Photography in 100 Words: Exploring the Art of Photography with Fifty of its Greatest Masters [Hardcover]

First, a few pros and cons:

PROS

interesting photos

excellent technique

good use of light, contrast, etc

CONS

shallow interviews

two words isn't enough, nor always representative

no cohesive theme (topic of photograph or selection of artists)

rule that two photographers cannot be tied to a single word might well skew results

"Greatest Masters" is always arbitrary, but these photographers, with few exceptions, are not in that exalted league.

GENERAL

It is always important for photographers to view the work of others in order to experience things like perspective, lighting, visual mass, etc. Before the Internet, the only way to do this would have been via a book like this. Had it come out 10 or 15 years ago, I might have welcomed it with open arms and given it 5 stars. Since in today's world a wide variety of images can be found every day via blogs, artist personal websites/portfolios or even flickr, the value of this book is questionable.

The author did accomplish what he set out to do. My question is what value did his journey provide us? In this case, I think the answer is very little.

Product Description

David Clark is a photography journalist and author. He was the senior features writer on Amateur Photographer magazine for nine years, during which time he met and interviewed many of the world's great photographers.

Features