Photographer Cig Harvey Shares Stories About Creating Her New Book Emerald Drifters
Jeff Larason (The Crit House) talks with photographer Cig Harvey about her new book Emerald Drifters.
Photographer Dan Milnor Shares Self-Publishing Secrets
Jeff Larason (The Crit House) talks with pioneering self-publisher photographer Dan Milnor.
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3 Books To Help You Get To Know The Mind Of Photographer Stephen Shore
The Nature of Photographs
The Nature of Photographs provides a framework for understanding the visual language of photography by analyzing the fundamental elements that contribute to a photograph’s form and meaning. It aims to help readers understand the mechanics of how a photograph functions visually. Shore explains how the qualities of a photograph, such as the collapsing of depth, the relationship between lines and the frame, and the duration of exposure, create tension and meaning.
Shore suggests that photographs can be viewed on multiple levels:
Physical Level: Recognizing the photograph as a physical object, a print with specific characteristics like size, paper texture, and printing process.
Depictive Level: Understanding how the 3-dimensional world is transformed into a 2-dimensional image through techniques like flatness, frame, time, and focus.
Mental Level: Acknowledging the mental process of apprehending the image and its interaction with the depictive level. This involves the focus of the lens, eye, attention, and mind.
The Nature of Photographs features a wide range of photographs from various eras and genres, including iconic images, documentary photography, and everyday snapshots, illustrating Shore’s concepts.
Shore’s writing is described as lucid, perceptive, and thought-provoking, offering clear explanations and insightful observations delivered in a concise, even poetic, style.
Now a classic, it’s considered an indispensable tool for students, teachers, and anyone interested in taking better photographs or looking at them in a more informed way. It teaches viewers how to see through the eyes of a photographer.
Modern Instances
Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography (MACK Books) is a memoir by renowned photographer Stephen Shore. It offers insights into Shore’s career and creative process, drawing on his decades of teaching and exploring the influences that have shaped his work. The book is a blend of essays, photographs, stories, and excerpts, functioning as an “impressionistic scrapbook” that documents the touchstones of his journey.
Modern Instances reveals Shore’s artistic vision, stylistic leanings, and the inspirations behind his images. While containing some of Shore’s images, the book features reproductions of other art forms like paintings and movie stills. Shore contrasts photography with painting, describing it as an “analytic” process where the photographer brings order to the world through framing and other decisions. Shore encourages readers to find inspiration in the everyday world by paying close attention to their surroundings.
The Mental Image
Stephen Shore is hard at work finishing his latest book The Mental Image (MACK Books), which takes what he’s done in his previous books even further. We’ll discuss key the ideas in it in our upcoming conversation.
June 18 – Join us for a Conversation online with Santa Fe Workshops.
View 12 Great Photographs By Stephen Shore.
Read 13 Great Quotes By Photographer Stephen Shore.
William Neill’s Yosemite: Sanctuary In Stone
Order this book here.
Pre-Order offer ends on July 9.
11.6 x 11.6″
168 pages
128 photographs
Also available in a Deluxe/Collector’s Edition with your choice of prints.
When one thinks of photography in Yosemite, one thinks first of Ansel Adams and then William Neill. And for good reason. When you love a place, you look at it differently. William Neill’s photographs of Yosemite clearly demonstrate a lifelong passion for this very special place, made even more special by his dedicated attention to it.
“Now it is finally time to realize this project I dreamed of 20 years ago. Yosemite: Sanctuary in Stone is a personal collection of photographs reflecting 46 years of dedication to this wonderous landscape. Living here, photographing Yosemite and its vicinity, I have been working towards this dream for much of my lifetime.” – William Neill
I’ve seen the preview. You’re in for a treat!
Until you see it, get to know William Neill better in these collected resources.
William Neill’s Book The Photographer’s Portfolio Development Workshop
Preoccupied with tools and techniques, few photographers speak to thematic development, which is exactly what William Neill does in his book The Photographer’s Portfolio Development Workshop.
The lessons it offers were originally designed for his BetterPhoto online course (offered for eight years but no longer available) and have now been updated and have helped thousands deepen their visual voice.
One look at the sections in its table of contents will show you the journey it offers you.
Find Your Focus
Think In Themes
Edit On A Technical And Aesthetic Level
Build Upon A Theme
Add Depth To Your Portfolio
Refine Your Theme
Where You Can Go From Here
Put It All Together
I judge books not by their covers but by their tables of contents. This one is well worth the time taken to get to know it. At 100 highly illustrated pages, making the time for this book is not a big commitment, but it will likely help you make a bigger commitment to your photography.
Get 40% off with the discount code – WNEILL40.
Learn more about William Neill here.
3 Great Books On Photographic Contact Sheets
You can learn a lot about looking by looking at photographers’ contact sheets. (Today, it’s digital collections.) It’s the closest any of us will get to see how another person goes through searching for an image. Warm-ups, near misses, fine-tuning compositions, and the decision of when to stop or move on to something someplace else entirely; they’re all significant and informative. It’s rare to be able to see photographers other than ourselves at work like this.
You can enjoy the search for great images by great photographers in these three books.
(Click on the images for links to the books.) You can even purchase select Magnum Contact Sheets for display.
View my digital contact sheets here.
Learn more with my Visual Storytelling resources.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
The Heart Of The Photograph – David DuChemin
David DuChemin’s new book The Heart Of The Photograph is an emotional meditation on what really matters when we make photographs. His 100 Questions For Making Stronger More Expressive Photographs is rich food for thought and for the soul. Reading this book will give you time to pause and reflect on what matters most to you and your photography. What could be more important?
Find out more about The Heart Of The Photograph here.
Find out more about David DuChemin here.
Read David DuChemin’s Q&A here.
Read David DuChemin’s Favorite Quotes here.
View 12 Great Photographs By David DuChemin here.
12 Great Photographs From Chris Rainier's New Book Mask
In his new book Mask, Chris Rainier focuses his lens on the uses of masks across cultures, religions, and eras to reveal something universal about humanity.
You’ll want to read this book twice. First, just look at it. Then, read the back matter.
The images are extremely powerful on their own yet the book takes us even deeper with the additi0n of ethnographer Robert L Welsch’s comments on the individual masks, traditions, and cultures.
Learn more about Mask and Chris Rainier here.
Jay Maisel’s New Book – Light, Gesture & Color
You might be tempted to think less of this book because it’s not hard cover, because the reproduction is fine but not stellar, because of the typography is extraordinarily average, or because despite that fact that the title is the stock phrase Jay that is most known for and the selection of images is not definitive. But you’d be missing the point. Light Gesture & Color is one of Jay Maisel’s best books.
Light Gesture & Color is like having an intimate conversation with a master photographer about his enduring passion. Short and sweet. Direct. Pithy. That’s how Jay Maisel serves up a lifetime of hard-earned wisdom. Most of the pages with text have half a dozen lines. One has two – and it’s enough. Better still, each page builds on the other.
You could read this book in a single sitting. I did. I recommend the experience. But I also recommend you read it again – and again. Mark the pages you want to return to for in a few simple lines there are life lessons to be found and refound. It is not that you have to think long and hard to figure out what he’s saying; Jay’s already done that work for you. It is that you’ll need more time to truly internalize what he has found and shared, until it is deeply felt; he did. Do this and you will be a better photographer. You’ll learn to see more. What could be more important?
Find Light Gesture & Color here.
Find out more about Jay Maisel here.
Read 20 Questions with Jay Maisel here.
Read a collection of quotes by Jay Maisel here.
Read Jay’s favorite quotes here.
Here’s an example of Jay at his best.
Book – Salgado's Genesis
“Salgado likens GENESIS to ‘my love letter to the planet.’ Over 30 trips – travelled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions – Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals,and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty.”
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“Whereas the limited Collector’s Edition is conceived like a large-format portfolio that meanders across the planet, this unlimited book presents a selection of photographs arranged in five chapters geographically: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia and Pantanal. Each in its own way, this book and the Collector’s edition—both edited and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado—pay homage to Salgado’s triumphant and unparalleled GENESIS project.”
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