Bill Brandt

1904-1983

Brandt began photographing in Vienna, Austria from 1927 to 1928. From 1929 to 1930 Brandt studied under the surrealist artist Man Ray in Paris, and became influenced by surrealism. From 1931 to 1939 Brandt set up as a freelance photographer in London, England. 

He specialized in social documentary photography, and often collaborated with the press. From 1939 to 1945 Brandt turned to photojournalism. Brandt photographed air-raid shelters and Londoners during war-time from 1940 to 1945 for the British Home Office. He also took documentary photographs for the National Buildings Record, London, England. British photographer, born in Germany, raised in Switzerland.

Hilla & Bernd Becher

1934-2015 & 1931-2007

Hilla Becher was a German artist born in 1934 in Siegen, Germany. She was one half of a photography duo with her husband Bernd Becher who changed the course of late twentieth-century photography. Working as a rare artist couple, they focused on a single subject: the disappearing industrial architecture of Western Europe and North America that fueled the modern era.

They won the Erasmus Prize in 2002 and Hasselblad Award in 2004 for their work and roles as photography professors at the art academy Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

They began collaborating together in 1959 after meeting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957. Bernd originally studied painting and then typography, whereas Hilla had trained as a commercial photographer. After two years collaborating together, they married.

Kenneth Jarecke

Born 1963

Jarecke is an American photojournalist, author, editor and war correspondent. He has worked in more than 80 countries and has been featured in LIFE magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and others. He is notable for taking the famous photograph of a burnt Iraqi soldier that was published in The Observer, March 10, 1991 when most editors refused to publish it.

Jarecke moved to New York as a teen and later met David Burnett and Robert Pledge of Contact Press Images, joining a handful of photographers that included Annie Liebovitz. He was assigned to photograph Oliver North at the start of the Iran-Contra hearings. LIFE magazine commissioned other work as a result.

Jarecke was a White House photographer in the Ronald Reagan years. He covered Tiananmen Square, the Gulf War and the Olympic Games.

Vincent Van Gogh

1853-1890

Van Gogh is today one of the most popular of the post-impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated during his lifetime. The traumas of his life, documented in his letters, have tended to dominate and distort modern perceptions of his art.

He was born in Holland and didn't start painting until 1883. In 1885-6 he attended the academy in Antwerp where he was impressed by Japanese prints and by the work of Rubens. On his return to Paris in 1886 he met artists such as Degas, Gauguin and Seurat, and as a result lightened the colours he used.

In 1888 he settled in Arles in Provence, where he was visited by Gauguin and painted his now famous series of 'Sunflowers'.

Diane Arbus

1923-1971

American photographer who photographed a wide range of subjects including strippers, carnival performers, nudists, people with dwarfism, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middle-class families. She photographed her subjects in familiar settings: their homes, on the street, in the workplace, in the park. She is noted for expanding notions of acceptable subject matter and by befriending, not objectifying her subjects, she was able to capture a rare psychological intensity. 

In 1972, a year after her suicide, Arbus became the first photographer to be included in the Venice Biennale where her photographs were "the overwhelming sensation of the American Pavilion" and "extremely powerful and very strange".

Herb Ritts

1952-2002

Ritts began his photographic career in the late 70s and gained a reputation as a master of art and commercial photography. Beginning in 1988 he directed numerous influential and award-winning music videos and commercials. His fine art photography has been the subject of exhibitions worldwide, with works residing in many significant public and private collections.

In his life and work, Ritts was drawn to clean lines and strong forms. This graphic simplicity allowed his images to be read and felt instantaneously. His work often challenged conventional notions of gender or race. Social history and fantasy were both captured and created by his memorable photographs of noted individuals in film, fashion, music, politics, and society.

Andreas Gursky

Born 1955

German photographer known for his large format architecture and landscape colour photographs, often using a high point of view. His works reach some of the highest prices in the art market among living photographers. His photograph Rhein II was sold for $4,338,500 on 8 November 2011.

Gursky shares a studio with Laurenz Berges, Thomas Ruff and Axel Hütte on the Hansaallee, in Düsseldorf. The building, a former electricity station, was transformed into an artists studio and living quarters, in 2001, by architects Herzog & de Meuron, of Tate Modern fame. In 2010–11, the architects worked again on the building, designing a gallery in the basement.

Annie Liebovitz

Born 1949

Leibovitz is an American photographer renowned for her dramatic, quirky, and iconic portraits of a great variety of celebrities. Her signature style is crisp and well-lighted.

In 1967 when Leibovitz enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, intending to become a painter. After taking a night class in photography, however, she quickly became engrossed in that medium. In 1970, while still a student, she was given her first commercial assignment for Rolling Stone magazine: to photograph John Lennon. Three years later Leibovitz became the publication’s chief photographer.

In 1991 Leibovitz had her first museum exhibition; she became the first woman and second living photographer to show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Garry Winogrand

1928-1984

Winogrand was an American street photographer, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Winogrand the central photographer of his generation. He received three Guggenheim Fellowships to work on personal projects, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and published four books during his lifetime.

He was one of three photographers featured in the influential New Documents exhibition at Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1967 and had solo exhibitions there in 1969, 1977, and 1988. He supported himself by working as a freelance photojournalist and advertising photographer in the 1950s and 1960s, and taught photography in the 1970s.