Welcome to the Curious Eye
I love photography and I love thoughtful writing on photography.
I’ve spent a lifetime in communications, but as I transition from working for others to working to please myself, I intend to use this site to share my thoughts and my photographs.
These are personal pictures. Most have no commercial value. I hope that a handful have artistic value, but at a minimum I hope they are interesting to look at.
Photography Book Archive
I am gradually trying to build an archive of brief summaries and reviews of photography books that others can use if they are curious about the art of photography.
If you are looking for “how to” books, you won’t find many here. But, if you are interested in the history of photography as a means of personal expression, and the criticism of such, there is a good chance you will find this interesting.
Book Reviews and Posts
The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media
The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media. By Nathan Jurgenson, Verso Nathan Jurgenson covers a lot of territory in just over 100 pages, as he presents page after page of insightful and thought-provoking observations on photography and social media. Jurgenson dissects current opinions and attitudes about social media and nicely places them in […]
The Photograph as Contemporary Art
The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton. World of Art series: Thames & Hudson. Writing about contemporary anything is like running to catch a train that never slows down at a station. The author is forever destined to have missed the latest one, no matter how fast she goes. For nearly two decades, Charlotte […]
The best books on photography (irregularly updated)
None of these books will tell you anything about f-stops, but they will definitely make you a better photographer One of the consequences of my interest in photography is that I acquire and read too many photography books. I hope to develop this site as a resource for other photographers seeking out the best in […]
A workshop in book form?
Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and MomentAperture FoundationThe Photography Workshop Series It is an impossible task to convert the experience of learning from an accomplished talent in person into book form. The Aperture Foundation deserves credit for attempting to do so with The Photography Workshop Series (which, as of the end of 2022 consisted […]
