THE COMPLETE KODAK BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY by Mitchell Beazley International in association with Kodak and Time-Life Books (Crown: $29.95; 475 pp., illustrated: 1,000 color and black-and-white photographs).

Photography attracts two kinds of people: some who are addicted to collecting equipment and others who care deeply about the process of making images. Those in the second category will love this book. It is a text that goes beyond basic shop talk about cameras, lenses and film to discuss ways to create imaginative pictures.

But what distinguishes this fat volume (abridged from the Kodak Library of Creative Photography) from other how-to books is the way the contents are organized. Instead of chapters devoted solely to aspects of craft such as exposure, composition or light, the emphasis is on explaining to the photographer how to develop “an eye for a picture.” The reader learns camera technique as it directly relates to the aesthetic of seeing and photographing. More than 1,000 stunning photographs with perceptive, clearly written captions.