The Photograph: Composition & Color Design | 
 enlarge | Author: Harald Mante
Publisher: Rocky Nook
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 26013
Format: Illustrated
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 280
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 1933952261
Dewey Decimal Number: 778
EAN: 9781933952260
ASIN: 1933952261
Publication Date: March 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, great condition.
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Product Description
Harald Mante, one of the most distinguished teachers of the photographic arts in Germany and an internationally recognized master of photography, brings his teaching to us in the English language for the first time in more than 30 years. In The Photograph Mante explains the elements that are essential to achieving the highest level of visual design in photographs. This book is geared toward the serious intermediate and advanced photographer who strives to create outstanding images. While a deep understanding of photographic techniques is required in order to master photography, technical knowledge alone is not sufficient to create outstanding images. Beyond the technical aspects, the crucial elements that determine the quality and strength of a photograph are the content of the image and its organization within the image frame. This is where the "art" of photography comes into play. Truly creative photography is based upon knowledge and mastery of design and of how the viewer perceives images. The creative photographer can exploit this knowledge and push image-making in new directions. Mante explores the principles of line, shape, point, color, contrast, composition, and design in significantly greater depth and at a higher level than most any book available to date. He also covers a number of techniques to enhance expressiveness in a photograph to support the photographer's intentions. These in-depth lessons are beautifully illustrated with more than 600 images from Mante's own portfolio, plus over 160 diagrams. The Photograph is a unique book that is sure to become an invaluable reference for anyone involved in photography-from the hobbyist to the professional; for both the digital and analog photographer; and for those practicing, studying, criticizing, or administering in the visual arts.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Different Approach for a Few Photographers April 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Rocky Nook is a relatively new entrant into the field of photography publications. One of the niches that it has taken aim on is the translation of books into English that appear in European languages. One might think that in a global culture, where a digital camera is the same in Germany as in the United States, and Lightroom has the same interface in both countries, there would be little room for variation in theory, but this book seems to prove that thesis incorrect.
While I have not read every book on photographic composition in the English language, the theories of composition presented by Mante differ from most that I've encountered. When discussing composition, most authors speak about the rule of thirds, or where to put the horizon in a picture, or simplification. Mante on the other hand, discusses the importance of the point, or multiple points, or lines or shapes, or ground and field, or contrast. (At least one other author, Richard Zakia, has tried to deal with these same concepts, but his book is too idiosyncratic to recommend.)
The chapters of the book are organized to present a single concept, like a line of points, with text, several illustrative photographs, and diagrams. Frequently one is required to flip back and forth between text, photograph and diagram. The photographs by Mante are quite beautiful, although they bear a close resemblance to the self-referential. By that I mean that the content explicated by the form is the form itself. For example, those familiar with Albers color squares recognize that the content is the perception created by placing certain colors in proximity to each other. Mante's photograph of a purple wall with a green beam in it is not about the wall, but rather about the relation of purple and green. Most current photography seems to be far more about the content, with technique explicating the content, then Mante's pictures and instruction. Mante doesn't disdain content. In fact he recognizes its primacy. But this is a book about form, and that's what the photographs emphasize.
The text is quite difficult reading being quite dry and technical, and I suspect that many photographers will not be interested in following this theoretical line of the development of composition. Yet for those photographers who are given to a more technical, cerebral approach to the creation of images, this material, because of its different approach, may provide new insights into composition. It will also appeal to photographers who are searching for an approach to design different from the common wisdom.
Even though I was willing to consider a new way of looking at composition, I found that Mante stopped just short of where I wanted him to go. His final thesis seems to be that the photographer should direct the viewer to content through contrast in design. But I would have liked for him to explain how particular forms of contrast can direct the viewer's inner eye to the photographer's vision, or how "technique is discovery". Still, the approach to design holds so much promise for a new way to compose photographs that I will try to apply Mante's teachings to my own work.
In summery, if you are a photographer who is willing to consider broad theory in an effort to enhance the composition of your photographs and are willing to risk an investment of your time that may or may not be productive, this is a book for you.
 David Russin April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
T Campbell wrote an excellent review of the book. The concept is excellent and would recommend it to all who are interested in improving the way to see. Few practitioners of the visual arts are able to articulate ideas about their own images in analytical terms or, even, acknowledge any value in doing so. This book gives the photographer the opportunity to incorporate analysis into a critical view of theirs as well as other photographers. Ther is a constituency of significant size who are at a stage in their lives that they can realize for the first time or are returning to creative passions after their income earning years and who may be receptive to incorporating analytical aspects in their approach to or understanding of the visual arts. However, it is a difficult book to read because of the lack of organization between the text with the photographs or figures.
The Second Outstanding Book on Composition/Design is Finally in Print March 20, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
First, the disclaimer: I translated this book from the German 2001 and 2007 editions of "Das Foto." So errors of translation are mine. I did so for my own edification. I encouraged the publisher to find a way to get this information into English, because I thought the content of this book should be available to the English language readership. As it turned out, the publisher eventually asked to use my translation. I was paid for my work, but do not receive royalties from sales.
Now some history on Harald Mante's books. The last time his books were available in English was in the 1970s, when Van Nostrand Reinhold published his "Photo Design" and "Color Design," the first covering the design elements and contrasts in B&W and the second covering the color contrasts and their effects when incorporating the design elements. These books are classics of long standing among people interested in analytical presentations of these subjects. Over the years he has written several other instructional books, but until now, none had made it into English.
This is the second truly outstanding book on the subject to appear in less than a year, the first being Michael Freeman's "The Photographer's Eye," on which I have a review elsewhere. The bottom line is that my strongest recommendation is to own both of these books. Together they constitute the strongest, most thorough presentation of composition/design up to the intermediate level available anywhere in print in English. No other books in English deal with this material in the depth, breadth, and level of these two books, for photographers or for drawing/painting artists.
Now to review Mante's book. Mante was taught and presents his material in the tradition of the teachings of such Bauhaus masters as Vassily Kandinsky. Aspects of his presentation, adapted to photography, remind one of Kandinsky's landmark book, "Point and Line to Plane."
Whereas Freeman starts in a more traditional photographic writer's manner with a consideration of the implications of different viewing frames, Mante assumes the 36mm x 24mm frame and starts right into the grammar of visual structure with the point: 26 pages about the point. How one point works within the 35mm film frame, then two and more, and the visual implications. Then 26 pages on lines. He moves on to shapes, in fewer pages, but with equal thoroughness.
He moves then to what I have translated as "universal contrasts," covering figure-ground, tonal contrast, and representation of space. Next he covers the seven most commonly recognized color contrasts, along the lines of J. Itten, as they pertain to photographing.
The last, long, chapter covers a number of techniques and considerations the photographer can use to improve the chances of achieving one's goal in taking an image. Several of the topics relate to the ratio the photographer has to choose between objective representation and subjective interpretation, another important topic in Kandinsky's writings. The last two sections are on photographic sequences and series. Mante has used these two techniques as elements of his teaching over many years, and has published and exhibited students' work using these ideas.
The over 600 photographs illustrating the topics are signature Mante, based solidly on strong visual design. Many of the illustrations occur in his fine art portfolio publications and have been exhibited in many countries. The large number of diagrams also support his textual argument.
Short digression: One measure of the value of this book may be that "the Rule of Thirds" does not appear anywhere. He prefers the European use of 5/8ths and 3/8ths. It turns out that between the two guidelines and the third way of using the frame diagonal and dropping a perpendicular from an opposite corner, all three points are pretty close.
This book contains no camera/lens/aperture/shutter/photographer's thoughts about the illustrations. Mastery of the equipment and what it can do is assumed. This book is all about the image - building it and analyzing it. It is not elementary either in topics or presentation: basics, yes, elementary, no.
Art/photographic practitioners, historians, teachers, students, and arts administrators would find this book an excellent text. Mante's presentation equips one to understand the structure and dynamics of an image in one's viewfinder and to analyze the result after firing the shutter. No other book does that in quite so elemental and analytical a manner.
'Nuf said, for now.
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