Successful Photographers

FM Forums \| Pro Digital Corner \| Join Upload & Sell	Search Used
1 2 end

Archive 2009 · Successful Photographers

shatterkiss
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #1 · Successful Photographers

No, I recognize that...I was commenting more on the idea that current financial troubles are a better indicator of a photographer's success than what they bill and how often they work, assuming you're using money as a yardstick for success in the first place.

Annie had a bad combination of no business sense, out of control spending and some questionable real estate decisions. She's still wildly successful. Compare that to folks like Marcus Klinko and Indrani, whose dramatic falloff in work paired with bad business decisions have put them in a serious hole.

Nov 09, 2009 at 06:42 PM

E-Vener
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #2 · Successful Photographers

jjsterling wrote:
Where can I get a list of names of those who have been the most successful in their photography business?

there are many different genres of professional and commercial photography. Which ones are you interested in/

In editorial and advertising celebrity portraiture, Annie Leibovitz is at the top of the heap but I can think of a maybe a dozen others .

For fashion photographers (who are still alive) there is Bruce Weber and maybe a dozen others worldwide.

For location photography for advertising, there are about about twenty who are roughly equally successful but just not as well known as fasion and celebrity photographers - -same with architectural, fine art, panoramic, industrial, and landscape photographers, etc.

I suspect that even for "model mayhem" type photographers, again there is probably about ten to twelve who make really good money as well as really good photos

Nov 09, 2009 at 06:51 PM

Brent Ward
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #3 · Successful Photographers

No one is better than Bruce Testones...

Nov 09, 2009 at 07:25 PM

mdude85
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #4 · Successful Photographers

shatterkiss wrote:
No, I recognize that...I was commenting more on the idea that current financial troubles are a better indicator of a photographer's success than what they bill and how often they work, assuming you're using money as a yardstick for success in the first place.

Annie had a bad combination of no business sense, out of control spending and some questionable real estate decisions. She's still wildly successful. Compare that to folks like Marcus Klinko and Indrani, whose dramatic falloff in work paired with bad business decisions have put them in a serious hole.

She also had a couple of people that she hired who did not have her best financial interests in mind.... just a bad situation overall.

Nov 09, 2009 at 09:10 PM

cgardner
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #5 · Successful Photographers

One measure of success is when a photographer defines a new style which others seek to emulate, something which can best be seen in retrospect.

Monte (who I assisted in the early '70s) is in that category because he redefined the wedding genre in the 1970s and had lots of professional students who paid to learn how to emulate his style, both photographically and his approach towards aspects of running a business such as marketing.

Ansel Adams was an even earlier influence on me and another "BT Barnum" of the photographic world who shot, taught, and wasn't shy about self-promotion of either. Adams took the basic axiom of B&W - expose for the shadows / develop the neg to fit the highlights on the paper - and sold it like snake-oil in a five volume book series. For many years he was the 800 pound gorilla of photography. When Kodak decided to change its gray card to 12% in line with the newer ASNI standard Adams encamped in Rochester and lobbied until they relented and left the card at 18%, lest it damage the Adams Zone V based franchise.

Another photographer, also no longer with us, who had a distinctive style which was widely imitated was Herb Ritts. He shot an image with a new look that that resonated and with it launched a new genre in fashion photography that many have emulated.

Diane Arbus is another photographer whose work broke new ground and fostered a new genre of gritty photojournalism different from the style produced by Gordon Parks and others in photo tabloids like LIFE magazine which I grew up reading in the 1950s an '60s.

Annie Leibovitz isn't dead yet but certainly fits that definition of success. Her style is distinctive and emulated, and her flair for self-promotion and establishing herself as a "brand" is not unlike Monte's approach with the added favor of the same over-the-top production values of Ritts in his prime.

What other contemporary photographers will reach the same level of recognition and emulation? Check back and ask the same question in 5 or 10 years

Edited on Nov 10, 2009 at 09:45 PM · View previous versions

Nov 10, 2009 at 05:32 PM

shatterkiss
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #6 · Successful Photographers

cgardner wrote:
Her style is distinctive and emulated, and her flair for self-promotion and establishing herself as a "brand" not unlike Monte's approach with the added favor of the same over-the-top production values of Ritts in his prime.

Herb Ritts is a great example. I'd also add Mark Seliger to that list, if you're talking about commercial and editorial/celebrity work, though he's really changed his signature style dramatically in the last few years.

Nov 10, 2009 at 05:50 PM

KrautFed
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #7 · Successful Photographers

Successful photographer or successful businessman/woman who takes photos?

Nov 10, 2009 at 08:01 PM

dmacmillan
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #8 · Successful Photographers

Eugene Smith. He certainly wasn't financially successful and from almost all accounts was a PITA, but he pretty much defined the photo essay and he took many iconic photos.

We also can't leave out the Westons, Robert Frank, Bruce Davidson, Norman Seef and numerous others.

Chuck has already mentioned one of my all time favs, Diane Arbus. Many folks don't know she and her husband Allan Arbus achieved some success in fashion photography before she pursued her fine art career. BTW Allan Arbus is better known for his character Dr. Sidney Freedman on the TV series M*A*S*H.

Nov 10, 2009 at 08:09 PM

Doo-bop
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #9 · Successful Photographers

HCB

Nov 10, 2009 at 10:35 PM

sjlocke
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.2 #10 · Successful Photographers

This guy is wandering about the net posting the same dumb question on various forums, never returning to respond. I wouldn't worry about posting in response any more.

Nov 11, 2009 at 12:14 PM


FM Forums \| Pro Digital Corner \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 end