Some of the greatest and most influential photographers of all time proudly wore the label of ‘fine art photographer’, while others did so more reluctantly. But what really is fine art photography, anyway?
I thought that today would be the perfect day to take a good, long look at that tricky question. This way, we can not just understand what fine art photography is and is not, but what types of photographers tend to dabble in this form and why.
If you’re already further along the path and wish to sharpen your skills by gaining more theoretical and practical knowledge, read on just the same!
The profiles and life stories we will display today will provide many hours’ worth of inspiration for shutterbugs of any experience level. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
Trying to Define Fine Art Photography
Since the earliest days of the medium, trying to define fine art photography has proved challenging. Many, including some of the greatest photographic artists of our time, continue to reject the label outright.
For simplicity’s sake, let me start off with the most widespread, mainstream definition. To the general public and your neighborhood art gallery, this type of work roughly constitutes photographic practice what literary fiction does within the context of prose.
Just like the literature section, the gamut this genre runs very wide, and it’s an inherently diverse discipline. This is principally because it rejects strict genre conventions. In other words, it’s artistic photography in the sense of ‘high art’, divorced from commercial or genre incentives.
Others would rather define it strictly as any photography regardless of genre affiliations which takes cues in aesthetic or style from traditional painting, drawing, or sculpting techniques.
Thus, the ‘fine art’ label doesn’t actually refer to the status or ‘arty-ness’ of the photography per se. Rather, it’s about how much lip service it pays to the more ancient forms of visual arts that preceded it.
Pioneers of Fine Art Photography
Now, I think we are ready to take a look at some of the first famous fine art photographers on our list. To add a sense of chronology, I thought it’d be exciting to start off with some of those very early pioneers.
This is the generation of picture-takers that proved to the world that such a thing was even possible, let alone worth a spot in any world-class gallery!
Alfred Stieglitz
Widely considered one of the most influential artists of his time, the photography of Alfred Stieglitz is today just as deeply studied as his long romantic and creative relationship with the equally daring painter, Georgia O’Keeffe.
Through his journal, Camera Work, and his deep involvement in the New York art scene, Stieglitz tirelessly worked to establish photography as the emerging art of the 20th century.
At first, he did this by fighting hard to have his own work exhibited at notable galleries. Later, he would use his natural charm to assemble a whole team of photographers whom he would collaborate and organize with.
Stieglitz’s artistic approach and the ever-growing list of collaborators who shared his views were called the Photo-Secession. Within only a few years, the Photo-Secession went from a one-man project to a nationwide movement that completely enraptured the world of art and culture. Soon enough, it went global.
Edward Steichen
Born in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen would find fame and success in the United States as an early pioneer of fine art and fashion photography.
Already at a young age, Steichen garnered attention from high society by having his work featured in none other than Alfred Stieglitz’ Camera Work. While Steichen also worked in the pictorialist style, which was so popular among the avant-garde, he added a touch of his own.
Compared to his contemporaries, Steichen was fascinated by intimate portraits and close-quarters shots taken with wide-angle lenses.
This would eventually evolve into series of portraits specifically focusing on fashionable high society – not just the people, but the clothes, too. Steichen worked on both sides of the Atlantic and did a great deal to spread this artistic expression in the American style throughout Europe.
Imogen Cunningham
Known as a master of composition and for her use of both sharp and soft focus, Imogen Cunningham was one of the first female photographers to gain international recognition for her work.
Throughout a highly experimental and constantly changing career, Cunningham helped define the basic style for numerous genres that now define the aesthetic foundation of the medium.
Most of all, these were still lives, floral photography, and artistic nudes. While these kinds of subjects were common in early photography, Cunningham was one of the first artists to really reinterpret and redefine the aesthetic vocabulary for the new medium, firmly disconnecting it from painting traditions.
Renowned and Influential Fine Art Photographers
Together, Stieglitz, Steichen, Cunningham, and their contemporaries began the movement that we now refer to as fine art photography.
But how did the genre change beyond the very beginning of the 20th century? And who were the people who moved it forward?
That’s exactly what I would like to show you now. Let’s take a look at the most noteworthy names in the field over the years!
Ansel Adams
No discussion of fine art photographers could be complete without Ansel Adams. The American artist, immortalized through his landscape photography, is practically a photographic institution.
Adams was not just a genius with an innovative outlook on the medium, just like Stieglitz and others before him. He was also seriously invested in the technical aspect of photography, downright obsessed with finding an ideal exposure and achieving pin-sharp focus across the frame.
It is for this reason that Adams’ huge large format prints are so awesome to admire in person. This was truly an artist that sacrificed everything in chasing the perfect picture.
Edward Weston
One of the most celebrated of all American photographers, and a personal favorite of yours truly, Edward Weston was a true artistic trailblazer who invented entirely new techniques and stylistic approaches.
Strict genre constraints were of little concern to Weston, who freely blended architecture, still life, street photography, landscape photos, and more. He is renowned for his expressive compositions and his philosophical approach to the craft.
Cindy Sherman
Most famous for her series Untitled Film Stills, Cindy Sherman is a modern fine art photographer who has made a name for herself with her unusual approach to portraits.
Instead of the wide variety of subjects most of her peers rely on, Sherman takes huge volumes of different portraits using only one model – herself.
Her elaborate make-up and costuming, which she regularly uses to transform herself into historical figures, cultural archetypes, and fictional characters, has garnered a lot of attention not just from the photography press, but the fashion industry as well.
Brooke Shaden
Famous for her surrealist fine art photography combining artful portraits with landscapes straight out of fairytales, Brooke Shaden is a multitalent with a wide range.
Both her self portraiture and her more abstract work is incredibly complex, often utilizing multiple exposures, complicated framing, and tightly conceptualized choreography and costume design.
Andreas Gursky
Primarily interested in architecture and landscapes, German-born Andreas Gursky is one of the most talented photographers to come out of Europe in a long time.
His exposures feature razor-sharp focus, wide-angle perspectives, and often unusual viewing angles. One of his most minimalist (and controversial) works, Rhein II, held the distinction of being the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction, at a staggering $4.34 million.
It was only recently overtaken by none other than Man Ray’s Violin D’Ingres, a testament to the influence and respect that Andreas Gursky commands in the gallery world.
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh enchants her audiences with expressive body painting techniques that she uses to create photographs brimming with experimental energy.
Muluneh’s work draws from the folklore of her native Ethiopia, in addition to social, historical, political, and cultural themes from around the world. Today, her pictures grace the walls of the MoMa in New York and countless prestigious galleries across Europe, Africa, and beyond.
Richard Prince
A daring artist with a sardonic sense of humor, New York native Richard Prince has been noted as one of the best fine art photographers since the 1970s..
A large part of Prince’s work consists of rephotography – existing photographs exposed and recontextualized.
One of Prince’s most famous series utilizing this technique, Untitled Cowboys, consists entirely of rephotographed artwork originally from Marlboro advertisements and packaging.
Even if you’re like me and rarely dabble in something like rephotography, the sheer creativity on display makes Richard Prince a fascinating photographer to follow.
Peter Lik
Mostly a landscape artist by specialty, Peter Lik hails from Australia, a land whose dramatic vistas have clearly inspired his creative approach.
Using large and medium-format camera gear, Lik takes fascinating wide-angle and panoramic photos that truly showcase the beauty of his native continent.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Japanese-born, New York-based Hiroshi Sugimoto derives his spark from the transient nature of existence and the contrast between the living world and the built environment surrounding us all.
Architecture, the passage of time, and eternity are some of the major themes that inspired Sugimoto’s work and that you can see reflected within his contemplative exposures.
Sally Mann
Where others venture far out and explore exotic locales to find the right inspiration for their pictures, Sally Mann breaks the mold by staying in the neighborhood.
Mann started taking pictures of herself, her family, and local sights at a young age. This creative choice remained with her throughout her career.
Her award-winning and commercially successful book, Immediate Family, directly built upon this inspiration.
Mostly working with black and white film using her own distinctive style of aggressive darkroom development, Mann is the kind of photographer who has her own look narrowed down to the letter. Kudos to her for her determination to be authentic!
Emerging Fine Art Photographers to Watch
While we already looked at some of the most successful and beloved artists in the genre above, there is plenty more to get inspired by.
The following short list contains some of my personal favorite photographers who may not have their big break yet, but are certainly looking very promising so far!
Jenny Fine
Published on some of the most prestigious websites and journals in the world, Jenny Fine is making a big splash for someone so early in their career.
The Alabama native uses a mix of self-portraits, still life, and abstract compositions to create unsettlingly talkative photography with a strong narrative thread, often referencing pop culture and current events.
Raúl Belinchón
Spanish artist Raúl Belinchón fuses the heady attitudes and deep themes common in contemporary fine art with breathtaking architecture photography.
Often making use of unusual lenses and perspectives, his award-winning photography has put a new spin on contemporary architectural design, earning him praise and attention from major institutions.
Janna Ireland
With a diverse portfolio crossing any and all boundaries of genre and form, Janna Ireland is one of the most innovative young photographers of our time and a current personal favorite of mine.
Ireland’s work is not only socially conscious but also freely references art history and her personal life and relationships, capturing a whole world inside her attractively composed prints.
Fong Qi Wei
Singaporean artist Fong Qi Wei may be familiar to some of you already as the mind behind the Time is a Dimension photo series.
In these and other pictures, Fong Qi Wei transforms architecture, landscape photography, and street scenes into otherworldly vistas by using unconventional development processes.
The result is a surrealist marvel that is hard to compare to anything else we’ve seen before.
The Evolution of Fine Art Photography
Now that we’ve met the key figures, let’s understand where and how this artistic genre emerged, both in its practical technique and cultural notion.
Where Fine Art Photography Emerged
The origins of fine art photography begin during the very early days of the craft. Perhaps not surprisingly, photographic arts had a hard time establishing themselves as a viable medium of expression back in the early to mid-1800s.
Almost nowhere was this more true than in the art world, where many looked down on photography as a high-tech, low-art gimmick for those not talented or not committed enough to stick to traditional paintings.
Creatively, these early critics may even have had a valid point, as pioneer-era photography was largely concerned with the sheer challenge of producing and developing a stable image. When it came to composition, most practitioners directly based their framing on established artworks such as paintings or drawings.
The Pictorialists
Over the course of the next few decades however, things began to change rapidly. A new generation of young photography enthusiasts began to experiment with unique creative approaches in composition, lighting, and exposure.
These trailblazers challenged the notion that photography was nothing more than a cheap imitation of art. In fact, it was during this time, around the turn of the 20th century, that the notion of fine art photography was born.
That’s not just because it is this crucial period during which photography developed its own artistic identity. It also has to do with the slow assimilation of photography into the traditional high art world which began during this very same time.
The unprecedented style pioneered by this generation is known as Pictorialism and is distinguished by use of soft focus, impressionist-like compositions, and high contrast.
Changes up to the Present Day
From here on out, high art photographers would play an important role in shaping the cultural zeigeist of the 20th and 21st centuries. Key art movements of the following years, including Modernism and Abstract Expressionism, would find their expression in photography just as readily as in music, painting, sculpture, and the performing arts.
Today, we can still see important world events reflected in the constantly changing style of photography, not specific genres, such as architecture or portraits, but rather the artistic practice of photography itself.
It is this concept that unifies and guides the understanding at its core.
The Future of Fine Art Photography
Fine Art photographers have always been at the forefront of the medium’s development, so it should be no surprise that the craft keeps evolving to the present day. What is really impressive, though, is how this evolution is progressing in many directions at once.
On the one hand, new and controversial digital techniques such as AI-assisted imaging and editing are making big waves, changing our thoughts about authenticity and authorship.
On the other hand, there is a huge analog renaissance happening within the genre. Countless big names are returning to old-fashioned gear, optics, and development techniques. Some of the younger artists among us are even doing so for the first time.
Experimental analog development, such as the use of film soups and unconventional chemicals, is coming back into vogue, as is mixed-media publishing.
Increasingly, many of the most acclaimed fine art photographers are spreading their wings far beyond the medium and incorporating elements of live art, sculpture, performance, painting, music, and more.
What will fine art photography look like in a few years from now? It’s hard to say. What’s for sure is that the medium will keep challenging minds and displaying some of the most concentrated bursts of creativity our age has to offer!
Take Away
From the earliest beginnings of photography itself, there have always been those who couldn’t be satisfied by simply going through the same motions as those around them, working in whichever mainstream style had currency. It is these people who move our medium forward, and it is these people that we usually refer to as true artists of photography.
But working in this genre is about so much more than being avant-garde. It’s a whole artistic approach to images and the way to produce them that cannot be taught as much as it can be absorbed and practiced. And that is precisely what I suggest you do now, after having had a taste of so many different interpretations of the same one concept: absorb what you have seen, and put it to work to let it sink in!
