FYI ~ some recommendations
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 11:44AM 
Good reads / looks • click to embiggenOver the holidays, while book shopping for gifts, I acquired a few for myself, two of which are shown above. Each book - Ansel Adams In Color and PHOTO:BOX - are worthy additions to interested people's photo libraries.
The Adams' book is an interesting collection of his color work - selected/edited by noted photographer, Harry Callahan - and of his writings on the subject of his personal, not commercial, color picture making. Color picture making was a bit of a sticky wicket for Sir Ansel, primarily because of the medium's inability to submit itself to the high degree of user control that Adams wanted in his picture making endeavors.
Nevertheless, the man did manage to make some very interesting color pictures (especially so considering the technical state of the medium / films with which he worked) - many of which are much more to my liking than most of his tour-de-force BW work.
FYI, this book is an updated / expanded edition - much improved, IMO - of previous editions of the same name.
PHOTO:BOX is billed as "a collection of 250 photographs by 200 of the world's most prominent photographers, ranging from legendary masters to contemporary stars, in an appealing format with a portfolio binding ... Each image is accompanied by an engaging commentary and a brief biography of the photographer ... The book is organized by subject and theme, offering a fresh perspective on the medium: from reportage to nature, and also covering war, portraits, still lifes, women, travel, cities, art, fashion, the nude, and sports. PHOTO:BOX is an irresistible and amazingly affordable survey of photography."
That said, it's not often that a 512 page photo book with first-rate reproduction, paper, and a kinda cool portfolio box binding / enclosure is on offer for the retail price of $29.95US. In fact, if you pay that price, you've been had because it is widely available at prices as low as $19.95US. IMO, it's worth purchasing based on just price alone.
That said, "many of the world's most prominent photographers" doesn't include all of the world's most prominent photographers. I could run down a list of many that are not included in this collection. And, in addition to some notable (and, IMO, very obvious) omissions, there is some repetition of photographers in different subject/theme categories - it's almost as if they couldn't come with enough picture makers to fill the book without spreading some them over multiple categories.
That said, the book is still a worthy addition to any photo book collection. The text that accompanies each and every picture is worth the price of admission, which as mentioned, is simply irresistible.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks! Hit abebooks.co.uk and ordered both your recommended tomes.
If you know his work, you will recognize MANY of the pictures in the color were done in both color and his traditional full-scale B&W tours de force (esp. check his book, Portfolios of Ansel Adams, which contains many examples). It is interesting to compare the two efforts, in terms of what was there (more or less represented by the color versions) and how he reinterpreted the same scene, at the same time, in B&W.