Posted on September 13, 2024, 2:14 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
In the second installment of my selection of favorite black-and-white landscape photography books, we are moving up a bit in time compared to the first list, which did not include any living photographer. At sixty, I am no spring chicken, however all the photographers on this list are my seniors. Some are quite active in […]
Posted on January 23, 2024, 8:42 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
Wynn Bullock (1902-1975) worked almost exclusively near his home in the Monterey Peninsula, yet in his pursuit of what exists in the world beyond ordinary perception, he created mysterious photographs that reached a universal, almost metaphysical quality. Their metaphorical meaning reveals the extraordinary behind the surface of things. In the mid-1990s, Moe’s bookstore shelves prominently […]
Posted on September 13, 2023, 11:00 am, by QT Luong, under
Books.
When I came to America in 1993, my knowledge of past photographers was mostly limited to photojournalists working in the tradition of Cartier-Bresson whose humanist approach dominated the French photography scene. Discovering the landscape work of f/64 West Coast photographers such as Ansel Adams or the Westons in Bay Area museums and galleries was a […]
Posted on April 16, 2020, 6:10 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
A follow up to 15 Classic Color Nature Photography Books, this list explores photography books that may be less part of the classic nature photography canon or somewhat push the boundaries of the medium. Many are also defined by a completist, encyclopedic scope. As before, each of the titles is part of my personal collection […]
Posted on May 6, 2018, 11:45 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
One of the best ways to improve your photography is to study a multitude of photographs. The photography book remains my preferred way to look at photographs. Since books are meant to be lasting legacies, the editing standards are higher than those applied in online publication. Sequencing and design elevate the work, reproduction quality can […]
Posted on April 8, 2018, 7:50 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
In the 1990s, as I was discovering Yosemite, one local landscape photographer served as an inspiration. It wasn’t Ansel Adams, but a younger large format photographer, for he was working in color and had created a body of work that felt original and personal, no small feat given the shadow cast by the elephant in […]
Posted on January 29, 2018, 10:13 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
A quarter-century ago, when I started large format nature photography, Jack Dykinga’s work was a main source of inspiration. His wilderness advocacy books on the American Southwest, and in particular the Sonoran, Mojave, and Escalante Canyons, used fine art photography as a means to document the land in a way both accurate and stirring. I […]
Posted on August 11, 2015, 11:29 am, by QT Luong, under
Books.
Summary: A survey of more than ten of Galen Rowell’s books, representative of the whole arc of his career, by a photographer he deeply inspired. Galen Rowell (1940-2002) was a man of many considerable talents who touched several universes: one of the world’s most accomplished climbers and adventurers, a prolific author, an advocate for conservation […]
Posted on March 27, 2013, 11:00 am, by QT Luong, under
Books.
After Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter, the third pillar of conservation photography in the 20th century was Philip Hyde (1921-2006). In fact, it can be argued that Philip Hyde was more instrumental in this role than his two more famous counterparts, and that it was precisely for that reason that he is less known. A […]
Posted on September 12, 2012, 11:12 am, by QT Luong, under
Books.
Eliot Porter was to color photography what Ansel Adams was to black-and-white. The jacket flap of one his books published in 1970 simply stated “Eliot Porter is recognized as the finest color photographer alive today”. It can be argued that Porter was not only the first color nature photographer, but also the first major artist […]
