Best non-photo, photo books?

In the past five years, I have read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books and magazines on photography. Lately, I find my self reading more and more books and magazines that do not deal directly with photography, but with art in general and specifically with painting, water color, ceramics, sculpture, design, composition etc.

Three books which are not specific to photography that I have found helpful are:

Art and Fear, Bayles and Orland

Composition, Dows

The Power of the Center, Arnheim

I would like to know what books or magazines, not directed specifically to photography, others on APUG find beneficial to their photography.

Allen Friday

Allen Friday said:

In the past five years, I have read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books and magazines on photography. Lately, I find my self reading more and more books and magazines that do not deal directly with photography, but with art in general and specifically with painting, water color, ceramics, sculpture, design, composition etc.

Three books which are not specific to photography that I have found helpful are:

Art and Fear, Bayles and Orland

Composition, Dows

The Power of the Center, Arnheim

I would like to know what books or magazines, not directed specifically to photography, others on APUG find beneficial to their photography.

Allen Friday

Click to expand...

Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town

The Art of Seeing (6th ed)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/01...104-1108615-4118343?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

The design of everyday things
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...104-1108615-4118343?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465026567/104-1108615-4118343?v=glance&n=283155

Altered Carbon, Woken Furies and Broken Angels
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345457684/104-1108615-4118343?v=glance&n=283155

Connections
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...104-1108615-4118343?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Allen,

You could have stoped with Art and Fear the best damm $12.95 most folks will spend. But the boys are at it again well at least half the team 'The View From the Studio Door' by Ted Orland (just came out). My students are going to hate me. One 12pk, one book, let me see??????

I talked with Ted last night about the book I only saw it for a short time. But I just had to get some copies. I am looking forward to sitting down this week end and reading it (with note taking stuff in hand.

I hope this helps

Jan Pietrzak

Art Today, Brandon Taylor, a good broad work on the visual arts over the last 50 or so years

Have been reading it over the last couple of days, enjoying it.

I recommend:

* Composition in art / Henry Rankin Poore.

An excellent practical manual to look at composition and understand it. Very systematic, goes through each principle (in Western art).

* The invention of art : a cultural history / Larry Shiner

This has really changed my understanding of art, if not my life. It's a patient, erudite, but very clear study of how the West "invented" art by separating it from craft around the Enlightenments. It's probably the only book that can settle the "is it art or craft" argument. Does also a good job of figuring out what recent artist are trying to make out of the divide. No po-mo relativism here, and that's a good thing.
I've been quoting from it in the recent Soap Box flame wars about art, but few people cared to listen...


* Art and illusion; a study in the psychology of pictorial representation. / E.H. Gombrich

Classic study of the role of visual perception in art by a leading art historian

* Art and visual perception : a psychology of the creative eye / Rudolf Arnheim.

Similar to Gombrich but from a different perspective (Gestalt psycho)

* The Routledge companion to aesthetics / edited by Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes.

More academic, but it has the best summary of all problems of aesthetics (is it art? is it a text? a work?) and very up-to-date.

* Mimesis as make-believe : on the foundations of the representational arts / Kendall L. Walton.

Another academic book, which I haven't explored much yet, but it's a great perspective on explaining how representations (visual, textual, etc) work, by likening them to make-believe games children (and adults too!) perform.

Most often, we read books because we are searching for something. While I can't really give you any specific book recommendations, Allen, I'll share a thought. Reading both photo-technical and art books tends to layer the opinions, observations and prejudices of other people onto the creative cake. Some can be more helpful than others in assisting you to find your own philosophy about life and thus your own expressive style. None the less, getting a firm grasp on how you feel about what you see, and how you want to express that in your photography will move you more quickly toward satisfaction in your approach to your photography. That "vision" will express itself regardless of your subject matter, and will result in a recognizable "style" to your work.

Great topic - I'm definitely going to look into Art and Fear. Eric Maisel's A Life in the Arts maybe, as navigation guide. Some good honest insights from artists in all mediums.

I don't read magazines. I've never learned to get accustomed to for some reason. That leaves me enough space for my imagination to grow instead.

Allen and all,

No student parties at Glendale College tonight, My UPS man stopped me mid street and gave me a 15lb box of books. Lots of copies of Art and Fear and Ted's new one The View from the Studio Door. Ok lets see, 127 pages, nothing on TV tonight, tomarrow wait for the gas man to fix the heater. I will try to report in soon

Jan Pietrzak

Allen Friday said:

In the past five years, I have read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books and magazines on photography. Lately, I find my self reading more and more books and magazines that do not deal directly with photography, but with art in general and specifically with painting, water color, ceramics, sculpture, design, composition etc.

Three books which are not specific to photography that I have found helpful are:

Art and Fear, Bayles and Orland

Composition, Dows

The Power of the Center, Arnheim

I would like to know what books or magazines, not directed specifically to photography, others on APUG find beneficial to their photography.

Allen Friday

Click to expand...

"The Accidental Masterpiece" by Michael Kimmelman

A series of essays on life in art and art in life... great read!

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig, recommended reading for Bill Jay's History of Photography classes at Arizona State.

gene

The Zen of Creativity

The Zen of Creativity:
Cultivating Your Artistic Life
by John Daido Loori
(an actual zen abbot & former professional photographer)

Try any of the books by John O'Donohue such as Anam Cara. It may sound unlikely as these are books on celtic spirituality, but they have some superb passages on seeing which could be quoted in any photography book.

A big thank-you to all of you who replied above. Amazon.com also thanks you, as I just placed a large order with them for many of the books mentioned in your posts.

I do find it interesting how few responses there were. A similar thread on photography books generated three times the responses and probably 10 times the number of books being recommended.

Do most photographers only read photography related books and magazines?

I read and have read photography specific books. Many of them are very good and I have gotten inspiration and ideas from them. But, I find that my most creative inspiration for photographic projects, individual images, and ideas to play with come from exposure to influences outside of photography.

I enjoy reading about history, philosophy, art, religion and science and some fiction. The more I read, and the more I experience life, the more everything seems interwoven. Those connections provide the "What if?" I need to stimulate exploring a topic photographically.

To me, reading books is like visiting museums. When I go to Paris, I don't limit myself to the Centre National de la Photographie. I go the Louvre, Cluny, Orsay, Rodin...

I have three books that I have been reading for the past two months. Beauty in Photography and Why People Photograph, both by Robert Adams, and Susan Sontag's classic, On Photography. Also on the shelf are Photography in Print and two books by A.D. Coleman (those two are really not essential, but they are nice).

There is another book by Robert Adams that was just published (Along Some Rivers) that is on the top of my list, along with Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Also not to be left out is Bill Jay's Occam's Razor.

I would recommend getting them from Photo-Eye Books instead of Amazon. But, I think it is always best to try and get them directly from the publisher when you can.