Books

[Bill Pierce]

Sirius has suggested we start an online reading list. Good photo books are always a pleasure as our overcrowded shelves testify. But some of the best photo books do a first printing, never do more and then disappear from bookstores. We should probably list not only books we like, but the second hand stores and web sites where books, only year or two old, that have suddenly become rare antiquarian collectors items can be purchased.

I'll start off with "Francesca Woodman," Scalo, ISBN 3-931141-96-9.

In Santa Monica, on the east side of Third St., in the section of the street that is a promenade and blocked from vehicle traffic, there is a wonderful store with a good selection of used photo books. Next time I'm in the area, I'll get the name and the specific address.

Let's not leave out good technical books. Anybody printing and binding their own books or using the web services that will do it for you?

Bill

 

[maggieo]

I've found a lifetime of inspiration and technical advice in the Time|Life Photography Year series of books. I've got 1972 through 1984 and there is A LOT of fantastic photographs and loads of information on just how our tools became the tools they are today.

Even my cat gets something out of 'em!

 

[victoriapio]

Books

A wonderful classroom textbook I would recommend:

American Photography - A Critical History 1945 to the Present (written in 1984) by Jonathan Green and James Friedman

Up through its publication date, this is still an excellent read on the history of photography and the foundations of most major changes.

You can still Google this title and find copies online for less than $20.😀

O.C. Garza

 

[aizan]

arcana books?

i've done a little bookbinding, but still not good enough or equipped to do a great job.

further note: daniel kelm invented a bookbinding structure that might interest photographers a great deal, as it opens completely flat and you can rearrange photos and make additions fairly easily. it's pretty simple—i can explain to anyone who wants to know.

 

[sirius]

Many thanks!

Oh! I meant online articles!

I'll never find interesting books in my small town, and maybe you have a few favorite online articles from the digitaljournalist?

I'm not wanting to make work for people and, unfortunately, good books often go out of print over the years.

Hmm, Francesca Woodman is amazing. This is first I've seen. It's very experimental and thoughtful.

 

[spysmart]

Faces of the North by Ragnar Axelsson ISBN 9979-3-2592-5

http://www.rax.is/Index.htm

Phil Borges - Tibetan Portrait ISBN 9780847819577

http://www.philborges.com/

Simon Norfolk - Afghanistan ISBN 978-1899235544
http://www.cofc.edu/halseygallery/PalimpsestAfghanistan/sn_images.htm

 

[back alley]

i started out by reading the books of andreas feininger and david vestal.
i enjoyed reading the daybooks of edward weston and the bio of gene smith.
magazine articles by ralph steiner, bill pierce, jim elder, art goldberg.
loved some of the suff by and about mary ellen mark.

lots of good stuff out there.

sirius, i have some stuff you can look through and have if you like.

joe

 

[jlw]

Hmm, Francesca Woodman is amazing. This is first I've seen. It's very experimental and thoughtful.

I almost hate to broach this about an obviously deserving photographer, but does anybody besides me suspect that Francesca Woodman wouldn't be quite so celebrated if it weren't for her tragic and poignant backstory?

Sorry, but this is part of my ongoing suspicion that our reaction to photography is only about 40% what we see in it, and maybe 60% (or more) what we've been told about it.

Having said that, and to get back to the topic of this thread, let me nominate a book that actually did change my life as a photographer: Elliott Erwitt's Photographs and Anti-Photographs... not only the pictures in it, but also the accompanying essay "The Man Who Kept Something for Himself."

In fact, it occurs to me that these two thoughts tie together, because one thing that fascinates me about Erwitt's photographs is that they strike me as almost completely "transparent" -- you don't need to be told anything about them. In many cases it's hard to imagine anything even could be said about them. They're complete, self-contained artifacts to which nothing could be added, and to which nothing needs to be added.

I'm not saying that's a necessary criterion for successful photographs, but it's pretty interesting to see someone pull it off! Another artist in another field who strikes me as having this same quality is choreographer Merce Cunningham. Seeing his work is like watching a magic show in which the magician carefully explains to you exactly how he's going to do his next trick... and then demonstrates, step by step, precisely what he's going to do... and then he does the trick, and it's still amazing.



(PS -- I just saw a big Harry Callahan exhibit in Kansas City and felt somewhat the same about his work, but don't know of any books to recommend.)

 

[kbg32]

The books below I highly recommend for what it's worth for everyone's library on photography.

I know it's out of print, but if you can find it - "Notations in Passing" by Nathan Lyons. ISBN-10:0-262-62028-6, ISBN-13:978-0-262-62028-4

Saul Leiter - "Early Color" - ISBN 3865211399

Charles Harbutt - "Travelog" - ISBN 0262080648

Saul Leiter's book has just been published. Harbutt and Lyons' books are classics and really show what "reading" into photography is all about.

 

[Bill Pierce]

I almost hate to broach this about an obviously deserving photographer, but does anybody besides me suspect that Francesca Woodman wouldn't be quite so celebrated if it weren't for her tragic and poignant backstory?

Sorry, but this is part of my ongoing suspicion that our reaction to photography is only about 40% what we see in it, and maybe 60% (or more) what we've been told about it.

Having said that, and to get back to the topic of this thread, let me nominate a book that actually did change my life as a photographer: Elliott Erwitt's Photographs and Anti-Photographs... not only the pictures in it, but also the accompanying essay "The Man Who Kept Something for Himself."]

I was absolutely knocked out by Woodman's pictures, which I first came across in a small gallery in Edinburgh. When I got back home I found out she had started taking pictures when she was 13, her mother and father were artists, we lived in the same neighborhood and she had killed herself. I hadn't known any of that looking at a show of "women photographers" in that gallery. For me, she blew away some better known photographers in that show. I think it's terrible for her mother and father and friends that she died. But her pictures didn't get any better when I found out there wouldn't be any more of them. It just made me sad.

That said, Erwitt is personal hero. We've been seated at the same dinner table a few times, and I have drooled, blathered, talked incessantly, said inappropriate things and been absolutely awe struck.

Bill

 

[xayraa33]

Diane Arbus had that tragic ending as Francesca Woodman did.

 

[gb hill]

Book that i've been reading/studying for awhile is The Tao of Photography,seeing beyond seeing, by Philippe L. Gross & S.I. Shapiro ISBN 1-S8008-194-0. Very interesting read. I ordered it off Amazon off the used book section and it came in seperb condition.

 

[Graham Line]

W. Eugene Smith's "Minamata" would be high on my list of books showing the impact of photojournalism.
Any of Michael Freeman's technical and composition guides qualify, as do Henry Horenstein's accessible books on basic photography, B&W and color, and

of course:

The 15th edition of the Leica Manual.

 

[dseelig]

Tulsa and The americans

Tulsa and The americans

Tulsa by larry Clark was a huge influence on me and of coarse The Americans by Robert Frank. did not know a rangefinder forum could go this long without mention of the Americans

 

[Spluff]

arcana books?

i've done a little bookbinding, but still not good enough or equipped to do a great job.

further note: daniel kelm invented a bookbinding structure that might interest photographers a great deal, as it opens completely flat and you can rearrange photos and make additions fairly easily. it's pretty simple—i can explain to anyone who wants to know.

Aizan - I'm quite intrigued by the bookbinding structure you were refering to. Can you send a link please?
thanks

 

[HarryW]

Three books that figure highly for me are:
Exiles - Josef Koudelka
Sleeping with Ghosts - Don McCullin
In our time - Magnum

Harry

 

[hofrench@mac.co]

The Ongoing Moment, by Geoff Dyer, is a tremendous and wide ranging read about photography that will really get you thinking.

Just this week, I saw a a book entitled China (sur)Real, by Mark Henly, that really impressed me.

 

[saxshooter]

Another thumbs up for "In Our Time" by Magnum. It was the first photojournalism book I owned and I credit it with making me become a photojournalist (and buying a Leica M6 -- those cool Magnum group photos showing them with all their Leicas! 😉 )

 

[HarryW]

Missed one from my earlier list:
Pages of Experience - Joseph McKenzie
Don't know how widely available this was. Published by Polygon and Third Eye Centre Glasgow. An absolute classic by an outstanding UK photographer.
Harry

 

[Bill Pierce]

When books are mentioned, it's going to take a lot of time and effort for any of us to track down a book we don't have. I wonder if we should add favorite websites to the conversation? That way all of us can follow up on a suggestion immediately.

Bill

P.S. Here are two of my favorites.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/

It's daily entries are eclectic and good company to your first wake up coffee. Sometimes they will have the same effect.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/

More than just landscapes; much about craftsmanship.