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 enlarge | Author: Stephen Shore
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $23.97
You Save: $15.98 (40%)
New (26) Used (10) from $23.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 28402
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 136
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 8.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 071484585X
Dewey Decimal Number: 771
EAN: 9780714845852
ASIN: 071484585X
Publication Date: February 1, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Pre-Order (0-0 Business Days)
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| Customer Reviews:
 Timeless Wisdom August 14, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Stephen Shore, the well known photographer (and teacher; who, among other things, was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY) has recently updated his classic meditation on the Nature of Photographs. Recommended to all aspiring (and working) photographers, the beauty of this book is the density of its distilled wisdom.
You will not find anything here on f-stops, film speeds and lenses, nothing on the darkroom (analog or digital), nothing on the raging "debate" whether to pick up an 8 megapixel DSLR or a 10, and no instructions - at least explicit ones - on how to take "better" pictures. What you will find is the crystalline essence of Shore's lifetime's worth of thinking about the nature of the photograph. His short, Zen-like prose-poem musings pierce the proverbial bullseye like an archer's arrow; and leave the reader both enchanted and haunted by their eloquence and wisdom.
Shore reminds us that amidst the infinity of potential images, both real and imagined, the photographer has four - and only four - formal tools for defining a picture's content and organization: vantage point, frame, focus and time. Stop and think about that for a moment. With all the wonderful technology underneath our thumb as we prepare to press the shutter, with all the different ways in which we can image ourselves "taking" a shot, and all the different images that can conceivably exist, the photographer really only has these four fundamental "creative dimensions" with which to work, and no more! Where do I position myself; what do I put in the picture and what do I leave out; where should I focus my attention; and how much of a slice of time do I want to include?
Every picture that has ever been taken, and every photograph yet to be captured - from Adams' shots of Yosemite, to Cartier-Bresson's visual etudes on the "Decisive Moment," to visual realities created by some future technologies - is "reality" as aesthetically transformed by the four-dimensional human creative filter!
Yet somehow, miraculously even, this suffices to provide (however brief) glimpses of an infinite dimensional world of meaning and beauty. That is the magic of photography!
For those of you who have the first edition of this book...I have both versions of this book. The new book roughly doubles the number of accompanying images (including color photos) and adds quite a bit of commentary. It is written (thankfully!) in essentially the same style, which I find almost meditative in its quality and depth of vision. If you have enjoyed the first edition, you will likely treasure this one.
Thoughtful writing and great production values May 21, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's not going to teach you how to start using your DSLR, but it's going to give you some great insight into how to approach the overall concept of photography and creating images. Stylish minimal design, sparse well considered text and an unusual selection of photos that are all reproduced to very high standards - nice density, subtle overgloss etc. Recommended.
A new way of thinking May 16, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Nature of Photographs is sparsely worded and consist of selected photographs. The author takes the reader through a guided tour of the nature of photographs. This starts with the physical level, then the depictive and finally the mental level. By the time that the reader has completed this journey, you most likely will have a new way of perceiving photographs and possibly a new way of thinking about photography.
Magic made more so March 23, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
It was surprising to me that Mr. Shore could find ways of talking about photographs that I had not previously encountered. In deconstructing these classic photographs he has succeeded in making them and the art of photography more, not less, magical. This book would probably be most appreciated by readers who have studied and given careful thought to photography. Statements that might appear esoteric to the casual reader are within the realm of critical photographic discourse. This is a truly wonderful book.
Clear and Smart March 16, 2003
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book helped me understand photographs in a way I never did before. The writing is deceptively condensed. It is really full of ideas and meaning. Being aware of these ideas has hepled my own photography.
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