Fully agree about the Jazz Loft documentary and book. I have Shadow and Substance here but didn't get far before losing interest. Maybe I'll try again some day but 600 pages of Gene Smith is a lot. It may be too well researched. ;-)Not that many autobiographies, for obvious reasons. While other arts are turned inwards, photography is, with a few exceptions, entirely turned outwards. This means that for the photographers the work is the autobiography—what they saw, who they saw, what they felt. What's left, when turned into words, often becomes mostly anecdotal, which is the case, for example, with the Ansel Adams autobiography (sarcastic minds will state that most of his photography is also anecdotal, but that's for another thread).
That said, there are some worth reading. Top on my list is Gordon Parks' A Choice of Weapons, one of the most powerful autobiography you'll ever read. Ends early in his life—he followed that with To Smile in Autumn—but it's entirely worth it. I have Don McCullin's Unreasonable Behaviour on my bookshelf. People have told me good things about it, but, again, I haven't had time to read it yet.
Danny Lyon is an immensely interesting photographer that isn't mentioned enough. His essays are somewhat in between being about biography and about photography. They are collected in American Blood: Selected Essays.
Biographies of photographers aren't that common either. On Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Assouline's Cartier-Bresson: L'oeil du siècle and, not exactly biographical, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations 1951-1998, published by Aperture. Both are worth reading, but also quite frustrating, for different reasons, if you want to actually learn something about him. The already mentioned American Witness: The Life and Art of Robert Frank is good. A couple of biographies that are waiting on my bookshelf for me to have time reading them—can't wait for retirement—are Paul Delany's Bill Brandt: A life, James R. Mellow's Walker Evans, Arthur Lubow's Diane Arbus: Portrait of a photographer, Milton Metzer's Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life and Linda Gordon's Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. Also on my list, but further back: George Rodger: An Adventure in Photography. I don't have W. Eugene Smith: Shadow and Substance, The Life and Work of an American Photographer. It's on my to buy list, but haven't had anyone recommend it (any body here read it?).
David Goldblatt's The Last Interview is excellent, but not exactly in biographical or autobiographical format.
For a mix of biography and photographs in the same book, a couple of notable ones that I went through recently: Sam Stephenson's The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue 1957-1965, and The Life and Works of Sid Grossman by Keith F. Davis. Regarding Gene Smith, best biographical work remains the documentary The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith, just as All Things are Photographable is the best biographical work about Garry Winogrand.
I still think photographers most eloquent when writing on photography — "on looking" would be a better way to state it. Books by Stephen Shore, Robert Adams and Tod Papageorge to me are essential reading for anyone interested in photography.
Two photographers who mix well writing and photography in the same book, in a somewhat autobiographical manner—in the sense "this is what I saw"—, albeit in very different ways, are Teju Cole and Raymond Depardon. Depardon is interesting in that he harks back to a 19th-century style of travel writing, without the colonial undertones, of course.
As far as non-photographers writing about photographers and photography in a non-theoretical manner, Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment is a fantastic read.
Some photographers about whom I wish there was either biography or autobiography in English or in French: Josef Koudelka, Ernest Cole and Josef Sudek.
That could be an engaging thread on its own.
oh geez, I see that I responded to that thread too with almost exactly the same response that I came up with here. Memory is a terrible thing.Started one on a similar subject last year. Sammallahti was mentioned (a discovery for me).
As far as non-photographers writing about photographers and photography in a non-theoretical manner, Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment is a fantastic read.
Totally agree -- Dyer is an extraordinary (and somewhat eccentric) critic who connects dots that seem obvious in retrospect. Dyer wrote a second book on the subject, "See/Saw: Looking at Photographs," that I have on my shelf waiting to be read.
Totally agree -- Dyer is an extraordinary (and somewhat eccentric) critic who connects dots that seem obvious in retrospect. Dyer wrote a second book on the subject, "See/Saw: Looking at Photographs," that I have on my shelf waiting to be read.
There is also Gideon Lewin's Avedon: Behind the Scenes, but I don't think it is anywhere as good as the other two. Lewin was Avedon's long-time assistant and the Avedon Foundation tried to stop him from publishing the book, claiming copyright violations for many of the photos. They lost. The Foundation also tried to get Norma Steven's book pulled, but just need up getting more publicity and better sales for it.Haven't read them, but adding these two titles from the Avedon thread, recommended by @Pieter12 , @sasah zib and @Arthurwg :
Norma Stevens, Avedon: Something Personal
Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: The Biography of Richard Avedon
"Avedon 100" at the Gagosian in NYC / May 4 to June 24
From the website: Gagosian is pleased to announce Avedon 100, an exhibition to open on May 4, 2023, at 522 West 21st Street, New York, in celebration of the centenary of Richard Avedon’s birth. Almost 150 celebrated artists, designers, musicians, writers, curators, and fashion world...www.photrio.com
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