Read almost anything on the photographer Boogie and you’ll get the impression that he is one very brave and badass photographer. That’s because he is, in fact, just that. And all the press and praise… it’s justified. We here at StreetHunters know. His latest book, ‘A Wah Do Dem’ (Drago, 2016) was reviewed here and he was also featured in the Under The Influence series). Boogie was also on our inaugural list of most influential active street photographers. But all the words written do not really do Boogie’s work justice. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. His work does all the talking.
“Raw” is a term that gets thrown around a good deal in street photography. Not RAW as in the digital file, but as a term used to describe a style of street photography. But what is raw? Is it gritty? In your face? Is it shot with flash? Is it an “untouched” image? Is it less artistic? Any of those things can indeed be components of a raw street shot. However, in my book, raw is more of a feel. It’s not a thing that’s easy to describe, but it’s easy to identify. It may be easier to point out what isn’t raw. Raw wouldn’t necessarily be used to describe Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work. Or Elliott Erwitt’s. Or Brassai. Raw isn’t what most folks would consider pretty. It’s more documentary in style than artistic. Raw is “warts and all”. Raw can be unsettling, uncomfortable. Raw can take us to places we wouldn’t think of going to, maybe because of the reputation. Because of fear. In instances like that, the photographer becomes a guide, taking us through these places and bringing us out unscathed physically, but maybe not mentally.
Over the last decade, one of these guides has been the seemingly fearless Vladimir Milivojevich, otherwise known as Boogie. The Serbian-born photographer has been featured here before in Under The Influence and his background is as intense and fascinating as the work that he does. Born and raised in Belgrade, in 1969, Boogie began photographing his war-torn country in the 1990’s. His website (www.artcoup.com) says, “growing up in a war-torn country defined Boogie’s style and attraction to the darker side of human existence.” A look through his previous work, only solidifies that.
So, last year we all nominated together 75 Street Photographers. Then you voted 21,137 times and from those 21,137 votes, 20 names stood out. These names got into the first ever crowdsourced list of Street Photographers. A list that you made and that has been viewed more than 76645 times (at the time of writing this).
Let’s do this again!
So, this year we invite you all to do this again! Things have changed in 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 trying hard to make a difference, influencing people around them. More and more Street Photographers are publishing books, filming short documentaries about Street Photography, being interviewed, winning awards and more. The list of names is ever changing and keeps on getting more and more interesting. So, since things are always evolving and ever changing we ask you once again to make your suggestions by sharing your favourites with us!
You make suggestions and share your favourites with us
Just like last year, we the Editorial team, have already made a list of names of 21 Street Photographers that we think are the most influential for 2016. 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.
ATTENTION: 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 evening. 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 2016” are.
The names Street Hunters recommend
Here are the 21 names of Street Photographers that we recommend in random order. We gave ourselves a limit of 7 names each so we wouldn’t get too carried away:
Elliott Erwitt
Mark Cohen
Ed Templeton
Josef Koudelka
Stacy Kranitz
Tatsuo Suzuki
Daido Moriyama
Eric Kim
Gabi Ben Avraham
Boris the Flash
Alex Webb
David Alan Harvey
Martin Parr
Bruce Davidson
Valerie Jardin
Dirty Harry
Bruce Gilden
Boogie
Pau Ll. Buscató
Tavepong Pratoomwong
Narelle Autio
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 2016!
ATTENTION: If you can’t comment on our website for some reason, try a Social Network login to comment. If again you can’t comment, just visit our Facebook Page and share your suggestion in the comments of the post there.
As you may know, we here at Streethunters are pretty big fans of Boogie. Back in April, I did an Under The Influence feature on him. When digging through his previously released work, I had heard rumors that his sixth monograph was in the works and it was shot in Jamaica.
The Under The Influence series has been a rewarding expedition. But, I’m not just talking about myself discovering great photographs and photographers. Unearthing the photographer’s biographies has been a surprisingly intriguing and joyful task.
I’ve always been a fan of biographies, particularly reading about the lives of historical figures. I loved going into their lives and learning how they came to be the important, or infamous, men and women whose names resonate through time. However, when I began researching photographers, I did not expect to be that drawn to their histories, their stories. But I was quickly proven wrong. Vivian Maier immediately comes to mind when I think of intriguing biographies. Lewis Hine, Robert Capa and Weegee are others that come to mind. And there’s photographers with incredible stories that are working right now, still writing their own biographies. One prime example is the photographer known as Boogie.
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.”
After quite a few suggestions from you, the StreetHunters.net Readers, we added an extra section at the bottom of the post called “Influential Active Street Photographers recommended by our Readers”. Enjoy!
Introduction
During the past years Street Photography has become widely accepted as a form of art and expression. More and more people have learned to appreciate it and to understand how hard it is to get it right. The reason why Street Photography has become more mainstream is because of some influential few that have managed to spread the word about it through their style, their blogs, their videos and their constant sharing of their experiences. These few Street Photographers that share their ideas with the rest of the world, their methods and their passion for the art have transformed Street Photography into what it is today.
The StreetHunters.net team decided to make a list of those influencers as a way to say “thank you” for their contribution to the world of Street Photography. We understand that some of you dear StreetHunters.net Readers might not agree with some of the names being on this list. We also understand if you feel like it must be longer, or shorter. But, no matter what each and every one of us thinks, it is certain that every single Street Photographer presented here today, has helped re-shape Street Photography as we know it. So here goes:
