Photographer Timeline

  • Joseph Niepce

    Joseph Niepce

    Joseph Niepce was the inventor of photography. He created the first photograph by accidentally leaving a sheet of metal with some chemicals on it sitting on the window sill for a few hours.
  • Louis Daguerre

    Louis Daguerre

    Louis Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography.
  • Matthew Brady

    Matthew Brady

    Matthew Brady was a civil war photographer. He is often referred to as the father of photojournalism. He photographed images including battlefields, camp life, and portraits of some of the most famous people of the time including Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.
  • Edward Muybridge

    Edward Muybridge

    Muybridge is known for his early work in motion-picture projection. He made a bet with his friends that at some point when a horse ran all 4 of its feet were off the ground. He then set up a series of cameras that took pictures as the horse ran by showing its motion.
  • Lewis Hine

    Lewis Hine

    Hineś photographs changed child labor laws in the United States. He hated the abuse of children as workers so much that he quit his job and became an investigative photographer. He traveled around the country photographing the working conditions of children. He took photos of children in coal mines, meatpacking houses, textile mills, and in canneries. He also took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers.
  • Dorothea Lange

    Dorothea Lange

    Dorothea Lange was an American photographer and photojournalist. She was best known for her work during the great depression.
  • Ansel Adams

    Ansel Adams

    Known for his black and white landscape photographs.His photographs have been widely produced on calendars, posters, books, and the internet.
  • Edward Weston

    Edward Weston

    He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers" and "one of the masters of 20th-century photography."
  • Yousef Karsh

    Yousef Karsh

    Karsh is best known for his portraits of important and famous men and women of politics, Hollywood, and the arts. Some of these people include Albert Einstein, Grace Kelly, and Walt Disney.
  • Margaret Bourke-White

    Margaret Bourke-White

    In 1929, Bourke-White accepted a job as associate editor and staff photographer of Fortune magazine, a position she held until 1935. In 1930, she became the first Western photographer allowed to take photographs of Soviet industry.
  • Henry Cartier-Bresson

    Henry Cartier-Bresson

    French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.
  • Arnold Newman

    Arnold Newman

    Newman is known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He is also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images.
  • Richard Avedon

    Richard Avedon

    Richard Avedon was best known for his minimalist portraits and his work in the fashion world. He first worked as a photographer for the Merchant Marines, taking identification photos. He then moved to fashion, shooting for magazines like Vogue. He wanted his models to convey emotion and movement which was different from the normal and motionless fashion photography.
  • Diane Arbus

    Diane Arbus

    Diane Arbus is known for her photographs of freaks - dwarfs, transgenders, nudists, circus performers, and people who were perceived by the general populace as ugly or bizarre.
  • Jerry Uelsmann

    Jerry Uelsmann

    Jerry Uelsmann is largely known for his surreal photography.
  • Annie Leibovitz

    Annie Leibovitz

    Photographer for the Rolling Stones. Most know for her pictures of celebrites.