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The Most Famous

PHOTOGRAPHERS from France

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This page contains a list of the greatest French Photographers. The pantheon dataset contains 105 Photographers, 16 of which were born in France. This makes France the birth place of the 3rd most number of Photographers behind United States and Germany.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary French Photographers of all time. This list of famous French Photographers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of French Photographers.

Photo of Nadar

1. Nadar (1820 - 1910)

With an HPI of 70.94, Nadar is the most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 59 different languages on wikipedia.

Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person to take aerial photographs.Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the great national collections of photographs. His son, Paul Nadar, continued the studio after his death.

Photo of Henri Cartier-Bresson

2. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004)

With an HPI of 70.44, Henri Cartier-Bresson is the 2nd most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 50 different languages.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French: [kaʁtje bʁɛsɔ̃]; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947. In the 1970s, he largely discontinued his photographic work, instead opting to paint.

Photo of Robert Doisneau

3. Robert Doisneau (1912 - 1994)

With an HPI of 64.80, Robert Doisneau is the 3rd most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Robert Doisneau (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ dwano]; 14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism.Doisneau is known for his 1950 image Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (The Kiss by the City Hall), a photograph of a couple kissing on a busy Parisian street. He was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1984 by then French president, François Mitterrand.

Photo of Dora Maar

4. Dora Maar (1907 - 1997)

With an HPI of 64.50, Dora Maar is the 4th most famous French Photographer.  Her biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Henriette Theodora Markovitch (22 November 1907 – 16 July 1997), known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat.

Photo of Claude Cahun

5. Claude Cahun (1894 - 1954)

With an HPI of 62.21, Claude Cahun is the 5th most famous French Photographer.  Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Claude Cahun (French pronunciation: [klod ka.œ̃], born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer.Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae. In her writing she consistently referred to herself as elle (she), and this article follows her practice; but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. For example, in Disavowals, Cahun writes: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me." Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time. During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist.

Photo of Elliott Erwitt

6. Elliott Erwitt (1928 - 2023)

With an HPI of 57.89, Elliott Erwitt is the 6th most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Elliott Erwitt (born Elio Romano Erwitz, July 26, 1928 – November 29, 2023) was a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1953.

Photo of Jacques Henri Lartigue

7. Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894 - 1986)

With an HPI of 55.49, Jacques Henri Lartigue is the 7th most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Jacques Henri Lartigue (French: [laʁtig]; 13 June 1894 – 12 September 1986) was a French photographer and painter, known for his photographs of automobile races, planes and female Parisian fashion models.

Photo of Hippolyte Bayard

8. Hippolyte Bayard (1801 - 1887)

With an HPI of 54.77, Hippolyte Bayard is the 8th most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Hippolyte Bayard (20 January 1801 – 14 May 1887) was a French photographer and pioneer in the history of photography. He invented his own process that produced direct positive paper prints in the camera and presented the world's first public exhibition of photographs on 24 June 1839. He claimed to have invented photography earlier than Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre in France and William Henry Fox Talbot in England, the men traditionally credited with its invention.Bayard experimented with the new medium taking photos of plant specimens, statuary (including posing with them for self-portraits), street scenes, urban landscapes, architectural photos, and portraits. He photographed prominent figures and an ordinary worker. He also advocated combination printing and was one of the founders of a photo society.

Photo of Sabine Weiss

9. Sabine Weiss (1924 - 2021)

With an HPI of 54.58, Sabine Weiss is the 9th most famous French Photographer.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Sabine Weiss (née Weber; 23 January 1924 – 28 December 2021) was a Swiss-French photographer active in the French humanist photography movement, along with Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Édouard Boubat, and Izis. She was born in Switzerland and became a naturalised French citizen in 1995.

Photo of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri

10. André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (1819 - 1889)

With an HPI of 53.57, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri is the 10th most famous French Photographer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French: [ɑ̃dʁe adɔlf(ə) øʒɛn(ə) dizdeʁi]; 28 March 1819 – 4 October 1889) was a French photographer who started his photographic career as a daguerreotypist but gained greater fame for patenting his version of the carte de visite, a small photographic image which was mounted on a card. Disdéri, a brilliant showman, made this system of mass-production portraiture world famous.

Pantheon has 16 people classified as photographers born between 1801 and 1968. Of these 16, 2 (12.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living photographers include Sophie Calle and Hedi Slimane. The most famous deceased photographers include Nadar, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Doisneau. As of April 2022, 1 new photographers have been added to Pantheon including Sabine Weiss.

Living Photographers

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Deceased Photographers

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Newly Added Photographers (2022)

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Which Photographers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 13 most globally memorable Photographers since 1700.