It’s been a few years since I did a post about my favorite recent photography books. As you may remember, I work in a public library and order the nonfiction books, so I am always excited when new photography books come out that I know our patrons (and I!) will enjoy. While our book budget doesn’t allow for an extensive collection, here are a few I’d recommend, not only to photographers but anyone interested in the history of photography and iconic images.
“Napoleon Sarony was once one of the most famous names in American photography. During the Gilded Age, his grand portrait studio with its one-story-high marquee reproducing the photographer’s signature in golden letters was a New York City landmark visited by celebrities such as Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, and Mark Twain. Sarony’s story represents a central chapter in the history of photography. Napoleon Sarony’s Living Pictures documents Sarony’s career as New York City’s premier portrait photographer and details a moment when the birth of celebrity culture and growth of mass media helped promote popular acceptance of photography as fine art.” (Source).
“In Our America, Burns has assembled the images that, for him, best embody nearly two hundred years of the American experiment, taken by some of our most renowned photographers and by others who worked in obscurity. We see America’s vast natural beauty as well as its dynamic cities and communities. There are striking images of war and civil conflict, and of communities drawing together across lines of race and class. Our greatest leaders appear alongside regular folks living their everyday lives. The photos talk to one another across boundaries and decades and, taken together, they capture the impossibly rich and diverse perspectives and places that comprise the American experience.” (Source).
“1964: Eyes of the Storm presents 275 of Paul’s photographs from the six cities of these intense, legendary months – Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami – and many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo. In Paul’s Foreword and Introductions to these city portfolios, McCartney remembers ‘what else can you call it – pandemonium’ and conveys his impressions of Britain and America in 1964 – the moment when the culture changed and the Sixties really began.” (Source).
“An artfully designed compendium of 200 antiquarian photographs, all published here for the first time—including daguerrotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, and sepia and black-and-white images—culled from the private collection of longtime antiques collector, dealer, and appraiser Anthony Cavo, accompanied by an entertaining mix of historical anecdotes, true stories, excerpts from literature, letters, quotes, and fun facts.” (Source).
“The McLaughlin twins were trailblazing female photographers, celebrated in their time as stars in their respective fields, but have largely been forgotten since. Here, in Double Click, author Carol Kino provides us with a fascinating window into the golden era of magazine photography and the first young women’s publications, bringing these two brilliant women and their remarkable accomplishments to vivid life.” (Source).
Here are a few more:
—A Question of Color by Joel Meyerowitz
—Minimalism in Photography
—Inventing Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot in the Bodleian Library by Geoffrey Batchen
—Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory by Janet Malcolm
Do you have a recent favorite photography book? Please share yours in the comments!
See you soon. —lucy
I love it when you do these posts. Thank you so much for sharing.