A Short Guide to Everyday Photographers

Below you will find a short ten person list of prominent everyday photographers who were all born in the twentieth century. Not only has the work of these photographers set the stage for now-emerging photographers, but they were inspired by earlier works by those from the century before. 

• Stephen Shore (1947-)
• William Eggleston (1939-)
• Henry Wessel (1942-2018)
• Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
• Joel Sternfeld (1944-)
• Robert Adams (1937-)
• Robert Frank (1924-)
• Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)
• Lee Friedlander (1934-)
• Walker Evans (1903-1975)

Although the subject lines of the work of these photographers varies, it all comes back to the main idea of capturing the mundane everyday in predominantly the 35mm film medium. Thus, what's remarkable about this fact is that they all do so in wildly different styles. While Shore has traveled across America capturing the quintessential "everyday" look of life, one of Winogrand's most famous works is The Animals, where he took a critical view of how humans function in zoos. In a similar vein, Friedlander's The American Monument chronicles his visiting of everyday monuments across the United States, giving us a refreshing look about what exactly we deem as monument-deserving. 

While Winogrand and Friedlander selected very specific subjects to study, others were much more concentrated in their practices. For instance, Robert Adams' The New West specifically studies the shifting landscape of the West. Wessel's work pairs quite nicely with Adams', as Wessel largely concentrated on mundane scenes of the West, yet in a more intimate way. It is easy to suggest that Adams was greatly influenced by the work of Evans, who documented America during the Great Depression, commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. Both Cartier-Bresson and Sternfeld captured the everyday on intimate levels, mainly interacting with the subjects in their work. 

What makes these photographers' work so special is the fact that you can look at their work backwards and forwards a million times, but you see things differently each time you do so. Engaging with these photographers' work together allows the viewer to create a more intimate relationship with the outside world, as it becomes far more intriguing after looking at the work that has been created by these photographers.