Which books do documentary photography students read?

vondutch · Mar 21, 2018

Hi there!

I wanted to know if there is somebody here who knows which books students read who study documentary photography or photojournalism, not photo books (although suggestions on those also are always welcome) but more on the theoretical part.

TerryMcC · Mar 21, 2018

I don’t know about students but I found Harold Evans’ book, “Pictures on a Page “, very illuminating.

chip j · Mar 21, 2018

"Bystander: a History of Street photography" is sublime.

Lightflame · Apr 17, 2018

I partially deal with students but in other field, so I don’t know for sure what books they are reading. But when I was in photo school, these books had a great impact on me:
Photography: The Key Concepts – David Bate; Understanding Exposure – Brian Peterson

removed account4 · Apr 17, 2018

not sure what sort of documetary photography books you mean
like street photography, human condition ?
the americans by robert frank,
the works of margaret bouque white
and while it isnt in a book the oeuvre of colin corneau
architctural documentary work --
go to the habs project website and have them look
at as many HABS / HAER documentations as they can
have them look for the book jack boucher did ( he was the head of the habs project for decades )
as well as the images of jet lowe ( i thought he had a book i guess i was wrong )
christopher payne is in nyc and i think he has a book out regarding NYC "stuff"
as well as the complete works of atget
the bechers have a few good books out too
and these MIT planning library images on flickr by Nishan Bichajian
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mit-libraries/
he photographed streescapes and buildings of boston
and the surrounding areas like atget did in paris, in the 50s

jtk · Apr 17, 2018

vondutch said:
Hi there!

I wanted to know if there is somebody here who knows which books students read who study documentary photography or photojournalism, not photo books (although suggestions on those also are always welcome) but more on the theoretical part.

It's not a school kind of thing. If they're what we want to think of as photojournalists they get whatever that is through formal reportage studies and video.

Rob Skeoch · Apr 18, 2018

when I went back to school to get my Master of Fine Arts degree, I majored in Documentary Photograph and History of Photography.

These are some of the books I had to read, none of these are light reading.

On Photography - Susan Sontag
Doing Documentary Work - Robert Coles
The Cruel Radiance - Susie Linfield
Towards a Philosophy of Photography - Vilem Flusser
Core Curriculum - Tod Papagreorge (he shot street work with a 6x12)

This last book I only mention because it's the most useful book I've read on photography...
the War of Art - Steven Pressfield

Hope this helps.

-Rob

ic-racer · Apr 18, 2018

It has been a few years, but I still have these books in my library from my documentary classes in graduate school:

The Social History of Art - Arnold Hauser
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television - Jerry Mander
Forget Foucault - Jean Baudrillard
Theories of Mass Communication - De Fleur
Documentary - Barnouw
Photographers on Photography - Lyons
Photography Against the Grain - Allan Sekula

jtk · Apr 19, 2018

ic-racer said:
It has been a few years, but I still have these books in my library from my documentary classes in graduate school:

The Social History of Art - Arnold Hauser
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television - Jerry Mander
Forget Foucault - Jean Baudrillard
Theories of Mass Communication - De Fleur
Documentary - Barnouw
Photographers on Photography - Lyons
Photography Against the Grain - Allan Sekula

I knew Jerry Mander...his "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television is still on Amazon. Much of that book applies readily to digital media.

Which books do documentary photography students read?

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