Photography is so much more than pushing a button. It is a way of seeing, a way of life, a grasping of life. At the same time it involves an enormous amount of preparatory work, research, and trial and error.

All photographers ? the visually restless, the diarists, the experimenters, the R&D obsessives, the collectors and the cross-genre free wheeler's know this as they dream of future pictures and agonize over the next big project. They create speculative work that may blossom into something important, or wind up in a box under the bed ? or its virtual equivalent.

This book offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the working methods of nearly 50 photographers from around the world.

In their own words, they present selections from their ?sketchbooks?: everything from Polaroid studies to smartphone snaps, diaries, found photography, installations, zines, blogs and online photo streams alongside traditional contact sheets, photo albums and book dummies.

With over 500 images, Photographers? Sketchbooks is a compelling insight into the ways professional photographers realize a personal vision.