An outstanding book on photography and the ways to think about it.
Landscape within
Insights and inspiration for photographers
By David Ward
Argentum, 2004
1 902538 34 X
Written by a great landscape photographer, this book goes well beyond just presenting beautiful landscape images and rather gets into the psychological and perceptual aspects of photography. Furthermore, the core coverage of this book is actually on creativity and how this relates to photographic practice.
This book of around 130 pages is divided into the following chapters:
* Introduction
* A River of Light: The bond between photography and reality
* Oceans of Instants and Radiance: Photography and a new realm of perception
* Worlds within Worlds: Differing approaches to landscape imagery
* The Art of Seeing: Harnessing our creativity
* My Practice: The application of theory
* Beginnings and In Plato’s Cave: A deeper look at photography and perception
Illustrated throughout by striking landscape photography by the author, it is, however, the words that leave the most impression. Topics range far and wide, from the use of captions in steering the interpretation of an image to issues of objectivity and subjectivity in photography. Much attention is paid, obviously, to landscape photography and its styles and conceptual framework. There is also a worthwhile discussion of abstraction in photography, plus lots more.
This is a great and very unusual book. All thinking photographers who are serious about their art should read this book.