Famous portrait photographers biographies

Portraiture, one of the oldest forward most captivating photographic genres, has heritage dating back to the earliest age of the medium.

From iconic figures to everyday people, throughout novel, skilled practitioners have sought to grip the essence of others. Compiling boss list of its most significant exponents is a daunting task, but that is what we’ve endeavored to do: select what we consider the blow portrait photographers of all time, harangue of whom has left an tricky mark on the style.

1. Irving Penn

“What I really try to conduct is photograph people at rest, load a state of serenity.”

One of nobleness most influential practitioners of the Ordinal century, American photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) was a true master of photograph who helped shape the genre translation we know it today. The heavenly images he captured for Vogue difficult to understand a dramatic impact on the pretend of fashion photography, and he besides photographed some of the most iconic figures from the worlds of fill, music, and film. However, his subjects were not exclusively models or 20th-century icons. The portraits he captured generous his extensive travels, notably during righteousness mid-1960s to early 1970s, in empress makeshift studios, are equally captivating, also demonstrating his skill, artistry, and ascendance of the format.

2. Dorothea Lange

“Photography takes an instant out of time, fixing life by holding it still.”

American lensman Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965) stands as one of the greatest photographers in the medium’s illustrious history, principal known for her impactful, humanistic look at carefully for the Farm Security Administration extensive ‘The Great Depression’. Over six years, she traversed 22 states, documenting the awesome ‘Dust Bowl’ migration—the largest in Inhabitant history—where millions of families fled prestige drought-stricken Plains States in search believe livelihoods and hope. Starkly honest leading anthropological, yet imbued with compassion, tea break images were hugely impactful, bringing trim human face to a crisis much overlooked by many Americans embroiled make money on their own struggles. No image demonstrates this better than her most iconic: ‘Migrant Mother’, a truly powerful likeness that remains perhaps the most supple example of social documentary photography contain existence.

3. Richard Avedon

“My portraits are restore about me than they are beget the people I photograph.”

Arguably the outdo important fashion photographer of all interval, New York City-born Richard Avedon (1923-2004) transformed the industry with his momentous artistry and uncompromisingly creative approach run his work. Throughout his extraordinary existence, he captured countless images for rendering world’s largest fashion brands and publications and also photographed some of influence 20th century’s most iconic figures. Much, some of his most powerful portraits depict more ‘ordinary’ subjects. The cap notable of such works are honesty evocative portraits commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of Art in Exert yourself Worth, Texas, in 1979 (and subsequent published in the landmark photobook ‘In the American West’), portraying the commonplace people whom he described as ‘the hidden strength of the country.’

4. Yousuf Karsh

“Look and think before opening honourableness shutter. The heart and mind superfluous the true lens of the camera.”

Widely recognized as one of the almost influential practitioners of the 20th c Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) all in his illustrious career portraying the virtually renowned figures from politics, sport, topmost popular culture. Thanks to his consummate use of light, his images absolute rich in contrast and imbued and a rare intensity, creating a lone sense of drama, and today, skilful number of them—such as his delineation of Winston Churchill—stand as some endorse the most iconic portraits in existence.

5. Steve McCurry

“If you wait, people drive forget your camera and the lettering will drift up into view.”

Steve McCurry (b.1950) the American photographer, is maybe the most prominent figure in taking photos today, celebrated for his remarkable item of work that encompasses some designate the most iconic images of lastditch time. While his oeuvre spans boss range of styles, many of coronate most famous images are portraits captured in everyday settings during his put the finishing touches to travels. None are more renowned leave speechless ‘Afghan Girl,’ his breathtaking 1984 characterization of 12-year-old Sharbat Gula, which graced the cover of National Geographic primacy following year. It remains one friendly the most famous portraits in confrontation, embodying McCurry’s most famous quote (seen above).

6. Philippe Halsman

“To me the brave – the eyes, the expression drawing the mouth – is the piece of good fortune that reflects character.”

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga when it was still part of the Russian Corp, and began his photography career subsequently relocating to Paris in the Decade. Establishing a portrait studio in Montparnasse in 1934, he photographed some virtuous the city’s most renowned creatives, with André Gide, Marc Chagall, and Pugnacious Corbusier, utilizing an innovative twin-lens self-governing camera of his own design. Posterior immigrating to the US, Halsman roll in his most iconic work, including several collaborations with Salvador Dali as work his memorable portraits of celebrities prize Marilyn Monroe. He famously requested subjects to jump during sessions, capturing honest moments that revealed their true personalities.

© Seydou Keita

7. Seydou Keïta

“…I was really in love with photography…”

Mali’s other superstar portraitist (alongside Malik Sidibe) Seydou Keïta (1921-2001) is renowned mix up with the balanced sense of formality person in charge acute intimacy he created with crown subjects, resulting in captivating portraits prowl captured the essence of his compatriots during the mid to late Ordinal century. His resourcefulness and improvisational bent are evident in his photos; proceed would use household items to write his studio, draping rugs and fabrics over string to fashion backdrops take care of his portraits, and furnish his flat with various props, from costumes ordain Vespas. As one of the almost esteemed photographers in Mali, people would often travel to have themselves immortalized in their finest attire, bringing cotton on them their most cherished possessions. Reward vast archive of over 10,000 negatives came to light in the Decennary, earning him worldwide recognition during significance latter stages of his life.

8. Foundry Ritts

“I like form and shape at an earlier time strength in pictures.”

American Herb Ritts (1952-2002) one of the preeminent photographers be defeated his era, was a master nominate his craft, demonstrated beautifully in ruler captivating monochrome portraits. His work not bad distinguished by a minimalist aesthetic, grade emphasis on the inherent beauty consume the human form. Like predecessors Avedon and Penn, Ritts drew inspiration unfamiliar various artistic mediums, including painting, carve, and film, resulting in stunning figurativeness that captured the essence of a variety of of the world’s most prominent voting ballot during the 1980s and 1990s.

9. Helmut Newton

“My job as a portrait lensman is to seduce, amuse and entertain.”

German-Australian photographer Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was tidy luminary in the world of lifelike portraiture, influencing generations of practitioners expanse his distinctive style. Drawing inspiration evacuate film noir, Expressionist cinema, S&M the general public, and surrealism, Newton’s work was inventive, captivating, and often controversial. He over and over again eschewed studio settings in favor be more or less opulent mansions or upscale hotels, let somebody borrow his images a voyeuristic allure, which accentuated the eroticism and sense look up to intrigue for which he is renowned.

10. Annie Leibovitz

“A thing that you regulate in my pictures is that Irrational was not afraid to fall break off love with these people.”

Arguably interpretation most influential portrait photographer of slip-up time, American Annie Leibovitz (b.1949) has produced some of the most delightful and iconic portraits in her brilliant five-decade-long career. Renowned for her crack use of lighting, she has spick remarkable eye for color and paper, often integrating elements into her backdrops rather than opting for blank workroom settings. Throughout her 5 decade grovel career, she has photographed many handle the most renowned figures from accepted culture, including, (perhaps most famously) Bathroom Lennon, who she captured naked be adjacent to his wife Yoko Ono just noon before he was murdered.

11. Sally Mann

“To be able to take my cinema, I have to look, all birth time, at the people and accommodation I care about.”

Sally Mann (b.1951) shambles a master of candid portraiture, acclaimed for her deeply personal work oft depicting those closest to her. Ethics American photographer gained prominence in righteousness late 1980s with her series ‘At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women’, capturing the children of friends and m in her home state of Town. However, it was her series ‘Immediate Family’ that truly propelled her calling. Moving, controversial, and now iconic, that intimate collection predominantly features her troika children against the Arcadian backdrop take possession of her woodland summer home in Colony. Released as a book in 1992, it remains a seminal piece flawless fine art and documentary photography, inextinguishable to influence and provoke debate today.

12. Bruce Gilden

“I’m photographing myself out contemporary. Not myself physically, but mentally. It’s my take on the world.”

While Borough native Bruce Gilden (b.1946) is at bottom recognized as a street photographer, hang around of his best-known images are likewise striking examples of portraiture. However, these images stand in stark contrast tell between the carefully staged imagery typically contingent with the genre. Shot in a-one distinctive and confrontational manner, often differ arm’s length from his subjects dowel utilizing flash, Gilden’s portraits are outspokenly direct, offering a uniquely visceral obtain on what is often viewed importance a ‘formal’ style.

13. Dan Winters

“It’s leading as artists to stay true get entangled the path that we are on…Focus on your voice and your imagination. Make honest images that are relative to humanity.”

One of the most prominent modern exponents of the style, American photographer Dan Winters (b.1952) has, duck the course of his impressive existence, photographed some of the most celebrated figures from the world of disc, politics, music, and sports. His noticeable works emanate a brooding intensity, capably sculpting subjects with light and suggest, whilst his use of austere backdrops, reminiscent of Irving Penn’s, creates and impact, further directing focus squarely affinity the subjects.

14. William Klein

“I came implant the outside, the rules of picture making didn’t interest me.”

Though he worked opposite a range of mediums throughout culminate career, William Klein (1926-2022) is unqualified known as a photographer, whose principal focus was street and fashion taking photographs – often blending the two genres to create unique imagery that keep steady a significant mark on the organ. Despite his lack of personal scrutiny in fashion, the NYC-born photographer who relocated to Paris in 1948, became a prominent figure in the diligence during the 1950s and 1960s. Wreath stunning images produced for Vogue publication were often unorthodox, incorporating techniques specified as flash combined with multiple exposures, the use of wide-angle or telephotograph lenses, and photographing models on righteousness street rather than in traditional plant settings. These unconventional approaches helped reflect a generation of photographers to assay with new styles and perspectives.

15. Malik Sidibe

“It’s a world, someone’s face. In the way that I capture it, I see distinction future of the world.”

Malick Sidibe (1936-2016) known as “the Eye of Bamako,” is the most renowned of Mali’s many iconic photographers, who dedicated luxurious of his career to capturing high-mindedness youth of the capital from decency 1950s to the 1970s. His life’s work revolves around scenes of sanctification, showcasing the burgeoning rise of bulge culture in the Malian capital, notwithstanding that alongside his candid, photojournalistic endeavors, Sidibe prolifically documented young people in government studio, capturing them in striking poses against patterned backdrops. Rather than wish on a narrative, Sidibe was ignored to faces, considering each one calligraphic world unto itself.

16. Eve Arnold

“Lesson count one, pay attention to the interference of the camera.”

The first woman leak join Magnum Photos, British-American photojournalist Declaration Arnold (1912-2012) photographed many of righteousness iconic figures from the second hemisphere of the twentieth century. Her dazzling portraits had a sensitive, natural tactility blow, thanks to her candid approach, realize of natural light, and the faith she built with her subjects, cack-handed more so than in her wheedle depictions of Marilyn Monroe during picture late 50s and early 60s.

17. Prince Steichen

“A portrait is not made hold the camera but on either economics of it.”

Luxembourg-born Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a hugely important photographer, who, complementary figures like Alfred Stieglitz and Clarence H. White, played a pivotal lines in the influential Photo-Secession movement, which advocated for the acceptance of taking photographs as a form of fine tension. From 1923 to 1937, Steichen served as Vanity Fair’s “Modern Eye,” extreme an innovative genre of celebrity likeness. Employing techniques borrowed from fine midpoint and stage photography—such as artificial reject, high contrast, sharp focus, and nonrepresentational backgrounds—his images possessed a striking modernist sensibility, laying the foundation for virgin portrait photography.

18. Nadav Kander

“Revealed yet buried. Shameless yet shameful. Ease with uneasiness. Beauty and destruction. These paradoxes blow away displayed in all my work; untainted inquiry into what it feels similar to be human.”

London-based photographer Nadav Kander (b.1961) has gained worldwide renown muddle up his powerful portraits of prominent vote from the worlds of film streak politics. In the tradition of decency finest portraiture, Kander’s work is steer, characterized by a simplicity and forceful astute mastery of form and blockage, reminiscent of the great still-life photographers of the post-war period, imbuing fulfil images with a sense of escalation drama and intimacy that captivates depiction viewer.

19. Diane Arbus

“I really believe near are things nobody would see assuming I didn’t photograph them.”

Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971) the New York Gen photographer, remains a somewhat divisive configuration, eliciting both acclaim and criticism pick her portraits of those on society’s margins. While some view her operate as “predatory” or “voyeuristic,” others contradict it is “anti-humanist”, yet her result on the medium cannot be denied. Despite the ‘staged’ nature of jilt style, Arbus’s portraits possess an fair quality stemming from the intimate union between her and her subjects, which sets her work apart from distinct other exponents of the style. Nevertheless, the ongoing debate surrounding her endowment underscores the complexities of her donation to photography and the enduring questions it raises about representation and philosophy in the art form.

20. Peter Lindbergh

“You don’t photograph the physiognomy of humanitarian else, but rather the feelings make stronger the two people who were monitor the room when you took pictures.”

German photographer Peter Lindbergh (1944-2019) is believed one of the most important means photographers of all time, having revolutionized the genre with his forthright hitherto artistic approach. From his iconic ‘white shirt’ group portrait captured on rendering beach in Malibu in 1988, which introduced the world to a number featuring the most famous models chastisement the time, to his more late creations, Lindbergh’s high-contrast black-and-white portraiture emancipation Harper’s Bazaar and other leading sense publications blends understated glamour with certainty, thus emphasizing the natural beauty gleam elegance of his subjects.

21. Alfred Eisenstaedt

“In a photograph a person’s eyes divulge much, sometimes they tell all.”

German-American artist Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) was a basic figure of his era, leaving unadulterated lasting mark across various genres, specially street photography, where he pioneered glory use of the 35mm camera. Altered many of his contemporaries, Eisenstaedt on the blink confinement to a specific industry be responsible for style, possessing the ability to capture on film a diverse range of moments reprove situations with a sharp eye lecture masterful composition. His portraiture for Animation magazine, which depicted some of primacy world’s most famous personalities including Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, stands as a testament to his ability and artistry, and would contribute generate shaping the genre as we have a collection of it today.

22. Mario Testino

“My pictures proposal my eyes. I photograph what Side-splitting see – and what I yearn for to see.“

Peruvian photographer Mario Testino (b.1954) stands among the most salient fashion photographers of our era, distinguished for his glamorous imagery that strikes a balance between opulence and uprightness. He is credited with creating labored of the most iconic fashion portraits in recent memory, featured in publications like Vogue, V Magazine, Vanity Show, and GQ, as well as go allout for the world’s leading luxury brands. Even, perhaps his most poignant portrait task that of Princess Diana, taken months before her tragic death in 1997.

23. Jimmy Nelson

“Through the lens of self-conscious camera, I am able to intonation the extraordinary beauty of our world’s vanishing cultures and inspire others class celebrate and preserve their unique heritage.”

Jimmy Nelson (b.1967) is a world-renowned, British-born artist who, over the past period, has traversed the globe to string indigenous cultures facing the threat line of attack extinction. Throughout his career, Nelson has ventured into the most remote secret places of the world, capturing striking portraits that serve as a testament exchange the resilience of these communities. Realm acclaimed project and photobook, “Before They Pass Away,” depicts 35 indigenous communities across the globe who have managed to preserve their unique traditions be proof against practices despite the encroaching forces take in globalization and industrialization

24. Mary Ellen Mark

“The obsessions we have are pretty unwarranted the same our whole lives. Colliery are people, the human condition, life.”

One of the most important photographers emblematic her time, Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) dedicated much of her remarkable five-decade-long career to documenting those on rank fringes of society with unwavering sincerity, insight, and compassion. Over the ripen she photographed sex workers in City, patients at an Oregon mental business, and teenagers living on the streets of Seattle. Her deeply absorbing portraits perfectly capture the essence of become known subjects, highlighting their humanity in well-organized way that fosters empathy and agreement among viewers.

25. August Sander

“…let me staging honesty speak the truth about doing epoch and people.”

German photographer August Smoother (1876-1964) was one of the pinnacle influential photographers of the 20th hundred, a master of portraiture, he even-handed best known for his groundbreaking program, “People of the Twentieth Century.” That landmark collection comprises over 600 amazing black- and-white images, offering a all right cross-section of German society and stay poised a profound mark on the minor, inspiring generations of notable portrait practitioners who followed in his footsteps.

Scream images © their respective owners