Favourite colour landscape photography books

PhotoHistorian

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Dan,
I agree completely with your opinion. A graffiti wall in the middle of the urban "landscape" can be as beautiful as anything one can find in Yosemite, Zion, Death Valley etc. And the creator would be a "landscape photographer."

Walker
 

roteague

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Here are some book by real masters of color landscape photography:

Photographic Technique:

Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography by Galen Rowell

Large Format Nature Photography By Jack W. Dykinga

Light and the Art of Landscape Photography By Joe Cornish

Tom Mackie's Landscape Photography Secrets By Tom Mackie

Landscape Within By David Ward

Lee Frost's Panoramic Photography By Lee Frost

Photographing the Landscape: The Art of Seeing By John Fielder

Landscape Books:

America Wide: In God We Trust By Ken Duncan (one of Australia's top landscape photographers)

Desert: The Mojave and Death Valley By Jack W. Dykinga (whose images saved a desert landscape in the US and Mexico, creating a National Park in the process)

Jack Dykinga's Arizona By Jack W. Dykinga

The Great Southland By Ken Duncan

Links to these books:

http://www.visionlandscapes.com/Resources.aspx?Resource=Books
http://www.visionlandscapes.com/Resources.aspx?Resource=TravelBooks

Sorry, I don't have anything listed for masters such as David Muench, Tom Till, Tom Mangelsen, Christopher Burkett (who hand prints everything himself on Ilfochrome), Carr Clifton, John Shaw, Andris Apse, the late Peter Dombrovskis (who saved a river in Tasmania from destruction by his photographs), and of course, William Neil. Links: http://www.visionlandscapes.com/Resources.aspx
 

Struan Gray

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I don't actually own any of his books, but Richard Misrach is the colour landscape photographer who most resonates with me.

I enjoy the photographers that roteague admires, but mostly for the places they show me, not for how they show them. To me, their conception of the natural world and man's place in it is too narrow and sentimental.

Galen Rowell was an inspiration photographically and as a climber. His "Mountain Light" planted the first seeds of serious photography in me, and I still read through it regularly. But, again, as photography his work has a limited emotional compass.

Rowell and the others represent only a subset of what I feel and see in the wilderness, and the more 'art' oriented photographers (Misrach, Southam, Meyorwitz, Eggleston, Shore) fill in most of the gaps. A few small pieces of the jigsaw I have had to fill in myself.

One final plug: "The illustrated history of the countryside" by Oliver Rackham. Despite it's disposable coffee table title the text is by a serious professional botanist, and one who writes superbly. The photos are mostly by Tom Mackie, and are less gaudy than the velvia-fest postcard stuff on his website. This book taught me more about the landscape, and reasons to photograph it beyond the Romantic Sublime, than any purely photographic book.

PS: coigach, if you like the Swedish nature school, don't miss Hans Strand: more abstract than those you mention, but worthy company.
 
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coigach

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RE: Hans Strand - thanks for the heads-up, will go and find out more. (Any other recommendations appreciated, colour or b+w).

I agree with many of your points. I also think that a lot of landscape photography is quite limited in emotional range, and that colour photographers often fall into the 'velvia postcard' trap. Nice, but... beyond taking a technically well executed image of an attractive landscape, there seems little else going on.

A particular bugbear of mine is the kind of 'tourism' that many landscape photographers seem to do, a kind of 'greatest hits' approach. Get some visually pleasing images, say something vague about the need to preserve wild landscapes, then move on to the next spectacular landscape. Little attempt to wrestle with the history, people and contexts that shape (and continually re-shape) wild places, and to ponder in a meaningful way why wild places matter and what makes them special. Ironically I think this approach serves to undermine many of the ideals that landscape photographers expouse, as it (unintentionally) makes landscape into a commodity just like everything else.

This is possibly one of the reasons I am attracted to 'intimate landscapes', photos of landscape patterns and details. There is something quite liberating in not looking for the 'big view', and looking at small details that give different landscapes character and 'personality'. (I find the wonderful pictures in this vein by David Ward and Joe Cornish much more involving than their 'big view' stuff for example).

I like landscape work that helps evoke the 'sense' of a place and helps me use my imagination to relate to it. Something that evokes, but doesn't explain, work that keeps a sense of mystery...

Cheers,
Gavin
 
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Struan Gray

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There is a nordic nature magazine, Camera Natura, which regularly showcases the work of the usual suspects. It's a good way of getting an overview of the current nature scene here. It's in Swedish, but the emphasis is on pictures, not words, so it would be worth a non-speaker browsing though. www.cameranatura.se. I haven't tried, but I would be astonished if the editorial team could not handle emails in English.

I see in colour, and prefer to photograph in colour, but my favourite landscape photographers all have done their most famous work in black and white. A short list: Ray Metzker, Fay Godwin, Emmet Gowin, Lee Friedlander, R.E. Meatyard, F. Sommers. For whatever reason, photographers working in colour don't (mostly) seem to have the same concerns.

For me, a central issue is what form can tell us about process. I don't want to turn all my photographs into lectures on ecology or geology, but I want them to be informed by a knowledge of such things. It may just represent my european background, but I find human interactions with the landscape and the way landscapes can be read as cultural or historical documents a fascinating topic - one which the Ineffable Sublime crowd prefer to ignore.

The swooning romantics just seem so *insincere*. Either that, or incapable of self-examination.
 

Antje

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They definitely are, and subscribing from abroad is extremely easy. I love that magazine. Not only because it's a chance to improve my Swedish.

Antje
 

PhotoHistorian

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All you listings above are fine masters of the landscape. But all are a very narrow focus of the gene. And if this is your definition of "real" color landscape photography, fine. That is your opinion.
I would just suggest to others they look at a wider view of the world around us. The lanscape is more than what Ansel Adams taught at his workshops as "scenery quality." I love all landscape work. My favorite of the group listed above is Christopher Burkett.
Here is a link to his website:
Dead Link Removed


Walker
 

c6h6o3

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coigach said:
Hello all

Thought it would be interesting to ask others for their favourite colour landscape photography books, along with a weblink and short explanation of why they are your faves.
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River of Colour by Raghubir Singh. It's my favorite because it's the best retrospective compilation of the greatest composer of photographic color imagery, and it has landscapes in it so it should count for purposes of this discussion. My paperback copy, which I found in a Borders cutout bin for $8.00 is my most cherished photo book.
 

loman

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Well I guess this is in the grey zone, but for me the greatest color landscape (topography) book is:

American Prospects byJoel Sternfeld.

I don't think anybody has mentioned him yet.
 

langedp

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Another vote for Jack Dykinga's "Large Format Nature Photography". My hands down favorite. (we may be in the minority, roteague).
 

roteague

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Nicole said:
Mr. Robert M. Teague, where is yours??
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Thanks Nicole, but I'm not anywere at these guys level. I keep trying ... I'll be back in Victoria next month , I'll see what I can get on this trip.
 

ChuckP

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One book I like is Intimations of Paradise by Christopher Burkett. More intimate view of the landscape.
 

roteague

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ChuckP said:
One book I like is Intimations of Paradise by Christopher Burkett. More intimate view of the landscape.
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That one is great. I have a personally signed copy I got from Christopher a couple of years ago.
 

mark

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All of the members of Robert's list are on mine, but I tend to have two categories of landscape photography. Robert's list is in my saturated category. Then I have my subdued category that right now is only occupied by Freeman Patterson. www.freemanpatterson.com. I've seen others' websites (can't remember their names right now.
 

Neanderman

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roteague said:
Landscape photography is about having an affinity for the natural world...
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That is a very highly restrictive definition of "landscape photography" and, in fact, sounds more to me like "nature photography."

I don't necessarily agree with all of his assesments, beliefs or conclusions, but John Brinkerhoff Jackson would most vociferously argue with your definition. And he is just one amongst many who strongly embraced the aesthetic of man's interaction with the "natural" landscape.

Ed
 

roteague

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Have you read the writings of David Ward on the subject? I've got a reference to his book on my website. One of the best I've read.
 

jovo

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I have three books of photographs by Eliot Porter; Natures Chaos, The West, and Appalachian Wilderness which was the work that turned me to landscape photography in the first place rather than anything in black and white by AA. It is his way with the 'intimate' landscape that I found most appealing, i.e. 'graphs that do not include the sky or the horizon. I also love Cole Weston's At Home and Abroad. I have several of David Muench's books, but, as beautiful as the pictures are, they don't stay with me the way Porter's do. I guess they're 'too pretty'. I also have Robert Glenn Ketchum's The Legacy of Wilderness which is a collection of some of his images from several different books. It was an exhibition of very large photographs of the Hudson River Valley that I saw in the early 80s that led me to discover the beauty of chaos that few photographer's have ever rivaled in capturing (even Meyerowitz has tried, in black and white, and failed miserably IMHO). Many of these are in a book he published of that body of work which I used to have, but seem to have lost in a move several years ago.

There are more, but the preceding are my favorites.
 

roteague

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Great points John. Sometimes, we forget that there is a difference between the "intimate" landscape, as exemplified by Eliot Porter and the "grand" landscapes of AA.
 

Neanderman

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roteague said:
Have you read the writings of David Ward on the subject? I've got a reference to his book on my website. One of the best I've read.
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Not familiar with him. I'll have to check him out.

Thanks.

Ed
 

matthewbetcher

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hands down my favorite is still john pfahl's little collection of images - "altered landscapes" (as '80's as his work now seems to me i still love the commitment to the image)

and i guess it's technically not all "landscape photography" but comes together as an interesting approach to what "landscape" actually is - is doug aitken's (with text by dean kuiper) - "i am a bullet"
 

Baxter Bradford

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Glad to see you posting a good selection Robert, which I also rate highly.

I would add three more to the list:
Voices of Light by Yousef Khanfaryousefkhanfar.com/
Scotland's Coast by Joe Cornish. This picture is my favouriteThree shells, Jura but there are many excellent others.
In the Forest by Peter Dombrovskis, where he treats the landscape with passion and sensitivity peterdombrovskis.com.au

I'm just back from another trip to Cornwall and spent yet more time at Porth Nanven, home of Andrew Nadolskis's End of the Land book.
 

roteague

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Hi Baxter,

I've got Joe's book on my list of must haves. I just bought a copy of "Countryside" which he contributed to.

Peter Dombrovskis is a favorite as well. His work to save the Franklin River in Tasmania from being dammed is an inspiration to all landscape photographers.
 

Shawn Rahman

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Absolutely, 100% agreed. See my earlier post in this thread. Singh was a master, and taken away from us too soon. I think Steve McCurry and Singh are at the very pinnacle of what they do with color.
 

roteague

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hkr said:
Absolutely, 100% agreed. See my earlier post in this thread. Singh was a master, and taken away from us too soon. I think Steve McCurry and Singh are at the very pinnacle of what they do with color.
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Steve McCurry is a travel photographer, not a landscape photographer. Nothing wrong with his work, but being a color photographer doesn't automatically make one a landscape photographer.
 
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