monthly book club

[ghost]

ok, i'm doing this with or without you. 😀

let's have some nominations for books to read/look at next month. one of each, please. the photo books should preferably be shot with a rangefinder, but anything goes. new books are good. out of print books are fine, as long as they're cheap and easy to get on bookfinder.com.

since there are generally books to read and books to look at, we'll do one of each. you can do one or both.

after we get some nominations, i'll make a poll on sunday. i imagine it'll take a week or week and a half for everyone to get their book(s), so we should be ready to start a little bit before august.

the two books i nominate are "william eggleston's guide" (photos) and "let us now praise famous men" (reading, mostly).

 

[akptc]

Hm..., shouldn't we ask Oprah first.. ? 😉 (just kidding, great idea)

 

[ampguy]

I am reading "The Art of Landscape Photography" by Chris Coe

most photos are with a nikon f4 and fuji velvia, but you could probably glom a turret finder on the hot shoe, and wiggle the camera a little for a "leica" effect 😉

 

[kshapero]

any Sherlock Holmes, keeps my mind working.

 

[ghost]

stay on topic!

 

[JimG]

Great idea ghost-

Some recent threads here have led me to reread parts of Eiji Yoshikawa's classic novel 'Mushashi'. Much of it is about training to become a sword fighter. But as the main character states it's all the same for learning any art form. There's even a movie version that stars Toshiro Mifune. Get your Zen together.

Bystander: A History of Street Photography has been discussed here before but worth mentioning again.

 

[ghost]

oh, we could watch movies, too!

i nominate...barry lyndon.

 

[ghost]

*bump

nobody else interested?

 

[RayPA]

I'll offer one; although I probably won't participate in a book/reading club. I'll visit here to see what's being suggested, though. I FINALLY started and finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Blink." It's a good book with some relevance to photographers and photography. I read both his books, "Tipping Point" and "Blink" back-to-back.

We had the genesis of a book club thread last year (about this time, I think).

🙂

 

[pesphoto]

Sounds like it could be a good idea. I'd nominate the Diane Arbus biography. Or Walker Evans. Great reads!

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

'Magnum Landscape', mostly B&W, by various Magnum photographers.

The paperback is at Amazon.com for $9.95, available in 24 hours. ISBN 0714845221.

 

[RayPA]

'Magnum Landscape', mostly B&W, by various Magnum photographers.

The paperback is at Amazon.com for $9.95, available in 24 hours. ISBN 0714845221.

A good one (I have the paperback too). Although, the book is kind of small, especially to really appreciate such photos as Koudelka's panoramics. 🙂

 

[Rafael]

Great idea Ghost! I nominate The Eye of Eisenstaedt (by Alfred Eisenstaedt and Arthur Goldsmith).

 

[JimG]

I like the 'The Photo Book' published by Phaidon. Alphabetically listed minibios of photographers with individual samples of their work.

 

[ghost]

i'm not sure about 'the photo book'. there's not enough on any one photog...

 

[JimG]

Your right ghost that would not work. Its a book I keep by my monitor for something to read while I'm downloading.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

A good one (I have the paperback too). Although, the book is kind of small, especially to really appreciate such photos as Koudelka's panoramics. 🙂

I like the small, it's still sort of novel size, and easy to take to work and look at on the train or the bus.

 

[RayPA]

I like the small, it's still sort of novel size, and easy to take to work and look at on the train or the bus.

It is, and that's kind of the nice thing about it. You can peruse the book anywhere, whereas the Koudelka book (Chaos) is a large book, especially when opened. IIRC, the Koudelka panoramics get a 2-page treatment in Landscapes, so the editors realized the need to maintain some degree of scale.

🙂

 

[ray_g]

John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs.

BTW, Ray - I received my copy of Chaos. Great recommendation!

 

[RayPA]

John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs.

BTW, Ray - I received my copy of Chaos. Great recommendation!

It is a good one, and excellently printed! I originally found the book to be almost too dark, but now I find really enjoy the deep dark subtle tones. The book does have quite the "wing span" when opened though. Truly a table book. 🙂

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