A comprehensive study has revealed the top 200 photographers whose styles are most frequently requested by users of the AI image generator Midjourney, with renowned portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz topping the list with 46,791 prompts. The research, conducted by Kapwing exclusively for PetaPixel, analyzed data from the Midlibrary database and tracked AI image and video prompts containing specific photographer keywords on Midjourney's Discord platform.
The study highlights the ongoing controversy surrounding AI-generated art and the practice of imitating established photographers' distinctive styles. Users can create AI images by typing prompts that reference famous artists, such as "Leonardo Da Vinci's painting depicting..." but this practice remains highly contentious within the creative community. According to Kapwing's research, "The arguments around the right to invoke existing artists' styles in image and video generation are complex, emotionally charged, and still unresolved."
Annie Leibovitz's dominance at the top of the list comes as little surprise, given her status as perhaps the world's most recognizable photographer. Her acclaimed portrait work began in the early 1970s with Rolling Stone magazine, where she captured iconic images of musicians including the famous photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken just hours before Lennon's assassination. Throughout her career, she has continued working with major publications like Vanity Fair and Vogue, photographing virtually every notable figure of the past five decades.
Second place goes to Helmut Newton with 30,520 prompts, the German-Australian fashion photographer whom The New York Times described as "widely imitated." Newton gained recognition for his provocative black-and-white fashion and nude photography, often featuring naked women in surreal situations. His controversial yet influential work regularly appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, cementing his reputation as one of photography's most imitated artists.
The third position is held by Sandy Skoglund with 29,908 prompts, an American conceptual photographer known for her whimsical, painterly images created from elaborate sets. Midlibrary notes that "Sandy Skoglund's Midjourney style representation captures her signature surreal and fantastical elements." Fourth place belongs to Nan Goldin with 25,486 prompts, the American photographer famous for exploring themes of identity and intimacy, particularly through her work documenting the LGBT community in 1980s New York.
Rounding out the top ten are Gregory Crewdson (24,943 prompts), whose creepy suburban scenes blur the lines between cinema and photography; Petra Collins (18,681 prompts), the Canadian photographer who has become synonymous with a specific aesthetic and leads what many consider a new wave of female gaze-led photography; Elsa Bleda (16,997 prompts), known for cinematic cityscapes with muted tones and neon accents; the legendary Ansel Adams (16,600 prompts), whose black-and-white landscapes defined the American West; surrealist pioneer Man Ray (14,792 prompts); and fashion photographer Richard Avedon (14,681 prompts), famous for his high-contrast, arresting portrait style.
The complete list of 200 photographers includes many other legendary names such as William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Vivian Maier, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Weegee, Robert Capa, and Lee Miller. Notably, the list features both established masters and contemporary photographers who have gained prominence through social media, including Alex Strohl, Brandon Woelfel, and Jingna Zhang, who is currently involved in lawsuits against several AI companies including Google.
The research reveals interesting patterns about which photographers are breaking through to mainstream recognition. Names like Petra Collins and Elsa Bleda, who have only recently found fame, appear sixth and seventh respectively on the list. These photographers, along with others like Alex Strohl and Jingna Zhang, represent a new generation whose "cinematic" and "vibes"-based aesthetic resonates strongly with contemporary audiences and AI users.
The study has sparked debate within the photography community about the ethics of AI-generated imagery. PetaPixel's Jeremy Gray expressed concern about the practice, stating, "Generating photos in the style of someone else with text prompts in a web app, like so much of the AI slop on the web, reflects complete creative bankruptcy." He emphasized that all the photographers on the list "use, or used, their cameras as artistic tools to capture specific moments in time and tell meaningful stories rooted in reality," something that AI prompts cannot replicate.
The findings raise complex questions about intellectual property and artistic style in the age of AI. As the technology continues to evolve, the debate over how much a person's "hard-earned, established aesthetic style" constitutes protected creative work remains unresolved, with potential legal and ethical implications for both AI companies and the artists whose styles are being emulated without permission.
