Website/Book about the arty side of photogrpahy

superflyninja

Hi all. Im interested in finding out more about different aspects of photography. For example information on composition, meaning of colours etc. thanks a buncho!

melekalikimaka

camera lucida by Roland Barthes

tis quite a tough read... arrogant pr*ck imo, but interesting views

Cabaal

Strange as it may sound, have you tried just searching amazon or play?
see what you come up with, in fairness your the best person to know what you want

Fajitas!

superflyninja wrote: »

Hi all. Im interested in finding out more about different aspects of photography. For example information on composition, meaning of colours etc. thanks a buncho!

What you've mentioned (Composition, colours, etc) would actually be considered the 'technical' side of photography, if you're looking for the 'arty' side, it's conceptuality you're looking for. Whatever you do, don't start on Barthes. Start on something a bit lighter, along the lines of Ways of Seeing by John Berger. If portraiture is your thing, then have a look at Susan Sontag's On Photography, for a general overview on the last century of street photography, portraiture, urban photography and some landscape, I quite enjoyed The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer. Anyways, give Ways of Seeing a go, and come back if you enjoy it, I'll send you on plenty more recommendations

Covey

Was just going post Ways of Seeing, but Al beat me to it. Great place to start/finish :P

Crispin

Fajitas! wrote: »

What you've mentioned (Composition, colours, etc) would actually be considered the 'technical' side of photography

I tend to agree , if it's this stuff you're after I definitely recommend the photographers eye by michael freeman. It talks the about artistic concepts that make an image. it includes composition, colours etc, although many of the reasons an artwork or a photo works is based in how our eyes/brain see and process the things we look at, so at the end of the day, it all comes down to science in the end (spoken like a true scientist.) After reading it I understood the reason certain photographs works better than other. I found it really interesting and I like to think it improved my shots a bit having that knowledge.

superflyninja

Crispin wrote: »

I tend to agree , if it's this stuff you're after I definitely recommend the photographers eye by michael freeman. It talks the about artistic concepts that make an image. it includes composition, colours etc, although many of the reasons an artwork or a photo works is based in how our eyes/brain see and process the things we look at, so at the end of the day, it all comes down to science in the end (spoken like a true scientist.) After reading it I understood the reason certain photographs works better than other. I found it really interesting and I like to think it improved my shots a bit having that knowledge.

first thanks all for the suggestions. well i guess what you could say is i want to understand more about what makes a picture a photograph and not just a snap whether that be through use of colour/composition etc or thematically etc. Im on a serious dry patch and need some reinvigorating

Anouilh

superflyninja wrote: »

Hi all. Im interested in finding out more about different aspects of photography. For example information on composition, meaning of colours etc. thanks a buncho!

Google books have so many full texts available that you will have years of reading, as I have found.

One search tip:

Choose the name of a photographer and then either "composition" or "colour" ("color") to get American photographers into the net.

Bernice Abbott is worth looking at for urban composition and there is now so much available on every aspect of Atget's work that his style is somehow subtly influencing a lot of imagery on the internet, I think:

http://www.gmpanter.com/atget.htm


Barthes seeming arrogance is actually evidence of a very subtle sense of irony, in many cases, which is a typical French stance. David Farrell mentioned Barthes's association between photography and death in the RTE programme on Monday night and "La Chambre Claire, Note sur la photographie", Barthes's last book, is a very beautiful hommage to his dead mother and a reflection on how photography seems to be full of ghostly images of what cannot ever be again (my own synopsis, which is, as everything in Barthes, open to debate).

http://elsa.photo.net/barthes.htm

Also, I have found that cinema is the perfect way to learn still photography. As the camera moves through space, just thinking about where one would choose to stop and freeze an image helps.

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/09/50/in-the-city-of-sylvia.html


As for colour, more threads could be started here to explore the emotional and heraldic nature of many photos, depending on which colours are chosen.

It would be interesting to know what you have found useful in your reading and from chatting with friends. Everybody sees things in such a different way.

superflyninja

thanks for all the suggestions guyses!!

DadaKopf

superflyninja wrote: »

thanks for all the suggestions guyses!!

Photography: a Critical Introduction (Liz Wells, ed.) published by Routledge is an excellent and readable introduction to the history and theoretical issues involved in photography across a wide breadth of topics. You can dip in anywhere, really, but it's a great read from start to finish.

I found it very inspiring in terms of my own photography. But maybe I'm weird 'cos I like starting from ideas/problems and taking it in circles from there.

Lots in it about Barthes and the ability of photography to preserve the dead - specifically the peculiar fashion at the turn of the 19th century to take photos of the recently dead (adults and children) so that they would look like they're merely sleeping. Photographic death masks. It seems a little like a photographic version of the 'undecidable' in Derrida's deconstructive phenomenology - how things are determinedly neither one thing nor the other, nothing is black or white, only shades of grey. Take zombies: dead but alive, alive but dead. A way to undermine the notion that photographs denote 'truth' - of course they can never, but photographs are so much more problematic and contradictory than it first seems. Otherwise the whole hobby would be boring!

I think Barthes made some very interesting observations. As has Thomas Ruff, the photographer, in his own way.

Fajitas!

DadaKopf wrote: »

Photography: a Critical Introduction (Liz Wells, ed.) published by Routledge is an excellent and readable introduction to the history and theoretical issues involved in photography across a wide breadth of topics. You can dip in anywhere, really, but it's a great read from start to finish.

Absolutely - I think I quoted it more than any other book in my thesis. It's worth checking out some other theory before going for it though - It references so many other books, it can be handy to have a knowledge of them before you start.

superflyninja

i know this is an older thread but the new thread on books reminded me to look in this one and im now finally checking out the books that were recommended.so a belated thanks all for the help

Fajitas!

Let us know how you get on with them

oshead

Here's the 70' bbc series Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Adapted from the book no doubt. It's a good watch.

majiktripp

Tom Ang's Digital Master Class

Found it a good read myself, my be worth having a quick browse though on Amazon.

superflyninja

i think ill be getting The photographers eye by Michael Freeman first.....

sineadw

jots down books..

Although if I never have to read Barthes again it'll be way too soon..

melekalikimaka

sineadw wrote: »

Although if I never have to read Barthes again it'll be way too soon..

I go back in bursts... he's not fun

superflyninja

lol....he sounds interesting...what is the hassle with Barthes? Does he kick puppies or something?

Fajitas!

He can be hard going - very intelligent chap, but definitely hard going. I'd consider it essential reading though.

sineadw

and kittens I hear..

Most of the stuff I've read by him is about death. Plus his style is heavy enough anyway. Sontag's style drives me crazy (how many feckin commas can one sentence really need!) but at least what she's saying is a teensy bit more accessible.

superflyninja

ah i see....i may work toward reading him then......sometime.... ;p

gloobag

superflyninja wrote: »

i think ill be getting The photographers eye by Michael Freeman first.....

That's a pretty good book. Found it very interesting myself.

I'd also recommend "Within The Frame" by David duChemin. Probably my fave photography book to date.

superflyninja

I managed to pick up the photogrpaher's eye book in waterstones. very surprised! so far its a fantastic book. Detailing just the type of info I found very hard to find else where.