[Editor�s note: Comments on this article have been removed, due to the incivility of many of them. Letters to PDN may be addressed to editor@pdnonline.com.]

In preparation for PDN�s 30th anniversary issue devoted to Visions of the Decade,PDNOnline asked you, the reader, to name the most influential living photographers of the past ten years. We�ve tallied the votes�and the voters�in our survey, and the results are bound to stir controversy. If we dare say so, a few cheeky photographers out there waged dedicated get-out-the-vote campaigns.

What makes a photographer �influential�? Creating work that inspires others to follow in their footsteps? Teaching or mentoring new photographers? Attracting a huge and loyal audience to blogs, web posts, online courses or Facebook pages? We left it to our survey participants to define the term, but within days of posting the survey it was clear that social media is now playing a much bigger role in spreading news, creating communities, and stirring participation in these kinds of polls than they did five years ago, when we last conducted a most-influential-photographers survey (and it didn't matter if Lee Friedlander and Cindy Sherman didn't have blogs).�
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We admit it: Our polling system wasn�t built to block the vote-early, vote-often strategy. The ballot we created had slots for 5 write-in candidates; many ballots listed the same name 5 times. People were prevented from voting dozens of times within the same day, but lots of people kept voting day after day.� Yes, we realize our survey methods were flawed. All we can say is: Hey, we weren�t electing a world leader here.

So the question was: Should we throw out the results? We decided, after some reflection, that the survey revealed how some photographers have harnessed one of the biggest innovations of the last ten years to build a community.

To illustrate the impact of campaigns waged via social media networks, we�ve tallied up all the results of the survey in two different ways, as you'll see.

The first was by counting how many individual people voted for each photographer. For that method of counting, multiple votes from the same IP address counted as just one vote, even if the IP address owner had voted many times.� In our second list, we counted the total number of votes each photographer received.��



Thirdly, to see why the two resulting lists were so different, we also checked the average number of votes that were cast per voter. That resulted in a third list that ranks the most influential photographers according to how heavily the ballot box was stuffed on their behalf.

Many of the names on these lists are probably familiar to you, while others aren't. Do a Google search. There are several photographers here who have become well known within certain circles, without having created work that's taught in photo schools or published in anthologies. They may conduct influential workshops or classes, lecture widely, run businesses� important to other photographers, or be popular bloggers. In one way or another, they have forged a community of devotees. One photographer's community may not overlap with any other communities.

Without further ado....

30 Most Influential Photographers: by number of individual voters.�

BECKER
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
SETH RESNICK
JAMES NACHTWEY
SEBASTIAO SALGADO
JASMINE STAR
JAY MAISEL
JOE MCNALLY
CHRIS FAWKES
JESSICA CLAIRE
ALEXANDER GARZA
CHASE JARVIS
DANE SANDERS
IRVING PENN
DAVID LACHAPELLE
EUGENE RICHARDS
ROBERT FRANK
MARY ELLEN MARK
DAVID HOBBY
DAVID JAY
STEVE MCCURRY
ED KASHI
STEPHEN WILKES
YURI ARCURS
ELLIOTT ERWITT
STEVEN MEISEL
WILLIAM EGGLESTON
MARTIN PARR
YERVANT
JOSE VILLA

(Note: This was a survey about living photographers. Irving Penn passed away about a month after we closed the poll.)

But wait. Take a look at this next ranking.

30 Most Influential Photographers: by number of votes received.

SETH RESNICK
CHRIS FAWKES
BECKER
ED KASHI
ALEXANDER GARZA
YAZYJO
JAY MAISEL
STEVEN FONTAS
NEVADA WIER
ERIC MEOLA
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
JAMES NACHTWEY
PETER DAZELEY
KEVIN MAZUR
JASMINE STAR
DANE SANDERS
KRISTIN REIMER
JOE MCNALLY
STEPHEN WILKES
LYNN GOLDSMITH
SEBASTIAO SALGADO
ERWIN OLAF
JOSE VILLA
BEBB STUDIOS
IRVING PENN
SCOTT MC KIERNAN
JESSICA CLAIRE
BOB DAVIS
CHRISTINA WILCOX
MIKE COLON

Finally, here's our third list.

Votes Per Voter
Here is a list of the 30 photographers who received the highest average number of votes per voter. We divided the number of votes they received by the number of voters.� It's an average, which means� one feverish and persistent fan (or collector, or agent, or devoted mother or spouse) could lift a photographer's average.

NEVADA WIER
LOUIS TORRES
KRISTIN REIMER
KEVIN MAZUR
YAZYJO RACLAWSKI
ED KASHI
STEVEN FONTAS
PETER DAZELEY
JODI FRIEDMAN
CHRIS FAWKES
JASON ATEN
ALEXANDER GARZA
DAVID FREUND
ALLEN KEE
SETH RESNICK
TOM BRILL
STEVEN HIRSCH
LAUREN DUKOFF
LYDELL PHOTOGRAPHY
MARK GAMBA
JINKY ART
SIMON NORFOLK
JESSICA ELIZABETH
ASHTON KUTCHER
JAMES MCENTEE
TARA WHITNEY
FRESH SUGAR
BEBB STUDIOS
MARTIN BAILEY
ERWIN OLAF


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