Portrait photography experts inspire us to take better shots. Looking for new photographers to follow? Great! We’ve got a set of Top 10 lists in the works that’ll help you do just that. We’ll work our way through the major categories of photography — from wildlife, to landscapes, to street photography, to portraiture, and beyond — listing out 10 of our favorite 500px photographers in each genre.
The lists are by no means exhaustive, of course (there are many more than 10 incredible photographers on 500px for each of these genres), so don’t hesitate to drop names and links we forgot in the comments!
So far, in our quest to share some of our favorite creators on 500px, we’ve given you 10 must-follow photographers in both the wildlife and action/sports photography genres. Adrenaline spiked and heart pumping, it’s time to slow it down a bit and venture down more intimate roads. Specifically, it’s time to discover some incredible portrait photographers.
This list was, in many ways, more difficult to curate than the first two. Portrait photography is a broad category — does family photography count? what about babies? does it all have to be headshots? — which had us more than a little worried.
In the end, we decided to try and stick to portraiture in as pure a form as possible. The closer to the headshot, the better. Single people, not groups. Basically, photography where creative framing, expression, and processing choices drive the exposure, not things like background or clothing.
It is, of course, not an exact science. Which is why we encourage you to fill in gaps we left! Think we should have included Lisa Holloway or Jessica Drossin or Michael Woloszynowicz? Feel like some of the names on the list below don’t match the criteria above? That’s what the comments are for!
And if you don’t agree with the full list, we invite you to go exploring through the 500px community. Dig up unknown names and drop them in the comments, publish your own must-follow list, and then send it to us and ask us to republish it! Together, we may just be able to cover all the bases.
For now, these 10 incredibly talented bases will have to do. Enjoy!
Amanda Carlson
Amanda is originally from the Chicago area but currently lives in Seattle at the moment. Her dad gifted her with her first 35mm film camera when I was in high school and shared his own photography stories, like how he got his first camera when he went to the Vietnam War. I was fascinated and took my first film class when I was 15, then later became a photojournalist at my university newspaper, which got me interested in people and street photography.
Junior Asiama
Ian Ross Pettigrew
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