famousphotographers

I often teach new photographers to study the greats, both past and present. Study and be influenced, but please don’t aim to copy them -- I promise you that won’t get you anywhere.

Photographer John Cyr has an ongoing project titled Developer Trays that features photographs of developer trays used by famous photographers. He writes,

I am photographing available developer trays so that the photography community will remember specific, tangible printing tools that have been a seminal part of the photographic experience for the past hundred years. By titling each tray with its owner’s name and the years in which it was used, I reference the historical significance of these objects in a minimal manner that evokes thought and introspection about what images have passed through each individual tray.

The tray above was used by Ansel Adams.

San Diego-based photographer Tim Mantoani has an awesome project and book titled "Behind Photographs" that consists of 20x24-inch Polaroid portraits of famous photographers posing with their most iconic photographs. The film costs $200 per shot, and Mantoani has created over 150 of the portraits already since starting the project five years ago.