Documentary-Collection Books

Darin Mickey's new book 'Stuff I Gotta Remember Not To Forget' is a superb visual account a his family living in Kansas City. The photographs are focused on his father a salesman and a hard working class man. While the book remains thematic Mickey's individual photographs stand on their own merit.
Darin Mickey, from Kansas himself, uses his experience and instinct to explore, through his photographs of his father, the culture and character of his home state. Kansas has gone through many shifts since the 1950's. Mickey's work captures the essence of his subject with sensitivity and scope.

Many civilized people have trouble releasing the full amount of energy in a hammer blow that they are physically capable of; to do it right calls for deadly accuracy and a certain amount of barbaric abandon. In much the same way within Stuff I gotta Remember Darin Mickey endeavors to document his father's life both at work and at home. Darin's father who sells storage space in converted caves and abandoned mines in Kansas City. The photographs follow Darin following his father as he makes cold calls, watches television, attends meetings at the Masonic Temple, drives through underground tunnels, and drinks scotch. Mickey's pictures convincingly convey the feelings an adult has toward his parents; an unfamiliarity with the familiar, and the vying feelings of attraction and rejection toward where one comes from. The title - taken from a Ziggy bulletin board - implies both the ambivalence and urgency of what family means once one leaves the fold. As much a memoir of Mickey's family life as a portrait of a salesman, Stuff I Gotta Remember Not To Forget is a document of the suburban Midwest, in turns honest, ridiculous and tender.

Welshman Jones Griffiths is one of the world's foremost photojounralists, and it's hard to believe that this is first book in since his highly influential 1971 work "Vietnam, Inc." This collection opens with a six striking early portraits from Wales and England in the 1950s-60s. The most memorable is of a litlte boy about to smash a large rock on top of a pian aso left in a scrap heap. These represent his budding career taking shots in his spare time, and are remarkable for the amount of expression he is able to capture, whether it's on the faces of weary coal miners, wary schoolchildren, or waiting mourners.

Following a laudatory introduction by New Yorker writer Murray Sayle, the bulk of the book is comprised of Jones Griffiths' international work, undertaken as a member (and president) of the presitgious Magnum photographers cooperative. His photography is informed by a strong sense of compassion and empathy for the victims of opression and war. The compositions are strong and many of the images are loaded with stark symbolism. From the very front of the book we get shots of a fat white missionary in knee high socks standing amidst natives in New Guinea, scantily clad European tourists lounging with drinks by a river in Gambia, a white Rhodesian golfer considering her shot with three black caddies and the African savannah in the background.

His series of ten photos from Northern Ireland in the early '70s is loaded with surreal and striking images: a soldier crouches behind a wall in a garden while a woman mows the lawn right behind him; another soldier is prone behind sandbags on a street while women push strollers past him; one of the best portraits in the book is of a grim-faced paratrooper reloads a CS gun. A middle section is scattered with a hodgepodge of images from around the world from the 60s to the early 90s. The book ends with forty images from Vietnam and Camodia, most of which are from his three years there during the war and also appear in Vietnam, Inc.

Defintely a must have for anyone interested in photojournalism.

Phillip Jones Griffiths is one of the greatest living photographers today. This is no small achievement, and can only be clearly understood examining his photographs.
Griffiths is probably best known for his book "Vietnam, Inc." (many of those photographs are included in this edition) but many of his greatest are contained in this superb volume, including some images of the weary, haunted faces of the children of Wales, his birthplace.
Being Welsh, and on the recieving end of British expansionism, Griffiths clearly sympathises (and rightly so) with the Vietnamise civilians (on the recieving end of French AND American expansionism)whose pleading expressions demonstrate clearly how much Americans were "helping" them evade the "evil grip of communism".
If I were to own ONE book of photographs, I would without hesitation choose this volume, for it's images are not only an important documentation of one of the darkest pieces of American history, but an amazing and invaluable work of art.

Wojnarowicz taught himself photography and painting. The Aperture Foundation printed this book for their photography series, but David's paintings (which are well-represented in this collection) represent the culmination of his art.

David incorporates prose, politics, photography, painting and social criticism in a non-heirachical manner. Look at the cover, and you will see that he is the equal of Keith Haring.

David Wojnarowicz is presented here almost in his total artistic form (only the music playing and the filmmaking are absent). The paintings and photographs -- beautifully reproduced -- go together with sparse writings by the artist. Adding to this first-hand material, there are several very insightful essays on his work, as well as interviews of other artists who knew him. The way all features are organized is also pretty well balanced. This one is, therefore, the perfect artistic album: enchanting, at times almost paralyzing in its beauty, and quite useful in the information it gives about Wojnarowicz and his work.

This collection of large photographs of the people and places in Italy is absolutely stunning. The photos include not only the popular landmarks but also the people, their families, and is able to portray more than just the "touristy" part of Italy.

It is a shame that it is out of print! It is the perfect "coffee table" book!

This collection of large photographs of the people and places in Italy is absolutely stunning. The photos include not only the popular landmarks but also the people, their families, and is able to portray more than just the "touristy" part of Italy.

It is a shame that it is out of print! It is the perfect "coffee table" book!

These photographs were originally published in 1967 and at the time, they represented the norm for solid earnest photography. that is, the technique and understated design stood in service of the images. By the way, I've seen the actual photographs. The Museum of the City of New York just opened a show of these same images. So one reacts not to the photo but to the subject: these now long gone buildings, and the even older signs of a long past life (for example a calendar from 1951 on the wall of one of the shabby lofts).

This work stands in sharp contrast to the current trend in photography .... a typical current show will feature large scale images, usually in color, always over printed. I will be standing in front of a life sized and unflattering portrait of a person - and wonder why the image was selected. After noting the skin texture (always more present than in life) I walk away with... nothing. Not so with these. I first saw this book in 1970 when in a sculpture class in Cooper Union. Although I had not seen the book in at least 25 years, I never forgot them.

Buy the book - it will be one book you will look at for sure 25 years hence.

You mean I don't have to pay $300 dollars for a used copy of this on auction? Great. That's what they've been selling for before this reissue. It's about time. I never thought I'd own a copy until now, without paying a small ransom.

The "Big Dig" in Boston is the largest construction task ever to be undertaken by mankind, surpassing that of the building of the Panama Canal. Michael Hintlian's ongoing committment to document the work of the Big Dig has yielded powerful photographs, which appear in Digging. The images in Digging artistically capture the construction, with an emphasis on showing that the backbreaking, hands-on labors of men--not just machines--are what made it all possible.

With the publication of Digging: The Workers of Boston's Big Dig, Michael Hintlian claims his place as one of the most important photographers working today.

At its most basic, Digging is to the workers of Boston's Big Dig, the endless construction project that has remade the face of downtown Boston, what Lewis Hine's work from the early 1930s is to the workers who built the Empire State Building: a memorial in photographs to the pure muscle power that makes real the dreams of engineers. Hintlian set out more than four years ago to preserve for the ages the contribution of the workers whose daily toil would otherwise be forgotten when the last concret was poured and the Big Dig was finally finished.

But Digging is far, far more than an ambitious work of documentary photography. For the more time Hintlian spent in the bowels of the earth beneath Boston, the more he seems to have realized what a surrealistic undertaking the Big Dig is, and the more surrealistic his work became. The traditional documentary photographer who initially donned workboots and warm winter gear to negotiate the mud of what was then the world's largest construction site, morphed over the years into an art photographer, a surrealist art photographer.

For the images that fill the pages of digging include the workers of Boston's Big Dig, but they include them as part of compositions whose beauty has more to do with light and shadow, with the interplay of shapes and forms, and with irony and the juxtaposition of objects and formss, than it does to do with workers and their tasks.

Digging: The Workers of Boston's Big Dig is a work of documentary photography, and it is a tribute to the men who dug the Big Dig. But it is also a work of photography as fine art. And as such it is not to be missed by anyone who cares about either documentary photography, or the art of photography.

danny is a brillant photographer--a master with black and white film and obviously a very creative guy with his subject matter. a lot of thought goes into his photos. this is an excellent book

Danny Clinch is, in my opinion, the most skilled rock photographer the genre has seen. And it isn't just rock - his subjects come from a multitude of musical backgrounds. His photographs are gorgeously composed, often spontaneous, intimate, insightful, and articulate. Most notably, his work breaks through the superficial shell of music legends that they have become accustomed to showing to the media. Clinch approaches these people on a personal level, and in doing so captures moments with a sensitivity and decisiveness that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere. He works in any number of formats, but regardless of the camera he's using, the results are consistently good. This book is an amazing showcase of Clinch's work and is something both music fans and followers of photography will find great value in. Highly recommended.

I love dogs - all kinds and every kind. I also love reading quotes about dogs because so many of them are thoughts I have had but just never put into words. This book is WONDERFUL. The pictures are priceless and the quotes will have you nodding your head and smiling. I recommend buying two copies of this book because you will inevitably want to share it with your dog-loving friends but you will not want to part with your copy.

This, like Best Friends, is a great little collection of cute photoghraphs and true quotes. I would recommend this book to all dog lovers and anyone who likes to look at pictures. You'll read it over and over again.

This book is THE book for Don's work. I found it, and another collection of his work in a book store and this is the clear winner!

I read an interview with Don McCullin in a photography magazine recently in which he described why he is different to other war photojournalists. His response was that he learned to be compassionate about his subjects. Not to just take photos of horror but also try and capture that emotion that the victims of war feel.... all I can say is that he succeeds completely.

While looking through this book you are confronted with the reality of war. It's not CNN, it's not your standard major newspaper shots either - it's the real deal. Looking at dead bodies, or children starving to death, or women crying over the bodies of their assassinated husbands you can't help but want to cry with them.

This book will change everything that you believe about war...if you let it.

Don McCullin is one of the greatest photographers of our time and this 295-page book beautifully reproduces Mr. McCullin's work. The book includes stunning black and white images of England, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Cyprus, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, Beirut and Bangladesh. For example, the book contains (at page 90) an exceptionally moving photograph of a Turkish woman discovering the body of her new husband, killed with his brother and father in Cyprus in 1964. On the lighter side of life, the book includes gorgeous landscapes of Scotland. And the size of the images is large enough to really do them justice. I highly recommend this book.

The guys depicted here are beautiful and enthralling. Douglas, whomever he was, did what many photographers of the male nude from this period did; he captured the full essence of the body instead of focusing obsessively on erotic areas the way modern phophotographers do. I would recommend this book to anyone who simply enjoys looking at beautiful young men in all their glory.

This is the fourth volume in a series devoted to the classical physique photographers of the mid 20th century. Douglas of Detroit may not have been as famous as Bruce of LA or Bob Mizer, however, he produced photographs that compare favorably with any of his contemporaries. The content is primarily black & white full-page photos ending with a few color shots. Most of the photos are staged indoors with emphasis on controlled lighting. There are a few outdoor shots. There is ample, tastefully presented and staged frontal nudity. The models appear to be comfortable and at ease. This comes across as artistic not pornographic. There are too few examples of a photographic technique that was unique to Douglas of Detroit. He produced some wonderful double exposures using the same model for both images. Many of these shots are quite evocative. If you are a fan of mid-century phsique photography then this is a definite must- have book. Highly recommended.