Art of Photography (Library of Photography)

the long version

In this volume there is a good deal of material, both visual and verbal, that seeks to explain how some of the fundamental principles of aesthetics apply to photography. The principles are not confining but liberating; they allow for countless individual approaches to art, from the dutifully conventional to the convention-defying. Learning about them and seeing how they operate will not assure you a place among great artists, but, by showing you why good pictures are good, the information will free you to make better pictures of your own. As Carl Mydans also put it, "one is not really a photographer until preoccupation with learning has been outgrown and the camera in his hands is an extension of himself. There is where creativity begins."