Category Archives: Book reviews

Photography books

August Sander

Book reviews, Photographers

A master portraitist.

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August Sander’s ‘People of the Twentieth Century’ is the concise version of a like-titled seven volume set in which the photographer set out to document all the personality types of his native Germany. My copy dates from 1993 when I was living in La Jolla, near San Diego, a stone’s throw from the wonderful John Cole’s Bookshop, now long gone. The book remains in print at a startling $85 or so, but it’s worth it. Even back in 1993 it ran me $55 + tax. A lot and yes, Amazon was not yet in existence.

There’s a temptation to ‘recognize’ the clichéd Germanic personalities portrayed here – the arrogant aristocrats with their vast estates, the butchers with their no less vast waistlines and so on, but the reality is that these archetypes would not have been that much more different had the images been of Englishmen, the French, Italians or you name it. What is brought sharply into focus is that the ‘trades’ were a much more esteemed place to be back then, most requiring lengthy apprenticeships before the student could proclaim himself a master. Be it woodworker, plumber, cook, tailor or butler, all required long periods of training before expertise could be proclaimed.

That was in the between war years before mass production and standardization obsoleted hard-to-acquire skills, rendering creation and repair anachronistic concepts in a world where rapid obsolescence and high labor costs make it cheaper to recycle and replace than to repair and renovate. That was largely America’s doing – the production line and people replaced by machines. As the old saw (sorry) has it, if two carpenters turn up at your door, one with hand tools, the other with electrical machines, only a fool hires the former for the latter will do a far better job in less time and with greater precision than the once esteemed craftsman.

Sander’s book speaks to the latter and it is a fascinating thing to behold. Just don’t expect to find any humor here for in typical German fashion it’s totally absent, replaced by a ruthless efficiency, one devoid of emotion or caring.

HC-B – Here and Now

Book reviews

Much unpublished work included.


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The best reason to buy this 400+ page book is that there are simply dozens upon dozens of images I have not seen before – which probably means you have not either – and many are worth seeing.

The cover image of HC-B with the Leica II and the flat nosed black nickel (later ‘Vidom’) finder (barely better than the awful one built into the body) is by George Hoyningen-Heune. The lens is the 35mm f/3.5 Elmar (a really tiny optic, and no great shakes optically, in addition to being uncoated) and likely the reason that HC-B is using an external finder, as the one in the body was for the 50mm lens only. Incidentally, this body had no rangefinder – focusing was by guesstimation. Leitz finally got the optics down in this focal legth with the post-war six element f/3.5 (later f/2.8) Summaron, and I happily used both for decades on my M2 and M3. The 8-element Summicron was every bit as good but a stop faster at f/2 and gestated into newer versions with fewer elements and aspherical glasses later on, all very compact. But the Summaron is really all you needed for street snaps.

The book is highly recommended.

Robert Doisneau – Les Halles

Book reviews, Photographers

All gone.

Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) (pronounced “Dwaano”) is the quintessential Parisian photographer. Where Cartier-Bresson emphasizes composition and the man in the landscape, Doisneau focuses almost exclusively on the people themselves. Doisneau’s intimacy is counterpoint to HC-B’s detachment. Both approaches work in the hands of these masters, but Doisneau’s is uniquely suited to the documentation of Les Halles, the produce market in central Paris which he photographed from 1933 through its demolition in 1971.

As Covent Garden in London and the Fulton Street Fish Market in New York were destroyed to make room for condos and stores that can be found in any other metropolis, so was Les Halles, with its exquisite cast iron frame designed by Baltard, consigned to the scrap heap. Doisneau’s record is priceless and irreplaceable.


Scalding Room, 1968.

The book contains over 120 images with an interesting prologue documenting the long history of Les Halles, and is highly recommended for all who love warm, involved candid photography. Very much a man of the people, Doisneau was clearly welcomed and loved by the people of Les Halles. There is nothing clandestine here as Doisneau was simply not that kind of phorographer.

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Morley Baer

Book reviews

Landscapes of the West.

There’s a fine biography of Morley Baer (1916-1995) in Wikipedia. Baer was a WW2 Navy combat photographer who turned to architectural and landscape photography. His architectural work is more severe than that of the California master, Julius Shulman and his fine landscape work shows none of the tasteless over processing beloved by Ansel Adams and his three billion copyists. I can promise you there are no images of White Birches in this book.

I purchased Light Years, a large format (12″ x 12.5″) book of his images, well printed, for $50 from the publisher, Photography West Graphics in their retail store in Carmel – the price listed on their web site is incorrect.

Grace

Book reviews

An honest memoir.


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In the sciences and technology, success is highly correlated with raw brainpower and a good education. There are thousands of STEM graduates, unknown to the public at large, cleaning up economically, as they should be. That seems largely fair to me. Effort and intellectual acumen are rewarded.

But cross the divide to the world of sales and marketing, where there is no obvious educational correlation with success, and you are in the land of the flim-flam man (and woman). Examples of occupations where reward is unrelated to education, but highly correlated with an ability to lie (‘spin’) and cheat your customer include real estate, stock brokerage, popular broadcasting and car sales. I have yet to understand why an individual’s ability to enter a home into a database to show a prospect the bathroom merits a 6% commission.

And it’s that world which Grace Coddington has been a large part of for 50 years. Coddington is a fine example of the exception that proves the rule in the world of fashion, peopled as it is with mediocre talents and lax scruples which mostly sees the ill educated opportunist succeed to the detriment of true talent.

Long the Creative Director at US Vogue magazine, Coddington is a heart warming reminder that even in this most back-biting of industries – the purveying of clothing and scent – talent does occasionally rise to the top.

In an honest exposition of her life, and without any sense of self-aggrandisement, Coddington relates her life from a start as a beautiful model with a pre-Raphaelite face, to the top of her industry. Her many failed marriages – she definitely needs to avoid the altar – are related with no trace of self-pity as this young woman from a remote Welsh village makes her way from what we now call a ‘supermodel’ to the creative management of the industry’s bible. Along the way she works with the creme de la creme of the world’s greatest photographers many of whom, as I have written time and again here, work in the world of fashion. And what distinguishes photographers from the bunch of talent-deprived hangers-on in this industry is that if you are a quack you will not remain employed for very long.

They are all here, from the early masters like Penn, Beaton and Parkinson, to today’s best, the likes of Testino, Leibovitz and Elgort, via original geniuses like Bailey, Donovan and Bourdin.

There’s no ‘kiss and tell’ here, just a straightforward exposition of Coddington’s experiences with more photographers than most could ever name.

If nothing else, there’s a skilled explanation of why any ambitious person needs to come to the United States, enshrined in an insightful comparison of European and American work ethics. It’s a strong confirmation of the wisdom of my decision to leave England some 35 years ago, making America my home.

Highly recommended, not least for her charming sketches which copiously illustrate this wonderful memoir. When I finished I found I could even forgive her a life long love of cats, those most odious and self-serving of creatures, much as are the mediocrities Coddington has had to suffer during a long and successful career.