Photo Books - What must I have in my collection?

[celluloidpropaganda]

I get most of my books at Half Price Books, it's shocking how many good deals I can find there. Two weeks ago I picked up Sally Mann's Deep South for $8, the only defect is a Christmas-present inscription in the front and last year I got four Robert Frank monographs for $8-10 apiece on remainder. I probably wouldn't have bought any of them at retail.

The rest of mine I get at wholesale thanks to my brother's employer.

particular favorites:
Eugene Richards, The Fat Baby and Americans We
the huge Diane Arbus retrospective
Magnum Stories (this one, The Fat Baby and Arbus all suffer from being huge and ungodly expensive. Not the kind of thing to carry around for reading.)

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I recently bought 'Listen to the Trees' by John Sexton. A book with some really great photography and well worth the $125 price tag.

 

[c6h6o3]

I just added Kenro Izu's "Passage to Angkor" to my collection. Talk about a beautifully printed book of beautiful images of Angkor. Another benefit of the book is that a percentage of the proceeds goes to supporting a childrens' hospital in Cambodia, which is a desperately needed facility in that strikingly poor nation.
If I'm not mistaken he shot a lot of those with a 12x20.

Paul Taylor made a set of photogravures of 8 of these prints which are absolutely beautiful. Much better than Izu's platinum prints. If you ever get a chance to see these, take it. BTW, Izu shoots a 14 x 20. That's a much more pleasing aspect ratio to me than 12 x 20.

 

[Davec101]

Paul Taylor made a set of photogravures of 8 of these prints which are absolutely beautiful. Much better than Izu's platinum prints. If you ever get a chance to see these, take it. BTW, Izu shoots a 14 x 20. That's a much more pleasing aspect ratio to me than 12 x 20.

Much better than Izu's prints! Having seen his platinum prints in the flesh without glass in front of them I must say his prints are magical and the most incredible prints i have ever seen in my life, took my breath away. Am not disputing that Paul Taylor's photogravures at Renaissance Press are good if not excellent, but saying they are 'much better' than Izu's prints is a bit strong and rather sweeping as I consider Izu's prints to be up there with the very best prints in the world.

 

[SeamusARyan]

obviously I have to mention my book "involuntary sculptures" of which I have several copies, tee hee

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/095463490X/202-9020677-4075001

but seriously

Steiglitz book on his wife Georgia O'Keefe, printed by the Stinehour press, oh to have been able to afford them to do my book, a thing of rare beauty

Japan by Kenna, just for the sheer beauty of it's production, the images don't need any praise from me, they speak volumes by them selves

Inscapes and the Stilled Gaze by John Blakemore, talk about opening my eyes to what a B&W print could be, wonderful man, amazing work

most of Penns books, it's a shame we have to wait till he dies to get a glimpse of his technical side re his platinum prints

Weston Life Work, printed by Salto, how beautiful, not sure about the claim they are as good as the originals, but truly beautiful none the less. Thank you Lodima.

Avedons "in the american west" and the really BIG coffee table book, which I managed to get signed when he did his lecture in London, also just for the interesting background the book about the taking of the images in "in the american west"

most of my books are currently in storage as we've just moved so that's enough for now

enjoy

Seamus
www.seamusryan.com

 

[Davec101]

Forgot to mention books to recommend in my last post!

Recently acquired. Edward Weston Legacy
Alfred Stiglitz photographs and writings

Both are excellent books with superb reproductions

All time favourites

Kenro Izu Still life, Kenro Izu Sacred Places (Beautiful Platinum prints)
Irving Penn Platinum prints, & Irvin Penn Still life
Mapplethorpe ‘Pistils’
Robert ParkeHarrison The Architects Brother
Journal of Contemporary photography Volume 1 & 2 (Volume 3 still alludes me…grr..sold out completely!)
Revealing Character Robb Kendrick ( Stunning Tin Types)
Ansel Adams at 100

Many more, cant think at the mo.

 

[bill schwab]

Steiglitz book on his wife Georgia O'Keefe, printed by the Stinehour press, oh to have been able to afford them to do my book, a thing of rare beauty

Stinehour printed mine... a spectacular job IMHO.

Bill

 

[Davec101]

Stinehour printed mine... a spectacular job IMHO.

Bill

Hi Bill

Have you seen Stiglitz's photographs and writings book, it is stunning and worth a purchase, the reproductions are some of the best i have seen. On par with 'Portrait of Georgia O'Keefe'.

 

[bill schwab]

Have you seen Stiglitz's photographs and writings book

Oh yes Dave. Very beautiful. They've done a lot of gorgeous books. I was surprised looking through their library just how many they have done. I highly recommend them. Worth every penny. You can get a little cheaper in China and Italy, but IMO it feels better supporting a printer here at home.

Bill

 

[bdial]

Edward Weston's Daybooks, it's been mentioned, but worth another vote.
Adams Basic Photo series.
Susan Sontag, On Photography

 

[polaski]

Paul Petzold's Light on People

 

[mtbbrian]

Mentioned once before in this thread, Weston's "Daybooks" while not really a "photo" book in the classic sense, are an incredible gift from one of the greatest photographers in history.

Another I would recommend like that would be, Ansel Adams: Autobiography.
I would also recommend William Eggleston's "2 1/4."
Can't forget Eugene Richards, "Dorchester Days".
Others I like a lot, Susan Meiselass "Nicaragua", and Donna Ferrato's "Living With The Enemy''

Brian

 

[J D Clark]

There are two books in my collection that I haven't seen listed here, and I wanted to mention them because both changed my seeing of landscapes and florals respectively.

"Orchestrating Icons", Huntington Witherill

"Flora", Imogen Cunningham

John Clark
www.johndclark.com

 

[Wigwam Jones]

The one must-have possesion is... a library card.

Not where I live. The pictures are all colored in already.

 

[Wigwam Jones]

I read this thread with some trepidation - for a couple of reasons. However, I was pleased to see a number of people mention Meatyard. This is one photographer who resonates with me, even if I have no desire to emulate his style.

However, I remain somewhat perplexed.

First, the subject line. With respect to the author of this thread; should there be a set of standard photography books that one should have on their shelves? Does this imply that the books are for decoration, or to give a certain impression? "Well, if one doesn't have [insert name here] on their shelves, is no true devotee."

This leads to my second question - why books? I could not understand what many photographs were saying until I saw them hung in galleries and museums. Books didn't seem to convey the sense of their meaning to me, and I often wondered what the rest of the world saw in them; I could extract little or no meaning from them, even larger coffee-table-sized books.

I have very few books of photography on my shelves. Meatyard and a few Phaidon 55 chapbooks, some on the history of photography. If I have them, it is generally because I lack the time or means to get to a place where that photographer's works can be seen in public and I want to learn what little I can about them. Often because the photographer in question was neglected by the public and the art world or relegated to obscurity. Most of the Avant-Garde Czech photographers intrigue me, and I have no other way of seeing their work anywhere near me. Still, a poor second choice overall.

On the other hand, I have many books, old magazines, and periodicals and annuals on photographic processes and methods and procedures - even camera collecting. These instruct and inform me.

Books on photography interest me. Books of photography seldom do.

 

[mtbbrian]

Books on photography interest me. Books of photography seldom do.

You have a very good point!
My first thoughts to this thread were similiar books, like "The Photography Reader" by Liz Wells, and "One Being A Photographer" by David Hurn and Bill Jay.
Another, I LOVED, that isn't so much a photography book, but rather a "creative living" one is, "Art & Fear: Observations (And Rewards) On Artmaking" By David Bayles and Ted Orland.

Someone did mention Susan Sontag's "On Photography", amongst others.

Brian

 

[c6h6o3]

Am not disputing that Paul Taylor's photogravures at Renaissance Press are good if not excellent, but saying they are 'much better' than Izu's prints is a bit strong and rather sweeping as I consider Izu's prints to be up there with the very best prints in the world.

Strong, yes. Sweeping? Maybe. However, I've seen dozens of Izu's platinum prints at his show a few years back at the Sackler Gallery and was not particularly impressed with either his vision or his printing. But those photogravures jump right off the wall at you. They're so good that I'm willing to overlook the sloppy composition and the vignetted corners.

 

[Wigwam Jones]

Someone did mention Susan Sontag's "On Photography", amongst others.

Then I would have to add "Camera Lucida" by Roland Barthes. Hard slogging to get through this small book, but well worth it. Sontag didn't do it for me, but then again, I was young when I read it. Perhaps a revisit is in order. I dunno - the concept of photography's true purpose being as a tool of social justice makes me puke. Not that it shouldn't be done or that it isn't useful in that way - but that I have zero interest in expressing a political viewpoint or attempting to create social change via photography.

 

[Steve Smith]

the concept of photography's true purpose being as a tool of social justice makes me puke. Not that it shouldn't be done or that it isn't useful in that way - but that I have zero interest in expressing a political viewpoint or attempting to create social change via photography.

I agree and I have the same opinion on music. I have no interest at all in songs which are trying to prove a point or protest about something (usually political).

Steve.

 

[Lee Shively]

"...why books?"

I love books--they are important to me. Of the books I love, photography and art books are my greatest loves. They are the only real means I have of seeing the art that interests me. I don't live in an area that has a lot of museums and art galleries and I'm not a big fan of visiting those large metropolitan areas that are the cultural centers. I despise looking at photographs on computer screens and have no interest in photography galleries on the internet. Public libraries are okay but they don't compare to a personal library.

Personally, I have no interest in books on cameras, procedures, techniques, etc., with very few exceptions. I can get all that information with a little research on websites such as APUG. Books of photographs by photographers I admire are relatively cheap compared to actual photographs and books are pretty relatively available. Some of my favorite photographers produced their pictures mainly for the purpose of publishing them in books. Robert Frank, Paul Strand and Ralph Gibson all come to mind.

I've been buying photographer's monographs and books of photography since I first got interested in the subject almost 35 years ago. It was a natural thing to do since I was a book-nut before becoming a photo-nut. Going through some of those older books is like rediscovering forgotten treasures. Also, I was lucky enough to gain my interest in photography at a time when there were lots of photographs printed in photography-based publications simply because they were good photographs, not because they were there to illustrate and article on a new product. So, books OF photographs are my interest.

 

[VoidoidRamone]

I really like the Boring Postcards books by Martin Parr. I think everyone should have those in their collection. That along with something classy, like Richard Kern.
-Grant

 

[Wigwam Jones]

"...why books?"

I can't take issue with your opinions - being yours, they are of course right for you. However, a few comments, if I may...

I love books--they are important to me.

Me, too. For me, though, it is the words they contain that interest me. Not being a smartass, I mean that prose transports me - the book becomes a conduit, not a thing in itself, but a doorway to another plane. A photograph printed in a book does not take me away in that manner.

Of the books I love, photography and art books are my greatest loves. They are the only real means I have of seeing the art that interests me. I don't live in an area that has a lot of museums and art galleries and I'm not a big fan of visiting those large metropolitan areas that are the cultural centers.

I live in the sticks, but I do have occasional opportunities to visit bigger cities like NYC, Boston, DC, and so on. I can only say that seeing an Edward Hopper in a museum and seeing a copy in a book are not even close to one another - same for Yousuf Karsh, whose work I have been privleged to see in person at an exhibit. I just can't drag that value out of a photograph reproduced in a book.

I despise looking at photographs on computer screens and have no interest in photography galleries on the internet. Public libraries are okay but they don't compare to a personal library.

Hyperion to a Satyr, I say! A photograph in a book is to a gallery print as a computer screen is to a photograph in a book. Well, just one man's opinion.

Personally, I have no interest in books on cameras, procedures, techniques, etc., with very few exceptions. I can get all that information with a little research on websites such as APUG.

I enjoy some arcane and exotic information such as may have been lost from time to time. I have read with interest the various 'rediscoveries' that have become available to the online community that were common knowledge in the 1920's. Not that every page contains a pearl, but some do, and I find it fun to read and learn. So very little is new, even the arguments are recycled.

Books of photographs by photographers I admire are relatively cheap compared to actual photographs and books are pretty relatively available. Some of my favorite photographers produced their pictures mainly for the purpose of publishing them in books. Robert Frank, Paul Strand and Ralph Gibson all come to mind.

Fair enough.

I've been buying photographer's monographs and books of photography since I first got interested in the subject almost 35 years ago. It was a natural thing to do since I was a book-nut before becoming a photo-nut. Going through some of those older books is like rediscovering forgotten treasures.

That's how I feel re-reading a copy of a Kodakery magazine from 1929.

Also, I was lucky enough to gain my interest in photography at a time when there were lots of photographs printed in photography-based publications simply because they were good photographs, not because they were there to illustrate and article on a new product. So, books OF photographs are my interest.

I'm hip. I guess we just walk different paths, is all.

 

[tim atherton]

Unlike many visual arts, in many ways the true home of many photographs is the book. A well printed book can display and present books in a way that is very different to a show or exhibition. There is also an intimacy about viewing photographs in a book that is also in many ways a unique visual experience.

A truly well printed photographic book/monograph is a work of art in it's own right. Indeed some of the most beautifully printed books are indeed better than viewing a show of silver prints on a wall (Friedlander's Factory Valleys comes to mind as just one).

(there is a slight similarity to the best works of Chinese scroll paintings. The most wonderful painting, but never meant to be seen displayed on a wall, but section by section - perhaps by at most two or three viewers at a time)

And of course what better book to add to all this than Martin Parr's (and Badger's) History of the Photobook (did I mention that already... it's a long thread) Vol I. (Vol II out soon)

 

[bjorke]

I was going to say the same thing -- the Parr History and the Book of 101 Books are crucial indices through which to explore most all otehr photobooks. Plus they can help you with books that you may otherwise never ever see (still reeling from when I ran across a copy of the Brodovitch "Ballet")

 

[df cardwell]

1. "How to Take Good Pictures", KODAK, any pre-1950 edition

2. "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads", PH Emerson

and

3. "Minimata", W. Eugene Smith