Papercut
Well-known
- Local time
- 7:41 PM
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,064
_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.)
Last edited:
