Ask HN: Who are your favorite photography and generative coding artists? I’m looking to explore new visual artists for inspiration, particularly in photography and generative coding. Who are your favorite artists in these fields? Any recommendations for books (photo albums), websites, or projects to check out? |
Benoit Paille
Anders Hoff
Davide Quayola
Robbie Barrat
https://youtu.be/la8MevQxLZw?si=m1KwdHB0kTScSXj6
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtHrXQsUhv82Iqqdx9y5r3qA9...
Elsa Bleda https://www.collater.al/en/elsa-bleda-photography/
But does it float used to feature generative art sometimes https://butdoesitfloat.com/
www.amygoodchild.com
Also worth checking out are Murilo Polese and Camille Roux.
[0] https://bsky.app/profile/art.camilleroux.com/post/3ldixh4oeu...
Chris Randall is pretty awesome too: https://www.instagram.com/chris.randall.art/
and lots of the people featured on https://executable.graphics/
websites: https://thecodingtrain.com/, https://www.holo.mg/, https://www.rightclicksave.com/about
my list of generative artists: https://github.com/rethread-studio/algorithmic-art-course/is...
[0]: https://yuanchuan.dev/ [1]: https://github.com/css-doodle/css-doodle
Most of the photographs are around Seattle and focused on wildlife and landscapes.
Jumping on the shameless plug train here -- just a few days ago I decided to finally show some of my photography on Instagram (for those of you that still use it):
https://instagram.com/nowslice
I have a deep passion for photography but had so far not put effort into an online presence. Here I intend to publish only the besties from many years of putting myself out there with mostly a fixed focal lens at 135 mm (f/1.8).
He pioneered a style that combined gritty black and white street photography with an avant garde approach.
The entire Photography Series is worth reading (but the edited books re-released in the 80s, not the originals), but book 2, "The Negative" that focuses on the Zone System Ansel codified based on prior work by Fred Archer is really crucial reading for a strong technical understanding of how camera exposure works in a scene with a wide dynamic range. This is critical when working with film, especially medium format and large format films, but is also helpful to produce much better images even with modern digital cameras. While things have consistently gotten more forgiving and thus easier for photographers, having a really strong technical understanding of the principles of light and how cameras expose film/sensor is still one of the most useful things you can learn as a photographer, even as an amateur.
Going in a completely different direction, I also think Simon d'Entremont is a photographer worth paying attention to. He's a professional wildlife photographer and Youtuber who has invested a lot of effort into simplifying the techniques and technicalities that come with using digital cameras. He has an understandable approach, a high level of technical competence (e.g. what he says is correct and opinions are clearly stated as opinions). By learning the core technical principles of photography and then adding onto it the specifics of digital photography, it can make any photographer better, both from the perspective of the images they capture and from the perspective of how they get there (e.g. learning a "feel" for exposure settings for a given scene).
Completely separate from the technical aspect, I think Annie Leibovitz might be one of the most important photographers to pay attention to in the last 50 years. She has a deep understanding around the art of storytelling through photography, and ultimately a strong photo is not just one that is exposed perfectly for the scene and captures the full dynamic range and makes the best use of light. It's one that captures something interesting and tells a story about it. Nobody does this better than Annie. Both in her portraiture and her photojournalistic work, she captures subjects in a way that truly emphasizes the meaning behind "a picture is worth a thousand words."
I have no opinions around generative coding, but I consider myself a "good" amateur photographer, and these are three photographers I've studied in depth to try to understand and build my own style and increase my technical competence and the quality of my outcomes. Also, not for nothing, both Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz preferred a Contax rangefinder for much of their work (although Ansel is most famous for his large format work done with a view camera). It's sad Contax doesn't exist anymore, I'd loved to have seen how they would have come into the digital/mirrorless age.
Photography:
- Hideaki Hamada https://hideakihamada.com/works/?tab=grid
- Henri Prestes https://www.instagram.com/henrifilm/
- Liam Wong https://www.instagram.com/liamwong/
- lllonilll https://www.instagram.com/lllonilll/
- Trung Bao https://www.instagram.com/trungbaotr/
- Clémentine Ecobichon https://www.instagram.com/clementine_art_gallery/
Digital / generative art:
- Slap Comp https://www.instagram.com/slapcomp/
- Oprisco https://www.instagram.com/oprisco/
- michael murdock https://www.instagram.com/mjmurdoc/
Bonus, artists & illustrators:
- seongryul https://www.instagram.com/sseongryul/
- huihuabiji https://www.instagram.com/yaozh.i/
- Kris Ancog https://www.instagram.com/krisancog/
- August Sandström https://www.instagram.com/august.artwork/
- daisukerichard https://www.instagram.com/daisukerichard/
- Viktoria Prischedko https://www.instagram.com/viktoriaprischedko/
- Thomas Wells Schaller https://www.instagram.com/thomaswschaller/
- Little Thunder https://www.instagram.com/littlethunder/
Twitter: https://x.com/KilledByAPixel
portfolio in form of webdesktop: https://generative.3d2k.com/
Website: https://frankforce.com/
Some of my works can even be drawn with a pen plotter.
Take a look: https://monokai.com
Similar with Highlight:
https://highlight.xyz/explore/curated?period=30d
Here's a guy I found recently that I like:
https://x.com/perfectl00p https://www.reddit.com/user/PERFECTLO0P/?sort=top https://objkt.com/@perfectloop
NFTs are interesting. When they were originally hyped up, I didn't see the point when you could just save the work. But, I've learned to understand them more as 'signed' copies. Also, there's pride in knowing that you sponsored someone before they became known.
Finally, I love generative art. I'm a huge fan. But, too few works appeal to the human condition, and they're often just algorithmic designs.
https://www.tcl.com/us/en/products/home-theater/nxtframe-tv/...
- William Mapan - https://x.com/williamapan/
- Harvey Rayner - https://rayner.art
- Emily Xie - https://emilyxie.art
- Matt DesLauriers - https://www.mattdesl.com
- Ben Kovach - https://bendotk.com
- Piter Pasma - https://x.com/piterpasma
- Zach Lieberman - https://x.com/zachlieberman
BSP, but you may also like my work:
Anthony Hiley-Mann - https://www.mountvitruvius.art / https://x.com/mountvitruvius
But have you explored all of the old ones yet? Magnum has excellent courses, each is a rabbit hole of references and inspiration: https://www.magnumphotos.com/learn/ (personally working through the Alec Soth one atm)
Regarding photobooks, the best way by far is to visit your local brick and mortar book store for a photography section, or find local community place / coffee shop that has these available. Just pick whatever catches your eye! I know some libraries also provide access to photobooks, should be a good resource if you have one nearby.
The Magnum courses look interesting. Do you find the are generally worth the price? Do they ever go on sale?
What software tools are used for this sort of work?
I'm aware of/have tried:
- Processing (as well as processing.py)
- Nodebox
- OpenSCAD (and its derivative PythonSCAD which allows using Python in it)
EDIT: and METAPOST/Asymptote/TikZ which I forgot to mention
What other tools would folks recommend?
Overtone (clojure) for music https://overtone.github.io/
Bauble https://bauble.studio/about/
Nannou (rust) https://nannou.cc/
Quil (clojure) http://www.quil.info/
Open Frameworks (C++) https://openframeworks.cc/
Etienne Jacob: https://www.instagram.com/etinjcb/
Matt DesLauriers: https://www.instagram.com/mattdesl_art/
Yann Le Gall: https://www.instagram.com/ylegall/
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_M._Highsmith [1] https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/highsm.14327/?co=highs...
He also posts on the r/generative reddit and is really responsive to questions/feedback.
There’s also Adrien Sanguinetti. He’s also based in Japan but honestly I really just enjoy his street photography videos. He does an excellent job narrating while wearing an action cam how he composes his photos. What types of compositional elements he uses. etc. His youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adriensanguinetti
I don’t think my street photography would’ve really taken as much form as it has if not for watching his videos.
Anyway, Clark Richert (https://www.clarkrichert.com/, see also MCA's page on him as well https://octopus.mcadenver.org/artists/clark-richert).
- Henri Cartier Bresson - Joseph Koudelka - Gordon Parks - Phil Penman - Alan Schiller - Annie Leibovitz - Micha bar Am - Bruce Gilden - Steve McCurry - Constantine Manos - Dorothea Lange
It’s called “generations.”
It was a pretty crazy project that took 2+ years to produce.
Anna is really talented. The Gee’s Bend quilters are some of the finest artists in America.
https://linktr.ee/AlisonPollack
Ironically, iNaturalist is the better source than instagram for browsing her pictures (at least if you don't want to open an account).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?user_id=alison_poll...
- William Klein
- Helen Levitt
- Sergio Larrain
- Jane English
- Josef Koudelka
Generative coding:
- Inigo Quilez - https://iquilezles.org/
- Shelby Wilson - https://shelby.cool/
- David OReilly - https://www.davidoreilly.com/
- Rekka and Devine - https://esoteric.codes/blog/100-rabbits
- David Whiting - https://www.vitling.xyz/
- Frieder Nake
- Vera Molnar
- Manfred Mohr
More recently people like Casey Reas, who developed the language Processing, Jared Tarbell (https://complexification.net), and Anders Hoff (https://inconvergent.net) are the people I'd look at. Hoff works in Lisp if that's your thing.
For a place to look at the history of generative art, the best resource is still http://dada.compart-bremen.de/
The new nature of code book was updated to use p5 instead of processing and a fun way to start. As is the "coding train videos" which are interesting in the seem for kids but cover more advanced topics..
https://youtube.com/@thecodingtrain?si=dmjxLScgm9Wdi4sV
I used p5.j5 to merge DNA sequences and my photographs. People seem to like them ( they've been accepted to jurrored shows)
I make they layers in p5 then manipulate in gimp.
I put some online: https://aramcomjean.smugmug.com/DNA-is-Just-Part
Personally, I had a good experience early in my photography learning with an in-person class that focused on "taking creative photos" (skipping the instructor's "camera fundamentals" class.) It was a mix of basic composition and basic editing.
Along a similar vein, I liked this Udemy course quite a bit for further solidifying compositional knowledge: https://www.udemy.com/course/landscape-composition/learn/lec...
Thanks for the feedback, I've long been interested in some Magnum courses (e.g. Alec Soth has created some of my favorite images.) I'll give one a go!