Reddit mentions: The best individual photographers

Hello! I'm a Swiss artist, and i just published a book of black and white photography. I took a trip to Venice, Italy on January 2018, and in this book i selected the best shots. It' a 48 pages book, minimal and clean impagination, no written section, pure beauty. i leave here the links for the hardcover paperback and kindle, as well my personal website.

kindle 3.99 $: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BFGVB6Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520966017&sr=1-2&keywords=venice+han

Paperback cover 19.95 $ : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1986478068/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1520968804&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=venice+han

my website www.hansessions.com

Thanks for any support, have a nice day !

• Han
  

> Something about North Korea has me on a binge for knowledge about it

I feel EXACTLY the same. It's almost a morbid fascination. I'm hoping to save up enough to go there myself. http://www.koryogroup.com/ organise tours. Get a copy of "Welcome to Pyongyang" if you want some amazing photos. Vast streets, utterly empty. Stalin-esque monuments.

I heard a rumour that there is a 3 meter high solid gold statue of Kim Il-Sung near the army barracks in Pyongyang that is mounted on a platform - ready to retract it in to a bomb-proof shelter should the area be shelled. I sometimes have day-dreams about putting together a mercenary army to go in there an steal it - although a mate pointed out that it'd be more profitable (and much less risky) to write film script about that rather than actually doing it. :)

General 'snapshot' street photography is a matter of chance, with a small amount of composition. Very little work and thought goes into the output. What's notable about HCB is that he frequently framed a shot based on artistic composition; and waited for something to happen. Other times he had time to compose a shot he took the time to find the geometry. Even when just out snapping, he looked for scenes where geometry was striking. If you're curious about the way he does this, he talks about it in an old movie.

Asking someone else how to make your work stand out is inherently uncreative, for the record.

One of the most important things I ever learned about photography was that buying gear isn't really useful. Having a working camera and some working lenses is necessary; but if you have something 'semi-professional' or above, there's little to no advantage in upgrading. You have an M8 (or possibly an M6 by now?) and a lens. As long as both are in functional condition; that's all you need in terms of equipment.

Instead, buy books. Here's some suggestions that you might want to consider:

• Koudelka - Gypsies
  
  
• Relationship - Zachary Drucker & Rhys Ernst
  
  
• The Decisive Moment - Henri Cartier-Bresson
  
  
• The Magnum Contact Sheets - Multiple Artists
  
  
• Vivian Maier - Vivian Maier, John Maloof
  
  
• An English Eye - James Ravilious
  
  
• Labyrinth - Moriyama Daido
  
  
• The Americans - Robert Frank
  
  You can also look at libraries for these, and keep an eye on thrift stores and used bookshops. I think you're in London, right? There's a huge gallery on Oxford street, and in Mayfair there's a Leica store where exhibitions are held a few times a year.
  
  The key point is to look at photos; individual photos, contact sheets and whole curated books and exhibitions. Think about how the artists made something like documentary and snapshot photography into an art. Look for ideas you can use, and look for things that haven't been done that you could use to be unique. Look at studio photography. Look at erotic photography. Look at cinema and still life and landscapes and architecture and paintings and drawings and every other image created with artistic intent, that represents a moment of reality. And go from there.

Read Ansel Adams' autobiography. Adams was a brilliant artist and an expert technician. Great photography is made from art and science. He relates some of his experiences of figuring out the technical steps to get the picture he had visualized in his mind. The book is terrific on many levels. Run down to the library and check it out.

Taken from the excellent book "Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators." An interesting book, and it's currently only a buck. http://www.amazon.com/Alter-Ego-Avatars-their-creators/dp/1905712022

Yes, Amazon BR.

https://www.amazon.com.br/Strokes-First-Ten-Years/dp/1944713174/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541683017&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=the+strokes+the+first+ten+years

Get on it!

Caveat: as amazing a photographer as he was... Adams was not the greatest author you'll ever come across.

That's really cool, and it's reasonably priced on eBay too.

Think I'm going to have to grab it to sit on my coffee table with Back to the Front.

Used up my tomahawk missile inventory last month.

Also I am old, I already did my war fighting from 2001 - 2009. The most effective thing I can do is win hearts and minds.

.

Have you read this?


We Came From Fire: Photographs of Kurdistan's Armed Struggle Against ISIS https://www.amazon.com/dp/1576878686/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6NqODb3F8J7ZX

it's book!

https://www.amazon.com/Muzak-Visual-Art-Porcupine-Tree/dp/1911374095

This book is published in landscape format. I don't know how it was done but it is possible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QLM0SEO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_gif3DbE9AG0YC

In Bloom, Jean-Vincent Simonet

Ansel Adams: The Camera
Ansel Adams' Autobiography

This is from the book Alter Ego by Robbie Cooper, for those interested.

Back to Front

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608877469/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TgLpyb43JG1NW

Back to the Front.

https://www.amazon.com/Metallica-Authorized-Visual-History-Puppets/dp/1608877469

I have this book, but I don't think I've ever seen that taxi picture before. It's freaking DEMOLISHED, did it get hit by a train?

> "Schweiger describes the fall-outs, tears, jealousy, screaming fits, hangovers and plain all-out exhaustion that went together with creating the book. One artist almost got cut out of the book completely after a row over picture rights."


This book sounds rad. I can't believe no other media has covered it! But I gotta say, the USD $55 price tag is a bit painful for me, as much as it is probably justified.

You could try Richard Goodall Gallery for music/movie posters, not sure how many metal bands they have...if any. Also I'm not sure if anyone sells prints of Weegee's photographs but he is famous for arriving on crime scenes before the police to grab his shots, here are some examples and here's a decent looking book. There's also this book that I've been trying to track down a copy of in the UK, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes about working in a mortuary.

If he's into vinyl, a lot of metal bands put out limited edition releases which you can probably get for somewhere around £30-50 or even if he's an Argento fan, the Goblin soundtrack to Suspiria would be pretty cool

Fright Rags and Rotten Cotton do horror T-shirts and Rotten Cotton even has an Italian-Horror section with a few Argento items