Here’s a list of photo books I bought this month, during my trip in Alberta and B.C.
Alec Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image, Aperture. Useful ideas, as well as pictures that provide even more ideas
America. Andy Warhol. Photographs I never realized he’d taken
Faces of Edmonton. Shayne Woodsworth. An interesting take on how to do a book like this
I Am A Camera. A collection of mostly contemporary work, by the Saatchi gallery
Lena Herzog Pilgrims, Becoming the Path Itself. Text by Werner Herzog. Great colour shots of pilgrimages to the most sanctified Buddhist sites, including the circuit of the holiest mountain in the world, Mount Kalash
Lisette Model. A pocket sized volume, in Pheidon’s “55” series
Love and Desire. edited by W. A. Ewing. Chronicle Books. An historical survey of a yummy topic
Night Vision, the Art of Urban Exploration, Troy Piava. Chronicle Books 2008. Discarded bits of cities in wild colours
Photography Today, edited by Mark Durden, and published by Phaidon. A survey of art photography from the 1970s to the 2000s
Rich and Poor, Photographs by Jim Goldsmith. Goldsmith included revealing texts by the subjects of his environmental portraits. This is an old fave of mine, and it was great to find this replacement for my damaged copy.
The Depression Years, as Photographed by Arthur Rothstein, 120 Photos, Dover. 1978. Part of the FSA project
The Photographer’s Choice, 1975, “a book of portfolios and critical opinions”
Using History. Greta Pratt. Steidl. 2005. Ironic views of American icons. It’s the sort of work I did in the 80s.
Village Portraits. Ursula Heller. Methuen. 1981. The kind of documentary work we tried to do in the 70s.
Vitamin Ph – New Perspectives in Photography. Phaidon. Essays by TJ Demos. 2007. “A survey of current international developments in contemporary photography”
Also: Aperture, issue #220, Fall, 2015. Strong interviews and portfolios from nine photographers, including William Klein and Paulo Gasparini
Because so many bookstores have died recently in Alberta, I also want to mention several excellent places in western Canada that are still fighting the good fight. The Camera Store, at 802 – 11 Ave., SW, in Calgary, Alberta, is a great source of reasonably priced photo books. Macleod's Books, 455 Pender St. W, Vancouver, B.C., is a living monument to the used bookstores of yester year. Russell’s Books, at 734 Fort St., in Victoria, B.C, is another great used bookstore.
