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Light, Gesture, and Color
Jay Maisel, hailed as one of the most brilliant, gifted photographers of all time, is much more than that. He is a mentor, teacher, and trailblazer to many photographers, and a hero to those who feel Jay’s teaching has changed the way they see and create their own photography. He is a living legend whose work is studied around the world, and whose teaching style and presentation garner standing ovations and critical acclaim every time he takes the stage.
Now, for the first time ever, Jay puts his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicates the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Each page unveils something new and challenges you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. It’s about being surrounded by the ordinary and learning how to find the extraordinary. It’s about training your mind, and your eyes, to see and capture the world in a way that delights, engages, and captivates your viewers, and there is nobody that communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.
Light, Gesture & Color is the seminal work of one of the true photographic geniuses of our time, and it can be your key to opening another level of understanding, appreciation, wonder, and creativity as you learn to express yourself, and your view of the world, through your camera. If you’re ready to break through the barriers that have held your photography back and that have kept you from making the types of images you’ve always dreamed of, and you’re ready to learn what photography is really about, you’re holding the key in your hands at this very moment.
Now, for the first time ever, Jay puts his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicates the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Each page unveils something new and challenges you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. It’s about being surrounded by the ordinary and learning how to find the extraordinary. It’s about training your mind, and your eyes, to see and capture the world in a way that delights, engages, and captivates your viewers, and there is nobody that communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.
Light, Gesture & Color is the seminal work of one of the true photographic geniuses of our time, and it can be your key to opening another level of understanding, appreciation, wonder, and creativity as you learn to express yourself, and your view of the world, through your camera. If you’re ready to break through the barriers that have held your photography back and that have kept you from making the types of images you’ve always dreamed of, and you’re ready to learn what photography is really about, you’re holding the key in your hands at this very moment.
- GenresPhotographyNonfictionArt
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2014
45 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 24, 2021
Jay Maisel is a master photographer, but he doesn’t come across that way. He’s a humble man that believes in hard work and carrying your camera with you at all times. He doesn’t believe in formulas or even much planning. His approach is intuitive, and his explanations are interesting and iconoclastic.
April 25, 2016
Jay Maisel does not set out to teach a specific method or rulebook for making great imagery. This is not a "do this," book. There are no methods or gear talk, no diagrams of settings or lighting setups. Those things are not the point. The point is to learn to see. The wisdom he offers in this book is not meant to shame you for what you've sought but have not attained, but to teach you to keep striving, to keep opening yourself, to grow in awareness and open your eyes to all of the wonder that is around you in every moment in light and in color and in gesture. This book is predicated on the discipline of photography, but it is a book that any creative person in any discipline can glean wisdom and insight from. The man is a genius and has practiced for a long time. He has learned many things, and he's put much of it into this book.
I have read this book at least six times, and I have no doubt that I have been able to learn how to look better and see better when I take my camera out walking. Even more than that, it has given me so much confidence to think differently and openly about being creative.
Like I said, this is not a how-to book, so you will have to exercise your own openness and intuition to pull the most benefit out of this book, but it's there for the taking.
I have read this book at least six times, and I have no doubt that I have been able to learn how to look better and see better when I take my camera out walking. Even more than that, it has given me so much confidence to think differently and openly about being creative.
Like I said, this is not a how-to book, so you will have to exercise your own openness and intuition to pull the most benefit out of this book, but it's there for the taking.
December 31, 2014
Great tips.
November 13, 2018
This is the reflections of a successful photographer in his old age. But it's youthful in what it tries to communicate. It doesn't really stick to the sense of a book, which is what it felt like towards the beginning. It quickly settles into the author describing a scenario and showing a photograph, relating back which element from the title was primary in the photograph. It's a motivating book; my takeaway for my own photography is to always take a camera with me, and focus on the things in the title. And maybe get a useful zoom lens, since the author spends a good deal of space describing and showing you the fruits of his (probably obscenely large) 28-300mm lens.
One thing I fear in photography is that feeling of committing a transgression against a subject. This is why I rarely photograph people and feel most comfortable with landscapes and architecture and art and scenes. Rarely people, though. This author transgresses left and right and makes amazing art from it, but it still feels like... a lot. A theft of potential? Maybe not. Maybe it's worth it.
Sometimes what's good about a book is that it repeats its titular concepts with examples until they have time to crystalize in memory.
One thing I fear in photography is that feeling of committing a transgression against a subject. This is why I rarely photograph people and feel most comfortable with landscapes and architecture and art and scenes. Rarely people, though. This author transgresses left and right and makes amazing art from it, but it still feels like... a lot. A theft of potential? Maybe not. Maybe it's worth it.
Sometimes what's good about a book is that it repeats its titular concepts with examples until they have time to crystalize in memory.
December 21, 2021
The rating is as per my expectations rather than anything else. I got it because Ken Rockwell called it a "modern classic". It's a good book but I'll choose to differ with Ken on that label.
I hadn't heard of Mr. Maisel but he comes across as a funny guy and here he shares some of the photos from his 60+ year career with some commentary to go alongside each one, offering insight into when and why those pictures were created. He occasionally also drops some nuggets of wisdom without sounding full of himself.
The photos themselves ranged from good to amazing for me, but mostly on the good side of the scale. Maisel thinks about his photos from a more emotional, sensual angle rather than analysing them technically. This is the takeaway he wants you to leave with from this book. I think he mostly succeeds.
Why 3 stars? Because I don't think it's a modern classic but I was lead to believe so! Perhaps the three stars are for myself rather than the book but I don't think I got enough wisdom from this book to recommend it any higher.
I hadn't heard of Mr. Maisel but he comes across as a funny guy and here he shares some of the photos from his 60+ year career with some commentary to go alongside each one, offering insight into when and why those pictures were created. He occasionally also drops some nuggets of wisdom without sounding full of himself.
The photos themselves ranged from good to amazing for me, but mostly on the good side of the scale. Maisel thinks about his photos from a more emotional, sensual angle rather than analysing them technically. This is the takeaway he wants you to leave with from this book. I think he mostly succeeds.
Why 3 stars? Because I don't think it's a modern classic but I was lead to believe so! Perhaps the three stars are for myself rather than the book but I don't think I got enough wisdom from this book to recommend it any higher.
August 17, 2021
Brilliant book
The book is about composition of pictures.
There are things to learn here, but those come as part of the author remembering their photographs and how they shot them.
It is NOT a technical book. No settings or gear usage is described. The author doesn't even use flash.. good.
This is about how the elements of a picture interact shown by examples.
Did I love every example in the book..no.
Most of them ..yes.
And that's exactly the point of this book to tell you to approach photography as subjectively you approach art and look at some examples of how to get them.
Is it worth the time? Yes.
With fewest technical jargons and gear mania author explains what is meaning essential for good photographs.
The book is about composition of pictures.
There are things to learn here, but those come as part of the author remembering their photographs and how they shot them.
It is NOT a technical book. No settings or gear usage is described. The author doesn't even use flash.. good.
This is about how the elements of a picture interact shown by examples.
Did I love every example in the book..no.
Most of them ..yes.
And that's exactly the point of this book to tell you to approach photography as subjectively you approach art and look at some examples of how to get them.
Is it worth the time? Yes.
With fewest technical jargons and gear mania author explains what is meaning essential for good photographs.
February 12, 2025
A Must for All Photographers
One of the few books that I reread every so often. I’m someone who buys books very carefully. Light Gesture and Color very well conceived. Photographs marvelously illustrate points being made. A thinking book of which I’ve marked almost pagr (the only advantage of downloading to a kindle…and the cost). I must buy for the photographers book shelf.
One of the few books that I reread every so often. I’m someone who buys books very carefully. Light Gesture and Color very well conceived. Photographs marvelously illustrate points being made. A thinking book of which I’ve marked almost pagr (the only advantage of downloading to a kindle…and the cost). I must buy for the photographers book shelf.
October 18, 2019
It is an important book filled with Jay advice's.
One won't learn to photograph from here but he/she will be exposed to a great collection of pictures spanning a lifetime of a great photographer.
You won't regret the time spent with this book. That's for sure.
One won't learn to photograph from here but he/she will be exposed to a great collection of pictures spanning a lifetime of a great photographer.
You won't regret the time spent with this book. That's for sure.
February 18, 2024
I liked this book better than It is not About the F-Stops. Mr. Maisal seems more relaxed in this book. Certainly not a “how to” book on the surface but you will gain some insights along the way. I enjoyed the images and text.
March 18, 2020
This is so simple. Don’t know why folks haven’t explored it before. Great book!
April 14, 2020
"Make visible what without you might perhaps never have been seen"
April 15, 2021
What a great book! If you love photography this book is a must!
November 28, 2023
Recommended by Ken Rockwell
December 30, 2023
I'm fortunate that as a photographer, I consider Jay Maisel my first mentor - via his books and his work. Because of that influence, I was eventually hired as an assistant by my primary mentor, Onofrio Paccione. The two of them taught me tremendously about light, color, gesture, capturing emotion, line, composition - they were both truly artists (as exemplified by both being enshrined in the Art Director Hall of Fame).
Highly recommended book for anyone who wants to be a better photographer - to grasp how light, color and gesture create photographs.
Highly recommended book for anyone who wants to be a better photographer - to grasp how light, color and gesture create photographs.
February 15, 2017
Not a tutorial but he rather his thoughts on his images. It really is more aimed to get you thinking about your photos and the intention behind them to capture light, gesture, and color. I enjoyed it and started thinking about how, when and why I shoot (or don't shoot).
June 14, 2015
A short and interesting read. It seems to me that the business-savvy people over at Kelbyone recorded a few lectures of Jay, wrote down what he said, edited (a bit) and left the sequence of telling and pictures otherwise untouched. That was not a bad idea. The book flows easy and balance between text and photos is ideal (meaning it is NOT text heavy as so many other photo books with way too much blabla.) A worthwhile read specifically for photographers.
July 28, 2016
Didn't shoot in the point
This book is composed as a flowing story with subtle rules rather than a manual, it's same as explain economy rules in a novel. Maybe to someone it will appear as more appealing way of communication. Although I didn't consider my time wasted completely as there are plenty good pictures, but u have to study them by yourself as explanation to composition and light is not the point of this book.
This book is composed as a flowing story with subtle rules rather than a manual, it's same as explain economy rules in a novel. Maybe to someone it will appear as more appealing way of communication. Although I didn't consider my time wasted completely as there are plenty good pictures, but u have to study them by yourself as explanation to composition and light is not the point of this book.
November 20, 2015
Technical teachings can be found in countless other books; this is about teaching one to see our every day world with new eyes. To see the spectacular around us. To see light and color that make the image. To capture the gesture, frozen in time. Wonderful images throughout. Words that define what the shooter was seeing.
November 23, 2015
Super. Instructive
I like this book a lot. It is refreshing. I don't like to type this on an IPad in a cramped airport lounge.
It is about the F stop,but what h teaches us, is not to get seduced by the technical stuff and to discover the magic again..
A very good read...
A good book to return to..
I like this book a lot. It is refreshing. I don't like to type this on an IPad in a cramped airport lounge.
It is about the F stop,but what h teaches us, is not to get seduced by the technical stuff and to discover the magic again..
A very good read...
A good book to return to..
September 30, 2016
This is a book that I really wanted to enjoy, but I found that after twenty-five pages it repeating itself constantly. His explanation of light, gesture and color were exceptionally helpful. Then he uses photographs to illustrate these concepts. It was with the photographs that I found the book lagging.
April 4, 2015
I search for books like this. I wouldn't have known about it if someone hadn't shown me. I'd been uninspired and not taken many photos lately, and this book was the one to put be back on track. Excellent photos, excellent advice. Really enjoyed it.
March 31, 2016
I didn't want it to end. The format; a brief description of technique or composition or even little stories on the left and a full page photo on the right; was great. It makes me want to take more photos and look for interesting things in daily life.
May 25, 2020
This book is written in a way that you can pick it up, open anywhere and read it for 5 min to get some inspiration.
November 7, 2014
I have been a student of Jay Maisel's work for years. This book did not disappoint.
May 7, 2016
So much brilliant insight in this book, very straight forward and easily absorbed. Highly recommended.
May 27, 2016
Incredible!
A must read for all photographers. I am new to photography and found this book inspiring, informative, and well written.
A must read for all photographers. I am new to photography and found this book inspiring, informative, and well written.
November 13, 2015
Excellent book for anyone interested in art & photography. Will read it over and over again.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews