Two essential photography eBooks for Christmas
Books are still an ideal Christmas gift, so here are two suggestions for photographers that want to read about more that the technical aspects of photography, from authors Guy Tal and Bruce Barnbaum.
Photography books/ebooks do not always have to be about techniques or how to better use cameras. As an art form or a path to relaxing moments, photography should be discovered from its multiple angles. Books helps us to do that.
The actual massification of photography tends to make us forget that photography, while a commodity for some - like the smartphone user snapshooting a pair of shoes on a shop window to share with friends – is something else for many others. It may be a very technical thing
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The same applies to the second eBook on this note, More Than a Rock from Guy Tal.
The book More Than a Rock - Essays on Art, Creativity, Photography, Nature, and Life, from photographer Guy Tal was written for those photographers with a passion and interest in creative photography. It’s not a technical book, so if you are a technical minded photographer, this book may not be for you. As photographer David duChemin wrote about the author, “If you want to be a better camera user, read your manual. If you want to be a stronger, deeper photographer, read Guy Tal.”
I absolutely agree with David duChemin. I had the opportunity to interview Guy Tal in 2012, - please read Guy TaI: My Landscapes Are Intimately Familiar - and it was a fantastic experience to prepare, edit and publish that interview. Although I knew the photographer and some of his work, from that date on I grew more conscious of his points of view, and I keep his blog on my list of favorites to visit, as his writings are, as his photographs,
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In this series of essays, photographer and teacher Guy Tal shares his thoughts and experiences as an artist who seeks to express more in his images than the mere appearance of the subject portrayed. The photographer covers topics such as the art of photography, approaches to landscape photography, and the experiences of a working photographic artist. His essays also include reflections on nature and man’s place in it, living a meaningful life, and living as an artist in today’s
For my museum selection I decided to attend Texas State University’s Wittliff Collection. When I arrived, there was no one else there besides me and the librarian. To be honest, I probably would have never gone to an art museum if my teacher didn’t require me to. This was my first time attending the Wittliff Collection, thus I asked the librarian, “Is there any other artwork besides Southwestern and Mexican photography?” She answered, “No, the Wittliff is known only for Southwestern and Mexican photography.” I smiled with a sense of embarrassment and continued to view the different photos. As I walked through Wittliff, I became overwhelmed with all of the different types of photography. There were so many amazing pieces that it became difficult to select which one to write about. However, I finally managed to choose three unique photography pieces by Alinka Echeverria, Geoff Winningham, and Keith Carter.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
The poem “Extended Development” by Sarah Kay explores the ways in which the art of photography has changed throughout time, yet still remains a highly important and influential hobby. More specifically, how photography is an important aspect in each member of the speaker’s family. By using allusions, characterization, and imagery, Kay explores how the art of photography has changed throughout time.
Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, moreover they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get to the essence of what a photograph is, one by thinking and writing about it, and one by doing it. In this paper I will show how Adam Fuss’ work matches up with and demonstrates the ideas of Barthes’ in Camera Lucida.
Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were painted on the walls of caves found in southern France. Former director of photography at New Yorks museum of modern art says that “The progress of photography has been more like the history of farming, with a continual stream of small discoveries leading to bigger ones, and in turn triggering more experiments, inventions, and applications while the daily work goes along uninterrupted.” ˡ
Edward Burtynsky is landscape photographer who focuses on finding unique locations that are barren with environmental degradation. He is concerned with the current state of our world and wants to change it by using photography as a medium. Burtynsky 's photolistic style often shows incredible scale and detail within his photos by using multiple vantage points. Burtynsky approaches his subject in a very urgent manner, each and every photo is taken to create a deep impression from its viewer. His work is housed in more than 50 museums including the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Inspiration The world has many photographers that anyone can look at. You can call me an amateur or say I don’t really understand the art, but when I look at most of the pictures available, and I have looked at thousands lately, I don’t see anything different in the style of photography. I just saw the pictures. I see pictures of beautiful subjects and pictures of ugly subjects. I never really thought about the difference between being the photographer instead of the subject, until I saw Elliott Erwitt.
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
"A picture is worth a thousand words," we say. From the eyes and mind of the archivist studying the pictures of Robert Ross' experience with war, they are worth a lot more. The photographs in the epilogue of Timothy Findley's "The Wars" play an important role in Findley establishing both a trust with the reader, and a sense of realism to his war story. This satisfies the need for realism in his tale. The result of this image that is brought forth through the medium of the photograph, is that we are forced to see the "before" and "after" of Roberts "experience" and figure out our way through what is deposited in between: the cause and effect.
Masters. With his small hand camera he unobtrusively photographed people’s lives around the world. He was solely responsible for bridging the gap between photojournalism and art. He has published more than a dozen books of his work. The greatest museums in the world have shown his work.
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
There are many factors that made me select this book. First its subject “The Machine”, and how artists could express it? How could the manuals and the diagrams of a machine converted into artwork? This volume is documentation for the Vandercook press, and its changing role from just a proof press to the favorite press for printers. The second reason for choosing this volume is the collaboration between different disciplines and artists working with image, text, paper, and, The thirds reason is the educational aspect of the project, because there was also collaboration between instructors and students of the Center For Book arts in New York to make some of the folios.
To begin with, photography appeared to me as something entertaining a simple step in which one took a camera and simply shot a photograph of oneself or a friend. When I was handed my schedule for Mrs. Jones’s class, I felt as if this class had in store a special reward for me. As the days went by, Instead of being anxious of getting out of class I had a craving for additional time in the class. The class kept my eyes glued to the screen ...
What do you consider art? Paintings, sculptures, drawings, or maybe something else. I know, when I think of art, I think of photography. Photography Is used for business, science, manufacturing, art, recreational purposes, mass communication, and more. Photography is using light to do amazing things, and some people think of photography as a story that just needs to be told. Ansel Adams probably believed this. He said, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Photography has a long interesting history, like the fact that the word photography is made up of two greek words, photos meaning ‘light’ and graphein which is ‘to draw’ ! Photography also has some complicated techniques to get a hang of taking good photos. Have you heard of the rule of thirds? Or do you know how a camera works? Well, that will all be explained. Maybe, by the end you will take up photography too. This essay will explore the history and types of cameras and the basic rules for taking photographs.
In Sontag’s On Photography, she claims photography limits our understanding of the world. Though Sontag acknowledges “photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures”, she believes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses.” She argues photographs offer merely “a semblance of knowledge” on the real world.