Photography books
Photography
Photography books
Over the years we have collected many books of photographers who inspired us. We will update this post on a regular basis with books that we think will be of interest to readers of our blog. Information about photographers you will find in the separate post “about photographers“
Morocco – Harry Gruyaert
This is the third book by Gruyaert focusing on Morocco. The idea for it emerged while digging through his archives for a series of photomontages called A Sense of Place. The images featured in this latest volume, Morocco (2024), are different from those included in the two previous books from 1990 and 2013. He maintains that the photos included in the 2024 book say more about him than they do about the country itself, writing: “Perhaps influenced by the more cinematic approach of photomontage, this book is made up of a series of sequences or short trips, which serve as variations on the same theme: the fascination that this country has exerted on me for more than 50 years.” More about the book you will find here: magnum photos.
We received the book today and it is just a great book. I believe Harry Gruyaert is a master with regard to colour photography.
ISBN: 978-0-500-02795-0
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
Maroc – Albert Watson
Renowned photographer Albert Watson recently spent 39 memorable days in Morocco. With the personal insight of a diarist and the detailed eye of an artist, he has captured the physical beauty and spirit of this remarkable country in transition. From thousands of photographs on an itinerary that took him all over the country, Watson has culled the most evocative. These luxurious platinum prints, some with antique sepia tones, combine with Arabic calligraphy or Moroccan manuscript pages to conjure a feeling of the place, its history, its future.
From Casablanca and other major cities to villages, farms, and remote desert areas, here are portraits, extraordinary landscapes, architecture, and animals. Watson has captured the soul of Moroccans from all walks of life- members of the royal family and the heads of provinces, grizzled farmers, and women and children. In words as well as pictures, Watson speaks of Morocco’s people and its promise, and gives his personal impressions of the country.
This book carries Albert wastson beyond his brilliant photography seen in the pages of Vogue, Time, and Newsweek, to a multi-layered art that reveals the life of a country and the journey of an artist.
ISBN: 0-8478-2161-7
Website Albert Watson ( please click)
Imazighen – Margaret Courtney-Clarke
“Life is a loom, whose threads are the days. God decides when to cut the threads, even though the work is unfinished.”
Ancient Berber Proverb
In a part of North Africa where, within miles, the backdrop can change dramatically from snow-blasted mountains to wind-scoured dunes live the Berber people of the Atlas Mountains. In the third book of my trilogy on African women, I examine the difficult lives and remarkable arts of Berber women. As modern times and modern warfare in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have encroached on their centuries-old traditions, Berber women have begun to give up the old ways. Imazighen (free people) is a record of a people yielding to the pressures of the twentieth century.
Margaret Courtney-Clarke, 1996
Website of Margaret Courtney-Clark, please click here.
Published by Clarkson Potter; ISBN 0517597713
Ara Güler’s Istanbul
Ara Güler’s Istanbul is a vivid photographic record of daily life in the cultural capital of Turkey from the 1940s to the 1980s. Captured through the unerring lens of the award-winning Ara Güler, the ‘Eye of Istanbul’, the city’s melancholy aesthetic oscillates between tradition and modernity. As the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Istanbul has lived through several empires and has a character that is as many-layered as its history – something that Güler’s photographs convey with great sensitivity. These remarkable black-and-white images are accompanied by an evocative foreword by Orhan Pamuk, the first Turkish recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Both writer and photographer were born in Istanbul, and each in his youth held the ambition of becoming a painter. Here, each in his own way paints a brushless picture of his home town and captures, through the image and the word, its very soul.
More to read: Magnum Photo’s
ISBN: 978-0-500-54386-3
Published by Thames & Hudson
The world on my doorstep – Pail Strand
From 1950 to 1976 Paul Strand and his wife Hazel traveled throughout Italy, France, the Outer Hebrides, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana and Romania creating work that changed the way we look at photographs.
Paul Strand: The World on my Doorstep collects in a single volume the finest of Pails Strand’s photographic images from his European years, reproduced from rare vintage prints that only became available after his death. Here is a fresh and vibrant view of the man, his vision, and his abiding belief in the endurance and renewal of the human spirit.
ISBN: 0-89381-545-4
Published by the Aperture Foundation.
Vivian Maier – A Photographer Found
The definitive monograph of American photographer Vivian Maier, exploring the full range and brilliance of her work and the mystery of her life, written and edited by noted photography curator and writer Marvin Heiferman; featuring 250 black-and-white images, color work, and other materials never seen before; and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman.
Vivian Maier’s story—the secretive nanny-photographer during her life who becomes a popular sensation shortly after her death—has, to date, been pieced together only from previously seen or known images she made and the handful of facts that have surfaced about her life. During her lifetime she shot more than 100,000 images, which she kept hidden from the world. In 2007, two years before her death, Chicago historic preservationist John Maloof discovered a trove of negatives, and roll upon roll of undeveloped film in a storage locker he bought at auction. They revealed a surprising and accomplished artist and a stunning body of work, which Maloof championed and brought to worldwide acclaim.
Website: Vivian Maier Photographer
ISBN: 978-0062305534; Publisher: Harper Design
The Italians – Bruno Barbey
In the early 1960s, internationally acclaimed photographer Bruno Barbey sought to capture with his camera the spirit of Italy. Here, his endearing modern commedia dell’arte of beggars, priests, nuns, carobinieri, prostitutes, and mafiosi- archetypal figures whose exotic charms helped to make the films of Pasolini, Visconti, and Fellini so popular- join with the subtle pen of best-selling novelist and essayist Tahar Ben Jelloun to reveal the essence of Italy in that period. The result is an evocative word-and-picture portrayal of the Italians.
Bruno Barbey is an award- winning photographer whose work has appeared in Time, Life, National Geographic, and many other international magazines, and is in the collections of numerous museums. He divides his time between France and Morocco.Tahar Ben lelloun has published 10 novels, four books of poetry, and three works of nonfiction. A native Moroccan, he lives in France.
ISBN: 0-8109-0558-2
Publisher: Harry N.Abrams, Inc.
Europeans – Henri Cartier Bresson
In 1955, Henri Cartier-Bresson published The Europeans, a collection of photographs taken over a period of five years. His portrait of the continent documented a landscape shadowed by war, where people lived among ruins and still bore the mark of hunger.
For this book, first published forty-five years later, the celebrated photographer brought together a far broader range of images, spanning the years from the late 1920s to the early 1990s. Cartier-Bresson travelled across Europe, from the Scandinavian shield to the Balkan karst, from the Breton granites to the Irish bogs, in order to capture what it means to be European. Beyond nationalism and the particular characteristics of each culture and nation, he found evidence of a greater identity, a family likeness shared by the people and the landscape.
ISBN:978-0-500-28122-2
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
The unguarded moment – steve mccurry
The unguarded moment is a vivid collection of portraits and scenes, reflecting the daily rituals and customs of people around the world. This arresting and beguiling selection brings together Steve McCurry’s most beautiful photographs over a period of thirteen years.
“As a photographer , I am sustained by the rhythms of every day life : the routines of herding and fishing, the chanting of prayers and the hawking of wares. My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe , and my camera is my passport.” ( Steve McCurry)
See also AntwerpPhoto 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7148-4664-4
Published by PHAIDON
Photographs of a lifetime – Dorothea Lange
This book contains the most comprehensive collection of the artist’s work ever published. It begins with portraits from her early years, when she was San Francisco’s most fashionable studio photographer. and it concludes with images from her final years, when Lange traveled the globe.
Central to this selection are the classic images that established Lange as the preeminent documentary artist of her time: the Depression.
One of my most favourable photo’s ever made is Migrant Mother, made in Nipomo, California in 1936.
ISBN: 0-89381-657-4
Published by the Aperture Foundation.
Orientalist Photographs – Éric Milet
Through more than 100n autochrome, sepia, and black-and-white photographs, from the advent of photography to the 1950’s, this book captures delicate, lost details from the Maghreb: the dusty, labyrinthine walls of the casbah; dappled sunlight on the market stall of a souk; the intricate metal work of traditional jewelry.
This collection of haunting images and incisive text vividly renders all the mystery, the beauty, and the naivité of the West’s encounter with a culture it found so radically different from its own.
ISBN: 978-2-0803-0089-8
Publisher: Flammarion
Photographs and Memories – Manuel Alvarez Bravo
From Aperture website:
Manual Alvarez Bravo’s photography was first introduced to an international audience in a prominent way in 1953, in issue No. 4 of Aperture. At the time, Aperture editor Minor White wrote about the photographer: “He sees with great facility. A friend writes that one has to put blinders on him til the destination of the day is reached, or he is out of film before he get there.”
Now, forty-four years later, we are honored to celebrate Don Manuel’s ninety-fifth year (and Aperture‘s forty-fifth anniversary) by continuing the tradition of publishing monographic issues devoted to the work of master photographers of our time. We feel especially fortunate to have had the collaboration of Don Manuel and his wife, Colette Alvarez Urbajtel (a serious photographer in her own right), in the selection of the images that comprise Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Photographs and Memories.
ISBN: 0-89381-721-x
Published by the Aperture Foundation.
Voula Papaïoannou – I Fotographos
Papaïoannou was born in Lamia, Greece, but grew up in Athens. She studied at the Polytechnic University of Athens and developed an interest in photography. With the outbreak of World War II, she took up documentary photography and began to photograph and document social subjects during the duration of the German and Italian occupation of Greece. She turned her camera to troops departing for the front line, and to the casualties of war, raising awareness of the various humanitarian issues such as the Great Famine which arose out of the occupation.[1] As Athens suffered a starvation crisis, Papaïoannou photographed emaciated children, providing an account of the horrors of war on the civilian population.
After the liberation, Papaïoannou became a member of the photographic unit of the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), touring the Greek countryside recording the hard conditions of rural life. Papaïoannou’s attention toward the hardships of the Greek population was honestly portrayed as proud and independent, optimistic for the future despite poverty.
ISBN: 978-960-8347-43-4
Published by : Benaki Museum
Edouard Boubat – Monograph
In a career that spanned more than fifty years, photographer Edouard Boubat (1923-1999) captured the magic of fleeting moments with tenderness and warmth. One of the most influential French photographers of the twentieth century, Boubat made elegant, poetic images – beginning with intimate views of everyday life in his native city of Paris and moving on to striking pictures taken during his travels in Africa, India, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and Japan, when he was working as a staff photojournalist for the well-known French magazine Realites.
This luxurious volume presents the entire range of Boubat’s work in more than three hundred tritone photographs. All his most famous images are here – including those of his muse, Lella – along with texts by writers Marguerite Duras, Michel Tournier, and Jacques Prevert, as well as Boubat’s own writings and notebook excerpts. Developed in close collaboration with Boubat’s son, Bernard, and photographer/filmmaker Genevieve Anhoury, this authoritative volume is the only existing monograph on the enduringly popular photographer.
Published by Thames & Hudson
The Roma Journey – Joakim Eskildsen & Cia Rinne
[Le romané phirimàta] Between 2000 and 2006 Cia Rinne and Joakim Eskildsen undertook travels in seven different countries with a view to gaining an insight into the life of the Roma and the conditions they face. They tried to spend a considerable length of time among the people whom they wanted to learn about and , if possible, to live with them for a wile.
For us it is a special book , since when we lived and travelled in Greece we came across Roma people very often and we were always in a positive way intrigued how the Roma lived and survived.
A great book, with unique photo’s.
ISBN: 978-3-86521-371-6
Printed by Steidl, Göttingen
En Route ( Onderweg) – Ad van Denderen
In 2023, I visited the impressive retrospective exhibition of Ad van Denderen: En Route ( Onderweg) at the Rotterdam Museum of Photography. En Route shows the development of documentary photographer Ad van Denderen. In the period 1965-2019, he addressed topics such as apartheid, migration and the geopolitical conflict between Israel and Palestine. Topics that are regretfully still relevant today. This major retrospective exhibition showcased the highlights of his career, which spans almost six decades.
The Nederlands Fotomuseum’s publication of the same name was published in the publication series of the Nederlands Fotomuseum, with the photographs from the exhibition and various essays.
Link to the publisher: Lecturis (please click)
Magnum contact sheets – Kristen Lubben
Presenting a remarkable selection of contact sheets and related material by 67 Magnum photographers, Magnum Contact Sheets lays bare the creative methods, strategies and editing processes behind some of the world’s most iconic images — was the final image a set-up, or a serendipitous encounter; did the photographer work to extract the potential from a situation, or was it the fabled ‘decisive moment’?
A co-production of: Magnum Photos, Forte di Bard and Thames & Hudson
We bought the Dutch version, published by THOTH.
Great Photographers – Grote Fotografen
In 2011, De Volkskrant published an impressive 20-volume collection of collected works by top photographers from the Netherlands and abroad. Each edition contains a selection of photos by the photographer in question, impressively displayed and provided with a description.
Every week a part of the series ‘Great Photographers’ was published with a 24-page book in A3 format with a detailed description of the photographer’s work.
The action started on Saturday 9 April with Robert Capa and ended on 20 August with Koos Breukel. In between, Dutch photographers such as Anton Corbijn, Rob Hornstra, Ed van der Elsken and Rineke Dijkstra, among others, passed by. But foreign photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, Robert Doisneau, Sebastião Salgado, Man Ray, Stephan Vanfleteren and Carl De Keyzer are also featured.
We bought all the parts, complete with a beautiful storage box. A unique initiative of De Volkskrant.
Greenland into White – Paolo Solari Bozzi
Foreword by Ragnar Axelsson
An original point of view on the Greenland landscapes, not only reproducing the beauty of nature but with a personal interpretation through black and white photography. This book will appeal to all nature lovers.
This beautiful volume collects ninety black and white images taken during a four month journey through the villages of the east coast of Greenland. It documents the culture of people living in this wild territory, characterized by extreme nature and climate conditions
Unha mirada de antanho – Ruth Matilda Anderson
In 1924, Ruth Matilda Anderson, a 29-year-old American photographer who was accompanied by her father, Alfred Theodore Anderson, and a complete photographic team that caused the astonishment of all customs officers.
Father and daughter began an expedition of approximately one year to document the essence of Galicia in Spain initiated by Archer Milton Huntington, reflecting ethnographic fieldwork and academics, so that a vision of the study of Hispanic culture in all its facets was photographed. For this purpose, Huntington turned to the Clarence H. White School of photography in search of professionals who would portray Spain in the 1920s, with two conditions in mind. First, they would have to be women, and the second of Christian religion.
Thus, in 1921 Ruth Matilda Anderson was hired as a research photographer at the Hispanic Society and in 1924 left for Spain on Huntington’s first commission.
Accompanied by her father, she toured Galicia, learned the languages, Spanish and Galician, and the local customs. She went to the villages and spoke to the people. Her care and empathy for women and men, favoured that her photographs reflected the Galician reality of the twenties.
Martin Chambi – 1920 – 1950
Many years ago I visited an exhibition in the Museum voor Volkenkunde (ethnology museum) in Rotterdam. More than 60 photos of Martin Chambi were shown. Martin Chambi was known as the Photographer of the Andes. He was born in Coaza in Peru and lived from 1891 – 1973. At the age of 14 he left Coaza and went to Arequipa. He started as an apprentice in the photo studio of T.Vargas. In 1917 het started his own photo studio in Sicuani, close to Cuzco the capital of the former Inca realm. His income came from portrait photography, but he is also known for his photos portraying the life of the native Indian people. The photos in the book are made about 90 years ago and it is amazing how good these photos are, with regard to composition, sharpness, lightning. Also the people that Martin Chambi photographed are unique. An historic document. If you are able to get hold of this book, just buy it.
Life – Raffaele Montepaone
Faces and hands wrinkled by time and hard work, old inhabitants of abandoned villages, that seem immersed in an immemorial past. The faces and hands are from hundred year old women of Calabria. Some of the photos I saw a few years ago in an article in the Black & White Photography magazine and I was impressed by these centennials that are so well captured by the photographer. I was happy this book came out and of course I bought it. Last week the book arrived and this is indeed a great book. It is must have for photographers. The book and photographer are introduced by Ferdinando Scianna, one of the best Italian photographers.
ISBN: 0-393-04683-4. Archivio Fotografico Italiana.
A Greek Portfolio – Constantine Manos
A collection of photographs made in isolated areas of rural Greece in the early 1960’s. Constantine Manos , a member of Magnum, traveled the countryside in search of images that capture the character and beauty of a way of life that had been virtually unchanged for centuries but has since been overtaken by the modern world. A vanishing Greece. The book represents for us Greece how we would like to remember it.
ISBN: 0-393-04683-4. Published by W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London
Tibet – minéral animal – Vincent Munier , Sylvain Tesson
Vincent’s Munier’s best pictures of wild Tibet, with texts by Sylvain Tesson. Finding a snow leopard is the holy Graal for naturalists,, travellers and photographers. His Nikon Special Project drew him to some of the most remote and untouched areas of Tibet. Vincent was able to photograph this notoriously shy and recessive animal. The result can be found in this fantastic book. I also recommend to read the book of Sylvain Tesson in which he describes this unique experience and adventure.
Please visit the site of Kobelann to order this book or other books of Vincent Munier: Kobelann.
Dark Heavens – Hamid Sardar
Shamans and hunters of Mongolia. Across the vast windswept plains of Mongolia, nomadic tribes freely roam, only guided by the rhythmic changes of the seasons. All well captured by Hamid Sardar with a breathtaking mix of color and black-and-white images.As mentioned in the book: This is a must-have for everyone interested in ethnology, photography and adventure. ISBN: 978-3-8327-3408-4.
Published by teNeues. Website: www.teneues.com.
Present – Stephan Vanfleteren
Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going” – Tennessee Williams. This book is a comprehensive retrospective of the work of one of the best photographers of the Benelux. The book is almost 500 pages thick with Stephan’s best black and white photos and stories.
ISBN: 978 94 6388 714 4. Published by Uitgeverij Hannibal: www.uitgeverijhannibal.be
Workers -Sebastiāo Salgado
Sebastiāo Salgado is my favourit photographer. This book ia a tribute to working men and women, with images of striking beauty and integrity. This book is the photography of humanity Gabriel García Márquez wrote And Nadine Gordimer wrote: This camera doesn’t just record, it’s part of the spirit of its subjects. An iconic work. An archaeology of the industrial age.
ISBN: 0-89381-525-x. Published by Aperture.
Sweet Nothings – Venessa Winship
The small schoolgirls of the borderlands in Eastern Anatolia. Venessa Winship wrote in her book: I was touched by the gravity in their demeanour at the moment in front of the camera, their fragility, their simplicity, their grace, their closeness to one another, but most of all I was struck by their complete lack of posturing. This book touches me every time I open it. A small photographic treasure.
ISBN: 978-2-8499-5129-3 Published by Images En Manœvres Éditions.
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