BUY BOOKS, NOT GEAR: The Best Photography Gifts for Christmas

The best presents for photographers for this Christmas:

Buy Books

Books are the best investment for photographers. They never go out of style, and even if you get 1 meaningful idea from a book, it is worth its worth in gold.

My First Photography Book

My First Photography Book: Teach your child how to make photos. Perfect as a bedtime story. Printed hardcover, fold-flat, vibrant colors, and will teach your child why you love photography.

HAPTIC PRESS BOX

Inspire yourself on-the-go with the HAPTIC PRESS BOX. The bundle includes all of our pocketbooks, which covers street photography, personal photography, and film photography:

When you order the HAPTIC PRESS BOX, you will get these for free:

MASTERS

MASTERS is your personal manual on street photography, full of practical wisdom, tips, and techniques on how to fulfill your personal maximum in street photography.

MASTERS is a distillation of all of my LEARN FROM THE MASTERS article series, and is packaged in a beautiful Kodak Yellow cover, with an elegant Red foil embedded in the cover. Beautiful on your coffee table, and every page is full of inspiration for your street photography.

SUITS: First Edition

SUITS: My first photography book, printed on hardcover, elegant fold-flat design, signed; only 6 left in stock. Don’t miss your opportunity to invest in this book for the future.

MAGNUM CONTACT SHEETS 

MAGNUM CONTACT SHEETS — now available in paper back. Probably one of the best educational books on photography ever made. See the ‘behind the scenes’ of the great photographs made in history, by studying the contact sheets of the masters. See my Magnum Contact Sheets Review Here >

EXILES: JOSEF KOUDELKA

EXILES by Josef Koudelka is one of the greatest street photography books of all time. See my review here >

THE DECISIVE MOMENT – Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Decisive Moment: THE original photography book. Own a part of history. Read my review here >

Photography Book Reviews

Other great photography books you can gift:

75+ Inspirational Street Photography Books You Gotta Own

Buy books, not gear.

If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.

  1. Magnum Contact Sheets
  2. Magnum: Degrees
  3. Magnum: Stories
  4. Mark Cohen: Grim Street
  5. Street Photography Now
  6. Bruce Davidson: Subway
  7. Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street
  8. Diane Arbus: A monograph
  9. Helen Levitt
  10. Lee Friedlander: Friedlander
  11. Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best
  12. Richard Kalvar: Earthlings
  13. Andre Kertesz (Editions Hazan)
  14. Robert Frank: The Americans
  15. Garry Winogrand: Public Relations
  16. Garry Winogrand: Figments from the real world
  17. Garry Winogrand: The Animals
  18. Bruce Gilden by Stern Magazine
  19. Bruce Gilden: A Beautiful Catastrophe
  20. Bruce Gilden: Haiti
  21. Bruce Gilden: After The Off
  22. Bruce Gilden: Facing New York
  23. Bystander: A History of Street Photography
  24. Joel Meyerowitz
  25. Jun Abe: Citizens
  26. William Eggleston: Chromes
  27. William Eggleston: Guide
  28. William Eggleston: Before Color
  29. Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places
  30. Daido Moriyama: The World Through My Eyes
  31. Alex Webb: Istanbul
  32. Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
  33. Jeff Mermelstein: Sidewalk
  34. Walker Evans
  35. Fred Herzog: Photographs
  36. Vivian Maier
  37. William Klein: Contacts
  38. Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects
  39. Martin Parr: The Last Resort
  40. Martin Parr: Small World
  41. Tony Ray-Jones: Best Of
  42. Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
  43. Anders Peterson: French Kiss
  44. Anders Petersen: Cafe Lehmitz
  45. Zoe Strauss: America
  46. Henri Cartier-Bresson: “The Decisive Moment”
  47. Josef Koudelka: Exiles
  48. Anders Petersen
  49. The Education of a Photographer
  50. David Hurn: On Being a Photographer
  51. David Gibson: The Street Photographer’s Manual
  52. Siegfried Hansen – hold the line
  53. Matt Stuart: All that Life Can Afford
  54. The Photographer’s Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas
  55. Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight
  56. Trent Parke: The Christmas Tree Bucket
  57. Trent Parke: The Black Rose
  58. Harry Gruyaert
  59. Gus Powell: The Lonely Ones
  60. Alec Soth: Songbook
  61. Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot
  62. Constantine Manos: A Greek Portfolio
  63. Constantine Manos: American Color
  64. Constantine Manos: American Color 2
  65. David Alan Harvey: Divided Soul
  66. Photographers’ Sketchbooks
  67. Harry Callahan: Retrospective
  68. Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt
  69. Mark Cohen: Frame
  70. Saul Leiter: Early Color
  71. Saul Leiter: Early Black and White
  72. Dan Winters: Road to Seeing
  73. Todd Hido: Photography Workshop Series
  74. Mary Ellen Mark: Photography Workshop Series
  75. The Open Road: Photography and the American Roadtrip
  76. Jason Eskenazi: Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith
  77. Kaushal Parikh: “Fragments of a Spinning Rock”
  78. Sunlanders by Sean Lotman

Free Books by Eric Kim

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If you love learning, read the books below:

  1. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  2. Street Photography by Eric Kim
  3. Photography by Eric Kim
  4. Personal Photography Manual
  5. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
  6. Street Photography Contact Sheets
  7. Monochrome Manual
  8. Street Portrait Manual
  9. Street Photography Composition Manual
  10. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
  11. Street Photography 101
  12. Street Photography 102
  13. Zen in the Art of Street Photography
  14. Film Street Photography Manual
  15. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography

Street Notes

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Street Notes is a pocket-sized assignment journal to break outside of your comfort zone: