Your photography "bibles"

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Hopscotch

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Maybe I'm in a small percentage of people, but I love reading about photography. Not so much how-to's or something of the sort, but more the photographer's thoughts etc.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's The Mind's Eye was gifted to me a few years ago, and since then, my copy has been attacked numerous times by my highlighter and pen. I might have more annotations and liner notes written in it than the actual words of HCB.

I also have a old Darkroom opertator's manual. I dont know who published it or what it's name is because the cover was ripped off when it was given to me by my father. He had alot of notes in it, and I've since updated his notes with things specific to my enlarger and other things. This book is splattered with developer and fixer, and probably hasn't seen light above 15 watts in years.

Also, not quite as used, are Nigel Hick's Photographer's Guide to Light, which I think was my photography Teacher's that I forgot to give back.

Let me know if I'm one of a kind with this, or let me know what books you've attacked with a pen. I need some more reading
 
How could I forget Sontag!?

Sontag is way up there. Not as much as The Minds Eye, but On Photography really lets photographers learn about themselves.
 
For me, David Vestal's The Craft of Photography comes about as close as any single book has to being something of a "bible" of photography. Not that there haven't been other useful books, but Vestal's is the only one I happily return to, year after year.


- Barrett
 
I have to credit "35mm Negs and Prints" (or something close to that title) by Y. Ernest Satow for setting me on the correct path when I was first learning about film exposure, development, and printing black and white. David Vestal's writings also had a big imfluence on me in shaping my techniques. Ansel Adams gave me a deeper insight into the whys and wherefors.

As for the way of seeing as opposed to the craft of photography I studied books of photographs and articles about people like HCB, W. Eugene Smith, Bruce Davidson, and a host of others.

I still have a mess of old books, various photography annuals, and Leica Manuals going back to the 1930's.
 
There are a few books I like to read from time to time. "What they Saw" a book about the TIme - Life photographers is interesting and informative on the subject of photographing people and the experiences ofthe photographers themselves in their own words. . I also like very much an old book I picked up by Alfred Eisenstadt about photo techniques. (Forgive me my wife has "re-organised" my bookcase and I have no way of finding it quickly to recall the title).

Another is "Leica M Photography" by Brian Bower - a good read about Leicas lthough a little dated. He also wrote a very good book on landscape photography called "Lens Light and Landscape." Another I enjoy reading very much is the book by the actor Yul Brynner's daughter about her dad. "Yul Brynner: Photographer" Lots of lovely old photos taken by a very talented photographer of leading celebs of that era.

If you are into old classic cameras the two I recommend highly are "Collecting and Using Classic Cameras" and "Collecting and Using Classic SLRs" both by Ivor Matanle. Everything you could want to know about the older cameras and using them.

I have others I pick up and re read from time to time too. A couple in particular on landscape photography and the photographic "eye" But once again the missus has put them somewhere I cnant see them and cannot recall the titles.
 
National Geographic Field guide to Photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The man, the image, and the world
Earthlings by Richard Kavlar
 
I don't believe I've found a bible yet, but I've spent lots of time with The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski, The Americans by Robert Frank, and LensWork. Ansel Adams' The Negative (and to a lesser extent, The Camera) has also been very helpful.
 
I don't know if I'd call them bibles. But certainly ones that informed my craft and eye, and to which I constantly return.

Adams - the Negative and the Print
Irving Penn - Passages
Maplethorpe - Women
Weston - the Daybooks
Walker Evans - Hungry Eye
 
If you are into old classic cameras the two I recommend highly are "Collecting and Using Classic Cameras" and "Collecting and Using Classic SLRs" both by Ivor Matanle. Everything you could want to know about the older cameras and using them. .......Agreed, I got the first one about twenty years ago, both exellent sources of reference, along with Roger's ( Hicks ) books.
Dave
quote-peterm1
 
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David Hurn - On being a photographer
William Albert Allard - The photographic essay
W Eugene Smith - Let truth be the prejudice
 
Artist books which have been opening my eyes:

William Eggleston's Guide
Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places
Robert Frank: The Americans
Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills
Saul Leiter: Early Color
Fox Talbot: The Pencil of Nature
Bernd & Hilda Bechers: Typologies
Chris Marker: La Jetée (both the "film" and the book)

Stuff from which I learned technical things:

Modern Photographic Processing, Grant Haist: that's the textbook definition of bible on everything related to film. Compendium assembled by the former head of Kodak Research Labs.

The Darkroom/Film Developing Cookbooks: simplified version of Haist, with extra errors to spark passionate discussion.

Kodak Encyclopedia of Practical Photography: 14 volumes of goodness on everything related to film, processing, lighting, chemistry, physics of photography etc. Very accessible.
 
The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley
Poems by Teery Stokes
Travelogue - Charles Harbut
Notations In Passing - Nathan Lyons
Reading Into Photography - edited by Barrow, Armitage, and Tydeman
The photographs of Saul Leiter
 
John Shaw The Nature Photographer's Complete Guide. Wonderful Book
Galen Rowell's "The Inner Game to Outside Photography"
Einstaedt on Einstaedt
 
No bible. Some "cookbooks", but no bible. Photography is a personal journey like life is, so there is no bible, IMO.
 
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In addition to a number of textbooks, old photo technique books I got from a community college book sale, and a few other reference books, the following are books I keep going back to:

Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project
Diane Arbus: Family Albums
A number of Ansel Adams books, don't feel like listing them all
The Family of Man, (nominally) by Steichen
Slightly Out of Focus, by Robert Capa
Tulsa, by Larry Clark

Also, this isn't a book, but I am a huge devotee of Professor John Certo's History of Photography Podcast, which can be found on iTunes. His podcasts are audio tapes of his lectures, with his powerpoint slides embedded in the podcast. It can be a tiny bit dry at times, but it is utterly fascinating and informative.
 
Back in the 70's my parents somehow bought a subscription to "Life" magazine and I loved looking through them...can't really say if I ever read an article in one or not but I did look at those pictures...
I don't read alot of "How To" books...I own the Ansel Adam's Trifecta series and other photography related books but I guess I get more information from looking at photos and those mostly found in magazines whether they be articles or ads...
 
I just started reading Ansel's The Negative, and I've found it to be quite enlightening. Even though it's largely information that I already "knew", and most of what he has to say is hard to apply to 35mm, let alone shooting with a meterless camera, I've found it to be quite enlightening. I've definitely started approaching what I do from a different angle.

To be honest though, my Bible is Google. The sheer volume of information that can be found is staggering. You can pick the brains of everyone from the guy who has shot professionally for the last 60 years and is now retired and does a little photograhy for himself to the regular Joes in the same boat as you.

I think that the diversity of advice you can find on a forum such as this one is in some ways more useful than a book could ever be.
 
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