Re: Books

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

Thanks to Scott for mentioning some I'd forgotten, namely:

On Thu, 3 May 2007, Weber, Scott wrote:

> Susan Sontag, On Photography (love her or hate her she always stirs things
> up in my classes)
> Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, The Architect's Brother
both of them among my favorites, too, tho interestingly (I suppose) some 
of the others Scott mentioned are among my least-favorites (or my "yuck" 
pile).

But my alltime favorite for this moment is Martin Parr's "Common Sense,"
which was given to me about a year ago (I'd never heard of it) but I 
understand is now -- ta da -- a collector's item !  I can look at it every 
day, or  wish I managed to... It says more about photography, people, the 
world, than I thought humanly possible.

And Martin Parr is my favorite photographer for all time at this moment.

His website

www.martinparr.com

is also a favorite, if not THE favorite. When time permits I'll write 
about the sheer genius of his series, "The Last Parking Space" and relate 
it to Christina's picture of "Wrong Way."  Among other insights.

Another point is that this "poll" conflates picture books, how-to books, 
and theory books, which very different, and even have subsets within each.

Finally, I can't resist mentioning that listing "Ansel Adams" among 
favorites is... who did that?  Don't want to make a young person cry. 
But REALLY .... um (muffled explanation, and fighting back words sounding 
like "sucky"... But now back to my needle & thread, have to go to wedding 
tomorrow in Wash DC, need to sew a dress.... putting on my grandmother's 
old lace.  Anybody got the arsenic?)

Judy