Favorite Photographers
To tell you the truth, it is quite a challenge for me to talk about my favorite photographers. The reason is, up until the 80s I have been ignorant of any (famous) photographers out there except for Ansel Adams and the Turkish photographer Ara Guler who was a Magnum member and a friend of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marc Riboud. I was born and raised in Turkey and there wasn't much photography related information available to me in my youth.
When I was 10 years old, I have visited an exhibition of Ansel Adams in Ankara. I can still remember the huge impact those larger than life prints have made upon me as a kid. I have spent a very long time there and a particular one which made a lasting impression was one with the full moon over some village with mountains in the background (which I now know was the "Moonrise - Hernandez, ", New Mexio, 1941). I guess that was the moment when I've started to look at photographs consciously.
Besides Adams, I knew one other name which was Ara Guler. The reason was, he was the defining photographer of Istanbul and I was born and raised there. My early photography revolved entirely around Istanbul as my main subject. So at least in that respect, I have developed an appreciation for the photographs of Ara Guler.
At the university, I have joined the photography club where I have met a fellow named Nuri Bilge Ceylan. He was my class mate and a much better photographer than I was (or have ever been). Later on, he became a photographer and a film director and is currently one of the best directors in Turkey. The fact that his newest film Three Monkeys has won the best director award at Cannes Film Festival in 2008 speaks for itself. His 2002 film Uzak has won the Grand Prix and the Best Actor awards at Cannes in 2003.
I'll conveniently skip the 90s, a period during which I have learnt much, much more about photography than ever before although there are no particular names which immediately come to my mind as my heroes. Except for perhaps Henri Cartier-Bresson. I have developed a liking for most of the Magnum photographers during that period.
Enter Martin Parr. This guy is amazing and his pictures are mind boggling in simplicity and blandness but still oh so good. I really like how he makes the mundane and the excessive something so special.
The Belgian photographer Stephan Vanfleteren has blown me off my socks when I saw his exhibition last year in the photography museum of Antwerp. His bigger than life portrait of lonely and old people living at the fringes of our society has grabbed me right there and since then does not let me go.
I realize that this list can never became an all encompassing one. So I'll just list these plus a few more and quit while I'm ahead of the game.
Photography Related Sites
Just like the next photographer, I too have many photography related web sites which I visit frequently. The most important one of those to me personally, however, is the OpenPhotographyForums.com (aka OPF). OPF is an open community of photographers from all over the world; professionals as well as amateurs. OPF members use their real names and they all share their passion for photography and know-how with each other in a most civil manner. OPF helps it's members in becoming better photographers, it has certainly helped me a lot. Be sure to drop by the OPF forums and if you like what you see, please enroll.
Some other sites I recommend visiting are (in no particular order):
