Books

I like reading about photography

I like reading about photography

as well as looking at photo books.
So for reading about photography, I'm currently engaged inThe Education of a Photographer edited by Charles H. Traub, Steven Heller, and Adam B. Bell. The essay by Brian Palmer on William Klein, wherein Klein differentiates himself from Cartier-Bresson is worth the modest price of the book.
I also second the choice of Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment.
And, any book by John Szarkowski.

For photo books, I look at just about everything. There's a new series by Photofile of modestly priced photo books; the four that I own are on Bill Brandt, Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt, and my favorite of the bunch, Josef Koudelka. In fact this thread caused me to click on the Aperture website to order the new book out on Koudelka, only to find it sold out and being offered on Amazon starting at $185.00 and up!! I found one at the regular price at Powells in Portland, OR.
Other works on my shelf include the colorful lomography book, the black and white work of Charlie Waite, and a history of the snapshot from 1888 to 1978. I like it all.
 
I have one serious weakness- and it is not trying to corner the market on M2's! i do collect and hoard books on photography. I have limited myself to photojournalism and the vaque label " books that i like".
On my desk, at the moment are a couple of current favourites:
"Earthlings" by Richard Kalvar (Flammarion). We have known Richard for many years and this is a great book of his work. Funny and thought provoking at the same time. Richard is a long time Magnum member and this is very much his private work. The cover shot alone is worth the price of admission. It is one of these shots that makes you happy, even on a grey and dismal morning like today!

"Havana" by Burt Glinn. This is a must for any Nikon Rf shooter/user/collector. This is Burt Glinns account of the Fidel Castro arrival in Havana 1959. It is a wonderful story about the heady days of photo-journalism. Fuelled by a diet of rum,chicken and cigars and with three Nikon SP's and, judging from the contact sheets shown, a dog's breakfast of films, Glinn covers the search for Fidel and his triumphant arrival in Havana. It was published by Fototeca de Cuba and Umbrage Editions in New York.

"Empire" James Whitlow Delano. This is an interesting book. Delano is very much a Sino-file and his pictures are very strange at first. Using an old M2 and a less than pristine 35f2.8 Summaron, he manages to convey an image of China that is both beatiful and haunting. It is printed in a very dark and solemn style - looks almost like platinum/palladium printing. It took me a while to get to like it, but now it is one of my favourites! Published by 5 Continent.

"I do I do I do" by Chien Chi Chang. he is young member of Magnum New York and this book is about the "wedding racket" in Taiwan. Great eye and very funny! Difficult to find as it was printed in Taiwan by Premier Foundation and a print-run of only 800. text is in English.

One book NOBODY should be without is David Hurns/Bill Jays "On being a Photographer" Here you get ideas and solutions to the important questions! "Why do we take pictures" and the importance of good shoes!

I do have the classics too, HCB's almost complete output, Jean Loup Sieff's books, Ralph Gibson, Norm Seider, Sudek, Brassai etc. All in all the library holds about 750 volumes at the moment, but I keep adding to it!
Hmm, have you ever seen Robert Capa's "Death in the Making" - printed before the end of the Spanish civil war. I found it in a book store in Boston years ago! Wherever I go I do search out Antiquarian book stores rather than camera stores. Thank God for Mail and FedEx to get this stuff home from Tokyo or Paris.
 
A book that has inspired me through the years is "The Concerned Photographer." It features the work of six early "Magnum types," Werner Bischof, Robert Capa, David [Chim] Seymour, Andre Kertesz, Leonard Freed and Dan Weiner. At the end, each of the photographers has a blurb about his pix. Originally published in 1968 and edited by Cornell Capa, it is still available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_g...d-keywords=the+concerned+photographer&x=0&y=0
 
For a good read:

Dialogue with photography, Hill and Cooper. Interviews with most of the significant photographers in the first part of the last century - Strand, Man Ray, Beaton, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertesz, Rodger, Cartier-Bresson, Doiseau, Bayer, Henry Holmes Smith, Gersheim, Brett Weston, Bravo, Porter, Eugene Smith, Gilpin, Cunningham, Bullock, Minor White, Newhall, and Adams. (Out of print)

A Choice of Weapons. Gordon Park's autobiography
 
I do not recall in what book I first saw the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, but seeing his images were transformative. After that I dove into many other books. I ended up learning my craft through Adams' series and Zone VI Workshop.

Viewing Minor White's work was equal to discovering Meatyard. I have very few books in my collection now. This next year I will start rebuilding.
 
"Conversations with the Dead," by Danny Lyon. Inside a Texas state prison. Gave new meaning to the phrase "up close and personal."

I have no idea how he conned the Texas State Department of Corrections into letting him have such free reign. Never seen anything quite like it.

Ted
 
Books. Reminds me I have to take one of the shelves out of the big bookcase and somehow reattach it--it recently collapsed under the weight of too many photography books.

Off the top of my head, I can recommend the 2006 book from Aperture Wiliam Christenberry. A book evocative of place.

An old book I recently obtained that still kicks butt 40 years later: David Douglas Duncan's Self Portrait USA.
 
Very early on Dorchester Days by Eugene Richards and Danny Lyon's Pictures from the New World influenced me greatly. If you ever get a chance to see Richards' "Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta" you will be richly rewarded. It's genius in the making.

A few favorites below:

larry clark
tulsa
teenage lust

lee friedlander
like a one-eyed cat
self-portrait

robert frank
the americans

josef koudelka
exiles

mary ellen mark
passport

tony mendoza
ernie: a photographer's memoir

gilles peress
telex iran

sylvia plachy
unguided tour

alex webb
hot-light half-made worlds

garry winogrand
figments from the real world

sebastio salgado
other americas

henri cartier-bresson
photographer
 
One of the characteristics of the photo book market is the limited production runs for most books - you really need to get a book soon after it's first released. After a couple of years the print run is sold out and it's only available secondhand - and prices skyrocket if the book is any good.
 
A good technical book that I just finished reading is "Camera Lenses: From Box Camera to Digital" by Gregory Smith. I had to read it for some certification stuff that I am working on but rather enjoyed it as well. ISBN 0-8194-6093-1

It's published by the Society of Professional Imaging Engineers (SPIE) and can be bought off Their website and I think you can get it from Amazon as well. The book answered allot of technical questions I had about lenses and resolution. Also, put down in Black and White just how much better film is then digital when it comes to resolution.
 
Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura

I think this is a fascinating book: Secret Knowledge (Rediscovering the lost techniques of the old masters) by David Hockney.

Hockney proposes that several renaissance painters (Velazquez, Ingres, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc.) may have used optical devices, such as the Camera Obscura, to refine their technique of realistic perspective. His book includes many illustrations.

The book is somewhat controversial, and many in the academic community have attacked him (rather viciously, IMO).

One criticism I read is that he reached his conclusion and then collected evidence to support his claims. Granted, that approach does not withstand the rigor prescribed for laboratory research. But Art History isn't exactly a laboratory science, is it?

I personally don't see what the fuss is all about. Analyzing the tools of an artist does not invalidate their talent.

Anyway, the book is fascinating whether you agree or disagree.

...in a similar vein, there are some interesting books of contemporary photos using this technique by photographer Abelardo Morell.
 

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I don't recall whether anyone has mentioned Susan Mieselas, the Magnum photographer, especially her books on Nicaragua and Carnival Strippers.
 
tedwhite said:
I don't recall whether anyone has mentioned Susan Mieselas, the Magnum photographer, especially her books on Nicaragua and Carnival Strippers.
Click to expand...

Ted -

I run into Susan every few trips to NYC. In fact, the book she edited on El Salvador got layed out on the floor on my NY loft. I, too, am a giant Meiselas fan. Did you know there's a new edition of Strippers with some added pictures? It first came out in conjunction with a traveling exhibit. I suppose the exhibit is now retired, but, hopefully, the book is still around. That's the problem with photo books. 6 months out and they're collectors items on Ebay.

Bill
 
crawdiddy said:
One criticism I read is that he reached his conclusion and then collected evidence to support his claims. Granted, that approach does not withstand the rigor prescribed for laboratory research. But Art History isn't exactly a laboratory science, is it?
Click to expand...

And that is the problem with art history and art criticism. Some writer comes up with a nifty phrase (and it is usually writers) like "art makes you think" or some other nonsense and declares it like it was true. What you get is a book of platitudes and fuzzy thinking which goes and confuses the general populace because they end up believing this rubbish and then one person decides to pursue an art they have all this baggage that hinders more than it helps.

One other thing, artist are the worst authority on art.

Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Thanks, Bill.

I've admired her work since I saw those amazing photos she took in Nicaragua, when she was documenting the Contras, and also the photos in the village wherein the counter-terrorism branch of the army massacred everyone, men, women, and children.

I was in Nicaragua in 1975, when the Somozistas owned the countryside during the day and the Sandanistas during the night. When I made the error of mentioning to someone in a hotel that I was a "freelance photojournalist" I was later "kidnapped" in a friendly way by the Sandanistas and taken to a secret meeting in a nearby town. Everyone wore baseball caps and bandanas and I was surprised at the number of women in the group, some of whom had obviously attended universities in the US and spoke perfect English. I learned that they wanted me to take their story back to the US as they were having little or no luck with the US establishment press.

I had no luck, either.
 
I've spent a lot on photo books this year and would highly recommend these five for different reasons: René Burri Photographs, Martin Munkacsi Martin Munkacsi, Édouard Boubat The Monograph, Josef Koudelka Koudelka, Erich Lessing, Revolution in Hungary. The Édouard Boubat book is particularly stunning.

One photographer who rarely gets a mention is Willy Ronis. I have a number of his books and he has an incredible eye that is informed by his humanity and sense of humor. He was completely overshadowed by another Parisian-based photographer but he is as good and more compassionate. A good introduction is Stolen Moments beautifully printed and inexpensively published by Taschen, for whom Ronis now works (he is in his 90's).

When I posted about Ronis in another forum a member there, Steve Unsworth told me that if I liked Ronis then I would also like Boubat. He was so right! I also urge any Ronis fans to read the Édouard Boubat book.
 
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