Best Photography Books

Good morning everybody, hope you’re all doing well. This week took a complete nose-dive compared to last week, firstly, our car broke down AGAIN for the third time this month and has well and truly gone now to the point where we are now having to get a new one, which leads me to the second thing – because of all the stress to do with the car situation, it caused some massive arguments in our household to the point where my dad ended up walking out (to calm down) but thankfully the issues have now been sorted out and we’re all talking to one another again and getting back to being a strong family unit. A couple of good things did happen though, one of which was because the weather has been nice as of late. it meant we were able to go out for walks almost everyday, which in turn meant we met some of our other neighbors who were really nice to talk to and very helpful with information we hadn’t thought of before!

Moving on with this weeks post….As I started the month of May with a photography post about Best Photography Museums In The World! – Peytons View to celebrate National Photography Month, I thought it was only fitting to end the month with another post about photography, only this time on the best photography books which have been regarded as helpful assets for many photographers. 

Photography has changed a lot over the years. There are always new concepts to learn, creative techniques to explore – and there’s no better way to do it than by picking up an inspiring book. A great photography book generally includes a combination of three important elements: well-curated images, interesting and informative text and a valuable message. It’s the way they all come together that makes for a truly spectacular collection you’ll want to read again and again. This collection of the best photography books out there will give you a great place to start to delve into the world of beautiful imagery and the different styles of photography.

The New Tide: Early Work 1940-1950 ~ Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was the first African-American photographer to have work appear in LIFE magazine—he’d go on to spend more than two decades working as a staff photographer. Throughout his career, Parks was known for documenting stories related to the arts, civil rights, and poverty. This book collects photographs from the first decade of his career including work from his days in Minnesota, Chicago’s Black Renaissance, and images depicting segregation throughout the South. The New Tide gives an in-depth look at Parks’ groundbreaking photojournalistic vision.

The Decisive Moment ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson is easily one of the most famous and influential photographers ever, and this is among his most famous photography books. Originally published in 1952, it catalogs work from the early days of his career. The “decisive moment” is a term that gets thrown around in photo circles constantly, and it’s all about watching and waiting for that visual peak of a scene. This book gives photographers a chance to dig into the frames where Cartier-Bresson captured just that.

The Americans ~ Robert Frank

First published in France in 1958, then the United States in 1959, Robert Frank’s The Americans changed the course of twentieth-century photography. In eighty-three photographs, Frank looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a people plagued by racism, ill-served by their politicians, and rendered numb by a rapidly expanding culture of consumption. Yet he also found novel areas of beauty in simple, overlooked corners of American life. And it was not just his subject matter – cars, jukeboxes, and even the road itself – that redefined the icons of America; it was also his seemingly intuitive, immediate, off-kilter style, as well as his method of brilliantly linking his photographs together thematically, conceptually, formally, and linguistically, that made The Americans so innovative. More of an ode or a poem than a literal document, the book is as powerful and provocative today as it was sixty-five years ago.

Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital ~ Todd Gustavson

Cameras and what they capture have forever changed our perception of the world and of ourselves. This gorgeous cornerstone volume, created in collaboration with the world-famous George Eastman House, celebrates the camera and the art of the photograph. It spans almost two hundred years of progress, from the first faint image ever caught to the instantaneous pictures snapped by todays state-of-the-art digital equipment. The informative narrative by Todd Gustavson traces the cameras development, the lives of its brilliant but often eccentric inventors and the artists behind the lens. Images and highly descriptive captions for more than 350 cameras from the George Eastman House Collection, plus more than 100 historic photos, ads and drawings, complement the text. Also includes a foreword by the Director of George Eastman House and essays by Steve Sasson and Alexis Gerard.

The Camera / The Negative / The Print ~ Ansel Adams

The Camera:
1st volume in Adams’ celebrated series of books on photographic techniques-has taught generations of photographers how to harness the camera’s artistic potential. This time-honored handbook distills the knowledge gained through a lifetime in photography and remains as vital today as when it was first published. Along with visualization, image management, Adams’ famous Zone System, and other keys to photographic artistry, The Camera covers 35mm, medium-format, and large-format view cameras, while offering detailed advice on camera components such as lenses, shutters, and light meters.
The Negative:
2nd volume in Adams’ series-has taught generations of photographers how to use film and the film development process creatively. Examples of Adams’ own work clarify the principles discussed. This classic handbook distills the knowledge gained through a lifetime in photography and remains as vital today as when it was first published.
The Print:
3rd volume in Adams’ series-has taught generations of photographers how to explore the artistic possibilities of printmaking. Examples of Adams’ own work clarify the principles discussed. This classic handbook distills the knowledge gained through a lifetime in photography and remains as vital today as when it was first published. The Print takes you step-by-step–from designing and furnishing a darkroom to mounting and displaying your photographs, from making your first print to mastering advanced techniques, such as developer modifications, toning and bleaching, and burning and dodging. Filled with indispensable darkroom techniques and tips, this amply illustrated guide shows how printmaking–the culmination of photography’s creative process–can be used expressively to enhance an image.

100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time ~ Editors of TIME

Since its inception, TIME magazine has been synonymous not just with outstanding journalism, but also with outstanding photography. While they may not be the most famous or well-known photographs, each one is unique for the way in which it changed, influenced, or commemorated a particular world event. From the first sports photograph to ever win the Pulitzer Prize – that of Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium to the photograph of Student Neda Agha-Soltan’s death during Iran’s 2009 election protests, each of the photographs in 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time is significant in how it forever changed how we live, learn, communicate, and in many cases, view the world. The book will not only give you inspiration but a sense of massive history and lots of thoughts.

Photography: The Definitive Visual History ~ Tom Ang

Photography celebrates the most iconic photographs of the past 200 years and includes more than 50 biographies of the most famous photographers, explaining how they pushed the bounds of the medium. It also shows the extraordinary cameras that photographers experimented with, from the daguerreotype to the latest camera phones. Charting the influence of social and cultural change, as well as the impact of science and technology, this beautiful book follows the history of photographs from the first grainy attempts at portrait and landscape photography to gritty photojournalism, street photography, and digital photography, with special features delving into the stories behind photographic images that changed how people saw the world.

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision ~ David DuChemin

A personal book full of real-world wisdom and incredible images, author David duChemin shows you both the how and the why of finding, chasing, and expressing your vision with a camera to your eye. Vision leads to passion, and passion is a cornerstone of great photography. With it, photographs draw the eye in and create an emotional experience. Without it, a photograph is often not worth―and can’t capture―a viewer’s attention. Both instructional and inspirational, Within the Frame helps you on your photographic journey to make better images of the places and people you love, whether they are around the world or in your own backyard. duChemin covers how to tell stories, and the technology and tools we have at our disposal in order to tell those narratives. Most importantly, he stresses the crucial theme of vision when it comes to photographing people, places, and cultures―and he helps you cultivate and find your own vision, and then fit it within the frame.

Photographs ~ Robert Capa

The photojournalist Robert Capa did not only photograph the cruel images of war; he earned a name for himself by becoming involved in the lives of his subjects with an intimacy rarely seen in the photography of his contemporaries. Capa also focused his lens on celebrations and life’s pleasures, and left behind many intimate portraits of friends like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. The book contains thirteen chapters demonstrating the extraordinary scope and diversity of the images from two decades that made Capa one of the world’s most distinguished photographers, and chronicles the work of Capa in the same way Capa chronicled the brutality and beauty of the modern age.

Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography ~ Galen Rowell

In this renowned guide to capturing the outdoor world on film, Galen Rowell, the master of nature and adventure photography, reveals the art, craft, and philosophy behind his world-famous images. Now available in paperback for the first time, this groundbreaking work remains both an inspired manual to taking better pictures and an inspiring journey of discovery into the creative process. In more than 140 color photographs and 66 essays, Rowell shows how he transformed the world around him into vivid, memorable works of art. Both the artist and his unique talent come alive in these pages, a tribute to the ways in which his photographs, philosophy, and vision immeasurably enrich those who view his work.

Eliot Porter: In the Realm of Nature ~ Paul Martineau

It is a beautifully illustrated celebration of the images of Eliot Porter, and their role in the origins of the environmental conservation. Known for his exquisite images of birds and landscape, Eliot Porter was a pioneer in the use of color photography. His work also became a powerful visual argument for environmental conservation. Possessing a gift for close observation, Porter explored new ways of depicting nature, building blinds in trees so he could study his avian subjects at closer vantage, and producing landscape images that capture both pristine forest and ragged river canyons with equal force and brilliance. Initially encouraged by the ground-breaking photographers Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, Porter went on to produce a body of work all his own. His 1962 Sierra Club book “In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World” transformed the concept of nature photography books. Ultimately, Porter’s photographs came to the attention of Congress and led to the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the foundational law in wilderness management today.

Earth is My Witness ~ Art Wolfe

Art Wolfe’s definitive opus, Earth Is My Witness represents forty years of expeditionary photography. For the first time, Wolfe presents the three subjects at the heart of his work–landscapes, wildlife, and cultures on the edge of extinction–in a single masterpiece that takes us through the world’s ecosystems and geographical regions in a vivid display of the fragility and interconnectivity of life on Earth, while simultaneously exploring his evolution as an artist and the techniques he uses to capture the nuances and rhythms of nature. Earth Is My Witness is the most extensive collection of Art Wolfe photography ever compiled. This lavishly produced work spans the globe, bringing the beauty of the planet’s fast-disappearing landscapes, wildlife, and cultures into stunning focus. Containing unpublished work from throughout Wolfe’s widely celebrated career, Earth Is My Witness offers a riveting and comprehensive look at the world’s ecosystems and geographical regions. Here Wolfe presents an encyclopedic selection of his photography along with intimate stories that exemplify his boundless curiosity. From the rich sights and smells of the Pushkar Camel Fair to the exact moment when a polar bear and her cubs leave their Arctic den, these images represent what Wolfe has lived for: moments when circumstance, light, and subject miraculously collide to form an iconic image. These photographs and the stories behind them explore the delicate interconnectivity of life across our planet.

Revelations ~ Diane Arbus

Through bold subject matter and unique photographic approach, Diane Arbus redefined the concerns and the range of photography with her camera work. She is celebrated for her uncanny ability to render strange things we consider most familiar, and uncover the familiar within the exotic, expanding our understanding of ourselves. Her poignant camera portraits of individuals on the margins of society, such as street people, transvestites, nudists, and carnival performers, reveal her interest in capturing the lesser known and harsh truths that many dared not to acknowledge. The book reproduces two hundred full-page duotones of Diane Arbus photographs spanning her entire career. It also includes a new contribution by Sarah Meister, executive director of Aperture, alongside essays by Sandra S. Phillips, senior curator of photography, emeritus, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a discussion of Arbus’s printing techniques by Neil Selkirk, the only person authorized to print her photographs since her death.

American Surfaces ~ Stephen Shore

Over the course of his prolific career, Stephen Shore conducted a continual, restless interrogation of image making. Bringing together photos the artist created during a series of road trips across the United States between 1972 and 1973, the photography book American Surfaces is a visual diary which recounts the path of someone passing through the world. Composed of color photographs, processed simply at Kodak’s labs in New Jersey, the body of work was a stark contrast to the formal, black and white prints which were recognized at the time, taking documentary photography to a new level. A unique photographic version of a road movie, this great photography book is a meditation on what it means to be in the world. Featuring a potentially endless cast of characters, the book shows real people living their lives in a place and time that was already in a sense passing.

Portraits 2005-2016 ~ Annie Leibovitz

One of the most influential contemporary photographers, Annie Leibovitz captured some of the most influential and compelling figures of our time. Published in 2017, the great photography book Portraits 2005-2016 brings together iconic works alongside never-before-published photographs. Photographed in a style that has made Leibovitz one of the most beloved talents of our time, each photograph represents a unique document of contemporary culture. In this body of work, she brings forward her uncanny ability to personalize even the most recognizable and distinguished figures, from visual artists, scientists and writers to entrepreneurs, political figures and performers, even those who are usually the most inaccessible. Indeed, the works in this photography book are deeply moving, sincere and poetic.

This list, of course, only scratches the surface of famous photography books. There are so many other fantastic ones that I haven’t included mainly due to the fact that the list would be never-ending and I’m sure you all have other things you need to be doing! So on that note I shall say thank you for visiting my blog and reading today’s post, I hope you all have a lovely week and I shall see you next Wednesday!