Arnie and I are continually amazed at the famous names in photography that are unknown by most photographers. Back a century or so, people apprenticed under a master artist or went to museums to study technique and gain inspiration. Today, people get a digital camera and go out, clicking indiscriminately away. Of course, this does not apply to those who really want to improve their photography, but one cannot move forward if one does not know about the past.

In our workshops, we point to Rembrandt for the quality and magic of light and mystery of shadow. Was he a photographer? No, but he was an artist, and any serious photographer seeks to be an artist, too.

Most people have heard about Daguerre or at least Louis-Jacques-Mandé’s invention of the daguerreotype process. But how many heave heard of William Henry Fox Talbot and his camera obscura who lived in the charming little hamlet of Lacock in the Cotswolds?

Many of the photo magazines today pander to the lowest common denominator. So many of the photographs in today’s journals are flat, have no depth. There is no magic of light and mystery of shadow. HDR run amok. Sounds a bit snotty? Maybe, but what is wrong with developing a discerning eye? Anyone can do it.

Some people know the work of Margaret Bourke-White, the first woman photojournalist hired by Henry Luce for LIFE. But what about the likes of Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Imogen Cunningham, Tina Modotti, Eve Arnold, even my middle- and upper-school classmate Carol Beckwith, among many others? Look them up; you will be amazed.

Photography is getting celebrated again. Prices at auctions for photography are the highest we have ever seen them. Forget what we feel is the scam of the recent, much-celebrated, yet-undocumented sale of the work of an Aussie photographer. Museums have dedicated rooms to photography. It is an art form and should stand on its own. Arnie and I cringe when some well-meaning person says, “Oh, it looks just like a painting.” We don’t hear them say of a painting, “It looks just like a photograph.”

I was lucky enough to be brought up exposed to some of the great museums in the world. Boston’s Museum of Fine Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Paris’ Louvre, The Tate in London, even l’Hermitage in St Petersburg. There are many smaller treasures in the museum world that should not be overlooked. They all have impressive collections and exhibitions of photography.

We have listed the names of a few of the big names of women photographers, but what about the men? Men have over the years far out-numbered women in this field, although recent years have seen a narrowing of the gap.

My late mentor Ernst Haas, often referred to as the “father of color photography”. could make sand or snow look like the sensuous curves of a woman’s body. And yes, he did like the ladies. How about Magnum photographers, some late, some still living and working … Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cornell Capa, whom Arnie met on several occasions while Capa was working on starting ICP in New York, Elliott Erwitt, Burt Glinn, W. Eugene Smith, David Alan Harvey who lives on the coast just a few hours away from us (and with whom I have been having an exchange on some of the greats in photography), Bruce Davidson, whose work Arnie has long admired, Philippe Halsman, Steve McCurry who spoke to one of our workshop groups in Paris several years ago, Alex Webb, among many others. And yes, there have been women members of Magnum.

As an aside, there will be a TV series about Magnum done by the same producers of Downton Abbey. It should be excellent when it comes out in another year or two.

Yesterday, Arnie, some friends of ours, and I went to visit Burk Uzzle, a former Black Star and Magnum photographer who moved back to North Carolina about five years ago and has set his studio up in an old brick, factory/warehouse building with walls of marvelous textures and colors that make for magnificent backdrops for his projects.

We had lots to share in experiences in the photo world, and it was a delightful few hours. It is always good to see the work of others and hear what the artist has in mind for a particular series or project. There were the magnificent and sometimes-sassy church ladies, bedecked in their Sunday finery, including hats that would put the work of Rachel Trevor-Morgan in London to shame. More huge prints, this time of black mimes, were stunning. It was such a treat, and we went away looking forward to our next meeting. We find it amazing how parallel the lives of some photographers are. Arnie and Burk had many similar twists and turns in their careers. Burk and I knew/know and admire some of the same photographers.

As photographers, we should inform ourselves of the work of many of the past greats. If one does not know what has gone before, even recently, one cannot do something that is fresh and new. One simply repeats what has to many of us become hackneyed. But if someone has never seen that work, how can he/she know? In any endeavor, one cannot work in a vacuum if one is going to move forward.

All those names above and many more are ones that are worth investigating. On our website, we have a whole list of resources, including the names of some painters and photographers that merit review.

Check them out, and we think you will be impressed. These are people whose work continually inspires Arnie and me.

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