The Buzz...About Books

In the United States, May is National Photo Month. During the month, everyone is encouraged to make use of all the technology at hand to take photos. This is a great idea and should be celebrated in Canada, too. 

The photograph on the right is the inside of my car. I took it accidentally when I was plugging my iPod into the car adapter. I love this photo…and I should probably wash that travel mug.

This summer use all your devices to take great pictures.

Get inspired by reading these books about photographers:

Ansel Adams: A Biography by Mary Street Alinder
This biography of the legendary American photographer was written by the woman who was his chief assistant during the last five years of his life.

Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography, a True Story of Genius and Rivalry by Roger Watson and Helen Rappaport
Henry Fox Talbot, an English inventor and Louis Daguerre, a French artist both make significant contributions to the developing field of photography in the 1830s, changing the way people interact with the world around them.

Cecil Beaton: Portraits and Profiles by Cecil Beaton
Photographs from the famed fashion, war and portrait photographer with excerpts from his journals.

David Hume Kennerly on the iPhone: Secrets and Tips from a Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer by David Hume Kennerly
Kennerly won'the 1972 Pulitzer Prize at 25 for his photographs of the Vietnam War. In 2013, he embarked upon an around the world, photograph a day project and decided to get rid of most of his conventional equipment and use only his iPhone. He discovered that his entire perspective on photography had changed–for the better. In this book, he shares his strategies for taking pictures that the novice can emulate.

Here I am: The Life and Death of War Photographer Tim Hetherington by Alan Huffman
British photojournalist Hetherington was drawn to the human stories in the world's most troubled places. He was killed in 2011 on the front lines in Misrata, Libya during the Libyan Civil War.

It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
As a photojournalist in the world's most troubled places, Addario has had many terrifying experiences including 5 days in 2011 when she was held in captivity by the Libyan Army. In this memoir, she explains why she continues to risk her life to tell the stories of people living in war zones.  

Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh by Maria Tippett
After a childhood during the Armenian genocide, Karsh became one of the most important and influential portrait photographers of the 20th century.

Vivian Maier: A Life Through the Lens by John Maloof, Howard Greenberg and Marvin Heiferman
Vivian Maier was a nanny who took photographs of people and the architecture in major US cities as a hobby. The 150,000 photographs she had taken were discovered when the contents of her storage unit were auctioned for non-payment of charges. Three collectors acquired the work and posted it online where it found an enthusiastic audience–unfortunately too late for Maier who had died just a few months earlier.