5 Photo Books that Inspire Me (my favourites)

Photo book are one of the easily the best formats to consume photography and as my small collection continues to grow I thought it could be fun to geek out and flick through a few copies and share some thoughts with you.

In this blog I’ll share some recent purchases as well as books I’ve had a while that I consider among my top favourites.

Don’t just tell them, show them - By Jesse Marlow

Jesse Marlow is an Australian photographer based in Melbourne I do believe. This book Don’t just tell them, is a collection of photographs from 2005 to 2012 and was first published in 2014.

I picked this copy up from the Leica store in Milan, last year.

Jesse Marlows book, don't just tell them, show them feels very playful with striking visuals, colour and shape. The photos in this book make me think in ways that my camera might be able to see that my eyes cant and makes me want to look beyond the surface of simply noticing something, point and shoot. How can i angle, compose and expose this in a way that transforms this into something else? flicking through these pages really is a delightful experience.

Beauty Beauty by Luis Garcia

Luis Garcia, also known as @strongblue on instagram is a photographer based in New York and this book is a collection of photographs from a decade of street photography and this book was released in summer this year.

I got this copy from the photographers gallery in London. Signed as well, which is cool.

This book, Beauty Beauty features some super fun sequencing. The way it’s presented bafge by page is a little different to your typical one photograph per page photo book and I really enjoyed the pacing of it.

The photographs at first appear to be the most ordinary, individual moments but collected together as a body work really comes alive. There are lots of small details in this book that I keep noticing or appreciating on my 3rd or 4th flick through that i didn’t see on my first read

The photographs feel familiar, but this time you’re forced to look again, they’re moments that you might not look twice at if you pass them on the street, but here - they’re intentional. It’s unapologetically authentic and raw to life on the streets.

I like the matt finish as well, it feels less polished, just like the streets are.

Cape Light by Joel Meyerowitz

I’m sure Joel Meyerowitz doesn’t need an introduction but in contrast to a lot of his complex and gritty street photography work in NYC this is certainly a different vibe.

Cape Light was originally published in 1978 but was brought back to life in 2015 with this edition from Aperture. Book features images from Cape Cod, Massachusetts from 1976 and 1977.

I think bought this copy from Amazon, nice and simple.

This is without a doubt one of my all time favourite books. It makes me feel a sense of nostalgia for a place i’ve never experienced.

There’s something very slow and calming a out this work and in my opinion it’s some of Joel's best photographs.

The work makes me feel quiet homely which is odd actually because nothing about my life growing up looks anything like this, but a mix of his compositions and silent frames genuinely make me feel like Im stood where his camera lens is looking with my own eyes at thing he’s taking a picture of. The use of colour and light in this book really is wonderful and I’d love to visit cape cod one day and see this for myself as this is my most frequently read book, I just keep coming back to it, over and over again.

Sideshow by Chris Harrison

Chris Harrison is a photographer based in Brighton. I recorded a whole interview with Chris last year showcasing him and his photography so i’ll leave a link to that in the description. During that interview he was in the middle of putting this book, sideshow together and it’s great to see the finished product.

Chris has also been a graphic designer for many years and when I interviewed him he mentioned how that had influenced his process and I can certainly see that on each page in this book.

One of my favourite quotes from Chris was when he said “you can apply words to photography but it’s beauty is that words aren’t really needed, it’s a whole visual experience”. Ironically, I think that collection of words describe chris’ work very well.

The images in this book remind me when I’m walking around with my own photography to look again, think harder, lean into the playfulness and think about the visuals differently, , it’s such a joy to read.

This was then, by Mike Abrahams

This is another very recent edition to my collection and It has instantly drawn me in. The body word within these pages are exceptional.

This copy was sent over to me curiosity of Bluecoat press. They have not paid me for me this mention but I have plans make a lot more content like this and Bluecoat Press watched my previous photo book video and reached out saying they would help out if I wanted any books. So I’ll leave a link to Bluecoat Press in the description.

From the words of Mike, these photographs taken between 1973 and 2001 are of ordinary lives that are so often ignored and marginalised, this was then, but also now.

Each page in this book feels like it really has something to say. The ironic thing about it is, in the back there is a afterword by Stephen Mayes that says: “with the notable exception of the police, not many of the people represented in this collection of photographs are doing much, they might have just done something and many look like they might be about to do something. But at the precise moment in that flicker of time when the shutter was released there is a great deal of nothing much happening. and yet there is an ineffable force that binds them in place, something more than a coincidence of people sharing a street, a room, a field. There is a tremendous sense of belonging; these people know who they are and why they are there. Nobody is present by accident or chance. These pictures share a common bond which most of us would recognise as ‘community’

Looking at these pictures and reading the intro from Mike, I’ve since googled some of the events and tried looking into the history within this book because I wanted more context.

I obviously never lived in this era, I cannot relate to the subjects or stories found in this book but the photographs make me feel like I can, like there’s something to learn or something to discover with every page turn, I think it’s documentary photography at it’s finest. No funny cliches or gimmicks, just real life, as it was then.