There are several events that take place around us and need to be recorded by best press photographers in order to allow people from around the world to know what happens without the need to travel or even move from their place to know what occurs around them. Using words is not enough to record the current events, news and lifestyle stories and here comes the role of press photography that allows us to enjoy what we read like stories.
The photographs are also like evidences that prove what is written and without these photographs you will find that what you read is really boring. The role of the press photographers can be developed to be a photojournalist but this requires using both images and words to be able to tell the story and convey your message.
Press photographers can be found in different fields and work in several areas such as lifestyle, sports, entertainment, current events and even wars to risk their lives for the sake of showing the reality. If you want to discover more about press photographers and their works, take a look at the following top 10 best press photographers in the world with being based on their creative work and experience.
10 Daniel Berehulak – Press Photographer in Australia
Daniel Berehulak is an award-winning photojournalist who was born in Australia and lives in New Delhi, India. He has travelled to more than 50 countries around the world such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Japan and Pakistan to cover what happens there including the important events that shape the history such as the trial of Saddam Hussein, Iraq war, Afghanistan elections and more social and political events that take place in different countries.
Daniel started his career as a freelance photographer with Getty Images and then joined Reportage by Getty Images. Daniel’s work has also appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine and other international newspapers and magazines.
9 Darcy Padilla – Press Photographer in United States
Darcy Padilla is a creative photojournalist, documentary photographer, lecturer, and member of Agence Vu. She is known for her amazing documentary projects that receive international awards.
Darcy Padilla has won several international awards for her creative work such as John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography, Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship, Alexia Foundation for World Peace Professional Grant, Three World Press Photo Awards and more. Her work has been published internationally to be found in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Le Monde, The New Yorker and more.
8 Muhammed Muheisen – Press Photographer in Palestine
Muhammed Muheisen was born in Jerusalem but lives now in Islamabad where he works as Associated Press Chief Photographer for Pakistan. He has also been appointed as a Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan Chief Photographer in Jordon by AP. Muhammed Muheisen comes to cover wars and other major and important events that take place in the Middle East including Iraq war, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the funeral of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, civil war in Syria and more events that occur in the surrounding areas including Egypt, France, Syria, Afghanistan, China and Saudi Arabia.
He has received several awards such as Two times Breaking News Pulitzer Prize, TIME Magazine best wire photographer, Oliver S. Gramling Award for journalism and Picture of the year 2007 POYI.
7 Alex Webb – Press Photographer in United States
Alex Webb is a professional photographer whose passion for photography started to appear when he was still in high school. He began his career as a professional photojournalist in 1974 with Magnum Photos and he was capturing his photographs in black and white until 1978 when he started photographing in color.
Webb has published seven photography books and has received several international awards for his creative work such as Lucca Photo Festival Award, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, David Octavius Hill Medaille, Leica Medal of Excellence, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Overseas Press Club Award and more.
6 Reza Deghati – Press Photographer in Iran
Reza Deghati is a French-Iranian photojournalist who is widely known as Reza. He is not just a photographer as he is also a humanist, philanthropist and idealist. He has over 30 years’ experience in photography and primarily works for National Geographic. Reza has travelled to over one hundred countries around the world to cover different events such as human catastrophes, conflicts, revolutions and the beauty of humanity also appears in his photographs.
Reza also tries to help women and children to live a better life and he has won numerous awards such as World Press Photo second prize, UNICEF Hope Prize for his work on Rwandan Refugee Camps, Prince of Asturias Prize for being a representative of National Geographic Society, Missouri Honor Medal of best journalist, ICP (International Center of Photography) Infinity Award and more.
5 Mosa’ab Elshamy – Egyptian Press Photographer
It may be the first time for you to hear about Mosa’ab Elshamy may be because he is still young and has recently appeared. The Egyptian photographer at the Associated Press started capturing photographs as an amateur but his passion for photography has quickly turned him to be one of the famous photojournalists in the world and forced him to leave studying for his Bachelor degree in Pharmacy.
He started his career with covering the Egyptian revolution in 2011 and after that appeared the consequences which were more serious and deserve to be recorded. Mosa’ab Elshamy’s work has appeared in several international magazines and other publications such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, Paris Match and Rolling Stone. He has also worked for different agencies such as Getty Images, EPA and AFP. He won several awards such as The Bob’s award and more awards for his creative work.
4 James Nachtwey – Press Photographer in United States
James Nachtwey considers himself a witness and his pictures are his testimony. The surrounding conditions and major events such as the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement were responsible for encouraging James to become a photographer. He started his career in New Mexico as a newspaper photographer in 1976 and in 1984 he started working with Time Magazine as a contract photographer.
He travelled to different areas such as Israel, Gaza, South Africa, Brazil, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and more for documenting critical social issues, wars and conflicts. He won numerous awards and honors and his work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Paris Match, Vanity Fair, Stern, The New Yorker, Life and Harper’s Magazine.
3 Tomasz Gudzowaty – Press Photographer in Poland
Tomasz Gudzowaty is a famous Polish photographer who specializes in documentary, art and portrait photography. He received numerous honors and awards such as The World Press Photo nine times, Black & White Spider Awards, Pictures of the Year International, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Grand Press Photo and more.
He travelled to more than 100 countries around the world for covering social issues in these countries in addition to focusing on capturing photographs of sports and wildlife. His work has been internationally published in magazines and books and can also be found in exhibitions at galleries and museums.
2 Henri Cartier-Bresson – French Press Photographer
Henri Cartier-Bresson is a professional French photographer who started his career in the field of photography in 1932. In 1940 Henri was taken as a prisoner of war but succeeded in escaping in 1943 to join an underground organization for helping prisoners and escapees. He photographed the liberation of Paris in 1945 and founded Magnum Photos in 1947 with William Vandivert, George Rodger, David ‘Chim’ Seymour and Robert Capa but in 1968 Henri started to care more about painting and drawing instead of his photographic activities.
He received numerous honorary doctorates and awards such as Overseas Press Club of America Award four times, Novecento Premio, Grand Prix National de la Photographie, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, Prix de la Société Française de Photographie and A.S.M.P. Award.
1 Steve McCurry – Press Photographer in United States
Steve McCurry is one of the most professional photographers in the whole world since he has over 30 years’ experience and his work has appeared on magazine and book covers in addition to several exhibitions that can be found around the world. Steve McCurry started his career as a freelance photographer at a local newspaper and then travelled to India to explore it using his camera. He travelled to other countries such as Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, China and Afghanistan to cover international and civil conflicts, ancient traditions and vanishing and contemporary cultures with focusing on the human element that makes his images more impressive.
Steve McCurry was the first one to record the conflict in Afghanistan through his images and he is widely known for his image “Afghan Girl” that is considered to be one of the most powerful and impressive images in the world. Steve received numerous prestigious awards such as the National Press Photographers’ Association Award, Robert Capa Gold Medal and four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest, to name a few.
