These photographers have all made significant contributions to the genre of street photography and have influenced many photographers who have followed in their footsteps.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a renowned French photographer and pioneer of modern photojournalism. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century and is known for his candid photographs that capture the essence of human life and its surroundings.
Cartier-Bresson began his career in photography in the 1930s, and he is known for his images of everyday life in Europe, Asia, and America. He was a co-founder of the photographic cooperative Magnum Photos and traveled extensively throughout his life, taking photographs of people, landscapes, and events that he encountered.
Cartier-Bresson’s approach to photography was informed by his interest in Zen Buddhism and his belief in capturing a “decisive moment,” which he defined as the split second when all the elements of a scene come together to create a perfect composition. His work has had a profound influence on photography, and his legacy continues to inspire photographers around the world.
Daido Moriyama
Daido Moriyama is a renowned Japanese photographer who was born in Ikeda, Osaka, in 1938. He is known for his black and white images of Tokyo and its inhabitants, which often depict the city in a gritty, raw and often surrealistic style. Moriyama began his career as a photographer in the 1960s and has since become one of the most influential and prolific photographers of his generation. His work has been exhibited extensively in Japan and abroad, and he has published numerous books throughout his career. Moriyama is considered to be a key figure in the development of Japanese photography and a master of the photographic book form.
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) was an American street photographer known for his candid photographs of people in public places. He is considered one of the most important photographers of the 20th century and a pioneer of street photography.
Winogrand grew up in the Bronx, New York, and studied painting at City College of New York and photography at Columbia University. He began his career as a freelance photojournalist, and later worked as a photographer for magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Life.
Winogrand’s photography focused on capturing the everyday moments of American life, often in urban settings. He was known for his use of a wide-angle lens, which allowed him to capture a large amount of detail in his images. His work often showed people in motion, with blurred figures and dynamic compositions.
Winogrand’s photographs were often controversial, as he did not ask for permission to photograph his subjects and his images could be seen as invasive. However, his work has had a significant influence on modern photography, and he is considered a master of the genre of street photography.
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (1924-2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and filmmaker, best known for his groundbreaking book “The Americans” (1958). The book is a collection of photographs that Frank took during a road trip across the United States in the mid-1950s, and it had a significant impact on the field of documentary photography.
Frank’s photographs in “The Americans” showed a less idealized and more critical view of American life than was typically presented in popular media at the time. His use of unconventional composition, grainy film, and everyday subject matter challenged the established norms of photography and paved the way for a new generation of photographers.
In addition to his photography, Frank also worked in film. He directed and produced a number of documentaries, including “Pull My Daisy” (1959) and “Cocksucker Blues” (1972).
William Klein
William Klein is an American photographer and filmmaker, born on April 19, 1928, in New York City. He is best known for his innovative and unconventional style of street photography, which challenged the traditional norms of photography in the 1950s and 1960s.
Klein studied painting at the City College of New York and later attended the Sorbonne in Paris, where he became interested in photography. He began his career as a fashion photographer, working for Vogue magazine, but he soon turned his attention to street photography, capturing the energy and chaos of urban life in his images.
Klein’s photographs often feature high contrast, blurred movement, and unconventional cropping, which give his images a dynamic and gritty feel. He has also worked as a filmmaker, directing a number of documentaries and feature films.
Klein’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and he has received many awards for his contributions to photography and filmmaking. He continues to be an important figure in the world of photography and is considered one of the pioneers of modern street photography.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was an American street photographer who worked as a nanny in Chicago and New York City for much of her life. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, but her work was largely unknown and unseen until after her death.
In 2007, a Chicago historian named John Maloof purchased a box of negatives at an auction and discovered that they were the work of Maier. He began to investigate her life and work, and eventually helped to bring her photography to public attention through exhibitions, books, and a documentary film.
Maier’s work is known for its intimate and empathetic portraits of everyday people, often taken in urban settings. Her photographs offer a unique perspective on life in mid-20th century America, and her story has become a fascinating part of the history of photography.
Bruce Gilden
Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer known for his close-up portraits of people from various cultures and backgrounds. He was born on October 16, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York City.
Gilden has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1998, an international photographic cooperative founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, among others. He has received numerous awards for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world.
Gilden is often associated with the tradition of street photography, but his work is also influenced by documentary photography and portraiture. He is known for his direct approach to his subjects, often getting very close to them and using a flash to capture the moment with a high level of intensity. His images can be confrontational, but they also capture the humanity and diversity of the people he photographs.
Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz (born March 6, 1938) is an American photographer and artist, known for his contributions to the field of street photography, color photography, and landscape photography. He was one of the early photographers to embrace color photography as an art form, and his pioneering work in this field helped establish color photography as a respected medium in the art world. Some of his most notable photographic projects include his documentation of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York City, his street photography in the 1960s and 1970s, and his landscape photography of Cape Cod. Meyerowitz’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to photography.
Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) was an American photographer known for her documentary photography and portraiture. She photographed a wide range of subjects, including celebrities, street performers, and people living on the fringes of society, such as prostitutes, drug addicts, and the homeless. Her work often highlighted the struggles of marginalized individuals and communities, and she was known for her ability to capture the raw emotion and humanity of her subjects.
Mark’s work has been published in numerous books and magazines, and has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. She received many awards for her work, including the Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award from the George Eastman House and the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the World Photography Organization. Mark passed away in 2015 at the age of 75, but her legacy continues to inspire and influence photographers and artists today.
Martin Parr
Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, born in 1952 in Epsom, Surrey, England. He is known for his distinctive and colorful photographs that often capture the peculiarities and quirks of everyday life, particularly in the UK.
Parr has published over 80 books of his photography, including “The Last Resort” (1986), which documented the seaside town of New Brighton in Merseyside, England, and “Common Sense” (1999), which explored the diversity of contemporary British life. He has also worked on numerous commercial projects and editorial assignments for magazines such as The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Vogue.
In addition to his photography, Parr is also a curator and has organized exhibitions at galleries and museums around the world. He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1994 until 2017, when he became a “contributing photographer.” Parr has received many awards and honors for his work, including the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award from the World Photography Organisation in 2017.
Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt is an American photographer born in Paris in 1928. He is best known for his humorous and candid black-and-white photographs of people and animals. Erwitt began his career as a photographer in the late 1940s and early 1950s, working for magazines such as Collier’s, LIFE, and Look. He joined Magnum Photos in 1953 and has been a member ever since.
Erwitt’s photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, and he has published numerous books of his work. He has received many awards for his photography, including the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2011. Erwitt continues to work as a photographer, and his photographs remain influential and highly regarded in the field.
Helen Levitt
Helen Levitt was an American photographer known for her street photography of New York City. She was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, and started taking photographs in the 1930s. Levitt’s work often focused on the daily life of working-class and poor neighborhoods in New York City, capturing the energy, humor, and pathos of the people who lived there.
Her photographs often featured children at play, street vendors, and other scenes of everyday life. Levitt was a pioneer in the use of color photography, and her work helped to establish street photography as a legitimate form of artistic expression. She also worked on a number of documentary films, including “In the Street” and “The Quiet One.”
Levitt’s photographs have been exhibited at major museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She passed away in 2009 at the age of 95, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most influential and respected photographers of her generation.
Alex Webb
Alex Webb is an American photographer who is known for his work in color street photography. He was born on May 5, 1952 in San Francisco, California, and grew up in New England. He studied history and literature at Harvard University, where he first became interested in photography.
Webb has published several books of his photography, including “Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds,” “Under a Grudging Sun,” and “The Suffering of Light.” He has received numerous awards for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Hasselblad Foundation Grant.
Webb is a member of the Magnum Photos agency, which is one of the most prestigious photographic cooperatives in the world. His photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, and his work is held in many public and private collections.
Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander is an American photographer who was born in 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington. He is considered one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, particularly known for his black and white images of everyday life in the United States. Friedlander has worked in a variety of photographic genres, including street photography, landscape, and portraiture, and he is known for his ability to find beauty in the mundane and the ordinary. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, and he has published numerous books of photography. Friedlander has received many awards for his contributions to the field, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990.
Raghu Rai
Raghu Rai is a renowned Indian photographer who is best known for his work in photojournalism and documentary photography. He was born on December 2, 1942, in the state of Jharkhand, India.
Rai began his career as a photographer in 1965, and over the years, he has captured some of the most significant events and people in Indian history. He worked as the chief photographer for India Today magazine for many years and has published several books of his photographs.
Rai’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums all over the world, and he has won numerous awards for his work. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Shri, which is one of the highest civilian awards in India, for his contributions to photography.
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was an American photographer and painter known for his innovative use of color photography. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York City in 1946 to become a painter. However, he became interested in photography and began to take pictures on the streets of New York City.
Leiter’s early work in photography was heavily influenced by the abstract expressionist movement, with its emphasis on color, texture, and spontaneity. He often used a technique of shooting through windows and other transparent surfaces, creating layers of color and texture that gave his photographs a unique and dreamlike quality.
Leiter’s photography career began to take off in the 1950s, when he began to work as a fashion photographer. He produced a significant body of work for Harper’s Bazaar, and his photographs were featured in other fashion magazines as well.
In the 1960s, Leiter began to focus more on his personal photography, often capturing everyday scenes and people on the streets of New York City. His work during this period is known for its subtle and poetic use of color, with many of his photographs featuring muted tones and a soft focus.
Leiter’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, and he is considered to be one of the pioneers of color photography. His photographs continue to be highly influential to this day.
Trent Parke
Trent Parke is an Australian photographer known for his unique and evocative images. He was born in Newcastle, Australia, in 1971 and began his career as a press photographer at the age of 18. In 1998, he became a full member of Magnum Photos, a prestigious photography agency.
Parke’s work is characterized by its use of light and shadow, bold composition, and a sense of the surreal. He has produced several notable bodies of work, including “Dream/Life” (1999-2002), “Minutes to Midnight” (2003-2007), and “The Black Rose” (2013-2015).
Parke has won numerous awards for his work, including the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography and the World Press Photo award. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and is held in many public and private collections.
Matt Stuart
Matt Stuart is a British street photographer known for his candid and humorous photographs of people in public places. He was born in London in 1974 and began taking photographs in the early 1990s. Stuart is a member of the In-Public collective, a group of street photographers who share a common interest in documenting everyday life in urban environments. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and publications, and he has also worked on commissions for various clients. Stuart’s photographs often capture fleeting moments of humor, irony, and absurdity in the midst of the chaos of everyday life.
Bruce Davidson
Bruce Davidson is an American photographer known for his compelling photo essays and documentary-style photographs. He was born on September 5, 1933, in Oak Park, Illinois, USA.
Davidson began his photography career in the 1950s and is known for his work documenting the civil rights movement, as well as his street photography and portraits of everyday people. Some of his most well-known projects include “Brooklyn Gang,” “East 100th Street,” and “Time of Change: Civil Rights Photographs, 1961-1965.”
Throughout his career, Davidson has received numerous accolades and awards for his contributions to photography. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 and was inducted into the Magnum Photos agency in 1958. In 2018, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography.
David Alan Harvey
David Alan Harvey is an American photographer and photojournalist. He was born in San Francisco, California in 1944. Harvey started his career as a photographer in 1969, when he began working as an intern at the Geographic magazine. He later became a full-time staff photographer for the magazine and has worked on numerous assignments for them over the years.
Harvey is known for his documentary photography, which often focuses on culture, social issues, and the human condition. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, documenting people and their way of life in countries such as Cuba, Brazil, and India. Harvey’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and has received numerous awards and honors.
In addition to his work as a photographer, Harvey is also a teacher and mentor to young photographers. He has taught workshops and lectured at universities and photography schools around the world, and has also authored several books on photography.