Best Photographer !

[DanG]

I think a lot of them (the mags) have become a 'much of muchness', in that there is not such a great delineation in style anymore. Possibly a case of photographers hedging their bets sales-wise (and with an eye on net re-sales), rather than shooting stuff which strongly evokes the house style of a particular mag (i.e. a set shot with 'Razzle' in mind would not see print in 'Mayfair'), but it's also equally as possibly due to Editors allowing said house styles to become less clear as the years go by. Then again, maybe it's just changing tastes....after all, they are all in business to make money, so if that's what sells, that's what you're gonna get, and that's what they're gonna keep giving to you!

Hence, as has already been mentioned, this and various other factors (fees, lack of commissioned work, etc.) conspire to ensure a lot of cookie-cutter middle of the road type sets, with fairly little to distinguish them from all the others. Maybe, as Officer Dibble is so often wont to remind us, people are just a whole lot less demanding/discerning these days?

(One thing that does strike me though, looking further afield, is how many of the world's top glamour shooters are British, both at home and abroad....Suze Randall, Clive McClean, Hank Londoner (I think?), Jack Harrison, Kevin Maklin, Steve Colby, Rude Boy, Peter Hague, David Churchyard, Paul Markham, Joanie Allum, Dave Wells, John Mason etc, ....I've probably left a load out too, but that's just off the top of my head! Also, I think we can safely 'adopt' Viv Thomas too, as well as Chantel. Then there are all of those classic names from a a decade or two ago as well! We rule, goddammit!!!)

For me, the best photographer around at the minute is Maklin, hands down. His glamour sets are on a par with anyone else working today, but the h/c stuff he has been turning in for Private has been nothing short of jaw dropping, quite frankly.

[TheProf]

No,after 30-years snapping with Gold Star the time had come to retire,well,so did the editor back in the mid-90's.I could see the writing on the wall-things were about to get 'harder' sorry,Im from the old school when women were women,and guys showed very little.

Most of those 'snappers' mentioned have moved on or retired in the same way.The glory days are over,we had the best in the past.Wonderful days behold...

Horace.