Photographs Not Taken is a collection of photographers' essays about failed attempts to make a picture. Editor Will Steacy asked each photographer to abandon the conventional tools needed to make a photograph--camera, lens, film--and instead make a photograph using words, to capture the image (and its attendant memories) that never made it through the lens. In each essay, the photograph has been stripped down to its barest and most primitive form: the idea behind it. This collection provides a unique and original interpretation of the experience of photographing, and allows the reader into a world rarely seen: the image making process itself. Photographs Not Taken features contributions by: Peter Van Agtmael, Dave Anderson, Timothy Archibald, Roger Ballen, Thomas Bangsted, Juliana Beasley, Nina Berman, Elinor Carucci, Kelli Connell, Paul D'Amato, Tim Davis, KayLynn Deveney, Doug Dubois, Rian Dundon, Amy Elkins, Jim Goldberg, Emmet Gowin, Gregory Halpern, Tim Hetherington, Todd Hido, Rob Hornstra, Eirik Johnson, Chris Jordan, Nadav Kander, Ed Kashi, Misty Keasler, Lisa Kereszi, Erika Larsen, Shane Lavalette, Deana Lawson, Joshua Lutz, David Maisel, Mary Ellen Mark, Laura McPhee, Michael Meads, Andrew Moore, Richard Mosse, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Laurel Nakadate, Ed Panar, Christian Patterson, Andrew Phelps, Sylvia Plachy, Mark Power, Peter Riesett, Simon Roberts, Joseph Rodriguez, Stefan Ruiz, Matt Salacuse, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Aaron Schuman, Jamel Shabazz, Alec Soth, Amy Stein, and others.
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Review
They have the power to steal your breath, provoke tears. They might overwhelm and inspire you, bring you to your knees, even.
But they won't. These moments passed into oblivion, unfixed by the camera - snapshots that went unsnapped. Now, they're in a book: a photography book without pictures.
The collection, "Photographs Not Taken," edited by Will Steacy, features the testimonies of 60 photographers who recount the moments that slipped from their photographic grip, either because they couldn't take the picture, or wouldn't. (Peter Moskowitz The New York Times 20120528)
Photographs Not Taken is a book about photography in which there is not a single photograph. It's a collection of essays by 62 photographers about the ones that got away: the images - burned to memory and conscience - that, for one reason or another, the photographer could not make.
The photo community has grasped this little book to its bosom. The premise is simple and the emotions expressed, often by big-name photographers - Jim Goldberg, Emmet Gowin, Todd Hido, Nadav Kander, Mary Ellen Mark, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sylvia Plachy, Mark Power, Alessandra Sanguinetti, to name a few - are common to us all. Readers learn that talented photographers experience wobbles just like anyone else, and that photography, as it reflects life, can be a struggle. PNT is now in its second run after the first edition sold out in March.
The 200+ pages of Photographs Not Taken do not focus on amazing light, or compositions missed, but on humanity seen, remembered, cherished, learned and broken. Maybe photography can't live up to experience. Maybe photography steals away - or sullies - the preciousness of memory. After reading Photographs Not Taken, those moments of hesitation, so warmly shared, are far more arresting than some of the most engaging photographs. As Aaron Schuman speculates, those memories are "perhaps the photographs kept, not taken." (Pete Brook Wired 20120511)
The most thoughtful and provocative book on photography i've read in a long time contains not a single photograph, but it's full of memorable images. For Photographs Not Taken, editor Will Steacy asked 62 photographers to describe the ones that got away - the "mental negatives" that haunt them years later. The results - brief essays, many no more than a page - are unexpectedly eloquent and revealing. (Vince Aletti Photograph 20120501)
No printed images mar this page-turning collection of anecdotes from 62 working photographers. They are men and women like Mary Ellen Mark, Andrew Moore, Laurel Nakadate, Alec Soth, Todd Hido and the late Tim Hetherington, whose cameras are practically extensions of their bodies. Editor Will Steacy asked each to describe an irresistible photo op that they let pass, however great the temptation or ingrained the habit.
Their "mental negatives," as Steacy terms their recollections, bring up a variety of ethical questions that stem from a common predicament: whether to shoot or not -- or, in Hetherington's case, whether to expose an image of the dead to the public or not. Agony, frustration, fear and longing persist throughout. (Linda Yablonsky Artnet 20120401)
The book is full of lost moments and missed opportunities, some poignant, some hilarious, some mysterious. (We never find out why Ballen did not photograph inside the witch doctor's house. Was it superstition, or had he simply gone out without his camera?) One of the funniest is told by Matt Salacuse. As a struggling photographer in New York, he was waiting to meet his father in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, when he spotted Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman with their newborn adopted baby. Salacuse went outside and positioned himself by a waiting limo, waiting for the celebrity couple to emerge. Just as he was about to photograph them, Cruise looked straight at him and said calmly: "You're not going to do that." Salacuse writes: "It must have been some crazy Scientologist voodoo mind trick, because I looked at him and said, 'You are right. I am not.' And, I didn't."
Like the others, all that Salacuse was left with from his chance encounter was a story about a great photograph that never happened. Sometimes, as this book shows, that's enough. (Sean O'Hagan The Guardian 20120315)
But they won't. These moments passed into oblivion, unfixed by the camera - snapshots that went unsnapped. Now, they're in a book: a photography book without pictures.
The collection, "Photographs Not Taken," edited by Will Steacy, features the testimonies of 60 photographers who recount the moments that slipped from their photographic grip, either because they couldn't take the picture, or wouldn't. (Peter Moskowitz The New York Times 20120528)
Photographs Not Taken is a book about photography in which there is not a single photograph. It's a collection of essays by 62 photographers about the ones that got away: the images - burned to memory and conscience - that, for one reason or another, the photographer could not make.
The photo community has grasped this little book to its bosom. The premise is simple and the emotions expressed, often by big-name photographers - Jim Goldberg, Emmet Gowin, Todd Hido, Nadav Kander, Mary Ellen Mark, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sylvia Plachy, Mark Power, Alessandra Sanguinetti, to name a few - are common to us all. Readers learn that talented photographers experience wobbles just like anyone else, and that photography, as it reflects life, can be a struggle. PNT is now in its second run after the first edition sold out in March.
The 200+ pages of Photographs Not Taken do not focus on amazing light, or compositions missed, but on humanity seen, remembered, cherished, learned and broken. Maybe photography can't live up to experience. Maybe photography steals away - or sullies - the preciousness of memory. After reading Photographs Not Taken, those moments of hesitation, so warmly shared, are far more arresting than some of the most engaging photographs. As Aaron Schuman speculates, those memories are "perhaps the photographs kept, not taken." (Pete Brook Wired 20120511)
The most thoughtful and provocative book on photography i've read in a long time contains not a single photograph, but it's full of memorable images. For Photographs Not Taken, editor Will Steacy asked 62 photographers to describe the ones that got away - the "mental negatives" that haunt them years later. The results - brief essays, many no more than a page - are unexpectedly eloquent and revealing. (Vince Aletti Photograph 20120501)
No printed images mar this page-turning collection of anecdotes from 62 working photographers. They are men and women like Mary Ellen Mark, Andrew Moore, Laurel Nakadate, Alec Soth, Todd Hido and the late Tim Hetherington, whose cameras are practically extensions of their bodies. Editor Will Steacy asked each to describe an irresistible photo op that they let pass, however great the temptation or ingrained the habit.
Their "mental negatives," as Steacy terms their recollections, bring up a variety of ethical questions that stem from a common predicament: whether to shoot or not -- or, in Hetherington's case, whether to expose an image of the dead to the public or not. Agony, frustration, fear and longing persist throughout. (Linda Yablonsky Artnet 20120401)
The book is full of lost moments and missed opportunities, some poignant, some hilarious, some mysterious. (We never find out why Ballen did not photograph inside the witch doctor's house. Was it superstition, or had he simply gone out without his camera?) One of the funniest is told by Matt Salacuse. As a struggling photographer in New York, he was waiting to meet his father in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, when he spotted Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman with their newborn adopted baby. Salacuse went outside and positioned himself by a waiting limo, waiting for the celebrity couple to emerge. Just as he was about to photograph them, Cruise looked straight at him and said calmly: "You're not going to do that." Salacuse writes: "It must have been some crazy Scientologist voodoo mind trick, because I looked at him and said, 'You are right. I am not.' And, I didn't."
Like the others, all that Salacuse was left with from his chance encounter was a story about a great photograph that never happened. Sometimes, as this book shows, that's enough. (Sean O'Hagan The Guardian 20120315)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is a collection of short essays - by a wide range of photographers - about moments in space and time that never became photographs! Oh, how well I (as all photographers can, at one time or another) resonate with those moments. Maybe we've forgotten our camera, or our tripod, or filter; maybe our camera froze at an inopportune moment; maybe the subject of our gaze shifted its position, or flew away, as we were preparing to take the picture; maybe a gust of wind blew that perfectly composed image into the mists of time, or that sudden burst of sun from behind a cloud ruined the perfect exposure.
As a photographer myself, the book made me think of many of my own "Photographs Not Taken" moments; when, even though I was in the right state of mind and soul, and had perfectly well functioning camera and gear by my side, the photograph I wanted to take - the photograph I needed to take - I did not take, and is now gone forever. I vividly recall one particular series of photographs I could easily have taken and never did. It happened between 25 and 30 years ago, when my dad (an art restorer / artist) was still in his prime and worked at home in his upstairs studio. Except for one precious photograph, captured more by accident than design, I do not have any other visual record of my dad working as an art restorer in his studio! This represents the single greatest regret in my life as a photographer (thus far); namely, that I had never trained my eye and camera on my dad while he was still alive and worked in his studio.
Photographs Not Taken contains many stories similar to mine, that range from whimsical, to personal, to tragic. Of course, the book contains no photographs (at least of the conventional variety ;-) and even the typesetting is kept to a bare minimum, the focus being squarely on the stories themselves. But collectively, these wonderful stories teach us what we must do to become better photographers. They remind us that we are - in each and every moment of our lives - immersed in an infinite field of ever-changing extraordinary and timeless images; and the fact that we have or have not a camera, or want or do not want or cannot use it, hardly even matters. Just look, revel in what you feel, and remember.
As a photographer myself, the book made me think of many of my own "Photographs Not Taken" moments; when, even though I was in the right state of mind and soul, and had perfectly well functioning camera and gear by my side, the photograph I wanted to take - the photograph I needed to take - I did not take, and is now gone forever. I vividly recall one particular series of photographs I could easily have taken and never did. It happened between 25 and 30 years ago, when my dad (an art restorer / artist) was still in his prime and worked at home in his upstairs studio. Except for one precious photograph, captured more by accident than design, I do not have any other visual record of my dad working as an art restorer in his studio! This represents the single greatest regret in my life as a photographer (thus far); namely, that I had never trained my eye and camera on my dad while he was still alive and worked in his studio.
Photographs Not Taken contains many stories similar to mine, that range from whimsical, to personal, to tragic. Of course, the book contains no photographs (at least of the conventional variety ;-) and even the typesetting is kept to a bare minimum, the focus being squarely on the stories themselves. But collectively, these wonderful stories teach us what we must do to become better photographers. They remind us that we are - in each and every moment of our lives - immersed in an infinite field of ever-changing extraordinary and timeless images; and the fact that we have or have not a camera, or want or do not want or cannot use it, hardly even matters. Just look, revel in what you feel, and remember.
By Tom Nirider
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Photographers have all had the experience of missing photographs. This captures those emotions on paper. Very well assembled short essays on the topic. I liked it.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Interesting read. Short stories which you can pick up easily.
Great insight at times to hear what photographers actually think since we - the readers - only see the end product: the image
Great insight at times to hear what photographers actually think since we - the readers - only see the end product: the image
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Small Simple & Elegant
The production values in this book are delightful, very minimal and spares but eminently readable as a consequence. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stuart Murdoch
2.0 out of 5 stars
Yawn
Sorry, I wanted to like this, have lots of friends interviewed in the book, but it was just not inspiring or engaging.
Published 4 months ago by skippy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely worth reading
Definitely worth reading. Helps to fight your fears and learn other photographers' experiences. The book is a perfect size to carry it around and read in public transport.
Published 4 months ago by Alena
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling and thought-provoking
This book really allows you to let your imagination hold hands with these A list photographers as they each eloquently describe a photograph not taken. Read more
Published 12 months ago by In The Loupe
4.0 out of 5 stars
What happens to a photo untaken?
OK so if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a picture untaken worth? This brisk but captivating collection answers that just question. Read more
Published 13 months ago by evaB
4.0 out of 5 stars
Photographs Not Taken
Nice concept and a good read. Journal of Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh The Letters, Edward Weston Daybooks and all of Anne Truitt's books are good introspectives on what it's like to... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Bgrax
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