Papercut
Well-known
_Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China_, ISBN: 0899511007
Beato accompanied the British troops in the Second Opium War (1860), producing the very first photographic record of a military campaign, interestingly not a European conflict but a colonial one. The reproductions of the very rare original albumen and salt prints are quite good (though I'm sure they pale compared to the originals) and the detailed commentary / introduction are quite excellent. This will almost certainly be included in a course I am developing on East Asian photography.
Lee Friedlander, _America by Car_ ISBN: 9781935202073
Mr. Friedlander needs no introduction. It is astonishing that any one individual can be so prolific and so continuously fresh. I almost passed on this book until I saw some of the original prints at the Fraenkel Gallery; I placed the order the next day.
Raymond Depardon, _Hear Them Speak_, ISBN: 9783865218377
Small polaroids of people who are the last (or nearly the last) of their community -- particularly the last of their language group. Each photo is accompanied by a quotation from the subject, transcribed in the original but also translated into both French and English. The visual image remains, but the languages of their speech are barely registered. A mournful book as it records the cultural losses of "marginal" people.
Joe O'Donnell, _Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine's Photographs from Ground Zero_. ISBN: 97808265161121
A moving collection of postwar Japan in the months just after the atomic bombings. This too may be part of my East Asian photography course.
Slyvia Plachy, _Self Portrait with Cows Coming Home_, ISBN: 193178843X
Plachy's return to her childhood home in Hungary is captured in her blurry, off-kilter way. Romantic and yet full of energy, I find her eye and style engaging.
John Gossage, _Putting Back the Wall_ ISBN: 0975312030
Dark images of absence. Gossage manages to evoke what was there. Rich, dark, difficult images. Gossage photographs a mood more than anything else.
Winogrand, _The Man in the Crowd: The Uneasy Streets of Garry Winogrand_ ISBN: 1881337057
The Fraenkel Gallery's retrospective of GW. This was a Christmas gift from my wife. A few of the early reproductions are disappointing, but that must be because of inconsistencies in his early method (exposure / processing) because the later images are reproduced quite well. Typical, wonderfully, Winogrand.
HCB, _Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century_ ISBN: 9780870707780
Had to have this after seeing the exhibit at SFMoMA last year. Sadly, I cannot find one of my favorite images from the show in the book. Perhaps I'm just missing it, but repeated attempts have turned up empty. Still, an excellent overview of HCB from early to late, including some of his lesser known projects.
Susie Linfield, _The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence_ ISBN: 9780226482507
A work of photo-criticism from the director of NYU's cultural reporting and criticism program. Linfield goes after the corrosive and "sour" post-modern critique of reportage, finding that photography (and particularly photojournalism) holds out the opportunity and promise of genuine emotional engagement with victims of political violence. Two-thirds of the book includes discussion of case studies: specific places/countries with photographic records of political violence and chapters on Capa, Nachtwey, and Peress. (I'm running behind and haven't read these chapters yet.)
Beato accompanied the British troops in the Second Opium War (1860), producing the very first photographic record of a military campaign, interestingly not a European conflict but a colonial one. The reproductions of the very rare original albumen and salt prints are quite good (though I'm sure they pale compared to the originals) and the detailed commentary / introduction are quite excellent. This will almost certainly be included in a course I am developing on East Asian photography.
Lee Friedlander, _America by Car_ ISBN: 9781935202073
Mr. Friedlander needs no introduction. It is astonishing that any one individual can be so prolific and so continuously fresh. I almost passed on this book until I saw some of the original prints at the Fraenkel Gallery; I placed the order the next day.
Raymond Depardon, _Hear Them Speak_, ISBN: 9783865218377
Small polaroids of people who are the last (or nearly the last) of their community -- particularly the last of their language group. Each photo is accompanied by a quotation from the subject, transcribed in the original but also translated into both French and English. The visual image remains, but the languages of their speech are barely registered. A mournful book as it records the cultural losses of "marginal" people.
Joe O'Donnell, _Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine's Photographs from Ground Zero_. ISBN: 97808265161121
A moving collection of postwar Japan in the months just after the atomic bombings. This too may be part of my East Asian photography course.
Slyvia Plachy, _Self Portrait with Cows Coming Home_, ISBN: 193178843X
Plachy's return to her childhood home in Hungary is captured in her blurry, off-kilter way. Romantic and yet full of energy, I find her eye and style engaging.
John Gossage, _Putting Back the Wall_ ISBN: 0975312030
Dark images of absence. Gossage manages to evoke what was there. Rich, dark, difficult images. Gossage photographs a mood more than anything else.
Winogrand, _The Man in the Crowd: The Uneasy Streets of Garry Winogrand_ ISBN: 1881337057
The Fraenkel Gallery's retrospective of GW. This was a Christmas gift from my wife. A few of the early reproductions are disappointing, but that must be because of inconsistencies in his early method (exposure / processing) because the later images are reproduced quite well. Typical, wonderfully, Winogrand.
HCB, _Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century_ ISBN: 9780870707780
Had to have this after seeing the exhibit at SFMoMA last year. Sadly, I cannot find one of my favorite images from the show in the book. Perhaps I'm just missing it, but repeated attempts have turned up empty. Still, an excellent overview of HCB from early to late, including some of his lesser known projects.
Susie Linfield, _The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence_ ISBN: 9780226482507
A work of photo-criticism from the director of NYU's cultural reporting and criticism program. Linfield goes after the corrosive and "sour" post-modern critique of reportage, finding that photography (and particularly photojournalism) holds out the opportunity and promise of genuine emotional engagement with victims of political violence. Two-thirds of the book includes discussion of case studies: specific places/countries with photographic records of political violence and chapters on Capa, Nachtwey, and Peress. (I'm running behind and haven't read these chapters yet.)
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Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
Kevin, is there to be a blog post about the Friedlander and HCB books? The HCB one is on my list for my soon birthday in March.
I just bought a signed copy of Andreas Herzau "Istanbul".
I just bought a signed copy of Andreas Herzau "Istanbul".
Papercut
Well-known
Florian,
Not for a while at least. I have a rough draft of a post on Eugene Richards' The Blue Room and Chauncey Hare's Protest Photographs, but just no time to finish it as I've been writing the dissertation and conducting the job search for a tenure-track position. Once I get a break, wrapping up that post will be the next thing on my agenda.
Not for a while at least. I have a rough draft of a post on Eugene Richards' The Blue Room and Chauncey Hare's Protest Photographs, but just no time to finish it as I've been writing the dissertation and conducting the job search for a tenure-track position. Once I get a break, wrapping up that post will be the next thing on my agenda.
Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
No problem, got very much work with my dissertation overhere, too. And thus did not take that much photos either.
maddoc
... likes film again.
Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
... I have heard that "copy & paste" speeds things up a little ...
I'm not in the position to direct five to ten ghostwriters.Mablo
Well-known
"The Hot Shoe Diaries" by Joe McNally. It's a funny book of how to use flash. Tomorrow I will.
RFluhver
Well-known
1st ed (1984) of Larry Fink's "Social Graces". Absolutely a gorgeous book!
Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
Visting the Deichtorhallen museum and spending nearly an hour in their fabulous book shop, I bought a signed book by Andreas Herzau: "Istanbul".
Actually I could have shot myself totally broke there, but one can't have everything, right?
Actually I could have shot myself totally broke there, but one can't have everything, right?
Ken Smith
Why yes Ma'am - it folds
Picked up A. Adam's The Camera and The Negative and Fred Picker's The Zone VI Workshop. A 3rd edition of Horestein's B&W Photography: A Basic Manual is en route. Gotta love Abebooks.com. Got all 4 for under $30. Yes they're used since Abe's specializes in used books, but they look new.
Papercut
Well-known
Thanks to Robert (Honus), I stumbled into Gallery 291 in SF this weekend to see the "City of Ambition" project by Ferit Kuyas. Large format (4x5) color photos of Chongqing, the city where I did my dissertation research in 2006-7. Gorgeous and huge prints (30-50 inches) that capture the city's monumental scale and the forlorn atmosphere that the winter fogs bring. I bought the book, of course. A good many of the images from the project, including many that aren't in the book or the exhibit, are online: http://www.feritkuyas.com/city_of_ambition/
peter_n
Veteran
Thanks for the link Kevin. Great pictures and an interesting presentation of them.
Papercut
Well-known
Glad you enjoyed them, Peter. I'm still unsure about the faux-book presentation on the web -- seems a bit gimmicky to me -- but the photos are well done and the project well conceived. The prints are truly impressive in person -- very large (and actually quite reasonable given the prices for art prints these days) and with the level of detail that only large format film can provide.
The only "false note" is that he presents the city as almost people-less, when in fact it is teeming with bodies. His aim, of course, is to present its monumentality and that is best done by finding the edges or periphery where the spaces the city is growing into are highlighted -- it's a successful strategy I think, so the lack of bodily human presences doesn't bother me.
The only "false note" is that he presents the city as almost people-less, when in fact it is teeming with bodies. His aim, of course, is to present its monumentality and that is best done by finding the edges or periphery where the spaces the city is growing into are highlighted -- it's a successful strategy I think, so the lack of bodily human presences doesn't bother me.
andreios
Well-known
Great thread this one, one of the greatest here.
I've recieved today a heavy volume (though only a paperback) - Atget: Paris. (ed: Ginkgo, 780ish pages, which I believe is the english edition of the same book edited by Hazan in French. But I might be wrong at this point.)
The reproduction seem quite nice to me, although I rather hoped they'd be sort of contact copies of his 18x24cm negatives, but they are a bit smaller (of course I did not check the dimensions of the book prior to buying). But I am not dissapointed - one can almost breathe the air of Paris now lost.
I've recieved today a heavy volume (though only a paperback) - Atget: Paris. (ed: Ginkgo, 780ish pages, which I believe is the english edition of the same book edited by Hazan in French. But I might be wrong at this point.)
The reproduction seem quite nice to me, although I rather hoped they'd be sort of contact copies of his 18x24cm negatives, but they are a bit smaller (of course I did not check the dimensions of the book prior to buying). But I am not dissapointed - one can almost breathe the air of Paris now lost.
Papercut
Well-known
This was one of the very first photobooks I ever purchased (way back in 1993 or 1994). You are dead right about it having a thick atmosphere -- I've never even been to Paris, but Atget's photos make me feel like I lived there for years long ago. Wonderful book to get lost in.
ottluuk
the indecisive eternity
Two days, two Taschen volumes: first Brassaï: Paris, then Jeanloup Sieff.
Seriously, these are well worth picking up unless you already have a pile of their other books. They were about €10 each in a walk-in store here. This is peanuts considered what's inside.
Seriously, these are well worth picking up unless you already have a pile of their other books. They were about €10 each in a walk-in store here. This is peanuts considered what's inside.
RayPA
Ignore It (It'll go away)
I just acquired a signed copy of Ralph Gibson's 'Days at Sea' to go along with my signed copy of 'The Somnambulist'. 'Days at Sea' gets my vote for the best photo-book cover.
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bgb
Well-known
Frank Habicht - In the Sixties
Still on its way to me
Still on its way to me
