Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mike's Ten Books to keep ya thinkin' (Note: a few of these books you won't be able to buy. Sorry!) 1. Stephen Shore, _The Nature of Photographs_ (just out from Johns Hopkins Press). 2. John Szarkowski, _Looking At Photographs_. The best book ever written about photographs IMHO and the book to have if you only have one book. 3. David Vestal, _The Craft of Photography_. 4. Eugene Herrigel, _Zen and the Art of Archery_. The book famously cited by Cartier-Bresson as an explanation of his shooting technique. It makes for a field of endless fascination if you are willing to mentally conflate "shooting" a bow-and-arrow and "shooting" photographs as you read, as Cartier-Bresson intends you to. 5. Roland Barthes, _Camera Lucida_. Don't count on understanding this the first time through. Barthes rewards re-reading. 6. Karin Becker Orne, _Dorothea Lange and the Documentary Tradition_. A good book about photography's most important function. (Michael Lesy's _Wisconsin Death Trip_ might be substituted by the stout of heart.) 7. _The Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period_ (Thames and Hudson). A museum catalog that explores the values and practice of the Chinese _literati_. 8. John Szarkowski, _William Eggleston's Guide_. The best book of color photography yet published, by a considerable margin in my judgement. An excellent although not perhaps indispensable essay is as enjoyble as the pictures. This is to the 1960s as Walker Evans's _American Photographs_ is to the 1930s. 9. David Pye, _The Nature and Art of Workmanship_. Another book, like Vestal's, about craft. 10. Ray McSavaney, _Explorations_. McSavaney would be my choice as the greatest large-format photographer now living. He's an even better photographic craftsman than Ansel Adams was. The texts are wooden and not very valuable, but the pictures are amazing. There are only two monographs on the above list, but I thought I'd include the following anyway. How to "read" a photographic monograph: get yourself an egg timer--3 minutes to five minutes will do. Sit in a comfortable chair next to a good light with a book of pictures. Start at the beginning. Read what there is to read. When you come to a picture, start he timer. Keep your eyes on the opened spread for as long as the timer runs. Turn the page, reset the timer. Most people think they can "get" photographs by glancing at them. Everything about our society's superficial use and understanding of photographs and indeed all visual media encourages this misconception. However, it isn't true. Don't restrict yourself to books of photographs you think you "like." In fact, this often works better, and is more enjoyable, with books of pictures you think you _don't_ like. Let you mind wander if you wish as you look at the pictures. You don't have to think about anything in particular. Just keep looking. As soon as you get tired or find the exercise tiresome, stop. Mark your place and come back to the book the next night. A few months to a year later, re-"read" the same book the same way. If you'll follow this simple mechanical excercise with a few great monographs of photographs, I can almost promise you that you're in for an enlightening and enjoyable experience. All Best, Mike J.