The Photography Book

by Ian Jeffrey

Other authorsNathalie Chapuis (Translator), Martine Groult (Translator)

Hardcover, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

770

Genres

Publication

Phaidon Press (1997), Edition: First Edition, 512 pages

Description

500 superb images represent the world's best photographers and encompass every sort of photography in this eye-catching and engrossing book. Pictures of famous events such as the Royal Wedding and the first landing on the moon are here, next to familiar shots by masters of photography such as Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cecil Beaton and Robert Doisneau. There is fashion, sport, natural history, reportage and society portraiture, as well as social documentary and art. The 500 photographers featured range from William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron to Larry Clarke and Herb Rittz, from Robert Capa and Josef Koudelka to Nan Goldin and Pierre et Gilles. Arranged alphabetically by photographer, each full-page image is accompanied by an illuminating text which gives a useful insight into the work and its creator, as well as extensive cross-references to others working in the same field or the same style. Glossaries of technical terms and movements and a directory of museums and galleries are included to provide a fully comprehensive and self-contained volume.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member janemarieprice

This is a fun reference book. It is good for anyone interested in photography who wants to get ideas or look up some work about which they had heard.

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LibraryThing member joshberg

It took me more than a year to get through this book . . . on the toilet. Each page offers one of five hundred significant photographs in the history of the medium, accompanied by a substantial scholarly paragraph offering both biography of the artist and analysis of the piece. The choices aren't

all exciting, but the scope is vast and the presentation simple and elegant. Recommended bathroom reading for photography fans.

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LibraryThing member lilywren

A wonderful introduction to the world of photography and photography as art. I am relatively new to this and wanted to find out more about existing photographers and The Photo Book has certainly acheived this and more.

Running in alphabetical order, the book presents a vast array of photographers

using one of their photographs and providing an explanation of the artists presentation, way of working and information on the photograph itself.

Well presented, and easy to dip in and out of, the book has certainly brought to my attention a substantial array of photographers whom I had never heard but have since gone on to find out more about and view their work in more depth.

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LibraryThing member sanddancer

I won't pretend to have read this from cover to cover, but rather I have dipped into it, which I think is the idea with this type of book.

500 photographers have a page each, consisting of a key photograph with a description of both the image and that photographer's work in general. There are

cross-referencing suggestions of other photographers, either from the same movement, working in a similar style or covering a similar subject matter.

Obviously with any book like this, there willl seem to be some omissions - if I was compiling such a book Terenence Donavan and Brian Duffy would be in there with their contemporary David Bailey, but that might just be my 1960s obsession. I would have also included John Hinde, but again that might be a British bias. And Mick Rock and Anton Corbin? But this is just my personal (and fairly limited knowledge) and there are some interesting inclusions such as Neil Armstrong's photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the moon, surely one of the most iconic images of all time, and the photograph of the mushroom cloud.

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LibraryThing member kirstiecat

Is it strange to put this as a book I'm reading? Well, no...I guess not. You see, for each quintessential photograph picked by photographers ranging from quite famous (Henri Cartier Bresson to more obscure ones), there is a description of why the photo is important, the circumstances of it, and a

bit about the photographer her or himself. I probably wouldn't have picked up the monstrosity had I not found it used at Myopic Books for twenty bucks. It's arranged alphabetically and I'm proud to say that even though I'm reading other things, packing, and often found at funerals these days, I am up to letter D!

Some of my favorites (besides the obvious):

Jane Evelyn Atwood
Diane Arbus
Almari Vittorio
Shelby Lee Adams
Bruno Barbey
Bevila
Carlo Catari
Bill Brandt

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LibraryThing member j-b-colson

This immense compilation gives one page to each photographer represented with a short paragraph and one image well reproduced (both color and black and white as most representative. Those included are chose broadly from the history of photography and its international activity.

LibraryThing member mahallett

great book. very small print! i learned a lot.

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