Photographic seeing

by Andreas Feininger

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Genres: Photography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still going through my photo professor's old books and I'm curious how valuable something like this would be to someone wanting to learn photography in 2023. Sure, there's YouTube now, but with the emphasis these videos place on technicalities and gear it's easy to miss that a lot of the work made by these people is empty, uninteresting, or derivative, at least in my opinion. Most photography is though. It'll always be that way. But one thing about photography, or I guess any craft, is you can "master" it, in a sense, but if you don't think about your eye, your vision, it's really a moot point. At least if you want to be an artist, because, I mean, you can absolutely not care about any of those things, that's fine, just make snaps, often ignorance is bliss and arguably the better route to beautiful pictures, but this book, written in 1973, has a good amount to say on what exactly "seeing" is and really doesn't speak to much on the nuts and bolts of using a camera or printing. From little things like how perspective can alter how one looks at at image to the "attitudes" in your approach to the medium affecting what work you make. This is all valuable, but this format is very dry, and unlike a YouTube video, won't give you instant results, like what camera or lens you should use for the perfect portrait, how to edit your image "like a pro", etc. I think popular photography should talk about this more though, because at the moment, we see a lot of well-shot images that look exactly the same because everyone watched the same tutorials, we see people posting every day who want to be seen as good photographers because their images are technically correct. This is mostly to do with the fact photography is an industry far more than an art form. Still, it seems like a lot of photographers want to be taken seriously, often right after buying a camera, and they think if they get the tech right, everything will fall into place (gear acquisition syndrome). As someone who makes a modest income off doing most things technically *wrong* in photography (shhh don't tell anyone), I can't relate.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history lesson on the principles of film photography and a reminder that even in today's digital world, your photos will turn out better if you take them with purpose and intention.

[Gordon Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feininger's work is timeless. He emphasizes seeing and choice in photography. He works through different perspectives, lighting, persistence of vision and other factors as relevant now as forty years ago.

[Brian Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although written in 1973 this book is still highly relevent today as it focusses (pun only somewhat intended) on the photographer's role in identifying and making great pictures. While it certainly contains technical detail too it is mostly about how human vision and how we interpret what we see differs from that of the camera, and how this impacts what does or doesn't make for a compelling image. There are parts (e.g. related to the impact of how colour film is tuned) that don't directly match the needs of digital photography) the principles still do. I recommend this highly for novice photographers - not just beginners, but those who have been taking pictures for awhile but perhaps are unsatisfied with the results but are not sure why.

[Maynard James Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this in a used bookstore when I was studying photography - it was already decades old and different in approach from the "guides" I was reading which were teaching me tech, techniques and tropes on the process of "taking pictures" - whereas Feininger seemed more to be talking about "making photographs."

So I picked it up on a lark, and it turned out to have a real wallop. Philosophically the book indelibly connected "light" and "art," along with "absence" and "presence" in ways still reverberating through my skull.

I later learned more about Feininger and his photography, but this is still a great dive in point....

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5: Although somewhat dated in its presentation and choice of photographs, this book succintly captures Feininger's creative and technical thought process when planning and performing photography, which was quite helpful. i particularly liked the section on 'unphotographic subjects and techniques'