Digital BW, The Print

Three books I have found useful are:

         Susan Sontag, On Photography -- a classic, and perhaps more 
philosophical than applicable to individual approaches
         Geoff Dyer, The Ongoing Moment -- quite idiosyncratic but 
one of the most interesting books in recent times.
         Eamonn McCabe, The Making of Great Photographs Useful as a 
discussion of individual photographs.

There are a number of what amount to textbooks on photography 
criticism. My local Half Price Books has a bunch, and I would think 
that any reasonable used book store might have a selection at 
reasonable prices. Styles in criticism change but not so dramatically 
that you need the absolutely latest versions. If you do, then I 
suggest finding out what people are using in college classes these 
days. One, perhaps inefficient, way to find out is to look for web 
sites for individual courses. At most universities these days course 
materials are web-based, and at a minimum course readings and a 
syllabus are listed on a web site. Goggle might work for this, but 
another way is to go to university web sites (all universities have 
them -- typically university.edu as in Stanford.edu), find a listing 
for the art or photography department, and then hunt around for 
course syllabi. Sometimes the department web site will list such 
courses, but often you get to them by clicking on individual 
professors who then list syllabi as part of their university-based 
web sites. I'm far from suggesting that such resources provide the 
best approach, but it is a start.

The best approach is to get books by individual photographers and 
study and think which individual photos work for you or not. The 
bottom line is that here are no absolute rules, and photos that 
please you are good regardless of whether they fit existing "rules" 
or appeal to others. Obviously if commercial considerations are 
important, different issues arise. And academic and philosophical 
criticism aside, it should be fairly obvious that a good portrait may 
follow different "rules" than a good landscape.

Dave Schneider


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