The Online Photographer

Happy to report that in the previous book sale with Yale University Press, you (the collective "you") bought 416 copies of Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography, 148 copies of Lee Friedlander's Family in the Picture and 139 copies of his In the Picture.

A question for you, just because I'm personally interested: do you have anything in your photo book library that could constitute a mini-collection within the collection? I think book lovers / book buyers tend to do that. I have a poet friend who finds he has gathered, without deliberately intending to, a large number of different editions of Dante. The excellent bookseller Andy Moursund of Washington D.C. and environs has a magnificent photo book collection (I've never seen it), but it is particularly strong, he tells me, in books featuring New York City. I could see a street photography aficionado gathering a nucleus of titles about street photography, which have proliferated over the past few years. I personally have a little half-shelf of books of snapshot photography. I don't know why, really...it's just that each time I find out about one, it seems to want the company of the others.

In any event, thanks to everyone who bought a book in this sale; I hope you're enjoying your purchase!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Spreading photobooks and good cheer across the globe
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Bill Mitchell: "Mini(?) collections of Strand, HC-B, Weston, AA, and Leica-associated people and things."

Edd Fuller: "While my collection ranges far and wide, I do have a 'mini collection' devoted to railroad photography. There is a large body of work by very accomplished photographers who have explored railroad subjects, from O. Winston Link to David Plowden. Of course, railroads interest me, but I generally find work driven by a single subject—baseball, sailing yachts, architecture, bridges, etc.—particularly compelling."

Joe in L.A.: "I'm not sure this is what you are looking for, but, while I have an eclectic mix of photography books, I just noticed that I have an entire shelf of those featuring National Geographic photographers. I just can't resist their work and the stories they tell!"

Andrew: "The best-represented photographer in my modest collection is Martin Parr. I have most of his monographs, a couple of collections and some of his writing too (the three-volume photobook history with Gerry Badger). Just got on a Parr kick at a time when I was ravenously purchasing books."

Nigli: "My collection is heavily weighted to Czech photographers: Sudek, Drtikol, Koudelka, Streit, Tichy, Mucha (better known for his paintings). Another sub-collection would be books I've found out about here."

Speed: "My mini-collection is of books offered for sale by TOP. Photo books are expensive enough that I'm not inclined to buy from Amazon sight unseen. And today, aside from TOP and your so-far excellent recommendations, Amazon is it."

Mike replies: Well all right!

William Schneider: "I taught in a department that offers photojournalism among its majors. Each year, we'd have three or four notable photographers visit and present their work to students. Often they would have a book signing afterward. My mini-collection is photojournalism as a result of this."

JG: "I have a few sub-collections in my modest photo book collection, but the largest of them are books by the photographers included in the 1975 New Topographics exhibition in Rochester. At last count, I had 37 New Topographics-related books, including a copy of the original exhibition catalog. (In case you are curious, George Tice and Gerry Johansson are tied for second place.)"

mike plews: "Mrs. Plews and I both like Wright Morris a lot. I'm a photographer and she is an English major so it works out pretty well. We have assembled a collection of his photo books, novels and short stories."

Barry Burris: "I have a subset of my normal collection that is just different editions of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Maybe two dozen different editions, specifically several annotated editions. I have read the book at least a dozen different times during my life and have yet to read the same edition twice.

"And for reasons unknown to me I keep all my Keith Carter photograph books separate from all my other photography books (100+). Nick Brandt's book are kept separate also, but this is primarily due to the disparity in the sizes of each book. In both collections I keep all the books I have not yet read, and in the case of photography books, spent at least several dedicated hours looking at, separated from all the rest I have read. Guess which stack is always growing faster. In the words of the late Warren Zevon...(paraphrashing): 'We buy books thinking we are also buying the time to read them.'"

Mike replies: I also have a number of editions of Walden. My favorite is a tiny little reprint of the Oxford World's Classics hardcover, the one that's four or five inches high. But now we're off topic!

Rodger Kingston: "I built a major collection of Walker Evans publications—over 2,000 books, periodicals, posters, and ephemera—which I sold as a collection in 2011. Now I find that I've re-accumulated 50+ Evans titles, a number of which were sent to me by authors and publishers I've been helpful to over the years. Also, I've accumulated 50+ books on Edward Hopper. Both of these artists have been a big influence on my own photography."

Mike replies: I've heard of many collectors who continue to collect after the major collection is sold. It seems there is always some residual energy left over from the effort!

Steve Jones: "My photography book collection started relatively late in life, so I’m still just trying to get the basics. However, when I collected records, I primarily centered on 1970s Bowie, Elvis Costello, the Clash, and the Sex Pistols (five different versions of 'Never Mind the Bullocks,' for which my brother berated me as being anathema to the whole point of punk).

"It’s interesting that you pointed out 'don’t know why,' because while I was an absolute Bowie freak, the other concentrated efforts, particularly the Clash, just seemed to manifest subconsciously, as I certainly could have made a greater effort with, say, the Ramones. I actually don’t buy ‘to collect’ these days—it’s all much more utilitarian—but I’ve since discovered that the fleeting production of certain photography books (including ones that I’ve bought due to your intervention: Jason Eskenazi’s Wonderland and Edward Weston’s Life Work for example ) invariably become collectibles.

"Now that I think about it, 'Mike’s Recommended,' which includes the latest offering, has a pretty solid presence among my photography books.

"And while living in Tokyo, I picked up a disproportionate number of Daido Moriyama books—an embryonic mini collection perhaps. Just to note, perhaps no other country in the world caters so splendidly to collector fanaticism than does Japan…God bless them!"

Mike replies: I used to have a whole case of CDs marked "Kimfluence," since they were all recommended, or mentioned, or given to me, by my ex-DJ friend Kim Kirkpatrick. But now we're off-topic....

David sauro: "I've recently been collecting Paul Caponigro and John Sexton books. An amazing education!"

Michael Meyer: "About two thirds of my photo book collection is composed of contemporary Korean photo books. Within that focus I have several of what you might consider mini-collections. The publisher Noonbit has been publishing its 'Noonbit Collection of Korean Photographers' Works' series for several years now. I have the initial set of the series but have not been able to keep up with the pace at which they release new sets. I also have numerous books from small presses such as Corners and Datz Press. Of individual photographers, my shelves feature a number of books from the prolific Seung Woo Back, though by no means everything he's published, and a number of books from curator Suejin Shin, whose work I admire immensely. I started a blog several years back about the books in my collection, www.koreanphotographybooks.com, written from an (informed) enthusiast's perspective. It's been a wonderful way for me to engage with the books."

Peter Marquis-Kyle: "This mini-collection might not qualify for the photo book label, but I seem to have a lot of biographies and autobiographies of photographers (including Sally Mann's wonderful Hold Still that I heard about on this blog)."

Marcelo Guarini: "This is funny. I'm not a poet, but I like to read and (try to) memorize beautiful poems. In my poetry book collection I have nine different versions of the Dante's Divine Comedy. Today I'm able to recite a few parts in the original Tuscan dialect; it flows like beautiful music.

"Regarding my photo book collection, the only mini-collection is of Michael Kenna books. He is not one of my favorite photographers, so I think is because his books are beautifully presented (i.e., Japan, covered with red silk, and Hokkaido with real wood covers)."

Got this in the email stack this morning, from Peter F.:

Greetings from a long-time TOP reader. I was wondering, can you recommend any book(s) or resources that would be particularly useful for someone teaching photography "in real time?" What I mean is, not by critiquing work a student has done, but by actually standing next to them, coach-style, while they walk around with a camera. Real-time instructions for seeing well, as it were. If that calls something to your mind, I'll definitely buy through your links :-) .

The only thing that comes to mind for me is that there's a whole genre of what I call "how I shot this" books. The most popular among our kind of reader as far as I know are one by Dan Winters and one by Joe McNally, but there are lots of others—Annie's is a book of hers to have IMNSHO, and David DuChemin is popular although I don't know his work (is he sort of the Michael Freeman of today?), and I'll put in another plug for a good color book by a photo teacher. Harald has a newer book, too.

The Dan Winters book is a great big laundry basket full of fun photography stuff, and, like Annie's book, beautifully made. For a "shooting coach," though, it's doubtful anyone can surpass Jay Maisel, who has a fine way of both being lofty and also just lighting a fire under your butt in a practical and down-to-earth way. Two good ones are Light, Gesture & Color and It's Not About the F-Stop.

New blood
I don't know, though, these seem like aging recommendations I've put forth before. Not that good books go bad, because they don't, but maybe readers will, in the cloud of their infinite collective wisdom, have fresher recommendations for newer titles—or older gems—or have a different idea of what Peter is asking about. That's why I posted this, in the hope that other people might have other helpful suggestions. If you do suggest a different book, I hope you can give us a thumbnail review, if you have the time and don't mind.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

We're all for new
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John Krumm: "The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great by Steve Simon might be what you are looking for. Despite the not-so-humble sounding title, Simon is very down to earth, funny, and a good teacher."

Stephen Voss: "The book I wish I had read earlier in my photographic career was Pictorial Composition. I've never encountered a book that lays out ideas about composition better and it feels like an absolute necessity for anyone learning to communicate in images."

Frank Petronio: "I've found them all rather 'light' but the Dan Winter's book is probably the most appealing to your audience. But for sheer guilty pleasure and enjoying a master photographer's work I recommend Arthur Elgort's books. Camera Crazy is 99% vintage film cameras and a lot of fun. Another one for your audience is Camera Ready: How to Shoot Your Kids. And Models Manual is probably the one fashion photography book that grumpy old bearded men should own. It's great!"

LeifT: "Though old, I think that Donald Schon's book The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action and especially the chapter 'Design as a reflective conversation with the situation' gives some indications of what is involved in a teaching situation like that."

Richard Alan Fox: "Caution on that Dan Winters book, lots of words, takes a long time to read. Better stick to Mike's blog, just the right mix of words and pictures."

Mike replies: I like you.

Kenneth Tanaka: "So many of today's photographic instruction books are either 'copy me' exercises or ego trips. Often both. Neither are worth their ink or paper. From my never-been-a-teacher-but-lots-of-time-in-class cheap seat it seems to me that the great challenge of any kind of art 'instruction' is to toss the marginal students life rings rather than formulae. Talented students don't need the teacher, except as an enabler and path-clearer. But not-so-talented students will most benefit from gaining firm mind-holds onto visual concepts and principles (that talented students usually find intuitive) from which they can build their early pursuits. One general recommendation I can confidently offer towards this goal would be Molly Bang's Picture This: How Pictures Work. It's a very fundamental book that deals not specifically with photographs but rather with the way in which 2D figure ground compositions and colors affect our perceptions. A canny photography teacher would couple Molly's lessons with photographic exercises that put the lessons into actual practice. Unfortunately this book is out of print. But it's inexpensive and not difficult to find in the secondary market."

Mike replies: Rather than "talented students don't need the teacher, except as an enabler and path-clearer," mightn't it be closer to the mark to say that those with talent never lose their ability to be students—or to find new teachers? Cf. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Suzuki, an important book for me (and many others). I agree with you about M. Bang.

Geoff Wittig: "David DuChemin's books are kind of a phenomenon of their own. They're equal parts personal, inspirational and practical, though they differ a bit in their focus. He's more of a modern Freeman Patterson than a Michael Freeman, if that makes sense.

"Within The Frame is DuChemin's best known book, currently in its second edition, and it's a delight to read, emphasizing photography as a tool to explore what matters to you visually. The Visual Toolbox is a bit more nuts 'n bolts, discussing how to go about choosing the appropriate lens/focal length or narrative style to say what you're trying to say. The Print and the Process is even more linear, exploring the path from the initial glance or visual idea to the final photograph. Finally, A Beautiful Anarchy is more along the lines of David Bayles' and Ted Orland's classic Art and Fear; it's a collection of short essays on the creative process and overcoming your own mental roadblocks.

"DuChemin has other books out I'm not as familiar with, including VisionMongers, which is about photography as a career."

William Lewis: "The ones I know are older but they remain the best for what the teacher is looking for: Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams and On Being a Photographer by David Hurn and Bill Jay. I don't know if they'll help him but they certainly helped me."

Phil: "The one that comes to mind immediately is The Nature of Photographs: A Primer by Stephen Shore. It's not new, either, and maybe it's not enough about what you see through the viewfinder, but I've found it to be extremely educational. Even though I've been shooting for years, it gently pointed me to some bad habits and blind spots that I had been ignoring."

Dave Heath, New York City, 1962

Robert Frank said "Black and white are the colors of photography," but he was wrong. Turns out, black and white were the colors of film photography—mainly, anyway—during the medium's first hundred and fifty or sixty years. The colors of digital photography are highly controllable, easily reproducible, effectively unlimited colors, thank you very much. (It was Carl Weese who said to me way back in the mid-'90s that B&W was already essentially perfect—true—but that digital was the coming of age of color. Also true.)

But black-and-white's long, 160-year period of dominance was a happy historical accident in my view. Not only did it "encourage" practitioners into a long and fecund concentration on tone and its many mysteries, but the basic "double negative" nature of the majority of photographic techniques meant that the print was a common necessity. We and the culture of our chosen medium are the richer for both those things.

Today I just wanted to mention that for any practitioner (and I've always written for practitioners), seeking out and continually appreciating examples is an important learning tool as well as, of course, an ongoing delight. Regular readers know how much I adore photobooks, and there are many reasons why, mainly that they are the basic form of artworks created by photographers. But one lesser reason, for me, is that they're an easy and practical way of keeping examples at hand. That avuncular and energetic paragon of 20th century American landscape photography, Ansel Adams, even published a whole book called Examples.

I've only had the opportunity to collect photobooks occasionally and sporadically, so my library is quite small, less than a thousand volumes. But one thing I'm always on the lookout for, even if I can't buy them when I find them, are books that are examples of fine B&W photography. I appreciate beautiful B&W for its own sake, and the pictures don't have to be to my own taste in tonality for me to appreciate them; I like distinct and coherent styles finely rendered in well-crafted books.

It would be absolutely impossible to compile a list of great books that are examples of well-done B&W, but I'll mention a few now and more as we go along here (and, if all goes well, we'll be offering a great one ourselves soon, for a bargain price). If you work in monochrome, whether film or digital or both, it's a very good idea to keep a lookout for excellent examples by successful masters of tonality.

You can find them anywhere if you're on the lookout. They need not be great books and they need not be by famous photographers. In the past I've bought auction catalogs and even fashion magazines because they contained examples of superb B&W. One little thing I love is a publication of a photo gallery to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. It is Seeing Things, published by the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco in 1995. It's meant as a little shopfront window for the gallery's offerings and Jeffrey Fraenkel's excellent taste, and it contains a wide variety of work by many disparate photographers in both B&W and color. It pulls off the hard trick of reproducing many different kinds of work, mostly with great success. The cover is an snapshot, an exquisite one. As a book it's close to ephemera, but the judgement brought to bear on the reproduction was outstanding and this slender, modest paperback is a little gem.

Then there's Ground Time, the legacy of Kent Reno. Kent died in 2011 of Parkinson's disease. He was a most interesting photographer, in my view. He started with an ambition to be a photojournalist, but was diverted into a long, successful career as an airliner pilot. At first he tried to practice professional photography in the spaces between flights, but he found that impractical, so he became a devoted amateur who photographed while he was on the ground all over the world in between flights—hence "ground time." He remained ambitious and serious. He was a superb printmaker, with highly refined judgement. Ground Time, his book, is a treat. Kent's taste in tonality is somewhat different than mine but it is highly coherent and purposive, and beautifully reproduced in the book. One could do worse from a life as an amateur photographer (amateur in the highest sense of the word) than to leave behind such a well-seen, well-made testament.

Ground Time is hard to find, and so is this next book—Explorations by Ray McSavaney. Ray's name will be familiar to practitioners and fans of the West-Coast school of large-format photography. His book on the other hand can be appreciated by anyone. There's a bit of dissonance in it for me—his prose is foursquare and earthbound, but the pictures soar, and sing. I find them collectively to be very close to magical; as a photographer he's a great favorite of mine. I didn't know him. I hope he was a good guy. I'm a fan and a devoted admirer. In the present context, you could do a lot worse than to study Ray's great command of tonality.

I'm apparently alone in my admiration for this next book. Mexico: the Revolution and Beyond is a superlative presentation of the archive of the Mexican working photographer Agustin [sic] Victor Casasola. If you don't mind historical pictures or if you have an interest in Mexico, this book is a very fine example of the preferred tonalities of an earlier era (of which you can also get a good taste from Shorpy). Produced by Turner in Madrid and printed and bound in Spain, it's a ravishing example of expert bookmaking. The reproductions balance on the razor's edge of spot-on.

I guess that's enough for now. Even with my small library, as soon as I start talking about books, more and more start popping into my mind, both before I publish the post and afterward.

Before I go I would be remiss not to mention two of TOP's previous Books of the Year, Richard Benson's The Printed Picture and our friend Keith Davis's Multitude, Solitude: the Photographs of Dave Heath. I hope you bought the former title during the stretch of time that I was urging you to, because it's already gotten pretty expensive. If you're interested in B&W tonality, the latter is one you need to have. It, too, is already out of print and rising in price. I should have bought two!

At any rate, these are just a few of my exemplars. Yours could very well be different. Whatever style of photography you practice or prefer, however, collecting some examples helps you calibrate your eye and gives you something to strive for. And I have to say it has brought me great joy.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

A matter of tone
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Eric Brody: "I had the privilege of doing a couple of workshops with Ray McSavaney. He was a genuine photographic hero to me and to many others. Bruce Barnbaum prophetically said years before his passing that he'd not get his deserved fame until he died; sad but true. His book is inspirational but spending time with him was the real treat. He spoke incredibly slowly and with long pauses, but if one had the patience to wait, what came out was pure excellence.

"I spent one of the best photographic afternoons of my life in a house at Bodie, just him and I, chatting and fiddling with our view cameras. His print reviews were incredibly thoughtful and well done. His death from lymphoma was just sad. John Sexton and others got together and have saved his archives.

"Glad you mentioned him, Mike, brought back some wonderful memories."

Joe Holmes: "My all-time favorite book of B&W photos is the crazy-wonderful Cherry Blossom Time in Japan: The Complete Works by Lee Friedlander. It's published by Frankel Gallery and printed, according to the description, 'by the laborious dry-trap process (in which one ink at a time is laid on its page and must dry before the next ink is printed).' I don't know anything about the process, but the images are incredible, at least in the hardbound first edition I found in a used bookstore a few years ago.

"The other crazy but genius trick of the book is that the landscape and portrait oriented photos each get their own half of the book. Open the book one way and you can view the horizontal images until halfway through the book. Flip the book over and it turns into a book that you look through in portrait orientation. Two books in one!

"Of course the most crazy-wonderful of all about the book is that Friedlander created an entire body of work about Japanese cherry blossoms in black and white!

"Googling about, I see that plenty of used copies seem to be available, and far less expensive than, say, Friedlander's Flowers and Trees. (Be sure you're getting the hardbound—don't know if the trade version is printed as well.)"

Mike replies: Your comment by itself is an excellent little thumbnail review of that book. Extreme measures in printing taken in the service of rendering gentleness, delicacy, and subtlety.

I had to have it when it came out, even though I didn't have the money for it at the time. "Crazy-wonderful" is the perfect description, you hit the nail on the head.

Roy Feldman: "Everyone has a different palette. For me any book by Salagdo and the Turnley French Kiss book provides the template(s) I try to achieve."

Jeff Markus: "Ray was a very good guy, one of the best. In the ego-driven eighties/nineties L.A. photo world he was a calm oasis, a gentle soul. Always modest about his talent, which was very large. An absolutely sublime printer."

Steve Caddy: "One of the finest, most nuanced black-and-white books I've ever seen—Pentti Sammallahti's Here, Far Away—was also a TOP discovery."

Mike replies: And right on theme for this post, because it too is out of print now and hard to find. Buying photobooks is like buying a house—gotta seize the opportunities when they present themselves!

brad: "Mike surprised me with his mention of my friend Kent Reno. I thought you would like a 'Kent Story.' That's Kent at the right.

"Kent was a very cool customer. Picture Sam Shepard in 'The Right Stuff.' Kent had been a Flight Safety Officer in the Air Force, and was an excellent pilot. He was DC-8 Captain and had thousands of hours flying for Trans International Airlines out of Oakland, California. When seeing Kent he might mention something about one of his flights. He had a great sense of humor. His delivery was almost emotionless, like he was just recounting a humdrum event.

"So, Kent says, telling me of a flight from Europe to the States: 'We were out a few hours and a flight attendant came into the cabin. She said a women in seat 17F [or whatever] is causing quite a commotion. She's handing out large amounts of cash to the other passengers. She's up and down the aisle giving out money.'

"Kent said the crew was always playing little jokes on each other, so he smiles at the attendant and says, 'nice one!' Then the attendant showed him a fistful of large bills saying, 'She says this is for us.' Kent answered, 'I'd better go back and talk to her.' So, he takes the cash and goes back to her seat. He said she was well dressed but looked a bit ruffled and had been drinking. He sat in an empty seat next to her and introduced himself. Returning the cash, he said, 'we can't accept gifts. It's company policy.' The woman just looked at him and was quiet for a bit, then grabbed him by his coat and began screaming, 'who's flying the plane? Who's flying the plane?!?' He told the women the co-pilot was a very good pilot and that the aircraft was in good hands. He got her calmed down and they landed safely.

"He figured the women had some illicit cash in her carry-on, and had gotten through screening at the departure airport (this was the 1990s) but then, en route, she figured Customs in New York would find the money and she'd be in trouble. So she decided to give it away rather than be detained in New York.

"Kent was a really good photographer. We met through our Stock Photo Agent. Kent sold a lot of stock. He loved photography and loved flying. When he retired, he spent a lot of time on his photo projects.

"When he wanted to fly for fun he would rent a Stearman Biplane. He said flying the Stearman was 'really flying.'

"Kent was a great guy. Thanks Mike."

Happy to say we're starting negotiations for the next TOP Book Sale.

Several times now we've been able to offer older but very high quality photobooks at nicely advantageous prices*. We're working with a different publisher this time, again a highly distinguished one. The prospects arrived here at TOP World Headquarters last night and I'm a pig in mud. They're wonderful. Each individual reader might not want everything, but what that also means is that there's something for everyone. (One in particular, though, everyone will want.)

More anon, so stay alert!

Mike

*At least to U.S. readers—overseas shipping has so far proved a monkeywrench.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Book him, Danno
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Indefatigable ace investigator Kevin Purcell has discovered, direct from the publisher, Hatje Cantz, in Germany, that there is only one edition of Fred Herzog's Modern Color...the hardcover. So wherever you find it, however it is listed, that is what you will receive. (I'm still awaiting mine.)

Thanks to Kevin! And to Sabine at Hatje Cantz.

Here are the ordering links again:

• Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)

• Amazon.de (Germany)

• The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide

• Amazon.com (USA) 

• Amazon Canada

Mike
(Thanks to Kevin Purcell)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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k4kafka: "WOW...lots of Fred Herzog book promotion this week!"

Mike replies: We really like Fred. Also, when I post wrong information, I like to correct it.

Nigel adds: "I just received my copy from Amazon UK, and have to say that the Fred Herzog promotion is entirely deserved."

Reviewed by Kenneth Tanaka

-

Great photography can be made in the public eye by those eager for recognition in their own time, but it can also be made quietly in the margins, away from the spotlight, perhaps to be lost in obscurity, perhaps to be discovered later.

—from David Campany's introductory essay to Modern Color

-

I first learned of Fred Herzog's work right here at TOP from Mike's June 30, 2008 article "Great Photo Books You Can Buy New—Part III" The subject book was Vancouver Photographs, a book published for a 2007 Vancouver Art Gallery show and one that's become among my most treasured and most viewed books.

Now, somewhat unexpectedly, we have Modern Color, a much broader and richer retrospective of Fred Herzog's work published by Hatje Cantz. It's simply glorious. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Fred Herzog was born in Germany in 1930 but emigrated to Canada as a young man, finding a job as a medical photographer in a Vancouver at the University of British Columbia. (Thirty years later he retired as head of the University's Biomedical Communications Department in 1990.) Like so many others, Herzog pursued street style photography around Vancouver as an amateur pastime after work and on the weekends in the late 1950s. Apparently he liked it because he kept shooting for the next 40+ years.

Longtime Vancouver residents might primarily view Herzog’s work as a valuable historical record, as Jeff Wall did, as it captures a slightly scruffy mid-century city that no longer exists.

The rest of us see some remarkable mid-century street-style photography, made all the more remarkable by its early use of color. Herzog did shoot B&W film and some of these images are in the book. But he is more notable for being an early and faithful adopter of Kodachrome slide film on which the majority of the book's images were recorded. While some professional photographers were taking bows for their early color work, Herzog was quietly, anonymously cranking out an average of two weekly rolls of work that rivaled that of most of the contemporary pros.

You can see many of Fred Herzog’s images at his gallery's site. They’re quiet, unforced, uncontrived, often atmospherically emotive, but always carefully descriptive and insightful. In the absence of formal training Fred Herzog clearly had a keen and extremely consistent eye for photographic composition and timing.

Modern Color seems a perfect retrospective collection of Herzog’s work in typical Hatje Cantz quality. It’s prefaced by three essays, the best of which is, not surprisingly, by David Campany. (Essays are also presented in German at the book's end.) The 330 images are very well reproduced on generous 27"-square pages usually with one image per page. (Unfortunately the designer just couldn't resist ruining a few images with double trucking. But it is only a few.)

I have come to greatly admire Fred Herzog’s work for several main reasons. He seemed to instinctively know how to use the early-era Kodachrome color palette to tremendous advantage for his scenes. He "sees" visual and emotional meaning and depth potential in many scenes. He knows how and when to compress space. He mastered natural light use in an age of ASA 10 and 25. His work represents a standard against which I measure my own slightly congruent efforts.

But in the final analysis I suppose I most admire Fred Herzog’s work because it was done "in the margins" without boastful pretension. It was done for the love and enjoyment of the work, not entirely unlike Vivian Maier’s work. Fortunately, unlike Maier, Fred has received well-deserved recognition within his lifetime and has directed its curation for this wonderful book.

Ken

Ordering links:

• Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)

• Amazon.de (Germany)

• The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide

• Amazon.com (USA) 

• Amazon Canada

• You might find it at bookstores or museums local to you.

©2017 by Kenneth Tanaka, all rights reserved

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Henning Wulff: "I've known Fred Herzog since the '70s. Every once in a while he would invite a group of his friends over and he would show us a couple of trays of Kodachromes he had shot. When scanning and digital printing became viable he was finally 'discovered' and he achieved the acclaim he so richly deserved.

Tom, Fred, and Tuulikki. Photo by Henning Wulff.

"I still go on walks with him around his favourite Vancouver neighbourhoods, and here, during one walk (he's in the centre) we've just met our mutual friends Tom and Tuulikki Abrahamsson. Tom passed away just recently, but I talked with Fred just a week ago. Fred's work was truly groundbreaking. Colour street photography in the '50s was not easy. He shot Kodachrome, starting with ASA 10 and later higher, with ƒ/3.5 and ƒ/2 lenses in grey, rainy wintertime in Vancouver when the exposure times were often in the 1/2 to 1/8 sec. range. He saw the city with fresh eyes and a determination to persevere with his vision, and his remarkable pictures show he succeeded."

Gordon Brown: "My thanks to Kenneth Tanaka and TOP for the review. I looked at the 27 screens of Herzog photos posted by his gallery. Some of his photos reminded me of Walker Evans's photos."

Ken Tanaka replies: You're not alone. One of the book's essays draws strong visual parallels with Evans's work.

Paul De Zan: "Fred's Vancouver Photographs book is probably the first thing I bought as a result of discovering TOP (and certainly not the last). Simply a killer collection of truly evocative pictures; I've given several copies away. I keep my current copy where visitors can find and explore it...and they do."

Reviewed by Geoff Wittig

Landscape photography is one of those pursuits that sound easy. I mean, how hard can it be to take a gorgeous photograph of Mount Rainier or Half-Dome, right?

...Until you try it, that is. Even the latest digital cameras lack a ‘sublime’ button. Translating a perfect moment in an achingly beautiful location into a photograph that conveys more than a pale echo of the experience is surprisingly difficult. It generally requires multiple visits to a site just to earn a chance at catching it in perfect light, with foliage at its best, or a waterfall at full flow. Easy familiarity with gear and technique are essential to avoid wasting a 15-second opportunity.

I live within 25 miles of two spectacular State parks. I visit and photograph them frequently, trying to catch a bit of the magic in the form of a print. After more than 20 years and countless visits, I’d say I have maybe 20 to 25 photographs I’m completely happy with. I have lots more near-misses, and thousands of frames that deserved swift deletion. And this in my backyard, at sites I’m intimately familiar with.

This is a long-winded expression of my admiration for QT Luong’s accomplishment with Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks. Over the course of more than 20 years, Dr. Luong visited every one of America’s extant 59 National Parks, and photographed them in depth. On large format film. The simple physical effort required boggles the mind. The consistently high quality of the photos is striking; hundreds of fine photographs, and no ‘filler’ shots.

Quang-Tuan Luong, known as QT (Tuan to his friends), born in France of Vietnamese parents, was a high-level scientist before arriving, through his interest in mountain climbing, at his passion for photography. He also runs the Large Format Forum (LFF), the primary online resource for LF photographers. Portrait by B. Squires.

The foreword is written by Dayton Duncan, who partnered with Ken Burns to film the PBS Television series "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea." Duncan notes that their team traveled with Tuan Luong to some sites, and came to use some of his images as part of their project.

QT's introduction explains how he came to this intense photographic survey of the Parks. Like the late Galen Rowell, Luong backed into landscape photography from mountain climbing. Growing up in France, he found climbing the Alps the only way to experience wilderness. Traveling to the U.S. for a career in computer science, the National Parks were a further revelation, and he eventually left computer science for full-time photography after embarking on his project to photograph every National Park.

The book is organized by region. Each section begins with an introduction describing the geology and biomes of the region, followed by beautifully reproduced color plates from each park. The large images are followed by a map of the park showing where each photograph was taken. This is followed by thumbnails each accompanied by narrative text including trail access, weather, and engaging anecdotes about taking the photographs. You can see this as a generous invitation to try your hand at shooting these sites yourself.

Some of the photographs are well-known motifs, such as wildflowers below Mount Ranier, or Yosemite Valley in winter. Sunrise under Mesa Arch is my personal bête noir and, yep, it’s here. But most others are unique images, and all are beautiful. The visual æsthetic is one of vivid (but not neon) color, meticulous sharpness, and classical composition. I’m quite familiar with Badlands National Park, and can attest to how difficult it is to reach the sites Luong photographed in the southern Stronghold unit of the Park on the Pine Ridge Reservation. And that’s just one park; Luong photographed the other 58 too, just as deliberately. The entire book is a testament to the virtue of obsession.

Physically it’s a very fine piece of work, printed on heavyweight semi-matte paper with gloss varnished photo-reproductions. The text is set in a small point size of digital Baskerville font, but it remains quite readable. Inside the heavy dust jacket, the book itself is covered in a panoramic reproduction of giant sequoias, a very nice touch.

I was tempted to include a few images, but it’s probably better just to direct readers toward QT’s very nice website for the book, as it includes an excellent viewer for browsing through the chapters.

I'm aware of at least five other relatively recent photo books explicitly covering America's National Parks. Each has its virtues and some very nice images. Clyde Butcher's Celebrating America's National Parks is a treat for those who love black and white. But all of them pale in comparison to the remarkable depth and breadth of QT Luong's project. Every one of the parks is gorgeously rendered, from the giant Alaskan parks to the tiny "pocket parks" in the east, and the ancillary information is a delight. I can't recall any other photographer including detailed notes and maps demonstrating how to reach every one of his or her subjects, including the most remote locations. Pure catnip for landscape photography hobbyists.

Highly recommended.

Geoff

©2017 by Geoff Wittig, all rights reserved

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Ken: "I'll second this review—not that it needs seconding. We ordered the book a couple of months ago—it was out of stock—and it just arrived about a week ago. It's a magnificent overview of the national parks—and well worth the price."

RubyT: "I have learned from past experience that if a book featured here lists 'one left' I must buy it immediately, so I did. National Parks are my charitable focus this year, so this recommendation was perfectly timed."

Joe Decker: "An exhibition of prints from this body of work has been making the circuit as well. I caught it in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the prints hold up to the incredibly fine standards you'd expect from the work. Highly recommended."

Dave Van de Mark: "One November morning many years ago, I found myself racing up to 70mph on roads in darkness I probably shouldn't have been going above 25 on, and then hiking furiously to near exhaustion, just to reach Mesa Arch minutes before the beginning of a lovely sunrise. Knowing my gear at the time—like the back of my hand—had me ready in time, and I was rewarded with some exposures I feel very good about. But I nearly knocked myself out getting them and know just how lucky I was, what with the weather and light all being with me. The timing was on me but just barely! This makes me appreciate immensely the effort QT Luong had to make to capture the magnificent photos Geoff describes. Geoff's review makes me really want this book."

David Evans: "$40, I thought. That's a very good price for such a book—at the official rate it's £32. So I look on Amazon UK. £51.89! I suppose I will buy it, but I resent that someone is making an awful lot of money out of me."

Mike replies: Think about what you're saying for a sec. Tuan worked for 20 years with a 5x7 view camera and traveled to 59 National Parks in 27 States, packing his gear to numerous wild and remote locations. For every picture in the book there were probably at least three rejects and quite likely many more than that. Can you imagine how much work and expense that represents? The book has 456 pages and copious amounts of spot-varnished color illustrations. Finally, are you aware of how much it costs to ship 7.2-lbs. books across the Atlantic in bulk so Amazon UK can stock it in its warehouses? That cost is not trivial. All that, and you're being exploited? You're going to begrudge an extra £19.89 on a book that you yourself say started out at "a very good price for such a book"?

You're plenty tight with a twenty, man, is all I can say.  :-D

GUY PERKINS: "I think Mike that your response to David Evans is a little strong, and frankly unfair. We in the UK routinely pay more for identical products than you pay in the USA. And that is the same whether that product has been made and shipped from the Far East, from the EU, or from the US. It needles us. And to try and justify a £20 excess the price just on transport costs, when Amazon ships gazillions of product by container daily, is not on. What you say about the amount of work and skill the book represents is true, but you can't apply that argument to us over here while enjoying a bargain price yourself."

Mike replies: I've long noticed the "gouging" of your entire nation—you do pay more for comparable products. But that's not something I can do anything about, and I don't think it's something that Tuan should take the blame for. He'd like for his books to sell, I'm sure. I still think it's a pretty good bargain despite the tariff, but then that's not up to me—you (and David) have to make your decisions rationally and for yourselves.

Sorry about the situation, though. It's not fair and I've never seen it explained satisfactorily.

Tom Bell: "Excited. Live on Dartmoor National Park here but never been to your great parks. Just ordered it."

Dave Karp: "I too participate on QT's Large Format Forum. His LF Home Page [AKA LFphoto.info —Ed.] was a godsend when I first entered into the large format world. I still refer to parts of it regularly. We large format photographers owe him a great debt. I have met QT only once, at a gallery showing of Ray McSavaney's beautiful work. QT is a heck of a nice guy, generous (what a gift that Large Format site is), and a heck of a photographer. His national parks book is a treat."

QT Luong: "Thank you to Geoff and all the commenters for the kind words. Regarding the value of the physical object alone, please compare to the book that Aperture released to celebrate the National Park Service centennial, with pricing quite typical for photo books. [Smaller, less than a third as many pages, less than one third the weight of Treasured Lands —Ed.] It gives some perspective to the third Amazon customer review of Treasured Lands: 'I would have paid triple the price to add this book to my collection.' By the way, said customer acted on his words by subsequently purchasing a limited edition.

"Note also that Treasured Lands is from the same printer who produced Salgado's Genesis. Regarding the price outside the US, if you look at my own signed/limited offerings, I charge $12 for shipping to the US and $66 for shipping to the UK. Those are my actual costs via USPS Priority Mail."

Here's a book "of interest" (translation: one I haven't seen yet). Yesterday Colin Bradbury wrote:

Just been reading the reviews of a book called The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax. Fascinating look at the revival of interest in 'real' stuff like actual books, vinyl records and, of course, film photography.

Funnily enough my wife bought me a turntable for Christmas to play my old records and next to it on my desk is my Nikon FM2 (could never quite stretch to a Leica) on which I shot a roll of film yesterday for the first time in about 13 years. My 16-year-old daughter decreed that it was OK for me to play records and shoot film because I used them the first time round. That exempts me from the dreaded 'hipster' designation, apparently.

And on another topic, I had a Mazda MX-5 in the mid 1990s which I used to drive rather too quickly around the mountain roads in Hong Kong when I lived there. Magic. And yes, I am a middle-aged dude with a beard....

This idea fascinates me. My "unpedigreed hypothesis" on that score is this: 

Analog anything always has the potential to be good enough, no matter how bad it is, whereas nothing digital is reliably ever quite good enough, no matter how good it is.

Let me 'splain. The reason for the hypothesis is that I've witnessed the same thing in digital photography that I witnessed in digital music. Somehow, electro-mechanical means of storing and playing back music always had their charms, even if they weren't "accurate." But as soon as Compact Discs came along, the hobby lurched into an orgy of ever-more expensive tail-chasing...suddenly no amp was quite good enough, no CD player was good enough...not only were no speakers good enough, no speaker wires were good enough. Digital music quickly surpassed analog by technical measures, yet somehow nothing, no matter how extreme, ever quite seemed to entirely satisfy. The hobby ate itself; it went straight down the rabbit hole, and is now in precipitous decline. Similarly, old analog snapshots can have great charm even if they were taken with poor cameras and were badly made; but once digital came along, it touched off a furious scramble for ever-better "image quality" that just doesn't seem to want to settle down. It's become the project of the entire photography world on the Internet. Not only are we not satisfied, but it's like we never can be. Why? A few people here and there did enjoy chasing endless IQ in the film era, but it's a hundred if not a thousand times more pronounced now, even though the increments of improvement are so slight in some cases that it sometimes takes a lot of work to even detect the gains. The culture of looking a pictures lags further and further behind the multifarious dweeby technical segments of the hobby.

Anyway, it's just an observation—a provisional one, at that—not an ideological position*. Please don't kill me, please. I'm just throwing the idea out there.

Anyway I wonder what David Sax has to say about these matters in his book.

...Which leads me to my problem. I read most books these days in the form of Kindle files on my iPad and iPhone 6+. But how could you in good conscience not buy an analog (paper) copy of a book called The Revenge of Analog?  :-)

I'd like to read the book, but I'm in a quandary!

Mike
(Thanks to Colin)

*I've long freely admitted that I never would have become a writer if it hadn't been for the Macintosh. Steve Jobs said part of his mission was to free people to be creative, and I might as well have been Exhibit #1. Before the personal computer came along in my life, I literally used to cut and paste stories together by cutting paper with scissors. So please don't accuse me of a prejudice against digital!

P.S. I ordered the paper version.

UPDATE Friday: Colin Bradbury adds: "Had to laugh when you mentioned the dilemma of buying the Kindle version of a book about the joys of analog. Exactly the conversation I had with my wife (and yes, I'm getting the print version as well). Until very recently I wasn't convinced about the point of dusting off my film cameras but I'm actually going to do it. It's partly a response to something you wrote that perfectly summed up my uneasy feeling about photography today (or at least, photography as it is represented on the Internet today): 'The culture of looking at pictures lags further and further behind the multifarious dweeby technical segments of the hobby.' There are many ways to counter that but shooting some film seems like a good start. So I'm off to order some 120 B&W film for the Hasselblad and the chemicals to start developing at home again. And I shall be listening to some classic vinyl on the turntable while I do so."

UPDATE Saturday: Mike adds: One of the epigraphs to Sax's book is a quote from Marshall McLuhan from 1964: "A new medium is never an addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them." Truer words; that has emphatically been my experience moderating discussions about new and old media. What I would want to discuss is the nature of the two without prejudice or assumptions or status-judgments or value-judgments or nostalgia or personal preferences obtruding into the discussion. Can't be done it seems. I suppose we will have to remain largely blind to the subtle differences in the nature of our media until they can be viewed in retrospect.

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Geoff Wittig: "Re: 'Analog anything always has the potential to be good enough, no matter how bad it is, whereas nothing digital is reliably ever quite good enough, no matter how good it is.'

"That's a fascinating proposition, but I'm compelled to politely disagree, at least with respect to photography. I think the relevant measure of good enough depends critically upon the final presentation form for the images and the effect you're after. Back in the film era, (say) circa 1960s, if your final artwork was a large print, and you were aiming for subtle beauty, you really needed large format film, or exceedingly good technical skill with medium format, to get that result. Thirty-five millimeter film was just too grainy, the tonality too crude, to pull off the illusion. If your goal was W. Eugene Smith style grit and drama, then 35mm would suffice. To paraphrase John Szarkowski in Ansel Adams at 100, Adams's laborious technique was just sufficient for what he was trying to say with his prints. Photo books really came of age in the 1960s, and were I think the perfect venue for 35mm photography, because the limitations of photo reproduction for typical book sizes nicely matched the shortcomings of 35 mm film.

"The digital Tsunami from capture to Photoshop to printing has altered the imaging landscape, but I think the same principle applies; the format in which you view images determines what's good enough. That's precisely why cell phones are nuking the marked for point 'n' shoot cameras; if you're viewing images as JPEGs on a cell phone or tablet screen, then cell phone cameras are more than good enough. If your final photographic art is a large print, however, 'good enough' is higher up the ladder. For me it's a level of resolution and tonal smoothness that permits me to make a print that conveys the desired illusion that you could walk right into the image. I've found that (for me at least) 40–50 megapixels optimally captured with excellent glass (and very careful post-capture processing) are just sufficient to make a 24x36-inch print that carries off the illusion. I can't visibly improve upon it by stitching frames. So I seem to have hit the limit of image quality asymptotism.

"As digital capture gets ever better, it is gradually pushing 'good enough,' even for excellent large prints, further down the ladder. Micro 4/3 and APS-C mirrorless cameras provide much better files than the (heavy, uber-expensive) 8-megapixel Canon Eos-1Ds I used in 2002.

"I do confess to feeling a bit of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) when I read about the lovely new medium format mirrorless cameras like Fuji's lust-worthy GFX-50S. But I wonder if they will really show a visible difference even with fairly large prints, given how good we already have it. For me, at least, digital capture and printing are now 'good enough.'"

Mike replies: Great comment. Politely disagreeing in return, however, I suspect the very fact that you've pushed out to where you are now in terms of print quality augers against the idea that you will settle for what you have now and stop pushing forward in the future. But you might prove me wrong.

Jim: "I've been using film (along with digital) for the last couple of years. As someone in the Comments section posted (sort of), if your goal is technically perfect images, you will be disappointed with film. Digital, in skilled hands, even in most introductory cameras has surpassed medium format film. That does not mean however, that one can't produce beautiful and/or meaningful images with film. Being technical perfect is neither necessary nor sufficient to great photography. More importantly, however, the only way (I think) to really enjoy film photography is to enjoy the process itself. If you don't the frustration is endless. The good news is that the price of entry is relatively cheap and there is a huge resale market for film cameras and film (even out of date film). If I'm going to shoot a ton of images, I'll take my digital camera. But for an afternoon stroll, I prefer one of my film cameras. On driving trips I'll take both. No reason to limit yourself to one or the other."

JF: "I tell my kids that your life will be much happier if you are satisfied with what you have. I don't own the best or the worst of anything. Most days good enough is indeed good enough. I try to follow my own advice from time to time."

Paul Amyes: "Digital has enabled me to have so much fun. I've published 'zines, books, made audio-visual presentations, make films, put on exhibitions, and I sell my work and reach audiences that number in the tens of thousands. I'd have never been able to achieve all that with analog. I sometimes think about dusting off the old film cameras, but I quickly dismiss the idea as being too impractical, limiting and expensive."

Dogman (partial comment): "I was adamant that I would never give up my Leicas and medium format equipment, that I would continue to shoot HP5 and Tri-X, that the small room adjacent to the bathroom would continue to smell like fixer and that the spare bedroom would always be the room where prints would dry on the bed under the ceiling fan. I clung to this tradition despite not quite liking the available printing materials I was being forced to use and my printing ability was declining while there was increasing evidence that digital was improving in quality by leaps and bounds. Even when I purchased my first digital camera, I resisted and continued to shoot film for more serious photography. But eventually it became obvious to me that resistance was futile...."

Geoffrey Heard (partial comment): "That was then, this is now...."

[See the rest of Dogman's and Geoffrey's comments in the full Comments section. —Ed.]

Lee Rust: "Your hypothesis seems very insightful to me! As physical beings we are naturally accepting of material limitations. As intellectual beings we always want to know more. An analog model of anything is naturally restricted by the inherent qualities and limitations of substance and process. We are content with a pencil sketch or fuzzy snapshot because we expect no perfection from these media. With a digital model there is always another decimal place of descriptive information that can be quantified. The only thing holding us back is the sophistication and resolution of the measuring apparatus, so we keep pushing the technological envelope of detail because we know it's possible. Here is the tension between heart and head, emotion and intellect, experience and knowledge, art and science. Always interesting and never ending."

Speaking of books, I didn't know that this book had been reprinted...André Kertész's On Reading is slight, only six and a half by eight and a half inches with fewer than a hundred pages. Pictures he made over many years of readers reading. A minor masterpiece from the genial and charming Hungarian, who must be among the most humane people ever to have taken up a camera.

Jim Newton mentioned it in the Comments to the "Engage" post. He said: "Reading and photography come together in this beautiful little book by André Kertész. Published on 1971, it is available as a reprint. If you are a reader and a photographer this belongs in your library." I'll second that.

Mike
(Thanks to Jim)

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Curt Gerston: "I teach middle school photography, and this is a book I use as an example for thematic shooting (an assignment I give). It's not always easy to explain to a 12-year-old, but when I show them On Reading they get it pretty quickly. It's a wonderful little book."

Martin: "I saw the exhibition of these pictures at the Photographers' Gallery in London, but it works just as well as a book; small images you can hold in your hands."

Rodger Kingston: " I got my copy of André Kertész's On Reading in February 1973 while my wife Carolyn and I were on our wedding trip to NYC. We wandered into the Hallmark Gallery on Fifth Avenue in what turned out to be the last hour of the last day of a large André Kertész show. As luck would have it, who should be there but the master himself. I dashed across the street to a Doubleday Bookshop, and bought a copy of On Reading. He signed the book for us, and sometime after we got home, I wrote to him that meeting him at his exhibition was one of the highlights of our wedding trip.

"Almost nine months later, I received the following letter in reply: 


2 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
November 17, 1973

Dear Mr. Kingston:
This reply to your appreciative letter has been so long delayed that you may have thought the written word had by now completely succumbed to the visual image. I am indeed touched by the fact that you feel the Hallmark Gallery exhibit will remain memorable over the years as a part of your wedding trip. You see, that way I know my photographs will have as many happy anniversaries as you and your wife Carolyn! With every good wish for your success as poet and photographer, and my warmest regards to both of you.

Sincerely,
Andre Kertesz 


"A year or two later, Kertész delivered a lecture in Boston. When I approached him during the reception, his eyes lit up; he reached out his hand to me and exclaimed, 'Ah, the bridegroom!'

"In a month we will be married 44 years, and André Kertész was right: his photographs have had many happy anniversaries with Carolyn and me."

Rodolfo Canet adds: "Just let me say in public how touching and delightful I found Mr. Kingston's story. Great way to start my day."