Hi Gang,
I have recently acquired an interest in collecting books of photography.
Not the how to books, they’re a dime a dozen. But rather books of photographs.
I recently bought, “Jay Maisel’s New York”, as a start.
I’m wondering what some of your favorite books of photography are.
Regards to all
Larry

I have a couple from Elliot Poter, 3 from Galen Rowell, "Mountain Light", "The Art of the Adventure", and "The Yosemite", a number of Ansel Adams books including "Yosemite and the Range of Light", and "American Wilderness". I also have "Sports!" by Neil Leifer and "Football" by Walter looss jr.

Here are some of my favorites:

“The Polaroid Book”
“Photographs” - Rocky Schenck
“Sound of Summer Running” - Raymond Meeks
“Travel” - Andreas Bitesnich
“Maroc” - Albert Watson
“Coincidences” - Sarah Moon
“Holding Venus” - Keith Carter

Larry, The folks in the previous posts have made some good suggestions. Here's a different approach: collect photographers rather than books of random photographs. Here are some places to start:

Eugene Atget
Walker Evans
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Elliott Erwitt
Robert Frank
Garry Winogrand
Steve McCurry
Chim
Brassai
Paul Strand
W. Eugene Smith
Robert Doisneau
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Edward Weston
Jacques Henri Lartigue
Dorothea Lange

I love street photography, so that list may be biased in one direction. But if you're learning about photography you need to become familiar with these people's work. Atget and Cartier-Bresson are sort of the Shakespeare and Hemingway of photography. Walker Evans and Elliott Erwitt are my personal favorites. But they're all wonderful photographers.

Larry: I don't know if you have a particular theme in mind... I'm a big fan of Jim Brandenburg's books. Also 'Shadowlight' by Freeman Patterson, and 'Brilliant Waters' by Elizabeth Carmel. Andy Goldsworthy is a rather unique sculptor, and he makes photographs of his creations. He has several interesting books out too.

Mike.

P.S. Don't forget Michael's books! The second one at least is sold out, but you might be able to find it on the aftermarket.

There are also two Lenswork folios of MR's stuff over at lenswork.com.

One more for the list

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0892369450?tag=th...RP0Q73DAMB&

Mike.

For classic titles, Parr and Badger's "The photobook: a history" is a great place to start. Only problem is that most of the titles are out of print and quite expensive (partly as a consequence of being listed there, I've been told). At least that's not a problem with the 2008 books (although some have already gone out of print). Photoeye has an interesting feature about them at: http://photoeye.com/magazine/Bestof2008/2/

Some of my favorites:

"Hokkaido" by Michael Kenna...Getting harder to find, but well worth the price and effort. This is my favorite book.
"Japan" also by Michael Kenna...Another beautiful book
"Nine" by Josef Hoflehner
"On This Earth" by Nick Brandt
"Recollections" by John Sexton
"Ansel Adams at 100"
"Photopoetry" by Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Other than Hokkaido, I believe these are all currently available new at the original retail price. Hope this helps. Watch out though. This can turn into an addiction.

Jason .... glad to see an Austrian photographer included in your list ...


For those who are interested in ‘composition’ :

‘Photo Design’ (and maybe ‘Color Design’) by Harald Mante.
A benchmark.

But I guess these books aren't very well known outside Europe.

It’s a ‘quick reference’ guide to the German ‘Bauhaus’ rules (W. Kandinsky, P. Klee, O. Kokoschka, …)

Don’t go for the reprints (it’s ‘watered stock’, imho).
Look out for the originals (1969, 1970) … you’ll find them at antique book stores or via the net. Licensed in 5 languages ... English included :-)

The originals are focused on the photographs (just attended by a few words of explanation). Easy to read and easy to understand.

Harald Mante is one of the most distinguished teachers of the photographic arts and an internationally recognized master of photography.

I'll add:

Bill Brandt
Willy Ronis "Sunday by the River"

I have found the international portal Abebooks.com an excellent source for finding books at reasonable prices. (Even though I am thoroughly pissed at MasterCard for recently deciding to impose a 1% "foreign transaction" fee because abebooks is a Canadian company, even though transactions with US book dealers is in US $ and shipping is within the US. Pirates!)

AD

Alain Briot

Author of Mastering Landscape Photography

It's a great book, you will like it

BlasR

I really like David Ward's two books on landscape photography- Landscape Within (2004), and Landscape Beyond (2008). Both are an appealing combination of gorgeous large format photographs and surprisingly thoughtful musings on the nature of perception and art. They delve less into the "how" than the "why" of landscape photography; why certain images are so appealing, how they touch our souls when others perhaps more technically optimal do not. Ward has a terrific 'voice' on the page, sort of like that cool professor in college you'd hang out with at a bar after class: effortlessly articulate and erudite without being pompous. I find myself turning to his books for inspiration when my enthusiasm for taking new pictures wanes. Works every time.

You definitely need some Steichen books. The print reproductions in "The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937" are astonishing and a reminder of how far we haven't come in photography.