The gentleman that I (and countless others) learned photography from is one O.P. Sharma, an internationally recognized, black-and-white film photographer. He is one of the masters of photography. He founded the India International Photography Council and was the driving force behind establishing 19 August as International Photography Day every year.
His is an exceptional story. One of learning the art, science, and craft of photography back in the days when there were no digital cameras, no in-built light meters, and no way of knowing if you got a good, in focus, correctly exposed photo, until you took the film and developed it (yourself) in the darkroom. You needed to carry a notebook around, in those days, in which you recorded the aperture, shutter duration, and description of each image, so you could, later, go back and analyze what you did wrong, or right.
He studied photography when there were