Photographer Profiles

Robert Herko is a professional photographer who's in great demand in New York (he's just settled into a larger shared studio in Manhattan), California, and Arizona, where he once lived. His clients include Hummer, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, VISA, Arizona's Department of Tourism, Arizona Highways magazine, Arizona Western College, and several casinos in the western...

Andy Seliverstoff has long been passionate about photography, but four years ago he decided to combine his craft with a love for man’s best friend and concentrate solely on dog photography. His enchanting “Little Kids and Their Big Dogs” project, reveals a unique bond that can occur between huge dogs and children.

Swiss photographer Sebastian Magnani’s latest photo project is pure trash, which is exactly the point. Titled “Trash Heroes,” it looks at what we, as humans, decide to throw away and why.

By any definition, Sebastião Salgado is one the most important photographers working today. Currently he has a large exhibition of his work on display at the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York City through the very beginning of January 2015. It is will be the last photo show at this location, before ICP’s move next year to a new exhibition space in New York’s Bowery neighborhood.

Documentary photography captures the truth but it also tells a story. And that is exactly what Nina Berman has always aimed to do, and what she succeeds in doing, as the Brits say, so brilliantly. Her pictures evoke our emotions; they often shock; but they never fail to open our eyes to the world around us.

Photographing people for a living can prove intimidating for many photographers. Now add “celebrity” to that and you may find you have to step up your game several notches to stand on equal footing with your subject. You can’t afford to be intimidated and you certainly can’t afford to appear unsure of yourself or to question your decisions. You have to enter the picture with a game plan and be decisive, know which lens you’ll be using, what lights, and where to place those lights. But you also have to be prepared for the unexpected. That’s why they give these jobs to photographers such as Victoria Will.

I think Mr. Erwitt’s talking about “the way you see” is the best advice for any photographer no matter what their experience level may be. One way to open your mind and eyes to different ways of seeing the world is to look at other people’s images, and that’s one of my goals with this column. Helping us with that today are four Shutterbug readers who bring their own unique views of the world to bear on the art and craft of photography.