Edition: 4th Printing
Binding: Cloth Bds
Publisher: Amphoto, Garden City
Date Published: (1973) 1978
ISBN-13:9780817405526ISBN:0817405526
Description: Color & b/w photos. VG++ in VG DJ, yes. Lg 8vo, 136pp., Very good copy of this important book about the art of composition in photography. Book is crisp clean and tight. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: American Photographic Book Pub Co
Date Published: 1973
ISBN-13:9780817405526ISBN:0817405526
Description: Near Fine in Very Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. DJ a little edge wear and tanning at spine, blue cloth cover, faint signs of rubbing. read more
"Andreas Feininger was a world class photographer and author of books teaching the art and technique of photography before through-the-lens light metering was widely available, or zoom lenses - let alone programmable automatic exposure, autofocus or all the wonders of digital photography that we enjoy today and take for granted.
So why do I seek out his books today, more or less forty years after they were written? For one, because even today, ten years after his death at the age of 92, he still is the best teacher of the subject I have encountered - sometimes too rigid, always opinionated, but always so right - and that is born out by his own success in his profession.
And, no matter how much the technology has changed the process of creating photographs (and made it infinitely easier), the art of it has not changed one iota. Good photographs follow the same aesthetic rules as 40 years ago - and 100 years ago, for that matter.
In this book on photographic composition, Feininger concentrates on these rules that tell a great photograph from a merely "okay" one. As you go through the examples he gives you realize that none of these rules have changed over the years - yes, some things that were unacceptable back then may be a fashionable trend today, but just as certainly they will be short lived, succeeded surely by another trend, whereas the principles that Feininger describes will remain.
When I read my first book by Feininger in 1971 I had been taking pictures for almost ten years already. At the time I paid a lot of attention to the technical aspects he described as well. I must admit that today I find it fascinating to note the vast changes we have gone through. At the same time I still agree with everything he wrote back then about picture composition. This book was first published in 1973 and as I write this the year 2009 is around the corner.
In summing up his book Feininger explains that "much of what I said ... is theory" and how it is applied is "up to the photographer, on whose artistic and technical resources it depends whether a picture will fail or succeed."
As if to illustrate this point, the first photograph in the book violates practically all the established rules of composition - except the one that I like to quote as "what works, works."
The photo, by Arnold Newman, shows Igor Strawinski at his piano. You see Stravinski's head, shoulders and one arm, his head resting on the hand and the arm resting on the rim of the piano. The face shows a moody expression. This portrait of the musician is located in the bottom left corner where it makes up only 20-25% of the width and height of the picture. The rest of the image is dominated by the open lid of the piano, its characteristic form propped up on the stick supplied for that purpose. The bottom part of the piano - below the rim - is cropped away. The impact of this highly unorthodox composition is overwhelming, showing the relative size of piano and pianist, the shape of the lid and the overall construction of triangular shapes directing the viewer's look towards the all-important figure dwarfed in the bottom left corner. As I said - it breaks a lot of rules, but it works. And the same way that this photograph delivers, the whole book delivers. It delivers what Feininger calls a discussion of "what it is all about", which is useful before the photographer can apply his highly personal style effectively. This relates to something my father once taught me: You need to thoroughly understand the rules before you can break them to the best effect.
Together with this book I ordered several more by Andreas Feininger. I am looking forward to reading them all (some of them for the second time) and then to passing some of them on to my nephew, who is a budding photojournalist showing great promise at 18 years of age. I am infinitely curious what he will get out of these books."
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