photographers you should know

Edward Steichen:

The Little Round Mirror — 1901

The Flatiron — 1904

     Edward Steichen was born in Luxembourg in 1879 but his family moved to the United States three years later and he was raised in Michigan.  At the age of fifteen he began a lithography internship and took up photography in 1895 but continued to paint as well.  Steichen denounced impressionistic photography and instead concentrated on realism. He later wrote: "I am no longer concerned with photography as an art form. I believe it is potentially the best medium for explaining man to himself and his fellow man."

HERE are some high quality images from Steichen, along with some from Stiegltiz and a couple other photographers.
HERE is a link to a short bio about Steichen.
HERE is a link to an exhibition of portraits by Steichen.  There are many varied images here.

Stephen Shore:

Coronado St., Los Angeles, CA —1975

Merced River, Yosemite National Park — 1979

     Although Shore has taught photography (he has been director of photography at Bard College since 1982) he became well known at an early age as a pioneer of color art photography. He is among the earliest fine art photographers to work almost exclusively in color. Shore became interested in photography as a child: Between the ages of six and ten he taught himself how to expose and print photographs. Walker Evans's book, American Photographs , made a big impression. At fourteen, the precocious teenager telephoned Edward Steichen, the photography curator of the Museum of Modern Art. They arranged a meeting, and Steichen purchased three of Shore's photographs for the museum's permanent collection. And at sixteen he met Andy Warhol and frequented the artist's studio, photographing the illustrious scene at the "Factory." In 1972 Shore embarked on a series of cross-country trips and made "on the road" color photographs of American landscapes.

HERE is a link to an interview with Stephen Shore and also a lot of his images.
HERE is a link to the gallery Shore often exhibits at and is a part of.  There are many images and some information about him there.
HERE is a short biography on Shore by the Getty Museum.

Robert and Shana Parkeharrison:

Flying Lesson — 2000

     Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have been collaborating for years in creating artistic photographs.  Both Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have college degrees in Fine Arts. After completing his bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico, NM, in 1990, Robert ParkeHarrison obtained a Masters in Fine Arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, MO, in 1994 and Shana received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Williams Woods College, Fulton, MO, in 1986. Currently, the ParkeHarrisons reside in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, near the college of the Holy Cross, where Robert teaches photography. In The Architect’s Brother, named in 2000 as one of “the Ten Best Photography Books of the Year” by the New York Times (DeCodorva), the couple portrays our environmentally shattering world in starkly poetic monochromatic photographs.

HERE is the link to their website.  There are many images of their current work and some past exhibitions.
HERE is a short biography on the two collaborating artists.
HERE is a post with some large images of their surreal photos.

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin:

      Vinoodh Matadin studied fashion design in Amsterdam between 1981 and 1985, and started working after finishing his studies. When he met Inez van Lamsweerde in 1986,  she was an art student at Gerrit Rietveld Academie (1985–90), and the two became partners both professionally and in private. In their collaborations they moved between art and fashion, and rather than making comments on fashion from an outside point of view, they’ve instead become a part of the system. Still, they’re best known for images that can be interpreted as both critical and slightly disturbing. Matadin & van Lamsweerde introduced digitally manipulated photographs at an early stage, allowing them to explore questions about gender and sexuality, reality, superficiality, and identity.

HERE is their website, apparently they also dabble in music videos?
HERE is a magazine these two regularly shoot for with some links to some of their photographs.
HERE is a link to an article about them and their apartment.  It is interesting to see how their home is decorated and designed based off the type of photography they do.

Jeff Brouws:

Signs with Signification Grid

Abandoned Auto Packard Plant, Detroit

     Jeff Brouws' work in photography captures the social experience and cultural relevance of classic American iconography. From highway landscapes of run-down motels and neon-lit gas stations to carnival scenes of small-town side-shows, Brouws' "visual anthropologies" offer a somber view of contemporary Americana. Born in San Francisco in 1955, Brouws is a self-taught photographer. His work is in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

HERE is his personal website with many of his works included.
HERE is an interview with Brouws.
HERE is a short biography of Brouws along with some images.

Ed Burtynsky:

     To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

HERE is Burtynsky's website.
HERE is a short bio on Burtynsky along with links to other helpful websites with his works.  There are also videos of him speaking about his works.
HERE is an interview of this artist.