The Art of Photography – Showcasing Renowned Photographers
Captivating Images and Unique Styles
Photography is an art form that allows artists to capture moments, emotions, and perspectives in stunning detail. iBestTravel highlights several exceptional photographers whose works transcend conventional boundaries, raising questions about reality and artistry.
Ruud van Empel: Blurring Lines
Is it a photo or a painting? Ruud van Empel synthesizes fragments of hundreds of images to create arresting images that blur the lines. (A single image can take three months to finish.)
Ren Hang: Provocative Perspectives
Beijing-based artist Ren Hang is one of the most provocative and acclaimed young photographers working today. Still, many of his works have been banned from galleries across his native China.
Alex MacLean: Aerial Insights
You’re not seeing things: This is how acid mine drainage looks from above, as captured by aerial photographer Alex MacLean.
Zhang Kechun: Otherworldly Quality
Chinese photographer Zhang Kechun spent two years photographing scenes on the bank of the Yellow River. The photos are overexposed to impart an otherworldly quality.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Moment Captured
This photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken in May 1968, a period of civil unrest in France that saw massive worker strikes and student demonstrations.
David Bailey: Fashion Photography Icon
David Bailey was one of Swinging London’s leading fashion photographers. What does he think of the field today? “Most fashion photography’s pretty crap,” he told CNN earlier this year.
Jerry Schatzberg: Celebrity Capturer
Jerry Schatzberg, one of the decade’s other prolific photographers, shot the day’s top celebrities, as well as the likes of Fidel Castro and Ted Kennedy.
Melvin Sokolsky: Innovative Concepts
Melvin Sokolsky’s ‘Bubble’ series for Harper’s Bazaar is one of his most renowned. Taken in a time before Photoshop, Sokolsky had models pose around Paris in a plastic bubble suspended from a crane.
Harold Edgerton: Pioneering Strobe Technology
An electrical engineering professor at MIT, Harold Edgerton was one of the pioneers in strobe light technology (which allowed him to take pictures like this).
Richard Avedon: A Legendary Name
A print of this Richard Avedon photo sold for almost $36,000 at a 2010 Christie’s auction.
Toshiko Okanoue: From Fashion to Surrealism
Toshiko Okanoue was studying fashion illustration when she decided to turn her attentions on surrealist collages.
Bill Brandt: Experimental Exploration
In the early 19th century, Bill Brandt was primarily a society photographer from magazines like Harper’s Bazaar. It wasn’t until the 50’s that he started to explore experimental photography.
Margaret Bourke-White: Breaking Boundaries
Margaret Bourke-White was the first female photojournalist for Life magazine and became America’s first female war photojournalist during WWII.
Edward Steichen: A Celebrity Photographer
At the height of his career, Edward Steichen — who photographed the likes of Winston Churchill, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Fred Astaire — was being paid the equivalent of $1 million a year by Vanity Fair and Vogue, and another $1 million by commercial clients.
