You're on a desert island and have (up to) 5 photo books...

[MatthewDunn]

I am looking to build out my library of photo books. If you were permanently stranded on an island and had only 5 books of photographs to look at, what would you include?

 

[logan2z]

It's almost impossible for me to choose just five, but I'd definitely want to have this selection with me on that proverbial desert island:

1) Robert Adams "Prairie"
2) Robert Frank "The Americans"
3) Lee Friedlander "Apples and Olives"
4) Sage Sohier "Americans Seen"
5) William Gedney "What Was True"

 

[Dali]

Yes, it is an impossible choice but if I had to sell all my books, I would keep these five:

_ Diane Arbus "Revelations"
_ Jeanloup Sieff "La vallee de la Mort"
_ Yamamoto Masao "Tori"
_ Michael Ackerman "End Time City"
_ Patti Smith "Land 250"

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Walker Evans Hungry Eye
Edward Weston Forms of Passion
Bret Weston A Personal Selection
Cartier Bresson Aperture History of Photography Series
Henri Lartigue Diary of a Century
Ansel Adams The Eloquent Light

Sorry, I can't do just five. They may not be the best for each photographer, but they are the ones I have.

 

[Arthurwg]

I'd be happy just to have just one, although it's rather heavy to take to a desert island: "A New History of Photography," ed. Michael Frizot. That would keep me busy for years. If I could add four more I would take a set of "The World of Atget," published by the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

 

[Arthurwg]

Yes, it is an impossible choice but if I had to sell all my books, I would keep these five:

_ Diane Arbus "Revelations"
_ Jeanloup Sieff "La vallee de la Mort"
_ Yamamoto Masao "Tori"
_ Michael Ackerman "End Time City"
_ Patti Smith "Land 250"

"End Time City." I love that one.

 

[logan2z]

_ Diane Arbus "Revelations"

Excellent choice.

 

[AnselMortensen]

Oooh... that's a tough one.

1. "The Dark Summer", Bob Carlos Clarke.
2. "Suburbia", Bill Owens.
3. "The Americans", Robert Frank
4. "Oliver Gagliani", Oliver Gagliani
5. "Days at Sea", Ralph Gibson

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I don't think I even own 5 photography books

 

[logan2z]

2. "Suburbia", Bill Owens.

Love that book, the other two in the trilogy are excellent too.

 

[MattKing]

A picture book titled "How to build a boat"

 

[logan2z]

A picture book titled "How to build a boat"

 

[mshchem]

1st I agree about the boat
Then old photo chemistry books 1900 through the 40's

 

[Nitroplait]

My list would probably look different tomorrow.

Lee Friedlander "America by Car"
Watabe Yukichi "A Criminal Investigation"
Hiroh Kikai "Asakusa Portraits"
Alec Soth "Songbook"
Elliot Erwitt "Pittsburgh 1950"

 

[Vaughn]

Ones using paper soft enough to wipe my bum.

 

[bdial]

The manual for my camera, or else, I’d bring a camera simple enough to not need one.
And, Weston’s Daybooks.

 

[guangong]

Are there girls on this island? If so, who wants to read. If not, that book on boat building should come first.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I have a pretty big collection, so this is tough. I'd probably want a mix of genres, portrait, nature, landscape, photojournalism, street, black and white and color. So:

Richard Avedon - In the American West
Stephen Shore - Uncommon places
Gordon Parks - The New Tide
Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Modern Century
Elliot Porter - In the Realm of Nature
W. Eugene Smith - The Pittsburgh Project (I do think Robert Frank's The Americans is a must in any photographer's book shelf, but this is a fantastic second choice)

Books that aren't on the "must" list but that you'd still have to pry from my cold dead hands: Robert Adams'The New West, Guy Tillim's O futuro certo, Chris Killip's In Flagrante, Don McCullin - The Landscape, Alec Soth - Sleeping by the Mississippi, William Eggleston's Guide, and anything by Josef Koudelka, Diane Arbus, Dawoud Bey, Saul Leiter, Alex Webb, Evelyn Hofer and Dorothea Lange.

 

[Dali]

Funny to see the The Americans listed so many times. I always found it utterly boring. To me, Des Europeens from Cartier-Bresson is way way above, less depressing and pessimistic.

 

[Ian Grant]

Easy:

The Dark Summer, Bob Carlos Clarke
Photographs 1955-2010 - John Blakemore
Land - Fay Godwin
The Eye That Shapes, Minor White
Between Dark and Dark, Thomas Joshua Cooper.

Ian

 

[removedacct1]

Sally Mann - What Remains
Josef Sudek - Fotografie (1956)

I could feast on those two alone and be satisfied.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Get yourself voted off the island.

 

[NB23]

Damn.

Playboy covers compilation. Amazing photography, skills back in the day.

Any Robert Doisneau full compilation.

Any Saul Leiter full compilation

Any Fred Herzog compilation

Andy Summers “I’ll be watching you, inside The Police”. This book is jam packed with stories and images, a true immersion into The Police. Even if you’re not a fan, it’s just a fantastic eye-candy worth hours and hours of pleasure.

 

[NB23]

Funny to see the The Americans listed so many times. I always found it utterly boring. To me, Des Europeens from Cartier-Bresson is way way above, less depressing and pessimistic.

fawcking boring. I did better in my first two years of photography when I was 16-17. No jokes.

 

[fiddle]

Chaos by koudelka would be in there for me.