Classic Fine Art Photographers

Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984)

Born in 1902 in San Francisco, California, Adams was trained to be a concert pianist, but began experimenting with photography when a youth. After joining the Sierra Club at 17, he combined his loves of photography and the outdoors to become the most eminent nature photographer of the 20th century. He helped form Group/f64, a group of nature photographers, including Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston. His photographs of Yosemite, the Grand Tetons, Mt. McKinley, the Snake River, the California Redwoods, and other natural locales have been instrumental in helping to promote the conservation and environmental movements.

View Gallery      Read Biography      Shop for Prints

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2000)

Born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, near Paris, France, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the pioneers of modern photojournalism and one of the early users of the 35mm film format. Trained as an oil painter, he began experimenting with photography in the late 1920s, but took it up full-time in the early 1930s while recuperating from blackwater fever, which he'd contracted on the Ivory Coast of Africa. An early influence was the Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi who espoused capturing the immediate object as opposed to posed subjects. In Paris, he shared a photography studio with Robert Capa. In the late 1930s, he began working as a photojournalist. Working as a photographer in the French Army at the start of WWII, he was captured by the Germans in 1940, spending 35 months as a prisoner-of-war, before escaping in 1942.

View Gallery      Shop for Prints

Robert Doisneau (1912 - 1994)

Born in Gentilly, Val-de-Marne, in the southern suburbs of Paris, France, Robert Doisneau is famous for his photographs of Parisian street life. Originally trained as a lithographer, he took up photography as a profession in the early 1930s, working for the French magazine, Le'Excelsior. In the late 1930s, he worked as a publicity photographer for Renault, until he was fired for frequent absences from work. During WWII, he joined the Resistance, both fighting and serving as a photographer.

View Gallery      Shop for Prints

O. Winston Link (1914 - 2001)

Born in New York City, O. Winston Link took up photography as a youth, even building his own enlarger as a teen. After studying civil engineering, Link worked as both an engineer and photographer. Following WWII, he opened his own commercial photography firm, with major corporations such as Goodrich, Alcoa, and Texaco as clients. Beginning in 1951, combining a love for both railroads and photography, Link undertook to photographically document the Norfolk & Western Railway, which was the last major railway yet to convert from steam to diesel power. Link is best known for his dramatic nighttime photographs capturing the passing of the last great steam engine locomotives.

View Gallery      Shop for Prints

Henri Silberman (1951 - )

Born in Paris, France, Henri Silberman grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He began experimenting with photography as a teen, buying his first camera when he was 16. Silberman is known for his black and white photographs of cityscapes and skylines, especially in New York City, including Manhattan, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and other urban scenes.