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Yo uare being sent to prison for one year...


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and you can't take a camera (darn!) but you can select six photography related books.

(Don't include the new Testament / Koran / Talmud, etc. -- those will be available from

the Prison library or religious facilities and beingthe warden i wantto keep the thread

strictly tied to photography)

 

my choices:

 

Requiem (by the photographers who died in Indochina and Vietnam)

 

In the American West, R. Avedon

 

The Range of Light, Ansel Adams

 

Beauty and Photography, Robert Adams

 

Decisive Moments, Henri Cartier Bresson

 

Workers, Sebastio Salgado

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OK. Sticking strictly to stuff I have at time of writing:

 

1. Uncommon Places: The Complete Works - Stephen Shore

 

2. Quiet Light - John Sexton

 

3. On Home Ground - Denis Thorpe

 

4. The English - Ian Berry

 

5. Prague Panoramic - Josef Sudek

 

6. Don McCullin - Don McCullin

 

If I'm allowed an extra "imaginary" book (because it doesn't exist, except in my head) - a

selection of photographs by Brian Tompkins.

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1. The Focal Encyclopeida of Photography (old 1950s edition two huge volumes, keep me happy for hours)

 

2. Morgans (again a 1950s edition) Leica Handbook, I just love the language.

 

3. Ilford Manual of Photography ('50s again) lots of useful stuff in there.

 

4. Gene Nocons Photographic Printing, a genius if ever there was one.

 

5. Any old (pre '60) BJP almanac, good advice, supurb gravure photos, and lot of old kit reviewed.

 

6. Why I like Leicas by me, well got to write a book in jail.

 

I guess this sums me up, working at the sharp edge of modern (electro optic) design I like the simple functionality and precision of Leicas.

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Thinking about it, if 'newbies' had one of the first two on my list half the questions asked on this forum wouldn't be. You can't beat the value for money from second hand books, I find that quite a lot of the modern ones are more style than content, the binding is usualy better on the old ones too!
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Mark.....just take a bunch of Helmut Newton books (excluding his horrible auto biography). That should do the trick.

 

Or maybe (and I'm dating myself here...I thought these were really cool when I was very young) some Bunny Yeager beach photos (Al...do you remember these?).

 

Or some Peter Gowland...

 

This should last you for your sentence!!

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"you are being sent to prison for one year"

 

I assume this is the next step Brian will take in minimising bad behaviour on the Leica Forum!

 

I would not take books of photos to my prison (or desert island or whatever) they take too little time to 'read'.

 

I would take Herodotus and Austen and Churchill's Malborough biography and Homer's Odyssey (for a comforting re-read) and 'Religion & the decline of magic' and W.G. Hoskins 'Devon' and 'In search of England' by H.V. Morton. I can make far better pictures in my head by reading such books. I also claim a 'bonus book', Simon Schama's Landscape & Memory.

 

 

Some of these I have read before, some I mean to complete reading and one I have never yet read.

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W. Eugene Smith, Dream Street.

 

James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

 

The American Image: Photographs from the National Archives, 1860-1960.

 

Robert Capa, Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection.

 

Don McCullin, Unreasonable Behaviour.

 

Atget, Paris.

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Be serious, Folks. We don't know why Ellis is so interested --you'll notice that he hasn't been around the Forms much, lately (has he been otherwise "occupied?"). So, to my list. Without question way at the top: Weston's Daybooks. And my favorite of all photography books: Paul Strand's "Time in New England." Then the Gene Smith biography; "Ansel Adams at 100"; "Bystander"; and the only pure book of photographs: "J'ame Paris" by Kertesz. Only six, Ellis -- it's going to be very hard to go a year without Walker Evans, Cartier-Bresson, Larry Clark....
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I guess I'm the different one in the group.

 

I would take 6 of the thickest 8.5 X 11" bound 4 squares to the inch notebooks with nothing in them preferable legal pad yellow or white with blue lines.

 

With a whole year I could easily fill them with ideas, designs, notes, lists, and maybe even a book of my own. I could completely design a darkroom a studio a business plan a car an airplane dozens of projects to keep my mind busy.

 

A few picture books or story books would be worthless by the second week.

 

IMHO.

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I'm sure I'd take at least one of Elliott Erwitt's books, and very likely more than one -- books like "Dog Dogs" or "Snaps" -- as I'd need a good laugh once in awhile.

 

Probably also want to bring something by Canadian photographer Freeman Patterson, not only for the photos, but also because he writes so well.

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How about taking some books by photographer, Norman Mauskopf, who actually uses

Leicas?

 

All published by Twin Palms:

 

Rodeo (published 1985)

 

Dark Horses (published 1988)

 

A Time Not Here (published 1996)

 

Also, if you can score on some internet access time while in The Big House... you

could visit Norman's web site (www.normanmauskopf.com) and view some of his other

work, like "Mustang". You might just learn a little about seeing and sequencing images.

 

Just my recommendation...

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