He may not be considered a “fine art” photographer, but how you can leave out Sebastiao Salgado is beyond me! I’m a lifelong visual artist and his work has touched my life so deeply, I can’t believe he was not on this list!!!
I would be more interested in an analysis of 'the most important' or 'the most influential' photographers. 'Famous' is not an aspect of real interest or importance. That said, at least half the names you included are much less 'famous' than Avedon, Penn, Adams, David LaChapelle, Duane Michals, Edward Weston, or Edward Steichen.
Hi Scott, very good point and I agree. The problem is it is even more difficult to measure 'influence'. With 'fame' we can actual use real data, such as exhibitions, public collections, selling history, et cetera. But it could of course be possible to achieve a selection with a strong foundation by reaching out to different academics. Something to reconsider for sure. Thank you for tuning in and for your excellent recital of major absentees!
in my humble opinion you can add a Mario Basner to this list.... his works, especially the interior library photos are breathtaking and suck you into the room in such a unique way.
I agree! I was sad not to find him in the top 20 results, however it was a close call. In any case, thank you so much for tuning in and for reaching out
Leibovitz, Platon, Schoeller, Edwin Olaf, Mark Lagrange, Katerina Belkina, Flora Borsi,, Peter Lindbergh, Doisneau, Anton Corbijn, Vivian Maier, Todd Hido, Sail Leiter, Vanfleteren etc. etc.
Joel-Peter Witkin belongs on the list. Some of the photojournalists do not belong because they are not trying to make fine art despite their achievements as photographers.
Hi Ricardo, thank you for tuning in. I know Salgado well - however I am yet to see his works in the flesh - but sadly he did not make the cut in our analytical selection process using the Artfacts algorithm. What a photographer, what an artist. Should be up here for sure!
Here’s a list to add to the list, Miguel Gandert, Joel Peter Witkin, Ansel Adams, Van Burren, William Davis, Paul Strand, Mildred Tolbert, Lisa Gilpin, Robert Frank, Anne Noggle, Geraint Smith, Lenny Foster, Paul O’Connor, John Rudiak, and many more.
Cindy Sherman and Wolfgang Tillman of the art industry trying to pass off the Emperor's New Clothes. Their work shows no skill or talent, but if they galleries say it's "art," then the sheep nod in approval out of fear that they'll be looked down on if they "just don't get it." A genuine artist is someone like Herb Ritts, whose lighting skills were as excellent as his ability to capture the essence of his subjects. Even David LaChapelle demonstrates a combination of skill, composition, and creativity.
Its interesting to reflect on and your starting point “Beauty beyond the ordinary” is one quality that then calls for examples - for me it is the quality of aliveness, knowing very well that this is one perspective of values - the values of life .....
What a suprise- I was expecting this list to be dominated by white American men, but this list had an interesting and varied mix of photographers/artists.
Hi Ken, thank you for tuning in. Yes, I was also very happy to see the diversity with these top 20 results. It was about time! :-) All my best from Belgium, JD
The most IMPORTANT photographers? I couldn't care less. With all due respect I care about the photographers I like, not which ones I should like. I do like some of your 20 but not all. Two of my favourites that I can think of off the top of my head, Rodney Graham and Alex Prager. That being said I do appreciate your posts. Looking at art is always inspirational.
Hi Craig, thank you for tuning in. No-one is obliged to care or like this selection. But in case anyone would, here they are. Yes, two terrific suggestions. Rodney Graham is one of my personal favorites in fact. Thank you for your comment and appreciative words. Have a great day!
Hi Steffen, two terrific suggestions. I am also a big fan of Mikhailov. We included him in our video of the top 10 Ukrainian artists and for me personally he was the standout artist from the list in question. Thank you for tuning in!
I think 20 is too limited a number as many fine photographers would be left out as can be seen from the comments. I suggest a more extensive video divided, perhaps, by decades to make sure most, if not all, are included. Nevertheless, a very good effort and lots of names I wasn't familiar with.
If you would mention only one name your list would be complete : Andrei Tarkovsky. Any of his stills from the films can be blown up to reveal utter masterpieces
If printing and editing are just important as capturing the moment, then Henri Cartier-Bresson doesn't belong on your list. He didn't do his own printing. He only selected his best photos. Also, he didn't consider himself a fine art photography and neither do I. However, he's the best!
you know that determines the value of an artist? Its his/her network. It has been observed from data. Read "the formula" by albert barabasi. So I never found that much value in this sort of lists. Nevertheless, it helps to be acquainted with some new artists.
Hi Cobalt, I defintely agree on Soth and Struth, however I would not omit Höfer, she is actually one of my personal favorites. Thank you for tuning in and for adding this note to our discussion
Definitely happy to Zanele Muholi mentioned here,I love her work so much.I think Cindy Sherman is iconic. One of my favourite fine art photgraphers at the moment is Mohau Modisakeng.He is not famous but really good.Anyways, thank you for this video.Very informative,have your flowers while you can still smell them.Great work.
Certainly thanks to your sensibility the pictures are respected, at least in the first take, in their immobile integrity. Sometimes film makers have the vice of only travelling down the picture and their details. Congratulations and thanks!
Dear Vicente, thank you so much for tuning in and for your valuable feedback. Yes, it is often difficult to find a balance to show the pictures how they are, static, and to keep the video flowing and alive by using tracking shots across the images. Have a great day!
CAI--I am in two minds about your endeavor to identify the 20 Most Famous Photographers (worldwide, I suppose). First, to issue such a statement must take courage because it does make a stand and at the same time offer a target to your viewers. On the other hand, superlative statements like this may present a difficulty. Yes, you did offer criteria to distinguish fine art from snapshot-tery; however, your title promises objective observations and career facts. "Famous," I suppose, you base upon these two criteria, yet you do not define "famous." Does it mean "well known," or perhaps it means "influential?" Moreover, at times you divulge neither "career facts" nor "objective observations." Take Catherine Osie, for example; from you we learn your opinion that she is an industry leader and that her work is project based. Well, what do you mean by "industry leader," what facts make her an industry leader, and which industry? You go on to state that her work is "project based" and imply that she has focused on LGBTQ communities and perhaps other communities as well. OK, I do not question the value of focussing on these subjects, but many other photographers have also done this, too. What makes her "famous?" And that leads to another issue, why do many of your viewers claim ignorance of some of these photographers? If they are famous, doesn't that mean they are well known? Apparently not. Perhaps this video was an overview of your opinion about these photogs, and perhaps your opinion has grown out of the milieu which you occupy? In any case, educating your viewers about photogs of whom they are previously ignorant is a noble task even if it draws unwanted attention.
Why heavily reference American😢 artists? They are very well supported and promoted patriotically. It's frustrating that art critics ignore Britain and Europe..and Female talent after 1960 ..isn't it time to change a mindset?
Tillmans is dire and over rated. he blows em up large cause he has the largest possible sensor available, in terms of creativity, social relevance. He is a zero. A gimmick.
Love that this list is specific. And with that in mind, how about Tyler Shields, Gregory Crewdson or Joel Meyerowitz? I wouldn’t wanna throw a bunch of names in just because we artists love them and they’ve influenced us greatly but uhmm these guys. Even Tyler just did the joint with Christie’s. I’m saying.
The only photographic artist of any interest to me is Miroslav Tichy from Czech. As a medium art photography is far too new and hasn't the extremely long history of image making.
Miroslav Tichy is a very interesting photographer indeed, and thank you for the interesting comment as well. Photography has only been around approximately almost two centuries, but its form and use has shifted strongly throughout the years. I also believe photography is influenced by a longer history of image making, appropriating the decorum or conventions of other visual arts.
I hate these top 20 vids for the same reason I hate this one. It's just a personal opinion and misses many true giants. This selection absolutely is not the top 20 most famous. Maybe retitle the vid to be more accurate. I watched 35 seconds to read the list then got out.
These top 20s are in fact not a personal opinion. The list has been created by an algorithm (by Artfacts) which ranks artists based upon objective data and career facts (such as shows at major institutions, auction results, biennials, collections, et cetera). The algorithm is able to provide interesting results, but they still need to be interpreted with a critical pair of eyes and mind of course. The main reason why we adore to use the Artfacts algorithm is because it enables us to approach fame/popularity/pertinence in an objective manner. Otherwise, depending on the person who creates the list, it would be entirely different. If I would make them, I would be imposing my personal opinion to you, which I don't feel comfortable with. Instead, with this algorithm, we can create these rankings in a very coherent and consistent manner. It crawls all artists in the world, so every artist is considered, and it can often show a discrepancy between our perception of fame of specific artist versus reality. To conclude, it is a very interesting discussion and yes the algorithm is not perfect as we still need to interpret the results critically. But I strongly believe this is a great tool for art scientific insights, which is exactly what we aim to achieve with these results.
Being everything subjective these are your choices of the most famous fine art photographers and famous does not mean the best just more popular for the crowd. Van Gogh was a terrible painter of his time and sold only one painting, now his the best and every of his painting sells for hundreds of millions, buying by snobby rich collectors. In photography, the snobby collectors pay millions for meaningless Gursky, Sherman pictures just because they popular names. Nobody pays millions for Salgado, W. Eugene Smith, William Klein, Avadon or McCurry. Anyway, nowadays photography is 16X9 Instagram vertical landcsapes, Tik-Tok vertical 16X9, Short RU-vid 16x9 vertical art photography. 10 years from now these 16X9 vertical art will sell for millions. Hope not!
The subjective character of art can easily make the field of artists a minefield. That's why we use an algorithm which ranks artists based upon objective data and career facts (such as shows at major institutions, auction results, biennials, collections, et cetera). The main reason why we adore to use the Artfacts algorithm is because it enables us to approach fame/popularity/pertinence in an objective manner. Otherwise, depending on the person who creates the list, it would be entirely different. If I would make them, I would be imposing my personal opinion to you, which I don't feel comfortable with. Instead, with this algorithm, we can create these rankings in a very coherent and consistent manner. It crawls all artists in the world, so every artist is considered, and it can often show a discrepancy between our perception of fame of specific artist versus reality. To conclude, it is a very interesting discussion and yes the algorithm is not perfect as we still need to interpret the results critically. But I strongly believe this is a great tool for art scientific insights, which is exactly what we aim to achieve with these results. Thank you for tuning in!
The analysis is of course very summary and simplified, however I would not say it is incoherent. Feel free to share your insights and thank you for tuning in!
@@contemporaryartissue what a nice reply! I’ll take advantage of your thoughtfulness to explore incoherence with you. It’s especially clear what incoherence is by how you use the concept of top 20 lists. Coherence might for the reader seem like how one artist is connected to another. A good example familiar in photography is the famous label f64 as a description for a kind of realism use practice of a group centered around Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. That’s a coherence claim about that group of photographers as realists which similarly crops up in the familiar label of ‘school’ as applied to painters from the 1950s, Abstract Expressionists. These labels imply coherence of the claim. Your group of 20 doesn’t have such a coherence. It’s fine with me to explore importance which is your claim about these 20 artists. It’s defensible and helpful for people who come to your site to partake of. But at the same time very hard to find coherence in. One might find something like for example all these individuals share being alive in the same epoch, but that seems trivial rather than a profound coherence. I would hope that my response helps others better understand your thoughts. You show exemplary intellectual understanding by your thoughtful reply.
I’ll add where I think coherence claims might arise in all of contemporary art; what is inside the picture that coheres the interior visual art to the surrounding frame. The frame of a picture is a metadata zone which is a triviality observation. This is still especially important after the whole long period after Cezanne. Cezanne opened the door to abstraction by including multiple views in a single painting. There followed a profound realism, anti-realism cultural clash. A good example of that cultural war is Andrew Wyeth whom people find in his paintings both abstraction and realism but for me says nothing about why Cezanne and later Picasso had such profound influence upon the very concept of realism. To this day it’s not easily possible to unite intellectually and coherently abstract art to realist art despite such claims about Andrew Wyeth.
@@doylesaylor Thank you for this accurate and clear explanation why this video is incoherent for you. And, from this perspective, I agree 100%. The list is as eclectic as possible. All fine art photography artists from any era, or any country, were crawled and grouped together in a list of 20 based upon 'fame', something which is not based upon their works but their career. I have a similar and interesting discussion with Chris Lethbridge concerning the problematic character of comparing iconic historical figures with living artists who are 'hot' at this very moment. The thing is with these lists that we do not present the story of a specific medium (something which could be an interesting angle for a different type of series of videos), but the presentation of the top results of a research measuring fame or pertinence of artists in the art world.
Hi Alex, thank you for tuning in. William Eggleston was on our extensive list of honorable mentions but sadly we had to narrow it down of course. Terrific and highly influential photographer
I think you are missing from the list artists like : Sugimoto, Saul Leiter, Ray Metzger, Edward Weston, William Klein, William Eggleston, Ansel Adams ,…. Would you agree ?
Photography is probably the most popular contemporary figurative art, and as such I can see it created more discussion than your other videos :). As a photographer myself I was also surprised of not seeing many popular names: McCurry, Salgado, Kenna, Haas... But I also discovered many that i didn't know. For the next videos it would be interesting if you would state more extensively the data that made you rank each photographer. So even for the viewers the ranking would be clearer. Keep up the good work!
Hi Pir, thank you for tuning in and for your interesting comment. Fine art photography is indeed a very popular art form. I believe painting and photography are arguably the top 2 media for the public opinion. So I am very happy to encounter such a lively discussion here in the comments! Yes, very good point concerning the absence of certain very popular names. I believe there is often a discrepancy between our perception of fame and the actual pertinence of the artist in question in the art world. I agree on presenting the data more extensively, the only issue is the video would become (even) longer and it might get a bit dull when swinging with statistics. I feel we are still in search for the right balance.Thank you for the motivation, will do! Have a great day
@@contemporaryartissue Thank you for your insightful reply, maybe a solution could be keeping the videos short while going deeper in the articles. I did read that as well and it seemed to me that you gave the same informations as in the video. I'm sure readers would be happy of a longer, more interesting read and it would help driving traffic to your interesting website!
Agreed! I have thought that for many years. Even so, the dog was the star, especially when he looked straight into the camera. We also didn't need to see the presenter as much, either.
Great video again - thank you! As always there were some revelations, and as always the list is contestsble. Personally I think it’s slightly problematic to include art historical figures (where was Bill Brandt?!) alongside contemporary artists whose reputation has yet to be fixed. Can you seriously claim that Tillmans is ‘more important’ than Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy or Cartier Bresson? With regard to other excluded names, I’d vote for the searing social documentary of Richard Billingham. Also I’d be interested to know your views on Martin Parr. Also social documentary, crossing between fine art and journalism he’s practically the photographer laureate to The Guardian newspaper and has risen to the heights of having his own foundation in Bristol. Personally I find his work too inflected with snobbery for comfort, but he’s hugely influential.
Hi Chris, how have you been? I agree it is almost a problematic exercise to compare historical figures with living artists, the first are iconic and the latter are 'hot' at this very moment but impossible to know their legacy in time. As a result, comparing Tillmans with Many Ray/Moholy-Nagy/Cartier-Bressen is arguably impossible. Maybe we should separate these two spheres for our future videos: (i) most famous living artists; (ii) most influential historical figures. I value Martin Parr strongly but I don't think he should be mentioned alongside these 20 fine art photographers. Bill Brandt on the other hand should! Richard Billingham somewhere in between... In any case, I really enjoyed covering all these illustrious artists. With photography I often feel the intentions are more pure, for instance there is less resistance from the public opinion. To conclude, personally I would also add Dirk Braeckman - my favorite fine art photographer at this very moment. All my best! Julien
@@contemporaryartissue Hi Julien. With photography it’s interesting how distinctions are sometimes blurred between pure fine art, documentary and journalism. A couple of others I was surprised not to see on the list were Andres Serrano and Gilbert and George.
@@chrislethbridge1759 I agree. Personally I really enjoy documentary fine art photography, but I also love photography which is very pictorial. As if painting. G&G was indeed omitted due to this reason, otherwise we should also have included for instance Barbara Kruger, Marina Abramovic or Anri Sala. Best wishes!
What a hodgepodge motley assortment of veritable fine arts photographers and ersatz artists! Many of your "top 20" are rank amateurs who had a moment, and while you have included some of the greats like Diane Arbus and (in passing) Alfred Steiglitz, you omitted some legendary and seminal artists like W. Eugene Smith (Minamata images!), Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Lucas Samaras (who just died this year), Jock Sturges, and, of course, the internationally renowned Sebastão Salgado. THIS IS BECAUSE YOU INVESTED DECISIONS IN A COMPUTER PROGRAM. Also, your use of AI narrator is bizarre and abusive to proper pronunciation, e.g. Henri Cartier-Bresson and László Moholy-Nagy's names were butchered, perpetuating confusion to a new generation .
thank you for the wonderful video, reminded me of my early days when I would research every possible book and photographer out there. Social media, especially insta is really making everything monotonous these days, your video inspired me to get back to researching and learning from the old masters again. I want to mention my personal favourite, Lee Godie if anyone reads :)
You know you haven't done your research right when most of the arists are all from the very same country. No Fan Ho, no Latin American photographers, no Spanish or Italian photographers, no Alexei Titarenko, no Chinese photographer, No northern African photographer. This just feels like a list of the most famous photographers from the USA sparkled with a couple german photographers. (Yes, there's a french one, a South African one, a Iranian, a Japanese one and a Canadian one. But that's it in terms of diversity) Making videos like these where people put in a pedestal only photographers from one culture and one background are absolutely problematic. Makes it seem as if nobody else is contributing to culture, and it ends up making an echo chamber where the only people allowed to be deemed successful are always the same people. I'm not taking credit away from the photographers mentioned here, they are all fabulous! But are you ignoring a lot of people who are also fabulous.
I don't agree with the idea of highly realistic photography of architecture as art photography. In addition, it is hard to see why the number one work can become the number one.
well, list of top 20 is to short for calling most famous Fine Art Photography Artists^ lets spread out till 100 =) and separate it on decades or subgenres
Thank you for tuning in and yes I must agree. A more historical approach could and should do well to this subject. We'll dive into fine art photography a bit more in future videos for sure!
As with all of the videos that you have done, excellent content and critique. My only dispute with you is putting Cindy Sherman in the top three and not Robert Mapplethorpe or Catherine Opie, if you wanted a living photographer in the top three. Also, disagree with the position of Carrie Mae Weems on the list as I think her work is more significant than some of those who follow her. I would have mentioned that Candida Hofer's work succeeds, in a significant way, because of the absence of the human in her photos. She is creating liminal spaces which always gives her work a sense of mystery and horror. Lastly, I think you under sold the potential of the cell phone camera as having the capacity of being a fine art photography tool.
Hi George, how have you been? Thank you for your appreciative words and interesting thoughts. I can see why you would value Mapplethorpe and Opie above Cindy Sherman. However the art world clearly values the latter above the others. Personally, I would definitely take Opie above Sherman any day. Mapplethorpe and Sherman are a bit more difficult to compare. When it comes to Carrie Mae Weems, I agree 100%! I believe with time, she will continue to mount the list and get very close to the podium. Great comment on Höfer, she is one of my absolute favorites but I am yet to see her works in the flesh. Maybe I should make it a priority. Also very interesting concerning the cell phone camera, it reminds me how important Luc Tuymans' iPhone is for his artistic practice.
Excellent video, it is nice to be reminded of all the great ones. I also love Martin Parr and Richard Billingham. En heerlijk om je hond Perrier erbij te hebben😉
Thomas Struth is one of the finest photographers. Member of the Dusseldorf School of arts just like Gursky, Hoffer, Ruff. How cannot be part of this rank?
Hi Mauricio, you are 100% right! One of the major absentees according to my humble opinion, but sadly he did not made the cut. Thank you for tuning in!
This is a weird list. The omission of Ansel Adams, Sally Mann, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon is peculiar. You also missed pretty much all of my favorites with the exception of Maplethorpe and the honorable mention of Friedlander...
I believe there is nothing wrong the list, and I also believe your recital is terrific and they would definitely deserve a spot in this list, but sadly there are only 20 spots-even though we added some more with the honorable mentions. I believe you have a great knowledge when it comes to American photography, hence your recital of major absentees. However, America is already strongly represented in this list-10 of the 25 artists are American, so adding four more would be even more peculiar-and there are other countries with great photographers as well. Nevertheless, the list is set up by art scientific research without imposing any personal opinion and simply presenting the results. Hope this might clarify things. Have a great day!
Love Daido Moriyama! Often disturbing but so beautiful. Thank you for the kind words and for tuning in. Happy to hear you discovered some new artists! Have a great day
To sidestep the issue of being subjective or imposing a personal opinion, we use an algorithm (by Artfacts) which ranks artists based upon objective data and career facts (such as shows at major institutions, auction results, biennials, collections, et cetera). Thank you for tuning in!
@@sycamoreflynn However, it was not. Instead of imposing my personal opinion, with CAI we opt to present you the top results of the survey of the most pertinent artists today in various disciplines, movements, nationalities, et cetera. These lists are based on objective data and career facts, and not my subjective take on the topic. Hoping this might clarify things further
You always discover me new interesting artists. I´m wondering, is there any chance you can share the lists of images on a pdf of some sort? like a catalogue of each video. It would be awesome :)
Hi Nacho, thank you for tuning in once again and for your comment. A catalogue of each video is really a great idea, however maybe a bit too time-consuming I am afraid. We are already spending a lot of working hours on our RU-vid channel and we also need to fulfill our other activities... We are currently exploring the possibilities of opening a Patreon account. Maybe this could be a great idea for additional content on Patreon. Further, you can always review some of the images and the text by reading the article of the video in question on www.contemporaryartissue.com In any case, thank you for the terrific idea, we will certainly consider this option! All my best from Belgium, JD
@@contemporaryartissue you guys along with Art explained are my two favorite art channels. Thorough and great taste. Big hugs and thanks again for your work! I´ll be up for the patreon if I can help you guys :)
@@naxokill What a beautiful compliment, thank you very much. James is doing a great job indeed at Great Art Explained, I fully support his channel! Thank you so much for your support, Patreon is on its way and I really look forward to provide extra content and to get in touch with everyone! Have a great day, Nacho :-)
Im a fine art photographer, have been in some of the best New york galleries. Art galleries were designed for money laundering , the idea was to mock the beauty of mans creativity by hand picking 'chosen ones' just like hollywood, if youre not in the club or bloodline you aint in. Midjourney creates better work than most of these artists. True photography like Bresson is real art. Dont be disheartened by clowns like this, people can feel the love off an image taken by you and especially if you print it by hand. They want you to give up your art, remember that. And also woman never made as a great fine art photographer, or spiritual master, think about that. Creativity is a male gift, woman is just pure love. its all coded my friends.
