20 Must have books on/of photography...

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The Story of Art

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Art-E-H-Gombrich/dp/0714832472/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071080&sr=8-1

Gregory Crewdson: 1985-2005

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gregory-Crewdson-1985-2005-Stephan-Berg/dp/377571622X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071213&sr=8-2

The Devil's Playground

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Playground-Nan-Goldin/dp/0714842230/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071261&sr=8-9

Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-Ph-New-Perspectives-Photography/dp/0714846562/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071307&sr=8-1

Martin Parr

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Martin-Parr-Val-Williams/dp/071484389X/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071368&sr=8-1

Magnum Stories

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnum-Stories-Chris-Boot/dp/0714842451/ref=pd_bbs_6?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071413&sr=8-6

Image Makers, Image Takers: The Essential Guide to Photography by Those in the Know

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Image-Makers-Takers-Essential-Photography/dp/0500286620/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071516&sr=8-1

Koudelka

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Koudelka-Josef/dp/0500543267/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071606&sr=8-1

Francesca Woodman

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Francesca-Woodman-Chris-Townsend/dp/0714844306/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071697&sr=8-1

Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Propos De Paris

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Andre-Pieyre-Mandiargues/dp/0500280231/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071754&sr=8-31

Dicorcia Philip-Lorca

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dicorcia-Philip-Lorca-diCorcia/dp/1931885230/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071855&sr=8-4

Cindy Sherman : Retrospective

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cindy-Sherman-Retrospective-Amada-Cruz/dp/050027987X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202071906&sr=8-2

Hotel LaChapelle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hotel-LaChapelle-David/dp/0821226363/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202072008&sr=8-2

Hackney Wick

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hackney-Wick-Stephen-Gill/dp/0954940520/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3_rsrssi1

Jeff Wall: Catalogue Raisonne 1978-2004

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Wall-Catalogue-Raisonne-1978-2004/dp/3865211364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202072153&sr=1-1

The Genius of Photography [Illustrated]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genius-Photography-Gerry-Badger/dp/1844003639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202072242&sr=1-1

The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography: 1 (Ansel Adams's Guide to the Basic Techniques of Photography)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ansel-Adams-Guide-Techniques-Photography/dp/0821225758/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202072301&sr=1-7
 
For a balanced diet, read this.

For a balanced diet, read this.

When I need something to fight off a GAS attack, or when I'm feeling like "Why bother... all the great photography has been done", I pick up this wonderful little book. It cures all that ailes. :) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

"Plastic Cameras, Toying with Creativity" by Michelle Bates
 
Don McCullin's Beirut-A City in Crisis


not really top 20 material but two I really like..

Paris-Photographs from a Time That Was

Phil and Me by Amanda Tetrault
 
Last edited:
Time-Life Books, "Library of Photography" series.

Yapp, Nick, "Decades of the 20th Century" series.
 
a couple of oldies but goodies for anyone that's ever been in the dark:

SUSSMAN, AARON The Amateur Photographer's Handbook
ADAMS, ANSEL The Negative
 
Artistic: those are probably not essentials, but I bet you won't be disappointed! Good artistic photobooks are those that speak to you, not just the canonical works.

Staring Back, Chris Marker
Shadow Chamber, Roger Ballen
Our True Intent is All for your Delight, the Butlin postcards, ed. Martin Parr
Transcanadienne, sortie 109, Lazon et Rajotte
Open Passport, John Max

If you really must have canonical works instead:
The Family of Man, MoMA
The Americans, Robert Frank
The Decisive Moment, HCB
Photographs, Lee Friedlander
Figments from the Real World, Gary Winogrand

Technical:

Modern Photographic Processing, Grant Haist
The Ansel Adams series: Camera - Negative - Print
Edge of Darkness, Barry Thornton
Post Exposure, Ctein
Film Developing Cookbook, Anchell and Troop
Photographer's Toning Book, Tim Rudman
Light, Science and Magic, Hunter et al.
Photoshop for Photographers, Martin Evening
The whole Kodak Encyclopedia of Practical Photography (20 vols)

Scholarly:

On Photography, Sontag
Camera Lucida, Barthes
A Middlebrow Art, ed. by Bourdieu
Photography theory, ed. James Elkins.
The Photographer's Eye, John Szarkowski
History of Photography, Beaumont Newhall
 
jayjee said:
A History of Sex by Andres Serrano

I just picked up a copy at photo l.a. (www.artfairsinc.com/photola/2008) at the opening night last night. The book is amazing! Nothing to do with rangefinders but ya know..

Cool. He's one of the guys who was demonized by Jesse Helms, George Bush and the religious right, isn't he? Probably worth checking out.
 
I'll toss in a mention of 'On Home Ground' by Dennis Thorpe, an english press photographer who also did his own stuff on the side. Not so much because of any extraordinary qualities of the picures (though I love them), but because unlike Cindy Sherman, Eggleston, Sally Mann etc, these were pictures that I could have taken, at places I've been to (frequently, in some cases) but that I simply hadn't seen....
 
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