Book Description
The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski is a twentieth-century classic--an indispensable introduction to the visual language of photography. Based on a landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964, and originally published in 1966, the book has long been out of print. It is now available again to a new generation of photographers and lovers of photography in this duotone printing that closely follows the original. Szarkowski's compact text eloquently complements skillfully selected and sequenced groupings of 172 photographs drawn from the entire history and range of the medium. Celebrated works by such masters as Cartier-Bresson, Evans, Steichen, Strand, and Weston are juxtaposed with vernacular documents and even amateur snapshots to analyze the fundamental challenges and opportunities that all photographers have faced. Szarkowski, the legendary curator who worked at the Museum from 1962 to 1991, has published many influential books. But none more radically and succinctly demonstrates why--as U.S. News & World Report put it in 1990--"whether Americans know it or not," his thinking about photography "has become our thinking about photography."
Customer Reviews:
John Szarkowski.......2007-07-23
When John Szarkowski recently passed away at the age of 81, the world lost one of photography's most important figures. He was the "Stieglitz" of the 1960s and 70s, changing the way audiences look at photographic images and he shaped the way future audiences will come to appreciate the pioneering work of Arbus, Eggleston, Friedlander and Winogrand. When he took over the reins of curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from Edward Steichen, photography's early twentieth century grand master, Szarkowski promoted a "new" photography that incorporated the everyday moment as it was unfolding on the streets around cities and towns across America.
His great gift to all of us who love photography besides his championing of new talent, was his incredible skill at writing texts, essays, criticism, books on photography. With his talent as a writer, and his background as a photographer, he was able to open a window onto this two-dimensional world of form and tone, shape, texture and composition, explaining the ins and outs, the subtleties, and the intuitions of image makers, their techniques and their medium in all its finesse.
Having simply tried to take a good photograph all his life, he simply knew a good photograph when he saw one. It is what made him such a great curator. His own best known books of photographs, "The Idea of Louis Sullivan" published in 1956, contains photographs of the architecture of Chicago, and his other, "The Face of Minnesota" published in 1958, contains haunting landscape images of his home state. He wrote the way he carefully crafted his own images. He framed each paragraph paying close attention to his ear, to diction and to all the elements of style. It is why I love to read him and why I think he was the greatest writer to take on this visual art form.
Two books of his about photography that in my opinion are indispensable are "The Photographer's Eye" first published in 1966, and "Looking at Photographs" first published in 1973. With these two collections, the reader will gain an historic appreciation of photography from its earliest innovators beginning in the 1830s to the period of high modernism in the 1970s. With Szarkowski as your guide, readers will appreciate how the medium advanced, yet they will also understand how it has remained fundamentally the same picture-making process when it comes to handling two-dimensional space.
In The Photographer's Eye, Szarkowski covers what a viewer needs to take in from a photograph, how it was framed, cropped, what the subject is, what the detail is, the focus and the vantage point. In each of these wide areas, he supplies important photographs from the Museum of Modern Art's vast collection that illustrate these points. He begins with "The Thing Itself" the "what" of photography, the landscape or still life, or portrait that the photographer has aimed his camera at. From there he moves on to how photographers fix on detail, the synechdocal "parts" that make up the "whole" and that produce visual metaphor: the close up of the hands, the side of a face, a rifle, a window, a headlight of a car, a door latch.
He then illustrates how photographers carefully frame their images, how they crop, how they envision the image from its interior picture plane to what is left out, alluded to, outside the frame. And finally, he shows how photographers measure time; freeze moments, single out the present for the past of some distant future. Added to this element of time is vantage, that trick of where to place the picture plane in terms of its perspective, foreground to background, its recession to a vanishing point or points, whether it is head-on and flat, or deep and endless, looming up or slanting down, the world from above, or the world from below.
In Looking at Photographs which is subtitled--"100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art," Szarkowski leads the reader across time, from the earliest best works of the 19th century masters: Timothy O'Sullivan, Fredrick Evans, Lewis Hine, and Jacob Riis, all the way to Robert Frank, Roy DeCarava, Paul Caponigro, and Joel Meyerowitz.
The book is printed so that there is a one-page essay facing each of the 100 photographs it describes. Within that compact structure, Szarkowski is able to move from one idea to another across the history of photography as the reader turns the pages, and he is able to pinpoint for the reader, the attributes that each photographer brings to his medium. In this way the reader learns to read images for their wealth of craft, form and subject matter. It is like having the curator take you on a personal guided tour of the museum's photography galleries.
I learned from reading this book that Timothy O'Sullivan's "white skies" were a result of the wet plate's over-sensitivity to blue light and that "sky areas were thus automatically overexposed, and rendered as blank white." I also learned that O'Sullivan "...accepted the white sky and used it as a shape, enclosed in tension between the picture's visual horizon and the edges of the plate." Knowing this, I can never look at O'Sullivan's work again without understanding how much this 19th century photographic pioneer wanted the figure-ground relationship of sky to land to feature in his compositions. And this is only one example from the book. There are 99 more.
Owning "Looking at Photographs" and "The Photographer's Eye" is like having your own private collection of the world's most famous photographs. The way you look at photographs will be enriched. On your next visit to a gallery or a museum, you will be able to see so much more thanks to the intelligent and thoughtful writing of John Szarkowski. His precise, clear and uncluttered prose style will make your reading experience a pleasure in itself.
Quality Control Issues.......2007-06-09
Great content in general, but the fact that several pages are presented upside down on my copy marred it for me.
The Photographer's Eye.......2006-03-01
SOME OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS: Abbot Bravo Atget Avedon Belloc Brady Brandt Brassai Callahan Cameron Caponigro Cadtier-Bresson Coburn Decarava Doisneau Cuncan Erwitt Evans Fenton Frank Friedlander Garnett Giacomelli Kertesz Lange Lartigue Laughlin Lyon Moholy-Nagy Muybridge,P>Negre Newman O'sullivan Penn Sander Sheeler Siskind Smith Steichen Strand Weston White WinograndThis book is an investigation of what photographs look like, and of why they look that way. It is concerned with photographic style and with photographic tradition: with the sense of possibilities that a photographer today takes to his work. A wonderful black and white study of the form of photography and covers photographic style and tradition with a beautiful collection of some of the world's most famous photographic images.
SZARKOWSKI'S CAREER AT MOMA is bookended by two of his most ambitious and influential exhibitions, The Photographer's Eye (1964) and Photography until Now (1989-90). These shows, along with the accompanying volumes of criticism, summarize Szarkowski's major concerns as an historian and theorist of photography and demonstrate his impact on the field.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S EYE introduced the then-radical notion that artistic merit could be located not only in the work of the avowed masters-Stieglitz, Steichen, the WPA group--but also in news photographs, magazine spreads, commercial work, and anonymous documentary photography. The exhibition juxtaposed, without comment, Cartier-Bresson's masterpiece "Children Playing in Ruins" with a street scene taken outside a Stillwater, Minnesota barber shop. The work of contemporary giant Lee Friedlander rubbed elbows unashamedly with a 1910 bedroom interior plucked from the Iconographic Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In the companion book, published in 1966, Szarkowski asserts that the pictures in the exhibition "have in fact little in common except their success, and a shared vocabulary: these pictures are unmistakably photographs. The vision they share belongs to no school or aesthetic theory, but to photography itself." -Christopher Sieving
Book Description
Walker Evans (1903-1975) ranks with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand as one of America's greatest photographers. When originally published in 1994, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye was the first book to survey every significant aspect of the artist's oeuvre. This reduced-format version, identical in content to the previous volume, includes 300 beautiful duotone photographs.
Evans was largely self-educated and began photographing regularly in 1927, using a small hand-held camera. He specialized in the life of the street-carefully observed views of American architecture, the roadside, and the people who lived in the nation's cities, towns, and villages. Beginning with Evans's early abstractions, continuing through his three-year involvement with the Farm Security Administration and his breakthrough exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and concluding with the artist's experimentation with color late in his life, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye remains the most complete and authoritative view of this American photographic master. AUTHOR BIO: Gilles Mora has been editor-in-chief of Cahiers de la Photographie since 1981. He has written essays for two collections of Walker Evans material. John T. Hill, a friend and colleague of Evans and the executor of his estate, has coedited three book collections of the photographer's work.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2005-08-18
This book is very informative of Walker Evans. It shows a wide variety of his work form portraiture to architecture, from the streets of New York to exotic places. It not only shows the works of art but also shows short blurbs about the place he was at and what was happening in his life; like why he was there and what he wanted out of the photo shoot.
The part I like best about this book is that it references whose work he was admiring at the time. It also references his feelings, whether it was something he hated or something that was inspiring him. The print of the book is also very representational. It shows in great detail the contrast and depth of the works of art. I give the book 5 stars. I really enjoyed reading the book.
Amazon.com
The great 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn left us so many arresting self-portraits, painted at every stage in his eventful life, that his distinctive face and bearing are a familiar part of the 20th-century cultural landscape, a recognizable presence in galleries across Europe and North America. Nonetheless, the artist himself remains an enigma. Rembrandt was a notoriously difficult man and an inveterate risk taker in life and art: his aspirations to a grandiose Amsterdam lifestyle in the heyday of his popularity as a painter of portraits and large-scale historical works bankrupted him, and he died in relative poverty. His personal effects and treasured collection of paintings and natural rarities were sold off and dispersed, leaving the historian with a tantalizingly scant body of fragmentary records around which to build a convincing biography.
In Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama--the leading historical craftsman of our era, with a career-long commitment to Dutch history--succeeds with consummate skill in bringing the heroic painter of such masterpieces as The Night Watch and Portrait of Jan Six vividly to life. Returning to the bustling Dutch world with which he first made his reputation in the bestselling Embarrassment of Riches (1987), Schama re-creates Rembrandt's life and times with all the verve and panache of a historical novelist--while never for an instant losing his scrupulous grip on recorded fact and detail. The telling surviving fragments of archival information about Rembrandt's personal and professional history are skillfully embedded in a rich, dense tapestry of the commercial whirl and political hurly-burly of the 17th-century Low Countries--a divided territory, split between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and the contested powers of the Spanish Hapsburgs and the Dutch Republic--with the tentacles of the tale reaching into the most unexpected shadowy corners of European love and war, aspiration and intrigue.
Rembrandt's Eyes is, in fact, two biographies for the price of one. From the outset, Schama contrasts the life of Rembrandt with that of his older, equally talented countryman Peter Paul Rubens, whose meteoric rise and sustained success as a society painter forms a revealing contrast with Rembrandt's unhappier relationship with fame and fortune. The comparison is a telling one. Where Rubens furnishes the wealthy and powerful with glorious reflections of, and visual foils for, their social and political aspirations and glory, Rembrandt can never resist testing the envelope of taste and stylistic acceptability. His challenge to his clients to embrace the shock of his painterly experiments with technique, texture, and composition ultimately produced his downfall. The Amsterdam town council took down his The Oath-swearing of Claudius Civilis, rolled it up, and returned his masterpiece to him to be cut down in an attempt to sell it to a suitable buyer.
This is a gorgeous book to own, too. Rembrandt's Eyes is printed on heavy, high-gloss paper and lavishly illustrated throughout in full color. The double-page color spreads of the most memorable of Rembrandt's works will take readers' breath away. But above all, this is narrative history at its very best, a page-turner and an adventure story that will make the reader laugh and cry by turns in the time-honored tradition of masterly writing. --Lisa Jardine
Book Description
For Rembrandt as for Shakespeare, all the world was indeed a stage, and he knew in exhaustive detail the tactics of its performance; the strutting and mincing; the wardrobe and the face paint; the full repertoire of gesture and grimace; the flutter of hands and the roll of the eyes; the belly laugh and the half-stifled sob. He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon; to shake a fist or uncover a breast; how to sin and how to atone; how to commit murder and how to commit suicide. No artist had ever been so fascinated by the fashioning of personae, beginning with his own. No painter ever looked with such unsparing intelligence or such bottomless compassion at our entrances and our exits and the whole rowdy show in between.
More than three centuries after his death, Rembrandt remains the most deeply loved of all the great masters of painting, his face so familiar to us from the self-portraits painted at every stage in his life, yet still so mysterious. As with Shakespeare, the facts of his life are hard to come by; the Leiden miller's son who briefly found fame in Amsterdam, whose genius was fitfully recognized by his contemporaries, who fell into bankruptcy and died in poverty. So there is probably no other painter whose life has engendered more legends, nor to whom more unlikely pictures have been attributed (a process now undergoing rigorous reversal). Rembrandt's Eyes, about which Simon Schama has been thinking for more than twenty years, shows that the true biography of Rembrandt is to be discovered in his pictures. Though a succession of superbly incisive descriptions and interpretations of Rembrandt's paintings threaded into his narrative, he allows us to see Rembrandt's life clearly and to think about it afresh.
But this book moves far beyond the bounds of conventional biography or art history. With extraordinary imaginative sympathy, Schama conjures up the world in which Rembrandt moved -- its sounds, smells and tastes as well as its politics; the influences on him of the wars of the Protestant United Provinces against Spain, of the extreme Calvinism of his native Leiden, of the demands of patrons and the ambitions of contemporaries; the importance of his beloved Saskia and, after her death (Rembrandt was later forced to sell her grave, so complete was his ruin), of his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels; and, above all, the profound effect on him of the great master of the immediately preceding generation, the Catholic painter from Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens: "the prince of painters and the painter of princes" with whom Rembrandt was obsessed for the first part of his life, and whose career was the shaping force that drove Rembrandt to test the farthest reaches of his own originality.
Rembrandt's Eyes shows us why Rembrandt is such a thrilling painter, so revolutionary in his art, so penetrating of the hearts of those who have looked for three hundred years at his pictures. Above all, Schama's understanding of Rembrandt's mind and the dynamic of his life allows him to re-create Rembrandt's life on the page. Through a combination of scholarship and literary skill, Schama allows us to actually see that life through Rembrandt's own eyes. In overcoming the paucity of conventional historical evidence, it is the most intelligently true biography of Rembrandt that has ever been written, and the most dazzling achievement to date of the art historian whose work has been hailed as "marvelously rich and eloquent" ... "rare, imaginative" ... "provocative" ... "astoundingly learned with verve, humor, and an unflagging sense of delight" ... that of "a master storyteller ... and a master of history."*
Quotes from the New York Times Book Review, Time, the New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, and Nature, respectively.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book about Rembrandt and his times.......2007-07-12
Being Dutch, I remember as a kid how my teacher was mesmerizing about how wonderful it would be to have a big enough telescope to catch all the emitted light from long ago and to be able to see Rembrandt paint. I did not know why then, but now I do agree. How wonderful it would have been had he only lived 300 years more to light up all the museums in the world!
This book is about, to my opinion, the best painter of mankind, his life and work. It is also a dual biography about Rubens, since he was so important for Rembrandt.
The book works nicely chronological and winds its way through the younger years of Rembrandt til his last years. In the mean time we also learn a lot about not only his life in Leiden and Amsterdam, but also about the history of Holland of the 17th century. It is absolutely great to learn about for instance the Night Watch, for whom it was painted, who the people are on it, why it was so revolutionary and still the most stunning 17th century painting.
I always wanted to know, as far as recorded history allows us, about the background of his paintings; who ordered it, did they and Rembrandt like it themselves? And most of all: analysis of the paintings themselves: what 'effects' are used, and how? This book goes into wide details of this all without getting repetitive or boring.
Rembrandt is unique among all painters in his combination of talent and 'raffinement'. He could do anything: super precise works, impressionistic style where the paint itself was the 3d effect, portraits, group portraits, history paintings, landscapes, the best etches off all time. His touch and well-aimed strokes immediately got to the essence. His works under scrutiny come out even more unsurpassable and amazing. It is true that none of his students ever came close to his talent, and some of them tried for the rest of their life to master just some aspect of his art (for instance the light effects) while Rembrandt moved on to a more 'rough' style, although it was justly called in this book deceivingly easy to imitate, and of course, 'rough' here does not mean carelessly painted.
Basically he is the first (and best) impressionist in the history of painting.
I have been at the Rijksmuseum many times, and it does not matter which work you look at: Jeremia, his mother reading, the Jewish Bride, his hypnotisingly beautiful self portrait at a young age, it just shows that this is a once in a mankind kind of thing. Rembrandt has shown us once and for all what the art of painting can do, how it can lift our lives by trying so dramatically to imitate it. Indeed looking at his work, it almost seems that his paintings are triumphant over reality.
This book is a great read and the many colour pictures of his work are, needless to say, a pleasure to look at.
Only minus is, that Schama to my opinion is a little too modest about Rembrandt's genius.
Returning to Rembrandt's Eyes: An Appreciation.......2006-12-15
One of the pleasures of reading books from your own library is that they are always there for return visits. Reading Hockney's 'Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters' stimulated this reader to probe more deeply into some of the venerated painters. Simon Schama's fine book REMBRANDT'S EYES is like an old friend, an excellent resource book for facts about Netherlands painting, social and political history that so affected the works of the two featured painters Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens, a page-turner novel, and a catalogue of brilliant reproductions of paintings. This book satisfies - even more the second time around!
A hefty book at over 750 pages, there is not a page that Schama does not use his charming style of writing to slowly inform. We learn about the atmosphere into which Rembrandt was born, follow his works from the earliest examples through his entire career, encounter his passion for elegance and his fall into poverty, and understand his envy of the creatively and socially successful Rubens. Not a book of gossip, this, but instead a biography well documented in a fine bibliography (no mean feat for a history of a great man without much written contemporary documentation!) and a survey of illustrations that augment the story as well as any yet written.
For those who hunger for knowledge about a famous painter yet who deign to wade through the usual dry treatise format, welcome to the class with Schama. This is a book that will endure (first printed in 1999 and now available in paperback) because of the stature of the subject AND the stature of the author. Hats off to Simon Schama who so entertainingly and successfully takes us behind Rembrandt's eyes to see his work as few have shown it. Grady Harp, December 06
A MUST READ.......2006-02-17
I think most of the reviews below cover the bases pretty well, the only criticism I can think of is the book might have been better off printed in the full "coffee table art book" size so the reproductions cited in the text would have been larger...but what a fabulous work it is, an utterly fascinating evocation of a time and place. Even if you only have a peripheral interest in the subject, you will be drawn into the sweep of the narrative through Mr Schama's depth of knowledge and skillful intertwining of the personal and the public world of 17th century Holland. I cannot think of another recent book that I have enjoyed so thoroughly.
Doesn't have a focus and objective....very boring.......2004-07-10
When i bought this book, I thought that it would be an amazing and definitive book about one of the most brilliant genius of art.
But i was wrong, this is doesn't have a point, it goes to the biography of Rubens fathers, passing thru history, economy, and anything else you imagine, this is so borring for the people that actually want to know about Rembrandt and his work. So if you are looking for a book abou Rembrand and his work, this IS NOT....
A masterpiece worthy of Rembrandt's life and works.......2002-09-26
Simon Schama's REMBRANDT'S EYES is undoubtedly one of the authoritative works on Rembrandt's life and paintings. Schama vividly depicts the unparalled and tortured genius of Rembrandt, a man who was brilliant in success and even more so during tragedy. To understand Rembrandt's paintings is to understand the man behind each brushstroke: strong-willed, prideful, and uncompromising in his art. Schama conveys the essence of Rembrandt with such force and effectiveness that we cannot help but appreciate Rembrandt's tragic life and artistic genius.
REMBRANDT'S EYES contains beautiful illustrations of all of Rembrandt's major works; the analysis of each is detailed, clear, and interesting. Through the course of the book, you will be fascinated by Rembrandt's self-portraits and the level of understanding with which he painted himself. Perhaps no other artist has given us such a powerful autobiography without the use of a single written word. This deep understanding of the human soul is evident in all of his works. Schama explains Rembrandt's paintings and his techniques in a comprehensive and powerful manner. If you are interested at all in the truly unique and fascinating genius of Rembrandt, REMBRANDT'S EYES is a must.
I would highly recommend REMBRANDT'S EYES to any person interested in art history, Dutch painting, or just Rembrandt. This book also serves as a powerful autobiography of a man with a very interesting story. Be forewarned though: this book is very long, and putting it down may be hard.
Book Description
The first compilation of writings by a master of photography.
One of the leading lights in photography of the twentieth century, Henri Cartier-Bresson is also a shrewd observer and critic. His writings on photography and photographers, which have appeared sporadically over the past forty-five years, are gathered here for the first time. Several have never before appeared in English.
The Mind's Eye features Cartier-Bresson's famous text on "the decisive moment" as well as his observations on Moscow, Cuba, and China during turbulent times, which ring with the same immediacy and visual intensity that he brings to his photography.
Cartier-Bresson remains as direct and insightful as ever in his writings. His commentary on photographer friends he has known-including Robert Capa, André Kertész, Ernst Haas, and Sarah Moon-reveal the impassioned and compassionate vision for which Cartier-Bresson is beloved.
Customer Reviews:
Good Read.......2007-01-09
Most photographers would find this a nice book to add to their collection.
It's HCB!.......2006-03-24
Very interesting read. I would say a must have for fans of photojournalism and photography in general.
Highly recommended.
Not what I expected..........2005-09-18
I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I expected a lot more from Cartier Bresson. I found a few paragraphs of some interest, but no more than that. It is also a very small book, can be read in a day.
A small book with a lot of insight.......2003-12-19
I got HCB's book from the library this week and couldn't stop reading it since I started.
Mind you this book has its pluses and minuses:
Pluses:
It is gives good insight in HCB's style of thinking and in general photography in his own words. He talks about his little experiences in China, Cuba, Russia and also about his friends.
Minuses:
The book is very brief and u yearn for more of his stories and experience. It has very less photographs, so if you are looking for that you might get disappointed.
With all that said, I would definitely recommend all of u Photography fans to read it at least once if your local library carries it.
It is not what I expected.......2001-03-30
I bought this book thinking that I was going to receive more insight of Cartier-Bresson style. There is something but I expected more about the thinking of this master of Photography.
Book Description
The Idealist showcases the fine art photography of Glen E. Friedman, who many including the Washington Post call "One of the greats of his generation." The Idealist is the work of a true visionary, effortlessly mixing landscapes, still life, and documentary photography, and calling parallel to his own innate idealism through the images, and by including original comments from some of the most progressive, and politically controversial thinkers of our time - Ralph Nader, Reverend Al Sharpton, Ian MacKaye, Cornel West, and Ian Svenonius.
This collection of photographs from 25 years (1976 - 2001) of Friedman's work concentrates on his visual aesthetic and is the public introduction to his striking fine-art photography. Though he continues a heavy focus on both imagery and message, only a few of his traditional photographs of legendary people in the hip-hop, punk and skate communities will be recognized. The Idealist traces Friedman's development as a fine-artist as his subject matter includes a breathtaking international scope of landscapes, still life, and documentary. New and old fans of his work will be delighted to see his capacity to capture essential moments of most anything he sets his eyes on, to help us open ours.
The book size and cover have been changed slightly, over a dozen images have been removed and over two dozen new ones have been added. The book will now encompass 25 years. Adding 5 years and over a dozen pages to the original edition, as well as additional new words on Idealism contributed by Rev. Al Sharpton, Ralph Nader and Cornel West.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2005-05-25
Everything submitted about this book is right on point. I just received it and it is a beautiful publication.
It must also be mentioned that besides all of the fantastic photography and art direction overall, the words on idealism contributed by such illustrious thinkers and revolutionaries as Ralph Nader, Cornel West, Ian MacKaye, Al Sharpton, and Ian Svenonius, truly emphasize the viewpoint of the author Friedman as eloquently and as insightfully as you can imagine. Simply inspiring words to pepper this incredibly colorful book.
It's Alive.......2004-05-04
This book is it! I really can't overstate how great this book is even at the first quick view. If you have the first editon of The Idealist, don't be put off by the $6 jump in the price, it's worth a great deal more than that. Moreover, if you were thinking this was just going to be a sloppy re-hash of a previous edition, you won't believe how well the new edit clicks.
Books and photographs like these are the reason why I like my eyes and why I tell people my sense of sight would be the last thing I'd want to lose. For those with a more pure interest in photography, this book shows us that Friedman's vision and attitude are the secret reasons why the Pentax K1000 was invented. This book embarrasses those other photographers who struggle to force down garbage with unnecessary equipment that costs thousands of dollars more. This book isn't about equipment, about a process, about celebrity or about an ego.
This book really is ANTI-WASTE and BREATHING in a way that "photography" books rarely are: Barnes and Noble should be taking note.
If you liked the juxtapositions of the first edition, you'll be pleasesd to see both new and old favorites.
I believe these pictures still stand out after years of having them etched on my consciousness and that's the reason I'll always keep coming back to LOOK. That is, Friedman creates pictures and books that age well. Everytime I pick up one of his books, I see something that I never noticed on previous viewings. He never gets boring! You won't be content with filing this in a dusty library.
The Idealist 25 makes me happy in a way that very few material things do.
AMAZING!.......2004-04-11
I got this book from the publisher before it was released to the public via the BurningFlags.com website for Glen E. Friedman. Then went to the exhibition in Los Angeles at Sixspace. I bought the 1st edition here at Amazon.com, discounted, almost 5 years ago. What a great book, I've shared the inspiring work with many friends over the years. This is Friedman's art, and his art is amazing! This new edition and the exhibition took my respect for all his work to new heights.
For the most part the new edition as stated above is the same, a few pictures missing, and a bunch more added representing 5 more years. But the really unbelievable bonus, besides the new photographs, is the new original words from two former U.S. Presidential candidates, the Reverend Al Sharpton and Ralph Nader, as well as the incredible scholar from Harvard University, presently residing at Princeton University, Professor Cornel West . Where most photographers as artists or reporters would be content to just show their photographs, Friedman feels obligated to inspire us further with words from people he's met and respects. This is a very special book. The words from Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat and Fugazi) and Ian Svenonious (of Nation of Ulysses, the Make Up, and Weird War) from the 1st edition are also in this new edition, so you won't miss those. This version adds 5 more years but seems even tighter than the previous. It's great.
If you are a fan of great photography, whether you know Friedman's more poplar work or not, does not matter. This is a book by an incredible inspiring photographer to be respected and appreciated. GET THIS BOOK NOW.
The Real Deal.......2004-04-11
In the last decade or so, the 70s and 80s have been exhumed and exploited by industries looking to sell product: music, clothes, soft drinks ad nauseum all "re-packaged" for cheap street cred. As anyone who came of age in that quietly turbulent time can tell you, retro disco and synthesizers, "vintage" sneaks and studded belts are soul-less substitutes for the real deal. This second edition lets us finally, gloriously relive those years in the very real photographs of Glen E Friedman. But skaters, hardcore shows and hip hop are just the beginning of GEF's voyage - and ours as well - through the last quarter century, because we are there with him in that decisive moment when he pulls his Pentax out to shoot, whether it's in some Asian street market or on some anonymous Roman street corner - we're no longer in someone's sweaty basement at a Black Flag show, but out there in the crazy, beautiful, f*cked up world we share and that the idealist Friedman demands us to save, goddamnit. The essays included in this book - esp Stecyk's - are an added bonus, key to understanding just where these photos come from; yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words, blah blah, but in this case, like your peanut butter in my chocolate, both are the better for it: to know who the photographer Glen E Friedman is, no matter how tangentially, enables us ever so slightly to look through his eyes and start, suddenly, to see.
Average customer rating:
- A must read for photographers or anyone who loves nature
- There's more to photography than pressing a button.
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Pilgrim Eye
Manufacturer: Gneissline Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
A must read for photographers or anyone who loves nature.......2007-03-26
David Halpern's book, "Pilgrim Eye" is a must read. OK, I admit it, I know David Halpern and have been lucky enough to share several photo oppertunities with him, but really, this book will touch anyone who has ever taken up a camera with more intent than just taking a snapshot, or anyone who ever has taken a moment to study the grandure of his or her surroundings. The art of a good teacher is to inform without "teaching", and Halpern does that so well, mixing personal observations within a framework of solid photographic skills. Oh--did I mention the photographs? They alone are well worth the price of this book. My guess is that it will be on your coffee table for years to come.
There's more to photography than pressing a button........2007-03-08
Ansel Adams would have been proud if the photographs in Pilgrim's Eye were his. And prouder still to have authored the text. David Halpern takes us on his journey from a small boy with a box Brownie to an accomplished photographer. But he explains what it is to visualize a picture before you take it, the value of patience, and a personal explanation of the evolution underway from film and chemistry to digital camera and printer. The introduction is personal and moving, disclosing the character in words that is present in his images. These are the pictures of a lifetime: one to be proud of.
Average customer rating:
- Arrange Your *Eye* Examination Soon
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Eye of the Storm: The Album Graphics of Storm Thorgerson With Peter Curzon and Jon Crossland
Storm Thorgerson ,
Peter Curzon , and
Jon Crossland
Manufacturer: Sanctuary Publishing, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1860742599 |
Book Description
Following the success of Mind Over Matter , Storm's latest book features a collection of his work over the past fifteen years and includes some of the most stunning, evocative and resonant images he has ever produced.
Customer Reviews:
Arrange Your *Eye* Examination Soon.......1999-12-30
Storm Thorgerson is best known, of course, as the premiere album art designer with a 30-year association with Pink Floyd. If you became fond of his work because you're a PF fan, you don't want to miss this book just because Floyd art isn't the primary focus this time around. Storm's writing in Mind Over Matter was very entertaining, but in Eye of the Storm he's assumed an even more relaxed, personally revealing style. His character comes through more clearly, and he's a very engaging character indeed!
Among the book's features is an art concept that was originally intended for a Hey You 1994 concert video. He confesses that the Tree of Half Life concept didn't begin as Pink Floyd art. It tells more than his previous books about his talented associates, for example Keith Breeden (who is unfortunately now retired from the business).
The book is compelling entertainment, and it fills a gap for some of us who missed seeing his intriguing work for less famous bands than Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. My favorite at the moment is the Catherine Wheel art he selected for this book's cover.
Average customer rating:
- A Sharp Eye Indeed
- If You Remember the '60's...
- Uninspired photographs and more boomer self aggrandizement
- Makes me wish I was born a few years earlier
- A Titillating Journey
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I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation
Carly Simon ,
David Silver ,
Peter Simon ,
Stephen Davis , and
Richard North Patterson
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0821226452 |
Book Description
From an early age Peter Simon has delighted in documenting the world around him through photography. Here is his lifes work thus far, an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of his generation, featuring many of the major figures, both in the mainstream and counter-culture, of the past 40 years.
Customer Reviews:
A Sharp Eye Indeed.......2007-03-23
At first glance, one would think that Peter Simon's book, I and Eye, is a coffee table-style, picture book. But one need only open it to find out differently. This book is an autobiography--with a really good picture album.
I had the privilege of meeting Peter Simon. He's friendly, laid back, and so open about himself you like him right away. Peter's honesty about himself, the good and the bad, was awe-inspiring. By the time he finished, I felt like we were old friends.
I and Eye is so much more than just a picture book. Through its pages, we see a life lived, with its joys--and its sorrows. Because Peter's camera was such a ubiquitous presence throughout his life--from his pre-teen years on--viewing I and Eye is like looking through an album of one person's memories. As a bonus, we get to see some of Peter's father's work (His father, Richard Simon was an avid photographer in his own right and co-founder of Simon and Schuster.) and get a glimpse of his childhood that we would otherwise not be able to see. Taken in toto, the book captures a life.
There are introductions by Carly Simon (yes, she's his sister), David Silver, Stephen Davis, and Richard North Patterson. Every one of them gives testament to the openness and honesty Peter has with people.
Technically, I and Eye is the work of a consummate photographer. Peter's specialty, to use a trite phrase, is the candid shot. Even his posed shots have a spontaneity that makes them seem candid. Some of his portraits are powerful. Some are precious. All provoke strong emotions. Peter's landscapes incorporate a love for the places he captures, a majority of them on his beloved Cape Cod. This book is a must for anyone who calls him or herself a photographer and aspires to do great things with a camera.
Take time with this book. Find a comfortable spot, relax, and allow its pages to carry you through the life of a warm, interesting, and talented man. You'll find the trip worthwhile.
If You Remember the '60's..........2002-05-29
It's been said that if you remember the '60's you probably weren't really there. It's a good thing Peter had a camera because he probably would have been wondering himself what those days were like. Parts of his world, beautifully recorded, jar our memories. Whether these memories are painful or delightful, they are part of our collective story. Many '60's communes didn't allow photographs, so these may be rarer than one assumes. The book is worth looking at and reading.
Uninspired photographs and more boomer self aggrandizement.......2002-03-06
I wanted to like this book, I really did, but I couldn't get past the amateurish tone as Simon retreads that well trod path that amounts to the sixties generation stations of the cross--wealthy childhood, discovering drugs and sex at college, dropping out and living off your parents on a commune, plugging into Eastern philosophies and, finally, capitalizing on "the good old days". I found the photographs mundane and the essays almost unbearable as Simon chronicles his constant drug taking and drifting from place to place. As another reviewer wrote, I don't think we would have seen this book printed if not for his name and his celebrity sister.
Makes me wish I was born a few years earlier.......2002-02-25
Peter Simon is a talented photojournalist, and this book is the story of his life, with a definite emphasis on the 60's and early 70's counterculture years, which he lived to the fullest. It's all here: the protests, living on a commune, the eastern spiritual gurus, flirtations with nudism, the (impressive) series of hippy girlfriends, the rock stars (he's Carly Simon's brother).
I'm sure other members of his generation will find the book very nostalgic. As for me, it's almost enough to make we wish I'd been born 10 or 15 years sooner. I went to college during the early years of the Reagan administration. The 60's obviously weren't a very happy time, but it would be hard to imagine someone of my generation putting out a book like this: who would care?
The later chapters of the book are an odd lot of whatever he was shooting during those years of his life. Therefore we have some baseball coverage, some photos of landscapes and his celebrity friends on Martha's Vineyard and some coverage of Woodstock 1999. I'd judge these chapters as substantially less interesting than the early ones.
One thing this book does illustrate is the importance of connections in getting a book of photography published. I'm not saying it's not a worthy project: it certainly is. But a lot of worthy projects are never published, and it's hard to believe his sister's celebrity and his family's connections in the publishing industry ("Simon" is the "Simon" in "Simon & Schuster") weren't key factors, especially for a virtually unknown photographer.
A Titillating Journey.......2002-01-20
Ah! From the intricacies of Tree Frog Farm to the open arms of MV's shores, the reader is webbed into every fiber of Peter's life through his descriptive words and vivid photographs - so much so, that he leaves you with a dream of being one of the free spirits on the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.Thank you, Peter, for the journey!
Amazon.com
Frans Lanting, a Dutch American photographer, delivers yet another extraordinary book drawn from time spent alongside African waterholes, Antarctic beaches, and North Pacific islands, among other locales. Lanting chronicles the lives of residents such as the aye-aye of Madagascar, the elephant seal of California, and the caiman of Brazil. He favors an up-close and personal approach to his work, and his aptly titled Eye to Eye, made up of 140 color plates, captures the essential qualities of various animals. The subjects did not always appreciate posing for him; while making his images Lanting was challenged by African elephants, sniffed at by lions, and shunned by macaws.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent photography book.......2006-11-03
Wonderful - the shots were amazing. I really enjoyed just leafing through the book and let the visions just wash over me.
A lesson about dignity ..........2005-12-14
From the elephant up to the insect, from the cayman up to the seal every animal looks us in the eyes deeply. "Less than the human being: - the monkey follows in the system of zoology according to an immense ravine. If one, however, once wanted to organize the animals after her bliss, cosiness etc., then some people would come to stand anyway apparently under the miller donkeys and hounds ... ", 250 years ago the nature scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg already wrote. However, he did not have a camera yet to hand to cover this. Frans Lanting, however, shows us the determination with which snow geese and ibisses, penguins or zebras are away to something, shows us her family care and the dignity of animals in liberty - at times, when more and more people feel caught - a book which reminds us that "upright walking"- that synonymous of the philosophers for courage and self-respect - that you can make it true even on all four paws...
Face Time.......2005-01-28
Frans Lanting is one of the great wildlife photographers of the world. He has published many books showing wild animals but "Eye to Eye" is certainly one of his most famous. It consists of dramatically close-up photographs of animals, always concentrating on the eyes of the subject.
The book is divided into three parts: "One on One" shows photographs of single animals, often so close that the frame is filled completely with just the animal's eyes. "Two by Two" usually shows pairs of animals, although there are occasional shots of larger groups. Often the pictures are of mother and child, or mates, but a few shots show conflict. "All in All" shows shots of larger groups of animals. The book also contains a two page section called "Behind the Camera" in which Lanting discusses his photographic philosophy but provides few hints that will allow others to copy his style. Finally, perhaps because the text of the main sessions is limited to species name, there is a section of thumbnails with a brief statement concerning the picture. I found this section to be particularly inadequate since I often said to myself "How did he do that?" but got no help in finding an answer.
These are amazing pictures, primarily because Lanting has managed to get so close to his subjects. In a few pictures we can see that that is a result of enlarging and cropping, but in most cases the pictures are sharp enough so that so that we realize he was really close to the animals. Moreover, with a few exceptions, these are not captive animals. I for one would not like to take a picture of a wild lion at a distance of twenty feet. At least one critic has suggested that this book raised the bar for all wildlife photographers, forcing them to get closer to their subjects, and placing more stress upon photographers and subject.
There are moments of great intimacy, particularly in the "Two by Two" section, where the pictures of parent and child tug at our heartstrings. It's hard not to see human characteristics in these photos. The book also benefits from its layout, grouping its subjects by actions. Thus there are pictures of a huge flock of butterflies followed by pictures of ibises, penguins, snow geese, zebras and elephants all purposefully on the move to some destination. I also particularly enjoyed facing pictures of a lion and a leopard, moving toward the centerfold in mirror image.
These are great photographs because the photographer got so close to his subjects. But they are also mostly documentary. Few of the pictures rise to the level where the form rather than the subject makes them art, although I was particularly struck by a picture of Oryxes carefully treading their way across the Namibian sand dunes. But when I compare Lanting's photographs to the work of other wildlife photographers like Art Wolfe, I can see the difference. The pictures in Wolfe's "The Living Wild" show each animal in its environment, where Wolfe was better able to concentrate on the composition of his subjects to create a more artful picture.
Not withstanding this quibble, "Eye to Eye" is a great book, and readers are unlikely to soon forget these close encounters with the other living inhabitants of our planet.
Another masterpiece.......2003-05-28
Frans Lanting does it again in Eye To Eye--a brilliant collection of intimate portraits and daily activities of various animals. Like Jungles, it's a book that no natural photographer should be without. When you can see the individual hairs in a courgar's fur coat, it makes you kind of wonder what it would be like to be that close to one.
Looking at Lanting's work is always like looking through a book of artwork, as if he is the Picasso of photography and we are looking through his masterpieces.
Prepare To Be Amazed !.......2002-09-06
Wow !!! How can anyone get so close?!
These photographs are stunning. The talent of Frans Lanting oozes from these pages.
There is a closeness to the subjects here that borders on the intimate. In some cases, one wonders how he actually managed to get the shot.
The focussing and exposure is spot on and the composition is perfect.
I have tried to follow this type of photography and I am only too aware of how difficult it is to obtain these sorts of images.
I take my hat off to Frans Lanting. This is a brilliant work. A completely unique approach to wildlife photography. His behind the scenes narrative to the shots is illuminating.
This book is a valuable reference for all nature photographers. Sensational !
Book Description
50 Principles of Composition in Photography reveals how to capture more creative, imaginative and inspired photographs using both film and digital photography. With Klaus Bohn's clear and practical guidelines you will discover how to heighten your visual acuity and take more artistic, appealing and captivating images.
These principles of composition have been gained from a lifetime of learning and thousands of dollars spent attending private courses given by the world's top professional photographers including: Joe Zeltzman, Monte Zucker, Donald Jack, Rocky Gunn, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman and many more.
Learn the techniques to distinguish yourself from the photographers who simply take snapshots. Acquire the skills to give form and balance to your photographs by combining the elements harmoniously in order to see a subject in the strongest way. This book is sure to become a valued resource in your personal library, to be consulted and relied upon for many years to come.
Reviews:
"Just for a little while, let Klaus be your mentor. His struggling for creativity is revealing, is so evident. Reach out to grab it. Resolve to integrate this highly saleable touch of class into your daily output."
Jack Curtis, author, "Wedding Portraits and Photography World"
"I was so impressed with what Klaus had to say I had to restrain myself."
Paul Castle, author, "Promoting Portraits"
"Klaus has been quite successful... and both he and his Photography must be given better than average marks. What follows are epitomized abstractions of some of Klaus' comments on how he operates, and I feel they could be of practical value to you."
D.H. Moore, author, "The Practice of Modern Photography"
About the Author:
Klaus Bohn is a Professional Photographer with a Masters of Photographic Arts. He has been teaching the art of photography since 1984 to amateurs and professionals alike. Klaus has been commissioned to photograph many notable people over the years, a few of whom include: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Norman Vincent Peale, Art Linkletter, Anne Murray, Victor Hansen author of the best selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books, NHL Hockey All-Star of the Calgary Flames Theoren Fleury and World Class Cyclist Roland Green.
Customer Reviews:
Definitely overpriced..........2007-08-29
This book looks like a do-it-yourself publication. Certainly not worth this price. Anything by Freeman Patterson would be a better choice, both for content and value for the money.
Stinks.......2007-04-03
Lousy presentation, what more can be said? There are far better books on compositiion than this one.
An Incredible Journey with a Master Photographer.......2007-03-17
This book contains essential information having been written by an incredible Master Photographer. An absolute must read for both the novice and experienced photographer as Klaus Bohn is the very best educator on this subject. Hopefully this will be the first of many books written by Mr. Bohn as I want more for my own library. I am drawn to his warm personal style evident in both his written work and in the amazing photographs he has taken. Highly Recommended!!
Poorly written and over priced.......2007-03-12
I expected a useful treatise by a respected photographer. Instead, I received a book that is so poorly written it appears it had no editor, with illustrative photographs so poorly reproduced it is hard to appreciate what they are demonstrating. Save your money and look elsewhere for help.
Books:
- The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book
- The Ralph Nader Reader
- The Rapture: Truth or Consequences
- The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art
- Thomas Jefferson on Wine
- Trail Guide to the Body: How to Locate Muscles, Bones, and More (3rd Edition)
- Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear
- Video Shooter: Storytelling with DV, HD, and HDV Cameras (DV Expert Series) (DV Expert Series)
- White Trash Cooking (Jargon)
- Wide Open: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge (Book & Card Kit)
Books Index
Books Home
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The Nature of Photographs
Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer's Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing (Digital Process and Print)
Robert Adams: Why People Photograph
The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
Robert Adams: Beauty In Photography
