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Top 10 Famous Photographers of 21st Century

  • Post published:April 23, 2022

Best and most famous photographers /famous photographer of all times are talented and passionate people, but most of all they have a gift and an enormous desire to capture amazing shots. 21st Century photographers use the camera to extend their selves and share their vision of the world to all people surrounding them. Photographers can often be compared to cats as they don’t need company, they like to seek their own way in life.

10. Slava Mogutin

Slava Mogutin- Famous Photographers

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Slava Mogutin is one of the top 10 photographers of 21st Century. When he was 14 years old he moves from Siberia to Moscow to work as a reporter. Until he turned 21, he was charged with malicious hooliganism and was the target of two highly criminal cases. Later, in Russia, he tried to register for the first same-sex marriage and one year later he was exiled, moving to New York. His career in photography started in New York and his work was exhibited all around the world being published into two monographs, NYC Go-Go and Lost Boys.

9. Dave Schubert

Dave Schubert

Image Credit: ArtBusiness

21st century photographers have different backgrounds and life stories. For instance, Dave Schubert had his first camera from his father as a gift to help him get through the trauma of moving. This army-brat is a self-taught photographer who began by shooting skateboard scenes in the ‘90’s and got to shoot some iconic images of the age. For example, the picture of Dash Snow smoking a cigarette in a bathtub of Polaroids with nothing but a hat made him famous. Still, he doesn’t have a website, he works in San Francisco and once in a while he exhibits his work.

8. Nick Knight

Nick Knight

Image Credit: PhotographerNickKnight’sBlog

Amongst the best and most famous photographers /famous photographer we find Nick Knight, one of the best fashion photographers. He is born in London and his first book was published in 1982, Skinhead, a good start for a young photographer. A short time after, he began shooting for I-D magazine and started a 30 years career in commercial, music and fashion. He started SHOWstudio.com in 2000 specializing in new and live fashion media.

7. JR

 JR- One of the Famous Photographers

Image Credit: Phaidon

Other photographers of 21st Century are revolutionary, just like JR. He started as a street artist and captured imagination of people into celebrating common woman and man. JR is a graffiti master and a photographer as well. He uses the streets of the world as his canvas, from separation walls between Palestine and Israel to favelas in Brazil. He wants to force people look at his work this way.

6. Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson

Image Credit: Twitter

Eric Johnson, one of the best and most famous Photographers/famous photographer, lives in a loft in Manhattan. His home is also a disco, lounge, photo studio and gallery. This place is an image of old school energies from New York, called Upstairs at Eric’s. His work is based on portraits, favorite photographers like Rosie Perez and Maxwell and new artists like Junglepussy and LE1F.

5. Nina Berman

Nina Berman- Famous Photographers

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Nina Berman is one of the fearless 21st century photographers. She uses the camera to witness sacrifice, war, patriotism and militarization of American life and media. She is the author of Homeland and Purple Hearts- Back from Iraq. Nina wants to reveal the transformation of domestic and foreign worlds.

4. Per-Anders Pettersson

Per-Anders Pettersson

Image Credit: Glotels

Per-Anders Pettersson is a Swedish photographer that has earned his spot in our top 10 best and most famous photographers/famous photographer. He started shooting while he was enrolled in the military. After serving his time there, he started traveling with his new job on a Swedish newspaper. Since 1994 he works in South Africa, documenting the sights and lands and winning awards.

3. The team of Curiosity Rover

Curiosity Rover- Famous photographers

Image Credit: SPACE.com

These are maybe the most inedited photographers of 21st century. They landed on Mars in 2012 and have been taking pictures and rock samples of the surface of the planet since then. They earned people respect for showing them extraterrestrial aspects as they are.

2. Joe McNally

Joe McNally

Image Credit: Joe McNally

The second of the best and most famous photographers is Joe McNally who has a 30 years career in the field. He has shoot for the covers of New York Times Magazine, Time and Newsweek. He has also contributed to Face of Ground Zero and National Geographic.

1. Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

Image Credit: PLAID ZEBRA

Our list of the 21st century photographers ends with Ai Weiwei, or starts with him to be more accurate.  He is an international star due to his complex art and his Study of Perspective from ’95 to 2003 that caught the line between performance and photograph. He took great cultural monuments from different countries, such as the White House or the Eifel Tower and broke the stereotype of common tourists taking pictures of them in front of the monuments.

Photographers of 21st century are more inclined to show their personalities in their work, to break some rules and become famous. After all, famous photographs are meant to help us remember important moments of our lives, holidays, vacations or other important events. While common people just want to have an album with all their loved ones, professional photographers want to give us a different perspective on how we look at the world, at each other and even at our own kitchen table.

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