David Bailey is an English fashion and portrait photographer. He is well-known for his advertising, celebrity and fashion photographs. In 1960, David Bailey began photographing for British Vogue, and his fashion work and celebrity portraiture, known for stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down antiquated and rigid class barriers by injecting a 'punk' look into both clothing and artistic products.
Edward Jean Steichen was a Luxembourgian American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. In his youth he was perhaps the most talented and inventive photographer among those working to win public acceptance of photography as a fine art. He went on to gain fame as a commercial photographer in the 1920s and ’30s, when he created stylish and convincing portraits of artists and celebrities. Steichen was a photographer for the magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair while also working for many advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson. During these years, Steichen was regarded as the best known and highest paid photographer in the world. I find Steichen’ work to be bold, powerful and overall inspiring. Due to Steichen’s status, as a well-known historical fashion and portrait photographer; he has been the inspiration for many photographers work since Steichen’ time, including myself. 
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. He was hired as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue, where he earned renown for a unique style of posing sitters with unusual backgrounds.Helmut Newton was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer who’s provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."
Contemporary Photographers
Each image captured by Emily Soto starts with her distinct visionary and romantic style characterized by a persistent stream of emotively captivating, artistically adept, visual pieces. Based in New York City, Soto is one of the top names requested by fashion editors for her unique style and professional aptitude. While her focus is high-fashion, she finds pleasure in personal artistic. Soto's photos and popular "FashionActions.com" have garnered the respect and appreciation of an ever-expanding international following and a resultant creative and inspirational influence among her professional peers. Soto’s bold yet playful images appear on magazine covers, in editorial spreads and in look books for national clients. Walemar Hansson has an extremely great way of creating a story within an image, he captures emotion incredibly with in his photographs. I think that Hanssons photograph give of an some air of mystery, it is this that I think draws me in myself.
Through researching both contemporary and historical photographers I found myself extremely inspired and further wanting to create my own imagery with strong influences from all the artists I found through this project. I think that through this research I want to create something with the same classic, iconic imagery as my chosen historical photographs; although I want to bring that into modern times in regards to photographic technique and composition. I think that through this I will gain successful results overall.
