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Today’s Top 100 Photographers on Twitter

Most of you know by now that I love Twitter as a social networking tool for photographers. I think that as the platform continues to grow it offers more value than any other networking website or service. I’m not alone.

The number of people on Twitter grows every day. The number of photographers on twitter? That grows as well.

Last December I wrote an article listing over 50 Photographers on Twitter You Should Follow and that list is still relevant. But I wanted to update it because as more and more photographers learn how to use Twitter to engage each other more and more awesome photographers emerge as Twitter photography leaders.

Besides, Twitter is one of those places where people will come and go as photographers decide whether it’s a good platform for them.

Making a comprehensive list of photographers using twitter is tough. You don’t go by sheer number of followers. There are too many spammers and bots that skew those numbers.

So we used data from various Twitter API ranking systems to find out which photographers rank highest on Twitter. We spent several days plugging in numbers and data into a spreadsheet and tried our best to be as fair as possible. We omitted photography website or blog Twitter accounts and worked on tracking photographers who talk about photography often enough to make it worthwhile to follow on Twitter.

This is not a list of the best photographers on Twitter as pertaining to their actual skill in photography. This is a list of the most engaged photographers on Twitter. Engagement means many different things to the various Twitter ranking websites but most often includes the probability and frequency in which these photographers will talk with, not just at, their followers. They share links, retweet other’s tweets, they share photography knowledge, etc. They also got lower scores when they talked to much “me, me, me” and if their tweets were too spammy or promotional.

If you’re a photographer who uses Twitter I highly encourage you to follow these Twitter photographers. You can do so individually or you can simply follow this top Twitter photographer list I’ve created to make it easy for you.

Today’s Top 100 Photographers on Twitter

#1 ScottBourne – Host – Photofocus Podcast, Publisher Photofocus.com, President Bourne Media Group – photographer, author, teacher, speaker, new media pioneer

#2 jeremycowart – Photographer to the Stars and the Suffering. Founder of Help-Portrait.

#3 photojack – world, travel, lifestyle, stock photographer. Social Media coach and consultant to photographers. Husband. Father. Austinite

#4 strobist – Professional Flasher

#5 xryanrussellx – Rock photographer. I post behind the scenes photos from tours, photoshoots, etc here. I ramble about video games and comic books too!

#6 Jonathan360 – Photographer and Social Media Ninja. Fashion and Twitter addict.

#7 TheBigKlosowski – Allen Klosowski is a professional photographer based in Denver, Colorado. DenverTweetup organizer.

#8 TreyRatcliff – A warm-hearted, old-school gentleman explorer with really cool toys.

#9 fleurdeleigh – 75% photog, 3% uberdork, 92% adoring wife and mom, 2.7% mathmatically inept, 12% blogger, 9% superhero, 3% spy.

#10 LaraJade_ – fashion photographer, creative director, dreamer.

#11 scottwyden – New Jersey Portrait, Travel, Band and Event Photographer.

#12 Pyeman – wedding photographer, commercial photographer, web entrepreneur, web programmer, gamer, sports enthusiast

#13 DamienFranco – Photographer, web author/blogger, and all around nice guy. Great art is supposed to make you think…

#14 JeromeShaw – Photographer Traveler Teacher Writer PT Aspenite–Lover of hoppy beer, chocolate, travel, strong coffee, occasionally wine, too infrequently women & always song

#15 thomashawk – Quiet Observer of Modern Nihilism with Box that Captures Light

#16 jimgoldstein – Web Strategist / Photographer: Capturing the worlds beauty one photo at a time. Photographer of landscapes, nature and anything beautiful

#17 PaulManoian – Child, Family and Wedding Photographer. Voted #1 Best Portrait Photography in Detroit for 2009.

#18 CelticCamera – Gareth Glynn Ash – The Celtic Camera Specializing in Music (Concert, Publicity, Promotional); Product/Food Styling; Landscape

#19 iYassin – I tweet about photography, tech, apple, design, blogging. and i love coffee.

#20 iamatyler – photographer. check out my blog. if you feel like it. no pressure. you are your own person. or my flickr account at http://bit.ly/d1Q2S0

#21 frederickvan – Photographer, Blogger, Instructor, and Host – This Week in Photography Podcast (TWiP)

#22 nicolesy – I’m a full-time photographer in SLC, Utah. I’m into photography, computers, geeky tech stuff, and Lightroom & Photoshop.

#23 FredEgan – A photographer and style blogger living life 144 characters at a time.

#24 keatonandrewVisual ventriloquist. Oh, wait… photographer or something like that. I photograph people, they tend to be in bands as well.

#25 topherlin – 1/3 of Lin and Jirsa Photography. I love travel, basketball, friends, family, and photography. I kind of hate post production, arrogant people, and traffic.

#26 tofurious – Wedding photographer / marketing consultant (currently Grace Ormonde’s Chief Marketing Officer) who loves tofu, Chipotle and wonton noodles.

#27 zemotion – Gundam Wing pilot wannabe. Hearts bagels, scones and dark chocolates. Photographer, traveller.

#28 jorycordy – photographer, film maker, couple others.

#29 TrevorCurrent – Photographer, Graphic Designer, Gadget Lover – Bringing you the latest photography news, tips, tools and reviews for beginner through professional photographers

#30 StevenTaylor – Photographer & Pop music lover.

#31 willbl – Pro wildlife photographer looking to share info & connect with other togs :)

#32 natalienorton – love wins. forever.

#33 inf3ktion – Future Optometrist, Medical Technician, Canonite, Platoon Sergeant, Narcissist, Imagiste, Fotografr, Lomosapien, ManUtd fan, Trance, Post Rock, Seducer! :P

#34 seanmclellan – To do: Insert most exciting description of a wedding photographer you’ve ever seen, here. Later.

#35 crismitchell – Photographer, Publisher of ProPhotoResource.com / PhotographersHandbook.com and Author of Internet Marketing Techniques for Professional Photographers

#36 lindsayadler – Lindsay Adler is an energetic and passionate fashion photographer living in New York and London.

#37 ap4a – Web developing grape addict and photographyist. www.ap4a.co.uk/about/

#38 ahetherington – Freelance editorial/commercial photographer available anywhere.

#39 stevesimon – Obsessed with documentary photography and all things photographic

#40 Carsten_Peter – Addicted to nature, loving extremes, National Geographic photographer, biologist, adventurer, environmentalist – EMMY & World Press awarded, go: www.ow.ly/twUu

#41 photosil – Italian amateur photographer. My works are for sale at http://www.redbubble.com/people/sil

#42 alpower – Photographer and Web developer who likes good UI design, web standards and general web geekery.

#43 rob_sheridan – Artist/designer/photographer/geek. Creative Director for Nine Inch Nails.

#44 bluelilyphoto – Photog. Check out my blog. bluelily.squarespace.com. It is the epicenter of rad. In my humble opinion. Get it? Because it is horribly arrogant? Nevermind.

#45 heygrover – Founder of PhotoShelter, SportsShooter.com, and TasteTequila.com – a website for tequila freaks, like me.

#46 SvenSeebeck – I’m a Landscape photographer and publish my images and articles on my website. Feel free to visit.

#47 davidbean – Advertising and Musician/Celebrity Photographer. Art is not my life. Life is my art.

#48 chasejarvis – Maniac Photographer Director

#49 EverywhereTrip – Travel blogger and photographer. I’m a one man National Geographic. I’ve blogged and tweeted from over 60 countries and territories since March 2007.

#50 JeffRodgers – Husband, Father, lbobi Shephard, Photoshop Alchemist, Designer of things and Photographer to the people.

#51 theshutterclick – Profesional Photographer, I shoot people!

#52 brianlarter – Halifax based photographer and Studio Manager at Aperture Studios.

#53 Greg_Easton – I take pictures.

#54 alexlindsay – Random musings and 140 char discussion of film, photography, and life’s random bits.

#55 abbyharenberg – Weddings/portraits/events/lifestyle photographer, love to photograph people.

#56 mikeluter – I twitter about photography, photography tips and techniques as well as some personal stuff.

#57 chaselisbon – Photographer Videographer Owner Supercult.com Writer/photographer FLNGS.com FILTHYGORGEOUSTHINGS.com FLNGS.com

#58 mostlylisa – Photographer & blogger. I love my Canon 5DMKII, iMac & L-Lenses. i sleep with my iPhone under my pillow.

#59 jefflynchphoto – Photographer, blogger, author, husband and father

#60 RodHarlan – Author, Artist, Director, Educator, Entrepreneur, Photographer, Videographer, DV Junkie, Photoshop Addict! Using social media to make Media social again :-)

#61 RachaelDCruze – Freelance journalist and photographer. Loves writing, photography, most things arty, anything girly.

#62 wizwow – Designer. Photographer. Author. Entrepreneur: Loving life at 100MPH. Love working and teachng.

#63 jessicaclaire – fun, fresh, fabulous photographer living the good life in the OC

#64 chrismarquardt – What’s the Buzz? http://tfttf.com/buzz :wq!

#65 warandpeace – A photographer who finds it very difficult to write about himself

#66 monophotography – Donald Cameron – black and white landscape and seascape photographer.

#67 christinebpc – Wedding Photographer, Blogger, Knitter, Geek. Share & Learn at http://bigpinkcookie.com

#68 pattyhankins – In search of the next beautiful flower to photograph – Does life get any better than this? :-)

#69 MichaelZelbel – I tweet about photography. I do love artistic nude photography. Ask me anything via @MichaelZelbel, I never check DM’s.

#70 thebecker – wedding photographer, educator, entrepreneur, wannabe pro poker player, follow @thebschool too!

#71 newmediaphoto – New Media Photog’er: A photographer who publishes to the web. Rosh is also a blogger, podcaster, author speaker, consultant, Univ. instructor Bio – www.rosh.com

#72 Photocritic – Photographer, author, blogger, motorcyclist, technonaut, geek, Apple-fanatic, pan-european import-Londoner

#73 bonnietsang – lifestyle + wedding photographer (for my art, design & food talks, follow @bforbonnie)

#74 stacyreeves – I take pretty photos of pretty people in pretty places. Best job ever.

#75 danesanders – writer, photographer, learner, teacher & entrepreneur who loves to get curious with my friends

#76 stanflan – photographer based in western washington shooting weddings and assignments nationally and internationally

#77 toddowyoung – Your favorite concert photographer.

#78 phillprice – Photographer and EMC Documentum Developer and ocassional @photowalklondon co-organiser

#79 chromasia – Editorial, fine art and commercial photographer, photoblogger, photoshop fiend, and husband to @libby_chromasia

#80 JeshdeRox – spiritual explorer, experiential photographer, lover of life

#81 GKPhotography – Photographer, Mother, and Creative Thinker

#82 nickonken – photog of life.

#83 leggnet – I’m a full-time professional photographer specializing in stock photography. My tweets are mostly photography and tech related.

#84 IlanBr – Photography for me is a way to find my inner peace. Same with blogging. So I combine the two.

#85 SarahRhoads – i take photos.

#86 anneruthmann – Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer, Creative Business Consultant, World Traveler, Music Lover, Etsy Buyer

#87 koltregaskes – Used to work in the games industry, a very keen photographer, likes music, movies, sport, computing + games, web development, art, tech, sci-fi & FriendFeed.

#88 kennykim – Chicago-based photographer available for weddings worldwide & author of Digital Wedding Photographer’s Planner by Wiley Press: http://bit.ly/bFULCv

#89 gallagherphoto – photographer; i view life one eye at a time…….not really!

#90 jmarkwallace – Photographer, traveler, artist

#91 polaroidgirl – I like polaroids and plastic deer.

#92 ronbrinkmann – mostly awake, wish I was traveling…

#93 leesteffen – Photographer, Creative Director and Founder @ PenguinCreative.com. World-traveler, musician and advocate for social justice and equality.

#94 MartinBailey – Nature & Wildlife photographer based in Japan. I do a photography Podcast, run workshops and sell fine art prints. Available for assignments and seminars.

#95 extrajection – Amateur photographer, covering abstract, macro, nature, landscape, architectural and industrial subjects

#96 kevinswancom – Great KISSer

#97 jasongroupp – NYC’s most awesome photographer.

#98 ciaochessa – Photographer, Mama-To-Be, New Yorker, Artist, People Watcher, Corporate Dropout, Recovering Lawyer, Blogger, Perfectionist

#99 carlonicora – Photographer, technologically minded thinker and life enthusiast

#100 julesbianchi – fashionjournalistic wedding photographer

Honorable Mentions!!!

Because we used Twitter API based websites to formulate this list there seemed to be some notable omissions from some of the Internet’s most notable photographers. We also decided to throw in a few Twitter photographers to watch as they are working and sharing in incredible ways. These are in no particular order.

sesameellis – commercial kid photographer, daily life photo blogger, american expat mom not mum

AhhPhotography – Peter quips, Photosynths, & photographs Seniors, families, weddings & events! Serves Frisco, Craig Ranch, DFW; heck, all of North Texas & beyond!

zarias – I’m an ATL based photographer and workshop leader. I’m married to @meghanarias and between us, we have four boys.

picseshu – Documentary wedding & portrait photographer in Connecticut. Love blogging AND jogging. Listen to NPR, Jazz, Reggae, Blues. Publish http://www.tiffinbox.org

pixelatedimage – Photographer. Nomad. Author of Within The Frame, and VisionMongers.

vincentlaforet – Director, Photographer, DP, blogger (blog.vincentlaforet.com) über tech geek – Los Angeles & NYC

joemcnallyphoto – Twitter for long-time photojournalist, Joe McNally

Rankings like these change from time to time due to photographers coming in and out of the Twitterverse. This list will be revisited at the end of the year and updated because of this.

Oh…and in case you are wondering: Just how many photographers are on Twitter anyway? I can’t answer that accurately. I can, however, point out that WeFollow has over 15,800 photographers listed! If you are a photographer who uses Twitter I would highly recommend listing your Twitter handle at WeFollow.com under the #photographer and #photography hashtags (you can list your self under 5 hashtags). It’s one of the best directories around for finding Twitter users with your same interests.

So…I konw that the comment section is going to fill up with photographers I missed. Great! I’d love to hear who you thought should have made the list. I’m willing to bet that their info was in the spreadsheet, but it’s certainly possible I actually missed an awesome Twitter photographer!

So who did I miss? Who do you follow in the photography Twittersphere?


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About the Author: Damien Franco is a contemporary art photographer living in the deserts of West Texas. He likes long walks on the beach and thinks art is groovy.

  • David Levine
    How is @jessyel (Gonzalez) not on this list?! Probably one of the most famous photobloggers out there!
  • thank you for the honorable mention! that is really nice of you!
  • It's well deserved.
  • Damien,

    Truly honored to be included among my photography & social media idols on your comprehensive list. Thank you so much for making my day!!!!
  • I'd bet many of those on that list would call you an idol as well. You do splendid work.
  • So honored to be on this list, thank you! I guess all those hours Twittering when I should have been editing have finally paid off ;)
  • That and that really nice check you sent my way ;)

    Seriously though, you do a great job!
  • Mwws143
    Oh my! You missed an AWESOME Photographer!
    @KIRALISA

    Fun, Easy going, very patient, GREAT eye! Genuinely CARES about you and your photos! Hard worker. Mom to 4 beautifully sweet and well mannered children. Fantastic husband and supporter.
    Check her website out...... you'll see why...... kiralisa.com
  • shanna
    I gotta recommend http://twitter.com/lesleemitchell wedding photographer in Nashville, AMAZING!
  • Juan
    I missed Chase Jarvis...
  • I guess I need to tweet more and re-think my non-existent Twitter marketing strategy! http://twitter.com/joercoli for cool commercial, editorial and HDR photography!
  • You missed me http://twitter.com/tlester Ha! Just kidding ;-) There are certainly some good ones on this list and some I didn't know about that I'll check out. Thanks!
  • @Heartoftheoaks
  • @Heartoftheoaks
    sorry - a couple bad links... rebecca's is.... www.twitter.com/becschlieman and andrew's is www.twitter.com/andrew_bryant
  • Thank you for the corrections!
  • You totally missed @jasminestar! A must for any TOP 10. And Jessica Claire needs to be moved up big time too. Very talented photographers and business ladies. And of course, me :) @lemonfrshdesign.
  • Mark
  • Jane
    check out @carail - beauty and fashion photographer from Germany (www.mandymatzke.com)
  • Ute Schimmel
    Don't forget Kiara Black!!!
    https://twitter.com/Kiara_Black
    fashion and portrait photographer
  • Fantastic list. Lots of new people for me to follow.... but Scott Bourne as number one!??! He certainly has great numbers, but half of his tweets are invitations to spam twitter with a new contest. Seriously... that one is tough for me to swallow if we're not making this list strictly by the numbers. But this isn't anything personal, because he has an incredible blog and show.
    Also, Trey Ratcliff is old school?!??! He is one of the youngest and most on-the-edge photographers out there!
    Had to throw in my two cents, but this is a terrific list. Very well done, guys.
  • Whenever I see a list like this the comments are usually pretty predictable. Improvehotography competes with ScottBourne. The guy behind it hawks his ebook and then calls Scott a spammer. So I guess it boils down to when Scott promotes something it's spam and when this dude does it - well it's not???? Seems to me these lists - no matter who is on them - bring out the jealous kids who didn't make the list. I got no dog in this hunt by the way. I have like 13 followers LOL!
  • I understand the "hard to swallow" part of Scott Bourne being listed number one. There are many people who have emailed me about this. Yes, he does tend to over-promote and get others to spam Twitter for him by giving away prizes and holding contests (not my words BTW) but what he says has influence in the photographer part of the Twitterverse AND he does engage in conversation with other photographers often enough to not get penalized by the websites we used to gather our data.

    While this list isn't about who has the most followers it IS still about the numbers. The same numbers that moved a couple of these fine folks from way off the grid to a comfy spot on the top 100 Photographers of Twitter also knocked a few folks way down, if not off, the list.

    EVERY single Twitter Ranking website or app that we used had Scott Bourne ranked in the top 5 including the ones that attempt to penalize for spammy Twitter content.

    On the Trey Ratcliff thing: his words from his Twitter profile. Those are all pulled from their twitter profiles so people could get a quick glimpse of the photographer without having to click on their name.
  • www.ImprovePhotography.com
    Sounds like you guys put a ton of work into this. Thanks for the great post. I just had to react a bit :-) Great post, guys.

    http://www.improvephotography.com
  • Don't forget me - @funnytimeofyear - London based fashion and portrait photographer! :)
  • Haidy
    you guys missed @jesuzwho and his website: http://ihatejesuz.com i personally think he is one of the most promising out there. IMO.
    congrats to the others. cheers.
  • You missed two great photographers in Sweden, @rutgerblom and @hakandahlstrom. And some of the people on this list may call themselves photographers, but they are sadly a bit behind when taking photos. As you would see when checking their feeds.
  • Duh, i just noticed D Bean, Nick Onken and Chase Jarvis, who I was also going to say was crazy to not be here.
  • David Bean, @davidbean I think, is a big omission.
  • And don't forget @jessefreidin! The Dog ga ga photos!! One of the best dog photographers on the planet right now!
  • Hope to make the next list!! =) There are so many amazing and talented photographers! Can't wait to see how many I already follow and who I need to follow! Thanks for the list!
  • Peter
    Definitely missing @jamesco, photojournalist at CNET
  • Damien,
    Thanks for putting this good information together on today's top 100 photographers on Twitter! Will help me to be better at photography and tweeting by following them.
  • Damien,
    Thanks for putting this good information together! Will help me to be better at photography and tweeting. Maybe one day I'll be with the lead group.
  • Cool list - thank you. >>>off to go follow a bunch of new people
  • Interesting compilation. As expected, I'm not on the list, but I rarely ever get on these "Top" lists. Typically, it's because I'm not using exactly the right keyword on exactly the right website (in this case, it's WeFollow). It's a good list of active photographers on Twitter, although as you eluded to, I think it's more of a "who's popular" than who's a great photographer.

    Thanks for posting and making the effort. :)

    - Kelly Shipp - www.twitter.com/kellyshipp
  • I'm actually glad you brought up a couple of things.

    On WeFollow.com

    While WeFollow was used in our calculations it didn't completely determine who made the list. WeFollow is a fantastic website because, as I understand it, the rankings are based partially on the number of followers a Twitter user has that are also listed under the same hashtag, as well as the amount of times that other users under that same hashtag interact (@s and RTs) with each other, thereby attempting to monitor influence inside the users hashtag category. It makes sense that if PersonA is listed under photographer but there are very few photographers that actually follow PersonA then they don't rank well on that site.

    There were other factors that gave us our total score including a few sites that imposed serious penalties when PersonA would only tweet out links (especially to the same website) or hadn't tweeted in over a week.

    It's also not purely based on popularity. One photographer on the list had about 400 followers a couple of days ago and several are in the low thousands.

    The likely hood of actual engagement with other photographers seemed to bump many of the photographers much higher on the list than I would have initially thought.

    We also had several highly followed and notable photographers, as the honorable mentions suggest, that didn't quite make the cut due to one "bad" statistical behavior or another.

    As an FYI Klout.com and WeFollow.com seemed to have the most impact on the starting position but many of the other websites moved the photographers around especially towards the final 35 or so.
  • Hi Damien,

    I understand the challenges you describe. There are many similar lists out there of 'best of', 'top 100', etc, etc. What's frustrating to most users is that many of them rely on third-party dependencies, such as in your case: if a photographer was not on WeFollow under #photography or #photographer, then he/she wasn't remotely eligible for your list. For example, I was on WeFollow, but under ProPhotographer and others similar. I guess you were just choosing the shortest path by choosing the top two hashtags used on WeFollow for all photographers....and you had to start somewhere if you wanted to start with a long list to begin with, so WeFollow was easy for that.
    :)
    I don't mean to strip the meaning of your list. You did a fine job for what you had to work with.
    :)
  • ChixOnPix - Suzanne Sagmeister
    http://www.facebook.com/sagmeisterphotography
  • shocked I made 24th! Everyone around me on the list has 4-20 times as many followers!
  • let me rephrase that. Shocked I made it at all!
  • Quality not quantity my friend. But you already knew that!
  • Mark Mayer
    Missing Gary Busch
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