15 Famous Street Photographers You Should Know 2022

Meet some of the creative street photographers who shoot on the streets.
At the beginning of the summer, we revealed the keys to becoming an excellent street photographer. Since then, we have been looking for new talents in cities and countries.

Street photography is something that traps us from minute one. The ability to capture not only a moment unrepeatable, but also of an era, is what most personally fascinates me. Today I’d like to introduce you to a few street photographers that are a point of reference and in which you can be inspired, but if you want to dig deeper, don’t miss the mega guide that we have prepared with all the tips and tricks of Street Photography.

We enjoy seeing the stories behind each of their photos and that is why we are delighted to present Street photographers at Instagram and EyeEm 20 who understand the language of the streets. They are united by a special ability to capture situations, moments, looks that show that we live surrounded by art.

Might interest you : 330+ hashtags from 15 Instagram Streetphotography Accounts 2021

Table of Contents

1. Alex Webb

Alex Webb (San Francisco, may 5, 1952), is a photographer of street american, a member of the Agency Magnum since 1979.

He studied History and Literature at Harvard university and Photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. His mastery of light, color, composition and the decisive moment are awesome. He has worked for magazines such as National Geographic, GEO, etc

Some of his publications:

I invite you to dive for their website because their pictures are truly impressive: http://www.webbnorriswebb.co/

2. Brian Lloyd Duckett

This photographer of street is an ambassador of Fujifilm and author of Mastering Street Photography and 52 Assignments: Street Photography, in addition to providing numerous photography courses.

You can follow her website and Youtube channel that focuses on Street Photography:

3. Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn (New York), 1946. He studied sociology and later gave some classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, although considered to be a photographer of street-based self-taught.

Bruce Gilden is an iconic photographer of the street with a unique way of working and to conceive of the space of the street, especially of the city of New York. In his photographs are about a lot the subject and usually use an external flash, with the goal that its protagonists are aware of its presence.

I’m known for taking pictures very close, and the older i get, the closer i get.
Bruce Gilden

Some of his publications:

Here you can see how it works:

4. Daidō Moriyama

Daidō Moriyama is a photographer of street japanese whose work is characterized by its straightforward style and radical, its blurs, and the high contrast black and white.

Taking a photograph is an act of memorizing intentionally at a particular point in the tunnel of eternal time.
Daidō Moriyama

Here you can see his thoughts on street photography:

Some of his works:

5. David Alan Harvey

David Alan Harvey is an american photographer located in North Carolina. It takes being a member of the Agency Magnum since 1997, he has worked for Geographic and was chosen photographer of the year in 1978 by the National Press Photographers Association. He is the founder of the magazine Burn, which showcases the work of emerging photographers.

Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.
David Alan Harvey

This talk about his photography is highly recommended:

6. David Gibson

David Gibson is a photographer of street for more than 30 years, british writer and photography. It was one of the founders of In-Public and is one of the street photographers most iconic that they are still active.

His work has been exhibited in places such as the Museum of London or the Museum of the City of New York among many other places.

Some of his publications:

7. Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus (New York, 1923 -1971) was recognized as one of the best photographers, began working for fashion magazines but quickly became interested in street photography.

From the 60’s focused on portraying the slums of New York to select the characters that he portrayed, among which were dwarves, giants, nudists, streepers, transsexual, and prostitutes.

His work has been exhibited in places such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

8. Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, while it is not strictly a photographer of street as your photos are more because photojournalistic, I think it is worth to know it so iconic in some of its images. It is famous for portraying the Great Depression that hit the united states and by images such as the one I present below.

Some of his publications:

9. Elliott Erwitt

Elliot Erwitt is a photographer, american born in Paris in 1948, and emigrated after the Second World War to the US. He has a long career as a photographer of street and in various publications. In 1953 he was invited to work for the Agency Magnum by Robert Capa. 15 years later he became the president of the same.

His documentary style and his intelligent humor and ironic is easily recognizable.

Nothing happens while you’re sitting at home. Whenever I can I like to carry a camera with me at all sides. So I can shoot at what interests me at the moment
Elliott Erwitt

Some of his publications:

10. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson (1908 – 2004) was a famous French photographer considered by many as the father of fotorreportaje and the “decisive moment”. He was a co-founder of the Agency Magnum, and his work has been exhibited in places as impressive as the museum of the Louvre.

Throughout his career, he covered major events like the death of Gandhi or the Spanish Civil War, also portrayed characters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Henri Cartier Bresson was the first western journalist that he was able to visit the Soviet Union, after the death of Stalin.

11. Joel Meyerowitz

Joel Meyerowitz is a photographer american who studied Art, Art History, and Medical Illustration at the University of Ohio.

While working as an art director in an advertising agency, he stumbled upon the work of Robert Frank and he knew he wanted to devote himself to street photography. It is one of the first street photographers to use the color in street photography as a form of serious art where the black-and-white was full. He has been doing street photography for more than 50 years.

His book, Cape Light is considered a masterpiece of color in photography.

Other publications:

What you put in the frame set to the photograph
Joel Meyerowitz

12. Martin Parr

Martin Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic, from 1970 to 1973. In 1994 he became part of the Agency Magnum. He has been a professor of photography and has received many awards such as the Erich Salomon Prize, or the Sony World Photography Award, among others.

His work is characterized by saturated colors, the sense of humor and irony , and focuses on the life-style of people mainly from Great Britain. I recommend that you to follow him on Instagram.

13. Matt Stuart

Matt Stuart is a photographer of street nominated member of the Agency Magnum, and previously, a member of the collective In-Public. Leads workshops on street photography and also works as an advertising photographer in addition to being a reference to street photography is concerned.

His compositions and his way of working the color are great.

Think Like a Street Photographer

14. Nikos Economopoulos

This photographer of Greek origin, noted for his black and white photographs and lately also in color. His work on the Balkans made him win the Mother Jones Award and earned him entry to the Agency, Magnum.

Being on the road, traveling without a predetermined purpose, looking around me with visual curiosity and being surprised by what I encounter. While shooting, somehow, thinking is suspended. It is like playing a game with reality
Nikos Economopoulos

15. Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier was a photographer of the american discovered posthumously that worked by photographing the streets of New York while working as a nanny for a family.

His photographs are fascinating stories of the cities of New York and had a great impact to be discovered. I highly recommend the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier”, I’ll let the trailer below:

Well, I suppose nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people. It’s a wheel. You get on, you have to go to the end. And then somebody has the same opportunity to go to the end and so on.
Vivian Maier

Publications on the work of Vivian Maier: