In your view and not made by yourself: BEST photo you've ever seen!

gk fotografie · Mar 26, 2020

Show us the photo that may have been the impetus for seriously tackling the photo hobby or perhaps the photo that has brought a major emotional upheaval in your life. Name the photographer and make a link to the photo you want to show. (please, create a link and don't upload the photo to this forum, because that is against TPF rules!)
Name just 1 photographer and 1 photo because only 1 photo can be the BEST, right?

(this thread isn't meant for heavy discussions about whether a photo is the best photo, it's really about which photo you like best and that doesn't have to be the best photo for someone else!)

gk fotografie · Mar 26, 2020

MAN RAY

In the early 1970s, I discovered Man Ray, photographer/artist who may have had the greatest impact on me as a photographer. I guess, who knows his photography, collages and experiments, probably understands that I've always been a huge adept. The name of this artist will not quickly say something to many, until you see 'Violon d'Ingres' which can safely be called a world famous photograph.

Designer · Mar 26, 2020

Yousuf Karsh made so many exemplary portraits that it was not easy to select just one, however Audrey Hepburn is a treasure in any pose, and by far my favorite. I would like to be able to mimic Karsh's technique and results.

Audrey Hepburn

Derrel · Mar 26, 2020

Eddie Adams made a famous photo of a general in the South Vietnamese Army executing a Vietcong Soldier during the Tet Offensive. It is probably one of the two most famous photographs made during the Vietnam war. I believe it was shot in 1969, and I first saw the photo when I was in 6th grade back around 1975, right at the time I was getting into photography.

Original katomi · Mar 26, 2020

It was not a photo that got me into photography. I was a film extra and a venture scout, I wanted to record some of the things I did with the scouts. The film extra money paid for my zenith.

limr · Mar 26, 2020

This wasn't what got me into photography, but discovering the Polaroids of Andre Kertesz was a revelation and certainly give me inspiration to continue my own work with instant photography. He had not been working for a while until someone gave him an SX-70, and it reinivigorated his photography. There are a lot of photos of a glass figurine posed in various places, mostly in front of the window of his Washington Square apartment with NYC as a backdrop. He bought the figurine after his wife died and posed it for still life photos as a way to deal with his grief. He eventually bought a second and posed them together. I find these photos - the poses and style, but especially the light - to be haunting and just heartbreakingly beautiful. Even without knowing the story behind them, they convey such mood and emotion, and that is something I have always strived to convey in my own work and so it's what impresses me so much about all of his work, but especially the Polaroids.

andre kertesz polaroids - Google Search

Edit:
I think these in particular are just brilliant:

aryn kresol | n o w h e r e: Collect.Select.Reflect: Andre Kertesz

André Kertész

Published Art Bookshop - AndrÉ KertÉsz: The Polaroids - Photography

Lodger on Twitter

webestang64 · Mar 26, 2020

In 1980 at age 16 I wanted to be an archaeologist because of Louis Leakey but for X-Mas that year I got a camera (K1000) and a Ansel Adams 12 month calendar.

BOOM......when I saw this pic I said I want to be a photographer.

Oak Tree, Sunset City

It's also the photo that launched my like for "Tree" art.

terri · Mar 28, 2020

This isn't what got me into photography, but made me decide to start my own darkroom, many years ago.

Arnold Newman made this photo of composer Igor Stravinsky, and I was immediately drawn to the idea of geometrical shapes, lines, and the starkness of B&W photography. I also like the fashion images of those times, from people like Irving Penn - very stylized.

Grandpa Ron · Mar 30, 2020

When I got into photography is when I discovered I was an incessant diddler. As an early teenager, making black and white photos was not all that rare, nor was hunting and fishing, trap shooting, amateur radio, bike and then car repairs. These were things that were hands-on.

Today technology has removed the need for much of the so called drudgery, thus greatly reducing the tinkering necessary for success.

So, my answer to the Ops question is. The Best picture is virtually any picture by Ansel Adams and my return to photography centers around 4x5 and other format b&w film photography and digital camera experiments like astro, macro, and pinhole photography; all of which require a certain amount of tinkering. I assume it is a genetic defect.

terri · Mar 30, 2020

Grandpa Ron said:
all of which require a certain amount of tinkering. I assume it is a genetic defect.

You can call it tinkering, but I think you sell yourself short. There's a huge satisfaction to be had from creating art with one's own hands; the tactile nature of analog photography is but one example. Be proud of that genetic defect!

Grandpa Ron · Mar 30, 2020

Terri,

That is very true. I have mentioned before, there is a lot of satisfaction in bringing to life a piece of photo equipment, musical instrument, old radio etc. that was assembled by the skilled hands of some long gone craftsmen.

Film photography is particularly rewarding, because you put a lot of effort, learned skill and thought into the process, with no guarantee of the result until the process is completed. There is no delete button or instant gratification.

With Digital the challenge is often in finding and the composing the shot. But if you switch to manual, a whole new world of photography opens up to you. Another vast playground for the incessant diddler.

Sharpshooterr · Mar 31, 2020

Every now and then we see one of these threads but they are always fun!
What got me into photography was, of course, the National Geographic magazines. No particular issue or photographs, just those amazing far off lands. In the early 60's at around age 12 I first tried my hand at nature photography with a Kodak Brownie, wow, WHAT a disaster THAT was, LoL, but it got me going and I haven't stopped since!!
Now moving on to a specific image, about ten years ago I was just finishing up photo school and took a class field trip to Pier 24 in SF. You know, more of the same, Adams, Winogrand, Lange, Sherman etc.
But then, there on it's own wall was this shot by Dutch photographer Hendik Kerstens. You know how Cindy Sherman has made a living just taking selfies, well Kerstens has made a living just photographing his daughter!
This shot was a 50x60 print shot on 8x10 film and drum scanned. This shot just absolutely blew me away! Most photos are best viewed at distance. This image makes you go up and inspect it as close as you can possibly get. Every vein and pore in her skin is in the sharpest detail I've ever seen in an image. It was truly alive. It doesn't look like much here but that image has had more influence about how I've thought about and viewed photography than any image I'd ever seen and I've pretty much seen them ALL, from Adams to Mapplethorpe!!!
SS
KERH.001 - Pier 24

weepete · Mar 31, 2020

Ok, so I've seem many shots I love over the years and it would be impossible for me to pick a single one.

Saying that this one https://colinprior.co.uk/wp-content...r-Grudie-Slioch-Loch-Maree-by-Colin-Prior.jpg stands out to me. Not only as it is by a photographer I admire, but I've been luck enough to do a few workshops with Colin and the guy is an inspiration (and a bit of a legend).

I really can't speak of him highly enough, self educated but educated himself well. Down to earth, is keen on his art but has very little ego. Knows Scotland intimatley. He spent a lot of time shootimg medium format panoramic images on film but has travelled the globe and really knows his stuff. One thing I really liked in his presentations was talking about composition using old woodcuts as an illustration of how artists used compsition to draw the eye. Now shoots digital but again, knows his craft really well and has an emphasis and affinity with the natural world. He's not a gear snob either.

So I picked this image for a reason ..... that being I visited this same spot myself, in almost the same conditions. I'd been there before but I hadn't shot in this location or seen this shot and this is the shot I wish I had taken.

Now, I appreciate that for some people this will look like a straightforward shot, but it's further than most people would go and the simplicity belies how difficult it actually is to get that kind of balance in a composition in this location. I know, I've stood in the same places, took shots of the same vistas with drastically different results. There's a lifetime worth of reducing big vistas to simple elements that work incredibly well here and it shows.

mrca · Apr 6, 2020

Since I am a Hemingway fan and head to Key West every couple of years and make a vist to his house there, hanging over the mantle is a Karsh photo of Hem with his fisherman's knit sweater and white beard. My profile shot has a black background with me in my trademark black crew neck and I powered up the kickers to slightly blow out on the jaw line... emulating Hem's white beard. I have a number of shirts with the photo from Sloppy Joes's, hem's hang out in Key West.