Searching for the 20 most Influential Street Photographers for 2015

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    In search for the 20 most influential Street Photographers

    Introduction

    Exactly one year ago we wrote a post that went viral at the time. Since then it has been viewed more than 75000 times and commented on more than 50 times. This post is called “The 10 most Influential Active Street Photographers“. If you haven’t read it, we recommend you check it out and let us know what you think in the comments. In this post, we presented Street Photographers that we think are worth mentioning for 2 specific reasons. How influential they are and how active.

    Influential: “having great influence on someone or something.”
    Active: “engaging or ready to engage in physically energetic pursuits.”

    Those 2 reasons apply to the previous year of 2013-2014. Since then things have changed for us and for the Street Photography scene. There are new names that are being mentioned all the time, on the Social Networks, there are others out there that are giving an extra effort, influencing people around them. Street Photographers publishing books, filming short documentaries about Street Photography and more. The list of names is ever changing and keeps on getting more and more interesting and for those reasons we have noticed that 10 names are just not enough to cover the needs of this post any more. So, we decided this year not to publish the “The 10 most Influential Active Street Photographers for 2015”, but to publish the “The 20 most Influential Street Photographers for 2015“! Why have we removed the word “Active”? Read on.

    This time our idea expands further more and the reason for this is because we have learnt new things from this experience.

    Last year’s experience

    Influential Street Photographers Updated

    Let us explain. Here at Street Hunters, we love Street Photography and because of that love we run Street Hunters as a FREE online resource for Street Photography. We spent long hours researching for last year’s post, and it took us even longer to write it. Regrettably we noticed that many visitors didn’t read the introduction and we even fear that some didn’t even read the title carefully enough. We came to this conclusion after reading some of the comments posted. As it was only natural, a few of the readers that didn’t understand the list, posted some nasty comments and also some comments that were totally irrelevant. We are ok with that. We published the ones that were not too rude and replied to all of them and most importantly learned from them.

    What did we learn & what will change?

    We learned that our post title must become simpler and shorter and the concept of the list must also become less complicated. So, for the next installment we removed the word “Active” even though it defines that Street Photographers on the list are actually doing Street Photography now and didn’t do it up until 20 years ago, e.g. the father or Street Photography monsieur Henri Cartier Bresson. However keeping it simple is more important for us. We want our message to be heard and understood, not misunderstood.

    Another thing we learned was that no matter who we choose to present through our list, no matter how many hours of research and devotion we put into a post about Street Photographers, we can’t ever please everyone. This is practically impossible, unless we decide to post a list about the “1000 Best Street Photographers ever”. Of course doing something like this isn’t logical and it isn’t feasible. We hope this is understandable. So, to overcome this and to present you with a list of names that you find more agreeable, we thought we should let you make suggestions and decide. This is how.

    You make suggestions and choose your favourites

    You choose the 20 most influential Street Photographers

    We have already made a list of names of Street Photographers that we think are the most influential for 2015. We want you to add to this list by posting as many names of Influential Street Photographers as you like in the comments. You can post 1 name or 50 names. All names will be added to a poll and then we will all vote on them. Now, these names will be filtered by us, we will not accept names of Street Photographers that aren’t truly influential. So for example if you have been a Street Photographer for the last 6 months and you want exposure and you think you can add your name to this list, think again. We want you to suggest true, influential Street Photographers. We will accept suggestions for a week, until next Wednesday. Then, we will take those suggestions and have a poll for another week. When the votes are in, we will know who the “The 20 most Influential Street Photographers for 2015” are.

    The names Street Hunters recommend

    Here are the 20 names of Street Photographers that we recommend in random order. We gave ourselves a limit of 6-7 names each so we wouldn’t get carried away:

    1. Thomas Leuthard
    2. Alex Webb
    3. Eric Kim
    4. David Gibson
    5. Khalik Allah
    6. Kristin Van den Eede
    7. Ruddy Roye
    8. Tao Liu
    9. Zack Arias
    10. Mary Ellen Mark
    11. David Alan Harvey
    12. Boogie
    13. Valerie Jardin
    14. Dirty Harry
    15. Ed Templeton
    16. Kevin “Shakes” O’Meara
    17. Narelle Autio
    18. Rinzi Ruiz
    19. Bruce Gilden
    20. Stella Johnson

    Each of the above Street Photographers are influential in their own right. For one reason or another. Somehow they have shaped the wider Street Photography community and are continuing to do so. We look forward to receiving your suggestions.

    So, come on! Send in the names of the Street Photographers that you think are the most influential for 2015!

    IMPORTANT: Only comments on the website will be accepted as suggestions, not on various social networks posts, because we can’t keep track of them all.

    Stay Sharp & Keep Shooting!

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    139 COMMENTS

    1. Marius Vieth (www.mariusvieth.com)! Very inspirational fine art photographer who won many awards with his street photography and he always tries to inspire others to live their photography dream as well!

    3. My most influential street photographer is someone no one has probably ever heard of, but should. Her name is Susan D. Phillips. She mostly shoots in Washington DC where she currently resides. What makes her the most influential street photographer to me is the way she connects with her subjects. She is connecting on a human level with most of her street photos. There is a genuine natural love for humanity in her work. There is none of the repetitive cold photos I see from most street photographers. You can find her on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/suephi I implore you to look at her work.

    5. I think you should be on the list Spyros! Your street hunt videos are wonderful to watch and learn from. They have been part of my 1st year learning SP – along with Thomas L. and Valerie J. So I nominate YOU! (I have watched so many of your videos, I ‘hear’ your voice when I read your words!) – PLUS – this list you made last year led me to many additional inspirational photographers. I think you get a nod for that type of influence also!! Thanks!!!

      • Hi MzKimb and 1000 thanks for your kind words! I am so happy that I have been an influence to you and it is an honour that you recommended me for this list! I will keep pushing for more videos! Is there something that specific you would like to see in one of the Street Hunts? If yes, please let me know and I will try and incorporate it in future Street Hunts.
        Stay Sharp & Keep Shooting!

    9. Chuck Jines interesting view on a lot of things , when he does not fit in this list we make an other one 🙂

    17. For me Alex Webb and Bruce Gilden (masters category), then Dirty Harrry, Rinzi Ruiz and Khalik Allah. Finally Eric Kim, maybe the most stimulating street photographer in the web. And Justin Vogel, from Hardcore Street Photography, great work.

    19. I’m going to participate sharing some of the buddies I follow in flickr. They are an influence at least to me (dont know if they are already well known or not).

      Barry Talis (he reminds me to Dirty Harry somehow, vey peculiar characters and situations).
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/83917938@N02/

      I know this guy is famous (Leica stuff), he is actively shooting so Im going for him also:
      Junku Nishimura

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/junku-newcleus/

      Dont know if she is a Street photographer (also dont know what are your standards to define it), probably not, but she is definitely an inspiration to me. I almost like everything on her vast gallery. Love the textures of the photos (dont care how much they are processed), extraordinary sense composition, mood of the whole gallery….. to me, a mix between Sonic Youth, Mark Rothko, Jean Vigo and contemporary Ralph Gibson with a bit of Moriyama. 🙂

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/x99elledge/11978541084/
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/x99elledge/10964237726/
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/x99elledge/10929806204/

      Yesterday night I was drunk and discovered Khalik Allah thanks to this site.
      What an Epiphany.

      Cheers!

    23. Haha! Thanks a lot!
      Im agree with Jason Maloney aswell, actually, between the names of Rui and Björn, was Mirela Momanu’s name… I don’t know why this disappeared… And I forgot Manish Khattry a mastwr of composition!

    31. Holly Northrop does awesome work with simple cameras. B&W …terrific sense of composition and light.

    44. Kevin Horn, in addition to humans…the shadows they cast as well, Shakes too…but there is some bias

    47. Matt Hart is certainly a name that needs to be added to the list… I started following Matt when he was doing more landscape photography but over time I have seen him do many other things, his festival/band work is amazing but its his street photography that makes him a stand out from many others… He reads people so well and is always one step ahead of them and camera is always at the ready for a hip shot if required… What is even more important is his passion to teach others… Good luck…

    49. Wow thanks for all the love people, I am warn out after The Photography Show so a little slow to respond, thank you all for the comments. So kind and I would like to put Matt Stuarts name in the pot… http://www.mattstuart.com Shame I did not get to see Matt talk at the show I was on stage at the same time he was talking. Thanks again every one.

    55. It is difficult to list, but I see a lot of work every day for many years, I think the best street photography is now this in social networks, most are not household names but have hard work, quality and pace are at a level very high .. I will not say they are the most influential, even the best .. just say that during the last year i see the work of this photographers more than other.

      Stelios Efstathopoulos
      Dimosthenis Kapa
      Martin Meijer
      GL Brown
      Fernando Leyder
      Tatsuo Suzuki
      Torsten Hendricks
      ….

      All of these names I see on Tumblr .. I forget many names, but they may come to me faster memory, but I follow many photographs daily.

        Maybe in Internet years the “famous or influential” concept is a little old term, nowadays there are so many good street photographers, the model of the “superstars” belongs to another time .. this is a personal opinion,

      greetings. 😉

    58. My suggestions have already been all mentioned 🙂 tatsuo Suzuki (he’s been influencing a generation of Japanese street photographers, trust me), Mirela Momanu (mentor and awesome artist to so many people on social media!)

      Have a great day!

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