Wondering who are the top fashion photographers in the world? Look no further. We’ve put together a lengthy list of top fashion photographers in the world. The list covers photographers like Steve McCurry, Tim Walker, and more.
Fashion Photography is a genre of classification under the umbrella term photography that focuses on the display of fashion and clothing. Advertisements & magazines use fashion photography to sell their products and clothing to clients and customers. The topmost fashion photographers in the industry do have a knack for seamlessly blending fashion and empathy to capture the flamboyance and character of drapes and garments to promote brands and clothing.
Fashion photography can be distinguished into the following subtypes:
- Editorial Fashion Photography
- High Fashion Photography
- Catalog Fashion Photography
- Street Fashion Photography
- Alternate Fashion Photography
- Advertising Fashion Photography
So, here is the list of Top photographers across the globe based on their niches.
Top Photographers for Editorial Fashion Photography.
Fashion editorials are often featured as full-page photographs on a given theme or concept, designer, model, or another single topic. Usually, they are fashion images that tell a story or suggest that there is a backstory to the photo. They may also serve as photo-essay to illustrate an unwritten story.
Ellen Von Unwerth
Ellen Von Unwerth is a German photographer. Before her successful journey as a professional photographer, she was a model for ten years. With editorial photography, she also creates fashion and advertising photography. She was born in Germany in Frankfurt on 17th January 1954 & graduated from Munich. She worked in a circus as a magician, too. Once at twenty, she was walking down the street and graced an opportunity for modeling by a random photographer. This is how it all started. From a modeling career, she then started photography. Her work received limelight in the year 1989 when she photographed Claudia Schiffer (A German model, actress & fashion designer). Her work was also published in Vogue. The Royal photographic society awarded Unwerth for advertising, editorial & fashion photography in the year 2020.
Peek into her work here – https://instagram.com/ellenvonunwerth?igshid=1uwt8z7ksbwjd
Tim Walker
Born in 1970, in England, Tim Walker’s interest in photography began at ‘Conde Nast’ library, London, where he worked with Cecil Beaton. Walker was awarded the third prize with the title of ‘Independent Young Photographer of the Year’. He achieved this after receiving the HBC in photography from Exeter College of Art. He worked as a freelance assistant. His work soon came into the spotlight which landed him an opportunity to perform a fashion shoot for Vogue.
If his journey interests you, you’ll find his work here which couldn’t get dreamier – https://in.pinterest.com/victoriavank/tim-walker/
Top Photographers for High Fashion Photography
High fashion photography involves the creative vision of the fashion houses that involve a big production that cast stars like top models or actors and actresses, celebrities, athletes, and so forth. This genre of photography involves the intake of a creative vision that can warp reality within a frame.
Here are the top photographers for High Fashion photography –
Mert & Marcus
The two well-known fashion photographers are originally known as Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott work in collaboration with each other. They were born in 1971. After working in the same profession but in separate roles, they met in the year 1994. Mert was a fashion model while Pigott was an assistant photographer. They teamed up to create their first photo for Dazed & Confused (A British magazine established in the year 1991). This brought them into the spotlight. Thereafter, they worked with many celebrities and received the ‘Honorary Fellowship Award’ of the Royal Photography Society.
Take a glance at their lovely work –
Patric Demarchelier
Patric Demarchelier was born somewhere near Paris in the year 1943. He lived with his mother and four brothers. Although his family background was modest, Patric’s father gifted him the first Eastman Kodak camera which changed his life. With it took birth a keen interest in photography. He would photograph his friends and family members. He learned to develop a film too in the process. Later on, somewhere in 1957, he left Paris and moved to New York. After working as a freelancer for a few years he took a keen interest in fashion photography. His work caught the attention of Elle (A worldwide lifestyle magazine), Marie Clarie (An international magazine that has been used in the UK since 1941), 20, and (A monthly magazine in the French language). In the year 2007, Patric Demarchelier was honored as an officer.
Peek into his works here –
Annie Liebovitz
Annie Liebovitz was born on October 2, 1949. A portrait photographer of America, Annie is well known for celebrity portraiture. She was probably the first woman whose exhibition was featured at National Portrait Gallery, Washington. A woman who started as a staff photographer to becoming one of the top photographers today, she received the Honorary Doctorate Fine Arts Award (2018), PAEZ Medal of Art (2015), Prince of Asturias Award of Communication (2013), Lucie Award (2003) and ADC Hall of Fame (1999).
Her style is poised and you can see that in her works here @annieleibovitz
Mario Testino
A controversial yet famous name in the fashion industry, originally known as Mario Eduardo Testino Silva was a Peruvian portrait fashion photographer. Apart from working with leading names such as Gucci, Burberry, Versace, Michael Kors & Chanel. His work received much acclaim which rose to fame in the fashion industry. His work was published in Vogue, V Magazine & Vanity Fair. Mario was honored for his contribution to non-profit organizations to raise charity and funds. In the year 2010, he was allowed to appoint the highest honors of his native country.
Click to see his work here at Mario Testino’s official website.
Top Catalogue Photographers
This type of photography is used by the Print media. It is a form of commercial photography that demands the best photographic representation of a given product.
There are not any specific Catalogue photographers in the world who are on the top level. However, here are some studios for Catalogue Photography that are on a good level.
- ZyZ Studio (Mumbai).
- Tarun Jha Photography (New Delhi).
- MacAaron Studios ( New Bombay).
- Studio Renee ( Jaipur).
- Ami Fotography ( Bangalore ).
Top Street Fashion Photographers
Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places.
A few Top Street Fashion Photographers are listed below –
Tommy Ton
When he was 13, his sister asked him to record the Fashion Television (A Canadian show which used to focus on fashion content). He never received formal training in photography. He worked as an intern. He was spotted by bloggers on social media. His struggle was deemed worthy after he was privileged to attend the fashion show which was held by Dolce & Gabbana with him seated in a front row.
To know more about him & his work visit here: https://www.tommyton.com/
Scott Schuman
Born in the year 1968, November 2, Scott Schuman started as a sales associate. He graduated from Indiana University. He worked as a director of men’s fashion in a showroom. By September 2005, he quit his job as his daughter needed attention. He photographed people around the streets. After a long struggle, he graced an opportunity to work as a model in Gap’s fall campaign and later for Burberry. In 2009, Penguin published his collection of photographs.
Click here to view – https://www.thesartorialist.com/
Bill Cunningham
Originally known as William John Cunningham Jr., he was an American fashion photographer. A dropout from Harvard University, also a designer of Women’s hat before entering into the Fashion industry, he shot candids on the streets of New York. Later on, he drew huge attention from the New York City Times by his photography with the capture of Greta Garbo (A Swedish American actress). Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough and we lost the promising photographer to cardiac arrest.
To know more about his work visit – https://www.instagram.com/realbillcunningham/?hl=en
Garance Doré
She is a French photographer, illustrator, and author, best known for her fashion blog. She is based in Venice, Los Angeles.
French photographer, illustrator, and author, Garance Dore was born on May 1, 1975, in Corsica, France. She began blogging in 2006 and worked as a freelancer to start with. Street photography was her forte and she wrote her blogs. Later in 2009, Dore started video content on her blogs, and in no time, she received all eyeballs which landed her some lucrative collaborations with brands like Dior, Chopard, Tiffany & co. She received many awards like the French Elle (magazine) 30 Most Powerful Women in Fashion, Men Style, Forbes (magazine) 20 best Fashion Blogs for Professional women (2010).
Find a glimpse into her work at – https://www.instagram.com/garancedore/?hl=en
Alternate Fashion Photography
Everything that doesn’t fit mainstream fashion belongs in this category. Alternative fashion doesn’t always appear in big magazines. But photography is still a big part of helping these trends spread. It doesn’t depend on traditional publications. Instead, it relies on alternative media and online sources. An example could be the retro style adaptations in today’s age.
Some alternative photographers are –
Corinne Day
Corinne Day (Feb 19, 1962 – Aug 28, 2010) was a British photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s and onwards has been immense. Self-taught, Day brought a more documentary look to fashion imagery, in which she often included autobiographical elements. When she was 16, she left school and worked as an assistant in a bank. In the year 1989, she stepped into the profession of photography and met Phil Bicker. Through his reference began her onset of envious opportunities to photograph famous artists like Kate Moss, Rosemary Ferguson, George Clements, Georgina Cooper, Sarah Murray, Tanya Court, and Tara St Hill, a way of working which resulted in candid and intimate portraits. Her approach to fashion photography in the 90s came to be known as ‘grunge’ and grew into an international style.
She has an Instagram page that you’d like to check out.
Larry Clark
Lawrence Donald Clark aka Larry Clark, an American film director, film producer, and photographer, was born on January 19, 1943, most attractively in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His body of work mainly consists of drugs, sex, and violence among the youth. His career as a photographer started in the year 1964 in New York. He worked as a freelancer. He enrolled himself in the US Army for two months and served in Vietnam for two years. This experience provided him ground to write Tulsa in the year 1971. Tulsa was a documentary about his friend who smoked pot with his younger gang. He also directed a few films.
Check out his work.
Fashion Photography
The purpose of advertising photography is to show items in the most attractive way and to encourage their purchase.
Top Advertising Fashion Photographers –
Terry Richardson
Terrence Richardson is a controversial American fashion and portrait photographer. He has shot advertising campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent among others, and also done work for magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, i-D, and Vice. Born on 14th August 1965, he owned his first snapshot camera in 1982 gifted by his mother. He first started by capturing nightlife in clubs. The year 1994 was the turning point when he published the first set of fashion photos and got a raging response from the people. Richardson directed many music videos, done charity work, etc.
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon is an American portrait and fashion photographer known for his still images capturing motion in fashion, theatre, and dance. Born to a family of Jews, Avedon studied in DeWitt Clinton High School and went to Columbia University to study poetry and philosophy but soon dropped out after a year. He later entered the field of photography and started taking pictures for Merchant Marines. The job was to take the ID pictures of Crewmen. He used the Rolleiflex camera that his father gave him. In 1994 his journey took a new turn when he worked as an advertising photographer for the departmental stores. Soon after he was endorsed by Harper’s bazaar’s director Alexey Brodovitch. Later, Avedon set up his studio. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award(1989), Honorary Graduate degree(1989), International Center of Photography’s (1993), and many more awards.
Find Richard Avedon’s work on – https://www.avedonfoundation.org/the-work
Dabboo Ratnani
Dabboo Ratnani, an Indian photographer best known for his annual calendars that were first published in 1999, shoots for cover magazines, advertisements, and films. He trained and worked independently since 1994. Ratnani mostly covers celebrity shots. His work gained fame through his annual calendars that feature Indian celebrities.
Check out more of his work here – https://www.instagram.com/dabbooratnani/?hl=en
Irving Penn
Irving Penn (1917 – 2009) was popularly known for his fashion photography and portraitures. Born to a Jewish family, he worked as a freelancer for about three years before he took his first-ever amateur photograph. He was one of the twentieth century’s great photographers, known for his arresting images and masterful printmaking. Although he was celebrated as one of Vogue magazine’s top photographers for more than sixty years, Penn was an intensely private man who avoided the limelight and pursued his work with quiet and relentless dedication. At a time when photography was primarily understood as a means of communication, he approached it with an artist’s eye and expanded the creative potential of the medium, both in his professional and personal work.
There are many Exhibitions of Penn’s life which are as follows: Photographs of Secret, Museum of Modern Art (1975), Platinum Plates (1975), Exhibition at the center of Visual arts (1980), etc.
Steven Meisel
Known for his striking photographs, Steven Meisel was passionate about fashion illustration from a tender age. Studied from High school of Art & Design and Parsons – the new school for design, he worked his first job as a fashion designer. He taught illustrations on a part-time basis. One day he visited the Elite Model Management where a booker, Oscar Rayes, liked his illustrations so much that he let him photograph some of their models. Meisl currently works for many magazines including Vogue.
Find some of his works here – https://www.instagram.com/stevenmeisel_/, https://www.artandcommerce.com/artists/photographers/steven-meisel
Steven Klein
Steven Klein, an American photographer based in New York, studied painting at ‘Rhode Island School of Design’ and later tried his hand at photography. He used to shoot high-profile advertising campaigns. He shot for the top brands like Calvin Klien, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, and his work was featured in numerous exhibitions. He did collaborations with Madonna. His videography works like ‘The best within’ (2004), ‘Vogue’ (2004), ‘ Future lovers’ (2006), ‘Get Together’ (2006) are quite popular.
Find his works here – https://www.instagram.com/stevenkleinstudio/, https://stevenklein.us/
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton was a German-Australian photographer. The New York Times described him as a prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications. At the age of 12, he bought his first camera and worked for a German photographer. Later in 1941, he settled in Paris as a fashion photographer. His work was acclaimed and he began appearing in magazines like Vogue, Playboy. He shot numerous pictorials for Playboy. Some remarkable works of Newton got published later on namely – ‘White Women’ -1956, ‘Sleepless Nights’- 1978, ‘Big Nudes’-1981, ‘They are coming’-1981. ‘A gun for Hire’-2005, ‘ Playboy-2005.
Find his body of work at – https://www.instagram.com/helmut_newton_photography/,
Vikram Bawa
Vikram Bawa, the award-winning Indian fashion photographer, specializes in commercial, editorial, personal & advertising photography. Born in 1970, Delhi, he moved to Mumbai at a very early age. He schooled from Green Lawns High School and worked in Chemical Business as a Managing Director at the age of 18. In 1996, he entered the field of Photography. He was 16 when he took it up as a hobby. ‘Yashica FX 3 Super 2000 SLR’ was the first camera that he began shooting with. He directed many music videos and short films on Gandhi. ‘Yahan Gandhi Bikta Nahin’ was one of his films. He worked with top brands like Coca-cola, Dove, Godrej, Loreal, etc. He photographed Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Aishwariya Rai Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shahrukh Khan, etc. His exhibitions like ‘The Other Side’, ‘Gallery Art and Soul’ (2012), ‘An Exhibition of Contemporary Photography’, ‘Saffronart’ (2011) set a benchmark for Indian photographers. Vikram received four international awards.
He photographs advertisements and landscapes and is probably the first Indian who introduced 3D photography in the late 90s.
Check out his work at @vikram_bawa – https://www.instagram.com/vikram_bawa/,
Nick Knight
Born in Hammersmith, London in 1958 and originally named Nicholas David Gordon, he is a British Fashion photographer who worked as a professor at the University of Arts, London, and is an Honorary Ph.D. After studying photography, he published his first book of pictures named ‘Skinhead’ in 1982. Later on, he received acknowledgment for his work when Art Director Mark Ascoli stumbled across his work. In 2000, Knight launched SHOWstudio.com. Also, he started directing music videos from 2001 onwards. In the year 2016, he got commissioned to shoot the portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. In 2015, Knight received an award named as ‘Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator’.
Find some of his works here – https://www.change.org/p/home-office-stop-the-deportation-of-vulnerable-autistic-man-osime-brown-2f671100-bd95-423c-a547-c8b04da2a75a, https://www.instagram.com/nick_knight/