Josef Koudelka

Piergiorgio Branzi

Martine Franck

A highlight of 2007 for me was a visit to the Fondation Cartier-Bresson in Paris. They have a selection of HCB's wonderful photography, usually a temporary exhibition by another photographer, and some of the sketches he did later in life. They also have his first (I think) Leica on display. I definitely recommend it if you're over there.

And last year I particularly enjoyed a talk at the Barbican by former Life picture editor John Morris. His subject was my own favourite photographer, Robert Capa. To hear him talking about parties he attended in just liberated Paris with Capa and the likes of Hemingway and Lee Miller was just incredible. I had a few words with him at the end, and he was very pleasant too. 92 years old but sharp as a tack. He had just finished campaigning for Obama as chairman of Democrats Abroad. It must be in the genes as he mentioned his 99 year old sister!

Other favourites of mine are Willy Ronis, Steve McCurry and Don McCullin.

So yes, it's safe to say I share your love of photography!

but wide eyed as well. I have alway appreciated a photograph but never really put any effort into it. Have googled Cartier-Bresson and his work is stunning. He seems to have real personality as well. He is my what have I learnt this week and thank you Patrick.

This recently published book is a great introduction to HCB, and very cheap too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Horizons-Cl%C3%83%C2%A9men...

Richard Grassick of the Amber co-op Newcastle with his social doc photography . He has recently been up the Wear valley exploring the lives of the working farms .

Early Spencer Tunick blew me away especially one featuring Amity Joy with a submarine in a field behind her .

Weegee and his study of 20's/30's life in the big apple esp lower east side " children sleeping on a fire escape " legend has it Pa pocketed the $2 Weegee gave him for the kids .

Andy Hollingworth who photo's comedians some amazing shots and a bleeding sound bloke .

Went to see an Exhibition of Her work last year. I found it really interesting especially her life story and they also had some surreal Man Ray photos in the Exhibition as well. I went to impress a potential Girlfriend who's a photographer.
What do you think of these two Patrick ?
the P-GF above mentions that there is a Photographer called Mary Ellen Mark. Strange indeed. She also likes your stuff too Patrick.
She checked out your website which i will do shortly.

Hello, Patrick.

I was bitten by the bug relatively recently (three-ish years ago). I had always loved going to photography exhibitions but it took a holiday in Talinn with a borrowed camera - plus a surprise John Lewis voucher - that tipped me over the edge into taking photographs myself.

I think I'm still too green to have a 'specialism' - I'll still have a go at taking pictures of anything and can't think of a better way of learning - but I love taking portraits the most and it's a euphoric moment for me when I get another friend involved and interested in becoming a subject.

Photographers I admire (off the top of my head): Andreas Gursky, Wolfgang Tillmans, Francesca Woodman, Brassai.

(And in support of above comments - Massive, you really should check out Patrick's website. Terrific stuff.)

I do like good photos and try my best to take some myself - can't claim to be anywhere near any good but do manage to get a few that are worth the effort. I find having young kids is great - lots of opportunity for great snaps (if you're quick enough !).

One thing I do note is that most of the above examples and some of the great photographers I like (e.g, Ansel Adams) is that they are Black & White. I've always preferred B/W as a medium and back in the old days used to usually load up my old Olympus OM2 with B/W film. I find now though with digital, I rarely use - I know that you can make them B/W on the computer, but it doesn't feel the same and usually laziness wins out......

...who took incredible nighttime photographs of drive-ins, trains and the like during the 1940s/50s?

Used hundreds of tungsten flash bulbs at once, scattered about the area he was photographing.

Richard Avedon. Very American. Mostly portraits taken under the glare of hot lights, making his subjects look naked even when they weren't.

He took portraits of the Beatles during Macca's 'tache phase, which were used to make "psychedelic" posters in the seventies. His work also graced the cover of Sonic Youth's Sister LP, until his people found out and all further pressings/reissues etc replaced his photo of a teenage girl with a black rectangle.

Robert Frank's another great one.

Thanks for the thread & the photos Patrick - nice to be thinking about photography instead of the daily grind.

for me.

I just love the way he has a knack of capturing bands that are just on the verge of success - The Clash, U2, Joy Division, Stone Roses, Smiths and Oasis for example - and getting that adrenalin and excitement over in his photos.

I'm at work so can't paste any photos but here's a link to some shots from his recent Oasis book, yeah I know it's Oasis, but I'm talking about the photography not the subject matter.

http://www.nme.com/photos/642/2/oasis-a-year-on-the-road

mentioned above but surely bears repeating. 'The Americans' is a great book, but I only realised recently that he also did the cover for 'Exile On Mainstreet'.

Good idea for a thread Patrick

First up a photograph by Saul Leiter, an astonishingly modest and talented photographer whose book 'Early Colour' is a masterpiece and my favourite of my 300+ photography books.

Second, the wonderful Madame Yevonde, one of the pioneers of colour photography in the 1930s.

Next up, Joel Meyerowitz, one of the photographers who made colour photography acceptable as an art form.

And another, Stephen Shore, whose work with a large format camera was very influential.

Saul Leiter

Madame Yevonde

Joel Meyerowitz

Stephen Shore

If only I could be good at photography. I have no eye.

I finally bought a decent SLR last year but am only now getting to grips with it. Yes, developing your eye is the key. I've used it to practice framing and balance, mostly by taking reasonably bland landscapes around Berkshire. Trouble is - deeply intereseted though I am - I really don't know any photographers. Thanks, looks like I'll be trawling the web even more now digging out their names and work!

...black and white stuff does it for me - particularly the one of a policeman in the fog, St Paul's in the Blitz and Francis Bacon on Hampstead Heath.

I've always gravitated towards monochrome since I was a teenager. Somehow I feel it can be far more dramatic than colour and can be pushed and pulled in all directions to create moods that weren't necessarily in front of the lens when the photo was taken.

The technical side of mono printing is also more forgiving for the enthusiastic amateur as less time is spent trying to correct irritating colour casts - for some reason messed about colour never has the same presence and just looks wrong.

That said, one of the most fascinating exhibitions I can recall was by Paul Fusco at the excellent Photographer's Gallery (Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW and free). These were a series of colour images taken from the funeral train carrying Bobby Kennedy's body from New York to Washington after his assassination. The trackside was lined with people and the photos captured the social mix, moods, fashions and attitudes of a moment in time. It was almost photography in its purest form - unadulterated - you could look directly into the faces of those gathered and feel the emotion. Marvellous!

I used to be quite keen on his deceptively simple colour work; and having just googled him, I find that I still am.

is, for me, a fantastic photographer and I find a lot of warmth and intelligence in the way she deconstructs female archetypes. 'Complete Untitled Film Stills' is probably her most typical work and I love the attention to composition and the careful ambiguity. Always thought that she appealed more to a Performance Art crowd than a photography audience but I may well be completely wrong agout this!

Adams for his fabulous b&w work; Haas is a much over-looked photographer who worked in colour and did some marvellous work depicting movement, shape and pattern.

This selection I've made is by photographers whose work has a shared concern with elevating everyday things like a tree or an apple to the realm of the universal. Their work is poetic and mysterious and quite beautiful...

Paul Caponigro

Wynn Bullock

Minor White

Frederick Sommer

And the last image I want to show is by a friend of mine, a photographer based in Oxford called Paddy Summerfield. Paddy's taught me a lot (he's much older then me, sorry mate) and is a truly great artist. There are around 150 of his images on show at the Old Bank Hotel in Oxford if you're interested.

Paddy Summerfield

Jean Cocteau by Gisèle Freund

Ernest Hemingway by Yousuf Karsh

and my favourite photographer of fashion, Erwin Blumenfeld.

Erwin Blumenfeldt

...to suggest that the Luigi Ghirri picture (the swing on the beach) is a case of the emperor's new clothes?