May 102013
The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression
This is an updated and newly revised edition of the classic book The Art of Photography (originally published in 1994), which has often been described as the most readable, understandable, and complete textbook on photography. With well over 100 beautiful photographic illustrations in both black-and-white and color, as well as numerous charts, graphs, and tables, this book presents the world of photography to beginner, intermediate, and advanced photographers seeking to make a personal statement
List Price: $ 44.95
Price: $ 24.99
A book that will connect the photographer to his/her photograph,
For someone who had no previous formal education in art of any sort including photography, this is the best book I came across. I was looking for a book that is not too advanced to understand about artistic compositions, but not too shallow that it simply tell you to apply “higher contrast is better”, “the rule of the third”, “the golden ratio” etc. without enough explanation. I actually came across some books like that which left me even more confused about compositions. Most of the time, I just blindly apply whatever I learned of composition.
But this book is totally different. It starts talking about the philosophy of how photography is connected personally to the photographer. Then it gives a detail analysis of all the elements of composition with great examples and with a language that even an amateur can understand. Best of all, the author did a great job at interconnecting all the elements to help the reader understand the importance of applying a combination of elements instead of focusing on just one of two of the elements. It is like putting all the puzzles together to solve a great mistery.
If you want to find a book that will teach you composition and connect yourself to your photography, this is the book.
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An Unneeded Update,
Here’s a case where Amazon’s star rating sytem doesn’t work very well. As described below, for a very small number of photographers this book will prove useful. For the vast majority of photographers it will not.
I’ve long been an admirer of the work of Bruce Barnbaum. An original Barnbaum print hangs on my wall. A copy of his book of photographs, “Visual Symphony” graces my coffee table. Several years ago I purchased a used copy of the original, but then out of print, “The Art of Photography” at an outrageous price. I have to confess that much of the book was unread because it dealt with film photography, and I had long since made the switch to digital.
Now “The Art of Photography” has been reissued in a revised form, supposedly updated for the digital age. The book attempts to cover all of photography from visualization to hanging the print on the wall. There are even chapters that discuss ideas like innovation and old saws like truth in photography. There are references to digital photography, but a great deal of the book is devoted to Barnbaum’s take on the zone system for film photography, including processing film to increase (or decrease) the range of light captured on the negative. There is a tip of the hat to digital photography, including the importance of the camera’s histogram to capture exposure, and reference to high dynamic range photography to increase the range of light for digital captures but the heart of the book is film. The book is illustrated with Barnbaum’s photographs, mostly in black-and-white, and they are drop-dead beautiful. If you like Ansel Adams you will love Bruce Barnbaum’s images.
I suppose these images alone may justify the updating. Certainly the content will be interesting to those who still practice black-and-white film photography, although I suspect that these folks, already being specialists, may be familiar with what the author has to say. (I really can’t comment on that; it’s been years since I worked in a chemical darkroom.) The digital photographer will find that there just isn’t enough detail in looking to this book for technique. It’s a shame because I would have loved to see an explanation of how to achieve Barnbaum’s beautiful effects in Lightroom or Photoshop.
The sections on the artistic aspects of photography are interesting but somewhat elementary. Barnbaum doesn’t succeed in telling us what it is in an image that turns it from just an image to art. (Of course, I really don’t know any authors who do this, although there are several people, most recently George Barr in “Why Photographs Work: 52 Great Images Who Made Them, What Makes Them Special and Why“, who have made valiant efforts to accomplish this impossible task.)
The bottom line is that if you are unfamiliar with Barnbaum’s work, this book is worth it for the images. If you are a film photographer, the technical data may prove useful. If you are a digital photographer looking for technical help, look elsewhere.
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Expansive theory, dated craft,
Books about photography can be placed across a very wide spectrum. Some focus almost entirely on the mechanics of capturing and producing images in a pleasing but essentially documentary fashion. Others approach the making of photographs from a largely aesthetic point of view emphasizing the physiology of human vision, emotion, creativity, and the artistic elements of light, color, composition, style, and social discrimination. A few attempt the difficult task of trying to cover all the bases, usually coming up short due to limited time and space, or by fostering exceedingly narrow points of view.
In this book, Bruce Barnbaum covers a great deal of territory, including theory, mechanics, philosophy, psychology, and the expression of a strong personal viewpoint along with over 100 images illustrating specific points, all wrapped in a nicely produced square format with a fairly elegant feel for a paperback. For the photographer who is a serious student of the art and craft of imaging it’s a wealth of information, and certainly an excellent learning tool and reference piece. It is not, however, without limitations.
First is the fact that the views expressed are quite narrow in perspective. There’s no question that the author is exceedingly bright, highly experienced, and duly lauded within the tight-knit community of well-known fine-art photographers. But photography as a medium deserves freedom from too much pigeonholing. The strong emphasis in this piece is on artistically created large-format black & white images processed in a wet darkroom and delivered in the form of silver prints. Yes, there is a nod toward color, and to digital capture and processing, but large chunks of space are devoted to elaborate film-related discussions of Zone System exposure followed by contrast-controlling development and printing methods using chemicals and other materials that are increasingly expensive and hard to get. These methods are not obsolete, but are practiced by an ever-diminishing percentage of image-makers. There certainly are valuable principles buried in this discussion that apply to photography in general, but for a great many readers the arcane specifics of wet darkroom procedures won’t be of much value. Another limitation is the mixed nature of an “updated” book. With so much of the material referencing film and chemical-based processes, the added sections on digital have a distinctly “tacked-on” feel…hard to avoid without a very time-consuming total re-write.
Of most value from my perspective are the discussions regarding photography as a communication tool, personal integrity, creativity, and working toward a personal philosophy of imaging. Even though the book represents a fairly narrow emphasis on landscapes and architecture, the author strongly recommends maintaining flexibility in every aspect of photography. After all, creating images is in the final analysis a very personal endeavor.
Who might benefit most from this book? Really serious photographers who already have considerable experience in the craft and are seeking to learn as much as possible about the philosophical and artistic side of imaging. For those just starting out it’s likely to be a pretty heavy lift. I’d like to see a full rewrite with less focus on specific craft and more thoughtful discussion on aesthetics with a view to visual communication in the 21st century.
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