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Quick start to the Masters of Photography

If you’re new to the masters of photography, start with the articles below:

Introduction to the Masters of Photography

Dear friend,

You’ve probably had this situation — when you’re at some fancy art show, and you hear another photographer “name drop” other famous photographers.

You nod your head in agreement, but you have no idea who these master photographers are.

Consider this guide as a way to de-mystify and de-elitize the masters of photography.

I never went to art school, or photo school. I had to self-teach myself all the masters of photography. And now that I know them, I want this guide to help you (assuming you don’t know any of the masters of photography).

This page is currently a work in progress. I will continue to make edits to this page, as there are a lot of masters to cover.

Let’s get started:

Chapter 1: “Old school” photographers

“He without a past has no future.”

To start off, let us start off chronologically.

I know a lot of these “old school” photographers might seem a bit boring. However, the reason their work still has lasted, because it is classic. They have paved the way for all of us in photography. They experimented with the medium of photography, and pushed it forward. They made photography an acceptable art form. We have a great deal of debt to pay them.

This period of time is roughly the 1920’s:

1. Andre Kertesz

I’d recommend first starting to learn about Andre Kertesz, who was one of the first photographers who inspired Henri Cartier-Bresson (essentially the “godfather” of street photography). Andre Kertesz harnessed the classic form of geometry to photography, and was prolific all the way until his death.

2. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Of course, you need to study the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who first took 35mm photography to the next level. He innovated the concept of the “decisive moment“, and saw photography as an “instant sketchbook.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a great starting point if you love black and white photography, geometry, and composition. Further resources on Henri Cartier-Bresson here:

3. Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was a photographer, who first pushed photography to be taken acceptably as “art.” Photography wouldn’t be where it is today without him.

Chapter 2: “New school” photographers

I consider this “new school” of photographers the next wave of photographers who innovated in photography, from around the 1950’s onwards to the 1980’s:

4. Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand was probably one of the most prolific street photographers to have ever lived. He shot because he loved it, and he was one of the innovators of the 28mm lens, getting close to his subjects, and creating “edgy”, dynamic, and off-kilter compositions. Not all his photos are pretty, but his work ethic, distaste for the art world, and his down-to-earth humor makes him a master to study.

5. William Klein

William Klein is one of the most badass street photographers in history. He said what was on his mind, and said it the way he wanted. He was a “director on the streets” — he would often interact with his subjects, engage them, and this puts his soul in his photos.

Klein also was innovative with fashion photography, film, and inspired many other photographers, including the highly influential Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama. In turn, Daido Moriyama inspired other master photographers such as Anders Petersen, and Jacob Aue Sobol.

Klein innovated using blur in his photos, high-contrast and grain, and multi-layered photos.

6. Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus is famous for photographing people on the fringes of society. Many of her portraits are a bit unsettling to look at, yet they show deep humanity and empathy. If you love shooting portraits, definitely check out Diane Arbus.

7. Lee Friedlander

Lee Friedlander is a funny photographer with a great wry sense of humor. He innovated in urban landscapes, creating complex scenes (without overlapping figures). Not only that, but his self-portraits have great humor and are quite introspective.

All the masters of street photography

If you’re ready to get your hands wet, see all the lessons from the masters of street photography below:

The Masters

Here is a full list of the masters:

To learn more, see Street Photography 101 >

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  1. MONOCHROME by ERIC KIM
  2. ONLY IN AMERICA by ERIC KIM
  3. SUITS by ERIC KIM

EBOOKS

  1. HOW TO SEE: Visual Guide to Composition, Color, & Editing in Photography / Kindle Edition
  2. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography / Kindle Edition
  3. STREET HUNT / Kindle Edition
  4. STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition / Kindle Edition
  5. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER / Kindle Edition

FREE EBOOKS

  1. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 103
  2. Dynamic Composition Manual
  3. Photography Startup Manual
  4. PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS
  5. PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL by ERIC KIM
  6. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
  7. THE PHOTOGRAPHER by ERIC KIM
  8. The Art of Street Photography
  9. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  10. Zen Photography
  11. Personal Photography Manual
  12. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
  13. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume I
  14. Street Photography Composition Manual
  15. Street Portrait Manual
  16. Street Photography 101
  17. Street Photography 102
  18. Color Manual
  19. Monochrome Manual
  20. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
  21. Letters From a Street Photographer
  22. Street Photography Aphorisms, Heuristics, and Sayings

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Photo Book Reviews »

Below are my favorite photo books:

75+ inspirational photography books »

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Buy books, not gear.

If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.

  1. Magnum Contact Sheets
  2. Magnum: Degrees
  3. Magnum: Stories
  4. Mark Cohen: Grim Street
  5. Street Photography Now
  6. Bruce Davidson: Subway
  7. Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street
  8. Diane Arbus: A monograph
  9. Helen Levitt
  10. Lee Friedlander: Friedlander
  11. Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best
  12. Richard Kalvar: Earthlings
  13. Andre Kertesz (Editions Hazan)
  14. Robert Frank: The Americans
  15. Garry Winogrand: Public Relations
  16. Garry Winogrand: Figments from the real world
  17. Garry Winogrand: The Animals
  18. Bruce Gilden by Stern Magazine
  19. Bruce Gilden: A Beautiful Catastrophe
  20. Bruce Gilden: Haiti
  21. Bruce Gilden: After The Off
  22. Bruce Gilden: Facing New York
  23. Bystander: A History of Street Photography
  24. Joel Meyerowitz
  25. Jun Abe: Citizens
  26. William Eggleston: Chromes
  27. William Eggleston: Guide
  28. William Eggleston: Before Color
  29. Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places
  30. Daido Moriyama: The World Through My Eyes
  31. Alex Webb: Istanbul
  32. Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
  33. Jeff Mermelstein: Sidewalk
  34. Walker Evans
  35. Fred Herzog: Photographs
  36. Vivian Maier
  37. William Klein: Contacts
  38. Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects
  39. Martin Parr: The Last Resort
  40. Martin Parr: Small World
  41. Tony Ray-Jones: Best Of
  42. Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
  43. Anders Peterson: French Kiss
  44. Anders Petersen: Cafe Lehmitz
  45. Zoe Strauss: America
  46. Henri Cartier-Bresson: “The Decisive Moment”
  47. Josef Koudelka: Exiles
  48. Anders Petersen
  49. The Education of a Photographer
  50. David Hurn: On Being a Photographer
  51. David Gibson: The Street Photographer’s Manual
  52. Siegfried Hansen – hold the line
  53. Matt Stuart: All that Life Can Afford
  54. The Photographer’s Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas
  55. Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight
  56. Trent Parke: The Christmas Tree Bucket
  57. Trent Parke: The Black Rose
  58. Harry Gruyaert
  59. Gus Powell: The Lonely Ones
  60. Alec Soth: Songbook
  61. Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot
  62. Constantine Manos: A Greek Portfolio
  63. Constantine Manos: American Color
  64. Constantine Manos: American Color 2
  65. David Alan Harvey: Divided Soul
  66. Photographers’ Sketchbooks
  67. Harry Callahan: Retrospective
  68. Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt
  69. Mark Cohen: Frame
  70. Saul Leiter: Early Color
  71. Saul Leiter: Early Black and White
  72. Dan Winters: Road to Seeing
  73. Todd Hido: Photography Workshop Series
  74. Mary Ellen Mark: Photography Workshop Series
  75. The Open Road: Photography and the American Roadtrip
  76. Jason Eskenazi: Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith
  77. Kaushal Parikh: “Fragments of a Spinning Rock”
  78. Sunlanders by Sean Lotman

Free Books by Eric Kim

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If you love learning, read the books below:

  1. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  2. Street Photography by Eric Kim
  3. Photography by Eric Kim
  4. Personal Photography Manual
  5. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
  6. Street Photography Contact Sheets
  7. Monochrome Manual
  8. Street Portrait Manual
  9. Street Photography Composition Manual
  10. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
  11. Street Photography 101
  12. Street Photography 102
  13. Zen in the Art of Street Photography
  14. Film Street Photography Manual
  15. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography

Street Notes

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Street Notes is a pocket-sized assignment journal to break outside of your comfort zone:

STREET HUNT: Street Notes Volume 2 Scavenger Hunt Edition

Photo Book Reviews

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Recommended photo books

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Mini Street Photography Starter Kit

If you’re starting in street photography, here is my free and open-source ‘MINI Street Photography Starter Kit’. For more inspiration and dopeness, see the full version: “Street Photography Starter Kit“.

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Here are all of the free downloads available to you, with love:

Dear friend,

I want you to download me — download all these books, articles, and information for free– for you to remix it however you would like.

For you to use these images to illustrate blog posts. For you to look at these full-resolution images to analyze composition.

For you to use these free Lightroom presets to actually make your digital RAW photos look good.

STREET CLUB

For you to empower yourself. Because I think that information is power. Information is everything.

Information is money and control of the world (just consider that scene from the James Bond 007 Skyfall at the end of the film — the guy who controlled the information controlled the world).

With this information, you can learn how to conquer your fears, find more personal meaning in your photography and life, and seek to empower others through the art of photography.

BOOKS

Download all PDF books:

Photography Series PDF Books by Eric Kim

  1. MONOCHROME by ERIC KIM
  2. ONLY IN AMERICA by ERIC KIM
  3. SUITS by ERIC KIM

Individual PDF books:

  1. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear of Shooting Street Photography
  2. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  3. Color Manual
  4. Film Street Photography Manual
  5. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
  6. Leica Manual
  7. Letters from a Street Photographer
  8. Monochrome Manual
  9. Personal Photography Manifesto
  10. Photography 101
  11. Photography by Eric Kim
  12. Street Photography 101
  13. Street Photography 102
  14. Street Photography Aphorisms
  15. Street Photography by Eric Kim
  16. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
  17. Street Photography Contact Sheets
  18. The Art of Street Photography
  19. The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
  20. The Street Photography Project Manual
  21. The Street Portrait Manual
  22. The-Photography-Manual
  23. Zen in the Art of Street Photography
  24. Zen Photography by Eric Kim

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Open-source

All the information on this site, including photos, images, videos, articles, books, or text is free and open source– meaning you can do whatever you want with it.

You can remix it, translate it, or sell it for a profit.

The reason why I am doing this is to help empower you with information. And I feel that freedom is information, and power.

Be strong,

Eric

Eric Kim Blog Offline

If you plan on going on a flight, or going somewhere without internet access (and still want access to this blog), you can download this entire blog (offline, without images) as a 1.4GB (yes, very big) direct download. All you need to do is extract this .ZIP file, and open up ‘index.html’ to access the entire site. Have fun :)

Articles

My best articles as text files:

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Videos

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Presentations

  1. Composition in Street Photography (PDF, Keynote)
  2. 7 Lessons from the Masters of Street Photography (Google Slides)
  3. How to Shoot Street Portraits (PDF, Keynote)
  4. How to Conquer Your Fear of Shooting Street Photography (PDF, Keynote)
  5. Street Photography 101 (PDF, Keynote)
  6. Street Photography Projects (PDF)

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Internet Archive

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