Elements of Black and White Photography: The Making of Twenty Images
In this impressive book, photographer Todd shares the knowledge  and skills he has acquired over the past 30 years making  exquisite black-and-white photographs. As suggested by the  subtitle, the book is organized around a detailed explanation of  how he made 20 fine photographs. Starting with the concept, he  describes how he composed each image, including negative data  (film, camera, lens, format, and developer). He then recounts  how he made each print, including print data (enlarger, lens,  paper, developer, toners, and mounted size), and includes  contact prints of the exposures he made and the negative  selected for printing. Nearly all the examples are of  medium-format images made from a Plaubel Makina or a Hasselblad.  All of the photographs are beautifully composed and printed with  remarkable subtlety of texture, detail, and tonal range. In  fact, many of the photographs are so well executed that they  appear to have been made with a large-format camera. Anyone  interested in making excellent black-and-white prints will find  this book extremely valuable. It is also a joy simply to page  through and admire the many striking photographs. Raymond Bial,  Parkland Coll. Lib., Champaign, ILCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.