Photo books recommended by visionaries
“There is a cinematic strangeness in his pictures that I had never seen in Spanish photography. Humor, drama and pain all brought together in amazing use of color.”
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- Yvonne Venegas, Photographer
“The mixing of personal pictures and photographs of strangers that he finds in countries that he visits, expresses a form of anthropology that I am interested in, as all people seem somehow connected through emotion.”
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- Yvonne Venegas, Photographer
“I know the first edition and own the new one. I love the purity of the idea and the complex layer that people’s writing add to the portraits. It levels social contrast and expresses its impossibility.”
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- Yvonne Venegas, Photographer
“This book is all pictures of Tupac, and Tupac wasn’t even really my favorite rapper back then, but Chi Modu managed to capture these contemporary moments that later became historical.. He's shooting Tupac just chillin' and these studio sessions are so honest, with Pac smokin' bogies, all these different shots and even though they're minimal they're everything to me.
Who can ever say that they ever documented Tupac this honest and genuine? And Chi Modu just didn't do this with Pac, he has a catalog with so many different other artists as well that like he's built up these kinds of different relationships with.
This work is timeless and everything that I aspire to. I want somebody to nerd out over my work in the next 50 years as much as I nerd out over these dudes' work. And I mean not even as a jealousy thing because I'm a fan of it.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“This is the OG LA photographer. He's absolutely incredible and his documentation is so honest. This is the real OG and these people are allowing him to shoot these photos of them because these are his homies. It's not like he's using them as subjects. He's just hanging out like this is a day in life with the homies. And I think this is something that is really important to me. And what I try to establish with the people that I work with and shoot with. I don't want to call you my client. You are the homie and we're hanging out today. And then we're going to try to get some money from somebody. Or not. We're just going to try to create and just try to build stuff and hopefully it just works out.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“The homie Jack McKain is an up-and-coming photographer and one of the people that I started with. At the same he had his magazine, Modern Hieroglyphics. Jack was always a dope film photographer but then when he really started going into the music photography scene it got elevated. Music is one of my biggest loves. I can't do anything without music. Seeing Jack's first book he put together of all these different musicians and artists that he's worked with is honestly absolutely stunning.
What is so inspiring about Jack's book to me is that he is my peer. We're about the same age and seeing somebody from my peer group with a collection of work like this, but also seeing his struggles and knowing everything that he's been through, I've connected with him so much on that. So I was really proud of him to see him do this and on top of that it's not even like a shameless plug, this shit is dope. It's really clean. And Jack's like this skinny white boy from Virginia, but he has such a beautiful collection of people of colors musicians that he's just a soulful brother and I really connected with that.
Stylistically what impacts me about his work is his framing and his attention to detail and texture. I always can refer to Jack's photos in the way that he texturizes his photos and then he has this kind of level to it so it gives me the confidence to know if he's scanning his photo like this with film, then I shouldn't have any qualms about doing this with my own kind of medium.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“Ricky Powell is one of my favorite people on earth. I gravitate towards people who have just a charismatic energy, because I feel like a lot of photography has to do with what you put out there and what you project onto people and this is what you're getting back into photos.
Ricky Powell is doing that, and did that in the New York of the '70s and 80’s, so he was catching dudes like Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and he went on tour with Run DMC, and he's getting the Beastie Boys. He was on the scene capturing all these different moments. Ricky Powell really dominated that scene for what the art industry was and where the culture was and I feel like that's very similar to where I am in my life right.
A lot of my friends are musicians and DJs and directors or dancers, and everybody's doing really dope things in their lives and careers. I wonder what will happen in the next 10 years with us, and who [among us] is going to be the next Run DMC.
The title of the book, The Individualist, is something that I feel is really dope too. I think being an individual now is a commodity. There are now so many different references and so many things that you can emulate, and people tend to lose themselves in this.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“Everything that Jamel Shabazz does and documents, especially me being a born and raised New Yorker, has really helped me appreciate the contemporary element of life here.
I love how free this book feels. It's just documenting without the pressure of anybody else besides believing in yourself and doing it. And the scenes are incredible, by the way. Just to see the Lower East Side and all that stuff from back in the day is really dope.
I don't know if he understood the weight of what he was capturing at the time. Sometimes you might take photo and it’ll feel like just a normal picture, nothing special, but when you see it later in the context of everything, it’s important.
So now, if I see somebody doing something that's contemporary from now, I try to gravitate towards those kinds of moments and Jamel Shabazz is a really good reminder of how important that can be.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“Frank Miller is one my favorite creators of all time. I know this is probably a little bit off the beaten path, but comic books, especially the way that Frank Miller describes his stories, have been so inspirational for me. Especially how descriptive it is. For me photos and captions are intertwined, and so I look at my photos almost as comic book strips sometimes.
I want to use staging and the composition to make the viewer feel like they’re looking at something epic. Some of these scenes have incredible dark silhouettes and desaturated colors by his wife Lynn Varley and I really try to emulate this stuff in my editing.
When I first read The Dark Knight Returns, I wasn't looking at it in like a more photographic element. I was just so captivated by the story and the overall mood of it. And it's so funny how once I started shooting and getting into it, I realized, ‘Man, I've really been editing somewhat similar to this.’”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer
“William Klein does it all. Photography, film, graphic design, fashion, and street photography. There is no end and he just seems to get up and create all the time. There is a madness to his work and it makes me want to be right in the middle of it. This book shows me that there are no rules. Make your own rules, then break them. Get up and make shit! This book gives you an idea of the breadth of Kleins work. It inspired me to stretch out into other creative areas myself.”
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- Danny Clinch, Photographer
“Documentary photography and a pure insider look at greaser biker gang culture was my dream land growing up. This book was my introduction to Danny Lyons work and I couldn't get enough.
As we learned, he infiltrated the gang without their knowledge and risked his life by publishing the work. This led me to Conversations With The Dead, Knave of Hearts and many other books of his. He introduced me to the 665 Polaroid format, and I have had a love affair with Polaroid ever since.
I also discovered his documentary films and these films, along with the films and photography of Robert Frank, inspired me to make my own documentary films. They have informed my film making style.”
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- Danny Clinch, Photographer
“Irving Penn is a major influence on my work. I am amazed by his ability to handle any assignment. Still life, portraiture, fashion, and personal work are all handled with an amazing eye and seemingly simple concepts. His Worlds in a Small Room series and his natural north light portraits inspired me to begin my own natural light series of musicians for the last 23 years, beginning in 1996 when the Beastie Boys put on the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. This book, Passage, is a beautiful retrospective of his career which gives the reader insight into the diversity of his work.”
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- Danny Clinch, Photographer
“One of my favorite bodies of work ever is The Valley by Larry Sultan. He documented pornographic film sets by photographing everything except the deed. I think it’s humorous but also incredibly captivating to see images of very comforting/luxurious looking homes on first impression and then have that perspective totally shifted once you look into the subtle details of the work. It’s a beautiful juxtaposition of ideas.”
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- Willem Verbeeck, Photographer
“I love the simplicity of the subject matter in this book. Jamie Hawksworth photographed a bus station in England, which is such a simple concept but the work he made speaks so much about Britain and its people in a beautiful way. It’s also just incredibly inspiring to look at an early project from such an established photographer.”
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- Willem Verbeeck, Photographer
“For the last few years i’ve been working on my own series of photos which explores my relationship with Britain. Often, I find it hard to discover other works which display Britain so beautifully - So I was so elated when I stumbled across Robin’s work.
Being shot over the course of 15 years, it’s such a complete and extensive series of images, and a real testament to his dedication to the landscape.
I think it’s very easy to forget how much beauty is found within the U.K, and Robin’s work is the perfect reminder.”
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- George Muncey, Photographer
“Often when I look at works of the “Great American Road Trip”, I’m led to questioning how I can feel nostalgic about a time period I wasn’t even alive during. I often think - in 30 years, will looking at a photo littered with Prius’ have the same feeling as the cars in a Shore photo?
Somewhere Along The Line does an amazing job at bringing the tradition and ideology of road trip photography to the current day. It’s the perfect blend of painterly landscapes, and utterly bizarre scenes.
It’s a piece of work I think a lot of people would wish they had made themselves.”
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- George Muncey, Photographer
“Jasper is such a great example of a traditional style photo book done right. Everything about it has such a premium feel, with incredibly well printed images, and lush paper stocks. The whole book feels like it’s built up to give you the best possible experience and delivery to let the images speak for themselves.
The images really draw you in, with their hazy style you almost feel like you’ve visited this place in a dream sequence. Matthew did such and amazing job and painting a whole picture, and by the time you’ve got to the end of the book, you feel like you’ve explored the Ozark’s yourself.”
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- George Muncey, Photographer
“Danny Clinch’s ability to put his own signature on photos of larger-than-life musicians and artists always stands out to me. When you have a subject like Willie Nelson or Bruce Springsteen, you naturally think of their impact and their career. But when it’s a photo by Clinch, it stands out a bit more and feels more personal. To me, that access he gets is part of his signature.”
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- Matt Day, Photographer
“I’ve owned this book for many years and it’s probably one of the most frequently read books in my collection. My cousin, who isn’t a photographer, found the book for around $5 at a discount store and thought I might enjoy it. It was my introduction to Allard’s work and I was instantly hooked by his ability to use the light and color in the scene to really give a sense of feeling to the environment. This book in particular has several bodies of work all collected together and it’s a great expansive look at his work.”
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- Matt Day, Photographer
“Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Elliott Erwitt and that I’m a dog person. So naturally, this has always been a favorite book of mine. One of my favorite elements of Elliott Erwitt’s work is the humor that he consistently finds and it’s never been more apparent than in his photos of dogs. This is just a fun book that always reminds me of why I love using a camera to comment on what’s in front of me, share something that I find important or interesting, and just connect with something without the need for words.”
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- Matt Day, Photographer