Photo books recommended by visionaries
"I am interested in Sherman’s ability to illustrate the malleability and social construction of female identity, but as a photographer I love returning to this book, imagining her scrappy process and marvel at her ability to think of new and compelling ways to reinsert herself in classic cinematic motifs."
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- Holly Andres, Photographer
"While schlepping my portfolio from one meeting to the next I popped into a book store and flipped through this book. I was honestly astonished to see that some of the most renowned artists I’d been studying for years were included. You can imagine my enthusiasm when 3 weeks later I returned to NY for my first paid assignment, a week-long project for the New York Times Magazine. I brought this book home as a souvenir and reminder that all things are possible"
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- Holly Andres, Photographer
"I think one of Szarkowski's things was he wrote all these wall labels, pictures at the museum over the years, really well."
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- John Loengard, Photographer
"I urge you to get a copy of this book. It is a selection of 100 photographs from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art with 100 short essays, less than a page each. John is simply the best writer there ever was on photography."
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- Joel Meyerowitz, Photographer
"Van Der Zee did a lot of manipulated images, like especially dead people and stuff like that. He did theater portraits, and in this book, you see his artistry in the dark room, the double negatives, putting negatives together and making a whole new image."
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- Coreen Simpson, Photographer
"His pictures are kind of simple portraits. He had the subjects write their own interpretation of the pictures and of themselves on the page in their handwriting. It's beautiful and it's so evocative. "
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- Lauren Greenfield, Photographer
"This book demonstrates his longstanding desire to build an intimate connection with his subjects over time, his understanding of the relationship between image and text, and his interest in considering how the American Dream and its pursuit affects how we live our lives."
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- Lisa Sutcliffe, Curator
"He tells this one story that really impacted me about how when he's starting an assignment, and he arrives in a place, how you get in, and how you have to just kind of start over each time to try to ingratiate yourself in a way that's right for that place."
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- Lauren Greenfield, Photographer
"The book also demonstrates an artist who is a master of using color and light in his photographs."
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- Pete Souza, Photographer
"The succinct power of the portrait in its beauty and its ugliness. Certainly, that book has been very important to me and I think she's just an extraordinary artist."
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- Christian Witkin, Photographer
"We've got to hold the book in our hands, and it's not like online. When you have a real book in your hands that you can flip the pages, you know, flip those pages through and absorb those photographs..."
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- Coreen Simpson, Photographer
"This is a book that teaches you about humanity and asks you to find the connection between yourself and the people in these portraits."
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- Stephanie Baptist, Curator
"It's probably photography's largest photographic project that was amassed, and he was pretty extraordinary. . . . He actually went as far as getting funding from affluential people in New York society. He went to JP Morgan to underwrite a good part of the project, and he had to prove to Morgan his passion for the project and the meaning for it. Curtis just laid it down and he got the money."
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- Christian Witkin, Photographer
