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Joseph Niepce
- French inventor
- usually credited as the inventor of photography
- developed heliography
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Louis Daguerre
- French artist and photographer
- recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography
- became known as one of the fathers of photography
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Matthew Brady
- best known for Civil War scenes
- one of the earliest photographers in American history
- often referred to as the 'Father of Photojournalism"
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Edward Muybridge
- English photographer
- best known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion
- invented "Freeze Frame"
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Lewis Hine
- an american sociologist and photographer
- used his camera as a tool for social reform
- his photographs were used in the changing of child labor laws
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Dorothea Lange
- American documentary photographer and photojournalist
- best known for depression - era work
- most famous photograph - "Migrant Mother"
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Ansel Adams
- american photographer and environmentalist
- famous for black and white landscape photographs
- widely regarded as one of the most famous photographers of all time
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Margaret Bourke-White
- documentary photographer -first foreign photographer allowed to take pictures of the Soviet 5 Year plan
- one of the original 4 photographers who launched LIFE magazine
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Henri Cartier-Bresson
- French humanist photographer
- considered a master of candid photography
- mainly a street photographer
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Yousef Karsh
- Armenian-Canadian photographer
- best known for his portraits of notable individuals
- has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century
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Arnold Newman
- American photographer
- known for his "environmental portraits" of artists and politicians
- also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images
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Diane Arbus
- American photographer
- known for photographs of marginalized people—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers—and others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal -In 1969, the Metropolitan Museum of Art agreed to buy three photographs by Diane Arbus, for seventy-five dollars each
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Richard Avedon
- American fashion and portrait photographer
- The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century
- known for breaking the photography boundaries in the fashion and political world
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Jerry Uelsmann
- American photographer
- was the forerunner of photomontage in the 20th century in America
- known for his seamlessly grafted composite images in black and white.
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Annie Leibovitz
- American portrait photographer
- photographed John Lennon on the day he was assassinated
- her work has been used on multiple album covers
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Edward Weston
- 20th century American photographer
- has been called "the most influential american photographer of the twentieth century"
- best known for carefully composed images of sharp forms