This page includes support materials and all of the links found in in Ben Long’s The Practicing Photographer.
Our Photographers for Your Consideration resource page here on the website includes links to all of the photographers mentioned in the book.
In the note at the end of the “Photographers for your consideration” essay, we talked about finding used photo books. Here are some links for you to get started with:
- AbeBooks usually has a wide selection of used and remaindered photography books, which you can find in their Photography collections.
- Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon, has an enormous photography section, and the current list of used photo books is always online. To keep the browsing under control, you can drill down to only those books on specific photographers, anthologies and surveys, and photo instruction books.
- Allibris isn’t as well known for photo books, but they’re there. If you’re searching for a particular photographer or book, they’re worth checking.
- Thames & Hudson’s Photofile series is a wonderful line of small, inexpensive books on individual photographers, and they can often be found used on Amazon. When we’ve discovered an older photography great we hadn’t known about before, we’ll often look to see if there’s a Photofile book on them.
- The Getty Publications Virtual Library has a number of its publications and books available free for download, and all are licensed for personal and scholastic use. The photography section isn’t deep, but their Museum Journal back issues often have interesting articles on photography, and their books include volumes on Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton and other 19th century masters, as well as Getty’s fine survey, Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Photographs.
- Auction catalogs are often a relatively inexpensive way to get photo volumes, and to discover photographers unknown to you. Searching eBay for “Phillips Photo catalogs,” for example, generally turns up scores of catalogs, most of which are priced under $20.
- If you’re looking to get general overviews of photographic history and great photographers, check out our post Overviews of Photographic History. It contains a list of recommended volumes that can often be found used online.
- If you’re interested in collecting and trading photo books, the Photobook Collective is a new membership-driven website where you can buy and sell used books.
Quite often, when we hear about a photographer that is new to us, we’ll use Google Image search to see what photos are available on the web. It’s not perfect, but it will often give us a staring place.
If you’re interested in more books that are thoughtful and meditative about photography, Susan Sontag’s On Photography, mentioned in the essay “Getting your project into the world” is a great place to start.
The supplemental exercise book mentioned in the Coda can be downloaded directly from this link. The book is a companion workbook to Ben’s Complete Digital Photography textbook, and not all of it will be applicable to The Practicing Photographer, but there are plenty of exercises in it that can be used in your practice.
And, if you have a LinkedIn subscription, definitely check out Ben’s Practicing Photographer series on LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com).
If you have comments, questions, or corrections regarding the book, use our Contact Us form. We read every submission, and answer all that we can.