If Only Four Books....

[dbriannelson]

Edward Weston's Daybooks
John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs
Susan Sontag's On Photography
John Berger's Ways of Seeing

The last two piss me off, but if something doesn't piss me off, it's not challenging me enough. "Nice" is for wimps.

-Don

[Mike Chini]

Bystander, A History of Street Photography
Strand, Tir A'Mhurain
Brassai, Paris by Night
Robert Frank, The Americans

Of course, there are about a dozen others I'd reach for.

[roteague]

Just to be different:

1.) Photographing the Landscape: The Art of Seeing by John Fielder
2.) Large Format Nature Photography by Jack W. Dykinga
3.) Light and the Art of Landscape Photography by Joe Cornish
4.) Tom Mackie's Landscape Photography Secrets By Tom Mackie

[Brad Rippe]

William Garnett- Aerial Photographs
Ansel Adams- Images 1923-1974
John Sexton- Places of Power
Barbara Morgan- Monograph 1972
Paul Caponigro- Aperture Monograph 1967
Anything by Kirk Gittings

[PViapiano]

Architecture of Silence - David Heald
I didn't see this one on anyone's list. An incredible collection of B&W LF photographs of early Cistercian abbeys in France. Heald is chief photographer for the Guggenheim. His photography in the book, Frank O. Gehry Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, is some of the most beautiful color LF architectural work I've seen.

Explorations - Ray McSavaney
My latest LF book purchase, a signed edition. One of the most inspirational in my small collection.

Michael Kenna Restrospectives - Both volumes have given me much inspiration and very rich and rewarding "down time".

Symphony: Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall - Grant Mumford
Another architectural gem, great compositions, good color. There's a little "something extra" in all these photgraphs; not your usual sterile rendering found in so many architect/building monographs.

So, there you go...I tried to pick a few off the beaten path. If I had to name more, most of my Julius Shulman books would be on the list as well, along with many Irving Penn volumes, such as A Notebook at Random and Platinum Prints.

Truth is...I can't pick only four books. I'd have to take 4 boxes!

[Doug Howk]

For inspiration I'd grab something by Ed Weston: California & the West or Edward Weston - 1886-1958
Anything by Brett Weston: Voyage of the Eye or Lodima's Portfolio series
John Sexton's Recollections is awe inspiring
Wynn Bullock Enchanted Landscape would be my final grab.

[Diane Maher]

I don't have many LF books. As for photo books, if I had to grab any, I'd say
Touchstones - Tillman Crane
Japan - Michael Kenna
Impossible to Forget - Michael Kenna
My wedding album (hey, it has photos in it!)

Moon Boots and Dinner Suits by Jon Pertwee.
I Am the Doctor - Jon Pertwee's Final Memoir by Jon Pertwee/David Howe

To be honest, I'd go for the last three above than worry about any photo books. And even this would be after making sure my husband and the four cats were out of the house.

Diane

[Ben Calwell]

I'd grab my George Tice books.

[Greg Lockrey]

Here I thought I was doing good with my Time-Life book series on photography 1973.

The Portfolios of Ansel Adams
Walker Evans
Worlds in a Small Room
Edward Weston
and if I have time:
W. Eugene Smith His Photographs and Notes
and "Decisive Moment" by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Be it known this will be the first one out since it's very early printing.)

[David Millard]

A mixed bag -

Brassai: Paris at Night
O. Winston Link: The Last Steam Railroad in America
Karl Blossfeldt: Urformen der Kunst
E. J. Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans

About 30 years ago, I worked the night shift in a small New Orleans bar that had prints made from Bellocq's negatives on the wall. I appreciated their company in the early morning hours.