Learning street photography or being a good photographer requires much training and patience and looking at many great images from famous and professional photographers. Below are 35 famous street photographers, and you can learn some tips and skills from their pictures and improve your photography ability.
Table of Contents
Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz (born March 6, 1938) was born in the Bronx and became a famous American photographer. He is skilled in street, portrait, and landscape photography. Joel Meyerowitz started to shoot color in 1962 and is recognized as a pioneer of color photography. He has published more than 20 books, including a famous book- Cape Light.
Eugène Atget
Eugène Atget (12 February 1857 – 4 August 1927) was a notable French photographer and is considered a documentary photography pioneer. He often photographed some buildings, architecture, and street scenes around Paris before being modernized. He used a large-format wooden bellows camera with a rectilinear lens to take some great images. After his death, all his works and pictures were published by Berenice Abbott, including The Art Institute of Chicago, the International Center of Photography.
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand (14 January 1928 – 19 March 1984) is one of America’s most excellent street photographers in the mid-20th century. He is renowned for his portrayal of US life and some social issues. In his early life, he supported himself as a freelance photojournalist and advertising photographer in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote four books during his lifetime, including Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art.
Daidō Moriyama
Daidō Moriyama (born October 10, 1938) is a famous Japanese photographer, and he obtained the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement from the International Center of Photography in 2004 and the Hasselblad Award in 2019. His photographs are blurry and out-of-focus and often show some fragmentary nature of modern life with high contrast and titled horizon. He has published more than 150 books, including Japanese Theater (1968), Farewell, Photography (1972), and Daidohysteric (1993).
Walker Evans
Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was a celebrated American photographer and photojournalist. His notable work is Farm Security Administration, which describes the story of the Great Depression. He said that he intends to produce pictures literate, authoritative, and transcendent. He enjoyed photographing some American people’s everyday life, such as street life, beggars, etc. Evans collaborated with writer James Agee to make the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker. His famous work was The Americans, published in 1958. In the 1970s, he published his second book, The Lines of My Hand, viewed as a “visual autobiography” and covers many personal photographs.
Bruce Gilden
Out of all famous street photographers, Bruce Gilden (born 1946) is also one of the most outstanding photographers, and he often employs flashgun and his candid close-up style to take some photographs of people in New York City. He was given the European Publishers Award for Photography and also has been a member of Magnum Photos.
William Klein
As an American-born French photographer and filmmaker, William Klein (born April 19, 1928) is one of the 100 most well-known photographers. He liked using an unusual and unique technique to take remarkable images compared to other street photographers. His pictures are grainy and gritty. He got widespread fame as a fashion photographer for Vogue. He produced many wonderful and influential works, including Gun 1, New York (1955), The Holy family on bike (Rome, 1956).
André Kertész
André Kertész (2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985) was born Andor Kertész. As a Hungarian-born photographer, he contributed a lot to the photography community. He put forward the photographic composition and published the photo essay, which allowed people much inspiration. He often took some images in Paris and New York and discovered the unique camera angles and distortion. He wrote many books, and André Kertész’s: His Life and Work is one of the best-known ones.
Robert Doisneau
Robert Doisneau (14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a great French photographer. During the 1930s, he photographed many images of streets in Paris. At the same time, he was a notable person in humanist photography. Doisneau made himself known for his 1950 image Le Baiser de l’hôtel de Ville (The Kiss by the City Hall), a picture of a couple kissing on a busy Parisian street.
Helen Levitt
Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer, and during her early life, she was named “the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time.” She loved taking fleeting moments around New York City and letting people feel a little humor by seeing her images.
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange（May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965), born on Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn, was a famous American documentary photographer and photojournalist. One of her best works is Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Lange traveled to many places across the United States, including the California coast and the Midwest. She shot many images expressing her empathy to sharecroppers and migrant laborers. One of her most recognized works is migrant mother, which was published in 1936.
Henri Cartier Bresson
Henri Cartier Bresson (22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was one of the essential street photographers in history and considered the founder of the decisive moment and street photography. He was an early user of 35mm film and was one of the members of Magnum Photos in 1947. In 1955, he held his first exhibition in France. Cartier Bresson loved using Leica 35mm rangefinder camera with a 50mm lens or wide-angle lens to take landscape photos.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was born in New York in 1926, and people knew her and her work after her death. During her lifetime, she took more than 150,000 images, including people and buildings around her. Her striking images are street scenes in Chicago and New York in the 1950s and 1960s. Her photography books vary, including Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows, Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier. She was one of the best people at the decisive moment.
Jill Freedman
Jill Freedman (October 19, 1939 – October 9, 2019) was a New York-based street photographer in American. Her images show people some stories of activities and protests in New York and display some dark sides of living in this big city. In 1975, she started to photograph firefighters around Harlem and the Bronx and published a book (called Firehouse) in 1977. “I set out to deglamorize violence,” Freedman told the New York Times in 2015.
Brassaï – Gyula Halász
Brassaï (9 September 1899 – 8 July 1984) was born Gyula Halász and a Hungarian-French talented people, and he was a photographer, sculptor, medalist, writer, and filmmaker. In the 20th century, he was the most recognized person in the world. During the 1920s and 1930s, he photographed many images of the nightlife of Paris. All his subjects include prostitutes, the criminal underworld. Brassaï’s first book (called Paris by Night) was published in 1933 and became one of the most helpful introductions to his work.
Fan Ho
Fan Ho（8 October 1931[a][1] – 19 June 2016) was a celebrated Chinese photographer and photographed many street scenes in Hongkong. His images documented the everyday life of people. For his pictures, he was skilled in using light and shadows, shapes, and actions. These techniques make his images more vivid and compelling. Since 1956, he has won more than 280 awards from international exhibitions and competitions across the world. “Approaching Shadow” (Chinese: 陰影) was one of his most famous works.
David Alan Harvey
David Alan Harvey (born June 6, 1944) is a renowned American photographer and started photographing images at 11. He was a member of the Magnum photos, traveled many places, and took many great pictures for National Geographic magazine. He is an expert at using light and color for his photographs to perform great emotion and build a good relationship between him and his viewers. He wins many awards, including National Press Photographers Association and PMDA. Compared with other photographers, David Alan Harvey enjoys social media, and he said that a new online platform could draw many audiences and help support his projects.
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter (December 3, 1923 – November 26, 2013) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From the 1940s to the 1950s, Saul Leiter was a renowned American photographer and painter. He was famous for his work at the New York School of Photography. Saul Leiter took many images as a fashion photographer for 20 years, and all his images are published in Show, Elle, British, Vogue, Queen, and Nova. He loved abstract art so much, and his work is viewed as less humanist and more artistic.
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer, and her images focus more attention on marginalized groups. She took a wide range of subjects, including carnival performers, nudists, children, mothers, etc. Also, she photographed some subjects in some ideal and standard settings, such as homes, streets, workplaces, and parks. In 1963, she was awarded a fellowship from Guggenheim Foundation. In 1972, Arbus became the first photographer to be involved in the Venice Biennale. Her images were considered “the overwhelming sensation of the American Pavilion” and “an extraordinary achievement.”
Bill Cunningham
As an American photographer, Bill Cunningham (March 13, 1929 – June 25, 2016) is notable for his candid and street photography. He worked for New York Times as a fashion photographer. He began photographing some candid images of fashion on New York’s streets. His photos are an extraordinary combination of style and documentary. In 2008, he was awarded the Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture..
Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander ((born July 14, 1934) is a remarkable photographer in the United States, and during the 1960s and 1970s, he created a new term called “social landscape.” For his images, he often photographs people and the urban environment. When it comes to his subjects, he likes storefronts, urban frames, and signage. After getting arthritis, he enjoys photographing something around his house. His book stems tell a story at that time when his knee was replaced.
Brandon Staton
Brandon Staton (born March 1, 1984) got involved in the 30 Under 30 People Changing The World” list, an author, photographer, and blogger. He was famous for his work “Humans Of New York.” This project was published in October 2013, got many positive comments, and sold over 30,000 copies. Staton loves taking images of people on the street in New York City and likes having a conversation with them. His photographs are worth following.
Josef Koudelka
Josef Koudelka (born 10 January 1938) is a great Czech-French photographer and won many awards, such as Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), etc. He is remembered for his work- the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968. His images center more on capturing the human spirit in the dark landscapes, and his image’s themes are desolation, waste, departure, despair, and alienation.
Susan Meiselas
Susan Meiselas (born June 21, 1948) is an American documentary photographer. She is recognized widely for her images of war-torn Nicaragua and American carnival strippers. She is a prolific writer and has published several books of photographs, and these books are published in many publications, such as The New York Times, The Times, Time.
Girma Berta
Girma Berta is a self-taught street photographer, and she often uses social media tools (like Instagram) to show her brilliant images. Her photographs are colorful and are a combination of shadows and movement.
Zun Lee
Zun Lee is a great German photographer and now lives in Canada. He is known for his image of Father Figure in 2011. His pictures seem like documentary photography instead of street photography. Additionally, he often documents black communities’ daily lives and shows some struggle, joy, and intimacy in people’s lives.
Bruce Davidson
Bruce Davidson (born September 5, 1933) was born in 1933 in the United States. In 1957, he became a freelance photographer after completing military service and grew a member of the Magnum Photos agency in 1958. He loves photographing communities hostile to outsiders.
Dina Alfasi
Dina Alfasi is an Israeli photographer. Compared with other photographers, her photographs are so special and unique as she is known for photographing people traveling on public transport. She also loves taking images of little moments happening in our everyday life. It is worth looking at and offers some inspiration to many people.
Charles Marville
Charles Marville (17 July 1813 – 1 June 1879) was a French photographer who liked taking images of architecture, landscapes, and the urban environment. He was notable for his photographs of old Parisian quarters after they were ruined and modernized. In 1862, he was named official photographer of Paris.
Dimpy Bhalotia
As a fine art street photographer, Dimpy Bhalotia is a talented woman photographer and won many different awards in the world, and her work has been exhibited in many countries. In 2019, she was notated as Best Street Photographer 2019. Her images play with shadows, silhouettes, and shapes. She also likes capturing the decisive moment as well.
Zack Arias
Zack Arias is a known photographer and has been photographing for over twenty years. He loves directing his subject and enjoys working and communicating with people who are uncomfortable with the camera. He has traveled a lot, including all continents and every state of America. If you want to learn some tips and skills from him, check his workshop.
Conclusion
Learning tips and studying images from a professional photographer is always a good start. We hope that you can get some inspiration from them. If you know other great street photographers, please drop us a comment.
