Lives of the Great Photographers

The lives of the great photographers are as captivating as the images they have left behind

Yet the stories to be found behind the lens – of economic hardship, of personal tragedy, of fame won and lost – are all too often overlooked.

In Lives of the Great Photographers, the most important and influential figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Ansel Adams to Madame Yevonde, are profiled in compelling detail. By examining the lives and backgrounds of these often complex personalities, as well as the social and political crucibles in which their world views were forged, the book casts new light on their work.

Illustrated with a portrait or self-portrait of each photographer and notable examples of their ?uvre, this lively and original publication not only provides a greater, more nuanced understanding of the image-makers, but also guides the reader through the key innovations, movements and developments in the story of photography itself.

Juliet Hacking is programme director of the MA in Photography (Contemporary and Historical) at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. She was previously head of the photographs department at Sotheby’s auction house, London. In 2000 she curated, and wrote the catalogue for, the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition ‘David Wilkie Wynfield: Princes of Victorian Bohemia’. Her other publications include, as general editor, Photography: The Whole Story.