Documentary-Collection

M. McDermott's luxuriant photos admirably capture the subversive hermeneutics of desire at work in every compartment of Edward Gorey's capacious mind. To judge from these photos, at home as much as in his work Gorey enacted a subaltern erotics of duplicity and dialectic: the precise, almost fussy, arrangements of salt shakers and stones, frog spectators and secret guests which echo the Edwardian-styled detail of his famous books and their ecstatic decodification of heterosexual longing into a polysemous weave of interleaved multitextuality illuminate a life's work spent dancing on a metacritical pin. Queer and gender theorists take note: Elephant House will reinvigorate your every critique -- about Edward Gorey and his work, and of course, the texts his prism redacts.

Kevin McDermott's Elephant House is an impressive new photography book. The photographs, taken only days after Edward Gorey's death, afford us an intimate portrait of the man as he lived. The book contains insightful photographs that capture the fine details of the way Edward lived and worked in his own space. Gorey clearly had a fascination with light and texture. He scattered a massive array of objects all about his home with a nearly curatorial eye. McDermott's well composed photos not only capture this aspect of Gorey but illustrate a common thread between these two artists: texture. One photograph depicts groups of small stones as they congregate idly on the rough wood of the porch. The cityscape of salt and pepper shakers and a plate of gourd-like, spherical shapes are beautiful studies in the texture and form of ordinary objects abstracted from their normal contexts, while many others are still lives made of the house's windows and the eclectically arranged objects in front of them. The blue bottles in a few images glow like stained glass as the washed-out light of a cloudy day streams in through them. What makes many of the color images so interesting is the spare, nearly monochromatic palette of colors in the rooms which are offset by only the blue luminosity of bottles or the green leaves of spring showing in the background. These are beautiful photographs independent of their connection to Edward Gorey, but serve also to enhance our understanding of him. The text is an entertaining and candid glimpse of Gorey as a friend knew him, and provides a nicely guided tour through each room. This book is handsomely crafted and thoughtfully designed, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in photography or Edward Gorey.

Edward Gorey was a mysterious personage. His works often leave one thinking "what next?". Elephant House by Kevin McDermott helps relieve much of this worry. Mr. McDermott has captured through his photographs and text what it was like to spend time with the elusive Mr. Gorey. This is a personal and moving tribute to a friend that never feels intrusive, but rather illuminates Mr. Gorey and the daily world he invented and inhabited. For those of us who have made Mr. Gorey a part of our own daily lives, Elephant House lets us spend some quality time with the man through his surroundings. A gem and a gift.

Finding your dad's stash of "Playboy" magazines is one of the rites of adolescence. Here you find 'em all! Actually, it's just one photograph of each woman who was a Playmate between the first issue and the year this book was published. This is a good collection of photographs of beautiful women. Looking at these pictures, you see why "Playboy" really is a magazine that's done in good taste. The women are presented as examples of beauty, and the brief history that accompanies each woman tells you what they've been up to since. Most of these women explain how "Playboy" changed their lives for the better. And you'll also discover how many famous women have appeared as Playmates, including Janice Pennington, Jenny McCarthy, and Pam Anderson. Keep in mind, though, that the "Playboy" lifestyle isn't for everyone, and this may not be the perfect gift for everyone.

This is an excellent pictorial history of the Playmates from the early days through 1996. It's fun to read up-to-date information and find out where some of your favorite Playmates are doing today and what they look like now. Not every Playmate is updated like that, however (some them are still "missing in action"). The Playmate Book also tells us of the different paths Playmates have taken since their appearance. Some have storybook endings, others not (a reminder they are more than the photos we see of them). Overall, a fine book. If there was one nitpick, it's too bad they chose to reprint a lot of the same photos from the issues the Playmates appeared in, instead of choosing outtakes. However, the photographic quality of the book is far better than the magazine, owing to a better paper stock.

A fantastic photographic book. Hugh Hefner showed his excellent taste in women by having the Playmate and now he shares the lovely ladies for every man to enjoy and reminise. From 1954 to 1996 it is a fantastic journey down memory lane to revist not only the photographs of EVERY Playmate, but see a glimpse into their personal life as well. It is also interesting to see the changes in hairstyle, fashion, and even measurements of the Playmate through the years. Yet one thing remains the same, and that is the beauty that each one of them have. Hef defintely gives male's around the world a gift when he authorized this photographic journey of the beautiful women of Playboy. Highly recommended.

A very intrigueing, and facinating book - absolutly wonderful and hauntingly beautiful photographs. This one is hard to put down...MCB

A very intreging, and facinating book - absolutly wonderful and hauntingly beautiful photographs. This one is hard to put down...MCB

As soon as I found this book in a used book store, I knew I needed to buy it. I love all the images and reading through all the angel names. Whenever I feel like the world is rapidly becoming overwhelming, I sit down with "Visions of Angels" and it helps to restore my balance. I highly recommend it - a coffee table book, it is not!

Adorable pictures and captions. I absolutely loved it!! Arlene Millman, author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY (The tale of a remarkable Boston Terrier).

I loved this book! The pictures are so adorable and the phrases on the opposite pages capture the dogs perfectly.

I adored this book. Kim has the ability to show us the feelings, emotion and humor dogs possess. The black and white photography is beautifully done. I wish she would take pictures of my pooch! Thanks, Kim!

Now that it is so cheap, don't miss this great book! Excellent prose by Szarkowski and beautiful pictures by a master... hard combination to beat.

Again, John Szarkowski takes us by the hand and leads us into the photographs of Eugene Atget, as through the magic of a looking glass. In these writings, on a selection of photographs from the first quarter of the 20th century, in his historically aware and individual way, Szarkowski instructs on how to read a photograph by doing so himself. We not only see into the environs of Paris through the eyes of the eclectic, determined and tender Atget, but also through the eyes and the keen, attentive mind of Szarkowski, who writes as though he lives inside these pictures, and tends them, and the photographer, with great devotion.

This edition is set up by the previous 4 volume study, The Work of Atget, by Maria Morris Hambourg and John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art, 1985. But this new book comes from a persistent, deep seam miner, one who knows that what it is about these photographs is so fertile, they can be studied throughout one's life, and still give more.

How rich is the mind that can bring another mind to light? Would it be bearable if everything in life could be keyed into focus, for us too busy and bothered to pay attention, by a poet as revelatory as Szarkowski? When considering entree des jardins, 1921-22, he says, "except occasionally, as (for example) during revolutions, the French have managed very well to sublimate the periodic human tendency to behave violently toward one's fellow human men, and have directed these impulses toward their trees", you cannot help but love the gardener who built the gate here, the photographer for seeing it, and Szarkowski, for bringing it to our attention in this way. He tells you what is on the menu, who lived in the house, how the hotel got its name, who built it, what may have motivated them to sculpt a Dionysus over a doorway, what member of the court of Louis the XIV was cast to live where, what other photographer may have attempted to photograph the same scene, and sometimes, what led Atget there.

The book is a beautiful masterpiece, and an accomplishment worthy of a life spent looking deeply. If you love (really looking at) photographs, you should consider your shelves incomplete without it.

This book is another gift from a great writer and observer, an homage to Atget, to photography, to art and to Western civilization. For anyone who pretends to be a photographer or to love Art, it is a joy to share Szarkowski's easy erudition, one or two pages at a time.

Atget showed us the axioms of photography and axioms cannot be explained by analysis. The test of an Atget, Bach, or Cezanne, is that it is impossible to find the source of their revelation and impossible not to find their influence in future artists.

"Good pictures are not explained by words...With exceptional good luck criticism might with words construct meanings that are different from but consonant with the meanings of pictures. Such constructs of words might possibly guide us toward the neighborhoods where pictorial meanings live.", he says in this book. (Please, if you are an art historian or critic, take this pledge!)

Thus Szarkowski tours the photographs he has selected and writes a thought or two somehow connected to each one - sometimes a revelation, often a question. Each page of writing stands alone and will engage the reader in a conversation with the author and the photographer. Many times Szarkowski puts us somewhere behind the camera a hundred years ago, or on a bridge in Paris 600 years ago. He really brings Atget to life by putting us in his time and place.

There are plenty of revealing facts stashed throughout the writing. Szarkowski talks of the influence of Atget on Weston, Walker Evans, Winogrand, and others and leaves us to recognize the Atget in Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and ourselves. He mentions just the relevant technical and biographical details.

He shows examples of how Atget handled Time,the essence of photography. As he wrote in "Photography Until Now" about Atget, "Perhaps from the practice of looking attentively and repeatedly at the same thing from different vantage points and in different lights he came to see that ...one tree, or one reflecting pool, was never twice the same, and would therefore last as a subject as long as one's concentrated attention. With this realization he became, surely not intentionally, a modern artist."

The reflecting pools and trees are in this book along with the more familiar Parisian architecture. Different views of the same subjects are also in other books such as Berenice Abbott's "The World Of Atget". Szarkowski thus, enriches the literature on Atget, giving meaning to many of the published mindless catalogs of his photographs.

Szarkowski shows another reason Atget is a modern artist. His work is meticulously constructed in the same cultural elements as the works of his more famous contemporary French painters and sculptures. There are no accidents and no mistakes in his work. The result is a richness that reveals something new every time we look at it.

The same is true of this book by Szarkowsi. I've read it three times. It is a masterpiece, "...seductively and deceptively simple, wholly poised, reticent, dense with experience, mysterious and true." To use the words Szarkowski wrote of Atget in Looking At Photographs.

Saw this book for the first time at the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland during a cross-country trip (side note: an interesting place to visit. Check out Jerry's guitars: Rosebud, Lightning Bolt, Wolf and 2 he ordered but never played). Bought it on the spot! If you think you have seen all the pictures of the Boyz, think again. This is an impressive collection, perfect for the "Deadhead who has everything". I just bought a 2nd copy, 'cause I know I am going to wear out the first one I bought!

This book is required reading for all fans of the Grateful Dead. Wonderful photographs and commentary. It brings back so many memories from years past that I find myself not being able to put it down. I will most likely buy a second copy, just to have it for future enjoyment when I wear this one out. Great job Jay!

The photographs in this book evoke a community and a culture that was a huge part of my own life during the Grateful Dead touring years. Looking through these photographs brought back so many great memories, and finding photos of familiar faces and places was both nostalgic and sentimental and at the same time incredibly satisfying. Thank you Jay!

I read this book by chance, yesterday, Memorial Day 2003.
Been crying.
It's like Schindler's List or Sophie's choice.
How could they do it?
How can we let them continue doing it?
The animals still are around us, although using another names, another symbols, another motivations.
I kept reading, hoping to find some of the people to be safe at the end, but almost everybody was killed.
Binim, Rozak, Mayer, Bronka, so many of you.
I miss you, my friends.

After reading this book, I feel this should be in every house in every country. You hear so much about the people and the numbers killed that sometimes it doesn't seem real but this book makes it very real. The pictures are so powerful and at the same time so ordinary - they could be pictures of anyone's parents or grandparents. The most haunting pictures are those of the children - you have to wonder how many survived. The stories of the survivors bring it all home - "There's the aunt of the little girl I used to babysit", etc. I found it amazing that these pictures did survive 40, 50 years before being discovered again. Anyone who denies the Holocaust happened should read this book and then try to still say it never happened. Thank you Ann Weiss for bringing these pictures and the stores behind them out of the darkness.

"The last Album" by Ann Weiss is well organized and well written. It contains 400 remarkable
photographs that were brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau by victims in 1943. These photographs were taken
prior to the Holocaust and depict people bursting with life. This is an extremely unique book, and contains material that was lovingly researched for a period of 15 years. The beauty of this book is that the
photographs and the research accomplished brings to life people that were lost during the dreadful time of
the Holocaust. The book like the author is soft, sweet, articulate and brilliant

This book is a wonderful "visit" to Abania. We visited there last year and fell in love with the people there. I highly recommend it.Very interesting!

This book is a definte highlight and must have for anyone intested in Ghegeria (North ALbania). Long Life to your children is an excellent book with fantastic literary content about the culture and way of live for many Malesores (Higlanders) of North Albania. Anyone interested in Gheg clan culture and the typical life of many North ALbanians will find this book of valuable isight. There are also many wonderful photographs throughout the book to accomapny the text and provide a picture of what the North of The Land of The Eagle looks like. Shume i Mire (Very Good). A definite item to have in your collection of Albania.

This book talks about life in Albania from an outsiders view, however it also introduces you to many citizens of the country, doctors, lawyers, farmers, students, etc. and allows them to speak to you in their own words. I found this very refreshing since many other books don't give you that personal connection to a country. The book is also filled with great pictures. Many Albanians are frustrated that the West has decried communism for so many years, yet now that that these countries have embraced democracy, they feel lost, they need help and don't feel that the international community has done enough. After reading this book, I am sure you will agree that a "Marshall Plan" should be implemented in the Balkans. I know this was mentioned during and after the bombing of Kosova.

As a 21 year old gay man, it is heartwarming and touching to see a such a beautiful coffee table book dedicated to portraying gay men positively and humanely, in addition to giving me hope that a long-term relationship can exist in a circuit/club/Abercrombie gay world. The stories of men who have been together for 10, 20, 30 + years are not only inspiring, but well written and accompanied with stunning black and white photos. However, while there was a considerable effort (and a good one at that!) to include a range of HIV positive and negative couples and while there were are three black men and possibly one Latino, I would have liked to have seen more gay men of color. I know there are Asian, Native American, and more Latino gay men in committed relationships, so it would have been nice to have them represented. Overall, it's a wonderful book and contribution to the GLBT community and worth buying--if anything, I just wish it were longer, so that it could include more diversity.

Althouh I'm gay, I still believe in love, married and family. This book show that these things are possible for gay couples. Some people always think of gay men as feminine-type of guy who like to act as women and running for every good-lookig guy on a street. This book will give readers more understanding in gay people.

I gave this book to my mother when my partner and I decided to have a commitment ceremony. Mom was having trouble understanding and didn't seem to recognize our commitment to each other as equally valid to straight marriages. After she read the book, she sent my partner a HUGE bouquet of flowers and a card telling him she was so pleased that he was going to become an "official" part of our family!

The photomosaics in this book are the most superb that I have ever seen. The book provides close-ups, so that you may see each individual picture. The book has a wide variety of photomosaics, and the one that touched me the most was the AIDS Memorial quilt one. This is a fabulous for photography busts, and non-photography books alike. This is an amazing collection that can be appreciated by many people.

The quality of each and every mosaic in this book is stupendous. Looking at all the pictures is almost therapeutic. With the microscope provided, hours can be spent looking at the tiny pictures that create a beautiful scene from a distance. The amount of effort and time put into this book seems baffling, but the author's effort truly pays off.

This is the most inspiring use of photography with computer work I've come across. It sent me out to have a full sixe 20x36 for my Entertainment Room. Can't wait until the entire room is a Photomosaic. Thumbs up for sure to Mr. Silvers