As December brings the joy of holidays, it is also marked by the coziness and warmth of loved ones. It is also the time when you take some time off and, perhaps, even give photography a break. So, we thought it would be the best time to give you a glimpse into an array of works produced by some of the most renowned photographers born in December. We hope you take a page from their projects; perhaps it becomes a spark you need to enrich your photographs.
All the images in the articles are screenshots.
Guy Bourdin (December 2, 1928)
A French pioneer in fashion photography, Guy Bourdin was popular for his experimental, often bold, and provocative images. Bourdin created photographs from the 1950s to the 1980s for major publications, including French Vogue. In fact, his surrealist and narrative-driven style of photography was so famous that today, people know him as the most influential photographer of the 20th century. He largely worked with color; his hyper-realistic compositions blurred the barrier between art and commercial photography. Bourdin was also one of the pioneers of storytelling in fashion photography, which, until this point, was unheard of. Today, his works are in collections at MoMA, the Getty Museum, and the Tate.
William Wegman (December 2, 1943)
William Wegman is a multi-disciplinary artist and an important figure in photography. He is best known for photographing Weimaraner dogs, especially his first pet, Man Ray, and then Fay Rey and her family. In 1979, the artist worked with the 20 x 24 Polaroid camera, often blending humor and surrealism and giving dogs human-like attributes. He also used abstraction, colors, and cubism in his Polaroid work and continued working on it until Polaroid ceased production of the film in 2007.
Saul Leiter (December 3, 1923)
Saul Leiter was one of the influential contributors to color photography, and so he had to be one of our photographers born in December. Although he has studied theology and painting, he began experimenting with color in the late 1940s with expired Kodachrome film. “I happen to believe in the beauty of simple things. I believe that the most uninteresting thing can be very interesting,” he once said about this work, which captures the mundane beauty of everyday life.
In the 1950s, he began to capture the streets of New York, where his abstract compositions and use of colors set him apart from his contemporaries. However, while he is known for his color photographs, Leiter also contributed immensely with his black and white film rolls. In addition to street, Leiter worked for fashion publications such as Esquire and Vogue for 20 years. Today, his works are in the MoMA collection and the Whitney Museum.
Jeff Bridges (December 4, 1949)
An unlikely photographer, we choose to add Jeff Bridges to our photographers, who were born in December, because his work is fabulous. According to CBS News, the actor said he began photography after borrowing his Dad’s Nikon and developed his own film in the bathroom-turned-darkroom. In 1976, he turned to acting, but his passion did not stop. The images he created over the decades have been launched as photo books, which have earned fame and recognition. What makes his photograph distinct is not just the stars as his subjects but the use of a 35mm Widelux panning camera. His photographs are truly surreal, leaving one to ponder what happened next.
Tim Hetherington (December 5, 1970)
Tim Hetherington was a photojournalist who was killed in the line of duty in Libya in 2011. Born in Liverpool, the photographer worked with organizations such as The Big Issue and Human Rights Watch. He is remembered for his war photography, which he took in regions like Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan. His photographs explored the personal and emotional impact of wars on people, both soldiers and civilians. His work depicts the complexity of human society while highlighting how the decisions of a few in power affect millions. His legacy continues to impact younger photographers, and his photograph has been archived at the Imperial War Museum.
Paul Caponigro (December 7, 1932)
One of America’s renowned landscape photographers, Paul Caponigro, is celebrated for his black-and-white photographs of nature. Naturally, he had to be on our photographers born in December list. His passion for photography ignited at the age of 13, but it was not until his later years that he enrolled in the California School of Fine Art. Influenced by Ansel Adams, Caponigro has photographed various subjects, including Stonehenge, sacred temples and gardens of Japan, and woodlands of New England. His work led him to win the Guggenheim fellowship twice, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant thrice. He also holds the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship.
Gisele Freund (December 19, 1908)
A German-born Jewish photographer and photojournalist, Gisèle Freund is one of the most important women photographers of the 20th century. A socialist, Freund fled to Paris in 1933, where she befired literary figures, who later became the subjects of her images. During her career, Fruend worked with LIFE and Time Magazine, where she captured historical events and candid portraits of authors. For instance, her images of James Joyce, Colette, and Virginia Woolf.
During World War II, the photographer had to flee again to Argentina, where she worked for Magnum Photos and photographed artistic personalities like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In 1953, she returned to Paris for good and continued to contribute to photography by working for news publications. Her images are archived at the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine in Paris.
Gertie Deutsch (December 19, 1908)
Born in Austria, Gertie Deutsch is known for her portraits and photojournalistic images, which were shot during and after the end of World War II. Although she was inclined towards photographing portraits of musicians and artists, her style embraced geometric shapes as part of the New Objectivity movement in street photography. In 1938, she became the first woman photographer for a major British magazine, Picture Post. From then on, she made important works such as the Kindertransport of Jewish refugee children and the grim aftermath of war in Vienna. Deutsch’s legacy is archived at the Fotohof in Salzburg, Austria, and that’s why she made it to our photographers born in December list.
Trude Fleishmann (December 22, 1895)
The Austria-born portrait photographer immensely contributed to the field of photography. Initially, Trude Fleischmann worked at the studies of Madame D’Ora and Hermann Schieberth, two renowned photographers, after which she opened her own studio in 1920. As one of the pioneering Jewish women photographers, her studio was the hub in Vienna.
Best known for pictorialist portrayals of musicians, dancers, and actors, Fleischmann also dabbled with experimental photographs, particularly dance and nudes. The latter was to showcase the delicate human form and its sensuality, which garnered more praise and recognition. In 1938, she immigrated to New York, fleeing Nazi persecution. Here, for the next three decades of her career, Fleischmann photographed the likes of architect Adolf Loos and physicist Albert Einstein, as well as working as a fashion, travel, and street photographer.
Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908)
Yousuf Karsh is a renowned photographer who captured era-defining portraits of 20th-century icons, so it was natural that he was on our renowned photographers born in December list. From Queen Elizabeth to Pablo Picasso to Ernest Hemingway, to Martin Luther King Jr., to the most famous portrait of Winston Churchill, which is now called “The Roaring Lion,” Karsh immortalized celebrated public and political figures.
What made his images so distinct was the use of light and his careful studio setup, but where his talents shone was the deep personal research into his subjects. In fact, he summed up his practice as: “Within every man and woman, a secret is hidden, and as a photographer, it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world.” A survivor of the Armenian genocide, Karsh’s images are held in various collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jessie Tarbox Beals (December 23, 1870)
Known as the first woman photojournalist and the first night photographer in the United States, Jessie Tarbox Beals had to be on our photographers born in December list. A self-taught photographer, Tarbox Beals took up the medium after being inspired by Gertrude Kasebier. She began her career at the turn of the century in 1899 and is best known for her 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair photographs. It was here she became the first woman to receive a press card. Tarbox Beals’ work proves her love for heights, which was one of the prominent angles of view. Considering the heavy equipment and glass plates she had to carry, this is no short of commendable. During her career, she made images of suffrage marches and immigrant living conditions, and in 1904, her portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt earned her more recognition.
However, she did not limit herself to journalism; she was also an advertising, portraiture, and architectural photographer. Her legacy was forgotten, but it was revived in 1978 by Alexander Alland through a biography called Jessie Tarbox Beals: First Woman News Photographer. Today, her work is in the Library of Congress and the New York Historical Society collections.
W. Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918)
The last name on our renowned photographers born in December list is none other than the master of documentary photography, W. Eugene Smith. One of the most influential American photojournalists of the 20th century, Smith is known for his intense, emotive documentation of the human condition. During his early years, he worked for Newsweek but later joined the Black Star agency as a freelancer. His coverage of World War II, especially his series Flying and Life, where he captured the American offensive against Japan, earned him widespread recognition. However, it was here that he also was seriously injured, and the wounds would affect him later in his life.
Gradually, Smith began to work with Life magazine, where his series, Village Doctor, became one of his career-defining works. His approach to photography, where he did not conform to the practice set by his predecessors, also earned him the title of “troublesome” amidst the community. In 1957, he became a full-time member of Magnum Photos, which cemented his legacy as a humanist photographer. His last and best series was on the impact of the Minamata Bay mercury poisoning in Japan. Smith passed away in 1978, and in his honor, the W. Eugene Smith Fund was established to carry on his legacy.