The essay, though, is not always clear enough to support the author's ideas. One who is new to photography may have trouble understanding some of Mr Shore's concepts. For example, in the chapter "The Mental Level," he writes "If you right now become aware of the space between yourself and this page, there is a transmutation of your attention and perception. This sort of perceptual change...would for a photographer, lead to a realignment of his or her formal decisions in making a photograph.(p 65)" To put it plainly, if you think carefully about what you are seeing, you would likely discover something new about it. Such an insight would lead you to change the way you photograph it.

Nevertheless, I like the book. I recommend it to you.


Magic made more so   March 23, 2007
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

It was surprising to me that Mr. Shore could find ways of talking about photographs that I had not previously encountered. In deconstructing these classic photographs he has succeeded in making them and the art of photography more, not less, magical. This book would probably be most appreciated by readers who have studied and given careful thought to photography. Statements that might appear esoteric to the casual reader are within the realm of critical photographic discourse. This is a truly wonderful book.


Timeless Wisdom   August 14, 2007
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Stephen Shore, the well known photographer (and teacher; who, among other things, was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY) has recently updated his classic meditation on the Nature of Photographs. Recommended to all aspiring (and working) photographers, the beauty of this book is the density of its distilled wisdom.

You will not find anything here on f-stops, film speeds and lenses, nothing on the darkroom (analog or digital), nothing on the raging "debate" whether to pick up an 8 megapixel DSLR or a 10, and no instructions - at least explicit ones - on how to take "better" pictures. What you will find is the crystalline essence of Shore's lifetime's worth of thinking about the nature of the photograph. His short, Zen-like prose-poem musings pierce the proverbial bullseye like an archer's arrow; and leave the reader both enchanted and haunted by their eloquence and wisdom.

Shore reminds us that amidst the infinity of potential images, both real and imagined, the photographer has four - and only four - formal tools for defining a picture's content and organization: vantage point, frame, focus and time. Stop and think about that for a moment. With all the wonderful technology underneath our thumb as we prepare to press the shutter, with all the different ways in which we can image ourselves "taking" a shot, and all the different images that can conceivably exist, the photographer really only has these four fundamental "creative dimensions" with which to work, and no more! Where do I position myself; what do I put in the picture and what do I leave out; where should I focus my attention; and how much of a slice of time do I want to include?

Every picture that has ever been taken, and every photograph yet to be captured - from Adams' shots of Yosemite, to Cartier-Bresson's visual etudes on the "Decisive Moment," to visual realities created by some future technologies - is "reality" as aesthetically transformed by the four-dimensional human creative filter!

Yet somehow, miraculously even, this suffices to provide (however brief) glimpses of an infinite dimensional world of meaning and beauty. That is the magic of photography!

For those of you who have the first edition of this book...I have both versions of this book. The new book roughly doubles the number of accompanying images (including color photos) and adds quite a bit of commentary. It is written (thankfully!) in essentially the same style, which I find almost meditative in its quality and depth of vision. If you have enjoyed the first edition, you will likely treasure this one.


Small simplistic expensive   August 30, 1998
 6 out of 15 found this review helpful

This is a very small book,a very simplistic book and a very expensive book. One saving grace is that it is beautifully printed.


Simple Succinct and Clarifying   December 5, 2001
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I stumbled on Mr. Shore's wonderful book whilst browsing for other photography books. This book while not breaking any new ground in Photography theory gives permission for the reader to reclaim and rexamine what a traditonal analog photograph can be. Admittedly it does not cover contemporary digital issues, it makes no claims to be this anyway, being more democratic in it's intention.

This book has allowed me to clarify in a succinct and simple manner a variety of issues that I have known intuitively since becoming serious about my image making, and now feel better equipped to share with my students.

This kind of writing is refreshing and uplifiting, something I feel is desirable in this hectic post modern world.