Today’s Post by Joe Farace
We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us. – Ralph Hattersley
Unlike a couple of my friends (and my wife too) I’m not into meditation, not even a little bit but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe that a some introspection isn’t helpful in improving your photography or just plain helping you enjoy photography more—something I think mirrorless cameras do better than DSLRs.
When conducting a workshop in Montana a few years ago, an attendee asked all of the instructors what our favorite photography books were. They were surprised by my answer because is was about digital photography. My number one recommendation when it come to photography books is Discover Yourself Through Photography by the late Ralph Hattersley (1921-2000.)
Mr. Hattersley was a noted photographic educator who taught photo-illustration and art-based photography classes at the Rochester Institute of Technology for thirteen years. Later he served as a Contributing Editor to Popular Photography magazine starting in 1957 where he wrote a column called ‘The Hattersley Class For Beginners, which during that time was an outsized influence on my own photographic endeavors.
What’s in the book? Here’s a sample of the some of the chapter titles, which themselves should show you that this is the most unique book ever written about photography.
Discover Both Sides Of Yourself
Fight Your Way Out Of The Bag
Discover Your Own Secret Symbols
Photography May Be The Practice Of Religion For You. (You never saw that one coming I bet.)
It should surprise no one that Discover Yourself Through Photography was written in 1971. There’s probably more than a bit of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in Hattersley’s writing and the content reflects the times—times that I formerly considered the most creative in my life—when it was written, which may be before some readers of this blog were born. So if you’re not into meditation and want to try something to give your photography a gentle shock treatment, spend 15 minutes a day quietly reading several pages from “Discover Yourself Through Photography and then work on some of the suggested lessons. And it’s cheap to buy. Used copies of the paperback version are available from Amazon for $2.50 (plus shipping, depending…) You might want to try eBay if Amazon doesn’t have any in stock, which sometimes happens/
If you enjoy books, not just about photography, I would suggest that you follow the Joe’s Book Club posts that appear here every other Saturday—including yesterday.