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What's the first photo book you bought? The last one you pulled off the shelf?

logan2z

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This thread is inspired by an ongoing series of Instagram posts in a feed that I follow in which a well-known photographer is asked these questions:

  1. What's the first photo book you bought?
  2. Which book did you last pull off the shelf?
  3. Which book do you wish you had in your collection?

I'll kick it off...

  1. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it was "Cape Light" by Joel Meyerowitz. Funny enough, I'm not really a fan of his work.
  2. Bill Brandt "Shadow and Light"
  3. Lee Friedlander "Flowers and Trees", or "Factory Valleys". I'd like a copy of both.

What are yours?
 
First was Photography by Eric de Mare, last of the shelf Photographs, Cartier Bresson.

Not sue what book I'd wish I had, any pre-1920 BJP Almanacs though.

Ian
 
I'm handling a camera since I was a boy, but the only photo books I have were received as gift. The many books I bought were about painters and sculptors. The last book I got was 'Gerhard Richter | Panorama - A retrospective'. Gerhard Richter is an abstract painter but he also modified photos and made installations. I actually believe photographers can learn more from painters than other photographers, because most of the latter have no formal education in art, they focus on technicalities (like here on Photrio) but they have no clue about the most basic provisions to make a good photo from an artistic point of view. QED.
 
The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques in Photography: Book 1. I started exploring photography when I moved to Japan in '91. On a trip back to Canada, I purchased this book. This book was an eye opener. This book led to The Negative, The Camera, and The Print. I can't remember the last book I pulled off the shelf... I haven't been doing much reading lately. To answer the last question, I'm not a book person, so no clue...
 
"The Photographer's Handbook", by John Hedgecoe. Paid $22 for it.
This is more of a 'cook book' approach, not a 'perspective/mindset' building book. I think it helped me to realize the breadth of techniques and tools available.

Unrelated to content, but I also find font so small, that now, I need specialized glasses to read it.. not a very comfortable experience.
 
ts1000 said:
"The Photographer's Handbook", by John Hedgecoe. Paid $22 for it.
Click to expand...

Ditto on the Hedgecoe. Devoured it at the time, and yes indeed, a valuable cookbook it was. My spark plug back then. What became of my copy?

Regrettably, I can't remember what my first monograph purchase had been, but the most recently revisited was Avedon, "In the American West," which is becoming quite tatty. Had it signed at the Corcoran during his tour.

Logan2z, it's funny about Meyerowitz' "Cape Light." I bought it after seeing the "American Photographer" review; absolutely loved it, and later, his "Redheads" as well. But then I went cold on him, and his street photography just never resonated at all.
 
I think the first one I bought was a 20 volume encyclopedia of photography. Ready every volume cover to cover.
 
My problem is that so many of my books came to me as part of a shared library with my Dad. Add to that the fact that people give me photography books as gifts.
I remember looking for and finding Tim Rudman's Toning book on a store shelf, at regular price!
Man Ray's Portraits was another good find.
Thrift stores have been good to me, but I've used them as much as an inexpensive lending library as a source for books to buy and keep.
 
No idea about the last purchase.

The book i have just been looking at is...... Hollywood At Home by Sid Avery.

I think the photos are fabulous, but i really dig Hollywood from the Studio System era.
Not really sure who Sid was or how "Successful" he was, but this book was a home run in my opinion.
He obviously had some kind of "In" with the studios.
Looks like he was a local (to Hollywood) commercial photographer and had worked with or for quite a few of the Hollywood Movie people.
Anyway...... if you like circa 1950-1960 movie stars, this book should catch your interest.
 
jtk said:
My first was Weston's second Daybook...still my most important photo book.

Most recent was Photofile's Saul Leiter. ..beautiful...remarkably fine reproductions.

http://saulleiterfoundation.org/images_color.html

Click to expand...

The Photofile books are actually pretty good and inexpensive. I have one on Richard Kalvar and I think the B&W reproductions in it are high quality as well.

If you like Saul Leiter and don't have any other of his monographs, I'd recommend 'Early Color' and 'Early Black and White'. I also have 'In My Room' and think it's quite good too.
 
Thanks, yes..

I generally refrain from photo books (only have maybe a couple of dozen after dozens of years of "serious" photo)... one of Leiter's semi-nudes brought him to my attention but I didn't know a book was available until I saw some great examples of his work online. Exquisite Kodachromes from 40s-60s. With similar motivations I bought "Cyclops Albert Watson"...another very small book...has incredibly fine 4-color B&W .. unlike Avedon's images (I have 4 Avedon books), Watsons employ several different plain backgrounds (cold white, very warm white, completely-knocked-out page white). Watson is especially good with fabric and with intense blacks. He's "Cyclops" because he has only one eye...which is something to think about imo.

 
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My first photography book was "Teenage Lust" by Larry Clark.
Most recently I was looking at my copy of Josef Sudek's "Fotografie", the Prague edition, 1956.

I wish I still owned my copy of "Teenage Lust" but I gave it to a friend 25 years ago.
 
First book was "The Complete Photographer" by Andreas Feininger.
Last one off the shelf "Koudelka" also the last one acquired.
Which one do I wish for...can't say, there are so many. I have over a hundred photo books and my wife would really like it if I didn't get any more. With public libraries being closed, I'm hard-pressed.
 
I recently picked up 'Koudelka' as well. I couldn't resist it during the recent Aperture sale.

I too have a long 'want list'. My biggest issue is shelf space - I never seem to have enough.
 
Complete oeuvre of NADAR. ... last off the shelf I’d the Keith Smith book about sewing sing sheet books
 
1) It may have been one of Adam's, probably "The Negative" but the one that influenced me the most was "The Concerned Photographer"
2) Robert Frank's "The Lines of My Hand", which I bought new in 1972 and still have!
2) Robert Frank's "Les Americains", the actual first edition of "The Americans" published in France.
 
1) Lenses in Photography by Rudolf Kingslake, bought 22 July 1952. After all these years I still turn to it now and then.
2) Carleton Watkins: Making the West American by Tyler Green.
 
1) Probably The Darkroom Handbook by Michael Langford
2) Early Sunday Morning by Peter Mitchell (change and decay in 1970s Leeds)
3) Too many, but I'd probably go for Early Colour by Saul Leiter.
 
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