Suggestions for must have / read photography books?

KevCamb

KevCamb

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I hope this is in the right section but i was wondering if members would be kind enough to list their top 3 / must read / photography books?
 
What like educational ones or favourite photographer photo books?
 
Either really just your favorite three that are sat on your bookcase... educational or inspirational.

I've recently read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson which was excellent and 20th Century Photography, Taschen.

About to start The Art Of Landscape Photography Ross Hoddinott & Mark Bauer
 
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Any of Don McCullin''s books.
Danziger''s Britain by Nick Danziger.
Eyelids of Morning by Alastair Graham and Peter Beard: I first came across this book when as a kid we lived next door to Alastair Graham. Although not just a photo book it's got some great photos by Peter Beard and is totally off the wall.
 
About photography:
On Being a Photographer - David Hurn and Bill Jay
Approaching Photography - Paul Hill
The Pleasures of Good Photographs - Gerry Badger
 
aliengrove said:
Any of Don McCullin''s books.
Danziger''s Britain by Nick Danziger.
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All three of Danzigers books ar einteresting, not a riviting read, but interesting.

Now if you like this sort of thing, then Henry Spender - Worktown was an interesting project
1] Bolton Worktown | Photographs and archives from the Bolton Mass Observation project. [ONLINE] Available at: http://boltonworktown.co.uk/. [Accessed 15 February 2015].
[2] Mass Observation Archive | Bolton Worktown. [ONLINE] Available at: http://boltonworktown.co.uk/mass-observation-archive. [Accessed 15 February 2015].
[3] Mass Observation Archive | Recording everyday life in Britain. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2015].
[4] Obituary: Humphrey Spender | Global | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/mar/15/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1. [Accessed 15 February 2015].

Daniel Meadows and his photobus project
[1] Daniel Meadows on Vimeo. 2015. Daniel Meadows on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://vimeo.com/album/2220320. [Accessed 10 January 2015].
[2] Photobus ~ Home . 2015. Photobus ~ Home . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.photobus.co.uk/. [Accessed 11 January 2015].

Shirley Baker is best known for her work detailing life in the north of England from the 1950's
Laughter in the slums: the best work of street photographer Shirley Baker – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artandde...street-photographer-shirley-baker-in-pictures. [Accessed 09 November 2014].

and then of course theres the work of the Exit group - (Nicholas Battye/Chris Steele-Perkins/Paul Trevor)



So actually - I wouldn't say books are essential (Although I've bought and read quite a lot). Get out to the exhibitions, see what you like then research further.
 
Well, once you've read those, then the natural progression would be to Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis, using photography to create a social change, documenting the effects of industrialization and urbanization on working-class Americans around the start of the 20th centuary
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/davis/photography/home/home.html

Riis, Jacob A. 1901. The Making of an American. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bartleby.com/207/11.html. [Accessed 02 November 2014].
Pioneering Social Reformer Jacob Riis Revealed “How The Other Half Lives” in America | History | Smithsonian. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...ow-other-half-lives-america-180951546/?no-ist. [Accessed 02 November 2014].

BBC News – Lewis Hine: The child labour photos that shamed America. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17673213. [Accessed 02 November 2014].
Lewis Hine – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hine. [Accessed 02 November 2014].
The History Place – Child Labor in America: Investigative Photos of Lewis Hine. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/. [Accessed 02 November 2014].


That of course leads into the Farm Security Administration Of which Dorothy Langes Migrant Mother is probably the best known image, but there's some stunning ones in the collection

Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives – About this Collection – Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress) . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/. [Accessed 01 March 2015].

Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview (Library of Congress). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
 
And then it's just a slippery slope :D So much good stuff is exhibited, that when you travel you take the opportunity to see other exhibitions, museums.

I'd say get out and see stuff, so much good stuff around. Better to see it presented than in a book.

Depends where people are in the country, Derby is about to host Format Festival again.
http://www.formatfestival.com/
 
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Byker28i said:
Better to see it presented than in a book.
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Not better, different. And photography can be done with the intention of putting it in book form rather than on a wall.

My top three photobooks (liable to change!):
The English - Ian Berry
The Last Resort - Martin Parr
Dark Days - John Darwell
 
Thanks for posting those links Byker! I've bookmarked all of them to look at later.
 
It kind of varies, some of the best I've read over the past couple of years are

The Art of Photography - Bruce Barnbaum
The Essence of Photography - Bruce Barnbaum
The Documentary Impulse - Stuart Franklin

David DuChemin's books are worth a read as well.

Photobooks though are a whole new thread!
 
Ed Sutton said:
Not better, different. And photography can be done with the intention of putting it in book form rather than on a wall.
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I kinda know what your saying but there stuff thats amazing when hung at correct size, Sebastian Salgado, even Martin Parr ;)

I guess it depends on what the OP is interested in, whether they thought of books on techniques or areas of interest.

Martin Parr, Robert Franks the Americans, Vivian Mayer, England Observed by John Gay
Photography a critical introduction by Liz Wells, The genius of Photography (or watch the videos), Photography as Contemporary Art by Charlotte cotton

Landscape photographers such as Salgado, even local interest ones like David Wilsons Pembrokeshire.

It's hard to say. I've bought more books from seeing an artists work
 
Wow thanks for the replies and links... will be having a look and no doubt a purchase or two (y)

Always interested in a good read on techniques / learning.

Also interested in the various areas and inspirational artist's work
 
Byker28i said:
I kinda know what your saying but there stuff thats amazing when hung at correct size, Sebastian Salgado, even Martin Parr ;)
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I dislike Salgado in any format! There have been occasions where seen large prints of work I was previously familiar with has altered how I perceived it. Mitch Epstein and Richard Mosse spring to mind. But I don't think Parr's individual pictures work any better large than small, although something like Common Sense displayed as a huge grid of moderately sized prints is a different matter.

On the whole I prefer photos in books because they're more intimate and I can revisit them at my leisure. Maybe that's because when I got interested in photography it was rarely seen in galleries and books were the best way into appreciating it.
 
I saw Salgado at the Venice Biennial - amazing work, Tom Hunter when seen displayed has such an impact, but yes I have the books to allow one to revisit at ones leisure
 
Slightly out of focus - Capa at his best
Last of the Nuba - challenging topic, challenging photographer
Vision and Art - using art and photography to explain the human visual system.
 
Three? Impossible!

There are overviews of various scope, like Mary Warner Marien's 'Photography, a Cultural History' (too broad to really satisfy), John Szarkowski's 'The Photographer's Eye, 'Magnum' (T & H 2007, ed Brigitte Lardinois), or 'Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the Twentieth Century' . I would highly recommend 'The Nature of Photographs' by Stephen Shore.

There is thought about photography by the recently-late and missed John Berger, the 'Aperture Magazine Anthology (the Minor White Years)', or 'The Photography Reader' (ed Liz Wells), not to mention Sontag or Barthes if you have an appetite for words.

There are monographs aplenty these days - the work of particular photographers from those well-known to recent upstarts.

There are many ways of photographic seeing - some have more cultural and human meaning than others.

Just explore, and follow your gut instincts as well as your thinking mind. It's an adventure - like life.
 
Byker28i said:
The genius of Photography (or watch the videos), Photography as Contemporary Art by Charlotte cotton
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^ those three, because I'd say watch the videos and read the book The Genius of Photography as they compliment each other rather than one being a copy of the other.

You'll come away from those three with a list of photographers that interest you and that you will want to research further.
 
Light, Science & magic is in my basket wish Amazon :)

Many people have suggested it as a good read, thank you
 
When I first started digital photography many, many years ago the books by Scott Kelby were my go to for help with Photoshop. I did buy other books but explained things in a way that made sense to someone who had no clue what he was doing. I always recommend them to people starting out with photoshop or lightroom.
 
I'm not sure there's any such thing as essential reading - better to actually go out and take pictures if you know your craft - but there's lots of books that can give inspiration or shape ones creative direction for a time. In the days before the internet I absorbed ideas from people like Man Ray, Bill Brandt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Michael Freeman, Edward Weston and Cecil Beaton, and they affected the way I photographed people then. Now there is so much available online that the book seems almost redundant to me, and I'll get ideas from all over the place. I can see a book would be useful if you want to focus down to emulate a single photographer and you will carry their ideas with you, or you see it as a way of supporting their work while holding their collected ideas in a single place. But otherwise, not so much.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Robert Mapplethorpe
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ancient_mariner said:
the way I photographed people
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Although some of Mapplethorpe's people pictures are a bit... eye opening (to say the least!) Some of his other pics are absolutely gorgeous.

Not got many photography books, but the ones I keep going back to are the 35mm Photographer's Handbook (other than the D&P and film choice sections, it applies to digital as well.) and an old text book, Basic Photography by Langford. Again, from film days but most of the photography tips apply as much to digital as they do to film.
I have a few others that I've picked up over the years, mainly from charity shops. Have to say that I much prefer seeing prints in exhibitions since they tend to be shown as the photographer intended rather than as an editor has the budget for.
 
Nod said:
Although some of Mapplethorpe's people pictures are a bit... eye opening (to say the least!) Some of his other pics are absolutely gorgeous.

Not got many photography books, but the ones I keep going back to are the 35mm Photographer's Handbook (other than the D&P and film choice sections, it applies to digital as well.) and an old text book, Basic Photography by Langford. Again, from film days but most of the photography tips apply as much to digital as they do to film.
I have a few others that I've picked up over the years, mainly from charity shops. Have to say that I much prefer seeing prints in exhibitions since they tend to be shown as the photographer intended rather than as an editor has the budget for.
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:naughty:

:LOL:

Not so much *that* side of Mapplethorpe when you're shooting a wedding or a series of employee pictures for a company noticeboard. :angelic:

Some of his picture are eye-watering too. :jawdrop:
 
I'm glad you asked for a personal top three rather than a set that would appeal to everyone! It's very difficult to limit my list to three, but here goes.

1. The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich. Not a photography book in the normally accepted sense, but one that opens your eyes to seeing.

2. Perception and Imaging by Richard Zakia. The descriptions you get from Google express the contents better than I can.

3. Difficult, very, very difficult to select a third title as so many are equal third. I'll go with The Photograph by Graham Clarke. A book I frankly didn't enjoy reading at all; but I got a lot out of it.

I've tried to cover three slightly different areas; and I could have offered alternatives to Perception and Imaging. But for three titles, that's my choice.
 
StephenM said:
I'm glad you asked for a personal top three rather than a set that would appeal to everyone! It's very difficult to limit my list to three, but here goes.

1. The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich. Not a photography book in the normally accepted sense, but one that opens your eyes to seeing.

2. Perception and Imaging by Richard Zakia. The descriptions you get from Google express the contents better than I can.
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I'm sort of surprised you didn't make #2 Gombrich's 'Art and Illusion' :)
 
I might have (I have read it); but equally there's relevant material in The Invisible Gorilla and Eye and Brain. My thinking was that Richard Zakia's book was further removed from Ernst Gombrich's slant and provided a different perspective (no pun intended). I'd certainly recommend Gombrich to photographers who are interested in the same type of photography as I am. Have you come across Art and Visual Perception by Rudolf Arnheim? I'm reading that at the moment. That is another contender for the number 2 slot.
 
On the basis of the continued recommendations of both the DVD and accompanying book, "The Genius of Photography" I've just purchased both from eBay. £12 for the set of DVDs and less than a fiver for the book. Only had chance so far to quickly dip into the book, but as previously mentioned it is going to be useful springboard into discovering lots of new stuff.

It recommend a similar course of action to the OP.
 
i'm going to come at this from another direction, i think.

A lot of those suggestions seem aimed at the theory of photography and the intellectual side of things but in my opinion it's not necessary to know the theory to be a good photographer. It depends on your subject matter, I suppose, but I doubt if many landscape or wildlife photographers will have read many of these suggestions - if any.

The best wildlife photographers will know a lot about their subjects - behaviour, locations, etc. And I'd like to say that the same would be true for landscape photographers. However it is perfectly possible, it seems to me, to take wonderful landscapes without knowing anything about the landscape itself. The images will tend to be on the pretty side, beautiful but one-dimensional, whereas the more you know about the landscape the more multi-dimensional your images can become.

So to summarise - know your subject!
 
jerry12953 said:
A lot of those suggestions seem aimed at the theory of photography and the intellectual side of things but in my opinion it's not necessary to know the theory to be a good photographer. It depends on your subject matter, I suppose, but I doubt if many landscape or wildlife photographers will have read many of these suggestions - if any.
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Good photographers of any genre will find they're work and approach is improved by knowledge of the background and theory of their subject. Whether that comes from deliberate research, education or self-improvement or from a more tacit absorption of knowledge from general exposure to the work of others in their field of interest.

jerry12953 said:
I doubt if many landscape or wildlife photographers will have read many of these suggestions - if any
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They should, and read more widely too. Genre photography can become very insular and inward looking, you can see this in landscape photography with the ultrawide-angle-with-rock meme. If you're shooting landscapes you'd benefit from an awareness of Friedrich, Constable and Turner as much as Adams, Waite or Cornish.
 
Alastair said:
Good photographers of any genre will find they're work and approach is improved by knowledge of the background and theory of their subject. Whether that comes from deliberate research, education or self-improvement or from a more tacit absorption of knowledge from general exposure to the work of others in their field of interest.

They should, and read more widely too. Genre photography can become very insular and inward looking, you can see this in landscape photography with the ultrawide-angle-with-rock meme. If you're shooting landscapes you'd benefit from an awareness of Friedrich, Constable and Turner as much as Adams, Waite or Cornish.
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I'm sure we're more-or-less agreeing here but top wildlife photographers will know their field guides, about wildlife behaviour in general, and possibly about a small number of species in particular. Similarly landscape photographers would benefit from knowing about the issues around the landscape, and you won't read about this in a photography book. Fay Godwin was an example of a photographer who DID look at the landscape in these terms. One of the biggest limitations i see in landscape photography is that while many images are spectacular or stunningly beautiful so many of them say so little about the landscape.

I can't believe I just said "Issues around" . :eek:
 
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