What is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good-
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?*
I have books everywhere and over the years I have learned so much before Youtube , Google and Lynda.
Learning from books and from working with the top Photographic Studios in London and from my own endeavours , shooting , shooting , shooting. The books I have chosen here speak to me for various reasons. I have excluded photography picture books. Thats for another post.
The books here are not about Photography or Film but I get so much from them that feeds into my work , how I look at the world and how I prepare for my work.
Mastery by George Leonard is an interesting study of pilot training and Mastery is a subject close to my heart. Leonard teases out different kinds of Mastery and you will have to read it to find out which type you are. Having experienced many masters at work , particularly in the top kitchens and observed Athletes , Mastery is something we should all read about, what it is , how can we get it and is it even worth it? I have a Masters in Photography, did I say that ? The Art of Travel By Alain De Botton is a little book I loved reading as it had a different take on what it means to travel and one of the lines I loved was “ the trouble with travel is we bring ourselves with us “ He turns on his head the tourist travel experience . The Peregrine By J. A Baker is a beautiful work of superb description and poetic writing that I’m currently reading to inform my own Photography and Film Making. Barker concentrates on a patch of land near his home and that is a lesson in itself. Werner Herzog loves this book .
Walker Evans (any book will do ) I keep coming back to Walker Evans direct and Sociological type of photography work. Evans was perhaps one of the first Modernist Photographers. He advocated shooting from the stomach ! The Object Stares back By James Elkins This book is about seeing and Elkins lifts under the carpet to examine stuff like blindness and how bodies and weird objects have been repressed. Gets the creative juices flowing. Packed with good stuff on seeing and even seeing to much . The Essential Wooden
Learn from the master basketball Coach John Wooden. Wooden was considered one of the best all time coaches. Learn about motivation, attention to detail, how to compete and how to prepare to win, about the downside of talent and how to put things into perspective (great reading) Hamburgers in Paradise A tour de force of the history of food and the mythologies of food , it tackles food shortages and current problems in food production in detail and with vision.
Our relationship with food and how we view food its all in there, superb. At almost 500 pages, I’m still reading it. I expect this will inform my short Film Making ideas around food. Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig Ok you have always wanted to read it now is the perfect time. This is not about how to repair your Motorbike, it’s subtitled, an inquiry into values. It’s an incredible journey and belongs up there with the Peregrine. You will learn about observation, detail and mastery by reading this one and about yourself.
Published by Viking.
* headline quote from Zen and the art
