What makes Polaroid photography stand out? Since its invention by Edwin Land in 1947, how has it crept into our common culture in the ways we witness today? Writing in the context of the two bankruptcies of Polaroid Corporation and the decline and obsolescence of its film, Peter Buse argues that Polaroid photography is distinguished by its process. The fact that, as the "New York Times" put it, the camera does the rest, encouraged distinctive practices by the camera s users, including its most famous use: as a party camera. Polaroid was often dismissed as a toy, but this book takes its status as a toy seriously, considering the way it opened up photographic play while simultaneously lowering its own cultural value. Drawing on unprecedented access to the archives of the Polaroid Corporation, Buse paints Polaroid as an intimate form, where the photographer, photograph, and photographed are in close proximity in time and space. This has profound implications for the photographic practices Polaroid cameras permit and encourage, such as the sexual Polaroid, evidence of which the author pulls from literature, film, and pop culture, or Polaroid as a form of play, a fun technology, an ice breaker that can make things happen. Buse also tells the story of Polaroid s response as a company to developments in digital imaging and its ultimately doomed hard-copy wager in the face of them. Pushing further, he explores the continuities and discontinuities between Polaroid and digital snapshot practices, reflecting on what Polaroid can tell us about digital photography today. "

This is a working camera that pops up from the pages of a book..The book concisely explains--and actively demonstrates--how a structure as humble as a folded piece of paper can tap into the intrinsic properties of light to produce a photograph.The book includes:- a piece of paper folded into a working 4x5" camera- a lightproof bag- 5 sheets of photo-paper "film"- development instructions (from complete DIY to "outsource it")- a foil-stamped cover- a satisfying demonstration of the connection between design & science / structures & functions

As both an art form and a universal language, the photograph has an extraordinary ability to connect and communicate with others. But with over one trillion photos taken each year, why do so few of them truly connect? Why do so few of them grab our emotions or our imaginations? It is not because the images lack focus or proper exposure; with advances in technology, the camera does that so well these days. Photographer David duChemin believes the majority of our images fall short because they lack soul. And without soul, the images have no ability to resonate with others. They simply cannot connect with the viewer, or even—if we’re being truthful—with ourselves.

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In The Soul of the Camera: The Photographer’s Place in Picture-Making, David explores what it means to make better photographs. Illustrated with a collection of beautiful black-and-white images, the book’s essays address topics such as craft, mastery, vision, audience, discipline, story, and authenticity. The Soul of the Camera is a personal and deeply pragmatic book that quietly yet forcefully challenges the idea that our cameras, lenses, and settings are anything more than dumb and mute tools. It is the photographer, not the camera, that can and must learn to make better photographs—photographs that convey our vision, connect with others, and, at their core, contain our humanity. The Soul of the Camera helps us do that.

Shooter is a visual portrait of war--the perseverance, heroism, and survival--narrated through stunning photographs and powerful essays from a female combat photographer.

Photography is often associated with the psychic effects of trauma: the automatic nature of the process, wide-open camera lens, and light-sensitive film record chance details unnoticed by the photographer—similar to what happens when a traumatic event bypasses consciousness and lodges deeply in the unconscious mind. Photography, Trace, and Trauma takes a groundbreaking look at photographic art and works in other media that explore this important analogy. Examining photography and film, molds, rubbings, and more, Margaret Iversen considers how these artistic processes can be understood as presenting or simulating a residue, trace, or “index” of a traumatic event. These approaches, which involve close physical contact or the short-circuiting of artistic agency, are favored by artists who wish to convey the disorienting effect and elusive character of trauma. Informing the work of a number of contemporary artists—including Tacita Dean, Jasper Johns, Mary Kelly, Gabriel Orozco, and Gerhard Richter—the concept of the trace is shown to be vital for any account of the aesthetics of trauma; it has left an indelible mark on the history of photography and art as a whole.

"Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind."--Alibris.

This book is renowned for being the book to own to understand lighting! This is better than all the other how to books on the market which just provide set examples for photographers to follow. Light Science and Magic provides photographers with a comprehensive theory of the nature and principles of light to allow individual photographers to use lighting to express their own creativity. It will show you in-depth how to light the most difficult subjects such as surfaces, metal, glass, liquids, extremes (black-on-black and white-on-white), and people. With more information specific for degital photographers, a brand new chapter on equipment, much more information on location lighting, and more on photographing people, you'll see why this is one of the only recommended books by www.strobist.com.