Favorite writers on photography

markbau said:

A very broad question indeed. The photographer whose writings I keep going back to are David Vestal. Yes, he leaned toward the technical but in his later columns in D&CCT he often moved toward the philosophical. His views on print contrast and print size are the clearest writings on the subject I have come across. He was an iconoclast in an era of conformity. Two quotes stand out, he didn't really like the pretentious term "fine art" and wondered if there was such a thing as fine art does it follow that there must be "coarse art", and, like woodworking files, maybe "medium art"? Another time he was talking about print aesthetics and the popular claim that "less is more" his response was "no, less is not more but rather enough is enough. Priceless!

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Indeed David Vestal is excellent at technical and I am yet to read his other writing you speak of.

Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes to a lesser extent.

markbau said:

A very broad question indeed. The photographer whose writings I keep going back to are David Vestal. Yes, he leaned toward the technical but in his later columns in D&CCT he often moved toward the philosophical. His views on print contrast and print size are the clearest writings on the subject I have come across. He was an iconoclast in an era of conformity. Two quotes stand out, he didn't really like the pretentious term "fine art" and wondered if there was such a thing as fine art does it follow that there must be "coarse art", and, like woodworking files, maybe "medium art"? Another time he was talking about print aesthetics and the popular claim that "less is more" his response was "no, less is not more but rather enough is enough. Priceless!

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The opposite of fine art is commercial art. Commercial art, for photography, would be things commissioned by a paying client, like product photography and wedding photography.

Nice collection Pieter12.

David Vestal's column was the first thing I would read every month back when Camera and Darkroom was around. I think his writings are accumulated somewhere but I'm not sure. He was also a damn fine photographer.

Robert Adams writes intelligently about photographs. His "Why People Photograph" should be a must read.

For criticism A.D. Coleman is excellent.

I have to admit that I puke a little in my mouth every time someone mentions Susan Sontag.....

I had a book by David Vestal, but it was more about technique, while I was looking for something more along the lines of his Camera and Darkroom writing. Although I liked the magazine, it was his column that kept me buying each and every issue. Without Vestal, I probably would have been a more irregular reader.

I remember in one article he’d just finished giving a talk and a young photographer came up and asked if he could show Vestal some photos. Instead of pulling out prints, the photographer whipped out his digital camera and showed Vestal his images on the rear screen. This is pre-iPhone. At that moment, Vestal says, he realized how portfolios were going to be presented in the future.

I'd love to own a collection of his magazine columns since I think he’s very underappreciated.

Cheers, James

Patrick Robert James said:

... I have to admit that I puke a little in my mouth every time someone mentions Susan Sontag.....

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I did not want to stir this one up, thanks for filling in The problem is that her's On Photography is mentioned everywhere, even in places that have nothing to contribute to photography, art, or anything even remotely related. As such it has been translated to many languages, has a title that implies gravitational significance on the subject and has become synonymous with best selling rhetoric.