The Online Photographer

Uh, this is what you get for not reading the post in it's entirety... scratch Karsh then. Put Chase Jarvis in his stead - the guy's not only a damn good photographer, he also invented instagram. It wasn't called instagram back then, and it's not that I like instagram, quite the opposite, mind you, but it was something geniunely new for the photography, and respectworthy just for that newness alone.

Just what does post-digital, post-Internet mean? Both digital and the Internet are still around, so there's not such 'post-anything'. Or are you trying to say (in too few words) that you want a list of photographers who have since come to notice since the beginning of the Internet and digital photography? If so, what date is the starting date?

And Vivian Maier does not, to my way of thinking, belong in the category that (I think) you're attempting to define, as all her work predates both the Internet and digital photography.

I said before that lists are irrelevant and I stand by it. I'm going to mention two names that I believe to be among the very best, although I know they won't be in the TOP list. They are two portuguese photojournalists with something interesting to say.
The first has to be João Silva. He's a portuguese-south african photojournalist who formed a group called 'The Bang-Bang Club' with Kevin Carter, among others, in the '90s. He was working in Afghanistan for The New York Times when he stepped on a landmine and lost both legs. I happened to see an exhibition of the pictures he took before his accident. They are superb. It's incredible how someone can take care of framing and composition in a fraction of a second and still get it perfect, as João Silva does. His photographs are of rare artistic quality, his mastery of colour being quite impressive.
The other is Daniel Rodrigues. He's still very young - he's 25 - and has already a WPP prize under his belt. Despite all his talent, he had to sell all his equipment in order to pay his bills. As all is well when it ends well, he received support from Canon Portugal and a portuguese bank, which allowed him to purchase new equipment and resume his rather promising career.
There are also lots of unsung heroes. For instance, I'm very fond of the work of french street photographer Benoît Rousseau, who is some kind of Facebook phenomenon. Like the aforementioned portuguese photojournalists, he'll never make it to TOP list. Maybe he's not good enough, but he's good enough for me.

Adrian Freeman
http://www.flickr.com/people/24040948@N08/

You're right, Mike. I don't like lists. Settling for just one that I admire the most, I agree with the only name you mentioned: Vivian Maier. I'm not notably religious, but I think it is an absolute sin that she died in poverty and unknown. Maybe the Big Guy made it possible for someone to accidently discover the treasure trove of negatives, developed and undeveloped, that she left behind. I don't know. It's a facinating story.

For fashion: Sebastian Kim.

Without perimeters it would be very difficult due to the number of practitioners. You have those who heavily manipulate photos to Create an image that was not what the camera saw. What about HDR practitioners? Vivian's work is what the camera captured and they are celebrated for their frankness. I think that similar frankness in digital falls to the street and sports photographers, capturing that fleeting real life vividness that is not overly manipulated. No pun intended, but my lack of exposure to very many other artists works leaves me out of the list makers. But it will be interesting to see what the top ten are that show up the most from the lists.

While I've never been a self horn-tooter, no list would be complete without me on it. Hey, you think it's easy to screw the pooch constantly, F up the exposure, have trees growing out of people's heads, all in spite of attending a multitude of workshops, seminars, read dozens of books, practice until the CF cards are smoking, but no, rarely a good shot. Oh, I'm one of the best. all right. ;-)

Mike,

The renowned "i-photographers" that I know of are limited to those who write for TOP or has been featured in it. And I haven't even seen prints of their photos in person (except for a few reproductions I've seen in National Geographic, Time and fewer still, books). So my vote doesn't count for much.

But this sure is one "survey" I'm looking forward to tabulating. (I hope there won't be too many complete Top Ten nominations. . . ;)

I have to say that a majority of the photographers I enjoy have moved on to other realms long ago. Fox Talbot, O'Sullivan, Atget, Weston and Sudek were all artists who produced sublime images. Images which are deeply moving and you can spend time with.
However, I recently discovered someone whose work I adore and who is actually contemporary: Abelardo Morell. His Camera Obscura series is insightful (in post-modern way) to the way the camera works and, also, aesthetically stunning.
http://www.abelardomorell.net/posts/camera-obscura/

Mike,

I am not sure we are yet in a "post-digital, post-Internet" era of photography. I would argue that we are certainly in the third or fourth generation of commercial digital photography; and as those that work in the industry might postulate a "web 3.0" Internet. I am also wondering how you would define "greatest"? Especially in the context of the current era you are trying to define. "Greatest" could mean "greatest" contribution to this "post-digital, post-Internet" period; contribution as in moving us inexorably into the future of post-film, post-print. Or it could mean commercial success or even something, perhaps, as banal as greatest quantity of Flickr or YouTube or other social media postings (and therefore has a great social influence). Or does greatest really mean one that provides the greatest personal pleasure of the images they create; which in the end what photography has been doing one way or another for over 200 years!

First, because I don't think the man get's enough credit for his amazing work outside of the military: MSgt JT Lock USAF ( http://www.mpjconnection.com/?p=768 ) he's won Armed Forces Photographer of year six years in a row and for my money is one of the top in the world.

Second, Time Hetherington, not just for his tragic death but the entire body of his life's work.

Alec Soth seems like a no-brainer. He has to be one of the youngest Magnum folk, yes?

In today's social media world, how many photographers are known because of their aptitude with social media as opposed to their photography skill? I'd love to see this question posted on a gear-oriented or how-to basics site.

And my vote would be Trent Parke.

I'm a legend in my own mind, but otherwise I have no idea... :-)

I have a list of a dozen or so amazing photographers I follow, but the most famous of them still shoots film exclusively and I don't think I'd call the others "the best", they just happen o be folks whose work I discovered and enjoy.

Irving Penn. He was great with people shots as well as objects. Everything it "touched" turned beautiful!

Todd Heisler.
Barbara Davidson.
Peter Turnley.
Ernesto Bazan.
Sebastio Salgado.
Alex Webb.
Danny Wilcox Fraser.
Ragnar Axelsson.
Vivian Maier.

My short list of top digital photographers. My choice because their work rings my bell, they are very open about their art, They are are all current, and they are wonderful people:
Joe Mcnally
David Hobby
Zack Arias (a grey beard for other reasons)
David Duchemin
Joey L (Lawrence)
Phil Borges
Kirsty Mitchell (her wonderland series is not comped in post)
Trey Ratcliff
John Keatley
Peter Turnley

I want to throw out a friend of mine, Michael Jang. Not only is he a fantastic photographer, but he also uses the internet in a new and different way to promote his personal work. Everybody do yourself a favor and check out his work.

www.michaeljang.com

No won comply....

Reason:

Since I don't sleep with any photographer (at the moment) none is personal to me. So I don't care about photographers, I care about art. Art is the expression of a photographer, that is to say, detached from the creator at the moment of the creation. So I could probably make a list of great photographs of the Internet age (that would contain about 50OO works sort of in a random order, that would change day by day). Now that would be a great work of art in itself (but that form was pionered by Jörg Sasse with his work Speicher II, 2009 2010) in which he framed 1024 (if I recall correctly) vernacular photos of the Rühr area he found and collected from junk sales of which each day 16 were exhibited in a random order. So I nominate Speicher II as my complete list.

Greets, Ed.

Though plenty of people would have heard of him pre-1995, I think Paul Graham should definitely be on the list (he of 'a shimmer of possibility' as well as the essay that's basically defined photography in the digital era, though it doesn't address digital specifically, The Unreasonable Apple).

a list like this is obviously 'just for fun'; no such thing as 'greatest anything', really, people have different taste and preferences, so this will only reflect such taste and preferences of the ones who respond.

i also find that most of today's young photographers are not that good at all, many of them however have mastered the art of online self promotion to the point that they can lead people to believe they are actually good ('well, if so many people like him/her, he must be great').

i will throw one name of a current, young photographer, who actually seems to know what he is doing: zack arias.

I think landscape/fine art photographers Michael Kenna and Charlie Waite would be in my top 10. Both have had considerable success well before the digital era, but both are still active and regularly use digital media to promote their current work.

I'll be interested to see how photographers of now break down between those who see the print, yes even the giant print, as the one true objective of photography and those whose end product is purely digital, lives in display(s) or projection. Will Ken Jarecke, as the Nick Ut of the first Iraq invasion, make the list?

scott

Careful Mike, Remember what Dean Raider wrote in his block about avoiding living names as the dead can't pester him on Facebook! It's all right for us, we are more or less anonymous so we need not fear that. You on the other hand.......

Great thread last time!

Whoa! - shock horror. Thanks Mike, perhaps you've just pointed out one of the failings of the "digital era" ; or maybe I just live in the past... nearly all the books on my photography shelves are of artists who produced their best work long before 1995.

Only one name that springs to mind. Lichfield began to do interesting things at the dawn of digital but then he died.

I think you need to put some qualifiers around the phrase "greatest photographers".

For example, are we talking about photographers who embrace digital photography or is film allowed? What about post-processing using an image editor? Can the photographer be a technique-orientated documentary photographer or the "out there" artist who happens to use a camera?

To make it simple if you are making a list, a few current photographers off the top of my head.
Terry Richardson
Gregory Crewdson
Andreas Gursky
Alex Prager
Pieter Hugo
Roger Ballen
Ryan McGinley
Rinko Kawauchi
Aei Weiwei

I don't agree with your list (just on principal and even though it hasn't even been made yet). I do look forward to it, however, as I expect I will be unfamiliar with most entries and I would like to be know more about them (again, just on principal).

Ray McSavaney, Ernst Haas and Paul Caponigro should be on the list along with a father/son duo of Edward and Brett Weston. Cartier-Bresson and Sally Mann as well.

on of my favorites is Hedi Slimane. his fashion diary is pretty good.

http://www.hedislimane.com/

Photography has a real problem with this sort of list, since the standards for and ideas of what constitutes "good" are so broad and fluid. It's a bit like asking for the 10 greatest musicians, I think.

It's still probably fun to take a crack at it!

Tim Hetherington. A little obvious and sentimental maybe but I do like his work. shrug..

My list avoids North American photographers, not because they aren't worth mentioning, but because others will and I would like to bring a little "outlying edge" to the lists.

In no particular order, and on a different day I could have made a different list, but at least six would have stayed. It also represents what I see on gallery walls, and is China and Australasia centric as they are where I spend most of my time.

Rong Rong and Inri
http://www.threeshadows.cn/en/artist_archives_Rong&inri.html
Leung Chi Wo
http://www.leungchiwo.com/
Ben Cauchi
http://bencauchi.com/
Fiona Pardington
http://tworooms.co.nz/artists/fiona-pardington/
Tracey Moffatt
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=moffatt-tracey
Yang Yongliang
http://www.yangyongliang.com/
Wang Qingsong
http://www.yangyongliang.com/
Liu Zheng
http://www.pekinfinearts.com/artists/artists.php?id=16
Hamish Tocher
www.hamishtocher.co.nz
Andrew Ross
http://photospacegallery.weebly.com/andrew-ross---photos.html

At the expense of repeating my comment about poets, it's a bit like picking the 10 best pebbles off the beach. "Greatest" can only ever be an opinion, even if it's a majority opinion. "Most popular", "Most well-known" might be better categories

I'm just waiting for Sarge to sort through all this and put some graphs up.

If you rule out (as is fair for this exercise) those who have had multiple third-party-published books, those who've had museum shows, and those who were familiar before 1995 . . . I'll bet most of your readers won't recognize more than 3 or 4 names on any "10" list that gets compiled. Quite a difference from a "Greatest Of All Time" list!

For me instant disqualifiers would be a high profile in self-driven "social media" and personal websites that are written in the third person and/or make claims about being one of the world's foremost photographers (those latter two often go together, the photographer presumably being too modest to make such claims himself).

If your photos aren't persuasive, no words or "buzz" will compensate for it.

"[None of those folks qualify here. You must read the post a bit more carefully...or just read it.... —Mike]"

Amusing.

An obvious but boring choice is Alec Soth. Others on my list include Jonas Bendiksen, Simon Roberts and Zoe Strauss.

I think Jeff Wall is the most interesting photographer working today.

NOTA!
(None Of The Above -- Should be an option on every ballot for elected officials.

I'm glad Greg Roberts nominated Lauren Simonutti; She was the first one who came to my mind.

http://www.edelmangallery.com/simonutti/simonutti-main.htm

Though she was an exclusively large-format film photographer, she was definitely "post-internet". Because of her specific circumstances, most of her interactions with fans and customers was through the web. I have two of her books; they're remarkable.

I'd also put forward Scott Schuman ("The Sartorialist") as a candidate

http://www.thesartorialist.com/

I'm not much of a street fan, but Brad Evans has been doing very interesting work documenting the streets of San Francisco for quite a while now.

http://www.citysnaps.net/

And I'm a big fan of David Burnett, who makes all kinds of media work for him in all kinds of contexts.

http://www.davidburnett.com/

Maybe not the greatest, nor an entire list, but these are a few British (I'm parochial...) photographers who keep me looking at their work:

http://www.davidchancellor.com/docs/home.php

http://jamesmorris.info/

http://www.crossing-paths.co.uk/

http://www.paulrussell.info/

I'd also suggest Rhodri Jones whose website my anti-virus stuff keeps flagging up as dodgy.

http://www.rhodrijones.com/

Loretta Lux

Looking through the first 70 comments there are three I know, Camus Wyatt, Michael Kenna and Alex Wild.

Two that I like are Joel Tjintjelaar for B&W architecture;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjintjelaar/4301025737/in/photostream/

and Rosie Hardy;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosie_hardy/3081970681/in/photostream/
for people/fashion. A little heavy maybe on photoshop for some tastes but it's been interesting following her the last few years.

It will be interesting to look up some of the other people mentioned, especially through our own national filters (ie. American migrant photos don't resonate with me the same way British agriculture photos do).

He’s not been on any list yet, bit someone who’s had an enormous impact on (commercial and fashion) photography is Helmut Newton. We were recently in Berlin for a (chilly) week’s cultural and culinary battery charging (most successful) and spent most of an afternoon in the Helmut Newton museum. Some of it is so so, but a few of his images are burned into the bit of the head behind my retina... His reputation is mixed, a lot of his work is ‘strictly commercial’, but there are images that are simply mind b*ggering, especially seen 10 feet tall. And despite brilliant technique, he didn't apparently give a crap about cameras -- whatever got the job done, judging from the pile of stuff he left behind (including paired Canon EOS 100's, one labelled CNEG with masking tape, the other B&W.
What made him so heart-warmingly human and so endearing to me was the scrawled letter to Schröder, the then German Chancellor, apologising for having turned up a day too late for his dinner in his own honour with the same due to “an error in his diary”. He quoted the guard at the chancellery turning him away and refusing to let him park with the remark “that was yesterday evening, sir”. Priceless!

Mike, this is tough because there are so many names that can be added to this list. My choices, and there are only 6 were as follows:
Ragnar Axelsson- Nordic photographer his books is called "Faces of the North" a masterpiece. Anyone traveling to Iceland will know his work.
Sebastio Salgado
Tim Heatherington-
Peter Turnley-
Danny Wilcox Fraser-Rural migration Very important work about the state of Rural America.
Sam Abell- A great teacher and very inspiring

Where to start indeed. In the spirit of the call for photographers of the Internet Age, I'll suggest some great photobloggers:

Joseph O. Holmes of Joe's NYC, a wonderful street photographer and great all rounder too.
http://streetnine.com/blog/

Kip Praslowicz, a young but thoroughly old-school photographer who adapts all kinds of equipment (press camera, infrared flash) to his purposes.
http://www.kpraslowicz.com/

Sharon Wish, who blurs street photography and fine art photography to capture something more than just her beloved, rainy city (Vancouver).
http://500px.com/bluechameleon

Heather Champ, the grande dame of photoblogging. Also a lo-fi / film junkie. Not sure where to find her work these days; she recently removed her stuff from Flickr.
http://hchamp.com/about.html

There are so many great photographers out there now thanks to the digital/Internet revolution. As much as I love lists, I think the 'Net has made a Top 10 list meaningless. Perhaps the 'Top 10 Photo Sharing Communities' is more germane.

Mitch Dobrowner
Beth Moon

So that's odd. My first comment got eaten by the system but my second got through. My first one said YES! to Greg Roberts' nomination of Lauren Simonutti, and added (among others, but I forgot who) Scott Schuman, also known as The Sartorialist:

http://www.thesartorialist.com/

In no particular order:

Alec Soth
Taryn Simon
Kayo Ume
shinya arimoto