400 Street Photo Books

Abbas, Return To Mexico

Jun Abe, Citizens

Jun Abe, 1981

Michael Ackerman, End Time City

Robert Adams, No Small Journeys

Christophe Agou, Les Faits Secondaires

Christophe Agou, Life Below

Christopher Anderson, Capitolio

Tom Arndt, Men In America

Diane Arbus, In the Beginning

Julia Baier, Water Matters

Shirley Baker, Street Photographs, Manchester and Salford
Shirley Baker, Streets and Spaces

Micha Bar-Am, Our Daily Bread

Bruno Barbey, The Italians
Katy Barron, Unseen

Mary Berridge, On The Eve

Dawoud Bey, Harlem, U.S.A.

Boogie, A Wah Do Dem

Boogie, Belgrade Belongs To Me

Richard Bram, New York

Richard Bram, Street Photography

Brassai, Paris by Night

Rene Burri, Germans

Rene Burri, Impossible Reminiscences

Rene Burri, Photographs

Harry Callahan, The Archive 28: Early Street Photography
Harry Callahan, The Street

H. Cartier-Bresson, America In Passing

H. Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment

H. Cartier-Bresson, The Europeans

H. Cartier-Bresson, In India

H. Cartier-Bresson, Mexican Notebooks

H. Cartier-Bresson, Scrapbook

H. Cartier-Bresson, The Early Work

Vivian Cherry, Helluva Town

Krass Clement, Hvor Ingen Talte

Mark Cohen, Frame

Mark Cohen, Grim Street

Mark Cohen, Dark Knees

Mark Cohen, True Color

Joan Colom, Les Gens Du Raval
Martha Cooper, Street Play
Thomas Consilvio, Snapshooters

Barbara Crane, Private Views

Bill Dane, Outside and Inside America

Maciej Dakowicz, Cardiff After Dark

Bruce Davidson, Central Park

Bruce Davidson, England/Scotland 1960

Bruce Davidson, Subway

Roy DeCarava, Photographs

Roy DeCarava, The Sweet Flypaper of Life

Carl De Keyzer, East Of Eden

Carl De Keyzer, God Inc.

Carl De Keyzer, Homo Sovieticus

Peter Dench, The British Abroad

Peter Dench, Dench Does Dallas

Peter Dench, England Uncensored

Raymond Depardon, Adeiu Saigon

Raymond Depardon, Berlin

Raymond Depardon, Glasgow

Raymond Depardon, Manhattan Out

Raymond Depardon, Voyages

Robert Doisneau, Three Seconds of Eternity

Eamonn Doyle, i
Eamonn Doyle, On

Carolyn Drake, Two Rivers

Diane Dufour and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Provoke: Between Protest and Performance

Bryan Dyson, One Eye Open, One Eye Closed

William Eggleston, Before Color

William Eggleston, Los Alamos

Jonathan Elderfield, Living Under South Street

Ed van der Elsken, Sweet Life

Mitch Epstein, The City

Mitch Epstein, In Pursuit of India 

Mitch Epstein, Recreation

Elliott Erwitt, Museum Watching

Elliott Erwitt, On The Beach

Elliott Erwitt, Personal Exposures

Elliott Erwitt, Photographs and Anti-Photographs

Elliott Erwitt, Sequentially Yours

Elliott Erwitt, Snaps

Walker Evans, Many Are Called

Louis Faurer (Self Titled)

Louis Fauer (Steidl)

Louis Faurer, Photographs from Philadelphia and New York, 1937-1973

Flo Fox, Asphalt Gardens

David Featherstone, The Diana Show

Harold Feinstein, A Retrospective

Harold Feinstein, Saying Yes

Martine Franck, One Day To The Next

Robert Frank, The Americans

Leonard Freed, Black in White America

Leonard Freed, Photographs 1954-1990

Leonard Freed, The Italians

Jill Freedman, Circus Days

Jill Freedman, Street Cops

Lee Friedlander, American Monuments

Lee Friedlander, MOMA (Big Yellow)

Lee Friedlander, Photographs

Lee Friedlander, Self Portrait

Lee Friedlander, Street

David Freund, Gas Stop

George Georgiou, Fault Lines

George Georgiou, Last Stop

Luigi Ghirri, It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It...

David Gibson, Matt Stuart, and Nick Turpin, Three

David Gibson, The Street Photographer's Manual

Ford Gilbreath, (Self Titled)

Bruce Gilden, After The Off

Bruce Gilden, Facing New York

Bruce Gilden, Haiti

Richard Gordon, Meta Photographs

Paul Graham, The Present

Kenneth Graves, The Home Front

Jonathan Green, The Snapshot

Sid Grossman, The Life and Work of Sid Grossman

Harry Gruyaert, (Self Titled)

Ernst Haas, Color Correction

M. Bruce Hall, Promised Land

Siegfried Hansen, Hold The Line

Christobal Hara, An Imaginary Spaniard

Christobal Hara, Contranatura

Christobal Hara, Cuatro cosas de Espana

Christobal Hara, Vanitas

Charles Harbutt, Departures and Arrivals

Charles Harbutt, Travelog
David Alan Harvey, Based on a True Story
Robert Herman, The New Yorkers

Anthony Hernandez, Rodeo Drive 1984

Fred Herzog, Photographs

Ken Heyman, Hipshot

Jackie Higgins, World Atlas of Street Photography

Lisa Hostetler, Street Seen

Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, Street Photography Now

In-Public@10

Yasuhiro Ishimoto, A Tale of Two Cities

Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Chicago, Chicago

Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Shibuya, Shibuya

Jeff Jacobson, The Last Roll

Jeff Jacobson, My Fellow Americans

Stella Johnson, Al Sol

Simpson Kalisher, Propaganda and Other Photographs

Richard Kalvar, Earthlings

Zisis Kardianos, A Sense of Place

Peter Kayafas, O Public Road!

Thatcher Keats, Confidence Games
Beate Kemfert and Christina Leber, Road Atlas
David Lykes Keenan, Fair Witness

Andre Kertesz, Diary of Light

Andre Kertesz, His Life and Work

Johan vad där Keuken, Quatorze Juillet

Chris Killip, In Flagrante

Keizo Kitajima, Modoru Okinawa

Keizo Kitajima, New York

William Klein, Life Is Good and Good For You In New York 1956

William Klein, Tokyo

Martin Kollar, Nothing Special

Viktor Kolar, (Self Titled)

Viktor Kolar, Canada 1968-73

Viktor Kolar, Mala Strana

Viktor Kolar, Ostrava

Koudelka, Gypsies

Koudelka, Exiles

Max Kozloff, New York Over The Top

Seiji Kurata, Flash Up

Jason Langer, Secret City

Sergio Larrain, Vaparaiso

Sergio Larrain, Vagabond Photographer

Jacques Henri Lartigue, Album of a Century

Jacques Henri Lartigue, A Sporting Life

Joseph Lawton, Contact Sheet 108

Saul Leiter, (Self Titled)

Saul Leiter, Early Black and White

Saul Leiter, Early Color

Gita Lenz, (Self Titled)

Leon Levenstein, (Self Titled)

Helen Levitt, (Self Titled)

Helen Levitt, Crosstown

Helen Levitt, Here and There

Helen Levitt, Slide Show

Marketa Luskacova (Self Titled)

Marketa Luskacova, Pilgrims

Vivian Maier, A Photographer Found

Vivian Maier, Eye To Eye

Vivian Maier, Out Of The Shadows

Vivian Maier, Street Photographer

Rene Maltete, Paris Des Rues et Des Chansons

Jesse Marlow, Don't Just Tell Them Show Them

Jesse Marlow, Wounded

Constantine Manos, American Color

Constantine Manos, American Color 2

Constantine Manos, Bostonians

Constantine Manos, A Greek Portfolio

Emil Mayer, Wiener Typen

Roger Mayne, Street Photographs of Roger Mayne

Bob Mazzer, Underground

Don McCullin, In England

Paul McDonough, New York Photographs 1968-1978

Paul McDonough, Sight Seeing

Richard Misrach, Telegraph 3 A.M.

Enrique Metinides, 101 Tragedies

Ken Miller, Shoot: Photography of the Moment

Joseph Mills, Inner City

Jeff Mermelstein, Sidewalk

Jeff Mermelstein, No Title Here

Jeff Mermelstein, Twirl/Run

Ray Metzker, City Stills

Ray Metzker, Light Lines

Ray Metzker, Sand Creatures

Joel Meyerowitz, Glimpse

Joel Meyerowitz, Retrospective

Joel Meyerowitz, Wild Flowers

Boris Mikhailov, (Self Titled)

Lisette Model, (Self Titled)

Jean-Pierre Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art

Kevin Moore and James Crump, Starburst

Giles Mora, The Last Photographic Heroes

Inge Morath, First Color

Inge Morath, The Road To Reno

Andy Morley-Hall, Please Do Not Feed

Daido Moriyama, Bye Bye Photography

Daido Moriyama, Stray Dog

Igor Moukhin, My Moscow

Richard Nagler, Word On The Street
Takehiko Nakafuji, Night Crawler

Takuma Nakahira, For a Language To Come

Ramy Narula, Platform 10

Enrico Natali, Detroit 1968

Enrico Natali, New American People

Enrico Natali, New York Subway 1960

Paulo Nozolino, Penumbra

Toby Old, Lucky Strikes

Toby Old, Times Square

Kramer O'Neill, Pictures of People and Things

Kramer O'Neill, Till Human Voices Wake Us

Tony O'Shea, Dubliners

Ruth Orkin, Above and Beyond

Patrick Pagnano, Shot On The Street

Tod Papageorge, American Sports, 1970

Tod Papageorge, Passing Through Eden

Tod Papageorge, Seeing Things, New York 1966-67

Trent Parke, Dream/Life

Trent Parke, Minutes To Midnight

Trent Parke and Narelle Autio, The Seventh Wave

Martin Parr, Bad Weather

Martin Parr, Common Sense

Martin Parr, The Last Resort

Martin Parr, Small World

Martin Parr, The Non-Conformists

Frank Paulin, Out Of The Limelight

Philip Perkis, The Sadness of Men

Peter Peter, Subway

Gueorgui Pinhassov, Sightwalk

Chrissy Piper, Where The Day Takes You

Sylvia Plachy, Goings On About Town

Sylvia Plachy, Self Portrait With Cows Going Home

Sylvia Plachy, Signs and Relics

Sylvia Plachy, Unguided Tour

Bernard Plossu, So Long

Gus Powell, The Company of Strangers

Mark Powell, Open At Noon

Mark Powell, V.I.P.s

Stan Raucher, Metro
Raghu Rai's India

Tony Ray-Jones, A Day Off

Tony Ray-Jones, American Colour 1962-1965

Tony Ray-Jones, (Self Titled)

Tony Ray Jones, (Russell Roberts)

Reiner Reidler, Fake Holidays

Kent Reno, Ground Time

Marc Riboud, (Self Titled)

Marc Riboud, In China

Marc Riboud, Photographs at Home and Abroad

Marcy Robinson, Half Frame

Willy Ronis, La Vie en Passant
Joerg Rubbert, Berlin-Paris-New York

Leo Rubinfein, Map of the East

Leo Rubinfein, New Roads in Old Roads

Robert Rutoed, Grayscales

Erich Salomon, Portrait of an Age
Pentti Sammallahti, Here Far Away

Richard Sandler, The Eyes Of The City

Boris Savelev, Secret City

Andrew Savulich, The City

Andrew Savulich, City of Chance

Ken Schles, Invisible City

Ken Schles, Night Walk

Tod Seelie, Bright Lights

Craig Semetko, Unposed

David Seymour, Chim

Stephen A. Scheer, The Maples

Jack Simon, Seventy

Raghubir Singh, A Way Into India

Raghubir Singh, Banaras

Raghubir Singh, Bombay

Raghubir Singh, Calcutta

Raghubir Singh, The Ganges

Raghubir Singh, The Grand Trunk Road

Raghubir Singh, Rajasthan

Raghubir Singh, River of Colour

Raghubir Singh, Tamil Nadu

Gunnar Smoliansky, One Picture at a Time

David Solomons, Happenstance

David Solomons, Up West

David Solomons, Underground

Steven B. Smith, Waiting Out The Latter Days

Otto Snoek, Why Not

Otto Snoek, Rotterdam

Otto Snoek, Ukranian Crossroads

Michael Spano, Time Frames

Chris Steele-Perkins, Fuji

Chris Steele-Perkins, Tokyo Love Hello
Harvey Stein, Briefly Seen
Harvey Stein, Coney Island

Mark Steinmetz, Greater Atlanta

Mark Steinmetz, Paris In My Time

Mark Steinmetz, South Central

Mark Steinmetz, South East

Louis Stettner, Wisdom Cries Out in the Street

Johnny Stiletto, Shots from the Hip

Johnny Stiletto, Vintage 80s

Gary Stochl, On City Streets

Dennis Stock, Made In The U.S.A.

Zoe Strauss, America

Zoe Strauss, 10 Years
Jindrich Streit, The Village is a Global Word

Matt Stuart, All That Life Can Afford

Issei Suda, Early Works

Homer Sykes, Once A Year

Yakuta Takanashi, Photography 1965-74

Yakuta Takanashi, Toward The City

Ed Templeton, Wayward Cognitions

Alexey Titarenko, The City Is A Novel

Shomei Tomatsu, Chewing Gum and Chocolate

Elisabeth Tonnard, In This Dark Wood

Charles Traub, In The Still Life

Charles Traub, Beach

Charles Traub, Dolce Via

Charles Traub, Lunchtime

Athur Tress, San Francisco 1964

Peter Turnley, French Kiss

Peter Turnley, Parisians

Nick Turpin, On The Night Bus

Nick Turpin, Publication

Burk Uzzle, A Family Named Spot

Burk Uzzle, All American

Burk Uzzle, Landscapes

Michael Vanded Eeckhoudt, Duo

Stephen Waddell, Hunt and Gather

Robert Walker, Color Is Power

Dougie Wallace, Shoreditch Wild Life

Dougie Wallace, Stags, Hens, and Bunnies

Rebecca Norris Webb, The Glass Between Us

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb On Street Photography and the Poetic Image

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Memory City

Alex Webb, Crossings

Alex Webb, Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds

Alex Webb, The Suffering Of Light

Alex Webb, Under The Grudging Sun

Matt Weber, Urban Prisoner

Weegee, Naked City

Weegee, Naked Hollywood

Weegee, Weegee's World

Weegee, Unknown Weegee

Henry Wessel, (Self Titled)

Henry Wessel, Five Books

Henry Wessel, Incidents

Henry Wessel, Traffic

Henry Wessel, Waikiki

Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz, Bystander

Kai Wiedenhofer, Perfect Peace

Geoff Winningham, Friday Night In The Coliseum

Geoff Winningham, Rites Of Fall

Garry Winogrand, (SFMOMA)

Garry Winogrand, 1964

Garry Winogrand, The Animals

Garry Winogrand, Arrivals And Departures

Garry Winogrand, Archive 26: The Early Work

Garry Winogrand, Figments from the Real World

Garry Winogrand, Grossmont College Catalog

Garry Winogrand, The Man In The Crowd

Garry Winogrand, Public Relations

Garry Winogrand, Stock Photographs

Garry Winogrand, Women Are Beautiful

Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression

Tom Wood, All Zones Off Peak

Tom Wood, Looking For Love

Tom Wood, Men and Women

Tom Wood, Photie Man

Max Yavno, The Photography of Max Yavno

Kohei Yoshiyuki, The Park

Ernest J. Zarate, At The Beach

Miron Zownir, NYC RIP

Miron Zownir, Radical Eye

Miron Zownir, The Valley Of The Shadow

Slavomir Zulawinski, Instersection

Wolfgang Zurborn, Catch

Wolfgang Zurborn, Dresser Real

Wolfgang Zurborn, Drift

Fifteen Questions for Philip Perkis

Philip Perkis, Photo by Cyrilla Mozenter

Philip Perkis is a photographer and teacher based in Stony Point, NY.

•

1. What would you be doing if you weren't a photographer?

I've always been interested in woodworking and architecture. I'm also obsessively interested in solving physical problems. I've renovated several houses and I still make things for our home. So I would probably be doing something with furniture or small-scale building projects. I've also built many darkrooms.

2. What's the first photograph you remember seeing that made a strong impression on you?

Your question jogged my memory. It was Werner Bischof's 'Monks in the Snow-- Tokyo'—and after looking at it again the other day, I can see why I was so attracted to it. I don't think it's a great picture.

In The Court of the Meiji Temple, Tokyo, Japan, 1952, Werner Bischof

3. How would you describe your childhood?

I was lonely and frightened.

4. What is the role of chance in your life? And in your photographs?

I feel strongly that our lives are governed to a great extent by chance and fortune. How I came to live on this square of the world's chessboard—I take no credit. I am the son of an illegal immigrant who came here penniless and without English. I am learning disabled, yet because of the conditions of the world—and particularly of the United States in the second half of the 20th century, I became a successful artist, Professor Emeritus from a prestigious art school, a Guggenheim Fellow, and my work is in the collection of many of the major museums. I live in a big house that's almost all studios with my wife Cyrilla Mozenter, who is a serious and successful artist. We have a creative life together.

I am certain that none of this would have happened had I been born at any other time or in any other place. In my photography I try to seek with all three of my centers functioning: physical, emotional, mental. And when something appears that corresponds to what I'm hunting for—and I hopefully never know exactly what I'm hunting for—I take a picture. (This frequently happens very quickly.) "A collaboration with circumstance." I'm not sure about the relationship between luck, chance, randomness, intuition, unconscious, physical attraction. I can't separate all those words, and maybe there's no need to.

I think Asian cultures understand the concept of chance better than we do. It seems that we in the West need to take credit for everything good that happens to us and blame others for everything bad.

Las Juntas, Jalisco, Mexico, 1987, Philip Perkis

5. Do you think the universe has any intelligent design or higher being? And how does your understanding of that issue affect your photographs?

I think it would help to take the word 'design' out. It sounds too much like somebody did it. It's clear to me, both from experience and from learning, that the 'world' is a lawful place. It's illogical that it could be random. I think we all get glimpses of this at times in our lives. Some people pursue that understanding more than others. It has nothing to do with an old man holding a clipboard or an iPad keeping score. It's not about human morality. It seems clear to me after all these years that real art, in whatever medium and in whatever time in history, is really in pursuit of that understanding. I think that to pursue these questions too directly in my photography would be a mistake. But the aim is to be as open as possible while at the same time pursuing the craft with vigor. That some of the work I do might approach these questions. Why am I here? Is there a purpose?

6. What's your relationship with the digital world?

Marginal. Back to the luck question, my wife Cyrilla, through persistence, has become competent with the computer, and I rely on her to do things in that area. (I do the cooking.) Also, I have a friend, Vincent Manzi, a fellow photographer, who is as good at scanning my negatives as anybody. And he does the scans and Photoshop for my books. I have no problem with digital photography, and I know some people who make beautiful transcendent work using it. I just feel that I have not yet played out my hand with black and white film and small silver prints. I still have a lot more to do.

New York City, 1966, Philip Perkis

7. Do photographs require emotion to be successful?

That's a large question. The answer is yes. Art without an emotional quality is meaningless. But we have to state a couple of definitions. Emotion and feeling are different things. Really profound art has little to do with "saying what you feel" or "expressing yourself" although those issues are always involved to some degree as well as psychological and cultural issues. Feelings are always expressed through the body: happy-sad, hot-cold, full-empty, horny-sated. Too much art remains about those issues. Emotion is something else entirely. Emotion is about seeking something higher. Something we might call the TRUTH. It's a sense you might get looking at a Vermeer painting or an Agnes Martin painting or a Korean Moon Jar or a Japanese raked dry garden or Chartres Cathedral. So back to your question, the answer is yes, it is necessary to have an emotional quality in order to have real art.

8. Do you ever shoot color?

Yes. For money. About half of my income over the last 50 years has come from doing a variety of commercial photography, much of it in color. When I started photography in 1957, color was not practical to do. When it became practical to do in the 1960s-70s, I was already so immersed in my own work in black and white. (The never-to- be-finished puzzle.)

9. What is your film and print archiving system?

Marginal. I'm getting a little better now that I'm slowing down. The disadvantage is that I lose things and forget things, (I know that some of my important photographs have disappeared.) The advantage—which I'm much more interested in—is that I find things and discover things. Just the right amount of mess.

from Warwick Mountain Series, 1978, Philip Perkis

10. What music do you most enjoy? What type of books do you read?

Bebop and Bach. I read mostly books about spiritual issues and always the writings of G.I. Gurdjieff. A little bit of politics and some novels—lately W.G. Sebald, Anne Carson and Lydia Davis. Back to the music: when I was very young, maybe 11 or 12, there was a person on the radio in Boston named 'Symphony Sid' and he played jazz. It was my first exposure to 'fine art.' Parker, Gillespie, Monk, Lester Young-- I think it was my first glimpse of the idea that there's more to life than "stuff and school". I later became a huge admirer of Thelonius Monk's music and had the good fortune to have met him several times. Monk is a model for the idea of intentionality in art. You have to mean it if you're going to really "do it". He was also wildly innovative and totally disciplined. He was not an entertainer. One more note about music: I see no difference between Charlie Parker and J.S. Bach except for time and culture. I think they're both after the same thing. Another big influence on me as an artist is Charles Olson, the poet and essayist. The kind of metaphor that photography creates is frequently more akin to poetry and music than to painting and drawing. I am a museum hound. I go to the Metropolitan Museum regularly and visit works of art that have become my friends over the years. I am fed by that. Agnes Martin at DiaBeacon is a visit my wife and I make approximately once a month. And I never fail to have an experience of spiritual nourishment when I spend time in front of her paintings. I did paint and draw in art school for several years. I consider the arts different ways of getting to the same place, something about what might be true.

11. Do you have specific visual triggers which get your photo juices going? When you're out shooting, do you respond automatically to certain subjects? If so, do you regard that as a good thing?

I think the most powerful visual trigger would be in the name of what I do, which is to "draw with light"—photo-graphic. I'd like to take the word 'automatically' out because I feel that in trying to use more of myself, intuitive, emotional, physical response, I'm more able to get to something essential in my work. I think in my more successful photographs, it's not so much the subject as the quality of the abstraction and the tension between the two.

In photography and in writing, you need a subject (story). But it's not always the most important thing either in the writing or in the photograph. In painting or music you don't need a subject. And, in fact, in music, you're frequently better off without one. The idea when I'm out photographing is to have the least in mind possible because if I have too much in mind, I'm looking for photographs that I've already seen —either my own or other people's.

from In A Box Upon The Sea, 2016, Philip Perkis

12. Who is the primary audience for your photographs? Who do you have in mind when you make them?

I don't consider an audience when I'm working. I try to make my work as "close to the bone" as I can. I'm sometimes very surprised at who appreciates my work and who relates to it. It's frequently people who are not involved with photography at all. One of the things I'm attempting to do in my practice is to try to take a position psychologically and spiritually in allowing something to come through me (following my muse). It is what I'm trying to do, sometimes with a degree of success.

I'm not for a moment suggesting that I don't crave attention and want to be known and respected as an artist. I think whoever denies that is a liar. But making the work and putting the work out into the world, I try to keep as two quite separate activities.

13. For which photographers has your appreciation shifted (in either direction, toward fondness or away from it) the most over time?

Coming into photography in the late 1950s, I was clearly very influenced and in awe of Robert Frank—both his photographs and early films. Over the years, my relationship with his work has diminished somewhat because I feel, especially in his later work, that sentimentality has taken the lead. He's 91 years old and I still respect him and feel a debt toward him. (He also helped me get the Guggenheim.) In the late 1970s, I met Helen Levitt and I liked her very much for her matter of fact quality. She's one of the most direct people I ever knew. I started printing for her in the 80s and continued until close to the end of her life. I've never met anyone who was more precise about their work and about the way they lived. I think Helen is one of the great artists of the 20th century—and under-appreciated. So many people think of her as a photographer of children, and she didn't even like children. Several years ago Lawrence Miller Gallery mounted a show alternating Helen Levitt pictures with Cartier-Bresson's. There was no comparison in depth and complexity of vision, although Cartier-Bresson was a great photographer and is certainly in the canon.

Possibly by coincidence, both Robert and Helen are 'street photographers'—and I am not, although I take a lot of pictures 'on the street.' Stieglitz is still the best, and always has been.

Guanajato, Mexico, from The Sadness of Men, 2008, Philip Perkis

14. How has the loss of your vision in one eye altered your photography?

The eye I lost was my left eye, which was my dominant. I was devastated. And I felt it was over. It took several months before I could physically move the camera to my other eye. I slowly started to photograph again. It changed my life and it changed my work. It drove me to a more inner place in myself. My vision is now much closer to the way a camera works. A camera has one eye. But it's changed the way my brain works. The right brain controls the left eye. My spelling has improved, not that it's any good. My pictures have become, in some ways, less visually complicated, more emotional and more atmospheric. It's been eight years so I don't see it anymore as a problem. I've also aged so I'm not sure which is the monocular vision and which is getting to be 80, but I still think I'm doing strong work and I hope to keep going for awhile more.

15. Why was your recent book In a Box Upon the Sea published in S. Korea with Korean translations?

In the late 1980s and early 90s many Korean photographers came to Pratt graduate program and, for some reason, we could really relate to each other on many levels. I felt a kinship with many of them—and still do. One of those photographers was a woman named Taehee Park. She is an amazing photographer. We became friends, and when I was writing the Teaching Photography, Notes Assembled book, she asked my permission to translate it into Korean. I was, of course, honored. (I know absolutely no Korean language.) She took the translation to Korea and got it published by the publisher that did most of the photography books in Korea. It became a huge success and I have been invited to Korea four different times to give lectures and have shows. Taehee Park started her own publishing company, Anmoc, and took the rights back from the publisher and re-published the Teaching Photography book with the addition of several of my photographs. It continues to sell well in Korea and is still in print in the United States through RIT Graphic Arts Press. Taehee has become quite well known as a translator and publisher. 

Sample spread from Teaching Photography, Notes Assembled, 2005, Philip Perkis

She has also published a small limited edition book called A Single Photography: 20 Days, 20 Comments, which was initiated and designed by Owen Butler (a photographer and dear friend from Rochester). In that book I looked at and wrote about one of my photographs every day for twenty days, and sent the writing to Owen every day so I couldn't edit.

Taehee then published my newest book In a Box Upon the Sea with Korean and English text. She is going to publish my next book, which will be re-examined never-before-printed pictures from Mexico from the early 90s.