Ansel Adams' "The Negative"

My Favorite Photography Books

Let me begin this post by acknowledging the fact that it’s absurd to try to pick the 10 best photography books. There are thousands of great books out there, from a variety of different fields of photography, and it would be equally hard to pick the ten best books in any sub-field (like fashion photography, landscape photography, photojournalism, etc).

Instead, take this as 1) a list of books that have been influential to my photography or that I’ve found especially intriguing recently, and 2) an invitation to tell me what books would make your top ten list that are not already covered here. Maybe I’ll add them to the list, and make this a best 100 or 200 or…

My thought on photography books is this: If buying a $30 book can help me get the kind of results that I expect from my $5000 camera, then it would be a waste of money NOT to buy the book. There is nothing that gets me motivated and inspired like a good photography book. Continue reading »