Image Makers, Image Takers systematically examines what motivates and inspires today’s photographers and what makes them succeed. It reveals how some of the world's leading photographers, from the fields of art, documentary, fashion, advertising and portraiture, actually work, and explores what it is that picture editors, curators, agency directors and publishers look for when they choose an image.
Through her intelligent and perceptive interviews and selection of over 240 images, journalist and critic Anne-Celine Jaeger delves into the working practice of famous photographers, unveiling the mysterious process of artistic creation involved in making and taking a photograph. Here is the background on how Mario Sorrenti was inspired to capture a naked Kate Moss draped over a sofa for the iconic Calvin Klein campaign, how Fabrice Dall’Anese came to do a photo shoot with George Clooney in a hotel bathroom and how Rineke Dijkstra gets the best from her subjects.

Once the images have been taken, or commissioned, how are the photographs then selected? How are the photographs chosen to be hung on the wall of The Photographers' Gallery in London? How does the picture editor of the New York Times Magazine decide which photographer should shoot the next fashion spread? How did Pascal Dangin start pioneering high-end photographic technology and go on to become a world-renowned retoucher?

From questions on what to look for in an image to views on cropping and the use of colour over black-and-white, the shapers and makers of taste provide a unique and indispensable account of their working methods.

An interesting book that is a series of interviews where photographers, and those responsible for choosing photographs, are questioned about their philosophy, methods and motives. The first section contains the answers of a number of photographers from a range of genres. Many of the answers feel like they were given because the photographer in question was trying to give the right answer for a 'persona' rather than their real feelings, but this is just as interesting as a 'truthful' answer. And how are we to tell anyway.

What I found most interesting however was the discussion with curators and editors - the people who are responsible for choosing what is published and shown. The mechanisms for how a photographer is 'discovered' and how that world works is fascinating, and an often overlooked aspect of the photography world. ( )