Bresson
Sebastiao Salgado

Dave.
 
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