Famous Sports Photographers

The famous sports photo-graphers on this page are mostly from the 1900s and can be considered to be pioneers in the field. A future page will be added to include more modern sports photographers.

George Grantham Bain was an early sports photographer who formed his own news agency in the 1800s. He photographed boxing, football, baseball and tennis in a spontaneous, unpremeditated way.

Mathew B Brady is renowned for his American Civil War photographs but also covered sports events. He sometimes sold the negatives of his sports photographs to other photographers to make prints from although they were stamped on the back as made from a Brady negative.

George Burke was a Chicago-based photographer and official photographer to the Chicago Cubs, White Sox and NFL's Bears.

Joseph Bert Tinker (1880-1948), Major League Baseball Player and Manager: Photo by Charles Conlon

Charles Conlon is the most famous baseball photographer and worked in the first half of the 1900s.

George Dorrill worked for the Sporting News in St. Louis.

Benjamin J. Falk is famous for his photographs of celebrities within the sporting world but also within the world of New York theatre.

Toni Frissell (1907-1988) was a famous fashion photographer who worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the 1930-1970s but was also the first female photographer to work for Sports Illustrated.

Joseph Hall was a very famous 19th century baseball photographer. He made many studio shots of famous Major League players and his images were used for Old Judge baseball cards.

Carl Horner made portraits of Major League Baseball players in the 1900s including the famous shot of Honus Wagner who played in the National League from 1897 to 1917. Horner also produced huge composite baseball photographs for individual leagues or teams with each photo made up of lots of individual player vignettes.

Napolen Sarony was a New York based photographer and lithographer who photographed many theatre celebrities including Oscar Wilde but also made portraits of well-known sports celebrities such as the boxer James Jeffries.

Herb Scharffman was a famous photographer from the 1900s who specialised in boxing and baseball.

If you want me to add anyone to this list please get in touch through the contact page.