Susan Sontag
On Photography
Photographs are everywhere. From high art to family albums to legal evidence, they capture and document the world around us. And whether we use them to expose, reveal or remember, they hold an enduring power. In this essential and revelatory volume, Susan Sontag confronts important questions surrounding the power dynamics between photographer and subject, the blurred boundary between lived events and recreated images, and the desires that lead us to record our lives.
On Photography
Photographs are everywhere. From high art to family albums to legal evidence, they capture and document the world around us. And whether we use them to expose, reveal or remember, they hold an enduring power. In this essential and revelatory volume, Susan Sontag confronts important questions surrounding the power dynamics between photographer and subject, the blurred boundary between lived events and recreated images, and the desires that lead us to record our lives.
'Complex and contradictory... one of America's greatest public intellectuals' Observer
'Susan Sontag offers enough food for thought to satisfy the most intellectual of appetites.' The Times
'A brilliant analysis of the profound changes photographic images have had in our way of looking at the world, and at ourselves, over the years.' Washington Post
'Susan Sontag offers enough food for thought to satisfy the most intellectual of appetites.' The Times
'A brilliant analysis of the profound changes photographic images have had in our way of looking at the world, and at ourselves, over the years.' Washington Post
Roland Barthes
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.
This was Roland Barthes's last book, combining a selection of photographs with reflections on photography. Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, the book begins as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, it becomes an exposition of his own mind.
John Berger
Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing
"Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak."
"But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."
John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.
David Levi-Strauss & John Berger
Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics
Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics
David Levi Strauss is a writer whose visual and intellectual sensibilities are both acute and expansive. His trenchant writings on photography and photographers have been collected for this volume from a broad range of magazines, including "Aperture," "Artforum" and "The Nation." In "Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics," Strauss tackles subjects as diverse as "Photography and Propaganda," the imagery of dreams, Sebastiao Salgado's epic social documents and the deeply personal photographic revelations of Francesca Woodman. The timely issue of photographic legitimacy is addressed in the essay "Photography and Belief," and in "The Highest Degree of Illusion," Strauss discusses the media frenzy surrounding the events of September 11. As our world is shaped more and more by images and their slipperiness, what he calls a media "pandemonium" in its root meaning of "the place of all howling demons," we need a mind and voice like Levi Strauss' to bring clarity to our vision.
Geoff Dyer
The Ongoing Moment
The Ongoing Moment
Great photographs change the way we see the world. The Ongoing Moment changes the way we look at both.
With characteristic perversity and trademark originality, The Ongoing Moment is Dyer's unique and idiosyncratic history of photography. Seeking to identify their signature styles Dyer looks at the ways canonical figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus and William Eggleston have photographed the same scenes and objects (benches, hats, hands, roads).
In doing so Dyer constructs a narrative in which those photographers, many of whom never met in their lives, constantly come into contact with each other. It is the most ambitious example to date of a form of writing that Dyer has made his own: the non-fiction work of art.
Scott Bourne
72 Essays on Photography
72 Essays on Photography
Welcome. I've been working on this book for four decades. I don't mean that I started writing these essays with this book in mind. I mean that I have been learning the lessons I share in this book for 40 years. It took me a long time, a bunch of mistakes and tons of failed starts and stops to get to the point where I finally feel like a successful photographer. My simple goal in gathering these essays is to give you a chance to learn from my mistakes; to encourage you; and to let you know it is possible to follow your dreams and find the success you are looking for.
What this book won't do for you is tell you which camera, lens or tripod to buy. It won't teach you which shutter speed, ISO or aperture to use. What it will do is help you with the hard part of photography. It helps you work out the thoughtful side of the art form.
I have been and am honoured to have great friends and compatriots in photography support me in my photographic endeavours. I want to give some of that back to you. So please try to read these essays with an open mind and an open heart. I hope they help you soar. Remember, you have to take the first step.
Thorston von Overgaard
The Moment of Emotional Impact (e-Book)
The Moment of Emotional Impact (e-Book)
This book teaches the how and why of creating emotional impact – the reason for taking great pictures.
"I’ll share what inspires me, helpful tips and my insights on what creates emotional impact and how to capture it in your own photos."
Technical skill is one thing but creating art as a photographer is primarily about capturing and sharing a millisecond of emotion. Learn how to preserve this emotion and communicate it to the world.
Michael Freeman
The Photographer's Eye
The Photographer's Eye
"…how you build a picture, what a picture consists of, how shapes are related to each other, how spaces are filled, how the whole thing must have a kind of unity.” (Paul Strand)
This book is intended to explore the actual process of taking photographs. Taking good photographs has more to do with how you compose your images and how you frame your shots, than the type of camera you buy, the lens you attach or the settings you use. Michael Freeman's book is a comprehensive guide to composition.