On we go with the bookshelf tour! This set of books live on the shelves right next to my desk in the living room. It’s a 5-shelf bookcase, but only two shelves have books. The others have things like a clock and photos and coasters for mugs of tea.
The photography books are on the bottom shelf, since they tend to be oversize and that’s the biggest (and sturdiest) shelf. I have a few vintage/antique books I bought at library book sales- primarily because they were pretty.
Top Shelf:
- Sartor Resartus: Heroes & Hero Worship by Thomas Carlyle (1909, unread)
- Essais de Montaigne- Tome Deuxieme (1925, French language, unread)
- The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo (1946)
- The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950 by T.S. Eliot
I bought the T.S. Eliot book on clearance when my hometown’s bookstore closed (right after I had gotten my first job and finally had disposable income), and it’s one of the books I’ve owned the longest.
The camera on top of the books is a Kodak Flash Bantam, introduced in 1947. The camera next to it is a Six-16 Brownie Junior, made by Kodak between 1934 and 1942. The little white bottle contains fixing powder for black and white prints. It was made by the Seroco Camera Company, probably in the 1920s. The larger bottle contains sodium sulfite, which acts as a hypoclearing agent for photographic developer solutions. This was made, as far as I can tell, no earlier than 1905, but probably no later than about 1920 based on the label’s artwork.
The black box on the right is one of the Bose speakers plugged into my computer.
Bottom Shelf:
- Dawn to Dark: The Magic of Light from National Geographic
- Through the Lens: Greatest Photographs from National Geographic
- Aperture Masters of Photography: Paul Strand
- Aperture Masters of Photography: Alfred Stieglitz
- Saul Leiter: Early Color
- Yosemite by Ansel Adams
- The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Little Flashes by Joe McNally
- Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David duChemin
- The Soul of the Camera: The Photographer’s Place in Picture Makingby David duChemin
- Edward Weston : The Flame of Recognition an Aperture Monograph
- Ansel Adams: Classic Images
- Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography by Galen Rowell
- The Photo Ark by Joel Sartore
- Ansel Adams in Color
- Galen Rowell’s Sierra Nevada by Galen Rowell
- Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape by Galen Rowell
- Photography: The Definitive Visual History by Thom Ang
The rest of the books are the various photo books that I’ve had made either from family photos through the years (the smaller ones) or from photos I’ve taken of trips abroad. I have yet to make a photobook from my most recent trip to Iceland (in September 2019).
So that’s the second bookcase in the living room. Next up, we come to the Tolkien shelves!
Traveling in Books 
Love the tour! The vintage camera touch is perfect. It would definitely be something I would’ve tried to do myself. Nice collection as well!
Thanks! I haven’t used all the cameras I own, since a lot of the film is unavailable, or you have to respool available film on the right spool, and I don’t want to deal with that. That said, I do use the 35mm cameras now and then, though less right now than I used to.
I love Edward Weston’s work.
I love this idea of sharing your bookshelves. And, of course, being into photography I’m immediately drawn to those shelves. I have a few of the same books, but you have quite a few others I’d love to find and look through one day. And I like the film cameras. It’s always fascinating seeing the different models, especially older ones. I’ve never used anything like them.
I haven’t used the older, non-35mm cameras at all. The film either isn’t made anymore (and hasn’t been for decades), or using them would require respooling 120 film onto a particular size of reel, and I’ve never tried to do it anymore. I’m glad my local used bookshop has a nice photography book collection. I can find monographs of my favorite photographers, and not spend a crazy amount on them.