Comments on: Good Writing on Photography (an Appeal)

By: napoli

napoli — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:26:53 +0000

E evidente che il luogo e stato fatto dalla persona che realmente conosce il mestiere!

By: Michael David Murphy

Michael David Murphy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:10:59 +0000

The Avedon/Kissinger essay:
http://www.richardavedon.com/conversation/kissinger.php

By: SHANE LAVALETTE / JOURNAL » Blog Archive » Dave Eggers and Geoff Dyer, Somehow

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:23:10 +0000

[...] One thing us bloggers like to avoid is repeating the same information that has already been discussed, but this time I just can’t help it. While reading Michael David Murphy’s 2point8, I came across a post in which Michael shared a very short-story by Dave Eggers in relation to his previous posts about “good” writing on photography: [...]

By: bob

bob — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:32:22 +0000

I’m reading a book titled, “The Education of a Photographer”, a collect works piece. I think you’ll find some outstanding pieces in the book by some some very talented people.

By: Nils Jorgensen

Nils Jorgensen — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:25:10 +0000

I should add that the Modern Photography article was shown by David Brittain and can be seen 33.40 minutes into his talk on the above link.

By: Nils Jorgensen

Nils Jorgensen — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:25:59 +0000

I used to read Julia Scully’s thoughtful and insigthful articles on photography in Modern Photography throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, and still remember them to this day as some of the best writing on photography I have ever come across. She was editor of the magazine too, for twenty years, and was also the co-discoverer of the photographic portraits by Mike Disfarmer.

http://literati.net/Scully/index.htm

Quite by chance I came across her book ‘Outside Passage’ some years ago which is a rivetting read about her extraordinary childhood. Highly recommneded.

An example of her outstanding writing was an article on Robert Frank, co-authered with Andy Grundberg, in the October 1978 edition of Modern Photography. This article was referred to and discussed at Tate Modern’s ‘Robert Frank Symposium’ in 2004 http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/robert_frank/
as an example of one of the best pieces ever written about the photographer.

As an aside, this was not the only interesting article in this October edition of 1978. There was a Herbert Keppler’s first look at Pentax’s wonderful 110 Pocket SLR with interchangeable lenses, a bit about Vivitar’s new 35-85mm f2.8 Series 1 lens, (wow), another article by Julia Scully, this time reporting from the 9th Annual Photographic Festival in Arles, France, and much, much more.

You won’t find a magazine covering such breadth and quality these days, which is a shame. Perhaps there’s a blog out there doing it now. Some please tell me of it.

By: me

me — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:35:09 +0000

How about Stephen Shore’s “The Nature of Photographs”?I also found the journal entries and letters reproduced in “Diane Arbus Revelations” to be really insightful, and I’m not even a big fan of her work.

By: akikana

akikana — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:31:27 +0000

One more recommendation for your reading list:

The Tao Of Photography by Philippe Gross.

Enjoy!

By: Michael David Murphy

Michael David Murphy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:13:47 +0000

Ooh, yes to Davidson as a writer. I have to track that down (in English). Davidson’s intro to Subway is great reading.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:12:29 +0000

Although it’s not solely about photography, “Art & Fear” by Ted Orland and David Bayles says a good deal about the process of photography as individual endeavor. I go back to it time and again because it never fails to encourage and revitalise my puny efforts….. in fact I think I can feel a chapter coming on right about now…..