Just a disclaimer: I posted this over at another forum a few days ago, but it seems to be getting no replies, so I thought I'd ask it here too.
I'm always interested to hear about the books of images that other people value or that have had some manner of profound effect on them. But it isn't all too interesting to just make a list, really. I mean, what's to learn from a list of titles? So what I would like to accomplish with this thread here is to discuss a few of the books that really mean something to us on a personal level and why they mean what they do. Everybody has their favorites, LF photographers included.
I'll start...
First on the list is the book Shinjuku by Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. I first saw this book in the library at Ohio University early last fall quarter. It's a medium-sized book, softbound in a slipcase. It's filled with images in Moriyama's signiture style of Shinjuku, the technology district in Tokyo. This book really helped redefine the lo-fi esthetic for me (along with the next book in this list). High contrast, lots of grain, weak black tones - a lot like the sort of thing you see on the drying racks in the art building after the basic B&W photo class has learned (sort of) the printing basics. Only with Moriyama, for whatever reason it actually works. It's really a profound little volume. That I even own a copy, though, is a bit of feat in itself. It was originally only printed in a run of 500 copies, all signed by the photographer and included a poster of sorts with information about the images in the book. I looked everywhere but couldn't find a copy for less than $150 (and as a student that just wasn't going to work). In the end it was my close friend Yuka (who lives in Japan) who found that a second numbered run of 300 copies had been made. She bought one as a graduation gift for me and had it shipped direct from Japan. It's definitely a book I'll hold on to for the rest of my life.
The second book is the self-titled monograph by photographer James Fee. Fee's actual manipulations are not really known to me, but the upshot is lots of distressing of the negatives and prints themselves that leads to a sense of decay and desperation in the final image. The effect is almost spooky in some of the images. When I first saw his work it was one of those moments when you say "oh wow" to yourself out loud. I tend to enjoy art that addresses the darker corners of the human psyche. By dark I do not mean evil, but rather the sorts of feelings we try to put to the backs of our minds. The essense of decay, the inevitability of death, destrudo, etc. For me, Fee accomplishes this in a very beautiful way.
A third book (and the last one I'll discuss at this point) is The Last Day of Summer by oft (and unfortunately) attacked photographer Jock Sturges. I first saw this book when I was about 16 and it left an indellible mark on me. I had never seen such sensitive, intimate, and ultimately honest portraits of people. The fact that many of his subjects were without clothing never really struck me as odd or wrong or what have you. Again, one of the things that immediately struck me and that still amazes me is the honesty of the images. They hide nothing, they make no attempt at modesty. There's an element to them that I have seen so rarely in the work of other photographers making portraits of individuals. So far I haven't found a clear way to articulate just what that element is, but when I see it I know it and I love it.
So, how about you?
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