Who is the best fine art photographer? While most statements that can be made about what makes quality fine art photography and fine art in general are inherently subjective, ROSEGALLERY has seen our fair share of photographers over the years. There may not be one single fine art photographer who can be definitively noted as the best fine art photographer, but there are a number of famous fine art photographers who have been shown at the gallery over the years who are certainly amongst the best.
Who is the Father of Fine Art Photography?
While the early roots of the medium were defined with the need to capture and document, many photographers sought to use their practice as a form of self-expression. They drifted from the representational aspect of photography that was en vogue at the time and shifted their attention to photography as a tool akin to a painter’s brush. Fine art photography itself can be traced as early as the Victorian era of the United Kingdom, notably to artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Oscar Gustave Rejoinder amongst others.
Victorian era photographers created images that subverted the perceived “visual honesty” that was attached to the photographic medium at the time. The photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron were infused with spiritual imagery such as angel wings and foliage backgrounds that frame her human subjects as individuals that were part of a natural world. She posed her subjects in a manner that broke free from the stillness and rigidity that one typically thinks about when thinking of older photographs. While she did photograph mainly human subjects, her artistic practice took her a step away from normal portraiture. The earliest example of fine art photography is the two ways of life (1857) by Oscar Gustave Rejoinder, making him often considered the father of fine art photography. Oscar Gustave Rejoinder’s photographs placed the subject’s gaze away from the lens and towards something beyond. The poses his subjects take have a repetitiveness that echo the manner in which Johannes Vermeer would utilize the same window and poses for his own subjects. It is these subtle nuances and intentions that these photographers have chosen to take when making their work that set them apart from a normal photographic portraitist at the time.
While this particular photograph is housed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the MET), ROSEGALLERY has housed many Modern examples of fine art photography, including the work of Dorothea Lange.
Dorothea Lange is one of the most famous American fine art photographers. Lange is widely known for her Migrant Mother and White Angel Breadline images, taken during her time taking photographs for the United States’ Farm Security Administration. While documentary photographs at the time, they have aged to become more than just that. They are a snapshot of an era, each image is charged with the melancholic air of the Great Depression. They speak beyond simple documentation and have inspired many others to not just document, but to create and express.
Who is the World’s Best Photographer in 2023?
Although Rejlander and Lange are great examples of much earlier and Modern fine art photography, there are many photographers both Modern and Contemporary who have proven to be culturally popular. We have come up with a list of fine art photographers who have been some of our top selling fine art photographers over the years:
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Graciela Iturbide
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Bruce Davidson
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Evelyn Hofer
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William Eggleston
Examples of some of our most up-and coming and well-established contemporary fine art photographers include:
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Rinko Kawauchi
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John Chiara
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Kennedi Carter
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Tania Franco Klein
Overall, as is the case with determining who is “the best fine art photographer”, there is no definitive answer to “who is the world’s best photographer”. Best is a term that is subjective. Each and every individual will have their own thoughts and opinions on what and who they deem is the best.
Subjectivity aside, there are many ways to determine popular and culturally influential photographers. Those photographers such as Dorothea Lange, William Eggleston, Graciela Iturbide, and Bruce Davidison, amongst others, have had (and some still have) long and successful careers. Their works and practice have influenced the genre and medium of photography as a whole. In regards to newer and Contemporary photographers, their popularity and success can still be measured through the work and influence that they are having with our society today. Photographers such as Rinko Kawauchi and Kennedi Carter are creating bodies of work that are reaching a wide audience due to their skill and subject matter.