From: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: 70's (Yuck!) Photo Books
Keywords: Bell-Bottoms
Date: 21 Jan 93 19:45:26 GMT
Reply-To: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Followup-To: rec.photo
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

>Hasn't anyone done a "how to" book with 90's images in them?  It's so easy
>to tell when the books are using *old* pictures in them because the 
>fashions that the models are wearing are *dated*!  And...the color looks
>really "washed out" and "faded." (Old types of film?) 

Yeah, I know what the poster means.  Just the other day I was looking at my
copy of "Examples:  The making of 40 photographs" by Adams and was really
bummed out by "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico".  Doesn't the publisher know
that rural architectural styles have changed drastically in the 50 years
since ol' St. Ansel snapped that pic?  I mean, it really looks dated.  They 
really ought to send someone back there to re-take the picture with an 
auto-focus SLR and, maybe, Madonna wearing chains and leather in the 
foreground.  Bring that sucker right up to the 90's.  

>>I find most of my inspiration from these books comes from their images and
>>when they're old and dated it's depressing!

Ok, in a more serious vein:  Why look for inspiration in a "how-to" book?  
Look around the book stores and you'll find lots of coffee-table books by 
various photographer of almost every possible stylistic persuasion.  Look
to them for inspiration.  No, I can't afford to buy them either, given the
constant hemorrage of money flowing from my bank accounts into my darkroom
and camera bags.  

But I can and do browse as often as I can.  If you like outdoors photography,
see if you can locate a branch of "The Nature Company" near you.  They carry
coffee-table books by some of the truly great landscape color photographers:
Joseph Holmes and William Neil among others.  Most larger book stores will have
some coffee table books from such as Joe Marvullo.

The thing is that the really good photographers get so much for their images
(not pics) that the publishers of "how-to" books aren't going to be able to
afford their prices.  Even if the "how-to" books are using !!!UP TO DATE 90'S!!!
(to paraphrase a Pop Photo [blech] cover :-) images, they're not going to be 
the cream of the crop.  

Museums and galleries are good sources of inspiration also.  If you're very
fortunate you may have a branch gallery of the Friends of Photography near
you, such as the excellent Ansel Adams Gallery in San Francisco.  Museums
don't display strictly stodgy old stuff.  They try to display the best of
both contemporary and older work.  I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the
Annie Leibowitz exhibit at the A.A. Gallery on January 27!  (Yes, there *might*
be more to photography than large format landscapes.  Possible.  Not likely
but just possible.  :-)

My point:  it might be more appropriate to use "how-to" books for information 
and look to other, more suitable, sources for inspiration.  A little part of 
me really wants to stress looking within yourself for inspiration but I'll 
refrain from harping on that because I get too much of my own inspiration from 
seeing the work of others.


Barry
--


|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp. | "It's much easier to go to exotic places and | 
| bjs@uts.ccc.amdahl.com      |  capture spectacular scenes than to take a   |
|                             |  spectacular picture of a really boring      |
|                             |  green pepper". - Anthony Tse                |
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| Amdahl, being a corporation, is a legal fiction.  Therefore it is incapable|
| of holding, let alone expressing, opinions.  Unfortunately, this has been  |
| said of me as well. (I.e.  My statments are mine, not Amdahl's.)           |
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