Famous Fashion Photographers

By Stephanie Stiavetti

fashion shoot — Who are your favorite fashion photographers?

Do you love to follow the careers of famous fashion photographers? Below are the bios of some people who have changed the face of fashion.

The Short List of Famous Fashion Photographers

Many photographers produce beautiful images, but only a few have made a particularly strong impact on the world of style.

Nigel Barker

Born in London, England, Nigel Barker started his career as a fashion model before moving into photography. After modeling for such big names as Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, and Donna Karan, he decided to follow his dreams and made the jump to the other side of the lens. With his industry connections and behind-the-scenes experience in the fashion world, his artistic talent flourished into a successful career.

Barker's work has appeared within the pages of GQ, Interview, and Playboy. His impressive client list includes the likes of Lexus, Pierre Cardin, and Saks Fifth Avenue. In addition to his image work, Barker helped to create a show on VH1 called The Shot. The show, where young photographers duke it out for a chance at the big time, was an instant hit.

Now a judge on America's Top Model, Barker has officially run the gamut when it comes to fashion careers!

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz's art career began when she enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting. She discovered her love of photography while on vacation in Japan during her sophomore year, and the next semester of school she spent taking photography classes. The rest, as they say, is history!

Leibovitz joined the staff of Rolling Stone in 1970, not long after the magazine was started by Jann Wenner. Wenner was impressed with her portfolio and gave her a major project right off the bat - shooting John Lennon for the cover. Ten years later, she would take a famous photo of Lennon with his wife Yoko Ono, just hours before he was shot and killed on the steps in front of his apartment. The image was used for the John Lennon commemorative issue of Rolling Stone, which the American Society of Magazine Editors would later vote as the best magazine cover in recent history.

Leibovitz has received multiple awards during her prolific career, such as being declared a "living legend" by the United States Library of Congress. She is considered by many to be the greatest living fashion and celebrity photographer of the twentieth century.

Helmut Newton

German fashion photographer Helmut Newton had his heyday in the middle to late twentieth century. Newton fled his native country in 1938 to avoid persecution by the Nazis, eventually opening up a studio where he pursued his love of fashion photography. His career grew when he landed his first assignment for Vogue magazine, and from there his images could be found in the pages of French Vogue, British Vogue, Australian Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar.

In 2004, Helmut Newton died in a car accident near his residence, the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. His work is preserved by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, who established the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2003.

Toni Frissell

Known for both her fashion and photojournalism images, Toni Frissell is a historic icon of American photography. Born in 1907, Frissell's emphasis was frequently on women in all sorts of environments, in many stages of their lives. Before World War II, her career consisted of shooting for heavy hitting fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, but wartime changed her artistic inclinations. One of Frissell's major accomplishments was photographing the war, during which she snapped thousands of candid shots of nurses, orphans, soldiers, and the famous Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, Frissell continued her commercial photographic work, shooting for Sports Illustrated as one of the only female sports photographers of her time.