Secret bookworm?? Not so secret after all...

Along with my fabulous camera I got a whole range of fashion and photography books for Christmas to get me inspired for future projects and hopefully a job in the wonderful world of fashion magazine publishing. Each book has a different focus and has subsequently taught me something new.

So, details.

The stack on the left, working from top to bottom:

• The Fashion Book by Richard Martin, Alice Mackrell, Melanie Rickey and Angela Buttolph. This is a very general and hence very broad reference book with a page each for 500 major desginers, photographers, icons and models involved in the fashion industry since 1860. Good for a quick flick through and for small snippets of information but due to only having an extremely limited space for each entry it is not very comprehensive.
• Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. A very old antique copy. Not related to fashion at all but it is a wonderful story and I have a strange obsession with very very old books- especially those with black and white print illustrations.

• My Favourite Dress by Gity Monsef, Samantha Erin Safer and Robert de Niet. Fairly self explanatory really. 75 key players from the fashion industry choose just one treasured dress and explain why. I found it most interesting to see which dress designers would pick from, in several cases, a lifetimes worth of creative work. Obviously due to the focus specifically on dresses it is a little limited. Although the fabulous cover image more than makes up for this.
• In Vogue by Alberto Oliva and Norberto Angeletti. An illustrated history of the iconic fashion bible Vogue. It documents the development and evolution of the magazine with images of numerous covers from the archives as well as images from behind the scenes. A must for anyone who is interested in fashion journalism- particularly useful in conjunction with another book Vogue Covers.
• Performance by Richard Avedon. A masterpiece documenting the humorous but sometimes serious work of a photographer extraordinare. If there was ever someone to capture the 'spirit' of old Hollywood legends then it is this man.
• Vanity Fair Portraits by Graydon Carter and Christopher Hitchens. Documents the evolution of photographic portraiture in the magazine from models to 'celebrities'. Invaluable for finding new photographers who inspire you and whose work you want to research further.

Standing selection from left to right:

• Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz. Without a doubt one of the most talented and successful photographers in the industry. Whilst renowned for her 'celebrity' portraits this book introduces you to the wide range of her other work including documentary journalism and early shots for Rolling Stone. Although the text accompanying each section (split into groups according to subject) is revealing and interesting I am personally dissatisfied with the limited number of high fashion spreads included- although due to the small scale of the book this would perhaps do her beautiful images a disservice.
• Fashion Makers Fashion Shapers by Anne Celine Jaeger. Focuses on figures involved with contemporary fashion- this book uncovers the creative process of designers, the techniques of talent spotters and the secrets of many a fashion industry maestro like Alexandra Shulman. A lot of the information is from first hand interviews and is therefore extremely insightful.
• Front Row: Anna Wintour by Jerry Oppenheimer. A biography of the one and only so-called 'ice queen' from youth to the very top of the fashion elite. If the anecdotes in this book are true then dear Anna has had a rather eventful life! Definitely a before bed bit of light reading rather than anything particularly informative but the one thing I've learnt from this is that in the fashion industry it really is WHO you know, not WHAT you know.
• The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman. I have said it before and I shall say it again. Scott Schuman is a MASTER of natural light. It forever amazes me when looking through his photos that he can single handedly capture photographic perfection out on the busy streets of the worlds biggest cities. I love that in the introduction Schuman notes that his subjects were not chosen because they were the most 'conventionally' attractive or stereotypically stylish but because there was just one thing about their appearance or demeanour which caught his eye and which he just had to record. Fascinating to look through.

Well, I hope this has given you some inspiration to go out there and get some of these for yourselves! Obviously there are many more fashion and photography related books out there, and once I get this degree out the way then I shall research more and re-post on my findings.