Documentary-Collection Books

I knew Richard, he was a great inspiration for all photographers, we all admired him for his work and as a person, we miss him, so this book is truly a wonderful memoriam to a great and inspirational man, I love it.
Michael Dunne, London

This fascinating book could be described as a collaborative effort and can best be enjoyed for what it is when we know something of the variety of characters contained within its pages.

Richard Avedon was born in to a Jewish-Russian family in New York on May 15, 1944 He commenced his career as a photographer in 1942, taking identification pictures of the seamen. In 1946, Avedon established his own studio and producing material for a list of illustrious publications which includied Vogue magazine. Soon thereafter he became the main photographer for Harper's Bazaar. A main characteristic of Avedon's style of work was that his photographs conveyed three dimensional models with vivacity; laughing, smiling, or, at other times, being `snapped' whilst involved in a particular activity.

Avedon later broadened his repertoire and even photographed patients of sanitariums, as well as more `mainstream' subjects such as protesters of the Vietnam War and the demise of the Berlin Wall. Avedon also produced a couple of distinctive - and now famous -shots of The Beatles as well as the portrait material contained within the The White Album (1968).
Sadly, Richard Avedon died while shooting an assignment for The New Yorker in San Antonio, Texas, on October 1, 2004. Even then, at this advanced stage of his career, he was still a formidable, original, creative force, undertaking and allocating time for new, challenging projects of divers sorts.

So, with such a pedigree - and we have not mentioned Avedon's fascination with other groups and `types' within society, nor details of his connection with other elements of the press or publishing industry here - it is easy to understand why any volume, collaborative or otherwise, from such a fascinating, iconic photographer (and this reviewer is not given to using such terms lightly) .

This volume can be recommended for a number of reasons. It features work produced by Avedon in the life and works of members of the performing arts; to be more precise, John Lahr is the son of actor Bert Lahr, but is well accredtited in his own right. He is now the Senior Drama Critic of The New Yorker and, in 2002, became the first drama critic ever to win a Tony Award. Mike Nichols has won an American Emmy Award, an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and also a Tony Award (as stage and film director, writer, and producer). André Gregory is both an American director and actor. He appeared as the title character in My Dinner with Andre. Mitsuko Uchida is a classical pianist, perhaps best, but by no means exclusively, known for her performances of Mozart (especially the Sonata in C), Beethoven, and Schubert. Her father has been the Japanese ambassador to Austria. Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer and is the author of `Push Comes to Shove' (1999) and `The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life' (2006).

As a person who engages with images as types of sources, reflecting stages and epochs of history, this reviewer enjoyed this volume and can warmly recommend it even though the `images' are more biographical in some ways. It will not be to everyone's taste, but it undoubtedly offers a fascinating and quite compendious view on the subjects outlined and captured. Each reader and viewer will most probably take something valuable to their own `self', image and portrait.

Michael Calum Jacques (author of 1st Century Radical: the shadowy origins of the man who became known as Jesus Christ)

For former Philadelphians who retain any residual interest in the city's social/economic/labor history or, for that matter, for anyone from anywhere who's interested in the 20th century history of Billy Penn's old creation, this is a winner. Not only does it contain an abundance of great old photos but the narrative commentary is chock-full of interesting (even jaw-dropping, in some cases) bits of historical info of the "who knew?" variety. The best book of its kind I've ever read.

Philadelphia Stories is an outstanding photo-journal chronicling the years 1920 through 1960; the photos are excellent and really took me back to my childhood days through Port Richmond, Kensington, Juniata and Frankford! A "Must-Read" for anyone interested in Philadelphia History or just to Stroll down Memory Lane. Thoroughly enjoyable - I was thrilled to find this terrific book at Amazon.com !

Photohistorica packs in rare photographic images from the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, packing in over three hundred color and duotone photos in all subject areas in a history of the medium. Photohistorica isn't intended to be the usual photographic reference book, but a collection of images selected for their visual impact and long-standing importance. Rare works and unique images abound. Should be an art library's mainstay.

Review Summary: This book deserves more than five stars for ravishing reproductions of the finest British photographs drawn for the remarkable collection of The Royal Photographic Society. While more than 70 percent of the collection comes from its members, you will also find outstanding works by many American photographers whose works have been added to the collection. The quality of this book is superb from its essays about the history of photography to discussions of how various methods evolved. If you only plan to own one book of British photography, this is the one to have!

Viewer Caution: The book contains many nude images that would cause the material to exceed what would cause a motion picture to earn an R rating.

Review: The successor to The Royal Photographic Society was founded as The Photographic Society of London in 1853. The Society's collection now contains over 270,000 images dating from 1826 to the present day. This volume contains representative examples of the best of the collection, drawn both from the ranks of the famous and the little known. Some of these photographs are published for the first time in this volume. Although containing works that will delight the most sophisticated, the images are chosen to be appealing to those who know little about photography as well.

The book is organized around photography as portaiture, social documentary, domestic family uses, nature and science applications, artistic images, nudes, fashion, landscapes, architecture, and travel. Each section begins with a superb, easy-to-understand historical perspective on the subject matter that traces the developments and the roles of key photographers.

The pages are very large, and the book's design maximizes the opportunity to create either large images or use lots of white space to show each image at its best. Many of the effects are very subtle, and the reproductions capture these elements well.

Anyone who has always wanted to know the differences among Daguerrotypes, calotypes, albumen prints, wet collodion positives, and platinum prints will find both the introductory essay and the appendix on processes to be invaluable and easy to understand.

Contrary to my usual practice, I will not list my favorite images in the book. I was enthralled with almost all of them! If you are like me, you will find the faces, compositions, and moods of these works to be especially strong.

This is one of the five best photography books it has been my pleasure to read and view.

After you finish enjoying this wonderful look at the past world, imagine how you would want to photograph the future for us all. What images would be in it? Who would be in those images? What stories would they tell? How can you help make all this happen?

Create the illustrated story of your life by imaging it first in your mind!

It is ironic that a book documenting this era in Texas history would command such a price. For those who love Texas and Texas history this book contains moving photographs that document the struggles of pre war, poor Texans in the late 30's and early 40's. Compare and contrast the images of migrant farmers and sharecroppers with the relatively well to do cattlemen and oil field workers. For me, it was worth the price.

The depression-era Farm Security Administration photographs are some of the best examples of documentary photography in America. Some of the collector volumes are out of range price-wise, but this is a wonderful series within any budget. Highly recommended.

I recently met Michael at a restraunt were I work. He is a very sweet and kind hearted person:o) He gave me this book. I just love it. It explains alot of my heart. The pictures are beautiful and the words are what life should be about. I recommend this to anyone at any age:o)))) Thanks michael! Please write more you are a faboulus writer! And he is what he writes! God bless him:O))))))))))))))))))))))))) Rhonda

I found this book to be spellbinding. I have felt the same feelings that the author decribes about special natural places. I recommend this to all children and the young at heart.

I have this book-got it at her exhibit a few years ago here in Chicago. Her photographic style is of a dreamlike quality, and while her exact method of producing her photos remains a secret, the results are breathtaking. If you can't get to one of her shows, then at least buy the book - it makes you want to escape to these lovely garden settings. One of the better scenic photographers I've seen in a while.

Black & white images of gardens from around the world. Some gardens well know, some not, but all captured in a style only this photographer brings to the world. A book that deserves to be placed where everyone can see and look through it. A book that you'll read many times, seeing something new in each photograph every time.

The words and images of this beautiful book evoke feelings of love and gratitude. To God, to Nature, to the people, places and things in harmony with their surroundings. The photographer, author, and poet show true understanding of the meaning of life. Of simpler ways and of times past; while giving hope for the future, and times to come.

Lee Marmon is a Laguna Pueblo Indian who has been taking photographs of Laguna with professional cameras since 1946.
If you've seen the poster of the elderly Indian man wearing Converse All Stars (the image on this book's cover), you've seen Marmon's work.

This collection of his work since 1946 would be worthwhile if it simply documented the ceremonies, buildings, landscapes, faces and figures-what had changed and what did not---over more than a half century. But this volume is so much more. These are beautiful photographs, mostly in black and white. The stark magic of the Southwestern landscape was captured in the abstract paintings of artists like Georgia O'Keefe and Max Ernst. But black and white photos are inherently abstract, since they turn the world of color into shades and grains. Put a master photographer who knows his subject so intimately together with this landscape and you get one astonishing image after another.

There are wonderful faces, dramatic landscapes, close-ups that let you feel the grain of old wood. There's a different feeling in every photo, indescribable in words. And the feelings can be surprising, like the strange joy in "Girls at a clothesline," with white clothes flying against a wisp of cloud, yet in the foreground is a harsh and radiant edge of stone.

There are a smaller number of color photos, just as accomplished and evocative. There's some prose by Marmon's daughter, writer Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as by writers Joy Harjo and Simon Ortiz. But it's the photographs that are important here. They draw you in, and your eyes and heart expand. If you know someone who loves the mystery and bare majesty of the Southwest, or relishes authentic and beautiful images of American Indian life, this book makes an elegant gift for Christmas or any other occasion. If that person is you, do yourself a favor. You won't have any trouble entering these images. The secrets are there.

It is a big big book. The compositions are powerful, the colors, and the details. You are realy in there, in the depth, the immensity of the quarries. For those who know quarries, it is a real travel. Amazing.

Burtynsky shoots stunning pictures. There are many great photographers (and photography books) out there but his pictures are full of color and precision and the subject matter is a wonder to behold.

Rainbow Cuisine is one of the most comprehensive recipe books on traditional South African food ever printed. It presents recipes for food from all the multi-ethnic components of South africa's 'Rainbow Nation'. Some of these recipes are updated for modern cooking trends. The historical background and magnificent photography accompanying the recipes make this not only an interesting book but a wonderful gift.

I bought this book in South Africa more or less for the pretty pictures, but it has become my favorite and most used cookbook. As most cookbooks are, this cookbook is broken into sections for different parts of the meal: Soups and Salads, Side dishes, Poultry, Fish, Meat, Sambals and Preserves, Breads and homebakes. It also includes a section on making your own spice mixtures (like garam masala and roasted masala) and basic condiments (like mayonnaise). Favorite recipes among my friends and family include the Cape Brandy Pudding and Chicken biryani. In between each section are descriptions of the different regions of South Africa, replete with crisp and glittering photographs of flora, fauna, and scenery. Rainbow Cuisine it ultimately true to its name: it has a wide variety of recipes, reflecting the wide variety of cultures of South Africa, from Cape Malay to English and from Afrikaner to Ndebele. Although some of the dishes are pretty much impossible to make in the US (Roast loin of kudu, for example), those dishes are in the minority and, other than meats, it uses ingredients that are widely available (though some translation might need to be involved: like naartje = tangerine and sodium bicarbonate = baking soda). The only semi-inconvenient issue the book has is that all of the measurements in the recipes are given in metric units and temperatures are given in Celsius. There is a very useful conversion table in the back of the book, and if you're less forgetful than I am, you should have no problem, but I inevitably forget to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and then wonder why it takes so long for everything to cook. That said, I love this book. It's perfect as a gift - I take any excuse to buy it for my friends and family (birthdays, holidays, or just because I found it on sale), and everyone who uses it loves it.

Children wearing masks. Kids waving flags in rotting rooms. Boys wrestling. Fields of tall grass. Falling-down houses. Meatyard's images are haunting, compelling, telling complicated stories of youth and aging, loneliness and progress, of young boys yearning to be old as captured by an older man who knows better. for my money, meatyard's one of america's very greatest photographers.

Ralph Meatyard is surely not one of the great names of photographic history, but he does deserve a place as far as originality is concerned. He is truly an American original, a poet, a visionary artist of the highest caliber. Using family and friends, Meatyard created a gothic world worthy of Poe and Faulkner. A modest man, rasing a family and working as an optometrist, Meatyard managed to create a world straddling dream and reality. He wasn't afraid to experiment and, using a minimum amount of equipment, but a maximum amount of creativity and experimentation, he snapped a record of both beauty and weirdness. It's surprising that he lived on the border of North and South, in that his work seems so southern in feeling. One has only to create a book of photos by Meatyard, coupled with the poetry of the Arkansas poet Frank Stanford, to create a true work of gothic beauty. All one can say is that he's a true original who deserves to be appreciated. James Hoffman