latest additions to your library

After a period of buying fewer photo books than normal (instead I have been buying books on other interests in art and nature) I have more recently made a number of additions to my photo book shelves.

The Meadow: Barbara Bosworth
This is a beautiful book. Whilst maybe a little pretentious in its presentation with all sorts of bound in inserts, etc., it is essentially an understated visual love affair with an unspectacular New England meadow. Excellent print and paper quality. The large format photographs look wonderful. Highly recommended.

ZZYZX: Gregory Halpern
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding this book since its publication a few months ago and largely deservedly so IMO. It's a little derivative of work such as Paul Graham's A Shimmer of Possibility but more accessible. One of those books that really hangs together as a cohesive piece of photographic art (with a capital A) without being completely up its own whatsit.

15 miles to K-Ville: Mark Steinmetz
Published outside his usual association with Nazraeli Press, I've mixed feelings about this collection. It's not a distinct body of work but more a slightly contrived compilation of both previously published and unseen work. It's Mark Steinmetz so if you are a fan of his work like me, then you will enjoy it. There are many beautiful photographs in it, many that I haven't seen before, but the presentation (softcover) and print quality isn't of the highest quality – especially for a book that costs £40 or more.
 
Partida by Robert Frank
Another strange book in the Robert Frank series published by Steidl. As with some of the others, it's a selection of more or less unrelated images that share a common feeling of melancholy. I like it.
 
I've been on a spree of buying photo books recently--I gotta put a stop to this soon. Some have been disappointing, some very enjoyable.

Henry Wessell: "Traffic/Sunset Park/Continental Divide" was both disappointing and enjoyable. I thought "Traffic" was weak, "Sunset Park" was beautiful and "Continental Divide" was a mix.

Sally Mann: "Remembered Light: Cy Twombly in Lexington" was my biggest disappointment of 2016 in photo books. I've been one of Sally Mann's biggest fans, especially her most recent work, but this project failed in my opinion.

Eugene Atget: "The Work of Atget, Old France". This is the first of four volumes from MOMA, published in the 1980's. I love Atget's work and I intend to buy the other volumes in this series when I find them at a decent price.

"Photography at MOMA, 1960 to Now". Really an excellent survey of late 20th Century and early 21st Century photography. I've already ordered the companion volume covering photos from 1920 to 1960.
 
Dogman said:
Eugene Atget: "The Work of Atget, Old France". This is the first of four volumes from MOMA, published in the 1980's. I love Atget's work and I intend to buy the other volumes in this series when I find them at a decent price.
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Agreed, fantastic four volume set. I can also highly recommend 'Atget' by John Szarkowski, published by MOMA. ISBN: 978-0870700941
 
lawrence said:
Agreed, fantastic four volume set. I can also highly recommend 'Atget' by John Szarkowski, published by MOMA. ISBN: 978-0870700941
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I really wish they would reprint this set. A few years ago I missed out on the chance to buy it locally. The shop was asking what seemed like a lot, but what I have since learned to be a fraction of what they go for at Abe Books, etc.

Recently received:

Paul Graham: The Whiteness of the Whale (Mack)
Ernst Haas: Color Correction (Steidl)
Mikhael Subotsky: Retinal Shift (Steidl)
 
In the Beginning, Diane Arbus.
For decades, the Aperture/MOMA catalog was the beginning and end of published Arbus. As far as I knew, that was pretty much the extent of her oeuvre. Thankfully, the 21st century brought both Revelations and now this selection of early work (as well as 2 or 3 bios). I saw a handful of these pictures at a gallery show in the eighties but am still blown away by this book. (Will go see the show at SFMOMA this weekend).

Traffic / Sunset Park / Continental Divide, Henry Wessel.
I think this was originally planned to be 3 separate books, but ended up as one large volume with three distinct “stories”. Wessel’s focus lately seems to be mining older work for new nuggets and editing them into more coherent sequences (see Waikiki & Incidents). Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising from one who famously leaves contacts sheets for months or years before editing.

Western Landscapes, Lee Friedlander.
No shortage of Friedlander pictures available in print, but this is the granddad collection for a body of work that is among his best ever. The work that one gallerist described as like “Ansel Adams on crack”. Hard to put this one down.

Message from the Exterior, Mark Ruwedel.
A California take on the Bechers? With Ruscha, R. Adams, Fiskin influence and a title reference to Evans. Portraits of abandoned houses in the California desert in the New Topographics mode. Also, check out his book, Westward the Course of Empire.

On order…
Louis Faurer
New Documents
Luigi Ghirri essays
 
lawrence said:
Partida by Robert Frank
Another strange book in the Robert Frank series published by Steidl. As with some of the others, it's a selection of more or less unrelated images that share a common feeling of melancholy. I like it.
Click to expand...

I always feel it strange that after the tightest edit and layout in "America" he could produce such almost incoherent work later but then again the danger, if there is one, of being a "one trick" pony and, without being snide, Ansel Adams demonstrates that well although it did him no harm, at least financially.
 
Speaking of Frank, I'm about halfway through "Looking In..." right now. I usually avoid tedious history/analysis-type books with long essays but I'm really enjoying this. I also have a copy of "Robert Frank In America" waiting.

The second book in the series, "Photography at MoMA, 1920 to 1960" was more enjoyable than the "1960-Now" volume. Maybe I'm just out of synch with post modern. Also, I finally bought "Saul Leiter: Early Black and White" and will delve into it later.

Obviously I was unsuccessful in curbing my photo book obsession.
 
Someone swiped my copy of 'Perfect Exposure' by Roger Hicks, a couple of years ago. I just replaced it. My new copy has his great essay on 'Moonrise over..........' exposure on page 112: beautiful, if Roger can be described as beautiful. Thanks Roger.
 
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