Photography Books are a great source for Photographic Influences.

I have always looked at Photography books, they formed my early influences in photography. Pre-internet they were for a long time, one of the best ways to see the work of photographers. If you had a body of work that you wanted to share, it was one of the best ways for photographers to get their work out there, they aimed to get a book published. Now with self publishing and so many more publishers, it has become even easier to get work published as a book. However the costs of publishing mean often a photographer has to help the publisher fund the publication of their books, especially if the photographer is not so well known.

My favourite photography books are (In no particular order):

The Americans by Robert Frank.

Winogrand: Figments from the Real World by John Szarkowski

A Day Off by Tony Ray Jones,

The Last Resort, & Cost of Living, by Martin Parr

Life is Good & Good for You in New York by William Klein,

Sweet Life by Ed Van Der Elsken

In Flagrantte by Chris Killip

The books above are more historical because, what I am looking at in this article is work that has historically influenced my thinking and image making as a photographer.

More recent books that are and have influenced my recent thinking are:

The Sochi Project: An Altas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus by Rob Hornstra,

Shimmer of Possibility by Paul Graham,

Sea Coal by Chris Killip is a partareworking of some of the images from ‘In Flagrantte‘ Using some from this book and other about this particular location and situation.

Oil by Edward Burtynski

Water by Edward Burtynski