Photographer Catherine Losing shares her five favourite books

London-based photographer Catherine Losing is exactly our cup of tea; working with the crème de la crème of collaborators from set designers to food stylists, she takes photographs which are colourful, dynamic, bold and immediately recognisable. Unsurprisingly then, her bookshelf is among the very best-stocked of them all, complete with Martin Creed, Barbara Hepworth and Toilet Paper magazine, and most importantly they’re all seriously well-thumbed and chockablock with Post-its.

Charlotte Cotton: The Photograph as Contemporary Art

I think I bought this book when studying A Level Photography. It really opened my eyes to photography as a conceptual art form. So much of photography courses seem to be dominated by documentary photography. It’s fairly concise, but Charlotte Cotton does a great job of drawing you into each artist’s approach. It’s the perfect book for getting a taster and then going on to look at more by that artist. It was where I first came across amazing people like Sophie Calle, Erwin Wurm and Elina Brotherus.

A.M. Hammacher: Barbara Hepworth

Hepworth is my ultimate, all time favourite artist. I enjoy visiting the galleries in St Ives and my dad lives near the Hepworth Wakefield. Every time I see her work in real life I’m sad that they can’t be touched, they appear so tactile and inviting. Her compositions are incredible – pieces like Nesting Stones look unbelievably satisfying. This book covers her whole life and you can see how her work evolved throughout her career through candid shots of her studios.

Martin Creed: What’s the Point Of It?

To me Creed’s work, particularly his painting and sculpture, has the same draw as Hepworth’s; something satisfyingly put-together, stacked or arranged. The best part about Creed’s work is that most of it’s made out of everyday objects but it’s equally, if not more interesting, than something made out of an expensive chunk of marble. I love his pieces that are collections of things – all the tapes, stripes made up of each width of brush in a multipack, a whole page of one felt tip colour. It has a real sense of something you’d want to do as a child, but your mum totally wouldn’t let you do. This book accompanied Creed’s amazing exhibition at the Hayward and I really like everything about it; the neon pink and grey cover, the different papers, the layout, and obviously the work.

Hockney’s Pictures

I like this book because it has a good mix of Hockney’s work – I’m always surprised by how varied it is. Flicking through this book again I was reminded of all Hockney’s amazing little still-life paintings, such great colours, really celebrating simple everyday objects. My favourites have to be his latest works around the East Riding of Yorkshire. The rolling hills and rich colours capture the feeling of the area so well, reminding me of being in the the car on the way to Bridlington for an exciting day at the beach.

Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari: Toilet Paper magazine

I’m a huge fan of Toilet Paper magazine. It’s funny, colourful and super-gross. Every photograph in there manages to be weirdly nostalgic and shocking all at the same time. It was great to see the Toilet Paper concept translated into Kenzo’s recent campaigns. The creators Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari clearly have loads of fun making it, I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of their shoots.