Yesterday I was out taking pictures and I met a photographer I know, Brian David Stevens, who a couple of weeks ago at the photographers protest in Trafalgar Square had come and asked me if I thought he should buy a Leica M8, knowing that I owned one.
Well of course I told him not to be silly, and if he really wanted a digital Leica to start saving for the M9. So I wasn’t at all surprised to see him with a new M8 around his neck, and he is very pleased with it, and you can see some of his early results from it already in the last four posts on his Drifting Camera blog. Of course it’s no coincidence that the best work with the new camera – from the event we were both at, the London Arbaeen Procession, is in black and white, where the problems of using the M8 as a colour camera don’t arise. You can see a few of my pictures already on Demotix, but I’ll post again about it here later
But he also told me about a couple of books he thought I’d like, and later posted the details to me on Facebook. One of them was Wonderland, and today – another co-incidence – James Pomerantz published a lengthy illustrated Conversation With Jason Eskenazi who is the photographer concerned. On Eskenazi’s own web site the only pictures from the book appear to be thumbnail-size page spreads. You can see a dozen of the images from his book on NPR and also read about it and listen to a short program from the link on that page. The title does come from Lewis Carroll if you were wondering. As well as writing the Alice books and his day job in maths he was also a photographer, some of whose work has aroused controversy.
You can order the book direct from Eskenazi’s site, although orders sent now will not be processed until he comes back from his travels around the beginning of March. It’s a book that I think is worth getting.
Do tell what the other book recommendation was. The Doggerland work of Brian David Stevens is impressive as is the interview you link to where the intelligence of the questions makes for a worthwhile read although I find the Photo student variable and don’t visit as often as I should, missing this would have been a loss.
I was thinking about writing on it later. Rob Hornstra’s 101 Billionaires
Ah yes received a lot of attention, I didn’t buy as I thought at the time it was a bit over influenced by Parr. Probably my mistake but funds are limited and the opportunity to browse is limited away from the capital. I would try the new edition, at a price that is affordable, of Paul Graham’s “Shimmer of Possibility”. I remember you were negative seeing the gallery works but the book/s is/are the work as intended and do present another way of looking at photography and is a master class in being influenced by previous works but being fresh and new.
It’s a point of view, though not one that appeals to me:-) I very much remain to be convinced there is anything worthwhile in it. Though it probably fits the book better than the wall.
I buy relatively few books now and no longer get many for review. There has been a lot of talk about the future of photographic books recently, but I think most of it will become outdated as screen display quality improves and that at some point e-books will become an ideal medium for photography.
But even now I spend far more time looking at photography on the web than in books or galleries. Not just for cost reasons, but I think there is far more interesting work available on the web than makes it to the wall or page. For years I’ve been saying that the book is the ideal medium for photography (and have a pretty huge collection of them) but now I think things are moving on.