What are the photography books (LF) that you admire the most, or have found the most inspiring ? I've listed some of the items on my own bookshelf in the new books section of the LF page. In addition, if you care enough for a book to write a short description/review for it, I'll add it to that section.
While I admire many landscape photographers and their work, the single most inspiring book that convinced me to pick up a 4x5 camera was :
The High Sierra : Wilderness of Light by Claude Fiddler
It is truly a work of fine art.
Anything containing George Hurrell's portraits, perhaps - Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits: The Chapman Collection by Mark A. Vieira.
Dispossesion by Lynn Stern. Very beautiful and inspiring.
"Steam, Steel & Stars" by O. Winston Link & "Brett Weston Master Photographer" - even if you don't like Brett's work, the reproductions in this book are the BEST I have ever seen.
More Anon as I consult the bookshelf I'm sure...
The new Arnold Newman anthology from Taschen Press
The Sonoran Desert, Jack Dykinga
Quiet Light, John Sexton
Portraits: Mary Ellen Mark
Photographing Buildings Inside and Out, 2nd edition, Norman McGrath
Singular Images, Ansel Adams
Forms of Passion, Edward Weston
An Autobiography, Richard Avedon
A Sense of Place, Joel Meyerwitz
Cape Light, Joel Meyerwitz
My goodness, there are so many. Edward Weston's "Daybooks," and Paul Strand's "Time in New England," and "Walker Evans at work." "U.S.Camera Annual, 1941," both volumes. "A Way of Seeing," by Helen Levitt, and "A Point of View," by Ralph Steiner. Larry Clark's "Tulsa," and the essay in his "Teen Age Lust." Biographies of Dorothea Lange, and Gene Smith, and Ansel Adams. Antholgies of the work of Cartier-Bresson, and Karsh, and Avedon. That's a good start, eh, Sean?
John Sexton's "Listen To The Trees" for Black and White and Christopher Burkett"s absolutely stunning " Intimations Of Paradise" book for 8x10 color. After purchasing Christopher's book, I was ready to abandon 4x5 and jumpship to 8x10!!!!
carleton watkin's Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon, pare's photography and architecture 1839-1939, frizot's new history, rosenblum's world history, robinson's architecture transformed, szarkowski's photography until now, diane arbus monograph, cca monograph on edouard baldus, palmquist's Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West, it's hard to know where to stop...
I new I'd forgotten some - Meyerowitz's "St. Louis and the Arch" - should be required viewing for all photo students
and Nicholas Nixon's "Family Portraits" from Smithsonian Press
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