Robert Adams: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

"Robert Adams: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews" provides terrific and accurate insight to "Why People Photograph." As a professional photographer for decades, this book really resonated with me as an authentic description of why we photograph ~ highly recommend the book !

It couldn't be better said. This book is pure enjoyment. What a wonderful command of the language from this former English professor! Insightful and reflective, this book is about so much more than the obvious. Though perhaps the title is not that far amiss... My only "criticism" would regard the desire to see more of the photographs to which Adams refers or describes in detail. He gives us very few opportunities to understand what he says by looking at the picture itself.

I enjoyed the 3/4 of this book that dealt with photography. The last 1/4 was a treatise on environmentalism. Much of this was written more that 20 years ago and is outdated. For example Adams states that Republicans encourage illegal immigration while liberals want it halted. Today, 20 years later, the opposite seems to be true. Who knows what the political landscape will be 20 years from now. I enjoyed most the essays on various photographers.

Serious and potentially serious photographers will reflect upon that question as they read this. Adams lays it on the line: "Almost all photographers have incurred large expenses in the pursuit of tiny audiences, finding the wonder that they'd hoped to share is something few want to receive." Some will find declarations like these oddly fortifying. If you can't find a large audience for your photography, it may not (or may) be on account of its quality; that's just the way it is, so let's get on with it. It's unusual to find a book that considers photography and many of its eminent practitioners with disciplined philosophical thought. Adams provides that along with some sad reflections on the deteriorating conditions of the American landscape, conditions that prevail just about everywhere else, no doubt. So much has been altered by "progress," so many places have been fenced off that one has to look very hard indeed for the briefest glance at the landscapes of the soul.

This is a wonderful collection of essays and I'd recommend it for any photographer (pro or amateur) who takes his work seriously. So thought provoking that I refer back to it often, and never tire of rereading passages that I've underlined. I've loaned it to two other professional photographers and they both loved it.

Most of the book doesn't really respond to the title, but Robert Adams writes in a very engaging manner and talks about issues that most photographers will find interesting. I found particularly interesting his discussion of famous photographers and their aesthetic philosophy. This is not a book for the casual photographer, but for the photographer who is interested in photography's background, or a collector who'd like to better understand the photographer as artist, this book is terrific.

GREAT... Easy to read and thought provoking. Well worth it.

I always take a chance when buying a used book in good condition. This book is in good condition but a big yellow, un-removable seller sticker was really disappointing. Love this book...just sad that the vendor defaced the nice dust cover with the sticker.

Robert Adams is a great photographer and a great theorist. This book is a must read for everyone who wants to go deep in photography.

Lectura obligatoria para fotógrafos o interesados en la fotografía. Entretenido, fácil de leer y con reflexiones y conclusiones desde la práctica, no sólo desde el punto de vista del observador teórico.

Interessant inkijkje in de denkwereld van deze fotograaf die duidelijk zijn eigen keuze maakt.

A must read for photographers.

This is a marvelous, thoughtful, sensitive, wise book, like so much of Robert Adams's writing on photography - and indeed much of it applies to art more generally. Roughly a third is made up of essays on particular topics (e.g. writing, teaching, humor in relation to photography), a third of essays on nine different photographers, and a third on the nature of, and photography in, the West. His intuitions enhance our understanding of what photographs, and art more generally, do, and why we photograph. His perceptions benefit from his wide reading - before quitting to photograph, Adams taught English. As in other of Adams's writings, there is an undercurrent that the real use of art is to affirm meaning, and thus "to keep intact an affection for life". It is possible that those whose approach to photography is very largely conceptual will find this book less stimulating than I did.