The Kodak Library of Creative Photography. Photographing the Drama of Daily Life

Time-Life Books, 1984. — 112 p. — (The Kodak Library of Creative Photography).The Kodak Library of Creative Photography series is aimed at beginner photographers and consists of 18 volumes: Mastering Color, Dealing with Difficult Situations, Taking Better Travel Photos, Learning from the Experts, creating Special Effects, Magic of Black and White Photogrpahs, Building and Cityscapes, Mastering Composition and Light, Take Better Pictures, Art of Portraits and the Nude, Print Your Own Pictures, Set Up Your Home Studio, Extend Your Range, Photographing the Drama of Daily Life, Capture the Beauty in Nature, Make Color Work for You, and Photographing Friends and Family.A child looks out of a window, silhouetted against the soft daylight. The situation could hardly be more commonplace or the image more simple. Yet to look at the picture opposite is to be drawn into the compelling silence of the room in which the child stands. This poignant sense of being in direct touch with a passing moment of life lies at the heart of many photographs taken by masters such as Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson and, here, Ernst Haas.This book shows that the skills needed t o photograph daily life in all its immediacy are accessible to anyone. Technically, the pictures on the following nine pages needed little beyond speed of camera handling. They range from news events to images of ordinary people, but all of them involve us in what is happening. To achieve this kind of spontaneity, candid photographers and photojournalists rely more on watchfulness than on complex equipment. There are simple ways, as this book describes, to improve your reaction time and your skill in taking unposed pictures without attracting too much attention. By practicing these and by developing an eye for story-telling images, you can record the drama of daily life in the subjects that surround you.