Nowadays, there is only one way to get rich, become famous and go down in history as a photographer - by doing anything but photography. A hundred years ago you could easily become a great photographer, since there were two key prerequisites:
A. photography was a complex, troublesome and little-known craft;
b. Technologies gradually emerged and were introduced that made it possible to reproduce photographs in newspapers and (a little later) in color magazines.
That is, the glorious moment came when, having pressed the shutter button, you already understood that this frame would be seen by millions. But these millions did not yet know that they could do the same thing, since there were no digital point-and-shoot cameras, full automation and photo dumps on the Internet. Well, and talent, of course. You have no competition!
The golden era of photography, perhaps, should be recognized as the middle of the last century. However, many of the artists listed on our list belong to other distant and modern eras.
Helmut Newton, Germany, 1920–2004
A little more than a great and famous fashion photographer with a very, very independent understanding of what eroticism is. He was fiercely in demand by almost all glossy magazines, Vogue, Elle and Playboy in the first place. He died at 84 after crashing his car into a concrete wall at full speed.
Richard Avedon, USA, 1923–2004
The god of black and white portraits, also interesting because delving into his galleries, you will find anyone. The photographs of this brilliant New York Jew have absolutely everything. They say that Richard took his first photograph at the age of nine, when the little boy accidentally caught Sergei Rachmaninoff in his lens.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, France, 1908–2004
An outstanding photorealist, one of the patriarchs of photo reporting, and at the same time an invisible man: he had a delicately developed gift for being able to remain noticeable to those he photographed. At first he studied to be an artist, where he developed a craving for light surrealism, which was then tangibly imprinted in his photographs.
Sebastian Salgado, Brazil, 1944
Creator of almost fantastic images, actually taken from real world. Salgado was a photojournalist who was especially drawn to anomalies, misfortunes, poverty and environmental disasters- but even such his stories fascinate with their beauty. In 2014, director Wim Wenders made a film about him called “The Salt of the Earth” ( special prize Cannes Film Festival).
William Eugene Smith, USA, 1918–1978
A photojournalist, perhaps famous for everything a photojournalist can become famous for - from canonical war photographs to expressive and touching portraits of great and ordinary people. Below is an example of footage from a session with Charlie Chaplin for Life magazine.
Guy Bourdin, France, 1928–1991
One of the most copied and imitated photographers in the world. Erotic, surreal. Now - a quarter of a century after his death - it is increasingly relevant and modern.
Weegee (Arthur Fellig), USA, 1899–1968
Emigrant from Eastern Europe, now - great classic street and crime photography. The man managed to arrive at any incident in New York - be it a fire, murder or a banal massacre - faster than other paparazzi and, often, the police. However, besides all kinds of emergencies, his photographs show almost all aspects of life in the poorest neighborhoods of the metropolis. The noir film Naked City (1945) was based on his photo, Stanley Kubrick studied from his photos, and Weegee himself is mentioned at the beginning of the comic film Watchmen (2009).
Alexander Rodchenko, USSR, 1891–1956
A pioneer of Soviet design and advertising, Rodchenko is, at the same time, a pioneer of constructivism. Expelled from the Union of Artists for departing from the ideals and style of socialist realism, but, fortunately, it did not come to the camps - he died a natural death at the dawn of Khrushchev’s “thaw”.
Irving Penn, USA, 1917–2009
Master of portrait and fashion genre. He is famous for his abundance of his signature tricks - for example, photographing people in the corner of a room or against all sorts of gray, ascetic backgrounds. Famous catchphrase: “Cake photography can be art too.”
Anton Corbijn, Netherlands, 1955
The world's most prominent rock photographer, whose rise began with iconic photographs and video clips for Depeche Mode and U2. His style is easily recognizable - strong defocus and atmospheric noise. Corbijn also directed several films: Control (biography of the Joy Division frontman), The American (with George Clooney) and The Most dangerous man"(based on the novel by Le Carré). If you search for famous photos of Nirvana, Metallica or Tom Waits on Google, there is almost a 100% chance that Corbijn's will come up first.
Steven Meisel, USA, 1954
One of the most successful fashion photographers in the world, who became especially popular in 1992 after the release of Madonna’s photo book “Sex”. Considered the discoverer of many catwalk superstars such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista or Amber Valletta.
Diane Arbus, USA, 1923–1971
Her real name is Diana Nemerova, and she found her niche in photography by working with the most unsightly people - freaks, dwarfs, transvestites, the weak-minded... At best, with nudists. In 2006, the biographical film Fur was released, in which Nicole Kidman played the role of Diana.
David LaChapelle, USA, 1963
Master of pop photography (“pop” in in a good way words) LaChapelle, in particular, shot videos for Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, so you will understand his style not only from photographs.
Marc Riboud, France, (1923-2016)
The author of at least a dozen “epoch prints”: you’ve probably seen a million times a hippie girl bringing a daisy to the barrel of a rifle. Riboud has traveled all over the world and is most revered for his portfolio of filming in China and Vietnam, although you can also find his real-life scenes Soviet Union. Died at the age of 93.
Elliott Erwitt, France, 1928
A Frenchman with Russian roots, famous for his ironic and absurd view of our troubled world, which is very moving in his still photographs. Not long ago, he also began exhibiting in galleries under the name André S. Solidor, which in abbreviation reads “ass.”
Patrick Demarchelier, France/USA, 1943
Still a living classic of fashion photography, which has enriched this genre particularly complex sophistication. And at the same time, he reduced the prohibitive degree of glamorous overdress, which was the norm before him.
Annie Leibovitz, USA, 1949
Craftswoman fairy tales with a very powerful charge of wit, understandable even to simpletons who are far from hyper-glamour. Which is not surprising, since Annie, a lesbian, started out as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.
As you know, the first photographs in Russian Empire were made back in October 1839, and already in 1840 the first photographic studio opened in Moscow. Fortunately, the metal plates of daguerreotypes are quite well preserved, and many of the portraits were printed before the originals disappeared without a trace. Thanks to this, we can see the faces of our compatriots who lived (!) 170-150 years ago. Today we will look at some celebrities.
Gogol surrounded by representatives of the Russian community of Rome, 1845, photo by Levitsky:
Another version of the same reproduction: 
And here is the portrait of Gogol close up, also during his life in Rome, 1845:
This is an excerpt from a group portrait, which indicates the good resolution of the original.
Lermontov could also theoretically have time to take a photo, but, alas...
In 1845, the Frenchman A. Davignon went on his first photographic trip to Russia. In Irkutsk he captured the Decembrists. For some reason, the authorities didn’t like this, they arrested the photographer and confiscated the records, as if they were even going to destroy them. But apparently not everything was destroyed.
Decembrist Panov Nikolai Alekseevich, 1803-1850. Daguerreotype by A. Davignon Irkutsk, 1845: 
Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky. Daguerreotype by A. Davignon Irkutsk, 1845: 
As we see, the shackles had already been removed from them by that time, but Tsar Nicholas I never allowed the former rebels to return to St. Petersburg.
Variant of the portrait of S.G. Volkonsky: 
Did you find out? Leo Tolstoy in 1848, very young: 
Looking at this face, for some reason you believe the confession of this “seasoned man”, made in old age: “there is no crime that I did not commit in my youth.”
Young Turgenev in Bisson's photo, between 1841 and 1855: 
Russian religious philosopher, literary critic and publicist, one of the main theorists of Slavophilism I.V. Kireevsky (1806-1856), photo from the 1840s: 
The founder of all Russian liberal oppositionists Alexander Herzen in 1851: 
P.A. Vyazemsky in Levitsky’s photo: 
F.I. Tyutchev in Levitsky’s photo, 1860-61: 
The young Mendeleev looks almost like the old one in Levitsky’s 1861 photo: 
If anyone knows of similar portraits from the same period, please send me a link.
Hi all! This vanilla week there were a lot of wonderful posts about love in all its forms: for family, for homeland, for nature, for work, for sports, and so on. But most of us first came to Gossip Cop because of our love of celebrities. Then we found out that there is a whole community of versatile people, posts various topics, were delighted, and fell in love with Gossip Man even more passionately. But, nevertheless, on Gossip the lion's share of content and even on blogs are stars various fields activities and different scales.
Celebrity images inspire creative people. Probably everyone who knows how to draw at least a little has tried to portray their idol. And those lacking the ability to draw have probably tried it too. In general, even if you draw a person as a cephalopod, there are a lot of lessons on the Internet that promise to teach you how to draw, if not like a professional, then at least to achieve a portrait resemblance. For example, this application.
Choose, for example, Tom Hiddleston and step by step...
In the meantime, we are painting ugly likenesses of star favorites with an unfaithful hand, I suggest you enjoy the creativity professional artists drawing portraits of celebrities. Talented artists achieve portrait likeness using various techniques in a wide variety of, often very unexpected, means and materials.
Let's start with the usual visual media - pencils and paints.
1. MITSUO2 – talented artist from Japan, which creates very realistic portraits celebrities in pencil. He draws with colored pencils. 
2. Talented Russian artist Natasha Kinaru from Voronezh creates incredibly realistic portraits of celebrities. In her drawings, she uses pencils to convey the emotions and character of a person.
Future Jared Leto
3. A young illustrator from Great Britain named Innes McDougall. The drawing technique is so realistic that you get the feeling that this is a photograph. The artist seems to love Adrian Lima with the most tender love
4. Pencil drawings Kelvin Okafor. Prototypes of paintings young artist Indeed, they are photographs, but it is unlikely that anyone would dare call his works simple reproductions. Due to the virtuosity of his performance, British critics are already calling Kelvin a worthy follower of da Vinci and Caravaggio. This technique is called photorealism. The artist is recognized, prices for his works reach up to 9,000 pounds (~430,000 rubles) 
5. Laura Modamio – spanish artist, draws portraits of celebrities using a simple ballpoint pen 
6. Malaysian artist Vince Low, drawing technique - many lines, strokes and curls, which together form holistic images. Title drawing of Audrey Hepburn by him. 
7. Polish artist Christoph Lukasiewicz. Pencil. Surely you highlighted postcards with his drawings. 
It’s impossible to include all his works, but if you’re interested, google them, just like other artists.
8. My favorite is British artist Ileana Hunter, her portraits of famous beauties are minimalist, with an emphasis on eyes and lips.
Computer graphics
9. Graphic designer George Chamoun, a series of collages in which the author brought together actors and actresses different eras– golden and modern. The name of the series “Iconatomy” arose from combining the words “icon” and “anatomy”. 
Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Taylor 
Scarlett Johansson and Marilyn Monroe 
George Clooney and Cary Grant 
Natalie Portman and Audrey Hepburn
10. Jan Nagra (Jan Nagra) Canadian artist. Every day he draws one portrait of a celebrity. I couldn’t find a description of the work, but it looks like it’s computer vector graphics 
11. Belgian artist Ben Heine. Portraits from circles different colors and diameter. He calls his original technique Digital Circlism. 
12. "Madonnari" - ordinary drawings on the asphalt. I don’t know the authors, just a photo from a competition in Lake Worth (Florida, USA)
This post is already long, so portraits of celebrities from unusual materials in the second part. I hope you liked it)))
Updated 26/04/14 03:10:
Once again I’ll try to post Calvin Okafor:
And about Vince Lowe was from the blogger pushilina
I started drawing portraits of celebrities back in early childhood, at that time I really liked to draw from magazine pictures. At that time, naturally, it was the magazine “Soviet Screen”, unfortunately there were no others at hand, where photographs of mainly our domestic actors were shown, most of these were stills from our films.
Mostly then I drew in the usual way with a simple pencil, sometimes I drew with colored pencils, of course I didn’t keep all these drawings.
I can say with confidence that many artists often or rarely turn to the topic of drawing famous people. It would seem, what’s wrong with this and why is it needed?
When I was street artist and painted, for example, on Arbat, each artist always exhibited his work in order to attract those who wanted to paint their own portrait. This is where portraits of celebrities were just necessary. Visitors even chose the artist based on the best resemblance of the star portraits and, of course, the quality and realism of the work.
There are commissioned portraits for celebrities, but they are rare. Since I'm in lately I draw portraits from photographs to order for everyone, and portraits famous people on my website they tell my potential customers the level of my work.
I still have a craving for drawing famous people today, thanks to the Internet where I exhibit my works not only on this site but also in social networks like Facebook, Devianart and Instagram, I get a lot positive feedback, from time to time, and customers who, as you know, inspire to continue drawing famous actresses, actors, singers and other popular personalities.
On this page I present portraits of famous people that I have painted from time to time over the past 15 years, most of them using the dry brush technique.
Among the works are portraits of singer Britney Spears, Natalia Oreiro, actresses Emma Watson, Megan Fox, and actors Vladimir Vysotsky, Johnny Depp, Richard Gere, Monica Bellucci, Emilia Clarke, Charlize Theron, Eliza Taylor, Brittney Karbowski, cosmonaut German Titov, Cardinal Ratzinger , Benedict XVI, Top Models: Valeria Matza, Josie Maran and others.
Lately, often walking around the Internet, I sometimes notice interesting images of various famous personalities inspiring me as an artist to the idea of drawing a portrait of a celebrity.
Also, the inspiration to draw a particular actor or actress has recently been revealed after watching films and TV series. For example, Game of Thrones or Lost. In the TV series Game of Thrones, I was attracted by the image of the beautiful actress Emilia Clarke, where she played Khalissi, the Mother of Dragons, resulting in six portraits and it was also difficult not to notice a very striking figure in this film, this is the dwarf actor Peter Dinklage in the role of Tyrion Lannister and young actress Maisie Williams as Arya Stark. In the film Lost or Staying Alive there is the incomparable beauty Evangeline Lilly in the role of Kate Austen, 3 portraits, one of them in oil on canvas.
In most cases, I try to change a lot in the portraits of my idols, for example, light and shadow shades, sometimes volume, background, hairstyle, etc. Subsequently, this helps to increase the perception of the star’s portrait to the proper level. For example, I had to change a lot, add in the portraits of Peter Dinklage, Evangeline Lilly, Emilia Clarke, young Charlize Theron, Maisie Williams, Nina Dobrev and Chloë Grace Moretz and others.
There are photographs where the actress, in my opinion, does not look like high level in understanding female beauty and the task becomes how to somehow fix it, make it just like candy, flatter it a little without going beyond the bounds and, of course, add some charm. Perhaps someday, my work will be seen on the Internet by the owner herself this image will cheer her up :). If you would like to order a portrait from a photograph of any celebrity, or for someone you know, just let me know.
