The Visual Toolbox ─ 60 Lessons for Stronger Photographs

The Visual Toolbox: 60 Lessons for Stronger Photographs is David duChemin’s curriculum for the first year of a photography school that doesn’t exist, but could. These are the bones of the craft, a year’s worth of lessons and assignments for photographers who want to do more than just master their cameras; they want to create compelling photographs. It’s for photographers who are stuck and for those having a hard time getting past the technical and into the aesthetic aspects of this craft.The Visual Toolbox was written for aspiring hobbyists and passionate amateurs by a photographer who has learned–and is still learning–these lessons the hard way and wants others to benefit from them.

Refreshingly free of platitudes and quick tips, this book is a deeply pragmatic approach to learning a craft that is too often reduced to “how to use your camera.” In 60 short lessons, David pairs important concepts with an active assignment for the reader to complete, each one a stepping stone to becoming more proficient with the technical and creative tools of the photographic craft. Photography is so much more than just learning to use a camera, so while some of these tools are the camera and lens, many of them have more to do with the tools of the visual language itself– balance, tension, contrast, storytelling–or with being present, perceptive, and learning to see. This is an inspiring book, filled with beautiful photographs and illustrations, but it’s also deeply practical, and filled with get-out-and-try-it kinds of assignments, because in the end one doesn’t make stronger photographs by reading a book, but from time spent making photographs. This book is a collection of 60 guided steps in that direction.