The Photographer 2017 Best -
In 2017, Uzochukwu was just 18 years old. He became the youngest artist ever to have a solo exhibition at the C/O Berlin. His surreal self-portraits, dealing with displacement and identity, were shared over 2 million times on Tumblr. He represented the future: a teenage artist with the vision of a master.
While many photographers covered the wars in Iraq and Syria, Lynsey Addario stood apart in 2017 for her unflinching look at the human cost of conflict, specifically the role of women in war zones. Her work for National Geographic and The New York Times went beyond the explosion; she captured the quiet moments of resilience in Mosul and the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Why she was the best in 2017: In a year of "alternative facts," Addario’s work was a testament to verifiable, empathetic truth. Her memoir, Of Love & War, published that fall, cemented her status as the moral compass of conflict photography. the photographer 2017 best
2017 was a landmark year for photography. It was a twelve-month period where the industry fully reconciled the battle between high-end digital and nostalgic analog, where social media reshaped the rules of composition, and where photojournalism reasserted its vital role in a turbulent political climate. But when critics, curators, and audiences asked, “Who was the best photographer of 2017?” no single name emerged. Instead, a pantheon of visual artists defined the year’s aesthetic.
Here is a look at the photographers who dominated the conversation in 2017, broken down by the genres they revolutionized. In 2017, Uzochukwu was just 18 years old
Ironically, the photographer 2017 best in the street/candid genre was a man who died in 2013: Saul Leiter. Why 2017? Because 2017 saw the blockbuster publication of "Saul Leiter: All About Light" and a massive retrospective at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.
Millennials in 2017 discovered Leiter via Instagram. His rainy, painterly New York scenes from the 1950s suddenly felt more modern than any digitally sharp Fujifilm X100F shot. Leiter’s use of negative space, reflections, and "the beautiful accident" became the unofficial aesthetic of 2017’s indie film posters and album covers. He represented the future: a teenage artist with
While he didn’t take a single photo in 2017, his influence was so dominant that every major photography publication named him the spiritual winner of the year.