Books – Page 3 – frederikboving

Review: Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson

The art of Seeing

Being a Canadian, Freeman Patterson is perhaps not so well known in Europe or the US as many other leading photographers. But if you look at his resume with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association and the Miller Brittan Award for Excellence in visual arts, then you start to understand the magnitude and importance of Patterson’s work.

Who is it for?

If you are new to photography and want to learn the basics, then this book is not for you. I would recommend that you instead look towards the books from Bryan F. Peterson or Joel Sartore. The Art of Seeing is much more about the photography process and how you can widen your creativity.

What is it?

The book is organized around 3 main themes:

Learning to observe
Learning to imagine and
Learning to express.

Especially the last part, where Patterson talks about visual design, was a an eye opener for me. I have the same feeling when reading the book The Art of War by Lao Tzu, that even though I do not yet understand every sentence or every paragraph in the book, I have a very distinct feeling that it is a super condensed text that presents the essence of years and years of experience. I have read the book once, but want to read it several times to make sure I get all the points.

Can I recommend it?

Yes is the short answer. I have read many books about photography as this blog documents, and this is probably one of the best. The book has been developed to support a series of workshops that Patterson held way back when, but you can still make use of the exercises described in the book of you want to have the full benefit of the book. Even if you don’t do all the exercises or if you only want to read the theory, I find that this is an excellent book about the photography process and it comes with my highest recommendation.

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Freeman Patterson, Photography and the Art of seeing

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Review: Photo Icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle

400+ pages of iconic images

The title of the book as per the headline is a very precise description of what this book is all about. It “puts some of the most important photographic landmarks under the microscope” as it says on the cover. And very much so.

Photo icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle.

The 50 images are presented and analyzed over the 400+ pages of the book, giving an average of 4 pages per iconic photograph. Enough to cover the basics and tell the story around each picture.

The table of content has an excellent overview with each picture in icon size and annotated with the relevant year and page to look up. The 50 images range from year 1827 to 2001. So you can quickly dive into the images of interest (I doubt you will read the book from front to back unless you are equally interested in each image).

Photographer Peter Leibings picture “Leap to Freedom” from 1961, just after the wall between East and West Berlin was in effect.

As I “cherry picked” the images of most interest, I have not read every single page in the book, but many of them, and I really enjoyed the “behind the scenes” view that you get to each image: What was the story, the photographer, what was going on in the world at the time the shot was taken, was it staged or candid, etc. Hans-Michael Koetzle really packs a lot of information into very few pages for each picture – it is a condensed read, but certainly worth the while.

So as a photographer it is not a book that will make you wiser in terms of photo technique (f/11 vs f/5.6), but it really documents how a photograph – even with all the videos and movies available today – can be powerful and influence what we remember and how we see history. And as such it for me adds a layer to my motivation to shoot the best pictures I possibly can.

Review: Wild and Fearless by Uri Løvevild Golman

What a life!

When I started reading this book, my immediate reaction was: what a life this guy has had! And my next was: hmm, is my life a little boring perhaps?

The first 2/3rds of the book is a super entertaining and seemingly endless stream of adventures, beautiful women, new friendships, more adventures, great food and lots of alcohol! We follow Uri as he describes his life as a ski bum, bartender, a soldier in the Israeli army and travel adventurer.

Wild and Fearless by Uri Løvevild Golman – the epic life story of a National Geographic photographer

About 2/3rds the focus shifts towards Uri’s career as a wildlife photographer and how he and Helle (2nd wife) finally makes it as National Geographic Photographers. The adventures continues, but with Helle and photography in the center.

I must admit that I bought the book to see if I would be able to look over the shoulders of one of the greatest wildlife photographers of all times, but I was in that sense a bit disappointed. There is no description of f/8 versus f/11 or how Uri learned to photograph. Only his photography mentors are briefly mentioned. However, you do get to understand how much hard work there is in wildlife photography – one example is hiking 3 weeks in icy mountains only to come home with zero images of the snow leopard!

But I got something else: I got insight into a man with a mentality that very few posses. At age 42 he was attacked and stabbed to a degree where most of us would have given up, and he was dead for several minutes before being revived. The attack left him injured with permanent disabilities as his brain was deprived oxygen for several minutes. He says towards the end of the book: “I have finally come to terms with the truth: I will never be able to walk freely again; no more hiking under the stars in the tundra or the forest. Nor will I be able to work my camera”. However, he refuses to take the role as a victim and he does not show any signs of feeling sorry for himself.

It is Uri’s hope that the book will give others inspiration to follow their hearts and dreams. Speaking for myself, I can say: mission accomplished.

I give this book my highest recommendations.

Review: Saul Leiter In My Room, Edited by Margit Erb and Robert Benton

Book review

You probably know Saul Leiter as the street photographer, one of the pioneers in using colors in street photography and considered part of the New York school of photography. And you may also know that he also was a painter, and started out as a painter before venturing into photography. Some of his work is painted nudes, where he combines photography and painting. And on top of all this, he also worked for many years as a fashion photographer – Harper’s Bazaar, just to mention one.

This book is not about all the above. Rather, it is filled with black and white pictures, almost entirely shot in Saul Leiter’s apartment in Manhattan. I think it is anyone’s guess why Saul shot in black and white for these images, but it enabled him to develop the films himself in the studio. And I am not so sure he ever wanted these images to amount to much, although he during the 1970’s planned to make a book of all these images, but it never amounted to anything. He was, as always, in no particular hurry.

Leiter did not any type of explanation of analysis of his work. I cannot help it, but as a photographer I immediately notice his use of natural light, patterns in shadows, framing (and yet framing!), blocking the view partly by various objects, the shallow depth of field, use of mirrors and reflections – the list goes on and on and on. He is a true master of photography – period. But where the magic surfaces for me is that no matter how much I try to analyze the images down to individual components and effects used, I find myself thinking that “this is not the whole story”. There is more to it. There is a bit of mystery, intimacy, vulnerability and uniqueness that simply transcends all analysis.

So I highly recommend this book for any photographer. Maybe his book “Early colors” is a better place to start if you are new to Saul Leiter. Or the book All about Saul Leiter. But if you find yourself wanting to know Saul Leiter for more than his street photography, or just want to see the products of a master of photography, this book should be on your coffee table anytime soon.

Review: All about Saul Leiter, collected by Margit Erb

Book review

Margit Erb apparently is the founder and director of the Saul Leiter Foundation, dedicated to preserving his art and legacy. She worked with Saul Leiter since 1996 and is instrumental in the production of a number of books about him. In this book consists of 232 images (paintings & images) and combined them with wonderful quotes from Saul Leiter. The book was originally created in Japan to accompany the exhibition Photographer Saul Leiter: A Retrospective.

The book is all about these 232 images and quotes. Only at the end of the book there are 3 short chapters written by Margit Erb, Pauline Vermare and Motoyuki Shibata. Other than that, it is only images and quotes. Just like I like a book about photography!

I simply looked at the world, not prepared for anything.

Saul Leiter.

And what images! Especially the street photography is where he shines as a ground breaking master of photography! I know he is famous for using colors where others use black and white, but I think there is so much more to his images than just color and the occasional sprinkle of red color that so many talk about: If you look at his framing techniques and how he used objects to block the viewers angle partly, plus unconventional positioning of his subject in the frame, then you start to realize how ground breaking his work actually was. And if you flip over to Instagram, there are so many photographers trying to do the same and (IMHO) not getting even remotely close.

It is not where it is or what it is that matters but how you see it.

Saul Leiter.

Saul Leiter did not like all the analysis of his work. In a video I watched on YouTube he was asked about how he saw the relationship between his paint work and his photography work and how if he believed his paint work had influenced his photography work. He stopped the academic questions and said “I am very suspicious of the analysis of art work…the explanation for certain things are not the real reasons for certain things.”. In other words, the more you analyze his work from an academic point of view, the less you enjoy the images.

In the same interview, he often says when asked why he did things a certain way or why this or why that, hen answered “because I liked them”, i.e. he was not driven by a certain agenda, it was much more simple than that. Similarly, when asked why he preferred the streets for his photography, the answer was “Things are going on! The street is like a ballet, you never know what is going to happen.”; much more preferred than a studio.

I have a great respect for people who do nothing.

Saul Leiter.

So to make a long story short: I love the images of this book! The book covers his early street photographs, images for advertising, nudes and paintings, but the street photography images are my favorite. I am sure that if you like street photography, then you will love this book and all the wonderful images and quotes.

Review: Henri Cartier-Bresson Here and Now, by Clément Chéroux

Book review

If there is one photographer that every photojournalist or street photographer knows, it is Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB)! This books takes you through all of HCB’s life: what event shaped him, who he met and was influenced by, his travels to Africa, Cuba, China, India, Spain etc, his work as a reporter for the Communist Press, how surrealism attracted him and influenced his work – the list goes on. Reading this book, you come to understand both how interesting a life HCB lead, but also the historical events that his images document and reflect.

I can’t figure out exactly why I find HCB’s images so stunning. There is obviously his mastering of composition long before all the rules were invented. And his talent for being at the right spot at the right time and on top of that hitting the shutter exactly at the decisive moment. But there is more to it than that. A touch of surrealism that adds a strange glow to his images that continues to fascinate me. No matter how much I analyze the images, the effect on me somehow escapes me just when I think I have it all figured out! And I guess this is exactly where a good photographer and a master of photography separate: the ability to make you look not only a second time, but again and again.

This book is a wonderful collection of 500+ of his images, and as a photographer looking over the should of a master, this is the part that I like the best. Others may find the story of his lift more interesting – for example how he 3 times escaped as a prisoner of war and later became a communist. And later decided to work for many years solely doing photojournalism. This part of the book I also enjoyed, but the pictures! I can wholeheartedly recommend this book if you find his work fascinating like I do.

PS: HCB is quoted for saying that: “In any case, people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing”. This remark is more relevant than ever, where YouTubers constantly battle to what extend photography gear matters and if the rule of thirds is to be applied always or sometimes.

Review: Visual flow, mastering the art of composition, by Ian Plant w/George Stocking

Book review

Ian Plant certainly knows a thing or two regarding composition, and in this book he and his mate George Stocking give us all there is to know about composition in this 287 pager PDF based e-book. The price is around 30 USD (October 2021) and to make the review short: I find that it is worth every dime.

The book is filled with great examples and lots of them. Albeit both Ian and George are landscape photographers, the principles are easily applicable to other kinds of photography. As you may have guessed when I mentioned the number of pages, the book is much more comprehensive than the usual presentation of leading lines and rule of thirds. Much more. There are many examples from both Ian and George’s own work, but maybe even better, also examples picked from classic paintings for both East and West.

There are a few things about the book that bugs me. Not senseless, but nonetheless:

The examples are supplied with elaborate text. Text that I feel compelled to read, but it is often the same text as in the body text. And I keep jumping back and forth between the body text and the text below the examples, finding it hard to ignore the image text, which constantly interrupts the flow and line of thought in the body text.
The first 150 pages are filled with remarks like “I will get back to this subject later” or something along those lines. Although it is a good tool for organizing the way things are presented, the sheer number of times this remark is made simply drove me nuts after mentioning number 20+.
I cannot really tell if it is a stack of PowerPoints that have been converted into a so-called book. I have a suspicion that it is more a presentation with elaborate text than it is a book as such I am reading. Maybe it is the format with me reading the text on a iPad that bugs me, but it is not a pleasure to read as many other books are.
And finally I am puzzled why people that knows so much about composition knows so little about text and how we humans like to read. The fact that the text is right aligned and the words hence do not flow equally positioned on the line simply makes it harder to read. Also the font is absolutely horrible – if you know just the most basics about how we read and recognize words (as images actually) you would never have chosen this font. This again gives me more a feeling of reading a PowerPoint presentation than a book.

So don’t get me wrong, it is a vital book about photography and I absolutely recommend that you get it and read it. But that these guys in terms of readability knows so little and makes so basic mistakes in their production of this so called e-book simply bugs me to a degree where I could not let it pass unnoticed.

Review: Understanding a photograph by John Berger

This is probably as academic as it gets! If you want to learn the basics about photography like exposure, composition, etc, then this book is not for you at all! The title is to be taken very literally.

It is an interesting read. You really understand how much goes into interpreting a photograph. Maybe not your ordinary picture of your pet or your new car, but a picture used to document the death of Che Guevara, or the first day in the camp for the Rwandan Tutsi and Hutu refugees.

The chapters do not make up a nice red thread. Instead, it seems like a collection of articles that take their own angle irrespective of the other chapters. Analysis of an an image. Tribute to a photographer. Meet and dialogue with a photographer. Sometimes it is an analysis of a specific picture, other times a photographers work.

It is not an easy read. It is super academic. I will not claim that I understood all that John Berger writes, nor that I read it all. It is simply too demanding for little me. Consider yourself warned.

Review: And then there was silence, by Jan Grarup

Book review

This is a horrible book.
And an amazing book.

It shows what human beings can do to each other in a warzone. It is not pleasant reading, but Danish photographer Jan Grarup has never been a crowd pleaser.

The table of content gives the scope of the locations that Jan has photographed over the years: Kashmir, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Rwanda, Kosovo, Roma, Ramallah, Hebron, Iraq, Iran, Darfur, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Gaza, Haiti, Somalia and Mosul. More than 400 pages in coffee table book size, filled with black and white images from the horrors of war. People killed, people on the run, people in despair, people crammed together in refugee camps. Weapons, corpses, soldiers, dust, blood, poverty.

Jan has been a warzone photographer his hole life. And he has paid and continues to pay a high price for his work. PTSD to mention one. You can’t dispute Jan’s capabilities as a photographer – every image is carefully selected, the composition is impeccable, the technical quality of the images is from the top shelf.

In the foreword Jan quotes Dr. Martin Luther King jr. saying “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.” – I think this sums up the mission Jan is on: to wake up the good people.

PS: I don’t think this book is available anymore from new. With a bit of good luck you may find a used copy. You won’t get mine. Good luck hunting.

PS: It is a BIG book. Even for a coffee table book sized book, it is bigger than most: 39cm tall and 28 cm wide, and with a weight around 3,2 kilo!

Review: Landscape photographer of the year, collection 10

Book review

I believe they produce a book similar to this one every year, or at least regularly. This is the edition 10, with 1-9 preceding obviously. So it is not the latest and greatest I am reviewing here, but the images are timeless and hence the edition number is of less interest.

It is VisitBritain as sponsor amongst others, so there is an agenda here other than just distributing some absolutely lovely award winning British images.

And I am happy to see that one of my favorite ocean photographers Rachel Talibart is one of the winners that made it into this book (the Sunday Times magazine award), but there are simply so many other talented British photographers that you have to see it to understand it. This is only the top of the iceberg – there must be so many hard working photographers out there that are not on display in this book.

One of the things I really enjoy about this book – other than the beautiful images – is that the photographers tell a little story about each image and in the back of the book they document what camera, settings and lens they used, and in addition briefly describe their post processing work. This is valuable insights, and shows that cameras of different make and price range are all able to produce beautiful images. It is the photographer that makes the big difference. A decent quality and camera is merely the means to an end.

Category: Books

Review: Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson

The art of Seeing

Who is it for?

What is it?

Can I recommend it?

Shopping link

Video link

Related reading

Review: Photo Icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle

400+ pages of iconic images

Related reading

Review: Wild and Fearless by Uri Løvevild Golman

What a life!

Related reading

Review: Saul Leiter In My Room, Edited by Margit Erb and Robert Benton

Book review

Related reading

Review: All about Saul Leiter, collected by Margit Erb

Book review

Related reading

Review: Henri Cartier-Bresson Here and Now, by Clément Chéroux

Book review

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Review: Visual flow, mastering the art of composition, by Ian Plant w/George Stocking

Book review

Related reading

Review: Understanding a photograph by John Berger

Related reading

Review: And then there was silence, by Jan Grarup

Book review

Related reading

Review: Landscape photographer of the year, collection 10

Book review

Related reading