David DuChemin’s book: The Soul of the Camera has the subtitle: the photographers place in the picture making. And for me the subtitle is a much more precise description of what you can expect from this 270 page book about the soul of the photographer.
Perfection is overrated, and not to be confused with mastery.
David DuChemin
David’s book is not about aperture or camera settings or composition or the more traditional subjects for a book about photography. Rather, it circles around the photographers process and workflow, looking more at the process of taking good pictures, why some pictures work better than others and a bit of the psychology of photography (the need for openness, patience, curiosity and courage – just to mention a few).
Putting the photographer in the center rather than the camera or the end result was for me refreshing, and I really enjoyed reading this book. You can tell that David has done a lot of photography teaching and reflections, he has used this as a foundation for writing this great book.
Towards the end of the book, David argues that you actually don’t need another book about photography, not even this one! His point is that he has learned more about photography from practicing photography in real life than from any book. He does buy books about photography, but only books that shows the work of other photographers. The study of other photographers has according to David taught him more about photography than any textbook. He also argues that we don’t need better cameras, but we need better photographers.
You don’t need another book (about photography)
David DuChemin
So despite Davids remark that the world does not need an additional book about photography, I will say that if it needs just one more, this would be the one in my humble opinion. Looking at the photographer and the photography process is for me the right place to look, once you get past the initial study of camera settings and composition and the like. David knows that there is a lot of psychology involved in taking great pictures, and he circles around this subject very well in this interesting read. Comes highly recommended.
Related reading
Review: Looking East, portraits by Steve McCurry.
Review: Ravens by Masahisa Fukase
