Favorite photographers/photo books?

[Flyfisher Tom]

I just got a copy of Michael Kenna's Japan. Exquisite.

I agree, Kenna's night work is creative, surreal and tranquil.

Raymond Depardon, Chris Anderson, Winogrand, Koudelka.

 

[alegalle]

Robert Doisneau - Paris
An inspiration for those who want to make the camera transparent and see thought the eyes of the photographer

 

[kbg32]

Robert Doisneau - Paris
An inspiration for those who want to make the camera transparent and see thought the eyes of the photographer

Transparent? Hmmm? Doisneau admitted that some of his well known images were staged and used paid models. Agreed though, his images are beautiful.

 

[popstar]

Glad to see David Plowden mentioned a couple of times. Deciding on fav photographers and their books can be hard. I enjoy some of the ones mentioned here. I know there are various opinions on her work, but I must admit there are times I really enjoy browsing Mary Ellen Mark's work. A couple other lesser known photographers that have decent books I've seen recently include Dennis Stock and Steve Schapiro.

Enjoying everyone's contributions to this thread! 🙂

 

[loon]

Peter,
what is "On Reading by Andre Kertesz" about. i tried looking online for it but couldnt get a synopsis. seems interesting.
Matt

 

[RayPA]

Transparent? Hmmm? Doisneau admitted that some of his well known images were staged and used paid models. Agreed though, his images are beautiful.

You took the words right out from under my fingertips! I've looked a lot at a Doisneau (I love the Paris book) and, while it's difficult, you can begin to discern the "staged" photos. However, I'll bet that a lot of what I think are unstaged are actually staged, or arranged some how. That's no slight on him and his work at all. He is masterful. I'd put him in my current top 5, but my favorites by him are the "unstaged" and the artist portraits.

🙂

 

[ghost]

all of my phaidon 55s fell apart. terrible bindings, though it's the only affordable way to get photos in print from some photographers.

 

[Northern_Bliss]

Just a few of my bookshelf favorites:😀

George Tice "Urban Landscapes"

John Davies "The British Landscape"

Jeff Brouws "Readymades"

Mary Ellen Mark "American Odyssey"

Barry Thornton "Edge of Darkness"

Arnold Newman "Five Decades"

Shelby Lee Adams "Appalachian Portraits"

Arthur Tress "The Dream Collector"

Jerry Uelsmann "Process and Perception","Photo Synthesis","Yosemite"

Stephen Shore "Uncommon Places"

Albert Renger-Patzsch "Photographer of Objectivity"

Joel Sternfeld "American Prospects"

Laura Wilson "Avedon At Work In The American West"

Gabriele Basilico (Phaidon 55)

Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Phaidon 55)

John Gollings "City of Victory - Vijayanagara"

Irving Penn "Worlds in a Small Room"

 

[RayPA]

all of my phaidon 55s fell apart. terrible bindings, though it's the only affordable way to get photos in print from some photographers.

I'm a casual collector of these, but I agree. These books are the only way to see some of these photographers (affordable or not). It is interesting, though, I've seen the 55 series reprinted in a larger format for some photographers (e.g., Meyerowitz and a few others [Mondotti ?]). Mine are still in pretty good shape.

🙂

 

[swoop]

Walker Evans
Nan Goldin
Robert Capa
Arthur Fellig (Weegee)
Tyler Hicks

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Magnum Stories by the guys from Magnum Photos is by far the best book i have yet to purchase. For each photographer is a little biography of themselves, how they got started or their own view on photography followed by a short portfolio of a few pages. i highly recommend it to anyone.

I thought I knew Magnum, but this book went further. Their own words and their photos, the big names and some more recent very talented people too. It's my favorite photo book, although it's very big and very heavy.

 

[PHOTOEIL]

- Sudek
- Adget
- ...
Not only their pictures but also their biography, the motive for their work is as interesting, if sometimes not more.

 

[Rhodie]

If Reportage is your thing...

If Reportage is your thing...

W. Eugene Smith's Let Truth be the Prejudice"
Remarkable and always inspirational.

George Roger's Humanity and Inhumanity
His written accounts are wonderful and well worth reading as well.
An undersung Britsih talent with real compassion.

David Douglas Duncan's Nomad

Margaret Bourke White's life & pictures in For The World to See.
Style if not substance under fire.

HCB's Decisive Moment tho I hardly dare open it and regularly consult his many other volumes.

Irvin Penn's Moments Preserved

Salgado's Workers is the best of a remarkable ongoing body of work

Anthony Suau's Beyond the Fall

Philip Jones Griffiths' Vietnam Inc [now reprinted]
Larry Burrows' Compassionate Photographer tho you are better off getting Vietnam as the reproduction is far superior - and its cheaper!
Don MicCullin's Is Anyone Taking Any Notice?

Roland & Sabrina Michaud for their visual elegy to Afghanistan, some 5-6 books now, about a country that has long since disappeared.
The antithesis to their work is Simon Norfolk's Afghanistan a brilliant but brutal visual honesty combined with a technical and logistical accomplished feat.

Wilfred Thesiger's books, both photographic & written, are important records of peoples who have long since been swept away by "development".

Lartigue for his style and humour
Elliot Erwitt's many books are wonderfuly amusing if not a little too prolific

David Doubilet's Water Light Time is visual aquatic poetry

 

[sleepyhead]

Peter,
what is "On Reading by Andre Kertesz" about. i tried looking online for it but couldnt get a synopsis. seems interesting.
Matt

Kertesz took many photos of people reading - even from his very earliest pictures using a plate camera - seems to have been a recurring subject for him...

 

[ddunn]

My "favorite photographers" is something that constantly shifts. Enduring are:
Eugene Atget
Andre Kertesz
Walker Evans

I've got a middling sized collection of photo books that I've accumulated over the years. Mostly by buying remaindered or used copies. Edward R Hamilton is a good web & mail order source for remainders. My treasure is the full set of original Sierra Club publications of Eliot Porter's photos.

Lately I've been mining the photo book collection at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It's a bit thin on recent stuff (we fund a football team, not academic trivia), but is pretty strong on the '60's to '80's, and some things that are otherwise unavailable or unaffordable (free being my favorite cost).

 

[nightfly]

Koudelka- Chaos
Daido Moriyama- anything but especially New York '71
William Klein- New York 1954-55

 

[micromoogman]

William Eggleston- Anything... check out the film too..."In the real world".

 

[IGMeanwell]

I'm a casual collector of these, but I agree. These books are the only way to see some of these photographers (affordable or not). It is interesting, though, I've seen the 55 series reprinted in a larger format for some photographers (e.g., Meyerowitz and a few others [Mondotti ?]). Mine are still in pretty good shape.

🙂

I love the Phaidon 55s ... in fact I just purchased 5 or 6 for like 2 bucks a piece on amazon

but I would like the find more of the sets

 

[underachiever]

enduring favorites:

Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Emmet Gowin

two photographers whose local exhibitions many years ago turned me on to photography in a big way:

Minor White
Lee Friedlander

 

[RayPA]

I love the Phaidon 55s ... in fact I just purchased 5 or 6 for like 2 bucks a piece on amazon

but I would like the find more of the sets

Pete, the entire set (20 books, IIRC) was available at one point. I forget where, though. 😕 I'm seeing the books repackaged as sets of five—for example, 5 Women Photographers, 5 Documentary Photographers. Amazon has them, and they have 5 Street Photographers, but I think it must be new because they have no information on it. I couldn't find it on the Phaidon web site, either. I'm always on the look out for them, too.

.