Photography Books - Page 13

On Photography

Susan Sontag

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

ill-Timed and Irrelevant 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I originally purchased this book based on the extraordinary, glowing reviews - you know, the same ones on the back cover: "book of great importance and originality", "the most original and illuminating study of the subject", "raises important and exciting questions" etc. etc. etc.

Since buying it, I've attempted to plow through it at least 4-5 times, managing to get about 3/4ths through. And I LIKE philosophy and alternative thinking! The problem I think, is that much of what Sontag writes about photography is simply wrong. That leaves out what is self-contradictory, such as saying (as I would characterize it) in one place that modern and documentary photography is manipulative and exploitive, while elsewhere saying it is meaningless (at one point saying a photo of a dwarf is, after all, just a dwarf).

Photography as an art form - even without considering digital photography and up-to-date image manipulation and creation - is, like any art form, foremost about point of view. That's a commonplace notion that taught in photography texts and mentioned in countless art books. Sontag starts with this and points some of them out - the idealism of early photographers imitating painterly scenes, for example.

No problem so far. Where Sontag strays, however, is in assigning personal, cultural, and political motive to the points of view taken, and casting them in the worst possible light. So in her view the photographer becomes "aggrandized" as a "self-expressing ego", his work (put in the most over-wrought fashion) "a heroic copulation with the material world"! She even goes after the motives of snapshooting tourists, characterizing picture-taking as an anxiety-driven imitation of work! This sort of blue-in-the-face prose reminds me of nothing so much as conspiracy theorist and expose writing.

The book was ill-timed because it came just as the world was diving full-on into the internet, in the process transforming photography again. All of a sudden, photos, videos, graphics, and derivative and creative versions of them are embedded into everything we do, at every level of art and expertise, from every direction, and seemingly from everyone. In this world, the oppressive and heavy-handed motives Sontag ascribes to photographers and those who use images in evil ways are swept into irrelevance. It's not that such things don't exist - witness the controversy over the Time magazine cover shot of O.J. Simpson, as a small example - it's that when incidents like this are one among millions or billions in a world where people create their own connections, communications, and communities, and the old mainstream press and book publishing world has lost its position in the world, much of what she argues ceases to have importance even if you accept it.

My recommendation is to pass On Photography by. Chances are you won't get through it anyway.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Criticism.One of the most highly regarded books of its kind, On Photography first appeared in 1977 and is described by its author as “a progress of essays about the meaning and career of photographs.” It begins with the famous “In Plato’s Cave”essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and concludes with a fascinating and far-reaching “Brief Anthology of Quotations.”

What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time

David Elliot Cohen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For more than a century, photography has revealed truths, exposed lies, advanced the public discourse, and inspired people to demand change. Socially conscious pioneers with cameras transformed the world—and that legacy lives on in this eye-opening, thought-provoking, and (we hope) action-inducing book. Like Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and Jonathan Schell’s The Fate of the Earth before it, we believe that What Matters will fundamentally alter the way we see and understand the human race and our planet.
What Matters asks: What are the essential issues of our time? What are the pictures that will spark public outrage and spur reform? The answer appears in 18 powerful, page-turning stories by the foremost photojournalists of our age, edited by The New York Times best-selling author/editor David Elliot Cohen (A Day in the Life and America 24/7 series), and featuring trenchant commentary from well-recognized experts and thinkers in appropriate fields. Photographer Gary Braasch and climate-change guru Bill McKibben provide “A Global Warming Travelogue” that takes us from ice caves in Antarctica to smoke-spewing coal plants in Beijing. Brent Stirton and Peter A. Glick examine a “Thirsty World,” chronicling the daily search for clean water in non-developed countries. James Nachtwey and bestselling poverty expert Jeffrey D. Sachs look at the causes of, and cures for, global poverty in “The Bottom Billion.” Stephanie Sinclair and Judith Bruce present the preteen brides of Afghanistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
Sometimes the juxtaposition of photographs can be startling: “Shop ‘til We Drop,” Lauren Greenfield’s images of upscale consumer culture, starkly contrast with Shehzad Noorani’s “Children of the Black Dust”—child laborers in Bangladesh, their faces blackened with carbon dust from recycled batteries.
The combination of compelling photographs and insightful writing make this a highly relevant, widely discussed book bound to appeal to anyone concerned about the crucial issues shaping our world. What Matters is, in effect, a 336-page illustrated letter to the next American president about the issues that count. It will inspire readers to do their part—however small—to make a difference: to help, the volume includes extensive “What You Can Do” sections with a menu of web links and effective actions readers can take now. This year give What Matters.

Stone by Design

Lew French

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Stone By Design 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Caught a TV article on Lew French - CBS Sunday Morning. What a fabulous
artist! I bought the book based on the show. The book was not as good
but not bad. It's still very interesting stuff with some beautiful photography.

Shows stonework can be true art. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is 5 stars all the way. Lew French shows his masterful stonework in the many photos this book provides. If you are interested in what can be done in stone and how stone can be used to create a "WOW FACTOR", this book is made to order.
Every other page has photos that are "WOW".
Is you love stone you need to see this book.

great book, wonderful photos 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

this is a wonderful book, full of amazing photos of a skilled craftsman
we will enjoy it for many years

Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a great book on the stonework that was pictured. My wife does stone work and this has given her many idea's!. Simply a lovely, interesting read and view, and I highly recommend it! The things he does with stone is simply amazing.

Editorial Review:

More than 125 gorgeous photographs showcase the beauty of award-winning stonemason Lew French's work in eight different homes, illustrating how rounded fieldstone, gray slate, rough granite, and even curvy driftwood can be incorporated into stunning pieces of functional art.

Gil Elvgren: All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups

Charles G. Martignette, Louis K. Meisel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The perfect moral-boosting eye-candy for every homesick private Post-depression USA was in desperate need of a defining iconography that would lift it out of the black and white doldrums, and it came in the form of Gil Elvgren's technicolor fantasies of the American dream. From the Forties to the Sixties his painted adverts and posters for, among others, Coca-Cola and Pangburn's Chocolates, as well as the long-running Brown and Bigelow calendars, were a bright red white and blue account of the country's aspirations and hopes. As the country plunged into war Elvgren provided the troops with pin-up girls galore. His technique involved photographing models and then painting them into gorgeous hyper-reality, with longer legs, more flamboyant hair and gravity-defying busts, and in the process making them the perfect moral-boosting eye-candy for every homesick private. Elvgren defined the classic "pop" vision of Americana, a bold visualisation that has been endlessly appropriated and recycled in advertising, TV, film and art. His style is instantly recognisable. Dubbed "The Norman Rockwell of cheesecake", Elvgren's images combine desire for a better life with nostalgia for the nation's innocent apple-pie past.

Business and Legal Forms for Photographers (with CD-ROM) (Business and Legal Forms)

Tad Crawford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Really bad 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book and its utter waste of paper and money. There are much better forms available for free to be downloaded from the internet. This book is completely useless for anyone who lives outside USA. I think Americans are smart enough to google the kind of forms they are looking for.

A little out dated 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is a little outdated, but is very useful in writing you own form. Most of the forms on the disk can't be customized using newer word processing software.

Editorial Review:

Here's the classic "bible" of forms and checklists for every situation a professional photographer may face. Thoroughly expanded and updated to cover the Internet, this brand-new Third Edition contains 31 forms, each ready-to-use as is, or easily tailored to fit any situation. Photographers will find contracts for wedding, portrait, and assignment photography; property and model releases, assignment estimates, confirmations, and invoices; delivery memos; license for Web usage; nondisclosure agreements; and much, much more. An accompanying CD-ROM provides electronic versions of these forms, ready to use on both Macs and PCs.

Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats

Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at jazz legends

 

In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Pannonica de Koenigswarter, known as Nica, was a constant and benevolent presence on the thriving New York jazz scene. Known as the Jazz Baroness (she was born into the wealthy Rothschild family and later married a French aristocrat) she befriended such giants as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Barry Harris, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, and many more. She inspired over twenty jazz compositions, bailed musicians out of jail, and even acted as a booking agent.

 

She also collected wishes. Over the course of a decade, Koenigswarter asked three hundred musicians what their three wishes in life were, jotting them all down in a notebook. At the same time she took hundreds of candid photographs, saving them all. In Three Wishes, Koenigswarter’s forays into the psyches and lives of these legendary jazz artists are made available in America for the first time.

 

With a foreword by celebrated jazz critic Gary Giddins, and a introduction from Nica’s granddaughter, Nadine de Koenigswarter, providing rare insights into the mysterious baroness’s life, this funny, eclectic, and moving compilation is a uniquely intimate look into the immortals of the classic era of jazz, and a must-have for any fan or afficianado.

Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds

Kathryn Dun

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Editorial Review:

For those in the know, sheep are the stars of the huge annual agricultural shows, as they parade their polished hooves and oiled horns.  Swathed in fleeces expertly trimmed and coiffured to accentuate their finer points, Beautiful Sheep is a testament that skillful shepherds can create unique and living works of art.

 

There are a great many breeds of sheep, that for centuries provided income from their wool--thus today's versions are able to produce long heavy fleeces.  Likewise, those sheep used primarily for their meat were bred and developed to graze the harsh upland and hill territories well-suited for those climates.

 

All of these breeds are showcased, as never before, in the pages of this collector's item.  No longer will the gentle ovine be reduced to catch phrases about "the black sheep of the family" or "the wolf in the sheep's clothing"--but now can be appreciated and admired as stunning creatures.  A beautiful pictorial of sheep--arranged by breed, with geographical and historical information to complement the images--immaculately presented as stars of the catwalk, the best of the show. The result is an unusual and totally charming book.

Hot Chicks with Douchebags

Jay Louis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Greasy foreheads. Spiky frosted hair. Oiled-up faces dripping with Tag Body Shot spray. Armani Exchange T-shirts and rank cologne wafting off their backs like fetid pollen clouds as they pump their fists and attempt to grind into any hotties nearby. Young beauties oblivious to the hulking monstrosity clutching at their butts like snapping turtles on Red Bull.

From sea to douchey sea, ours is a culture plagued by this festering blight. By the dark forces of über-douchebaggery.

How did this happen? What can we do to confront the douchebag/hottie plague that rots our collective souls like boils sent by a wrathful and angry God? And how can you recover if you or your loved one is 'bag?

Now, for the first time, there is an answer to those questions that haunt our collective will and sap our culture of any claim to societal advance: Why hottie/douchebaggery? Why now? And why are douche-faces so silly? In this book we dissect, analyze, contemplate and mock the rank douchescrotes that pollute our country's hottie supply on a daily basis. Every branch of the douche-tree will be examined. Every corner of our cultural rot will be exposed.

And if we can lust after their hotties along the way, then all the better.