Full name: Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values

Author: Robert Adams Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Amazon Goodreads ISBNs: 9780893813680 0893813680

A small, quiet book by a great photographer. I recommend you read it outdoors. Under the shade of a giant oak perhaps. In it you might find something you needed to hear again. You were looking for that re-assurance and didn't even know it. A re-affirmation of what you've always believed to be the most important truth about art but were maybe too embarrassed to admit that it could be expressed so simply: Art helps us live. Adams focuses on photography but I was able to apply what he said to the writing of fiction and to all art, indeed, to all creative endeavor. The book contains a dozen or so photographs that illustrate Adams' words - just enough examples of photographs (not his own) that point to a truth beyond their subject - not with allegory or symbol but by opening our vision, clarifying our perception, sometimes in a sudden flash of illumination. There is not much "how" in this book (nothing about what lens to use) but you will be a better photographer, a better artist, after reading this book. The book will give you the humble courage and conviction to create the kind of beauty only you can create.