Monday, June 15, 2009

Book: Within The Frame: David duChemin

If there's one book on photography I must have with me if I'm ever marooned on a desert island, it'd be David duChemin's Within The Frame.

If there's one photography book I'd recommend to all the photographers of varying levels of proficiency who join my photo~expeditions, it's David du Chemin's Within The Frame.

If there's one photography manual I'd have with me when teaching my photography courses to emerging photographers and photojournalists, it'd be David's Within The frame.

Yes, it's that good.

Within The Frame is David's opus...a 'from the heart and soul' of a travel photographer who genuinely likes his craft and is justifiably proud of his work. It's a book of color, of light, of exotic locations, of people, of humanity and of valuable recommendations.

Here's David in his own voice:

"Anyone can take a picture of poverty; it's easy to focus on the dirt and hurt of the poor. It's much harder -and much more needful- to pry under that dirt and reveal the beauty and dignity of people that, but for their birth into a place and circumstance different from our own, are just like ourselves. I want my images to tell the story of those people and to move us beyond pity to justice and mercy".
Is there a better way to say what many photographers believe and live by?

Another brilliant photographer, SebastiĆ£o Salgado, said as much: "If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things."

Within The Frame is well worth adding to one's library of photography books; almost 250 pages of sound advice and suggestions as to how to improve your photographic vision, along with scores of David's lovely photographs. I recently heard that David wondered if creative vision can be taught. If it can, then this book is one of its manuals.

Within The Frame is available from Amazon or B&N. David duChemin's photographic vision can be seen on his website here.

posted from London en route to Morocco