Author: Carly Matthew

March 1: My photography professor, Jeff Rich, recommended I look at the work of California photographer Jeff Brouws. Vintage signs, square frames, stunning colors: what’s not to love?

March 2: Stephen Shore is another photographer my professor recommended I look at because he felt his work is similar to what I’ve been trying to achieve in my Once Familiar project. Every time I tried to pick a favorite to share here on my blog, I flipped to the next image and loved it even more.

March 3: Brian Finke’s work is essentially a wide sociological representation of various groups: truckers, flight attendants, frat boys, etc. And his use of flash outdoors is flawless. Plus, he makes work for National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine—no big deal.

March 4: Jennifer Greenburg inserts images of herself in found mid-20th century images to “hijack the memories.”

March 5: British photographer Simon Roberts explored 200+ locations throughout Russia for his series Motherland.

March 6: The following image is from Paul Shambroom’s Meetings Series for which he took photos of official meetings in small towns.

March 7: Kyle Ford’s project Forever Wild is currently in progress. Click the image below to see some of the shots he’s created so far.

March 8: I adore all of Lacey Criswell’s quirky Minnesota images. She clearly is a genius at finding remarkable locations.

March 9: I’m always a fan of surreal photography though I don’t care to produce it myself.

New York City-based photographer Brooke Didonato is “influenced by the subconscious and its correlation to emotions and perceptions,” according to the bio on her site.

March 10: Martha Rosler explores the implied freedom of major American roadways in her series Rights of Passage (which includes much better quality images in book form).

March 11:  Many photographers probably know Alec Soth’s large format work, but I finally got my hands on a copy of Songbook. I’ll always be biased toward his book Sleeping by the Mississippi because I grew up on the Mississippi River in Iowa, but seeing his black and white work for Songbook was a new take.

March 12: Stephanie Calabrese is largely an iPhone photographer who made this Georgia series featured by the New York Times. 

March 13: EI just finished watching Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary of Edward Burtynsky photographing industry in China.

March 14: Tom Wood photographed bus rides in Liverpool over a period of 20 years for his series Bus Odyssey.

March 15:  Antti Janjunen is a London-based photographer I ran across while looking for examples of exposures made on Velvia on Instagram today.

March 16: Margaret Morton made this documentary series about young people living in an abandoned glass factory in Manhattan.

March 17: If you love vintage signs, Zack Vitiello’s Instagram is for you.

March 18: In Juan Fernandez’ series Façade, he removes all distracting elements in Photoshop to create an increased sense of tension in his architecture shots.

March 19: German photographer Elmar Ludwig’s zany work caught my eye in a used book store in Chicago last weekend called Our True Intent is All for Your Delight. Unfortunately, he’s slightly difficult to track down on the internet and I regret not buying it!

March 20: John Hinde is an English photographer with a nostalgic feel, especially in postcard version.

March 21: Tamara Reynolds explored transient town Oak Grove, Kentucky for this Oxford American project.

March 22: Throwback to my angsty high school years when my all-time favorite photographer was Brooke Shaden. 

March 23: Jennifer Bolande was commissioned to create billboards that matched their scenery. 

March 24: Drone + Photoshop = Aydin Büyüktas’s photo manipulations 

March 25: Homai Vyarawalla was a photojournalist at the time India became independent from the British Empire.

March 26: Shelby Lee Adams is known as “Picture Man” among the locals he photographs in Kentucky.

March 27: Lori Nix builds dioramas of imagined abandoned spaces for her project, The City.

March 28: David Plowden tried to capture elements American heritage that are threatened to be erased by industry and progress.

March 29: It’s impossible not to love the work of street photographer Elliot Erwitt.

March 30: Recommended by Eirik Johnson, who is currently visiting the University of Iowa’s photography program, Robert Adams. How have I not heard of him before?! His photos are just my style.

March 31: The series Animal Logic by Richard Barnes had me laughing out loud all the way through.

At the beginning of January, a prompt in my Steal Like an Artist Journal encouraged me to begin a 31-day challenge. I love photography but don’t look at others’ work as often as I would like, so I decided to do some brief research on one photographer each day and ended up with my own little personally curated gallery of artists that inspire me.

NONE of these images are my own. Please click on the images to see them and other images in the series on the photographer’s websites.

January 1: Irving Penn
Irving Penn is a photographer best known for his fashion photography but also has several interesting side projects that are worth a look.

January 2: Jon Horvath
His Pathetic Clouds series killed me.

January 3: Andrew Borowiec
I see so much of what I’ve been trying to accomplish in my Iowa series in this Ohio photographer’s work.

January 4: Kate Medley
Her work in the South is gorgeous. Unfortunately, her website doesn’t seem to be working right now, so I’ve linked to Oxford American.

January 5: Francesca Woodman
Her black and white self portraits and long exposures continue to amaze years after her death by suicide.

January 6: Chris McCaw
Long exposure sun images burn holes through the paper. In the image below, he used new paper every 30 minutes. Click the image to check out his site where you can see a wide range of techniques he used in his Sunburn project.

January 7: Matthew Brandt
This L.A. photographer is known for making C-41 prints of lakes, then soaking them in the body of water depicted in the image.

January 8: Rebecca Drolen
Rebecca Drolen’s work is uniquely surreal and witty.

January 9: Stacey Baker
This photo editor started an Instagram account where she captures women’s legs on the streets of New York.

January 10: Lucy Hilmer has taken a self portrait every year on her birthday since 1947 when she was 29 for her project “Birthday Suits.”

January 11: Maia Flore
Check out Maia Flore’s website for fun, surreal images that will make you think.

January 12: Gioia de Bruijn
This photographer finds traditional documentary photographer voyeuristic and instead believes in being involved in the situations she photographs.

January 13: Lisa Elmaleh
Lisa Elmaleh shoots 8×10 wet plates of the Florida Everglades and develops them in a darkroom in the back of her truck.

January 14: Susan Derges
This camera-less photographer makes photograms of the movement of water.

January 15: Jens Knigge
German photographer Jens Knigge makes plantinum prints

January 16: Keith Carter
For his book Uncertain to Blue, Keith Carter photographed small towns with odd names in Texas. This image is called Bebe.

January 17:Michael Weitzman
I follow this alternative process photographer’s Instagram. He uses a wide range of techniques. The image below was produced with a toy camera.

January 18: Kat Shannon
Today my photography professor showed us this “Girls in Uniform” series one of his former students, Kat Shannon, made and I instantly fell in love.

January 19: Mauro D’Agati
I checked out Italian photographer Mauro D’Agati’s book Less Vegas. He visited Las Vegas for 10 days, following permanent residents around.

January 20: Harry Callahan
Harry Callahan was a street photographer who was inspired by the look, though not so much the subject matter, of Ansel Adams. The image below is part of a series made in Chicago.

January 21: Joel Sternfeld
Check out his American Prospects series for more of his witty sense of humor.

January 22: William Christenberry
William Christenberry is known for his years-long projects taking pictures of Alabama buildings as they decay, but he also made work that exposed the evils of the KKK. He said that while some people told him that it wasn’t an appropriate subject for art, he said, “…I hold the position that there are times when an artist must examine and reveal such strange and secret brutality.”

January 23: Gulnara Samoilova
Gulnara Samoilova used handcoloring to express the hidden elements of life in the USSR.

January 24: Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun was a French transgender photographer who created Surrealist self-portraits illustrating various personas.

January 25: Rose Marasco
I checked out Rose Marasco’s book New York City Pinhole Photographs and was amazed by the sense of motion in this fish market image.

January 26: Justin Quinnell
Justin Quinnell made a pinhole camera that fit inside his mouth and photographed humorous situations for his series/book Mouthpiece.

January 27:  Sandi Haber Fifield
If you’re interested in photomontage, take a look at this photographer’s beautiful, deliberate composites.

January 28: Andrew Moore
This Omaha-based photographer takes stunning aerial photos of the Great Plains for his project Dirt Meridian. 

January 29: Chris Verne
This rural Illinois photographer photographed his family and community since high school.

January 30: Eirik Johnson
Eirik Johnson focused his series Sawdust Mountain on Northwestern identity and use of natural resources such as forests and salmon.

January 31: Lois Bielefeld
Lois Bielefeld’s body of work The Bedroom is composed of 103 portraits of bedrooms and their owners.