stratcat
Well-known
NICE ! Where did you buy that one? I'm very interested!
I more or less quickly went through every photo in "Uncommon Places" and it is indeed a very very nice book.
Thanks! I had not checked e-bay for Parr's "Mexico", I'll definitely take a look.
ampguy
Veteran
After watching the PBS special about these folks living in a houseboat for 10 years, and a photographer catching up with them later, this book seems interesting - am going to check the libraries for it:
http://www.amazon.com/Atchafalaya-Houseboat-Years-Louisiana-Swamp/dp/0807130893/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
http://www.amazon.com/Atchafalaya-Houseboat-Years-Louisiana-Swamp/dp/0807130893/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
ChrisLivsey
Veteran
Has the printing changed in the new edition ? Gypsies was significantly different in all respects, paper, printing etc.
peter_n
Veteran
Tom A
RFF Sponsor
Passed by a local second hand store - and in the window was "Paris, mon amour". It is the taschen, soft cover book by JC Gautrand. A compilation of Paris photos over the centuries, including HCB, Sieff, Plossu etc. At $8 I could not pass it up - and by adding another $5 I got a Konica C35 Automatic that seems to work fine (only one roll through now - will do some more with it later).
Last edited:
Papercut
Well-known
Been another lengthy spell since I had time to post my photo-related book acquisitions. So, here goes.
Michael Spano, Time Frames: City Pictures, powerhouse classics, 2002
isbn: 978-1-57678-392-2
Michael teaches (black and white film) photography at Sarah Lawrence College (where I teach), so I had to pick up his book. It's interesting, divided into panoramas, grids, portraits, multi-exposures, and diptychs. These are all what we usually call "street photography", but Michael changes things up in that each type of photo plays self-consciously with time. A tad more experimental than I normally go for, but I enjoy seeing what my colleagues do.
Lee Friedlander, Mannequin, Fraenkel Gallery, 2012.
isbn: 978-1-881337-32-4
I found this disappointing. Perhaps it's the sameness of the subject, but I had a hard time appreciating most of these images. There are a few gems and the printing is good, but it did not hold my interest like America By Car or most of his other work. I'm sure I'll give it a few more chances here soon so perhaps it will grow on me. ...
Raymond Depardon. Afriques. Hazan, 2005
isbn: 2-7541-0045-8
Depardon is one of my favorite photographers and this book doesn't disappoint (me at least). It's nothing particularly different if you're familiar with him and it reprises quite a number of images that are found in his Voyages, but the reproductions here are much bigger. It also includes much more recent material, running up to the early 2000s.
Humanism in China: A Contemporary Record of Photography (中国人本：纪实在当代), edited by Guangdong Museum of Art (广东美术馆), curated by AN Ge (安哥), HU Wugong (胡武功), and WANG Huangsheng (王璜生), 2nd ed, 2009 (1st ed. 2003)
isbn: 978-7-5362-2847-4
Nearly 600 photos; all black and white, both 35mm and medium format. Fabulous documentary (news, reportage, etc.) images from the 1950s through 2000s. The full range of human emotion is here: triumph, despair, laughter, anger, hatred, envy, etc., etc. It covers the gamut from rural to urban, height of Maoism to reform-era capitalism. Seems to be somewhat heavy on northern China, but there's enough from south and west to make the coverage fairly good. The only downsides are the small size of the reproductions and the shoddy translation. (Many of the Chinese captions are mis-translated into English -- sometimes it's humorous, but some are nearly unintelligible, completely masking the original meaning.)
Patrizia Bonanzinga, The Road to Coal. 2004
isbn: 88-7757-176-4
An interesting book of documentary photos around the extraction and transportation of coal in Shanxi province. Many rural areas of China still depend on coal briquets for cooking and heating, but the laborers who work to supply and transport it are poor. Not earth shaking but decent.
CHANG, Chien-Chi. Double Happiness, Aperture, 2005
isbn: 1-931788-56-1
Chang photographed some of the Vietnamese girls who sign up at businesses to be purchased brides for Taiwanese men, the interview process by which they are selected, and their weddings. Dispassionate framing and style, but it's very moving for the desperation that lurks on the faces all parties (brides, grooms, and grooms' mothers).
Robert Hirsch. Seizing the light: A Social History of Photography, 2nd ed. 2009
isbn: 978-0-07-337921-0
isbn: 0-07-337921-2
Sadly, I haven't done much more than crack this open. Too much other reading to do and not enough time -- a frequent issue for me. Look forward to it sometime soon (I hope!) in large part because the "social" aspect hinted at in the title is enticing to me.
Art and Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era, Emiko K. Usui and Mark Polizzotti, eds. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2004
isbn: 0-87846-682-7
Essays and early photographs from the Meiji period (1868-1912). Portraits, landscapes, tourist spots. Many hand-colored.
The errata editions reprint of Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e (Towards the City). 2010
isbn: 978-1-9935004-10-3
Thoroughly enjoyed this. When I teach post-war Japanese history, I do a class period on photography centered around Shomei Tomatsu (as midway between Ken Domon and Daido Moriyama). This gave me another book to make available to the class as discussion material.
Nobuyoshi Araki, A Sentimental Journey. (Japanese ed.), 1991.
isbn: 4-10-380001-1
One of the saddest, most desolate, photobooks I've ever seen. I bring this in to class as well.
HE Zhiya (何智亚). Chongqing laocheng (重庆老城) [The Old Cities of Chongqing]. 2010
isbn: 978-7-229-02926-5
HE spent nearly 20 years documenting the changes in Chongqing, now China's largest municipality (a total population of some 32 million people though there are significant portions that are countryside villages). HE concentrates on Chongqing proper (the central city), Jiangbei (across the Jialing River), and Nan'an (across the Yangzi River). Many of the alleys and old architecture he photographed are no longer there, having been demolished to make way for the glittering developments of recent years. Richly toned, detailed photos paired with essays and notes on the buildings and areas of the city.
Mark Henley, China [sur]real. Timezone 8, 2006
isbn: 988-99265-6-3
Color street photographs from reform-era China. Many of these are quite good, particularly of the cities. The colors are a bit over-saturated for me, but that's a minor quibble and it does emphasize the often garish quality of recent Chinese development (at least in the cities).
Shen Wei. Chinese Sentiment. 2011
isbn: 978-0-981-8770-2-0
Although Shen is from Shanghai, this book is shot around many places (cities) in China -- images are of his friends, streets, cityscapes, details of life, etc. It's lyrical, intimate, and sensuous but not in a classical beautiful way. I didn't like it much at all on first look because I couldn't detect many strong connecting themes. And I still can't, but it has grown on me each time I look through it. I enjoy the colors in here -- subdued without being pastel and without losing richness.
Terry Bennett. Zhongguo sheying shi: 1842-1860 [中国摄影史：1842－1860] (History of Chinese Photography: 1842-1860). 2011.
isbn: 978-7-80236-567-4
This is the Chinese translation of his book, which is OOP and very expensive (much cheaper to order the Chinese version from the mainland Amazon affiliate). Again, more of a history text than an art book. Lots of illustrations though and that makes it fascinating to look through, though I haven't yet read much of the text.
CHEN Shen (陈申) and XU Xijing (徐希景), Zhongguo sheying yishu shi (中国摄影艺术史) [A History of Chinese Art Photography], 2011
isbn: 978-7-108-03382-6
Haven't yet gotten to read this and it is, obviously from the title, a narrative history of art photography and not primarily about images per se. From the table of contents it seems quite complete (major people, groups, areas, and eras). Looking forward to reading this lengthy tome.
CHEN Xiaobo (陈小波). Tamen weishenme yao sheying (他们为什么要摄影) [Why They Photograph]. 2011
isbn: 978-7-5039-5108-4
The author conducted a series of interviews with 25 major Chinese photographers, talking about their careers, important images, subjects, working methods, etc. Fascinating and I've only dipped my toes into the first several interviews.
Michael Spano, Time Frames: City Pictures, powerhouse classics, 2002
isbn: 978-1-57678-392-2
Michael teaches (black and white film) photography at Sarah Lawrence College (where I teach), so I had to pick up his book. It's interesting, divided into panoramas, grids, portraits, multi-exposures, and diptychs. These are all what we usually call "street photography", but Michael changes things up in that each type of photo plays self-consciously with time. A tad more experimental than I normally go for, but I enjoy seeing what my colleagues do.
Lee Friedlander, Mannequin, Fraenkel Gallery, 2012.
isbn: 978-1-881337-32-4
I found this disappointing. Perhaps it's the sameness of the subject, but I had a hard time appreciating most of these images. There are a few gems and the printing is good, but it did not hold my interest like America By Car or most of his other work. I'm sure I'll give it a few more chances here soon so perhaps it will grow on me. ...
Raymond Depardon. Afriques. Hazan, 2005
isbn: 2-7541-0045-8
Depardon is one of my favorite photographers and this book doesn't disappoint (me at least). It's nothing particularly different if you're familiar with him and it reprises quite a number of images that are found in his Voyages, but the reproductions here are much bigger. It also includes much more recent material, running up to the early 2000s.
Humanism in China: A Contemporary Record of Photography (中国人本：纪实在当代), edited by Guangdong Museum of Art (广东美术馆), curated by AN Ge (安哥), HU Wugong (胡武功), and WANG Huangsheng (王璜生), 2nd ed, 2009 (1st ed. 2003)
isbn: 978-7-5362-2847-4
Nearly 600 photos; all black and white, both 35mm and medium format. Fabulous documentary (news, reportage, etc.) images from the 1950s through 2000s. The full range of human emotion is here: triumph, despair, laughter, anger, hatred, envy, etc., etc. It covers the gamut from rural to urban, height of Maoism to reform-era capitalism. Seems to be somewhat heavy on northern China, but there's enough from south and west to make the coverage fairly good. The only downsides are the small size of the reproductions and the shoddy translation. (Many of the Chinese captions are mis-translated into English -- sometimes it's humorous, but some are nearly unintelligible, completely masking the original meaning.)
Patrizia Bonanzinga, The Road to Coal. 2004
isbn: 88-7757-176-4
An interesting book of documentary photos around the extraction and transportation of coal in Shanxi province. Many rural areas of China still depend on coal briquets for cooking and heating, but the laborers who work to supply and transport it are poor. Not earth shaking but decent.
CHANG, Chien-Chi. Double Happiness, Aperture, 2005
isbn: 1-931788-56-1
Chang photographed some of the Vietnamese girls who sign up at businesses to be purchased brides for Taiwanese men, the interview process by which they are selected, and their weddings. Dispassionate framing and style, but it's very moving for the desperation that lurks on the faces all parties (brides, grooms, and grooms' mothers).
Robert Hirsch. Seizing the light: A Social History of Photography, 2nd ed. 2009
isbn: 978-0-07-337921-0
isbn: 0-07-337921-2
Sadly, I haven't done much more than crack this open. Too much other reading to do and not enough time -- a frequent issue for me. Look forward to it sometime soon (I hope!) in large part because the "social" aspect hinted at in the title is enticing to me.
Art and Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era, Emiko K. Usui and Mark Polizzotti, eds. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2004
isbn: 0-87846-682-7
Essays and early photographs from the Meiji period (1868-1912). Portraits, landscapes, tourist spots. Many hand-colored.
The errata editions reprint of Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e (Towards the City). 2010
isbn: 978-1-9935004-10-3
Thoroughly enjoyed this. When I teach post-war Japanese history, I do a class period on photography centered around Shomei Tomatsu (as midway between Ken Domon and Daido Moriyama). This gave me another book to make available to the class as discussion material.
Nobuyoshi Araki, A Sentimental Journey. (Japanese ed.), 1991.
isbn: 4-10-380001-1
One of the saddest, most desolate, photobooks I've ever seen. I bring this in to class as well.
HE Zhiya (何智亚). Chongqing laocheng (重庆老城) [The Old Cities of Chongqing]. 2010
isbn: 978-7-229-02926-5
HE spent nearly 20 years documenting the changes in Chongqing, now China's largest municipality (a total population of some 32 million people though there are significant portions that are countryside villages). HE concentrates on Chongqing proper (the central city), Jiangbei (across the Jialing River), and Nan'an (across the Yangzi River). Many of the alleys and old architecture he photographed are no longer there, having been demolished to make way for the glittering developments of recent years. Richly toned, detailed photos paired with essays and notes on the buildings and areas of the city.
Mark Henley, China [sur]real. Timezone 8, 2006
isbn: 988-99265-6-3
Color street photographs from reform-era China. Many of these are quite good, particularly of the cities. The colors are a bit over-saturated for me, but that's a minor quibble and it does emphasize the often garish quality of recent Chinese development (at least in the cities).
Shen Wei. Chinese Sentiment. 2011
isbn: 978-0-981-8770-2-0
Although Shen is from Shanghai, this book is shot around many places (cities) in China -- images are of his friends, streets, cityscapes, details of life, etc. It's lyrical, intimate, and sensuous but not in a classical beautiful way. I didn't like it much at all on first look because I couldn't detect many strong connecting themes. And I still can't, but it has grown on me each time I look through it. I enjoy the colors in here -- subdued without being pastel and without losing richness.
Terry Bennett. Zhongguo sheying shi: 1842-1860 [中国摄影史：1842－1860] (History of Chinese Photography: 1842-1860). 2011.
isbn: 978-7-80236-567-4
This is the Chinese translation of his book, which is OOP and very expensive (much cheaper to order the Chinese version from the mainland Amazon affiliate). Again, more of a history text than an art book. Lots of illustrations though and that makes it fascinating to look through, though I haven't yet read much of the text.
CHEN Shen (陈申) and XU Xijing (徐希景), Zhongguo sheying yishu shi (中国摄影艺术史) [A History of Chinese Art Photography], 2011
isbn: 978-7-108-03382-6
Haven't yet gotten to read this and it is, obviously from the title, a narrative history of art photography and not primarily about images per se. From the table of contents it seems quite complete (major people, groups, areas, and eras). Looking forward to reading this lengthy tome.
CHEN Xiaobo (陈小波). Tamen weishenme yao sheying (他们为什么要摄影) [Why They Photograph]. 2011
isbn: 978-7-5039-5108-4
The author conducted a series of interviews with 25 major Chinese photographers, talking about their careers, important images, subjects, working methods, etc. Fascinating and I've only dipped my toes into the first several interviews.
Joerg
Dilettant
Recent acquisitions:
- Rei Yanagi: Long shots
A little booklet from booklet press ;-) . I was interested in the small edition stuff and it looked interesting online. Some very nice photos in there some OK ones.
- Thomas Hoepker: DDR Ansichten - views from a vanished country.
Ciao
joerg
- Rei Yanagi: Long shots
A little booklet from booklet press ;-) . I was interested in the small edition stuff and it looked interesting online. Some very nice photos in there some OK ones.
- Thomas Hoepker: DDR Ansichten - views from a vanished country.
Ciao
joerg
taskoni
Well-known
I've got a book of Antanas Sutkus (Lithuanian photographer) as a present from my wife:
http://fotorachmaninov.ru/dub/index.php?id=144
Regards,
Boris
http://fotorachmaninov.ru/dub/index.php?id=144
Regards,
Boris
Papercut
Well-known
Stopped by The Strand bookstore today and picked up Watabe Yukichi, A Criminal Investigation. Fascinating.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Robert Hughes died today. He was one of the greatest art critics and historians of our time. I've had "The Shock Of The New", his history of modernism, for years. He also wrote a history of colonial Australia, "The Fatal Shore". Hughes was Australian.
fotomeow
name under my name
last Sunday at the SF Bay area meet up at SFMOMA, I picked up Shomei Tomatsu's "Skin of the Nation" for over 50% off!
andreios
Well-known
At last I picked up my copy of Ragnar Axelsson's Last Days of the Arctic - brilliant book, both the colour "lanscape-ish" images as well as "the usual RAX" - bw documentary-ish stuff.
Also recieved Nick Brandt's On this earth - lovely as well.
The good news is there are a couple more in the post!
Also recieved Nick Brandt's On this earth - lovely as well.
The good news is there are a couple more in the post!
sar-photo
Simon Robinson
Went to a book signing by Martin Parr on Monday evening. Picked up his two latest - Up And Down Peachtree and No Worries. Got him to sign them and a opy of The Last Resort I already had.
He gave a little talk - said he has a separate building to house his photobook collection. He has over 12,000.
Cheers
Simon
He gave a little talk - said he has a separate building to house his photobook collection. He has over 12,000.
Cheers
Simon
How are they?
Papercut
Well-known
kshapero
South Florida Man
Just knocked off "Last Boy" the story of Mickey Mantle while being delayed in an airport. A modern tragedy.
kanzlr
Hexaneur
Vivian Maier: Street Photographer 
Robert Doisneau: 1912 - 1994 (Icons) 
Meisterwerke: Photographien
sar-photo
Simon Robinson
I looked through Peachtree on the train home - haven't had chance to look at No Worries yet.
I think that when you buy a Martin Parr book you know what you are getting and Peachtree is Martin Parr doing what he does best. The design of the book is quite interesting in that there will occaisionally be a crop of a photo on one page and then the full frame image on the next page.
Expect bright, colourfull images of food, people, people eating food, animals and signs.
Cheers
Simon
Thanks for the info sar-photo. It sounds like something I'll need to pick up.
rxmd
May contain traces of nut
stratcat said:
I bought it in Barcelona, at Laie bookstore in Via Laietana. It's a Spanish edition in two volumes, but the English edition seems to be easy to find. It's a good book, lots of contact sheets; I might post a mini-review next week.