 | Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art by John Szarkowski
Buy used from: $144.89 Outstanding meditations on the meaning of photographs by the greatest living writer in the field
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 | Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $3.96 By a man who is the last line of defense against disillusion for those who believe photographers can be artists.
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 | Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series by John Berger
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $0.50 "Photography is subversive."
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 | The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye
Buy used from: $89.95 A book about the nature of craft--thought-provoking for those who craft photographic prints
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 | THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN AMERICA by MICHAEL L. CARLEBACH
Buy used from: $9.40 Wonderful book, more readable (and more valuable) than some more general histories
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 | American Photojournalism Comes of Age by Michael L. Carlebach
Buy new: $29.56 / Used from: $6.99 Second volume of Carlebach's excellent history
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 | Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
Buy new: $9.56 / Used from: $4.89 Make the mental leap from shooting arrows to shooting pictures, and this becomes virtually an instruction manual for camera handling and shooting skills.
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 | Occam's Razor: An Outside-In View of Contemporary Photography by Bill Jay
The tastiest book from this freethinking iconoclast.
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 | On Being a Photographer: A Practical Guide by David Hurn
Buy new: $12.95 / Used from: $11.67 There's plenty out there about how to make pictures; this is a how-to book about being an artist and making art.
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 | Art and Illusion by E. H. Gombrich
Buy new: $25.05 / Used from: $10.00 Classic. Although it's a textbook, extremely readable and fascinating.
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 | Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Buy used from: $47.65 You can't actually READ this book; just dip into it; go fishing in it; meditate on it. Great photo-philosophical Ouija board.
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 | Photography and Society by Gisele Freund
Buy used from: $15.00 Seminal, indispensable, and good reading to boot.
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 | Tao Te Ching, 25th-Anniversary Edition by Lao Tsu
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $8.52 What most Americans think of as "zen" is actually Taoism, and to be a real photographer you've got to be just a little bit of a Taoist....
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 | The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2) by Ansel Adams
Buy new: $16.50 / Used from: $10.45 Tremendously influential, and a case study in how Adams engaged with the art and made it his own.
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 | Robert Frank: The Americans by Robert Frank
Buy used from: $84.97 Pictures that repay concentrated looking.
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 | Depth of Field: Essays on Photographs, Lens Culture and Mass Media by A. D. Coleman
Buy used from: $3.00 One of the most serious and sustained of photo critics, Coleman is always worth reading.
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 | Photography from 1839 to Today: George Eastman House, Rochester, Ny (Klotz) by William S. Johnson
Buy used from: $18.59 A little brick of a book, a pocket history. Great handbook showing where we've been
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 | The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 2: 1939-1962 by William Carlos Williams
Buy new: $28.88 / Used from: $18.49 The best photographs have an element of poetry. Williams is the most photographic of poets.
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 | Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $6.95 Process issues for artists, especially concerned with what stops us from achieving our best
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| Leica m the Advanced School of Photography by Gunter Osterloh
Buy used from: $99.95 A good book for camera buffs; also has useful camera-handling tips throughout.
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