Art Architecture Photography Books

I returned this very outdated and sincerely, not up to calling it self "Updated and Expanded Edition" of a book. If you are looking for a HOW TO book for back when your parents where still young and the microwave oven was a fantasy to many, then this might be the history lesson you are looking for. But for anyone who is interested in learning how to shoot buildings with today's (2007) equipment, well you may want to look elsewhere.

This book would be more aptly titled, "Equiptment you could and should buy for photographing interiors". It's designed for amateurs who don't know anything about photography and want to be walked through the process of buying the right equiptment and then left in the dark as to how to properly use it. I know something about photography, and was looking for a book that would talk about photographing interiors and some exteriors. I was interested in uses of perspective, lighting to add drama, that sort of thing. The writer, once explaining the theory behind photographic principles, talks, not about how he was able to take successful pictures, but just that he did. He mentions the equipment he used and tells where he set it up, but for all his superflous text, leaves the reader with only the knowledge of how to re-create his shot in the same location under the same conditions.
It began as an interesting read, as he explained about what the pros use. Then he explained what the beginner could buy, but why it's not really as good. He showed a few examples of how lighting effects a scene and alters color, but in general, his "shooting by beginners on a tight budget" should be "shooting in these locations by beginners with several grand to spend on equiptment".
I was hoping for a book that talked about the uses of lighting, the uses of color, actually shooting something besides huge, open, commercial structures. This is my first return to Amazon.

I bought this book about 2 years ago and it still is one of the best written books on architectural photography. The book is written with film in mind, but IT DOES go into some detail about digital photography.

To me, it disn't matter if it was film or digital because I shoot digital and was much more interested in the techniques and principles of architectural photography.

This book is a complete course. Just about every topic is covered to some extent. It does cover equipment used by the author and other professional arcitectural photographers and why. This topic is covered in good detail.

Other topics also incluse things like best persepectives for interior or exterior shots, architeural details (interesting), what publications look for, what potential clients really want and need (enginneers, architects, magazines, etc).

The techniques showed and discussed in this book are very useful, even in the digital age. As I write this (Oct. 2006)don't let the fact that this book was written with film mostly in mind deter you. It's about the techniques used that are more important. Transpareny film is still much perferred by all the major architectural magazines and large format cameras are discussed because that is what is being used in Professional Architectural photography. Having said that, I don't use large format cameras (don't know how). My clients are not as particular about correcting distortions as a magaine editor might be. But the proper lighting techniques, camera positions, equipment, etc. do matter. And this book just about covers it all.

This book is an easy read and well illustrated with plenty of photographs and diagrams.
It would be at an advanced level.

If you are looking for a book that tells you how to mimic shots, rather than to explain the key concepts behind shots in order to let you apply this knowledge in a way you prefer, then this book may not be for you. It's not really about "cookie-cutter photography".

I'm an experienced semi-professional photographer, with a combination of formal education and several years experience in film and digital photography. I've read many books on photography and this one is very good.

I also understand that the author is shooting more digital now and is a Canon Explorer of Light.

I hope this helps someone.

This is a fabulous book. It's not an intro to photography, and it won't tell you how to, say, light interiors. Instead, it's strength is in the wealth of detail about the author's daily practices and how individual photos were made, his well-reasoned opinions about equipment, his advice for dealing with editors and architects, and his enthusiasm for the digital future. You'll need to know how a view camera works to get the most from the book.

This book is written when film was used as medium but now we are turning towards digital imaging so i found that most information was not applicable for my particular need. I was looking for more of interiors photography techniques after remodeling a house or redoing the interiors. Focus of this book was different than my interest. But lots of good info there.

This book is brilliant. It reminded me of a paleontology book where the author looks at the shells of ancient marine fossils and reconstructs their lives from the shape of the shells.

From the structure of the English Country House Girouard recreates the lives of those who lived in them. Not just the Lord and Lady but all those who lived and worked there. How many people were in this room during dinner? How did the food get to the dining area (usually a long trek. This minimized the chance the kitchen would burn the place down but mimimized the chance dinner hadn't congealed). How many people (ladies in waiting, servants, servants of servants) were sleeping in the room together in 1500, 1700 or 1890? The idea that one would actually have any privacy is a very recent concept.

A fascinating reconstruction of what life was like not just for the head of the household, but for all who lived on the estate.

Don't be put off at first by the black and white photos. This book has some color photos, and I was at first hesitant to purchase this book because it seemed to be mostly black and white photography.
However, once I began to read this book, all thoughts about photos went out of my head! This book is informative, intelligent and thorough. The author has studied his subject very well, and writes in a clear and easy to follow manner. I really do find the floorplans to be an invaluable tool towards understanding the buildings the author is describing.
I am currently using this book as a research tool for my novel, but I did buy this book just for the love of the subject and I was not disappointed.
I would recommend this book again and again to anyone with a love of history and architecture.

With all that one can read and see of the impressive country homes of England's landed classes, the reasons the houses were designed as they were and the role they served is not always apparent. Architectural historian Mark Girouard addresses this critical gap in understanding in "Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History", explaining whom these households comprised, how they functioned, and how their design served its purposes from the Middle Ages until World War II. Over the course of centuries, the style, nature and number of rooms changed, as did the relationships of those who occupied them, so examining the homes of the ruling classes proves to be a fascinating lesson in social history.

Girouard presents the history of the country home alongside that of its household according to era: The Medieval Household and House, The Elizabethan and Jacobean House, The Formal House 1630-1720, The Social House 1720-70, The Arrival of Informality 1770-1830, The Moral House 1830-1900, and The Indian Summer 1900-1940. One chapter digresses to recount the history of books, collections and the rooms that housed them, and another talks about the evolving technologies used to heat, light, supply water, and dispose of sewage through the ages. Included are over 200 illustrations: floor plans, photographs, and drawings in black-and-white and color. "Life in the English Country House" is a literate and enlightening history of the homes and the power that they both reflected and fostered for eight centuries.

Mark Girouard, an architectural historian, has traced the roles of form and function in England's Great Houses in this densely illustrated, sensitively written book. Floor-plans, innumerable photographs and drawings (many of homes now destroyed), and portraits pepper the text, which is readability itself.

The book follows a chronological path from the Mediaval Household to the present day. The text isn't dry at all. Delicious details abound: Bess of Hardwick pacing her Great Chamber of Hardwick Hall, waiting for the royal visit that never came in the instantly-dated house she'd built for this very purpose, ... The origin of the phrase "backstairs intrigues" (both political and sexual).... the slow but persistant birth of the aristocratic ideal of "privacy"--and how it affected dining halls....the rise of the great dilettante libraries (and the rooms to house them).....and the advent of the freakish innovation of indoor plumbing (and a picture of the Duke of Wellington's elaborate WC) are just a few tidbits.

Mr. Girouard doesn't neglect the "downstairs" portion of a Great House, because he's interested in the whole institution as a functioning unit. Some of the most intriguing photos are of beloved servants' portraits, and the almost Shaker-like beauty of a working kitchen or laundry. Included, also, is a printed "Summary of Livery Men's Duties, Etc., Etc.", of Hatfield House, and darned if it doesn't sound like instructions for empoyees at an indifferent New York hotel!

This book is a delicious retrospective, and will make any red-blooded Anglophile who longs for one of these faded leviathans very happy indeed. Now, if you need me further, I will be in the Orangery.