{"id":69207,"date":"2017-11-14T02:22:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T10:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=69207"},"modified":"2017-11-14T06:07:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:07:16","slug":"63-distilled-lessons-from-the-masters-of-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/14\/63-distilled-lessons-from-the-masters-of-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"63 Distilled Lessons From The Masters of Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MASTERS:<\/p>\n

To share the exciting news that MASTERS now available on AMAZON<\/a><\/strong>, I wanted to share a list of lessons I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve personally learned from all the masters of photography.<\/p>\n

For international shipping, purchase MASTERS VOLUME I in HAPTIC SHOP ><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka \/ Magnum Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \n
  1. Akira Kurosawa<\/a>: A great director must also be their own editor<\/li>\n
  2. Alexander Rodchenko<\/a>: Shoot pictures from dynamic angles (very high looking down, or very low angles looking up<\/li>\n
  3. Alfred Stieglitz <\/a>: Create a community to empower photographers<\/li>\n
  4. Alec Soth<\/a>: Make yourself emotionally naked before you can have your subjects uncover their soul to you<\/li>\n
  5. Alex Webb<\/a>: Life is complex and multi-layered, and so should our pictures<\/li>\n
  6. Alexey Brodovitch<\/a>: Bridge the gap between graphic design and photography<\/li>\n
  7. Anders Petersen<\/a>: Shoot the streets like you were a child, seeing it for the first time<\/li>\n
  8. Andre Kertesz<\/a>: Photograph yourself<\/li>\n
  9. Ansel Adams<\/a>: You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take a photograph, you make it.<\/li>\n
  10. Araki<\/a>: Stay prolific, stay young.<\/li>\n
  11. Blake Andrews<\/a>: Always have a camera in hand, unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sleeping.<\/li>\n
  12. Bruce Davidson<\/a>: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seek to be a fine art photographer, seek to be a fine photographer.<\/li>\n
  13. Bruce Gilden<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t smell the streets, then it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a good street photograph.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n
  14. Constantine Manos<\/a>: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suckered by the exotic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/li>\n
  15. Daido Moriyama<\/a>: Feel what you photograph.<\/li>\n
  16. David Alan Harvey<\/a>: Be picky about what you decide to photograph. But if you see a good scene, take 100 pictures of it.<\/li>\n
  17. David Hurn<\/a>: Photography is two things: Where to stand and when to hit the shutter.<\/li>\n
  18. Diane Arbus<\/a>: Relate with your subjects.<\/li>\n
  19. Dorothea Lange<\/a>: Document history<\/li>\n
  20. Elliott Erwitt<\/a>: Make people laugh with your pictures (best tonic for the soul)<\/li>\n
  21. Eugene Atget<\/a>: Document changing cities, urban landscapes, and architecture.<\/li>\n
  22. Eugene Smith<\/a>: Be insanely passionate about your photography and visual artistry; don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compromise your artistic ideals.<\/li>\n
  23. Fan Ho<\/a>: Elegant and simple compositions are timeless<\/li>\n
  24. Garry Winogrand<\/a>: Shoot because you love life!<\/li>\n
  25. Gordon Parks<\/a>: Document and photograph social inequality and injustice; make a social change through your photography.<\/li>\n
  26. Helen Levitt<\/a>: Never give up or get discouraged in your photography (after 2 years of shooting a color street photography project and her negatives were stolen, she didn’t get discouraged, and started over again, with even *more* zest this time).<\/li>\n
  27. Henri Cartier-Bresson<\/a>: Photography is zen.<\/li>\n
  28. Irving Penn<\/a>: Elegance and simplicity in human form, simple and dynamic backgrounds (corners of room to photograph).<\/li>\n
  29. Jacob Aue Sobol<\/a>: Shoot close.<\/li>\n
  30. Jeff Mermelstein<\/a>: Be aggressive to make good street pictures.<\/li>\n
  31. Joel Meyerowitz<\/a>: A good street photographer is a combination of a boxer and a ballerina– it is all about moving your feet, and staying light on your toes.<\/li>\n
  32. Joel Sternfeld<\/a>: Small details make great pictures.<\/li>\n
  33. Josef Koudelka<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\/ Part 2<\/a>: Live life according to your own rules.<\/li>\n
  34. Josh White<\/a>: Photographing your loved ones is more important than photographing strangers.<\/li>\n
  35. L\u00c3\u00a1szl\u00c3\u00b3 Moholy-Nagy<\/a>: All visual art is art.<\/li>\n
  36. Lee Friedlander<\/a>: All pictures are a self-portrait of yourself.<\/li>\n
  37. Lisette Model<\/a>: Photograph the spectacular.<\/li>\n
  38. Magnum Contact Sheets<\/a>: ‘You must milk the cow a lot to get a little bit of cheese.’ – Henri Cartier-Bresson (take a lot of pictures to get a few good ones)<\/li>\n
  39. Magnum Photographers<\/a>: Even Magnum photographers are human.<\/li>\n
  40. Mark Cohen<\/a>: ‘Decapitate’ and cut off the heads of your subjects, to focus on hand gestures and details.<\/li>\n
  41. Martin Parr<\/a>: Make social commentary\/critique through your photography.<\/li>\n
  42. Martine Franck<\/a>: Build a name for yourself; don’t just live in the shadow of someone else.<\/li>\n
  43. Mary Ellen Mark<\/a>: Seek to make perfect compositions.<\/li>\n
  44. Rene Burri<\/a>: Kill your master in photography.<\/li>\n
  45. Richard Avedon<\/a>: All photography is dealing with your own mortality.<\/li>\n
  46. Richard Kalvar<\/a>: Dark humor makes good street photos.<\/li>\n
  47. Robert Capa<\/a>: ‘If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.’<\/li>\n
  48. Robert Frank<\/a>: Your pictures aren’t about your subjects; they’re about you.<\/li>\n
  49. Saul Leiter<\/a>: Be a painter with your camera.<\/li>\n
  50. Sergio Larrain<\/a>: Zen monk with camera.<\/li>\n
  51. Sebasti\u00c3\u00a3o Salgado<\/a>: Cross-pollinate your interests (Salgado started off as an economist, and decided to use photography as a tool to understand the world instead).<\/li>\n
  52. Shomei Tomatsu<\/a>: Integrate blur into your photos.<\/li>\n
  53. Stephen Shore<\/a>: Even ordinary objects can be beautiful.<\/li>\n
  54. The History of Street Photography<\/a>: We should be grateful for the path the masters of photography have paved for us– it is our duty to add to that legacy.<\/li>\n
  55. Todd Hido<\/a>: Even houses have souls.<\/li>\n
  56. Tony Ray-Jones<\/a>: Don’t take boring pictures.<\/li>\n
  57. Trent Parke<\/a>: If you see something good, “shoot the shit out of it.”<\/li>\n
  58. Vivian Maier<\/a>: You could be a great photographer even as a side-hobby.<\/li>\n
  59. Walker Evans<\/a>: Stay open-minded in photography (he once hated color photography, then started to shoot color polaroids, and liked it and revised his opinion).<\/li>\n
  60. Weegee<\/a>: Life is a human drama.<\/li>\n
  61. William Eggleston<\/a>: Photograph nice colors.<\/li>\n
  62. William Klein<\/a>: You aren’t a street photographer; you’re a director on the streets.<\/li>\n
  63. Zoe Strauss<\/a>: A great photo project will take you at least 10 years.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For a beginners overview to the masters of photography, read \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCheat Sheet: Masters of Photography<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

    \n

    Videos: Lessons From The Masters of Photography<\/h2>\n