Inspiration.4 - the daily photobook
This list began as we hibernated during the first Coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
There is no order of preference. It is a selection of my favourite photobooks, each taken down from the shelf that day. They may have been chosen because of my mood, my preferences, the news, or the weather.
Like good music benefits from repeated listens, good photobooks benefit from repeated views. Each time revealing something I hadn’t noticed, or reminding me of something I had experienced before.
Day 100 - Monday 10th January 2022
Out of Place by Bas Losekoot
Startling photos of people navigating their way through the megacities of the world. Current day street photography at its best.
“The calm and the chaos, the beauty and the terror, the comedy and the tragedy, the depths of a soul from an urban life captured in a single frame.”
Day 99 - Sunday 9th January 2022
Summer After by Lucas Foglia
“This is how I remember New York City in 2002. It was the first summer after the September 11 attacks. Workers were removing the last of the debris from the collapsed Twin Towers. The city felt both immense and fragile compared to the groundedness of my childhood home.”
Day 98 - Saturday 8th January 2022
Hafiz by Sabiha Çimen
“Hafiz is a visual coming-of-age story, a glimpse into sacred tradition and a tribute to the young women who have memorised the holy Quran for all future generations.”
Day 97 - Thursday 30th December 2021
Epilogue by Peter Mitchell
A crumbling utopia which once housed 1000 inhabitants in Leeds.
"I photograph dying buildings and Quarry Hill was terminal by the time I got to it.”
Day 96 - Tuesday 21st December 2021
Southwestern by Niall McDiarmid
“The American Road Trip localised to a small corner of England.”
Day 95 - Friday 17th December 2021
India by Harry Gruyeart
“India may be observed, it may be analysed but it cannot be explained.”
Day 94 - Thursday 16th December 2021
Joyride by Joss McDonnell
“… a middle finger raised to the State and its misguided social experiments.”
Day 93 - Monday 13th December 2021
iWITNESS by Tom Stoddart
“Most of the events chronicled here can be attributed directly to mankind’s greed, intolerance, prejudice, inhumanity, lust for political power, and sheer stupidity.”
Day 92 - Saturday 27th November 2021
A Wounded Landscape by Marc Wilson
“We talk about six million Jews, the victims of Nazism, but I say that there were many more. Me, I am a victim of the Holocaust. Even now after more than 60 years, I still cry. And I still don’t understand how it happened. Why? How did the world let it happen?”
Day 91 - Sunday 24th October 2021
Belgravia by Karen Knorr
‘Non-portraits’ of the privileged residents of Belgravia taken between 1979-81.
To me, it offers an interesting companion piece to Portraits by John Myers.
Day 90 - Saturday 16th October
Haddon Hall by Naomi Harris
The first from the Charcoal Book Club
Saturated photos of glamour, ageing and grabbing life while you still can.
Day 89 - Sunday 29th August 2021
Breakfast by Niall McDiarmid
“For me, breakfast is a peaceful time, a time of reflection. It is also a time to contemplate the day ahead and to believe that better times are coming.”
Day 88 - Monday 16th August
Infidel by Tim Hetherington
“Infidel is an intimate portrait of a small battalion of US soldiers posted to an outpost in the Korengal Valley, an area considered to be one of the most dangerous Afghan postings during America and its allies’ war against the Taliban.”
Day 87 - Sunday 15th August
The British Isles by Jamie Hawkesworth
“In this sprawling sequence of portraits and landscapes, Hawkesworth surveys the characters and terrains that make up the everyday fabric of his home country: schoolchildren and shopworkers, markets and estates, priests and professionals, cities and construction sites.”
Day 86 - Wednesday 4th August 2021
ONE by Eamonn Doyle
Another masterpiece from Dublin’s finest living photographer: “…images from a recently made collection of unique, bespoke-process, large format, gelatin silver contact prints.”
Day 85 - Sunday 9th May
01. arbeit / work by Chris Killip
The equivalent of a compilation record by one of your favourite bands.
Some of the best photos by one of the best photographers.
02. Pirelli by Chris Killip
Tyre factory workers concentrating on their craft and worthy subjects of a classical painting.
Day 84 - Thursday 6th May 2021
Beyond Caring by Paul Graham.
Photos made in the waiting rooms and corridors of the Social Security and Unemployment offices in 1984-85.
“… these offices were where political ideology and citizen’s lives collided.”
Day 83 - Wednesday 21st April
The Flow of The Lines by Siegfried Hansen.
Photos I would like to take… Synchronously aligned lines, shapes and colours with a dash of humour.
Day 82 - Saturday 10th April
Thames Log by Chloe Dewe Matthews.
Pagan rituals, religious observance, ship spotting, picnics overlooking brutal architecture, swan upping and the burning of a boat. The life of the English along one long river.
Day 81 - Monday 5th April.
London. 1959 by Sergio Larrain.
Grainy images of phantom figures, bus queues, city gentlemen, walks in the park, wanderings at night; all shrouded in winter fog.
Day 80 - Friday 2nd April 2021
Hacia la luz by Joel Meyerowitz.
The locals named him El Ojo (the eye). Six months in Andalusia 1966-1967. Photos of the state, the street, from the car and flamenco.
Day 79 - Friday 26th March
Coincidences by Jonathan Higbee.
Photos of ... coincidences ... in New York. Clever photos that you wish you’d taken.
And it makes me miss the bustling, dense city.
Day 78 - Sunday 21st March
A Question of Colour.
It’s like the perfect compilation tape. 15 of my favourite colour photographers in one book to accompany a brilliant exhibition at Somerset House in 2012-13.
Day 77 - Saturday 13th March
In Stillness by Yumiko Izu
In Stillness by Yumiko Izu.
A tender and moving series of images of objects left behind in Saul Leiter’s apartment. “Yumiko has eloquently captured Saul’s spirit...”
Day 76 - Friday 12th March 2021
Public Relations by Garry Winogrand
Revel in the rich tapestry of the middle classes schmoozing at galleries, book awards, political rallies and hotel reopenings.
Day 75 - Friday 26th February
Vale by Robert Darch.
“… a distinctly unnerving and disorientating experience.
The expectation of a rural idyll is created from the outset; an archetypal English valley landscape pulled from a perfect composite memory. But this beauty is quickly undercut, disturbed by a cast of characters who seem unwilling or unable to play along with this bucolic vision.”
Day 74 - Sunday 21st February
man, image & world by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
The most influential photographer of all time. (the full stop is deliberate). Discuss.
This, with a retrospective of Martin Parr, were the first 2 books of my burgeoning photobook collection.
Cartier-Bresson voted against Parr becoming a member of Magnum and said that he was from another planet. Parr wrote back, “I know what you mean, but why shoot the messenger?”
Day 73 - Saturday 20th February
Sleeping by the Mississippi by Alec Soth.
The Mississippi as “both a metaphor and dreamscape... a worn and faded place photographed optimistically, even with love.”
Day 72 - Sunday 14th February
Ravens by Masahisa Fukase
“... he found his solitary self and his own desolation reflected in the black birds.”
Day 71 - Saturday 13th February
En Mémoire de Saul Leiter by François Halard.
Photos of Saul Leiter’s empty apartment taken two years after his death.
“And then there is the light, a fragile, gentle winter light.”
Day 70 - Sunday 7th February
Merrie Album by Simon Roberts
A recent photographic survey of we British campaigning at elections, celebrating religious festivals, picnicking on bank holidays, watching parades and shopping in arcades.
Day 69 - Saturday 6th February 2021
In England by Don McCullin
One of England’s greatest ever photographers showing our divide between the affluent and the destitute, the absurd and the tragic.
Day 68 - Sunday 31st January
Forever Saul Leiter
A catalogue from his 2020 exhibition at the Bunkamura in Japan including the treat of some unseen photos.
“... most of his images feel like quietly stolen glimpses.”
(Also see Day 40 for ‘All About Saul Leiter’ which was the catalogue for his his 2017 exhibition at the Bunkamura - both beautiful books dotted with the gentle musings of Saul Leiter).
Day 67 - Sunday 24th January
Fotografien 1927-36 by Marianne Breslauer
Continuing the Man Ray theme, Marianne Breslauer was his pupil some time in 1929 (at a similar time as Day 65’s Bill Brandt and Day 33’s Lee Miller).
Her personal gaze captured the atmosphere of inter war Paris, Spain and Palestine along with striking yet tender portraits of the self confident “new woman” of Weimar Germany.
I was very fortunate to stumble upon an exhibition of her work at Berlinische Galerie in 2010.
Day 66 - Sunday 17th January
Portraits by Man Ray
There is a link to yesterday - Bill Brandt was Man Ray’s assistant in 1929. Man Ray was a central figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements as well as influencing many great photographers.
His highly original photographic techniques are demonstrated in these portraits.
Day 65 - Saturday 16th January
Bill Brandt: Shadow of Light
The first great British photographer? A master of photographic chiaroscuro, original composition (even today) and choices of subject that still resonate.
Day 64 - Saturday 9th January
Helen Levitt
Walker Evans said of her “It is, of course, a lucky miracle of timing. But when you see an unbelievable confluence of chance in a photograph, remember that the operator was there, booted and spurred.”
Day 63 - Saturday 2nd January
The Recent Past by James Ravilious.
Photos of a small corner of rural North Devon taken in the 70’s and 80’s. His eye for subject matter, light and composition provides a masterclass for any photographer. Along with his dedication to recording everyday life in his local countryside.
Day 62 - Friday 1st January 2021
Sleepless in Soho by Joshua K Jackson
Insomniac wanderings around after hours Soho. Putting into pictures The Pogues Rainy Night in Soho:
“I took shelter from a shower / And I stepped into your arms / On a rainy night in Soho / The wind was whistling all its charms…”
Day 61 - Thursday 31st December 2020
Isle of Man Revisited by Chris Killip
Full of wonderfully detailed and evocative portraits where your eye is drawn not only to their lived-in faces but the fabric of their lived-in clothes.
Day 60 - Thursday 17th December 2020
Last Stop by George Georgiou.
Take a bus journey through the diverse neighbourhoods of London and the myriad lives of Londoners.
Day 59 - Sunday 29th November
A Voice Above The Linn by Robbie Lawrence.
A meditation on grief, emptiness, botany and perseverance.
Day 58 - Sunday 22nd November 2020
New York 1952-1962 by Ernst Haas.
A pioneer in colour photography. “Whenever I am free I wander around New York, trying to catch moments of its extreme dynamism.”
Day 57 - Monday 5th October 2020
The PIGS by Carlos Spottorno
“The Pigs plays with image from the book's cover, modeled on The Economist, to its back page, a fake advertisement for "WTF Bank".
Within, Spottorno's photographs contrast these countries' proud histories with their less glamorous contemporary realities. Ancient monuments are protected by broken gates, flea markets appear under the shadow of marble masterpieces, and clothes hang-dry in the happy sun against the backdrop of inner city decay.” Alexander Strecker
Day 56 - Tuesday 15th September
A1 - The Great North Road by Paul Graham
From Mack Books: “Graham had to self-publish A1, but as the first colour book, it had a startling impact on British photography. Uniting the tradition of social documentary with the fresh approach of new colour, A1 - The Great North Road was transformative on photography in the UK…
Spanning the full length of England and into Edinburgh, Graham travelled repeatedly along the 'Great North Road' with a large format camera, to record the people, buildings, and landscape of early 1980's Britain.”
Day 55 - Monday 7th September
Color Correction by Ernst Haas
The subject of the first ever colour photography exhibition at MOMA in 1962 and the first to photograph Marlboro Man.
He said: “Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself – less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive; less prose, more poetry.”
Day 54 - Friday 4th September
An Attic Full of Trains by Alberto di Lenardo
Beautifully published by MACK Books "…reflects a joyous middle-class cross-section of life in the mid 20th century... half a century of life captured in vivid colours."
Day 53 - Wednesday 2nd September 2020
Polska Britannica by Czeslaw Siegieda
Affectionate and intimate photos of a Polish community in Loughborough, taken between 1974 and 1981.
As Martin Parr writes in the introduction “Getting to know, and to record one small slice of life in Britain so thoroughly and effectively is an achievement that has to be celebrated. Rarely do you encounter a project of such empathy and thoroughness.”
Day 52 - Monday 24th August
O by Eamonn Doyle
Arrived today. One of 250. Objects of a street you pass every single day without a second look.
Day 51 - Wednesday 12th August
Early Works by Martin Parr
Published by Bristol's RRB Photobooks - which is the only recommendation you need. All of their publications are good.
Before he became famous with his colour photography, Martin Parr took evocative black and white photos which painted “a portrait of Britain that eloquently captures the idiosyncratic character of its people.”
Day 50 - Wednesday 5th August 2020
The Americans by Robert Frank
It’s big one today. @marcdavenant prompted this and describes it better than I can.
“In 1955 Robert Frank embarked on a remarkable journey to photograph America. Over nine months he used 767 rolls of film to capture the essence of the country across 30 states. It became one of the most influential photographic series ever done… It was an outsider’s view of America and showed it as a country both strange and familiar. In the end his work had a seismic impact on photography there and fostered a whole new generation of street photographers influencing people like Winogrand, Friedlander and Meyerowitz.”
Day 1 - Tuesday 24th March 2020
Eamonn Doyle - ON
Let's start with one of my favourite living photographers. Eamonn Doyle from Dublin's fair city and his second book called ON. The photos were taken within metres of his own front door.
Day 2 - Wednesday 25th March
Saul Leiter - Early Colour
A classic. One of my favourite ever photobooks: Saul Leiter's use of colour and atmosphere is much imitated, but never surpassed.
Day 3 - Thursday 26th March
Josef Koudelka - Exiles
He travelled with the bare minimum, he learnt to sleep anywhere and took some of the most poetic photos ever committed to film (or digital sensor).
Day 4 - Friday 27th March
Chris Killip - In Flagrante
“History is what's written, my pictures are what happened. It's like a people's history – the people who history happened to.” (Chris Killip). Pictures of communities reeling from the effects of de-industrialisation in 70’s and 80’s Britain.
Day 5 - Saturday 28th March
Alec Soth - I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating
Take a pause, slow down and willingly give your time to let the photos sink into your soul.
Day 6 - Sunday 29th March
Italia by Martin Bogren
Impressionistic, smudged, grainy, charcoal, atmospheric photos of Italia. Camera clubs would have palpitations looking at the ‘rules’ he has broken to create a moving masterpiece.
Day 7 - Monday 30th March
The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson
His Magnum co-founder, Robert Capa, described it as "a Bible for photographers." No more need be said.
Day 8 - Tuesday 31st March
Looking at the Overlooked by John Myers
"There is no hidden story behind these photographs and no event is about to unfold beyond the frame. They are landscapes without incident." (John Myers)
Day 9 - Wednesday 1st April 2020
The Suffering of Light by Alex Webb
You look once and then again multiple times to try and work out what is happening in the frame. Filled with saturated colours, deep contrasts, black shadows and multiple possibilities.
Day 10 - Thursday 2nd April
Youth Unemployment by Tish Murtha
"The overwhelming sense of youth alienation and despair is evident in the photos, but their gritty social realism nonetheless includes occasional glimpses of hope, innocence and even vitality." (Laurie Chen)
Day 11 - Friday 3rd April
Eternal London by Giacomo Brunelli
Atmospheric, mysterious and evocative photos of the city, it's people and its animals taken during the early hours... I miss walking the London streets.
Day 12 - Saturday 4th April
A Greek Portfolio by Constantine Manos
“My passage through this countryside was leisurely and unplanned, that of a friendly observer. My presence was accepted with unquestioning warmth and hospitality.” (Constantine Manos)
Day 13 - Sunday 5th April
All That Life Can Afford by Matt Stuart
Street photos of contemporary London with a mischievous eye.
Day 14 - Monday 6th April
Office by Lars Tunbjork
For anyone who is missing going into the office during these strange times.
Day 15 - Tuesday 7th April
Joel Meyerowitz by Joel Meyerowitz
“The heat of the gazes between people, the charged mystery that arises from capturing chance moments on the fly.” (Joel Meyerowitz)
Day 16 - Wednesday 8th April
The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand
100 photos by the hugely influential and obsessive street photographer, accompanied with musings from Geoff Dyer.
Day 17 - Thursday 9th April
Legacy by John Downing
Winner of Press Photographer of the Year Award an unprecedented seven times, who unfortunately died this week. Moving photos of many of the key news stories from the last half century.
Day 18 - Good Friday 10th April
Exposures by Jane Bown
“She is shy and modest and charming in equal measure... and manages to disarm the subject with what appears to be a fumbling manner when she knows exactly what she is doing.” (David Bailey)
Day 19 - Saturday 11th April
Tony Ray-Jones by Tony Ray-Jones
“It was his ability to construct complex images, with everyone perfectly placed in the uniquely English atmosphere and surroundings, which struck a chord of recognition...” (Martin Parr)
Day 20 - Easter Sunday 12th April
Chromes by William Eggleston
A master at using colour and composition to photograph the commonplace in which there is always a hint of an untold story.
Day 21 - Easter Monday 13th April
The Hayward Gallery Catalogue of Andreas Gursky’s 2018 Exhibition
"Like no other, he has frozen, with a certain innocence, our mass culture at a monumental turning point - the future will never be the same again." (Katharina Fritsch)
Day 22 - Tuesday 14th April
We English by Simon Roberts
Richly detailed pictures of us English at leisure in our English landscape. Taken with a large format camera just over 10 years ago.
Day 23 - Wednesday 15th April
Minutes to Midnight by Trent Parke
"There is a real sense of anxiety felt here, subjects feel as if they are on the edge of something, waiting for a moment to manifest itself before their eyes." (Harry Rose)
Day 24 - Friday 17th April
Phaidon retrospective of Martin Parr
"... he is always watching, taking in the detail, wandering around places where no one knows him, a collector of faces, gestures and social indiscretions." (Val Williams).
Day 25 - Saturday 18th April
Street Photography Now. Published 2010
Flickr was at the height of its popularity. Street photography was becoming a thing again. For some now more famous photographers, this was one of the first times they were published.
Day 26 - Sunday 19th April
Valparaíso by Sergio Larraín
“Valparaíso- a miserable and beautiful port... a bit sordid and romantic.” (Letter to Cartier-Bresson).
“If we walk up and down every staircase in Valparaíso, we will have made a trip around the world.” (Pablo Neruda)
Day 27 - Monday 20th April 2020
60 Years of Photography by Marc Riboud
"Marc Riboud is curious. Blatantly, avidly, curious. Curious about everything - the beautiful, the comical, the emotional." (Annick Cojean)
Day 28 - Tuesday 21st April
The John Hinde Collection
Picture postcard perfection. "These postcards offer a colourful social commentary of bygone sunny days in British and Irish towns, cities and holiday resorts." (Michael Abadie)
Day 29 - Wednesday 22nd April
Paris in my time by Mark Steinmetz
Atmospheric, timeless photographs of Paris and its people during a seemingly endless springtime.
Day 30 - Thursday 23rd April
Glasgow by Raymond Depardon
"... poetic and eerie photo series capturing everyday life in some of the city's most deprived neighbourhoods..." (Anaïs Brémond).
Day 31 - Saturday 25th April
Don’t Just Tell Them Show Them by Jesse Marlow
“I’m more inspired by the daily grind ... and looking for something interesting, often small and inconsequential, that can flip the scene into something entirely unexpected.”
Day 32 - Sunday 26th April
Istanbul by Ara Güler
“While he could be positive, poetic and playful, he also showed the harsh reality of life for many of its inhabitants.” (Simon Bowcock)
Day 33 - Sunday 3rd May
Lee Miller - A Life on the Front Line
Sorry, its been a week since my last one and it’s not a book today, but a television programme about a photographer (and many other things).
Day 34 - Saturday 9th May
Thames & Hudson retrospective of Harry Gruyeart
It makes me want to visit colourful places to take colour-filled photos.
Day 35 - Sunday 10th May
Wonderland by Jason Eskenazi
“... an almost surreal, anachronistic, poetic portrait of a culture seemingly frozen in time, exuding an odd yet alluring symmetry between beauty and tragedy.” (Maria Popova)
Day 36 - Wednesday 13th May
Strangely Familiar by Peter Mitchell
Factories with their workers and small shops with their owners from Leeds in the 1970's. It's true. The photos you take today will depict a piece of history in 30 years time.
Day 37 - Saturday 16th May
People of London by Peter Zelewski
“These are the people who caught my eye on the street, who shared their stories and who ultimately make me proud to say ‘I’m a Londoner’.
Day 38 - Sunday 17th May
More Real Than Reality by W Eugene Smith
An amphetimine fuelled obsessive whose sense of light, composition, narrative, emotion and history make him the pre-eminent photo-essayist since the dawn of photography. His photo essays include Spanish Village, Country Doctor, A Nurse Midwife, A Man of Mercy, Pittsburgh and Minamata.
Day 39 - Monday 25th May
I’ve Lived in East London for 86.5 years by Martin Usborne
Photos of 86 year old Joseph Markovitch walking around his home patch of Hoxton ruminating about his life, rivets and how he likes graffiti.
Day 40 - Sunday 31st May
All about Saul Leiter
The beauty and originality of the composition. His use of unusual viewpoints and perspective. His use of colour, space, shapes, reflections and layers which make your eyes drift around the frame in wonder.
Day 41 - Wednesday 3rd June 2020
Early Sunday Morning by Peter Mitchell
Published today. Photos mainly taken in Leeds between 1972-75 of shops, houses, cobbled streets and workshops. A reminder that the everyday will one day become history.
Day 42 - Thursday 4th June
Time of Change by Bruce Davidson
"These images serve to bear witness for those who walked, marched, rode, were beaten, jailed, denied their dignity, or died for freedom and equality."
Day 43 - Sunday 7th June
End. by Eamonn Doyle
“The streets seem pushed and pulled by unseen forces, driving this city and its citizens to move in a collective unconscious dance.
Day 44 - Friday 12th June
Black Garden by Jason Eskenazi
Departure Lounge by Jason Eskenazi
“This journey is done. I have nothing more to say on this topic. I never set out to make Wonderland, and never set out to make a trilogy but I was led there by twists and turns, like Odysseus was led back to Ithaca with many trials and tribulations between. It’s been almost 30 years. I stood behind enough people for foreground, and waited on enough corners for the right person to walk by before I snap. I feel my imagination is bigger than the photos I can take, and I’ve often been disappointed when the photo I could imagine never comes to fruition, and I walk home empty handed. So it’s enough.”
Day 45 - Wednesday 8th July 2020
Juvenile Jazz Bands by Tish Murtha
Photos of official Jazz Bands and unofficial 'toy-bands' from 1970's north east England.
Day 46 - Thursday 23rd July
The Road Not taken by Arnaud Montagard
“These photographs emerge from the road, but they are faithful to the pause.”
Day 47 - Friday 24th July
New York by Giacomo Brunelli
Moody, atmospheric black and white photos of New York. Dreamlike snapshots of life in a film noir city.
Day 48 - Sunday 26th July
Life in Colour by Jacques Henri Lartigue
“Once again, spring has arrived. The battle has begun. The battle with sunny mist... with the wind, with the light... with all the elusive beauty.”
“I’m in love with light. I’m in love with the sun, I’m in love with the shade, I’m in love with rain (because rain, for photography, is something wonderful). I’m in love with everything.”
Lartigue took photos for the love if it. An ‘amateur’ who made his first of thousands of images in 1902. An unknown photographer who walked into the Museum of Modern Art in 1962 and was offered an exhibition on the spot.
You see. Your enthusiasms could lead you to MoMA.
Day 49 - Monday 3rd August 2020
Into The Fire by Matt Stuart
“Slab City invites people to come as they are. Most Slabbers struggle in a world of rent checks and small talk, disadvantaged by their deviations from the social norm. The Slabs provide refuge. Nearly every Slabber has been on the receiving end of judgement, passing it along would only perpetuate an oppressive structure. Accepting others flaws is a step towards accepting yourself.”
Jessica Heinzelman from the introduction
