Must Have Photography Books

[chuasam]

The education of a photographer. - Charles Traub

 

[Derrel]

Years ago I bought the Time Life Library of Photography."

OMG--I read that entire series of books in the mid-1970s and early 1980's as a kid. It had so much great information. I loved The Camera, The Studio, Color, Special Problems, The Darkroom,The Great Themes, and Photojournalism the most. It was a fantastic series of books, undoubtedly! I loved also The Amateur Photographer's Handbook, the various John Hedgecoe books (32 titles), and Harry S. Asher's old book which was named Scientific Principles of Photography. The History of Photography is another interesting title.

Lots of books out there, filled with great photography too. The Rolleiflex Photography Annual is an interesting series: almost ALL the images will be in square, Rollei 6x6 cm aspect, and most all were shot with either a Rolleiflex or Rolleicord, with either the 75mm or 80mm normal lenses. Only the rare examples would be with the wide- or tele-rollie cameras. These books were from the 1950's. The 1958 issue is superb. Kind of "the best images from one year" type books. Similar are old "Photo Annual" magazines of 200,250 pages. Fascinating to look at. Sort of the Instagram Square, but decades earlier.

Thrift shops have a TON of large picture books, often $3-$4 each. Most of the 50 United States, and all regions, and ALL the continents have been chronicled in books, back in the day when photographers were sent on 3-week to 120-day to six-month assignments, so they could get a real, true feel for the area they were shooting.

A Day in The Life of America, A Day in the Life of Australia, neat photo books, like time capsules.

The cool thing is to look at old books, and see 250 people in a public square, and NOT ONE of them is isolated and dicking around with a phone. people doing stuff like, gasp, talking to one another, or reading a newspaper, or working on a puzzle, etc..

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Great suggestions! Im hoping this thread sticks around for others to find

 

[r0r5ch4ch]

I liked a lot "Photography Composition & Design - a fun approach for serious artists". Explains a lot about composition with really nice street photography.

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[Drive-By-Shooter]

David Doubilet is THE underwater photographer. Now i see he has a 25 year 'best of' book i'll need to get.
https://www.amazon.com/Water-Light-Time-David-Doubilet/dp/0714846058/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 

[webestang64]

A few for the film peeps.....


Also the Ansel Adams series of books are good too........ Ansel Adams: Technical Books

 

[Derrel]

One of the largest bookstores in the world is located here in Portland. Powell's City of Books. It takes up half of a city block and has multiple levels. Search online at Powell's for amazing photography titles, from the mundane, to the obscure, to the truly rare.

A UK fellow sent me a very old book called The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. It was given to him 20 years earlier and he passed it on to me about 15 years ago. It is one of the thickest books I have ever seen. It is one of the most unusual books you will likely see:the entire field of photography ,as it stood years ago, in one, single encyclopedic volume that must weigh oh, around four and a half pounds, and is 1,298 pages and over 4 inches thick.

 

[jcdeboever]

The most interesting one I ever seen was rare reference books located in the main library in downtown Chicago. They were images from the civil war depicting surgical procedures, surgical instruments, civil war camps, aftermath of battles, and so on. Fascinating images and text. I believe Matthew Brady was the largest contruting photographer. It took me months of visits to get through the huge volumes. I had no interest in photography then, just stumbled across it.

 

[Dave442]

Great books, thanks for sharing. I did pick up Photography by London a few years back, now watching the video classes by Marc Levoy and he has sent me back to that book as reading assignments. I downloaded The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby when I first got a DSLR and found that a very easy book to read if you just want to know when to apply some of those great camera features you have been reading about in the camera manual.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

My wife picked up two books over the weekend.

Ansel Adams The Negative and Successful Self Promotion for Photographers by Elyse Weissberg

 

[SquarePeg]

Great books, thanks for sharing. I did pick up Photography by London a few years back, now watching the video classes by Marc Levoy and he has sent me back to that book as reading assignments. I downloaded The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby when I first got a DSLR and found that a very easy book to read if you just want to know when to apply some of those great camera features you have been reading about in the camera manual.

I just started the Marc Levoy series of classes where he was teaching to Google, is that the one you're watching? My photography meetup group had it linked online.

 

[webestang64]

For Photoshop....... "Adobe Photoshop for Photographers" by Martin Evening.

 

[Frank F.]

Fred Herzog:Amazon.co.uk:Books

 

[dasmith232]

There are *lots* of good ones above. Adding from another perspective...

... Are there any that bridges the aspects of Art and photography? ...

I've enjoyed books that focus on composition as the core topic. I think(?) one of my more favorites is "Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images," by David duChemin. Another one is "The Photographer's Eye," by Michael Freeman.

Neither will teach how to use a camera, but rather how to see.

 

[JasonC]

There are *lots* of good ones above. Adding from another perspective...

... Are there any that bridges the aspects of Art and photography? ...

I've enjoyed books that focus on composition as the core topic. I think(?) one of my more favorites is "Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images," by David duChemin. Another one is "The Photographer's Eye," by Michael Freeman.

Neither will teach how to use a camera, but rather how to see.

I, too, have The Photographer's Eye by Freeman. Also I have the following:

• Learning to See Creatively by Peterson

• Advanced Photography by Hedgecoe

• The Joy of Photography by Eastman Kodak

• More Joy of Photography by Eastman Kodak

• Photoshop Elements 14 by Kelby

• Canon EOS Rebel T6s/760D & T6i/750D by Taylor

Best,

Jason