The details are outdated now, I guess, but I don't know if there's any more inspiring reading for an aspiring graphics programmer than Fabian Giesen's "A trip through the graphics pipeline" https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-...

As for a place to actually start, I think Computer Graphics From Scratch is a good place https://www.gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scrat.... A great thing about the book is it gives you many ideas for where to go next once you work your way through to the end.