If you still haven’t knocked out all the Christmas shopping, or if you’re looking for a treat for yourself to celebrate getting all those presents bought and wrapped, Times Online has an article suggesting nine books that would make great gifts for anyone who appreciates photography. From portraits in 1920’s Paris to “a wry look at the fantasies of war in the United States since 9/11”, there’s a good variety in the suggestions.
The article contains links to a UK based website where all the books are available at discounted price (some more so than others) but for US readers below are the links to the books on Amazon.com:
Berenice Abbot by Hank O’Neal & Berenice Abbot
Manuel Alvarez Bravo by Jean-Claude Lemagny, Colette Alvarez Urbatjel, & John Banville
Vanishing Landscapes by John J Berger, Robert Adams, Edward Burtynsky, Thomas Struth, & Jem Southam
Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran 1950 – 2003 by Masoud Behnoud, Hengameh Golestan
Recollections by Philip Jones Griffiths (this link is to Amazon UK, I couldn’t find the book available from Amazon USA, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s)
Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power by Renata Adler & Frank Goodyear
Objects by Martin Parr (only available as a used book on Amazon USA)
Edward Steichen: In High Fashion by William A Ewing & Todd Brandow
There are some good books on that list. The Vanishing Landscapes one is especially powerful. And you can’t go wrong with Avedon.
For those that want to try to learn how to create photographs like the masters in these books, they should check out this list of digital photography books that are more on the how-to side of things: http://www.degeeked.com/answers/detail/top-10-digital-photography-books