Must-haves? An Essential Reading List Thread

[myoptic]

The books that got me started, and which helped me to grow the most are the ones I return to over and over:

(Looking at Photographs J. Szarkowski) - already mentioned in Google list
(Camera, Negative, Print A. Adams) - already mentioned

Family of Man E. Steichen
Camera Work A. Steiglitz
Portraits of Indians (not a title, but a body of work) E. Curtis
Photography: Art and Technique A. Blaker my favourite old school photo resource book
Elements B. Thornton

There are some books in my collection that are just images by photographers that I find significant, but have not included here.

Note: I added to this old thread as I was searching LFF for this very information.

[Witold Grabiec]

Jut getting back at photography after a few years spent on moving to Europe, building a house, and finding below at last

Andre Kertesz - ISBN 978-0300167818
Andre Kertesz - The Polaroids - ISBN 978-0393065640

[robert liebermann]

I like books and I like photography... three (more or less) I can think of that probably nobody else would add: the Time-Life series (including the photo-year eds.); can be had for a song; Field Photography by Blaker; 15 Years in a Photographer's Life by Nadine Blacklock. There are many more I like!

[andrew gardiner]

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes hasn't been mentioned.

[AF-ULF]

Light: Science and Magic. The only lighting book you will ever need. Invaluable.

[Jim Jones]

Way Beyond Monochrome by Ralph W. Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse is the best of my many books on LF images and technique.

[p martinez]

War of Art by Pressfield has helped me face mountains of negatives.

[greenbank]

Should this thread be called Craig's List?

Almost everything here is good. However, I'd caution anyone who picks up Barthes or Sontag unawares: these two are cultural theorists with some very unusual (and rarefied) views on photography. Barthes in particular cheerfully admitted that he had never even used a camera - which in my book entitles him to provide cultural and artistic critiques of photographs, but not of photography, since he never experienced the joy of snapping a shutter on a perfect image. My personal view of Sontag's ideas is that she was a consciously intellectualising controversialist (sorry about the long words!) who craved not just attention but adoration, and I feel she has almost nothing either useful or sensible to say about the experience of being a photographer.

I'd also add that an excellent source of books, both new and out-of-print, is Abe Books (www.abebooks.com, or www.abebooks.co.uk). No personal connection, except as a very satisfied customer.

[Darin Boville]

A few to add:

Ansel Adams--the original NYGS monograph--so we can remember how Ansel thought of himself as a photographer rather than how his business manager what us to think about him.

The Essential Duane Michals

Harry Callahan (National Gallery of Art/Bulfinch)

Deux Ex Machina--Ralph Gibson

People of the 20th Century--August Sander

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher--Timothy Egan

Complete Untitled Film Stills--Cindy Sherman

--Darin

[John Kasaian]

Your homeowners insurance policy. Specifically the floater that covers your old camera stuff.