Books

July 11, 2020

I thought it was time we spoke about books. Obviously photographic ones, not that I find the ones with words difficult or in some way disagreeable, nothing could be further than the truth, no, it’s purely because this is primarily a blog about photography. That image above is the only photograph you’ll see from me in this blog post, it’ll feature if I post a link to Social Media because I don’t want people to be confused that I’ve suddenly become a great Street Photographer and be impressed by my new style if I was to use one from my featured photographer who has a book published. That shot above was one I made over two years ago and at the time thought it might make a cover for a book I was planning for my photography in Bath. Of course when I say planning, it was more of a passing thought, it still is. With hindsight it isn’t one I’d pick now, however police officers ‘book’ people…see what I did there? No photos from me, bad jokes instead. The good news is that you’re going to see some top class Street Photography from a brilliant photographer like this shot below, more on his book his book later in this post.

One problem I have is that my brain won’t engage with the administrative duties involved in producing any kind of book. I was asked by novelist and photographer Tess Herzog to supply her with 12 photos two or three weeks ago, she wants to write a story around them. A simple task, four categories, three images in each. I sent her a file and apology , it contained 30 or so images, not in any specific order. It’s not laziness, more of a lack of interest in filing and archiving which then leads me to plough through almost 40,000 images to find anything requested. There are folders, they often don’t make sense, but I can find important images for clients and so forth. I know I should tag phots, categorise them, but I don’t. I’m more interested in the now and sometimes I’m not overly bothered about seeing the results, I just enjoy the process of taking them. You need to be disciplined and that includes your Style and subject. Anyway, enough of that. Let’s talk about books and I’ll briefly touch on the dreaded internet. You’re going to see what I hope you’ll agree is some outstanding photography from my friend, the hugely talented Street Photographer, Vasco Trancoso whose book 99 is gaining huge praise from some of the best.

The internet is what it is, I’m not sure you’ll find that much inspiration there unless you’re new to photography. Books on the other hand will inspire the most seasoned photographer or those just starting out. The printed version of any photograph is so much better, on the wall or in a book. I watched an interview recently with photographer Ralph Gibson. He was an assistant to both Robert Frank and Dorthea Lange. He’s has a long and illustrious career in photography producing countless books and exhibitions all over the globe. During the interview they touched on the power (or not) of the internet. Recently a website requested a pdf to present to their viewers a part of Gibson’s latest book. He thought it was astonishing that this pdf had 19 million views, however and here’s the rub, he had not received one single enquiry. Nothing, not a thing. We all know that it can be a powerful tool, evidently not that powerful if you’d like to sell a book or make any money from photography. Sure there are ways to make money thorough the internet, selling stock images or even entering competitions, although the latter must be free to enter and have a cash prize otherwise it’s pointless. Let’s talk about books. Another of Vasco’s fabulous images…

Photography books are inherently expensive and so you need to choose wisely. My collection comes chiefly from requests for Christmas, Birthday, or Fathers Day gifts. I have quite a few books, yes and birthdays, the numbers of both seems to be climbing far to quickly. They all inspire, I have large coffee table books and also some smaller additions that I take with me if I’m travelling: The “Photofile'“ collection is good for those, I have ones for Sebastião Salgado, Robert Capa, Don McCullin, Elliot Erwitt and Henri Cartier-Bresson. We’re not talking about “How to” books here, although if you’re looking for some in-depth technical information Michael Freemen’s field guides for ‘Exposure’ and ‘Black & White Photography’ or ‘The Photographers Eye’ are excellent. I’m going to honest here in that I did drop off asleep reading those technical guides in bed a few times, perhaps too in-depth, but you’ll learn from them for sure. This next shot will wake you up:

I’m not going to list everything here, because it’s going to get boring really quickly. I have a few from Magnum (Contact Sheets is a good one), ‘Road To Seeing’ by Dan Winters, ‘Photographers on Photography’ by Henry Carrol… etc etc etc. Here was my top five which is about to change:

1) Sam Abell - The Life Of A Photograph

2) Vivian Maier - Street Photographer

3) Life - The Great Life Photographers

4) Robert Frank - The Americans

5) The Suffering Of Light - Alex Webb

One that might be included in that top five would be ‘Street Photography A History In 100 Iconic Images’ by David Gibson which brings us nicely to another book that is definitely pushing into the new top five of mine, ‘99’ by Vasco Trancoso. David Gibson is a renowned and respected photographer, he knows his stuff and placed Vasco’s book in his top three and writes an essay is Vasco’s book and I can see why.

There’s a coherent style to this book and that’s what’s needed. Vasco used to photograph in Black and White and changed to colour some years ago. When I look at these vibrant colours it inspires me to shoot more in colour. The contrasts are sublime, the framing in all the images superb, they have a story. Couple that with something we’ve discussed many times before that it’s not necessary to travel all over the world for your subject. Vasco photographs mainly in his hometown of Cladas da Rainha in Portugal. Now that’s a challenge in itself, I take most of my shots in Bath which is a tourist destination and has plenty going on. A small town such as Vasco’s is a much tougher proposition, finding the shots isn’t easy. Imagine putting Vasco in New York to shoot some Street, endless opportunities and I suspect the results would be incredible. My friend Jeff Chane-Mouye has done similar with Aix-en-Provence, the thing is that you learn the streets inside out, you know where the light falls at certain times and you become almost part of the scenery if you’re there often enough. What annoys me slightly is that Vasco only took up Street Photography in his retirement…damn that talent!

Really fabulous photography in this book. I of course have a favourite and it’s one I’ve tried many times with varying success. Shot through some plastic sheeting I presume or at least that what I’ve attempted in the past. I’m a big fan of this shot, the gesture, the light and that painterly feel as though it was by an old master. Well definitely a master, Vasco isn’t that old!

If you’re interested in purchasing Vasco’s book you can contact him via his website ‘Heavenly’ or his Facebook or Instagram pages. Here’s a selfie of the author to finish:

Next time we’ll be back on to my photos and stories, sorry about that in advance, but you can’t have everything and I don’t want anyone getting used to this sort of quality on every blogpost! As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.

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