Having previously written about 5 of the books I’ve bought during lockdown, I couldn’t resist 5 more that I’ve had for ages that are enduring pleasures. Having chosen these books to blog about, I’m horrified to discover they are mostly out of print. If the books do nothing other than point you at the work of the photographers concerned, that is great, but these books are all a treat if you can find them.
First of all, two monster compilations by two of my all-time touchstones: Edward Weston (Wikipedia) and André Kertész (Wikipedia). The opening picture shows them:
Forms of Passion and Passion of Forms (Thames and Hudson) Abe books Bookfinder
André Kertész (Jeu de Paume, Yale UP) Abe Books Bookfinder
Unfortunately, both of these are now out of print, although you may be able to find a new copy (at the time of writing, Weston is available here) but there are plenty of alternative books of their work, and in any case, used copies can be found. These are huge retrospectives, but the pleasure to be had from surveying these bodies of work is enormous.
Both of these photographers have influenced generations of their successors. They had a vision for shape, texture, form, and line that appeals enormously to me. They were also not restricted to just one “genre” of photography: today, they’d be described as doing all of portraits, still life, landscape, and street photography. Kertész was also unafraid to experiment with seeing what he could make from a single negative by cropping, reframing and “post-visualisation”. For decades, we have all be taught to “pre-visualise” the image and compose it tightly in the camera: Kertész wasn’t limited by that, and if there was something in the image that he liked, which was not his initial intention, that was worth exploring. These are two photographers that I always go to when I want to look for something to inspire a jaded brain.
Kertész: On Reading
A bonus book of Kertész: On Reading. This is probably my favourite body of work of all time. This is a wonderful, humorous and humane monograph extracted from a careers-worth of his photographs, linked by the theme of people reading. Simply wonderful. Blackwells Abe Books Hive Books Book finder
Bown and Liebovitz
Jane Bown and Annie Leibovitz are two of the very best portrait photographers I know, although they come at the process from opposite ends.
The late Jane Bown (Wikipedia) was the one reason I used to get the Observer on Sundays back in the late 70’s/80’s. She would generally have one monochrome portrait each week, derived from a short encounter with her subject, and she had a way of getting to the character of her subject in very few frames, using only natural light and the simplest of gear. I bought the book Exposures at the retrospective exhibition of her work in London a decade ago. Her 1976 picture of Beckett is one of the most famous — she just managed a very few frames round the back of a building — but there are so many others to learn from. One thing that is often absent in current portraiture is laughter, but laughter is intrinsic to the human condition; her portrait of Groucho Marx entertaining Perelman and Tynan and reducing them to tears of laughter says more about Marx than a solemn portrait ever could. I think that her picture of McCartney in 1963 gets more of his character than Parks’s contemporaneous pictures. Have a look at the Guardian’s gallery of her work in any case.
Jane Bown’s Exposures AbeBooks Book Finder Hive Books
Annie Liebovitz (Wikipedia): probably the most famous photographer in the world; personal photographer to John and Yoko; formerly partner of Susan Sontag; lined up to photograph Hilary Clinton after her anticipated triumph at the last US Presidential election; and behind more magazine front covers than anyone else I know. Her approach seems to me the exact opposite of Bown’s: Bown had little time and gear, and had to investigate her subject quickly; Liebovitz is much more studied, and often makes use of big sets and as much lighting as needed, as well as colour grading to convey impression. As with Bown, there is so much to learn from her approach. I took my daughter to the big Liebovitz Women: New Portraits exhibition in London in 2016, and we were both bowled over. As with all the photographers here, if you ever get a chance to see original prints, make sure you do.
Annie Liebovitz Portraits 2005-2016 Blackwells Book Finder Abe Books
And finally, something completely different.
The hot shoe diaries: Joe McNally
After monster compilation of a lifetime’s work by Weston, Kertesz and Bown, and a vast monograph by Liebovitz, it may seem odd to include what is essentially a how-to book by a working photographer who, while well known in his field, is scarcely a household name. But Joe McNally (Website, Wikipedia) is one more of my heroes. I’m lucky enough to have been on a couple of workshops with him, and seen close up his way of working. He can explain the concept for a portrait brilliantly, and he is a wonderful, sympathetic communicator. If you ever get a chance to go on one of his workshops, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The hot shoe diaries is about portraits on location, and using light from small portable speedlights to light the subject in a way that develops character. What I have learned from this book, and his workshops, has made possible many portraits that I would never otherwise have been able to do. The original dead tree version seems to be out of print, although it is readily available on the used market, and (at the time of writing) Abe Books has some new copies still. An ebook is available too. David Hobby’s review is a hoot.
The hot shoe diaries by Joe McNally Blackwells ebook Book Finder Abe Books
There’s so much more to write about the various other books that continue to give me the greatest pleasure that this is something I may come back to in the future.