What's your favorite book?

[bonatto]

Is it on a particular subject matter, or simply a photographer's life work?

Bonus question: which book do you wish you had, and which one could you do without?


I am particularly quite fond of Alex Webb's "The Suffering of Light". Anders Petersen's new book looks very promising, but with a heavy price tag. Weingarten's "Another America: A testament to the Amish" I don't miss at all.

 

[Jubb Jubb]

the Suffering of Light is the best book i own by far.

 

[Rayt]

Exiles got me into photography and I still treasure it.

 

[--]

Have not read it, but there should be a wonderful book on B&W called "Fifty shades of gray".

 

[lynnb]

It's hard to pick a favourite as I have quite a few that I like equally, but for different reasons. I think Pentti Sammallahti's "Here, Far Away" would be one that comes to mind - not just for the pictures, but also the book is very well bound and presented.

Too many to list under what I wish to have. But I could do without "On Photography".

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Camera Repair by Maizenberg is my most often book related to photography.

I wish I never read 1984, but it is read out loud in Russia and even whispered in Canada now.

 

[Rogrund]

Sammallahti is fantastic.

If I had to pick just one favourite, it would probably be Kenneth Gustavsson's "The Magic Bar:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Magic-Bar-Kenneth-Gustavsson/dp/9171262598

Here are some of the pictures from the book:
http://www.themagicbar.se/catalogue.html

 

[lynnb]

Thanks for the link Antti - nice pictures! I hadn't heard of Gustavsson.

I think the one I'd most like to get is Poet of Prague. Seems to be out of print.

 

[Richard G]

Favourite book? War and Peace.

Favourite photography book: the Elliott Erwitt volume of the Thames and Hudson 'Masters of Contemporary Photography' series. Great pictures, anecdotes and technical information.

Favourite book of photographs right now: Sergio Larrain's 'Vagabond Photographer.' Inspired photographs, a searing personality and poignant passion for photography, elegantly voiced.

Do without? Honestly, that would be another large book of HCB's photographs. Sure I might see two more photographs I've never seen before, as was the case at the Pompidou Centre recently, but it would be a poorly spent $100 and unlikely anything in the text would be necessary to read. I have avoided all of these for nearly a decade. The exhibition was a treat, however.

 

[KoNickon]

Talk about an almost impossible question! (I am assuming it referred to more than just photography books.) But I would have to put right up there "Charlotte's Web" by E.B White. Decidedly not just a children's book. Read it as an adult, whether for the first time or again.

 

[rodt16s]

Never tire of "An English eye" (James Ravillious)

Here Far Away (Pentti Sammallahti) is a close 2nd

 

[pete hogan]

Photography: the 1969 Aperture Monograph "W. Eugene Smith, His Photographs and Notes"

Other: "Portrait of Hemingway" by Lillian Ross and "The Dangerous Summer" by Ernest Hemingway

 

[Out to Lunch]

August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set) by Susanne Lange and Gabriele Conrath-Scholl (May 21, 2002)

Fascinating body of work with superb prints

 

[nikon_sam]

Favorite books on photography just might be the first two I ever got...
First would be "The Family of Man" given to me by my then girlfriend's mother...
Second would be a copy of Fred Pickers "Zone VI Workshop"...
I still have both and I was about 19 at the time I received them...I've found another copy of "The Family of Man" in a thrift store the other day...just might go back and buy it...

Favorite fiction book, that would be "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King..."Time & Tide wait for no man, Bobby O"

 

[geertvn]

Favourite: Koudelka - Roma (Gypsies)

Could do without: Salgado - Genesis

 

[StefanJozef]

One of my favourite books on photography is "City Gorged With Dreams" by Ian Walker. It's an analysis of surrealism and documentary photography in interwar Paris. Robert Frank's "The Americans" is a favourite.

 

[Wenge]

Any of the Adams books for the prints to study. (Same as a chef to use Pauli to learn from)

 

[MichaelW]

Book I wish I had is 1964 by Garry Winogrand

 

[robert blu]

Diane Arbus: Revelations. Great photos, interesting notes and stories.
rob

 

[Gareth Rees]

Here far away.