Thoughts on Photography (photography books)
Thoughts on Photography is a podcast not about tips and tricks, how to take better portraits or landscapes, or travel destinations (although they may be mentioned). It’s not so much about the how of photography, more so about the why! It’s inspired by where photography begins for us – the stories and how people are using photography in their lives around the world today.

Here is a list of my favorite photobooks of 2010:

Outside Inside - Bruce Davidson

One Block: A New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilds - David Anderson

Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent - Mario Tama

Street Photography Now - Howarth & McLaren

Unposed - Craig Semetko

The Cubans - Jack Beckham Comb

Violet Isle - Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb

Zwelethu Mthethwa

War is Personal - Eugene Richards

Japanese Photobooks of the 1960's and 1970's - Vartanian & Kaneko

Direct download: TOP-0105.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 10:48am EDT

Here is a list of my favorite photo or photo-related books of 2009 (in order by author):

War is Only Half the Story Volume II - Aftermath Project (Kathryn Cook, Natela Grigalashvili, Tinka Dietz, Pep Bonet and Christine Fenzl)

Photowisdom: Master Photographers on their Art - Lewis Blackwell

To Walk in Beauty - Stacia Spragg-Braude

The Spirit & the Flesh - Debbie Fleming Caffery

Firefly: Photographs of Children - Keith Carter

Summer Heart - Thekla Ehling

Kutuuka - Gloria Baker Feinstein

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans (Expanded Edition) - Robert Frank and Sarah Greenough

Emmet Gowin: Photographs - Emmet Gowin

Three - Ed Kashi

Fun and Games - Lisa Kereszi

Memories of Myself - Danny Lyons

Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals - Christopher Payne

Surfland - Joni Sternbach

Violet Isle: A Duet of Photography from Cuba - Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

Direct download: TOP-0089.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

In this podcast I pull together a list of my favorite photography books published in 2008. The book list includes:

Saul Leiter

Helen Levitt

America by Zoe Strauss

Cuba: Campo Adentro by Susan S. Bank

Planet Shanghai by Justin Guariglia

Fading Hutongs by Julio De Matos

Ideology in Paradise by Hiroshi Watanabe

Interior Exposure by Jessica Todd Harper

Domestic Vacations by Julie Blackmon

A Certain Alchemy by Keith Carter

Direct download: TOP-0047.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 6:50pm EDT

I recently picked up a book by Philippe Gross and S.I. Shapiro called "The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing." Ignoring the overused "Tao of Whatever" as a part of the title, I found this book to be excellent and the advice useful at all stages of your photography.
Direct download: TOP-0040.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 11:06pm EDT

The German book publisher Steidl is in the process of releasing reprints of photography books by Robert Frank (some of which are in newly edited editions supervised by Frank himself). The titles include:

The Americans (50th Anniversary Edition)
Robert Frank - Peru
Robert Frank - Paris
Zero Mostel Reads a Book

Although I'm extremely happy to be re-exposed to Frank's work, of particular interest to me is the Zero Mostel book which I found to be a delight. All of these books are not only worth your attention but should be on your bookshelf. More books by Frank are promised in the coming months and year.
Direct download: TOP-0037.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 9:36pm EDT

In this podcast, I discuss how essays about photography can help us gain insight into our own photography. Below are links to several essay collections that are mentioned throughout this episode:

Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values - Robert Adams

Why People Photograph - Robert Adams

Along Some Rivers - Robert Adams

The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography - Roland Barthes

On Photography - Susan Sontag

Light Matters - Vicki Goldberg

Advice for Photographers - Al Weber

Truth and Photography: Notes on Looking and Photographing - Jerry Thompson

Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics - David Levi Strauss

Inside the Photograph - Peter Bunnell

The Education of a Photographer - Traub, Heller, and Bell

The Photography Reader - Liz Wells

25 Lessons I Have Learned (About Photography): The Art of Living - Lorenzo Dominguez
Direct download: TOP-0024.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 6:35pm EDT

In this podcast, I discuss six of my favorite new photography books that were published in 2007. You can get more information about these books by visiting the links below (available only via my blog, thoughtsonphotography.com):

Driftless: Photographs from Iowa - Danny Wilcox Frasier

Cage Call: Life and Death in the Hard Rock Mining Belt - Louie Palu (Note: this book is no longer available however, selections from the book were recently published in Lenswork)

Eye of the West - Nancy Wood

Shaolin: Temple of Zen - Justin Guariglia

I See Angels Every Day - Hiroshi Watanabe

Findings - Hiroshi Watanabe
Direct download: TOP-0006.mp3
Category:photography books -- posted at: 9:09pm EDT