Books that made a difference: Camera Lucida (Roland Barthes, 1980) DPReview post 

This post on DPreview today by Barney on the Barthes’ book Camera Lucida was really interesting and worth a read – and perhaps the book itself too?  There were over 100 comments posted to this article at the time I read it, many including other essential photography book titles including books by Robert Adams, Susan Sontag, Stephen Shore, Joan Didion, John Berger and many more – so the comments on the article were really also quite interesting.  What books haveRead more

Free eBook – Century of Optics

The Optical Society website has a number of books and pamphlets on a number of topics related to optics or imaging that might be of interest.  This Century of Optics book (free download) briefly covers topics from early camera and lens design to the development of things like bar code scanners.  Follow the top menu link to their bookshelf to see other books. OSA is the leading society in optics and photonics. Quality information and inspiring interactions through publications, meetings,Read more

Gerhard Steidl Is Making Books an Art Form – The New Yorker

My wife handed me her Newyorker magazine saying that there was something about photography in it that I might like to read.  It was in fact a very interesting article on one of the best photo book publishers.  A bit of a longer article but highly recommended. Gerhard Steidl is the printer whom the world’s best photographers trust most. Source: Gerhard Steidl Is Making Books an Art Form – The New YorkerRead more

Szarkowski 1966 – “The Thing Itself”

“the factuality of his pictures, no matter how convincing and unarguable, was a different thing than the reality itself. Much of the reality was filtered out in the static little black and white image, and some of it was exhibited with an unnatural clarity, and exaggerated importance. The subject and the picture were not the same thing, although they would afterwards seem so.  It was the photographer’s problem to see not simply the reality before him but the still invisibleRead more

Perception and Imaging Photography – A Way of Seeing by Zakia

Perception and Imaging: Photograph – A Way of Seeing     by Richard Zakia This is one of the best books I’ve read which deals with how the human mind perceives imagery.  It’s absolutely fantastic!  After reading even just the first chapters, I feel I have greatly improved both my knowledge of how to construct powerful images, and my understanding of how viewers might likely interpret my images.   This book is a must for anyone serious about improving their photography!Read more