Saturday, January 9, 2010

Photography books

I love books and I love photography so it stands to reason I'd love photography books - and its true - I do.

So its probably no surprise that I get pretty excited whenever one of my favorite photography websites does one of its regular columns on photography books. I particularly enjoyed his wrap up of 2009 and intend to try and keep an eye out for his recommendations.

However, if I may make my own recommendation its this, never walk past a second hand bookshop without checking out the photography section. Not often, but often enough, you will find a gem thats worth the small effort.

Over this years holidays I found two such books, the first is:

Witness. The worlds greatest news photographers. Ok, its not printed on luscious thick paper and its contains lots of images we've all seen before but as a quick primer on some of the people that created and developed the idea of the news photographer this is a great little book.

The Fincher File. I hadnt heard of Terry Fincher and looking through this book I didnt see many great iconic photos but somehow that makes it an even better read. Yes, I said read. There is certainly more text than images here and its a fascinating history of one man, a photojournalist, and a world undergoing massive changes following WW2. No, this book wont change your life but you can pick it up very cheaply and I think you'll enjoy it if yu find photojournalism your sort of field.

No comments: