Whether you are a professional, amateur photographer or a photography enthusiast, I highly suggest you visit the Martin Munkacsi exhibit now featured at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It runs until September 16, 2007.

If you are a sports or event photographer, you will marvel at Munkacsi’s mastery of the decisive moment. If you are fashion or celebrity photographer, you will enjoy his early celebrity portraits of Fred Astaire and Frieda Kahlo. His hiring by media magnate William Randolph Hearst in the 40s perhaps established him as one of the first celebrity photographers of his time. If you are a portrait artist, you’ll marvel at his spontaneous in-motion style which laid the groundwork for contemporary portraiture today.

The celebrated Hungarian born photo-journalist (1896-1963) is probably lesser known than his contemporary Cartier-Bresson or Robert Kappa. In fact after his death in 1963, he was virtually forgotten. But seeing his exhibit realized how much of my work aspiration is influenced and inspired by Munkacsi’s style and fashion-forward vision. I was a huge Munkacsi fan without even knowing it.