100 Ideas That Changed Photography by Mary Warner Marien Laurence King Publishers, 216 pages, $34.95.
The evolution of photography is not just about technological advancements in equipment. There are a great many concepts and techniques that have greatly influenced how photographers approached their craft.
Mary Warner Marien digs into the history of photography and presents a series of significant developments.
The choices for inclusion in her list of 100 stretch from the mechanical process of developing film to the subtle understanding of the decisive moment in taking pictures. The invention of slide film opened the door for Kodachrome film to become the standard for glossy magazines and heralded an era of rich, detailed images.
Street photography, the snapshot aesthetic, artificial light and many more trends and inventions fill the pages.
In each example Marien presents photographs to illustrate the topic and writes a detailed description to explain the impact it had on the future of photography.
? Sign Painters by Faythe Levine & Sam Macon Princeton Architectural Press, 182 pages, $28.95.
Their work has always surrounded us. Signs provide directions, information, enticement and entertainment. Until very recently the majority of the signs we saw were created by hand. That all changed with computer-generated vinyl cut lettering that could be applied to almost anything.
The sign making profession seemed doomed but there were holdouts, craftsmen who kept at their art refusing to switch over and continued to produce their work by hand.
Levine and Macon have sought out both veteran sign painters and the new vanguard that have embraced this craft. More than two dozen artists from all across the United States are featured. Their stories are widely varied but they all share a love of typography and the power of the visual message. Each featured sign painter tells what brought them to this unique profession and is shown with samples of their work.
