The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum (IPHF) announced its 2019 class of Photography Hall of Fame inductees and honored them at its 2019 Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 1 at .ZACK in the Grand Center Arts District in St. Louis. The IPHF annually awards and inducts notable photographers or photography industry visionaries for their artistry, innovation, and significant contributions to the art and science of photography.

2019 Honorees to be inducted into the Hall of Fame include the following eight photographers:

• Bruce Davidson, Social/Civil Rights photographer
• Elliott Erwitt, Advertising/Documentary photographer
• Ralph Gibson, Art photographer
• Mary Ellen Mark, Documentary/Portrait photographer
• Steve McCurry, Award-winning photographer
• Paul Nicklen, Conservationist photographer
• Olivia Parker, Still-life photographer
• Tony Vaccaro, Photojournalist/WWII photographer

“The diversity of work and offerings from this year’s awardees provides for a full range of fabulous photography. We are proud to bring them into the Hall of Fame,” said Richard Miles, Chairman of the Board of IPHF.
A nominating committee of IPHF representatives and notable photographic leaders with a passion for preserving and honoring the art of photography selected the inductees. To be eligible for induction, nominees were considered based on the noteworthy contributions they made to the art or science of photography that had a significant impact on the photography industry and/or history of photography. The inductees, though widely differing in style and practice, are individually seen as significant innovators in their respective fields.

About the 2019 Photography Hall of Fame inductees

Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1933. He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and Yale University.

Upon completing his military service in 1957, he worked as a photographer for LIFE magazine and, in 1958, became a member of Magnum Agency. Davidson has had exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, The Walker Art Center, The International Center of Photography, The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, The Aperture Foundation, and The Foundation Cartier-Bresson in Paris. He has received numerous grants and awards including two grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Photography in 2004, the Gold Medal Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Arts Club in 2007, the Leica Hall of Fame Award in 2018 and the ICP Infinity Award in 2018. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications and his prints have been acquired by many major museums worldwide. He has also directed three films.

Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928. His formative years were spent in Milan, and at age 11 his family emigrated to Los Angeles.

While attending Hollywood High School, he worked in a commercial darkroom processing “signed” prints for fans of movie stars. In 1948, Erwitt met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker in New York and they became significant mentors. The following year, he returned to Europe traveling and photographing, thus marking the start of his professional career. Drafted in to the US Army in 1951, Erwitt continued taking photographs for various publications and joined Magnum Photos as a member in 1953. His journalistic essays, illustrations and advertisements have been featured in publications around the world for over half a century. While actively working for magazine, industrial and advertising clients, Erwitt devotes his spare time toward creating books and exhibitions of his work.

Ralph Gibson

Ralph Gibson was born in Hollywood, California in 1939. His father was the assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock, and as a young boy, he would visit the set during filming, sometimes working as an extra and acting in bit parts.

He was impressed by the power of the camera lens and the intensity of the lights. Gibson studied photography while in the U.S. Navy and then at the San Francisco Art Institute. He began his professional career as an assistant to Dorothea Lange and went on to work with Robert Frank on two films. His photographs are included in over one hundred and seventy museum collections around the world and have appeared in hundreds of one-man exhibitions. He has lectured and led workshops in over 20 countries over the past 40 years. Gibson’s awards include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Lucie Lifetime Award and the Silver Plumb Award. In 2010 he collaborated with Lou Reed on the film RED SHIRLEY, which was screened in 14 film festivals throughout Europe and North America. In 2018, the president of France awarded him the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Mary Ellen Mark

Recognized as one of the most respected and influential photographers, Mary Ellen Mark achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work.

She published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. For over five decades, she traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Her images of diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Her portrayals of Mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothels in Bombay were the product of many years of work in India. A photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the basis of the Academy Award-nominated film STREETWISE, directed and photographed by her husband, Martin Bell. She has received numerous awards including the 2014 Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award from the George Eastman House as well as the Outstanding Contribution Photography Award from the World Photography Organisation. Mark published 20 books of photography and her photographs have been exhibited worldwide.

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry has been one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for over three decades, with scores of magazine and book covers, over a dozen books, and countless exhibitions around the world to his name.

Born in a suburb of Philadelphia, McCurry studied film at Pennsylvania State University, before working for a local newspaper. Several years later, McCurry made his first of many trips to India, exploring the country with his camera. After several months of travel, he found himself crossing the border into Pakistan where he met a group of refugees from Afghanistan who smuggled him across the border just as the Russian Invasion was closing the country to all western journalists. McCurry brought the world the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan, putting a human face to the issue on every masthead. Since then, he has gone on to create stunning images over six continents and countless countries. His work spans conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture alike – yet always retains the human element that made his celebrated image of the Afghan Girl, such a powerful image.

Paul Nicklen

Paul Nicklen is a Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and marine biologist who has documented the beauty and plight of our planet for more than twenty years.

As an assignment photographer for National Geographic magazine, Nicklen captures the imagination and heart of a global audience. Having grown up in the Canadian Arctic, he is uniquely qualified to create a brand of documentary photography that informs and creates an emotional connection with wild subjects in extreme conditions. Nicklen’s work has garnered over 30 of the highest awards given to any photographer in his field, including the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the prestigious World Press Photo for Photojournalism. He is equally recognized by the conservation community and has received the Natural Resources Defense Council BioGems Visionary Award. Recently, Nicklen received an Honourary PhD from the University of Victoria and was named one of National Geographic’s 2018 Adventurers of the Year. In addition to being one of the world’s most acclaimed nature photographers, Nicklen is a sought-after speaker, TED Talks presenter, author, and National Geographic contributor. As a co-founder of the non-profit, SeaLegacy, Nicklen is opening a fresh, progressive chapter in the story of ocean conservation.

Olivia Parker

After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in Art History, Olivia Parker began to make and photograph ephemeral constructions in 1973.

Represented in major private, corporate and museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Peabody Essex Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Parker’s work has been published in four monographs and in numerous magazines. She has had over 100 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in the U.S. and abroad. A skiing accident in 1995 ended Parker’s view camera photographs. Unable to work in the studio or dark room for a year because of a shattered leg, she experimented with computers and digital software. As software and equipment improved, fine images and stable prints evolved. Although Parker misses making silver prints, new ways of photographing with digital cameras have opened a new world. She is presently working on a series of photographs on Alzheimer’s called Vanishing in Plain Sight representing her speculations as to what happened in her husband’s mind as he was overcome by the disease.

Tony Vaccaro

Michael A. “Tony” Vaccaro, was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1922 and was drafted out of his New Rochelle, NY, high school into the Army.

He began his career chronicling WWII with over 2,000 front-line photographs before spending five years with the Stars and Stripes, photographing the reconstruction of Europe. Vaccaro returned to the U.S. and became the photographer for Flair magazine, launching a 22-year career, primarily with Look and LIFE, photographing fashion, celebrity, and travel. “Il Maestro,” as he is called by the Italian press, has taken portraits of over 1,500 “significant contributors to society” from Eleanor Roosevelt to Barak Obama. Today he oversees his own fine art printing studio and million-photo archive in New York City. Vaccaro exhibits around the world and still makes an appearance at every show.

About the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum is a non-profit organization with the purpose of celebrating the achievements of the inventors, pioneers, and pivotal artists throughout the history of photography. The IPHF has preserved the art of photography and its contribution to modern civilization since 1965, and is the proud home to over 2,000 historical cameras and 30,000 images.
For more than 50 years, the IPHF has been and remains the only organization worldwide that recognizes and honors significant contributors to the artistic craft and science of photography.
In addition to their commitment to the Photography Hall of Fame, the IPHF strives to educate the public about photographic history and to collect, exhibit, and preserve historical items and images.

More information on the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum can be found at iphf.org.