TP: Who influences your photography?

Good idea for a thread. Maybe its a fun idea to tell why you like a certain photographers work. Since i'm liking studio work more and more I have some photographers in this category that really inspire me:

Gregory Crewdson(i just love how he and his team can light to perfection. I now not everyone likes it but you can't deny it technically very impressive)
Miles aldrige(his use of color is briljant)
Erwin Olaf(mixed bag for me some of his series i love and some i find afwfull. But definetly worth a look)
Loretta Lux (freaky unnaturally lit shots with amazing detail)

And some others:
Ad vlemmix(i love his raw/natural way of shooting women. This is how you should shoot women!)
Andreas gursky(no introduction needed)

And the last one would be Dustin Diaz, an active strobist that is doing a 1 photo a day project this year. He posts his set ups with every picture he makes. Though he tends to have a certain style its enlighting(i made a funny) to see his lighting set-ups. You should really check out his site if your into lighting:

http://photography.dustindiaz.com/

I'm curious what other people come up with! Please fill my brain with new inspirations and ideas!

I used to fill my rss reader with gear-talk forums, but that's just made me buy more things and spend more time thinking about equipment than photography! Despite my excitement at the new tamron 70-300, the new tokina 16-28, and the sony mirrorless, i'm trying to wean myself from gear forums.

As a replacement, I've been looking around for sites or forums that focus on photography (not equipment)! The themed views forum here is a favorite. I also just found this:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

It's a selection of news stories told entirely with pictures & captions. At fairly high resolution too!

So how about you - where do you go to get inspirational photos?

I read a quote from some photographer (can't remember who) who said "everything I know about photography I learned from looking at other images." I think it's a pretty good point of view ;).

Eric

Take a look here. This the Photography Now site. I draw lots of inspiration from the pictures here.

Ansell Adams is a particular favourite (as well as Edward Weston, Immogen Cunningham, Yousef Karsh, Arnold Newman, Walker Evans etc, etc, etc...).

These are all photographers from a "golden age" of photography, one which I love. Modern photographers don't do it for me in quite the same way but I draw inspiration from the work shown on the Dyxum site (needless to say).

Edited by AlphaMan - 26 March 2010 at 13:21

Dianne Arbus and Minor White are my favorites. I know both are totally different aesthetics.

i do not think i am influenced by any particular photographer, although i have looked with much interest to the images of Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier Bresson in the past.

what does influence me are images i see in magazines like National Geographic, Geo, Elle, Vogue etc. the styles used there are quite different and often worth looking at - even if what is in the image does not interest you at all (like for me Elle and Vogue). in the past i used to look quite a lot at images in Paris-Match and Life magazine, and even in some newspapers that then had their own photographers.

nowadays the influence is twofold: composition (like it always was) and processing (which has been much more influential in the digital era).

whether it has helped is doubtful: after 40 years of taking pictures i still have to come up with the first image i would call "nearly perfect". i have raised my standards over the years though.

I dont have just one particular photographer as someone who influences my photography, though I subscribe to a number of magazines like National Geographics and Photography magazines that I aspire for my photo's to be like.

One photographer I find myself comparing my photo's too, also is an author of a magazine to help photographers improve their images showing different techniques.

Peter Eastway
Better Photography
National Geographic

Elliot Porter and his remarkable smallscapes are what drive me. Never could do the Ansel Adams huge and overpowering scenic works he does so well. See Anon Carter Museum