Masters of the Lens: My Top 20 Photographers of All Time (Part 2)
In my previous blog post, I brought a list of photographers that have influenced me and my work. Some of them impacted me because of my admiration and will to try to emulate them, while others, are included simply because of a specific image that made me shake. All have had a direct role in my growth and development.
The rest of the list (which is not the Top 10 in order) includes three photographers that I can say have impacted my work the most; two of whom have supported my work and growth. Simply put, I give equal importance to the 17-photographers (those on the previous list and the first seven on this list), while my actual Top Three will be mentioned last.
Ansel Adams
A trailblazer when it comes to landscape photography, Adams is best known for letting the rest of the world see the beauty of Yosemite National Park through his lens. According to Getti.edu, “Adams was also a conservationist, and his photographs of Yosemite were used to help secure the designation of those lands as national parks. For his achievements he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.” What made me interested in his work, apart from his passion, was how he made the black and white pictures he took SO powerful, that their prints still sell for display today.
Walker Evans
One of the leading photographers in American documentary photography, Evans was a self-taught lens professional. His images, according to the International Center of Photography, “… were as prototypes both for the American documentary movement of the 1930s and for street photographers of the 1940s and 50s. His precisely composed, intricately detailed, spare photographs insisted on their subject matter, and his impartial acceptance of his subjects made his work seem true and aesthetically pure--qualities that have been the goal of documentary photography ever since”. My interest in his work was purely personal, as I acquired the book Walker Evans Cuba in a used books store in Canda in 2019. His images of my nation during the Great Depression were not only fascinating and telling, but also shaped my street photography for the remainder of my time in Cuba.
Vivian Maier
The nanny whose photos became famous after her death, Maier was secretive but very unusual. She took a large bulk of her photos while walking around the streets holding the hands of the children she would be babysitting. For some reason, she never published her work, and the mystery of her motivations behind wielding a camera is long gone. However, as Anna Fox said, “Every street photography book will have to include her from now on.” What caught my attention about her was one picture: the picture of her holding her Rolleicord camera at chest height and photographing herself on the glass window of a store. This has become a to-do thing by many photographers holding smartphones.
Robert Capa
“If your photos are not good enough, you are not close enough.” Robert Capa lived this phrase… and died by it. Already celebrated in the late 1930s due to his work covering the Spanish Civil War, Capa’s “… picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded earned Capa his international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war,” according to his profile on Magnum Photos, the agency he would help create. However, it was his pictures of the US troops landing on Omaha Beach during World War II what caught my attention, along with how untimely and unfortunate his death was. He stepped on a landmine in Indochina and was killed. To me, he epitomized what being a war photographer means, going the extra mile for a picture, risking your life for it. He lived in a total dilemma, as two of his famous phrases would tell: “For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner,” which shows his permanent willingness to go cover a conflict; while saying “I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life,” showing his resentment towards what actually made him famous.
Sebastião Salgado
His photos captured the precarious living situations of some individuals, turning him into an excellent documentary photographer. The International Center of Photography states that Salgado’s “… photographs impart the dignity and integrity of his subjects without forcing their heroism or implicitly soliciting pity, as many other photographs from the Third World do.” My first encounters with him came through two things, his famous phrase “It's more important for a photographer to have very good shoes, than to have a very good camera,” and the documentary The Salt of the Earth.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
There is no street photographer who does not relate to Cartier-Bresson one way or another. A master of capturing what he called “the decisive moment” and making street photographs actually relatable to those looking at it, this master of the lens is also one of the founders of Magnum Photos. His background as a prisoner of war and escaping that condition might actually have opened his eyes to a whole new level of understanding human life and actual suffering. My attraction to his work came from my interest in street photography and documenting life. Trying not to imitate him but to emulate him is one of the drives when I document.
Dorothea Lange
Another photographer who worked for LIFE magazine, Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother, which she took while traveling for the Farm Security Administration, is probably one of the most poignant images of the Great Depression. To this day, it is my favorite documentary photograph of all time, and that is the main reason why Lange is in my Top 20 list.
Luis Marden
Probably the first photographer who sparked in me the idea that I would love to be a photographer and travel documenting life, Marden worked for 64 years for the National Geographic Society. It was precisely on NatGeo that I first read about him and saw his photos. A pioneer in underwater photography who wrote and photographed for National Geographic, Marden became one of my main fuels, as I love both writing and photography.
Jean Fruth
Someone who I had the pleasure of meeting during the Barack Obama and Tampa Bay Rays visit to Cuba, Jean Fruth was introduced to me by former Baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson. We bonded for a few minutes, while I observed her as she worked. Later on, we friended on Facebook and started a relationship that is still alive. Although I only saw her again during the 2022 Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown, Jean and I remain in touch. A true force in the work photographing baseball minorities, from Hispanics and Asians, to women and Route 66, Jean is one of those sports photographers that teach you how and why to capture something beyond baseball. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jean was the main speaker for a Summit Workshop which was online. Even though I was in Cuba, and I could not afford it, she vouched for me so I could get a free pass just because of my experience photographing baseball in Cuba. That Workshop made my photography better not only in baseball, but also as a documentarian. I have two of her books, and her documentary “See Her Be Her” is a testament of the resilience and resolve of women playing baseball.
Kathy Willens
I met Kathy in 2012 during a baseball game in Holguín. Even though I have written extensively about our relationship, I can say that I was lucky enough to have met one of the most badass photographers ever. Even though we bonded over baseball, Kathy was the person who taught me the most about photography. She was an Associated Press photographer (one of the female pioneers in the agency) for 45 years, who covered several sports, including Olympic Games, and even the civil war in Somalia in 1993. Kathy introduced me to Jeff Idelson, which led to me meeting Jean Fruth, so she is hands down the most influential photographer in my life. Even while suffering from ovarian cancer, which ultimately led to her death, she offered support, advice and encouragement for my photos and my work. There is no need for me to say how much she influenced me (check this link), but she is my top photographer of all time. One image that she didn’t share with me and actually made me understand how lucky I was to have met her was a photo that I can’t find n the web right now: after being injured during a baseball game, she kept shooting while a medic treated her leg.
Final Thoughts
There are many other photographers who influenced me directly and indirectly throughout my start and my growth as a photographer. Many of them, only two of them knowingly, shaped my life as a photographer. Jean and Kathy were my teachers, while Marden was the one who made me understand I would definitely love to do something like this.
I must mention the likes of:
Odette Fernández (who I started this adventure with and who is a successful photographer in Florida)
Yosel Vázquez (who was certain that I could make it as a street photographer in Havana, but who is not pursuing the industry at the moment)
Malcolm Lobban (who helped me with the first nude and studio shoot ever, and whom I met thanks to Yosel Vázquez)
Amauris Betancourt (who as a photographer for Radio Angulo, the local radio station in Holguín, pushed me to do better every day)
Ismael Francisco (who, even though we stand in completely opposite political spectrums now, pushed me and encouraged me to be better at my craft)
Heriberto Sánchez, the man who was famous in my city for taking birthday, wedding and quinceañera photos and who was the first photographer I ever met, and whose family I have a close relationship with. He is the person responsible for my first memory of a camera.
It is important, as photographers, to acknowledge where your talent and interest comes from. This is my small tribute and appreciation to all of them.
