Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: alban on December 12, 2009, 12:24:48 pm
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Hi to everybody ,
I am trying to get some more books for my cold winter days season and I was wondering if anyone could pitch in with suggestions on books worth reading.Any topic on photography would do (lighting,various techniques ,criticism,aesthetics,good contemporary and not artists etc basically everything photography ). I am not looking for books that suggest that if you buy this and that expensive piece of equipment you'll magically become a photographer.
Thank you in advance for all your suggestions
Alban
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Hi Alban, and welcome to the list! This topic has been covered many times in these forums. I'd suggest you start by doing a search on "photography books" and you'll get all kinds of ideas!
Mike.
P.S. You can either use the 'Search' button at the top right of the forums pages, or on the bottom left of the pages on the main Luminous Landscape site.
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I will contribute one I consider indispensable: "Perception and Imaging" by Richard D. Zakia, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.
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Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.
Light Science and Magic by someone who's name I can't remember.
Any Jim Brandenburg book.
The Poloroid book. (They found Petters guilty on all counts, btw. Don't know who bought the poloroid collection...)
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I will contribute one I consider indispensable: "Perception and Imaging" by Richard D. Zakia, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Any idea on which of the editions ?
Thanks again to all for your suggestions
Alban
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Any idea on which of the editions ?
Mine is third.
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David Ward's "Landscape within" and "Landscape beyond".
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A few of my current Favourites.
1. Adobe Photoshop CS4 The Ultimate Workshop - by Jeff S. and Martin E.
2. Lost in Iceland (I love this book and never get sick of reading it).
3. National Geographic - The Photographs - Full of all time Classics.
4. Manufactured Landscapes - Another classic
Cheers,
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Hi to everybody ,
I am trying to get some more books for my cold winter days season and I was wondering if anyone could pitch in with suggestions on books worth reading.Any topic on photography would do (lighting,various techniques ,criticism,aesthetics,good contemporary and not artists etc basically everything photography ). I am not looking for books that suggest that if you buy this and that expensive piece of equipment you'll magically become a photographer.
Thank you in advance for all your suggestions
Alban
I would suggest checking out Mike Johnston's blog (www.theonlinephotographer.com). I post my book reviews there, and they lean toward landscape monographs with an occasional book on technique, but there are also reviews by many others so you'll get a range of tastes. A recent post listed books on photo criticism.
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I would suggest checking out Mike Johnston's blog (www.theonlinephotographer.com). I post my book reviews there, and they lean toward landscape monographs with an occasional book on technique, but there are also reviews by many others so you'll get a range of tastes. A recent post listed books on photo criticism.
Great site .I noticed Geoff Dyer's book was mentioned and I actually just read that book.Very good read indeed.
Thanks for the tip
alban
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Alban, I don't know whether or not I've already said this on the forum, but in any case it can bear being said again: Anyone interested in photography as an art form MUST find and read Looking In, the catalog for Robert Frank's current show at the Metropolitan. If you possibly can, get the hardcover "expanded" edition which includes the contact sheets from which the pictures in Frank's The Americans were selected. You can learn a lot more about photography by looking at a master photographer's contacts than you can by looking at his finished product.
While you're looking, the best place to start might be Eugene Atget, and then on to Cartier-Bresson. Don't overlook anything by Garry Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, and, above all, Walker Evans. As Mike pointed out there are many, many more recommendations on this forum, so I'll stop here with the suggestions.
One thing's for sure: no amount of reading how-to books or articles about equipment is going to improve your photography. As Cartier-Bresson said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." Learning to look is what studying the work of our greatest predecessors is all about.
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Alban, I don't know whether or not I've already said this on the forum, but in any case it can bear being said again: Anyone interested in photography as an art form MUST find and read Looking In, the catalog for Robert Frank's current show at the Metropolitan. If you possibly can, get the hardcover "expanded" edition which includes the contact sheets from which the pictures in Frank's The Americans were selected. You can learn a lot more about photography by looking at a master photographer's contacts than you can by looking at his finished product.
While you're looking, the best place to start might be Eugene Atget, and then on to Cartier-Bresson. Don't overlook anything by Garry Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, and, above all, Walker Evans. As Mike pointed out there are many, many more recommendations on this forum, so I'll stop here with the suggestions.
One thing's for sure: no amount of reading how-to books or articles about equipment is going to improve your photography. As Cartier-Bresson said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." Learning to look is what studying the work of our greatest predecessors is all about.
Amen, Russ!
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One thing's for sure: no amount of reading how-to books or articles about equipment is going to improve your photography. As Cartier-Bresson said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." Learning to look is what studying the work of our greatest predecessors is all about.
Um, I do not agree with this completely. Flash photography can be a bitch.
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Um, I do not agree with this completely. Flash photography can be a bitch.
Dark, Well, you also have to learn where the shutter button is and how to push it. But that's not photography, it's mechanics.
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Dark, Well, you also have to learn where the shutter button is and how to push it. But that's not photography, it's mechanics.
Whatever.
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Alban, I don't know whether or not I've already said this on the forum, but in any case it can bear being said again: Anyone interested in photography as an art form MUST find and read Looking In, the catalog for Robert Frank's current show at the Metropolitan. If you possibly can, get the hardcover "expanded" edition which includes the contact sheets from which the pictures in Frank's The Americans were selected. You can learn a lot more about photography by looking at a master photographer's contacts than you can by looking at his finished product.
While you're looking, the best place to start might be Eugene Atget, and then on to Cartier-Bresson. Don't overlook anything by Garry Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, and, above all, Walker Evans. As Mike pointed out there are many, many more recommendations on this forum, so I'll stop here with the suggestions.
One thing's for sure: no amount of reading how-to books or articles about equipment is going to improve your photography. As Cartier-Bresson said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." Learning to look is what studying the work of our greatest predecessors is all about.
Thanks for the suggestion.This is exactly what I am looking for ,books that I can actually keep in library and study their works .Winogrand,Stieglitz,Evans,Kertesz are among my favorites.
alban
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Um, I do not agree with this completely. Flash photography can be a bitch.
Not really, Mr P, once you learn how to handle magnesium safely...
Rob C
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Not really, Mr P, once you learn how to handle magnesium safely...
Rob C
Just put on your dark glasses and be sure to hold the stuff at arm's length before you ignite it.