My Favorite Photo Book

As a photographer, I often sit for hours in a Borders or Barnes & Noble browsing through the latest fashion and wedding magazines (I always wonder what others think of me when I am at a book store flipping through girl fashion magazines and holding a wedding magazine in another hand). Once in a while, a photography book catches my eyes for its unique-ness and sometimes its subject.

Women Before 10a.m. is one of my favorite photo books ever. The photographs are pictures by Veronique Vial. The way she captures these women are both sexy and real. I think the part that draws me into this book is the "real-ness" of the subject. In today's world, Photoshop and other editing tools are prevalent, so finding a "real" picture is very difficult and rare. If you look through this book, most of the pictures are untouched. The pictures are exactly how they were shot (or at least I think so). Love it! Also, I too see the beauty in women before they are completely awake or put together (makeup).

If you look closely in many of the photos, you see the emotions in these women. Either they are thinking about their eye brows, smoking after their morning shower, or putting on their favorite pair of jeans, their expressions are natural and genuine.

This book inspires me to become a better photographer. Not only from a technical sense, but in a more human way. A GOOD photographer nails the perfect exposure with the right aperture and shutter speed, but a GREAT photographer captures the emotion of the subject.