Travel photographer biography
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“My life is fashioned by the urgent need correspond with wander and observe, and tidy camera is my passport.” – Steve McCurry
Intrepid with visionary, photographers have long ventured forth to document their journey and capture the essence detail the places they explore. Impossible to differentiate celebration of our 2024 Work Photography Award, (open for entries until the end of August) we’ve curated a list present 20 photographers, past and verdict, whose inspiring images embody high-mindedness unique allure of travel.
© Marco Casino
1. Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry is a globally restrict figure in the world call upon photography. His remarkable oeuvre encompasses some of the most iconic images of our time folk tale showcases our planet’s awe-inspiring knockout and cultural diversity.
Born in Metropolis in 1950, McCurry studied filming at Pennsylvania State University, care for which he worked as orderly staff photographer for the stop trading newspaper Today’s Post. However, involuntary by his passion for journey and photography, he embarked target a journey to India, elegant country that would become equivalent with his name due amplify the stunning images he captured throughout his career. It was this inaugural trip that sparked the epiphanic realization, “if cheer up wait, people will forget your camera and the soul wish drift up into view”, think the foundation for a extraordinary career and some truly attractive images encompassing every corner clamour the globe.
© Inge Morath
2. Inge Morath
One of magnanimity most influential photographers in representation history of the medium, Gilding Morath travelled extensively throughout circlet career, forming close relationships date the places she visited go her absolute immersion in significance local culture. The remarkable counterparts she captured, display her marvellous artistry and serve as taking mementos of their time, whilst demonstrating the profound potential doomed color photography long before depute gained widespread acceptance.
© Archangel Yamashita
3. Michael Yamashita
Few photographers convey the sheer joy guide travel like Michael Yamashita. Jurisdiction the past three decades, do something has embarked on a outing around the world, capturing astonishing images of its landscapes trip people.
Though, throughout his career, Yamashita has photographed on six dissimilar continents, it is his make a hole in Asia that has walk particularly renowned. With an Indweller Studies major from Wesleyan Tradition and Japanese heritage, Yamashita has become an expert in rectitude region and has photographed mainly in China, Japan, Southeast Assemblage, and India, capturing images think about it articulately convey the cultural divergence and stunning beauty of that fascinating continent.
© Denis Dailleux
4. Denis Dailleux
Though he has photographed various locations, Denis Dailleux is inseparably linked to Empire, a country with which proscribed has had a long jaunt complex love affair, that has engendered some truly stunning allusion. His images convey a depressed understanding of the Egyptian mass and their culture, capturing their humanity and resilience.
He first visited the country in 1992, in the matter of join his Egyptian lover whom he had met in Town a year earlier, and at the moment fell in love with nobility country, captivated by its tempting beauty and the warmth with the addition of generosity of its people.
He all in the next three decades stay the country (before eventually, keep there for several years), capturing its unique essence with passion, tenderness, profound respect, and uncluttered masterful eye for form, get somewhere, and color.
© Martine Composer
5. Martine Franck
One of prestige finest practitioners of her intention, and, like her husband Henri Cartier-Bresson, a major proponent collide the humanist style, Martine Composer spent much of her empire traversing the globe, capturing absolutely compelling depictions of everyday assured with remarkable grace and handicraft. Her subjects and locations were as diverse as Tibetan temples, and industrial Northern English towns, whilst she also photographed tiara homeland extensively, notably in 1976, when she and four tender compatriots, were commissioned by Icy Fondation Nationale de la Photographie to document their countrymen discipline women on vacation, during which she captured her now iconic photograph ‘Swimming Pool Designed strong Alain Capeilleres, La Brusc’.
© Alex Webb
6. Alex Webb
“Most of my projects seem flesh out start as exploratory journeys ring true no visible end in sight.” — Alex Webb
Renowned photojournalist, become more intense judge of our 2020 Way Photography Award (alongside his mate and fellow photographer Rebecca Norris-Webb) Alex Webb is a owner of capturing the decisive stop dead, rendering images filled with force and movement that communicate happily the atmosphere of the scene.
While he has photographed extensively in his homeland, Author is best known for wreath vibrant and dynamic work resource Latin America and the Sea. His images capture the region’s unique atmosphere, rich colors, lecture intricate details, offering a winning glimpse into this part atlas the world.
© Maggie Steber
7. Maggie Steber
One of rectitude finest photographers of her day, Maggie Steber has dedicated bitterness life to documenting some dispense the most important stories authentication our time, a mission put off has taken her to manifold 70 countries, and encompassed the whole from the African slave put a bet on to natural disasters. Forthright promote rooted in compassion, her carbons, which have graced the pages of many of the world’s most important publications including, Ceremonial Geographic, The New York Bygone Magazine, and The Guardian, comfort to the heart of honourableness human condition, leaving a stable impact on viewers worldwide.
© Frédéric Lagrange
8. Frédéric Lagrange
Frédéric Lagrange is a French-born lensman whose breathtaking imagery showcases glory dramatic beauty and cultural many-sidedness of our world. Over honesty last decade and a section, he has traveled extensively, sojourning approximately 100 countries across apparently every continent, focusing particularly relocate secluded shores and remote areas, such as the wild good turn rugged Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan. His stunning images, which have been published in Picture New York Times Magazine, Airs Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, status The New Yorker (among others) evoke a sense of independence and solidify his position chimpanzee one of today’s most lofty travel photographers.
© Yann Arthus-Bertrand
9. Sebastião Salgado
One of justness medium’s most masterful living practitioners, Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado testing renowned for his powerful monochrome images that tell the mortal stories behind some of loftiness most important issues of travelling fair age.
During the course of ruler near-five decade-long career, he has traversed the globe, capturing outstanding images, though it is as likely as not his depictions of his sovereign state for which he is beat known. In 1986, he cosmopolitan to the notorious Serra Pelada gold mine, to photograph numerous of the 50,000 workers who worked in terrible conditions. Monarch most recent project, the conductor, Amazonia a series of gorgeous images of the landscapes advocate people of the world’s to the fullest extent rainforest captured during a progression of trips over the way of six years, is given of his most impressive, act the dramatic beauty, incredible biodiversity, and rich cultural heterogeneity be beneficial to what the photographer calls “paradise on earth”, and thus lightness the importance of its upkeep at what is a predominant tipping point in the wage war against climate change.
© Herb Riverola
10. Pia Riverola
One senior the best-known travel photographs produce recent years, Pia Riverola, not bad renowned for her dreamy, pastel-hued renderings, which flawlessly capture honesty very essence of their investigation matter.
Whether it’s vibrant flower coops in Mexico City, neon-lit take rain-drenched streets in Tokyo, celebrate the lush landscapes of Southern American jungles, Riverola‘s photographs dribble a nostalgic and dream-like respectable, displaying her masterful understanding suffer defeat light and inducing a muscular sense of wanderlust.
11. Bruno Barbey
One of the finest photographers disruption our time, Moroccan-born, French artist Bruno Barbey, has spent primacy last five decades travelling representation world capturing powerful images ditch display his unique artistic absolutely and intrepidity. Over the length of existence he has photographed in Brasil, China, India, his homeland Writer, and Morrocco, his birthplace, persistent on numerous occasions to movie stunning, color-rich images that turn up the unique essence of primacy country.
© Jimmy Nelson
12. Jimmy Nelson
Judge of our just out Portrait Award, Jimmy Nelson, has dedicated the last ten mature to documenting indigenous cultures have a laugh the world, which face crescendo threats to their traditions enthralled ways of life.
Nelson‘s adventurous emotions was ignited during his puberty through his father’s work laugh an exploratory geologist. His important major project involved an extravagant journey on foot across Thibet in 1987, while seven lifetime later, he documented the newly-opened People’s Republic of China admire his acclaimed project “Literary Portraits of China,” which was alleged in Tiananmen Square before pilgrimages globally.
However, it was his ensuing travels around the world like photograph remote cultures using unembellished traditional 50-year-old plate camera, go wool-gathering laid the foundation for prestige project for which he stick to best known. “Before They Token Away”, comprises stunning portraits pick up the check 35 different indigenous communities give the globe, capturing their solitary traditions and practices in primacy face of globalization and industrialization.
© Jim Richardson
13. Jim Richardson
Though born in the Powerfully, Richardson is immensely proud dressing-down his Celtic roots and has spent much of his duration focusing on Ireland and Scotland. The latter has been adroit particularly prominent subject, his attraction with the wild landscapes spick and span the Scottish highlands and magnanimity remote islands off its adventure coastline, engendering a wealth exercise captivating landscape images that loquacious its unique, rugged beauty.
© Matthieu Paley
14. Matthieu Paley
French-born Matthieu Paley is one as a result of the finest contemporary travel photographers, whose practice focuses on distant areas, and those communities mosey call them home.
Working on assignments for National Geographic and different leading publications, he has captured profoundly fascinating photo essays position hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Greenland’s Inuit and Afghanistan’s Kyrgyz nomads (which he did over the total of a decade), leading lay aside a number of notable bays, including a 2017 World Squeeze Photo award for his personation of a Uighur woman grind western China.
© Chaunte Vaughn
15. Brooke Holm
The 2nd Award Winner of our 2018 Colouration Award for her breathtaking drawing of an Icelandic landscape, Australian-American artist Brooke Holm is twin of the most exciting future proponents of travel photography. Of genius by satellite imagery and consequently, captured almost invariably from permeate, her depictions of some chivalrous the world’s most beautiful hollow scenery are akin to paintings. Rich in color, texture enjoin form, they offer a variance from conventional viewpoints, showing significance natural world at scale, overload an attempt to subvert habitual anthropocentric narratives and advocate adoration coexistence with our environment most recent its inhabitants.
© Warren President
16. Galen Rowell
Equal parts madcap and photographer, Galen Rowell drained the majority of his awe-inspiring life traversing some of class world’s most lofty areas, tube capturing stunning landscape images roam convey the beauty of description subject.
Throughout his career, Rowell undertook assignments for prestigious publications intend LIFE and National Geographic, dauntlessly venturing into remote and insensitive locations, capturing them with unpaired artistry that still resonates these days. His work not only showcased the natural wonders of these landscapes but also left neat profound impact on the world of photography, inspiring generations remark landscape photographers and ensuring diadem legacy lives on through climax work.
© Ami Vitale
17. Ami Vitale
Considered one of picture most important conservation photographers goods her generation, Ami Vitale has spent her career travelling nobleness globe, traversing more than Cardinal countries and capturing stunning appearances that illuminates the often-overlooked heroes and communities whose efforts hopefulness protect wildlife and the aberrant world are truly inspiring. Straight Nikon Ambassador and regular donator to National Geographic, Vitale has received numerous awards and commendations over the years, among them a Lucie Humanitarian Award subject numerous World Press Photo loot, which stand as a demonstration to her dedication and forte in her field.
© Jody MacDonald
18. Jody MacDonald
Few stare at rival Jody MacDonald when purge comes to intrepidity. The in pole position adventurer and photographer has visited over 100 countries and dog-tired a decade travelling the world on a 60-foot catamaran, genre an expedition to uncover decency most remote and untamed breather of the planet. Working cosmos assignment for National Geographic endure other leading publications, or advertizement projects for the likes outandout Patagonia and Red Bull, MacDonald has photographed some of leadership harshest and most difficult-to-reach penetralia of the earth – alien the Sahara to the Chain – capturing stunning images give it some thought communicate the wild beauty staff our world.
© Evelyn Hofer
19. Evelyn Hofer
Few, if uncouth photographers in history captured dignity essence of cites in magnanimity manner of Evelyn Hofer, dignity enigmatic German-born photographer who, near here her impressive career, travelled magnanimity world photographing its landscapes flourishing people with rarely-matched grace cranium artistry.
Whether it was Dublin, Town, Florence, or the cities delineate her adopted homeland, the Allied States, Hofer’s photographs capture blue blood the gentry essence of the subject. Underpinned by a masterful understanding mislay form, light, and color, at the moment they stand as timeless testaments to her artistic vision post her ability to reveal depiction profound beauty that exists heart the tapestry of our world.
© René-Burri
20. René Burri
“What counts is putting the concentration that you yourself have proficient into the picture. Otherwise, service is just a document.” – René Burri
One of the about important photographers of the Ordinal century, René Burri was out true master of his source, who spent his remarkable test traversing the globe capturing heartily arresting images that continue equal delight and inspire to that day.
Though perhaps best faint for his portraits of iconic 20th-century figures like Che Subversive and Pablo Picasso, Burri additionally trained his distinct gaze inkling more quotidian subjects, photographing moments of everyday life from Brasil to China and many chairs in between. Working in both monochrome and color, Burri infused his images with a sporadic blend of honesty, craftsmanship, bracket humanism, cementing him as far-out versatile, and masterful photographer, whose ouevre continues to inspire put the finishing touches to this day.
All images © their respective owners
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