Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
SUGGESTED LEICA READING LIST- Part Three -- Non Photo Photo Books
The books are in alphabetical order by author. No one will accept any
responsibility for errors. Selections were recommended by member of the
Leica Users Group and the Leica Enthusiasts Group. Quotes following each
book are from the person who has read the book. (I hope!). Enjoy!
ADAMS, Ansel
"The Camera" New York Graphic Society, 1980, ISBN 0-8212-1092-0
"The Print" New York Graphic Society, 1980, ISBN 0-8212-1526-4
"The Negative" New York Graphic Society, 1980, ISBN 0-8212-1131-5
Most helpful and I still turn to them from time to time. -- Joe
Stephenson
"Ansel Adams, an Autobiography" with Mary Street Alinder Little, Brown
and Company,1985, ISBN 0-8212-1596-5
Published a year after his death. I was drawn to this book to learn
a little more about the Master. I find it well done if a little
distant, as so many of Adams' photographs strike me also. -- Godfrey
DiGiorgi
ADAMS, Robert
"Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews" Aperture, 1994,
ISBN 893815977
Johnny Brownlow
BENSER, Walther
"My Life with the Leica" Hove Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-906447-58-5
Pascal Heyman
BOSWORTH, Patricia
"Diane Arbus--a Biography" Knopf, 1984, ISBN 394-50404
Denton Taylor
BRINNIN, John Malcolm
"Sextet: T.S. Eliot & Truman Capote & others" Delacorte Press/Seymour
Lawrence, 1981, ISBN 0440077850
He accompanied Henri Cartier-Bresson on a drive across America and
his tale suggests why Bresson does not like to reveal too much
of his private self. -- Damian Dlugolecki
CHATWOOD Arthur Brunel
see JOHNSON, Robert
COLES, Robert
"Doing Documentary Work" Oxford U. Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-5116291
. Compilation of a lecture series at the NY Public
Library.Provides food for thought about what documentary
photography, and writing, really is, or should be. Includes
lengthy discussion of the work of Dorothea Lange.Very
thought provoking. -- B.D. Colen
COLLINS
"English Dictionary"
Where would I be without it? -- Martin Howard
DEPARDON, Raymond
"La Ferme du Garet" -autobiography - Acte Sud, 1997, ISBN
2-7427-13-05
Full of humanity, humility and kindness by one of the greatest
photographer of these times. -- Bernard Degaute
DePONCINS, Gontran
"Kabloona" Graywolf Rediscovery Series, 1965, ISBN: 1555972497
He spent a year with the Eskimos in Northern Canada in the1930s
Very philosophical and spiritual. -- Mike Durling
DUNCAN, David Douglas
"Yankee Nomad, a Photographic Odyssey" Holt, Rinehart and
Winston,1966, LoCC #66-10627
Classic DDD text and photographs from North, Central and South
America 1938-42, the Pacific
Theater (WW II) as a Marine,Palestine and the Mid-East 1946-48,
Korea 1950, to Picasso and
Great reading! (And re-reading.)-- Bill Caldwell
EVANS, Harold
"Pictures On A Page" Heinemann, 1978, ISBN 0434905534
This book is required reading for anyone interested in making or
understanding photo features. -- Rob Appleby
HARBUTT, Charles
Travelog, by Charles Harbutt. Published by The MIT Press1973. ISBN
0-262-08064-8
Cogent and inspiring writing about photography and photographic
process The bonus is these essays act as bookends
for some fine, striking and often surreal photography. -- Robert Schneider
HERMANN, Armin
"Nur der Name war geblieben", Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 1991 , ISBN
3-421-06515-2
Hans Peter Lammerich
HUGHES, Jim
"W. Eugene Smith- Shadow & Substance" McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.; 1989;
ISBN 0-07-031123-4
THE biography of Gene Smith. It shows the reality of this brilliant
photographer and flawed human being. His last wife, Aileen couldn't bring
herself to finish reading it. -- Sal DiMarco, Jr.
HURN, David & Jay, Bill
"On Being a Photographer", Lens Work Publishing,1997, ISBN
1-888803-06-1
Nathan Wajsman
JACKSON, Michael H.
"Galapagos, a Natural History" University of Calgary Press, 1993,
ISBN 1-895176-07-7
Henning J. Wulff
JAY, Bill
See HURN, David
JOHNSON, Brooks
"Photography Speaks II" Aperture, ISBN: 0-89381-652-3
A collection of artists statements from the history of photography.
Some of the heated LUG debates turn out to be as old as photography
itself. -- Mark E. Davison
JOHNSON, Robert & CHATWOOD Arthur Brunel
"Photography- Artistic and Scientific" London, Downey and Co., 1895
From the Book.. "The aim of the photographer should be to produce by
means of his camera, and by the aid of greater or less technical
skill, not merely exact and minute copies of the objects which he
photographs, but photographs which shall be the expression of his
feeling and taste, and as such shall be entitled to rank as work of art...."
Submitted by Luiz Marinho
LIPINSKI, J.
"Miniature & Precision Cameras", Illife & Sons, London, 1955
A fascinating glimpse of the golden age of the classic camera. They
A well-written text
densely packed with technical information. It makes no attempt to be
'popular' or to talk down to the reader.
Dopug Richardson
MADDOW, Ben
"Let Truth Be the Prejudice. W. Eugene Smith His Life and Photographs:
Aperture ISBN: 0893811793
1998 (latest edition)
The tragic consequences of the excess that people can go to. And
yet, one has to admire many aspects of his personality. --
Eric Welch
McCULLIN, Don
"Unreasonable Behaviour' Jonathan Cape, 1990, ISBN 0-244-02655-0
The searing autobiography of one of our greatest living war
photographers. -- Tim Atherton
McELHENY, Victor K.
" Insisting on the Impossible- The Life of Edwin Land" Perseus, 1998,
ISBN 0-7382-0009-3
Rich Palmer
MEYEROWITZ, Joel
See Westerbeck, Colin
MITCHELL, Stephen
"The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke" Random House, 1982, ISBN
0-394-52434-9
Dan Honemann
NABAKOV, Vladmir
"Lolita" 1954, ISBN 0679723161
Nabakov teaches us all that I've ever needed to know about
esthetics. -- Buzz Hausner
NICOLL, Maurice
"Simple Explanation of Work Ideas" 1996, ISBN 1-85398-081-1
Benny McBeth
PAGE, Tim
"Page After Page" Atheneum, 1989, ISBN 0689120885
Damian Dlugolecki
ROBINSON, William F.
"A Certain Slant of Light - The first 100 years of New England
Photography, 1980, ISBN 0 8212 0752 0
This book was the first one to open my eyes to the review of
photography in the course of history. A simple book,
concentrating on a smaller topic, but with a wider message. -- Alastair
Firkin
ROTHSTEIN, Arthur
"Photojournalism- Pictures for Magazines and Newspapers" American
Photographic Book Publishing Co. Inc. LOCC 56-11558
Being a photojournalist and what it takes to be successful. --Ted
Grant
ROTH, Sanford
"James Dean" Taschen 1987, ISBN 3-8228-0064-3
I bought this book as a 17th birthday present for myself, before
I'd heard of Leica. Now I just wish I could use a Leica
like Sanford Roth. -- Gary Elshaw
SHAW, John
"The Nature Photographer's Complete Guide to Professional Field
Techniques" Amphoto, 1984, ISBN 0-8174-5006-8.
Jay Coleman
SONTAG, Susan
"On Photography" 1989 Anchor Books - ISBN 0-385-26706-1
A good book about photography as art. -- Steve LeHuray
THESIGER, Sir Wilfred
"The Life of My Choice" Harper Collins, 1987, ISBN 0-00-637267-8.
Autobiography of the highly individual explorer and adventurer
who documented disappearing peoples and their
worlds with his camera. A Leica SM and Leicaflex user. --
Emanuel Lowi
VERNE, Jules
"L'ile mysterieuse" by Jules Vernes, published at the end of the
XIXth century.
Jean-Claude Berger
WESTERBECK, Colin
"BYSTANDER A History of Street Photography" Bullfinch, 1994, ISBN
0-8212-1755-0
Steve LeHray
WHELAN, Richard
"Robert Capa Biography" Alfred A. Knopf, 1985, ISBN
0-394-52488-8
The biography of Robert Capa! -- Uwe Flammer