Recommended Books

[magic823]

Not sure where to place this, but here goes.

Looking for a list of recommended books (need not be photography specific) on "seeing", form, gestalt, composing, color. Basically, why we like certain art works and not others. Why certain images appeal while others shock and repel. I'm looking to reach deeper, slow down and improve my craft.

Any suggestions?

Steve

 

[SuzanneR]

John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" and "About Looking" are pretty intresting. Also, the painter Kandinsky wrote a couple of books, "Point and Line to Plane", I believe, and another "on Emotion in Art" or some such. I may have the titles wrong, and all are probably out of print. "Theories of Modern Art" by Hershel Chipp, and I have a book "Artist's on Art" edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves.

All in all, some interesting reading.

 

[SuzanneR]

Ooops... found that Kandinsky book... "Concerning the Spiritual in Art"

 

[Peter De Smidt]

You might try: Perception and Imaging, Second Edition by Richard Zakia, which is a contemporary treatment. See also William Mortensen's The Command to Look, the best book on composition that I've ever read.

 

[magic823]

You might try: Perception and Imaging, Second Edition by Richard Zakia, which is a contemporary treatment. See also William Mortensen's The Command to Look, the best book on composition that I've ever read.

Thanks. I just ordered the Zakia book. The Mortensen book is pretty expensive.

 

[Robert Kennedy]

Camera Lucida by Barthes has some good passages in it. A bit slow going as he was a French Structuralist, but worth it.

 

[smieglitz]

How to Use Your Eyes (and other titles) by James Elkins
Color Design in Photography by Harald Mante (long OOP)
Photo Design by Harald Mante (long OOP)
Design and Form by Johannes Itten
The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
The Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
Art and Visual Perception (and other titles) by Rudolf Arnheim
Art and Illusion by Gombrich
Landscape and Figure Composition by Sadakichi Hartmann (long OOP)
Pictorial Composition by Henry R. Poore (long OOP)

 

[papagene]

Joseph Alber's "Interaction of Color"
Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

 

[magic823]

Joseph Alber's "Interaction of Color"
Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Yes, I've read Zen... Its been a few years (20+) I should pick it up again.

Steve

 

[c6h6o3]

Not sure where to place this, but here goes.

Looking for a list of recommended books (need not be photography specific) on "seeing", form, gestalt, composing, color. Basically, why we like certain art works and not others. Why certain images appeal while others shock and repel. I'm looking to reach deeper, slow down and improve my craft.

Any suggestions?

Steve

The Tao of Photography by Gross & Shapiro

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel This is a treatise on how to drill down to the essence of any art you wish to master.

The Decisive Moment, Introduction by Henri Cartier-Bresson. While this book is generally not available, the Introduction has been reprinted numerous times elsewhere. I know for a fact that it's in Photographers on Photography by Nathan Lyons.

 

[JohnArs]

I only know one I really can recomand:
Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography
The best I really know!

 

[tim atherton]

Another Way of Telling - Berger
Chromophobia - David Batchelor (if you want to think about colour in a way contrary to the standard "academy" colour theorists...)
Yes - the Kandinsky books mentioned, also Paul Klee's Pedagogical Sketchbook

 

[Robert Kennedy]

I hear this Harry Potter book is also popular....

 

[magic823]

I hear this Harry Potter book is also popular....

Actually, I've already read it. Finished it last Sunday (I'm a very fast reader.)

Steve