Environmental Design Library @ UC Berkeley

Photography: A Quick Guide to Resources

This is a quick guide to selected basic resources for the study of photography focusing on English language materials in the UC Berkeley libraries.

The largest collection on photography is housed in the Doe Library Main Stacks, with additional volumes in Art History/Classics, the Environmental Design Library, Moffitt Library, and the Bancroft Library. Additional, specialized collections are held in the Bancroft Library and other subject libraries on campus. For additional assistance contact the Environmental Design Library reference desk or one of the libraries above.

UC Berkeley registered students, faculty and staff who are off campus may use items marked UCB Only or UC Only by using the Library’s proxy service or the Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Content reviewed: September 2009. Compiled by Elizabeth D. Byrne.

If you want to browse the stacks, TR is the Library of Congress classification for photography and the beginning of the call number for most photography books. Be aware that you may miss important photography books if browsing is your only technique. Many books are stored off campus, or checked out, and additional books of photography on a specific subject will be classed in a different classification. And, a growing number of photography books have become rare and are stored in a special rare book collection, so be sure to check the library catalogs for a complete listing.

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= recommended

• The Abrams encyclopedia of photography / edited by Brigitte Govignon; transl. from French by Graham Edwards ... New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2004.
Online table of contents
Environmental Design TR9.P4813 2004 Reference
Doe Refe TR9.P4813 2004 Noncirculating
Art/Classics TR9.P4813 2004 Room 308J Reference
• The Oxford companion to the photograph / edited by Robin Lenman. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Environmental Design TR9.O94 2005 Reference
Art/Classics TR9.O94 2005 Room 308J Reference
• The Photography encyclopedia / Gloria S. McDarrah, Fred W. McDarrah and Timothy S. McDarrah. New York: Schirmer Books, c1999.
Doe Refe TR9.M39 1999 Noncirculating<
Moffitt Refe TR9.M39 1999 Noncirculating
• American women photographers: a selected and annotated bibliography / Martha Kreisel. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. Art reference collection; no. 18
Main Stack TR139.A12.K74 1999
Art/Classics TR139.A12.K74 1999 Room 308J Reference
• Art photography now / Susan Bright. New York: Aperture, 2005.
Main Stack TR650.B686 2005
• Contemporary photographers / executive editor, Martin Marix Evans,... 3rd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Contemporary arts series.
Doe Refe TR139.C664 1995 Biographies Noncirculating
• Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography / edited by John Hannavy. 2 vol. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008.
Art History/Classics TR9.E53 2008 Reference<
• Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography / edited by Lynne Warren. 3 vol. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Art History/Classics TR642.E5 2006 Reference
• "Photography." J.P. Ward, et al. Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 17 Sep. 2009 Excellent overview of the history and processes of photography from the Grove Encyclopedia of Art. See also separate articles on important photographers. Great bibliography.
http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T067117
• An Illustrated bio-bibliography of Black photographers, 1940-1988 / Deborah Willis-Thomas. New York: Garland, 1989. Garland reference library of the humanities; vol. 760
Main Stack TR139.W55 1989
Doe Refe E185.W552 1989 Biographies Noncirculating
• Macmillan biographical encyclopedia of photographic artists & innovators / Turner Browne, Elaine Partnow. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1983.
Doe Refe TR139.B767 1983 Biographies Noncirculating
Art/Classics TR139.B767 1983 Room 308J Reference<
• A New history of photography / edited by Michel Frizot. Koln: Konemann, 1998.
Art/Classics TR15.N6813 1998 Room 308J
• Photographers: a sourcebook for historical research: featuring Richard Rudisill's Directories of photographers, an annotated bibliography. Rev. 2nd ed. Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Pub., 2000.
Doe Refe TR15.P46 2000 Noncirculating.
Art/Classics TR15.P46 2000 Room 308J Reference
Environmental Design TR15.P46 1991 (1st edition) Reference
• Photographers encyclopedia ... Michele Auer. Neuchatel [Switzerland]: Ides et calendes, 1997.
Art/Classics TR139.E5 1997 compu/d CD-Rom Station; request at Circulation Desk, Library Use Only
• The Photography book / [texts written by Ian Jeffrey]. London: Phaidon, 1997.
Environmental Design TR650.P493 1997 Reference
• Photography speaks: 150 photographers on their art / [edited by] Brooks Johnson. New York, N.Y.: Aperture Foundation: [Norfolk, VA]: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2004.
Main Stack TR185.P53 2004
• PhotoSpeak: a guide to the ideas, movements, and techniques of photography, 1839 to the present / Gilles Mora. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1998.
Art/Classics TR15.M63 1998 Room 308J
• A World history of photography / Naomi Rosenblum. 4th ed. New York: Abbeville Press, 2007.
Moffitt TR15.R67 2007
Art/Classics TR15.R67 2007

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= recommended

• The Creative digital darkroom [online UCB Only] / Katrin Eismann & Seán Duggan. Beijing; Farnham [England]: O'Reilly, 2007.
Safari. Restricted to UC campuses. Limited simultaneous user access. Try again later if refused.
• Digital photography [online UCB Only] : the missing manual / Chris Grover and Barbara Brundage. Sebastopol, CA : Pogue Press/O'Reilly, 2006.
Safari. Restricted to UC campuses. Limited simultaneous user access. Try again later if refused.
• Digital video camerawork / Peter Ward. Oxford; Boston: Focal Press, 2000.
Environmental Design TR256 .W37 2000
• The Focal encyclopedia of photography: digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science / Michael R. Peres, editor-in-chief. 4th ed. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier/Focal Press, 2007.
Environmental Design TR9.F6 2007 Reference; CD-ROM TR9.F6 2007 Reserve
• Mastering digital printing [online UCB Only] / Harald Johnson. Boston, MA : Thomson Course Technology, c2005.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/berkeley/Doc?id=10073604
• Techniques of the world's great photographers. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books, 1981.
Art/Classics TR139.T43 1981b Room 308J

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Use these terms to locate books in the library catalogs. These terms may also be useful as keywords or subject words when searching databases for periodical articles.

Use the name of a photographer as subject or author when searching for books on an individual, e.g., subject: Adams, Ansel or author: Adams, Ansel.

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Search periodical or journal indexes or databases to find articles on photography. Some of the most important ones are listed below. For other more general databases, see Electronic Resources, General.

= recommended

• Academic Search Complete UCB Only | Multidisciplinary index to more than 10,000 journals from 1865 to the present. Good coverage of photography. Some full-text articles.
• Art Full Text UCB Only | Indexes over 300 international publications, including journals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, film reviews, bibliographies, conference reports, review articles, interviews and exhibition listings, in a variety of languages. Covers many fields in art and design, with good coverage of photography. Covers articles published 1984 to present. Some full text. You can search Art Full Text, Art Index Retrospective, and Readers Guide simultaneously if you “Open Database Selection Area.”]
• Art Index Retrospective UCB Only | The older partner of Art Full Text above, covers articles published from 1929-1984 in many international journals and publications with good coverage of photography, art and design. You can search Art Full Text, Art Index Retrospective, and Readers Guide simultaneously if you “Open Database Selection Area.”
• ArtBibliographies Modern UCB Only | Indexes journals, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews. Coverage extends from Impressionism in the late 19th century, up to the most recent works and trends in the late 20th century. Photography is covered from its invention in 1839 to the present. Covers articles published 1974 to present. To search several arts and humanities databases simultaneously, change Subject Area, at bottom of screen, to Arts & Humanities.]
• BHA, Bibliography of the History of Art | Indexes over 2,500 articles, art-related books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and art exhibition and dealer's catalogs. Covers European and American art from late antiquity to the present. Subjects include arts, architecture, design and photography. The print edition is more extensive than the online edition.
• America: History and Life UCB Only | Indexes over 2,000 journals from 1964 to the present published worldwide on the history of the US and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes all key English-language historical journals; selected historical journals from major countries, state, and local history journals; and a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities.
• Readers Guide Retrospective UCB Only | Covers more than 500 leading and popular American magazines and journals from 1890 to 1982. You can search Art Full Text, Art Index Retrospective, and Readers Guide simultaneously if you “Open Database Selection Area.”]

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This is a very select list of electronic resources on photography, many of which have digital images and links to other websites of interest. See also Electronic Resources, Image and Sound Databases.

• American Memory, Library of Congress. More than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical Library of Congress collections. The primary source and archival materials relating in the project cover topics from art and architecture to performing arts to technology and applied sciences. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
• American Museum of Photography. 5,000 images from daguerreotype portraits to Ansel Adams. http://www.photographymuseum.com/
• AP Multimedia Archive UCB Only | Includes Associated Press's current-year photo report and a selection from a 50-million image print and negative library dating from 1844-present. Currently contains about 700,000 photos, most of which are contemporary images made since late 1995. http://ap.accuweather.com/apphoto/
• Art History Resources on the Web: Photography. A major listing of photography-related websites compiled by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Professor, Dept of Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprints.html
• ARTstor UCB Only | A repository of more than 700,000 digital images and associated catalog data. The collection is designed to be used by students and faculty for teaching and research in art history, as well as many other disciplines. Includes several collections such as: The Mellon International Dunhuang Archive; Native American Art and Culture from the Smithsonian; the Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts, etc. Searchable by artist, subject, etc. http://www.artstor.org/
• California Museum of Photography, UC Riverside. Search their permanent or recent acquisitions, with digital images. http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/
• George Eastman House Photography Collections Online. A digital image sampling from their collection, searchable by photographer, subject, type, etc. http://www.geh.org/
• Helios, Photography Online. Collection of more than 1500 images from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Photography Collection. http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/helios/
• Luna Insight Collections. Selection of images from 7 California museums and libraries. Includes the Dorothea Lange collection, Oakland Museum, among other photographs. [Note: This collection is part of the UC Image Service and can be viewed in two ways: the Insight Browser allows users to view the collection using a web browser; the Luna Insight software provides greater functionality but must be downloaded.] http://imageservice.cdlib.org/
• NYPL Digital Library. Provides access to over 640,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/nypldigital/
• PhotoForum's List of Photo Web Pages. A gateway site compiled by Andrew Davidhazy, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. Grouped into 12 sub-directories, including museums, galleries, exhibitions, and cultural institutions; and photographic societies and associations. http://people.rit.edu/andpph/webpages.html

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A selection of current photography journals available at UCB. For other relevant journals, search OskiCat.

• Afterimage. [Rochester, N.Y.] Visual Studies Workshop.
  • Current issues. Doe Current Periodicals TR640.A2 Noncirculating
  • v. 29 July 2001-- . Main Stack fTR640.A2
  • Selected article text for v.24, 1997-- Online UCB Only WilsonWeb Art full text
  • Selected article text for v.22, 1994-- Online UCB Only Expanded Academic ASAP
• Aperture. [San Francisco, Calif.: Minor White, 1952-- ]
  • v. 10, 1962-- . Environmental Design TR1.A8
  • v. 1, 1952-v. 16, 1971. Art/Classics Doe 308 TR1.A8
  • Selected article text for no.146, 1997-- Online UCB Only WilsonWeb Art full text
• Camerawork. [San Francisco, Calif.: San Francisco Camerawork, Inc., 1992-- ]
  • Current issues. Art/Classics Doe 308
  • v. 25, 1998-- . Main Stack TR640.C358
• European photography. [Gottingen, Germany: A. Muller-Pohle, 1980-- ]
  • v. 53, 1993-v. 60, 1996. Main Stack TR640.E78
  • Selected article text for v.18, 1997-- Online UC Only WilsonWeb Art full text.
• History of photography. [London, Taylor & Francis Ltd.]
  • v. 1, 1977-18:2, summer 1994; v.18:4, winter 1994; v.19, 1995-- . Art/Classics Doe 308 TR15.H55
• PSA journal. [New York: Photographic Society of America, 1947-- ] Continues: Journal of the Photographic Society of America (DLC).
  • Selected article text for v.55, 1989-- [Latest 2 weeks not available online] Online UCB Only Expanded Academic ASAP.
  • Selected article text for v.59:no.7, 1993:July-- Online UCB Only EBSCO.
• Visual anthropology review: journal of the Society for Visual Anthropology. UCB Only [Los Angeles : Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, 1991-- ]
  • v.7,1990-- . Anthro GN42.3.S9
  • Online: http://www.anthrosource.net/

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