John Thompson

John Thompson is a Scotsman who were among the first pioneers to sail to the far east. He documented his adventures to this new foreign culture with photography. He documented people, artefacts and landscape of the eastern culture. He documented their lives and the way they lived as during that time the lives of people were alien to the western world.  His documentation and photojournalism of the eastern world shaped the perception of western society. He visited Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra, Ceylon, India, Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam and He is most famous for visiting China. John enlightened the opinions and stigmas the people of Victorian England had of Asia. 

John Thompson is an inspiration to me as he teaches me to visit places unknown and foreign to us. To also visit areas that are outside our comfort zones, we don't know how our pictures would impact people or even shape society. We should always try to document things that people are unaware of or things that are often overlooked. 

Lewis Hine

Hine Lewis was a sociologist and a photographer back in the 1920s. He documented the labours and labourers of that time. Showing the hardship and the poverty of the Industrial Revolution. His work is a classic example of good documentation and his works are what sparked the change in Child Labour laws of that time. He taught in New York and he encouraged his students to use cameras and photos as a means to document work during their Sociology classes. He soon realised that the images he took could actually make a difference. Throughout his pursuit to expose child labour in factories, he was threatened with violence and death by the security of the factories. But he did not stop. He was also commissioned to photograph the building of the Empire State Building, in which he photographed the construction workers in precarious positions whilst in a basket dangling 1000 feet in the air. 

Bob Lee

Bob Lee is a local photographer that recently gave a talk in NAFA. Bob is a local photographer who does commercial and also personal projects on photographer. From talking to him and listening to his lecture, i realised that Bob was a person with a big heart. Each photo from his personal projects had a recurring theme. 

lives

He focused a lot on the human aspects of photography. Documenting the lives and story of the forgotten or the downcast. He has won numerous awards throughout asia and some abroad. It truly is an inspiring feat to see a Singaporean with such success. As I personally feel that Singapore's losing its grip on the artistic scene. 

His down the earth photography and story driven photography is something that would benefit me in my learning of this module. 

not very sure if this is his photo

William Eggleston

William Eggleston is a photographer that is known for his vibrant colours in his photos. He uses a film camera to capture the pastel and also contrasting colours of the 70s and 80s. William Eggleston photographs and documents forgotten items and things that we often overlook. First photographing in black-and-white, Eggleston began experimenting with color in 1965 and 1966 after being introduced to the medium by William Christenberry.

William Eggleston was a unique and inspirational photographer as he stepped out of the comfort zone of photographers during his time. They would all use black and white film but William Eggleston shot in colour. Perfectly encapsulating the beauty and the vibrancy of the 70s and 80s. The colour palate is extensive and is amazing.

He inspires me to see this mundane world through different lens.

Vivian Maier

This is Vivian Maier but this picture doesn't do her justice. I think this does. 

She has a personality that is so mysterious, she would not even provide her name to people. She would impersonate a fake french accent and she has a different approach to photography. She worked as a baby sitter to support herself but her true passion was street photography. One time, the child she was taking care of got hit by a car. All she did was take out her camera to take pictures of the accident. She was very odd women as she would randomly snap pictures of people and of random objects in public. She was bold, mysterious and ultimately a brilliant photographer. She did not have any prior training in photographer but yet she had the ability to have elements of design in her images. 

i feel that she has a unique outlook on life and that can really help me with my photography. She has continued to live in the moment and that can really help me. To always be ready to shoot and to be bold with our shooting.

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh is said to be one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. Time magazine claims. Yousuf Karsh is an unique and different as he has a distinct style in his theatrical lighting. One unique thing he does is that he separately lights the subjects hands. 

"As Karsh wrote of his own work in Karsh Portfolio in 1967, "Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize.""

He has taken portraits of famous celebrities and even taken picture of Winston Churchill. Capturing a strong message with each photo, documenting and displaying the life's life. 

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon is a portrait photographer that has been bold in pushing the bar of American portrait photography. He focused more on fashion and portrait photography. He created his own unique style to break away from the common types of photography back in the past. 

Richard Avedon photographed many celebrities and famous icon, applying his own photographic style to fashion photography. 

An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century".

Richard Avelon revolutionised American photography and fashion photography.