Title: Beauty In Photography
Author: Robert Adams
Published by: aperture ,second edition 1996
Sometimes you have to be lucky. I think this time I was. I picked up this small beauty in a second-hand shop in great condition. A new addition to my Photographer’s Library series is a small but intelligent and quietly profound book by Robert Adams called Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defence of Traditional Values.
The book
Where I find the book particularly interesting is Adams’s definition of beauty. He does not reduce it to prettiness or attractive subject matter. Instead, he connects beauty with form, coherence and structure—the photographer’s ability to find order within the apparent chaos of the world. For Adams, photography becomes meaningful when it reveals something about both the subject and the person behind the camera.
Adams argues that a successful landscape photograph should contain geography, autobiography and metaphor. A photograph therefore isn’t simply a record of where the camera was pointed; it carries something of the photographer’s experience and way of seeing. The writing is simple and easy to follow, although some of his opinions can feel quite traditional. He isn’t afraid to question some of the directions photography was taking at the time, and you won’t necessarily agree with everything he says. But that makes the book more interesting, not less.
So, as a conclusion, what’s my verdict?
This isn’t a technical book and there are no tips about cameras, lenses or exposure. Instead, Adams makes you think about why a photograph matters. He encourages you to slow down, look more carefully and perhaps pay more attention to the quieter moments rather than always chasing dramatic images.
For me, that is the real strength of Beauty in Photography. It’s a relatively small book, but there are plenty of ideas to come back to. It feels less like a photography textbook and more like sitting down with an experienced photographer and having a conversation about why we make photographs. The only negative in my opinion is the size and print quality of the pictures in the book., but given the book’s size, it’s understandable.
A thoughtful, honest and surprisingly relevant book that I would recommend to anyone interested in landscape photography.
Here is the previous book review