Wednesday 2 September 2009

Master.

Image copyright Nick Brandt

Yesterday Stan B over at RECIPROCITY FAILURE wrote a post about under valued Master photographers. And I left a couple of suggestions in the comments as to who I thought of as Masters. And I've been thinking about who I thought of, and what defines a Master and is there even such a thing?

The people I picked, are Masters to me because they operate in my comfort zone, area's of photography that I am most interested in, for want of a better term Documentary/Art photography. In short who I think of as a Master is subjective and open to debate. The other problem with defining a Master is being told that someone is a Master so many times that we just accept it as a given. I'll call this the "Cartier Bresson" effect.

So I started to think of artists from fields of photography that I know little about. Is there anyone out there whose at the top of their game and not only a Master in their field (in this case wildlife) but who's work is so Masterful that it transcends questions of subjectivity and makes everyone just go, "Fuck yeah"

I came up with Nick Brandt.

3 comments:

Andy Clarke said...

this guy is impressive http://www.denisolivier.com/

Glinka said...

jeff wall

mark page said...

Hhmm Andy, not sure on that one. I think he's following a "well trod path"... http://www.michaelkenna.net/

And Glinka, Jeff Wall underated?