I imagine I will probably write more than I did so far about this topic. With the years and the exploration of different photography styles, those references changed, only making sense to chronologically discuss them.
The first photographer that inspired me wasn’t at the time an aesthetic reference. Mainly because I wasn’t really looking for one, but his importance is because he was the first photographer I saw the work as a piece of art. That is Sebastião Salgado. Naturally, I had seen many other photographers’ work in magazines, books, even some branded as fine art, but they were always just a photo, nothing I put much thought into it.
I was in high school, and in sociology class, we were discussing the impacts of capitalism on humanity. Sebastião Salgado has a book called “Gold” that shows thousands of men trying their luck in what once was the world’s largest open-air gold mine. It is a book showing the destruction of the planet and capitalism’s consequences in social relations and the environment. Even though it is not a light topic, the photos are just beautiful, and they made me look for more. I would go stand in book stores checking his books as I couldn’t afford them. I was just amazed by his work!
During the following years, I slowly found other photographers that were doing fantastic work. In general, the subject matter of these photographers didn’t really catch me. Then, years ago, I found the work of Platon. Again, it was mostly black and white as Salgado, but the main difference was the focus: People.
Platon’s famous work consists mostly of portraits and snapshots, and his aesthetics were initially the base I used for my work. Later I realized that I wasn’t being inspired by Platon, I was emulating him, so I decided to look on how to make changes to my portrait work to be more authentic. Checking the work of other photographers didn’t solve the issue, so I went back to the origin of portraits and studied the work of several painters (also outside of portraiture). Later, I found myself in love with Caravaggio’s work: dramatic light, shadows, and compositions. I slowly and, of course, in a very modest way, started adding what I liked on his work to mine, especially the light (that is no longer the case). Again the emulation instead of inspiration. Today I see emulation as an essential practice as it presents a technical challenge that will only make you learn, but that is a talk for another text.
After some time doing portraits, I wanted to do more. I wanted to explore fine art. Instagram and Pinterest became my research space. I would find photographers doing remarkable work, and then I tried to identify those photographers’ references (when possible) and continue from them. Some of those names are Sails Chong and Nicholas Fols, for example. There is nothing of their work on mine, also they are completely different in every aspect, but those are two photographers that I admire the creativity and aesthetics to a level I aspire to reach.
It is good to have references and inspiration sources, but I don't mean as references to copy or emulate. They offer opportunities to show you how to approach what you already do or plan to do in a better way or to avoid it altogether. That could be a new approach to lighting your scene or subject. Maybe you have been using overly saturated colors, and then you see works where an unsaturated color speaks more to you. It is also where you identify a new subject matter to work. At the same time, it is also a tricky thing, at least for me. In the past, it made me feel that everything has already been made or that I don't have enough resources to produce content like they do. Then I watched a course by Lindsay Adler where she shows you can be creative on a very tiny budget and create great photos. The "everything has already been made" part is an excuse we make to make us feel better. It is not easy to be authentic. I am not there yet, it is a process that all artists will eventually go through, and only some will finish it.
Here are some names I like in alphabetical order:
Annie Leibovitz
David Bailey
Gemy Woud-Binnendijk
Giuseppe Gardella
Irving Penn
Minhyunwoo
Nicholas Fols
Platon
Richard Avedon
Sails Chong
Sebastião Salgado