Topic: Photo Books That Inspire

[gary m]

I just finished doing a blog post on some of my favorite photo books. Wondering what are some of your faves? Always looking to add more to the collection. http://cgmoyer.blogspot.com/2013/03/photo-books-that-inspire.html

[DonkeyDave]

Fay Godwin - 'The Land'
John Sexton 'Recollections'
John Blakemore 'Photographs 1955-2010'

Godwin for time needed with an image, looser compositions and no need for the 'hero' shot
Blakemore to remind me that it's all been done before (in fact he is almost a nemesis, just when I think I've got an original image, I find he did it decades ago)
Sexton to show me how good prints can be

sometimes when I get in a rut, or unable to find images when I'm out, these books can reinspire, or reignite the (small) creative bit of my mind

[calbisu]

I just received Subway from Bruce Davidson, beautiful; but so far my favourite one remains Americans from Robert Frank, I reread it recently and I found so many connections between the different pictures, or at least I believed there were connections, like the covered car and the covered body...

C.

[LEAFotography]

I was going to say Frank's Americans too but that's already been suggested. 

An enduring favourite is Yann Arthus-Bertrand's The Earth from the Air for when I want to sit with my mouth wide open at length, knowing I'll never be in a position to get those perspectives.

I should have read your list before I posted this, my apologies if it's in your list.

[Moiz]

The one I most recently picked up for inspiration was the Philippe Halsman Retrospective. It was one of the first exhibitions I saw that left me slack jawed at the beauty of the photographs.

[Yglotte]

I would say every Raymond Depardon's books, especially France and Paysans, and Weegee's Anthology, I can't remember the name !

[Late Developer]

Hard to know where to start but, in no particular order of inspirational qualities, here's 5 of my faves:

1. "On Reading" by Andre Kertesz
2. Ansel Adams at 100
3. "Last Days of the Arctic" by Ragnar Axelsson
4. "Light and Shadow" by Claire Yaffa
5. "Iconic Photographs" by Steve McCurry

[Darnley]

Any book by Lee Friedlander. Does that count?
Actually the MOMA retrospective of his work is quite good and reasonably priced.
Other favorites are Frank Gholke's "Accommodating Nature" and George Tice's "Urban Landscapes".

So many books. So little time.

[This-is-damion]

This is a cracker.   Don Brice tipped me off about this.

Avedon at Work: In the American West by Laura Wilson

[gary m]

Adding a few of these to my wish list, thanks!

[moominsean]

I really like "Cancellations" by Thomas Barrow. "Altered Landscape" is a beautiful book. I think my favorite Robert Adams book is "Los Angeles Spring". A great Japanese book is "Zaisyo" by Mitsuru Fujita. Also, "Redwood Saw" by Rothman is a worthy purchase. And check out "wonderland" by Jason Eskenazi.

i think probably the book that most makes me think about my photography is Stephen Shore's "Uncommon Places". And of course a lot of Eggleston's stuff.

[sapata]

You've already added my favourite on your top 1st on the list 

Abelardo's work is just something out of this world...

[Steven.]

Stephen Shore- Uncommon Places
Garry Winogrand- Figments of the Real World
William Eggleston- William Eggleston's Guide
Bruce Davidson- Subway
Elliot Erwitt- Personal Best
Robert Frank- The Americans
Bruce Gilden- Coney Island
Martin Parr- The Last Resort
Daido Moriyama- The World Through My Eyes
Mark Cohen- Grimm Street
Henry Cartier-Bresson- India
Nobuyoshi Araki- Sentimental Journey
Jun Abe- Citizens
Diane Arbus- Diane Arbus (put out by Aperture)
Joel Meyerowitz- Cape Light
Trent Parke- Dream/life
Walker Evans- American Photographs
Patrick Tsai- Modern Times
Ume Kayo- Ume-me
Rinko Kawauchi- Illuminance
Magnum Contact Sheets

my list of books i own/would like to own.

[Chalky]

I'll check out some of the above.

slightly more specific but I can spend hours with these:

LeRoy Grannis: Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s

and

Photo/Stoner

both full of amazing 60s and 70s surf photos... if you like that kind of thing...

[Info Red]

Steven has mentioned Shore's work, as well as Eggleston's Guide and Frank's "The Americans".  To his extensive list I would add:

Eggleston's "2 1/4"
Gary Cawood - "The Watchman's Room"
David Wharton "Small Town South"
Bill Owens - "Suburbia"
Ed Ruscha - "Ed Ruscha, Photographer"
James Agee/Walker Evans - "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men"
Anything and everything by Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, W. Eugene Smith, and on and on...

Mark

[Phil Bebbington]

Stephen Shore- Uncommon Places, is always an inspiration and like Sean, continues to make me think.

Jeff Brouws - Approaching Nowhere
Fred Herzog - Photographs
Paul Strand - In Mexico
Starburst - Color photography in America 1970-1980
Looking in - Robert Frank's The Americans
Wim Wenders - Places, Strange and Quiet
Wim Wenders - Pictures from the surface of the earth
Saul Leiter - Early Color

[gary m]

Good stuff, ended up ordering The Americans from Robert Frank and American Mood from Robert Farber

[astrobeck]

currently by my bedside:
"The Dust Bowl"  by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns --maybe not a true photo book but it's packed with period photos of the time-some made by Brownies.
"Portraits from the Desert" by Bill Wright  (Big Bend)  I get lost in this book as it's from an area that feeds my soul.

also a fan of others already mentioned such as Uncommon Places

and I have had a copy of Nancy Rexroth's "IOWA" on my wish list forever...word is there's going to be a remake of it, so fingers tightly crossed  that happens!

[Yglotte]

I have to add Arimoto's Ariphoto Vol.2 and 3 and Eggleston's Los Alamos Revisited (not mine, it's my dad's, but I still love it  )

[moominsean]

New Topographics is worth having. Think i is out of print so not sure about the current price.

Also, there are two new Ruscha books coming out in May, one PB and one HB, both with "Los Angeles Apartments" in the title. I preordered both.

[rolo]

So many. But let me add a few from farther afield:

"Vagabond," by Gaylord Herron
"Unguided Tour," by Sylvia Plachy
"My Fellow Americans," by Jeff Jacobson
"Travelog," by Charles Harbutt
"Iowa," by Nancy Rexroth

Anything you can lay your hands on by Tony Ray-Jones.

rs

[Andrej K]

Some interesting stuff here...
I also love photobooks and have quite a few of them..
The ones that I look into most often are Ragnar Axelsson books (Face of the North and Last days of the Arctic), Kenna's Images of a Seventh Day (I wish I could afford more of his books... Lately I am lusting particularly for Le Notre's Gardens, and of course, Japan. But I think I'll have to be modest and just order the two volumes of his Retrospective). Also Fey Godwin's Land and John Sexton's Quiet Light is very nice, his Listen to the Trees is high on my wish list...

However, as my tastes have changed significantly, I find on my wishlist lots of books about pictorialism - Steichen, Stieglitz and such folks, also some Japanese books... So I started to sell some of my stuff - HCB is already gone, as are the Americans.. The toughest decision that I still haven't made is whether to keep the Bruce Davidson Outside Inside "trilogy" or not.. They are very nicely made books, but the content doesn't move me any more...

Do you get rid of books that are no longer of interest to you or do you keep them all?

[astrobeck]

I hoard and keep them all.

Over the years my taste in photography has changed, but not so much that I don't like things that I liked before....
I just like more things now.
 

[soeren]

Susan Burnstine
Kirsten Klein "Mellem lyset og mørket"/ "Between the light and the darknes"
Filmwasters "What did you shoot this weekend" need to get that
Steve McCurry

Best regards

Edit:
Oh BTW, for those who don't know Kirsten Klein

http://www.photomondo.dk/infophoto/User_kikl/StartNative.html

[Andrea.]

Last days of the Arctic.. Rax or Ragnar Axelsson