Oct 28 2007
On Being a Photographer
I had been working on a really long post of an analysis of why I haven’t been producing great photos the last few years. The post was centered around a few things that I picked out of this book, On Being a Photographer. I ended up trashing that post because it just wouldn’t come together. I think it was because, while I thought the book made some valid points, I enjoyed reading it more than I actually believed what was being said.
The book has two authors. One is a well-known Magnum photographer. The other isn’t so well-known (but still talented and accomplished). Who the authors are doesn’t matter so much for the purpose of this paragraph. What does matter is that they wrote the book in a style that was very fun to read. The entire book is a conversation between the two authors. They discuss their topics as if the reader is ultimately the audience, but they rarely mention their audience. I’m sure this method has been used before, but it was the first time I had read a book written this way and it helped me get through (very quickly) a book that was, at best, just good.
On Being a Photographer contains not a single photograph or illustration. It is not a technical manual on how to use a camera or how to process images. It is a discussion between the two authors on how to think and act like a photographer. For that reason it is a different kind of book on photography and it is that reason that made it worth reading. If you want to know more, you’ll have to read it. It’s only 160 pages. You’ll get more out of the actual read than you would from a summary from me.