THE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO HAVE LEFT US IN 2025

The photographic world in 2025 has been profoundly shaped by the loss of Sebastião Salgado and Martin Parr, two photographers whose influence extends far beyond their individual bodies of work. Salgado’s large-scale, morally charged documentary projects redefined the ambition and ethical weight of photography, combining classical composition with sustained engagement in labour, migration, conflict, and environmental devastation. His work altered how long-form documentary could operate within museums, books, and public discourse. Martin Parr, by contrast, transformed the language of colour, irony, and social observation, reshaping British and international documentary photography through an unsparing examination of consumer culture, class, leisure, and taste. Together, Salgado and Parr represent opposing but complementary poles of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century photography, and their absence marks a decisive generational rupture within the medium.

Alongside them, 2025 has also seen the loss of many other photographers whose work shaped documentary, portraiture, advertising, and experimental practice. Chris Steele-Perkins and Constantine “Costa” Manos extended Magnum’s socially engaged tradition, while Jim Brandenburg’s ecological photography redefined how the natural world could be seen and valued. Oliviero Toscani’s confrontational imagery permanently altered visual advertising, and figures such as Rosalind Fox Solomon, Marcia Resnick, Flo Fox, and Rashid Lombard expanded the psychological, political, and institutional possibilities of photography. Together with photographers including Brian Harris, Nick Hedges, Herb Greene, Thomas Billhardt, Mick O’Neill, Bryan F. Peterson, Richard Forster, Brad Everett Young, Pierre Berdoy, Allan Ira Ludwig, Kieran Clancy and Mălina Maria Guler, and to the others I have not mentioned their passing marks a significant generational shift, underscoring how much of contemporary photographic language has been shaped by voices now absent but enduring through their work.

NOTICE: All information in this video regarding the lives and passing of the photographers was researched and checked to the best of my ability. I apologise for any errors or omissions and for anyone who may have been left out. The purpose of this video and channel is to celebrate and promote the work of great photographers. Links to all photographers featured in the video can be found below.

Sebastião Salgado

Martin Parr

Jim Brandenburg

Rashid Lombard

Nick Hedges

Brian Harris

Chris Steele‑Perkins

Flo Fox

Rosalind Fox Solomon

Constantine “Costa” Manos

Bryan F. Peterson

Ruth Thorne‑Thomsen

Pierre Berdoy

A. J. Meek

Oliviero Toscani

Allan Ira Ludwig

Music
Room for Whatever Is Left - Hanna Lindgren

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