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10 must-have
(or at least must-know) books for serious photographers
These
are not, with one exception, books on technique. Instead they are books
about real photography, books full of engaging and challenging photographs,
or even books on the process of making art. You'll do better photography
if you understand these 10 books than if, as so many photographers do,
you spend all your time finding the right f-stop or best lens.
1. The Negative, by Ansel Adams. Yes, I know, this is a book
on technique. But what is important here is not copying St. Ansel's
exact technique, but rather emulating his systematic way of thinking
about photography. You don't need to go out and buy a view camera
and become a Zone System nerd to understand that photography is a
graphic printing process - one that creates images by applying tones
of black, white and color to the page. Being in control of that process
is the first step to becoming a serious photographer. Adams figured
this out and wrote about his method in detail. Worth reading even
if you hate the Sierra Club and never plan to photograph Yosemite.
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2. The Americans, by Robert Frank. Simply the best book of
photographs, ever. Frank, who is European, toured the United States
with his camera on a Guggenheim grant in 1956. The resulting book
couldn't, at first, find an American publisher. The only text is the
wonderful introduction by Jack Kerouac. Frank's subtle sequencing
of images here makes the whole much greater than the sum of its parts.
I have "read" this book over and over again for years, each
time discovering something new to like about it. Frank's intimate
and ironic documentary style would influence a lot of American photographers
who followed him, including…
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3. Diane Arbus, the Aperture Monograph. What can I say about
Arbus, except that much of the world has gotten her dead wrong? I
can't, no matter how I try, see her work as exploitative or cruel
to her subjects, whom she treated with the utmost respect in person
and on film. From the iconic twins on the cover to the hospital inmates
at the end, this book contains the best of Arbus' incredibly direct
photographic vision.
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4. Diana and Nikon, by Janet Malcolm. A thoughtful and
penetrating book of essays on the art of photography, touching on
the works of most of the great photographers of the 20th century,
from Edward Weston to Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Edward Weston,
Richard Avedon and Walker Evans. A pleasure to sit down with, over
and over again.
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5. On Photography, by Susan Sontag. I disagree with much of
this book - take, for example, her essay on Arbus, where she says
that looking at the photographer's work is "an ordeal" --
- but I admire it as one of the best examples of thoughtful photography
criticism out there, written from a more philosophical persepctive
than simple art criticism. Sontag examines the entire phenomenon of
photography, from snapshots to police photos, and in doing so helps
elucidate some of photogrpahy's strange and breautiful power.
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6. Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960, by John
Szarkowsk. A small anthology of contemporary photography as viewed
in 1978 by Szarkowski, then the curator pf photography for the Museum
of Modern Art. A nice overview of a historical moment in American
photography by one of the leading critical voices in the world. If
your idea of photography starts with Edward Weston and ends with Ansel
Adams, this book will stretch your vision.
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7. Immediate Family, by Sally Mann. Almost unbelievably, this
book has been vilified as sexual exploitation of the children in it
- Mann's children - who are lovingly and intriguingly photographed
in large format black and white images. (Mann's children, now grown,
somehow don't believe they were exploited.) The photographs are warm,
intimate funny and sometimes weird, like childhood itself.
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8. The Perfect Portfolio, by Henrietta Brackman. You probably
don't actually need a formal portfolio, unless you're looking for
certain kinds of commercial work. But even if you're nothing but a
weekend photographer, this book will make you want to create one.
In an age of Flash-powered web sites and CD slide shows, the technical
side of Brackman's book, published in 1984, is a little outdated.
No matter. What she gets right is the importance of looking at your
own photographs critically and assembling a coherent collection of
nothing but your best work. Try it. It will change your approach to
photography. |
9. Art & Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland. A
slender little essay on the emotional and practical difficulties in
the process of art making. An excellent reflection, worth dipping
into again and again.
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10. The Photograph as Contemporary Art, by Charlotte Cotton. Even
if you find you loathe contemporary art photography, you ought to
learn something about it to consider yourself a photographer. Cotton,
the curator of photography at the Victoria & Albert Museum in
London, lays out most of the major trends in art photography without
falling too deeply into the purgatory of artspeak. The book has plenty
of good reproductions of current work by a wide range of photographers.
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