Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

Tate Modern Review: Capturing the Moment

Tate Modern Review Capturing the Moment

One of the many apocryphal tales of Picasso holds that he conceived cubism following an opium induced dream in which the role of the painter was relentlessly belittled by the unstoppable rise of photography.

Certainly, for portraiture and similar images, photography is a cheaper and more convenient means of creating a record.  However, the Tate Modern’s “Capturing the Moment” exhibition looks at photography as an art form that evolved symbiotically with the most exciting movements of 20th and 21st century art.

Click the image above to visit the Tate’s website or click below to see more

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Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a French philosopher and literary theorist, he was not a photographer. This book deals with the question: what is a photograph? from that perspective.

Barthes describes the essence of photography as distinct from both art and history.

Art, he contests, is the result of a creative process undertaken by an artist; whereas a photograph is primarily the preservation of “something that was”.

History is a perspective on past events; always open to challenge and contradiction. A photograph, by contrast, is undeniably “something that was”, and it is up to the viewer to infer meaning. A meaning which, as I show below, may change from person to person or evolve over time.

The photographer, and the subject, if it is a person aware of being photographed, can suggest an implied meaning. However, without knowledge of this intent, the viewer may see the image differently, and derive a meaning entirely personal to them.

Tim Flack’s fine book on horse photography, ‘Equus’, ends with this quote from Barthes’ book: “Ultimately a photograph looks like anyone except the person it represents.”

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Top 100 Photographers of All Time

Most Influential Photographers

Right at the start of his book “50 Paths to Creative Photography“, Michael Freeman urges aspiring photographers to Study the Form, i.e., to learn from the top 100 photographers of all time, and build on their achievements:

  • “Not to copy, but to understand.  Study other photographers’ work, both established and contemporary.  Decide which images you like, analyse why, and understand the underlying ideas and approaches the you can use yourself.”

Collected works of top photographers
My Pinterest Boards for each Photographer – click image to access.

This post is my attempt to do exactly that.  I have tried to make extensive use of Pinterest to reference key works and provided links to the photographers home website or the one that best represents them.  The list of photographers presented represents my personal preference; as of the date this post is published and will, hopefully, over time develop and change.

See also my post: “First Notes on the History of Photography as an Art Form.”

If you have any suggestions regarding photographers I should be considering or any other comments, please post them below.

To see more posts on other photographic topics, or to follow my learning progress, please like or follow me on the social media channel of your choice to the right.

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