latest additions to your library

Mine arrived a day or so ago. Wonderful set!

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Where did you guys get Leiters Early Black & White from - Steidl Publisher I assume? I have had it pre-ordered for months and still waiting from Powells books?? Huge Leiter fan and love books from Steidl publishers-Daniel
 
Where did you guys get Leiters Early Black & White from - Steidl Publisher I assume? I have had it pre-ordered for months and still waiting from Powells books?? Huge Leiter fan and love books from Steidl publishers-Daniel

My copy (actually two books!) arrived a few days ago, in less than a week from the Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.com/Saul-Leiter-Saul-Leiter/9783865214133). Free shipping. They are great and match the "Early Color" in format. Great set.
 
Hi,

Finally found a copy of Fritz Vith's 1933 or 34 "Leica Handbook" I could afford and eat and stay within the pension.

Regards, David
 
Memory City by Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb. Radius Books, Santa Fe, 2014. ISBN 978-1934435762.

I've only been to Rochester once, when one of my kids was interested in a double degree from its University and the Eastman Conservatory. She ended up somewhere else, but it was instructive even then to see the deterioration of the inner city especially around the area of the conservatory. That was in 2002. Twelve years on and we have a book from Alex and Rebecca Webb that chronicles this company town having fallen on hard times. Alex Webb has a truly excellent eye as one would expect from a Magnum photographer, and Rebecca Norris Webb is no slouch either although she does seem to shoot a lot of pictures of dresses and young women looking soulfully out of windows.

This is a book of mixed gritty color and B&W shots with a sequence that really works, at least for me. There are several shots in the book that include the iconic tower of the main Eastman Kodak building with suitable decaying foregrounds, and these in conjunction with the people shots convey a sense of sadness and resignation. Unfortunately there are no page numbers but the last photograph in the book is exactly how I remember Rochester.

The book is well printed and bound in Hong Kong. Many will not like that a number of the pictures go across the spine, and while I found it irritating at times it's not that bad. There's a peculiarly artsy feel to the book from the cover to the hand-written notes and the booklet in the folder at the back, but there's also a timeline that is interesting and appropriate. There are some small(ish) fold-outs, mostly contact sheets that I didn't understand, and the book is apparently shot with Kodak film including Kodachrome and Portra. Alex Webb had Kodachrome processed as black and white for his excellent B&W shots, and used a digital Leica for color.

There's a quotation from the author Italo Calvino in the front that speaks to a city's history being woven into the visual scenes it displays, and this book certainly conveys an elegiac feel for the Webbs' take on Rochester's current condition. "We wanted a structure that mirrored our sense of this down-and-out yet very soulful place" Webb says in The Guardian. The background is the decline and fall of Eastman Kodak, and I read recently that 60% of downtown is parking space, but it's not all grim in Rochester; it's not a simple tale of Rust Belt decay. Currently it has a diversified economy and is using the local intellectual capital well, so it appears things are looking a lot better for Rochester than Memory City conveys. Alex Webb's photos are really good though.
 
A Question of Speed, by RFF member Fred Bonatto. Fred was generous to offer two free copies of his book recently, and I was one of the lucky two recipients.

I am happy to recommend it. Dimensions of the 91 page book are approx. 8 1/4" x 5 3/4" in landscape format, with the pictures printed recto. Reproduction of the black and white photos is very good - in the same ballpark as Jason Eskenazi's Wonderland; perhaps not quite as punchy due to the recycled stock, rather than the bleached white used by Eskenazi (my only other artist-produced book to compare it to).

The photos themselves are interesting and well shot, with a good mix of wider and close up. They cover three historic-car racing meets in Europe during 2013.

This is my first attempt at a review. The edition is limited to 100 copies and the ISBN is 978-87-997387-0-0. It's great to see a RFF member bring a project like this to fruition.
 
John Gossage's "The Pond", newly published 2nd Edition. Beautifully printed, hardbound in slipcase. Includes introduction by Terry Jurovics and (new to the 2nd Edition I believe) an excellent concluding essay by Gerry Badger.

The book is a superb primer for anyone interested in seeing commonplace landscape raised to powerful art. B&W prints are lovely.
 
The latest addition to my photo library is THE most fascinating and mesmerizing photo book I've ever had or seen: "Half Life" by Michael Ackerman.

For those who wander what stuff it is, take a look here.
 
The latest addition to my photo library is THE most fascinating and mesmerizing photo book I've ever had or seen: "Half Life" by Michael Ackerman.

For those who wander what stuff it is, take a look here.

Small world, I sold mine today. Got 10 times what I paid for it.

New purchases: Linger by Daisuke Yokota and The Map by Kikuji Kawada.
 
Just got "Illusion" by Ng Swan Ti and also "Moonshine" by Bertien Van Manen.

Semi excited with another edition of HCB: Decisive Moments and also Koudleka's Exiles, though both are a little too expensive for my wallet.
 
Finally managed to find a copy of Joan Fontcuberta's 1997 classic "Sputnik" for under $200. It's been described as being amongst the most influential photobooks.

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