A week ago, we asked you dear Readers to do one more thing for us and that was to vote for your most influential Street Photographer out of the list of 124. You responded by voting 14,495 times! If you have been following this series of Influential Street Photographers you will notice that the votes are a lot less. Well, this time we added an IP restriction in order to avoid multiple votes from the same sources. We hope it worked!
Thank you!
It is understandable that each one of you is influenced by different Street Photographers for different reasons and that is what makes this vote even more interesting. Influences play an important role in the way an artist perceives the world and his/her art, so it is only logical that each one of us has different sources of inspiration, making our perception of what we consider “an influence” unique. What is important is that you all helped us with your vote to find who are the 20 most influential Street Photographers at this time according to you.
So here they are in the order you voted for them, starting with the Street Photographer that got the most votes:
Two weeks ago we asked for your help to find the 20 most influential contemporary Street Photographers and the feedback we received was just fantastic. We are very grateful for your participation. You recommended many Street Photographers out of which a list of 115 names was finally made. Thank you!
You Recommended And You Voted
A week ago, we asked you dear Readers to do one more thing for us and that was to vote for your most influential Street Photographer out of the list of 115. You voted 20,357 times!
Thank you!
It is understandable that each one of you is influenced by different Street Photographers for different reasons and that is what makes this vote even more interesting. Influences play an important role in the way an artist perceives the world and his/her art, so it is only logical that each one of us has different sources of inspiration, making our perception of what we consider “an influence” unique. What is important is that you all helped us with your vote to find who are the 20 most influential Street Photographers at this time according to you.
One of the Street Photographers on this list, Thomas Leuthard, explained this nicely in his post when he shared the link to the poll on his facebook page. He said:
“Make your personal suggestion, who is the most influential street photographer for you. Not the best, not the most famous, not the coolest, the one who influences you…”
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.
Martin Parr is a giant, a legend of contemporary Street Photography. A disruptive force that changed the way many people understood the art. Ever since he first started using colour, he has created ripples in the photographic community. He has been embraced by many and not accepted by many others. At least that is what it used to be for mr. Parr in the early days when he was establishing his style. Now, he is the undisputed magician that can turn anything mundane or kitsch into a beautiful composition, an interesting and memorable photograph. In my opinion he is one of the most influential figures of Street Photography.
Martin Parr loves to take photos of everyday life. Being a resident of England he has dedicated himself to capture the Englishness that surrounds him. But mr. Parr doesn’t confine himself to England and the English only. He is a world travelled photographer with a large collection of photos from countless locations. All of his photos have his unique style that make them so distinguishable.
For this this third installment of Under The Influence, I’m taking a hack at one of the most polarizing active photographers today… Martin Parr.
Parr is best described as a documentary photographer. His big splash was made in 1986 with the publication of The Last Resort, a project spotlighting British middle class vacationers at the New Brighton seaside resort. The Last Resort had a massive impact in the photography world, particularly the documentary genre, which I consider street photography to be an offspring of. The book made waves because of it’s subject matter. Opinions divided on whether it celebrated or ridiculed the common man. People were not depicted in the most flattering light. The backgrounds were not always flattering either, with rubbish about. But Parr’s work also made waves with his decision to use colour film for the project.
Parr had worked in black and white previously,having a few books published, but The Last Resort marked his transition into colour, as he drew inspiration from greats like Joel Meyerowitz, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. And what colour it was. Loud, garish, lurid all are terms that could be used to describe the colour used in his images. With his use of flash, coupled with cheap film, the colours were pushed to over-the-top levels of saturation. To me, the shots were made even more exploitive because of this.
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:
