33 Most Famous Film Photographers in 2023
Get inspired by our curated list of the most famous film photographers of the year, including where you can find their work on Instagram.
You’re about to discover 33 of the best film photographers in 2023.
I’ll introduce you to famous 35mm black and white film photographers as well as those who shoot in color.
From street to portrait to landscape film photographers, you’ll find a ton of inspiration for your own analog photography in this guide.
You should also check out our related guides:
- How to develop film at home
- Guide to analog film photography
- Where can I develop film near me?
- 31 famous photographers you need to know
Table of Contents
Who Are The Most Famous Film Photographers in 2023?
1. Paul Bundy
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Shooting film is a way of life for photographer Paul Bundy, who captures beautiful images of America’s pristine Pacific Coast.
He uses 35mm and 120mm film to create timeless shots of stunning shorelines and suburban life.
What’s unique about his analog photography is you can’t tell if it’s taken in present-day or a flashback to simpler times.
Paul Bundy is definitely a big name among modern film photographers.
2. Toby Harvard
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Toby Harvard is a film portrait photographer who also embraces his creative side as a screenwriter.
Toby’s distinctive photography style has a true cinema feel with tense, moody portraits that remind you of a dystopian science fiction film.
He builds contrast with bright neon colors in otherwise dark settings, delivering the neo-noir aesthetic he is known for.
3. Jeremy Chou
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Jeremy Chou originally set out to be an architect but soon discovered his passion for wedding and film fashion photography.
Currently based in Pasadena, California, Jeremy has been nominated for Film Photographer of the Year honors by Belle Lumiere Wedding Magazine. This cemented him as one of the most influential film camera photographers of today.
His luxury fine art film business has taken off as he continues to use physical negatives and old-fashioned DVDs wherever possible.
4. Travis Young
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Travis Young is a film entrepreneur and photographer. His company, FilmX, is based in Kansas City where he works to bring the joy of film shoots to geeky photographers everywhere.
Recent photos use a secondary image projected onto on his models’ faces and background at the same time.
The images projected on the model depict movement a related past or cultural reference that the model is either strengthened by or breaking free from.
Travis’ work at times highlights the Kodak and Ilford negative frames, giving context and credibility for his film photography roots. With other Kansas City photographers, he is keeping film developing and analog photography alive.
5. Mateusz Żurowski
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Mateusz Żurowski is an award-winning Polish photographer specializing in analog photography. His impressive film photography work has earned him an IPA Analog Award and Sony World Photography Award.
Mateusz alternates between candid and cinematic compositions, with deliberate settings and careful lighting to achieve highly styled shots.
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His images give off a dream-like feel with muted colors surrounding warm, vulnerable people who display real emotions.
6. Chesley Sinclair
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As one of New York’s famous film photographers, Chesley Sinclair uses a pale color palette and sparse imagery to create intense images full of raw emotions.
Her film photography showcases tension and fragility as she photographs bare models in raw natural backgrounds, whether it be in lush green fields or underwater.
Female subjects on film feature all throughout Chelsey’s portfolio and speak to the beauty and strength of women around the world.
7. Trev Lee
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Trev Lee is a famous American photographer who has recently traded sunny West Coast vibes for the Ohio midwest. His work has evolved with his surroundings, but the element that remains the same is the sunny outlook on his environment.
Recent work depicts Trev’s new-found fascination with the huge storm systems and winter storms that sweep along the midwestern planes.
The dusting of snow surrounding a bare tree evokes the calm that envelops everyone in the wake of a winter event. Inside, Trev captures the daily life of his young family in a style that is uniquely his.
8. Henri Prestes
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Henri Prestes is one of Portugal’s most well-known film photographers who works throughout southern Europe, capturing the region in all its glory.
With a focus on fine art, Henri curates mood and atmosphere with an eery, almost supernatural feel to his finished images.
He takes inspiration from Emily Bronte’s depiction of 19th-century northern moors. The intense mood in his images captivates fellow creators and art aficionados, with Henri qualifying as a finalist at the 2020 and 2021 ADC awards.
9. Clyde Butcher
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Clyde Butcher’s work in large-format film gives a sense of grandeur and importance in the wilderness he captures. His black-and-white images from the Florida Everglades and beyond are both modern and timeless.
Clyde dedicated himself to black-and-white film after the tragic death of his son in 1986.
This well-known black and white photographer has spent the resulting decades capturing the beauty and serenity of untouched landscapes throughout the world.
10. Rosie Matheson
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Rosie Matheson is a Brighton and London based photographer. Her documentary style portraits examine the connection between people and the places they inhabit.
In an ongoing project Boys, Rosie works to create images that challenge traditional ideas of masculinity. She uses eye-contact and intimate framing to create a sense of empathy and compassion with her subjects.
11. Cian Oba-Smith
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Cian Oba-Smith is an Irish Nigerian fine art and portrait photographer. His love of film photography comes from the format’s aesthetic quality and high dynamic range that it brings to the work.
His work captures light, detail, and mood in all areas of the scene in a way that digital cameras cannot. This enables Cian to document his subjects and the communities they live in with rich detail.
12. Caitlin Chescoe
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Caitlin Chescoe choses between a film or digital camera depending on the situation. In her documentary project and new book “Belief & Truth,” she took advantage of the pace of shooting film to put her subjects at ease.
The result is a series of intimate portraits and a story of ancient tradition.
By using the meditative process of loading film, framing the shot, and setting up for the next image, Caitlin is able to add a sense of familiarity and calmness to her portraits. She also uses the qualities of film to help her capture details in every corner of the room.
13. Dan Rubin
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Dan Rubin’s work is well-known in film photography circles. He embodies the best of both analog and digital tools as a film educator and Instagram early-adopter.
Dan uses the tone and texture of film to capture a ‘finished’ image from the camera. With digital photography, signifiant work is needed to edit raw files. With film, Dan found more photos felt complete and fit his style straight out of the camera.
He uses film in his travel documentary photography to simplify his workflow. Like other film photographer’s work, he finds his process is more mindful than a digital workflow with immediate previews and fast editing.
14. Lucy Laucht
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Lucy Laucht is a well-known travel, fashion, and lifestyle photographer with access to the best digital and film cameras. After inheriting her dad’s film camera, she would take photos randomly when on assignment for other projects.
The result was a body of work she calls “an exploration of what summer means.”
Lucy’s personal work captures life lived to its fullest. Originally, she collected a bag of dozens of unprocessed film rolls. Then, during the pandemic shut-down, she was propelled to see what images she had captured.
The result is an artistically and commercially successful series that showcases her unique vision. Her images evoke as sense of nostalgia too, with inspiration coming from beach scenes in Holiday or Time magazine from the 50s and 60s.
15. Ryan Muirhead
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Ryan Muirhead is an analog photographer based in Portland, Oregon. His shooting style has evolved into an otherworldly examination of the world around him.
Even though Ryan grew up around film and worked as a camera assistant, he didn’t take his first photo until many years later on a lunch break on a movie set. Within a month, film photography consumed all his free time.
Ryan wants his photos to feel relatable but unspecific, like song lyrics feel to him. To accomplish this, he shoots his family and friends along with other models.
His instagram posts also give a BTS (behind-the-scenes) look at how he frames his shot, showing that the perfect composition can be in your own living room.
16. Carianne Older
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Carianne Older’s passion is photographing people who are unique and special. From musicians to Playboy bunnies, she is a sought-after photographer for brands and personalities obsessed with her behind-the-scenes aesthetic.
The raw quality of film is what draws Carianna to analog photography. Like other film photographers, she prefers to create her photo in the camera instead of in front of the computer.
Carianna uses film to advantage. Her analog photos of “real people” instead of Instagram models have gained her fans and commercial clients who are drawn to the vintage pop punk meets modern pop culture aesthetic.
17. Ian Howorth
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Ian Howorth is a film photographer based in Brighton, UK. His exploration of the empty streets and abandoned interiors that surround him show his love for the nearby seaside towns.
Ian has chosen to shoot film because of the process involved in finding the right film stock and workflow. His images show beauty in the mundane places we may walk past without thought.
Ian frames his images with a nod to historic pioneers of photography like Stephen Shore. and William Eggleston. His photos have an ease about them, as if they were captured in a moment, while being grounded in a strong sense of composition and design.
18. Muhammed Ali Arslan
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Muhammed Ali Arslan is an analog film photographer who takes his inspiration from classic cinema. His images highlight texture and atmosphere of the environment that surrounds him.
Using techniques like color blocking and cinematic lighting, his still images tell as much of a story as a video can.
While Muhammed is no stranger to digital techniques, even his computer-assisted photos are informed by his style choices in film. Using expired film creates a warm, muted color palate that reflects the raw emotion of his portraits.
19. Oleg Oprisco
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Oleg Oprisco is a Ukranian photographer who constructs elaborate sets or props to realize his surrealist vision.
When many artists have abandoned practical effects and film photography for digital renderings and computer generation, Oleg creates dreamlike photographs featuring a solitary figure among a vast landscape.
During the recent conflict, Oleg remained in Ukraine and uses his voice to speak for victims of the events. In one image, a young woman stands alone, wearing a representation of a home as a backpack.
The creation is perfectly reflected in the empty street she stands in, speaking volumes on her plight.
20. David Lynch
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Perhaps best known as a writer and film director, David Lynch is a prolific artist in other media. His analog photos were first published in The Factory Photographs, an exploration of ancient machinery and industrial landscapes.
21. Patrick Clelland
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Patrick Clelland is a film photographer from Sydney, Australia. His use of old film stock and carefully curated scenes make him a masterful photographer whose work could have been created 30 years ago or yesterday.
Patrick travels around the world shooting empty streets, hotel rooms, and parked cars that define a sense of place.
His photography has a strong sense of structure, from the framing of a food kiosk with the right angle of a city sign to the strong use of shadows on a cafe table.
22. Tom Mitchell
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Tom Mitchell is a fashion and film photographer in the UK. His portrait work is not limited to a studio; his unique settings give each image a candid feel.
Tom presents his work without the constraint of a traditional crop ratio. He may showcase double exposures of the same scene with different poses or framing. Or, he may pair a color and black-and-white image together.
Tom’s portrait work emphasizes the beauty of his models and the world around them. He certainly has a wealth of techniques at his disposal to add to the image, but he does so to emphasize the natural, spontaneous charm of each subject.
23. Peter Holliday
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Peter Holliday is a Scottish film photographer who is recognized for his Arctic and northern landscapes. His work in the frozen tundra documents man’s struggle and triumph in freezing conditions.
Peter’s work presents a portrait of the people and animals that thrive in the white landscapes he photographs. His decision to use film helps him capture the bright white and deep shadows of the the northern mountains and fjords.
24. Zhamak Fullad
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Zhamak Fullad is a portrait and documentary photographer based in Los Angeles. Her work exposes the candid underground behind the scenes of private parties and backstage clubs.
Zhamak presents her subjects honestly, whether they are posed or captured in the moment. Her intimate framing allows her to capture shots that make you feel like you are part of the crowd.
25. Louis Dazy
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Louis Dazy is a fine art film photographer who has mastered double exposure. He juxtaposes neon lights and portraits to speak to the viewer in both words and images.
Louis’ images are constructed with thought and technique that convey his love of the quirks of film cameras.
26. Michael Novotny
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Michael Novotny is a nomatic artist of analog photography who uses his background in landscape architecture to document nature and the environment.
Michael’s most impactful work focuses on the influence of Western society on remote communities worldwide.
27. Kenro Izu
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Kenro Izu is a celebrated photographer who has served as a member of the Jury for the AS International Film Photography Awards.
He began capturing images of sacred spaces throughout the world in 1974.
Throughout his life, this documentary pursuit has continued and shaped the rest of his work. Izu’s work influenced his decision to found Friends Without a Border, devoted to raising funds for children’s hospitals in Cambodia.
Izu’s mastery of emotion and empathy are put to excellent use in his Noh project. He reimagines photography of a museum object and captures the ongoing life and deep emotion absorbed by a Noh mask over 600 years.
28. Leanne Surfleet
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Leanne Surfleet works in film and polaroid photography to expose personal themes of anxiety, loneliness and anxiety. Her work explores light and the female form to get through to the raw emotion of her models and their surroundings.
Each photo is framed and developed to exploit the unique qualities of film photography, including color casts, scratches, and grain.
In a recent series of self-portraits, Leanne plays with the viewer as she interacts privately with spring tulips in various arrangements. Each image progresses in intimacy both in her relationship with the dainty flowers and with the viewing audience.
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29. Steve McCurry
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This list of famous film photographers wouldn’t be the same without Steve McCurry, a talented creative who is most well-known for his “Afghan Girl” portrait.
As a documentary photographer, Steve strives to capture everyday people in highly emotional and captivating film images.
His film photography has been published by National Geographic, Time Magazine, and The New York Times.
30. Jagoda Malanin
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Jagoda Malanin is a Polish photographer whose work in film has explored the artist’s trips to the Polish coastline.
From empty beaches to shuttered seaside carnival attractions, Jagoda’s work exposes to some the reality of a vacation spot’s worn surroundings after the guests leave. To others, the work evokes fond memories of childhood holidays and warm days on the sand.
Jagoda’s describes their process as using a trash or hastily scanned color photograph. Instead of detracting from the images, the lint and scratches in each image add to Jagoda’s vision.
31. Julian Claxton
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Julian Claxton is a native Britain, award winning photographer who teaches 35mm film photography as part of an outreach program named Give a Child a Camera. Making him one of the famous 35mm film photographers in 2023.
His own work includes photography from rural Uganda to a British Pro cycling team.
During the most intense period of COVID-19 in London, Julian took his camera and went to work capturing life inside the food bank and community work of a local non-profit.
His portraits of front-line workers have an historic connection to England’s strong history of social documentary photography.
Instead of focusing on the boredom and dispair of people waiting for services, like in Paul Graham’s historic Waiting Room, Julian’s work is visually distinct in the joy and determination that he shows in his portraits.
32. Alec Soth
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Alec Soth is known for his large-scale photography of the American midwest. He created Little Brown Mushroom in 2008 to focus on visual storytelling, and he has published over twenty-five books of his work.
Alec’s images are usually displayed in museums and galleries as humongous prints, but he also shares his work and process online.
A recent video of him shooting with a large-format camera displays the making of a perfect shot at the end of a 12-hour livestream.
The resulting image of Gucci’s creative director, exhausted after a successful event, displays an intimacy and vulnerability in the choice of positioning.
At the same time, the distant framing and intervening light stand keep the viewer remote and closed off.
33. Annie Leibovitz
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Let’s wrap up this list with the most famous film photographer of her generation, Annie Leibovitz.
Big-name magazines like Vanity Fair and Vogue have regularly featured Annie’s film photography throughout the years.
Annie makes her subjects feel as comfortable as possible before, after, and during the shoot, which helps her achieve amazing results. Distinguished lighting and soft backgrounds help create her signature film photography look, too.
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