Documentary-Collection

In Found Lives, James Nocito has devised a unique method of utilizing his many old photographs, either given to him or collected at various estate and tag sales. Through careful scrutiny of the elements in the photograph (the people, expressions, angles, shadows, background, etc.) Nocito has created new and imaginitive lives and situations for the subjects. In one, an outdoor scene under tall trees, a smiling man holds an equally smiling woman upside down in his arms. "Everyone said poor Aunt Constance was made of patience, married to a man like Roscoe. The ladies in her Bible group prayed that there'd be a moment's rest for her someday...."

The book is divided into sections, with headings such as "Family Album," "Talking Pictures," and "Love." Under "Children," Nocito has reproduced a picture of a laughing child on a back porch, along with a quote from Anne Cameron, "A Child of Happiness always seems like an old soul living in a new body...she smiles, then the sun lights up the world." Each photograph provides a little vignette into the imagined lives of men, women, and children in the past, bucolic scenes which may recall photographs we may have, stored away in our own attics or old shoe boxes, forgotten, until James Nocito revives and revitalizes them for us.

No matter what your age, you will be touched by the compelling words and images brought to life by James Nocito. With every turn of the page, one feels as if they have discovered a private family treasure. It evokes tender emotions, sadness, wonder, and joy. It satisfies the need we have to connect with our past, and find wisdom in the lives of others. This is a wonderful gift that will grow more precious with time.

What a treat to come across this book! I am neither a photography buff nor someone steeped in nostalgia, but Nocito's eye for snapshots from an earlier time and his ear for the stories that might go with them is astonishing. The lure is in both the details and in the window it provides to an earlier time and place, one we all share on the level of memories that are visceral. The pictures are funny and startling and genuine. They tell us how much of our lives have changed and how much they have stayed the same over the past decades. A real delight and one that bears repeating. Unlike other "picture" books, this one offers its delights over and over. Great gift, especially to yourself.

The black and white images show what every day life was like in Greece when Manos made these pictures. The pictures speak to the heart and show the darkness and light in life, which is what black and film does best. Manos obviously had to have been in Greece long enough to understand the people and their lives and his pictures show it. This is a book to treasure.

will love this book. It captures a time in our existence as human beings and particularly for those who trace their heritage to Greece that is unparalleled in art. These photographs, in your quiet moments of reflection, will warm your heart and soul, and for Greeks and those who love Greece, will remind you of the importance of history and the story told through art.

If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then Manos' "A Greek Portfolio" speaks volumes! Mr. Manos has captured (thankfully!) a Greece that is now more or less gone. Luckily for us, he was photographing at a time before McDonalds became an everyday sight, before "Rooms to Let" signs dotted the landscape, before everyone owned a cellular phone. Even in remote and rural parts of Greece today, it is rare to find images, activities, and people similar to those seen in this book. As an anthropologist, I think this is a great ethnographic work; as a Greek-American I think this is wonderful "window" to the homeland of yore!

This large-format book contains photos of young men taken from the 1920s through to the 1950s. They are amazingly fresh and vibrant, sexy, modern yet classical, and show this great photographer's vision and love of the male form. The models are for the most part aged between 18-25.

It's amazing to think that even some of the oldest of these images are so fresh that they may have come from the 1980s. Sometimes the clothing (of which there is little) shows the period in which the pictures were made but most of them have a tingling vibrancy and liveliness that belies their age. It's odd to think that the beautiful naked youth from the 1920s is probably no longer alive, yet his beauty and grace have, by List's skill, transcended time and we get the chance to wonder about how he lived; what he made of his life; and to ponder on how youthful beauty, though transient, can last forever.

This book is a truly wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any connoiseur of both early photography and male beauty.

It's a beautiful book about cute boys of 20's and 50's in Germany and Greece.

A sly grin to Goodbye to Berlin, Temple and alike...

Spectacular dreamy/nightmarish visions of aging, youth, beauty and timeless images.

I am not an expert in critiquing photography, but I know what I like, so know this: Joyce Tenneson's work is incredible! If only more of her books were still in print...

But if you don't believe me, see for yourself.

Black and white photos may be all the rage for people who want poetic images, but Illuminations contains some of the most surreal, breathtakingly beautiful images I've ever seen. From the haunted old woman to the progression of the pregnant girl to the androgynous figures, every image in this book carries a power that reminds me of the cinematic.

The photos in this book are not about Los Alamos, New Mexico. Although some of them may have been taken there, many--maybe most--are from Eggleston's familiar Deep South. One is done in an airplane flying over God-knows-where.

But the photos aren't about the locations. They are about color. And the main colors are red, white and blue.

If Eggleston's "...Guide" was photographed under the influence of the design of the Confederate flag (as Eggleston has claimed), then the framework and inspiration for this book are the colors of the American flag.

Robert Frank's monotone classic "Americans" had the underlying theme of the American flag. Eggleston's "Los Alamos" uses the colors of the flag as a motif. Shot over the years 1966 through 1974, there is a range of emotions within the photographs. There is cynicism--those were times ripe with cynicism--but there is also much found to admire in the American landscape at that time. Particularly the richness of the colors portrayed in the most banal and commonplace of subjects. In this arena, few photographic artists compare with William Eggleston.

Los Alamos is a full-color, 175-page, photographic portrait of a New Mexican town. These images, captured on film by master photographer William Eggleston, range from 1966 to 1974 and superbly capture the ups, downs, scenery, and close-ups of a living, breathing city. No text distracts from the full-page photographs, which are presented as the works of art they are. This large sized compendium is a welcome and recommended addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Photography collection.

Eggleston is a bit of a mystery. His photographs make you open your eyes wide and say, "Wow!" but it's hard to say what it is about them that is so stunning. This book is the best thing he has published to date and it offers the clearest window into Eggleston's genius that I've seen. Reproduced on large pages in rich colors that leap out and shake you until you splutter, these pictures bypass the intellect and kick your sense of raw beauty like a mule with a belly full of habaneros.

It's clear to you that the beauty is all about the color, or is it? What's happening with the composition? Soemthing is at the tip of your tongue, but try as you might, you can't say what makes these pictures so obviously works of great genius.

When you calm back down and try to figure how a book of pictures that look almost like snapshots could sting you so hard, the accompanying essay by Thomas Weski gives the best account of Eggleston's work that I've seen to date---short, but clearer and more insightful than Janet Malcolm's meditation on color and snapshots in Diana and Nikon or Eudora Welty's introduction to The Democratic Forest.

It took me a year to get all the way through it. Each image is independently powerful, enough so that I had to spend a great deal of time studying each diptic (a year in total). If you can judge this book by it's cover, then judge it by one word on it's cover - MAGNUM. You won't be disappointed.

This collection of Magnum photographs is amazing. The pictures are broken into differnet thematic or geographic categories--war, environment, famine, etc. While there is very little text and almost no captions at all, the pictures are enough to speak to the subject. It contains both recent photographs and old ones, becoming something like an encyclopediea of photography.

It is a beautiful edition, worth having and will make an excellent, classy present not only for a photography enthusiast, but for everybody.

Yet another collection of beautiful photographs from the legends of Magnum. Beautifully bound and annotated with text. Includes old and new pics. A must have on every decent bookshelf.

A small book containing a plethora of beautiful photographs, some of which I've seen nowhere else (the Halsman "leaping" shots, for example). Truman Capote's essay at the beginning also reveals a raunchy, funny Marilyn rarely seen in other writings. Marilyn had such a wide variety of friends in New York and Los Angeles, and it's interesting to read a literary giant's take on a screen giant --and enduring icon-- like Marilyn.

This short collection contains some of the greatest photos, and some of the most memorable, of marilyn monroe. the essay by truman capote was charming and showed us a good deal of the real marilyn. my only complaint is that it ended too soon.

This book features a wide variety of wonderful photographs of Marilyn Monroe. It spans her very earliest photographs before she was a star, up to some of the last ones ever taken of her. In between are movies photos, publicity photos, and some candid photos that show her in a more thoughtful mood. The text by Truman Capote is very touching to read and reveals how vulnerable, yet worldly wise, Ms. Monroe was. This book is a treasure trove of wonderful photographs!

The photos included in Sklenar's first published collection of his work represent nearly 30 years of output, and what the photographer calls the "the weigh stations" of his life: Prague, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Thompson, Mexico, and Gallup. What the photos show, according to Sklenar, is that "life is the same everywhere, people suffer and are happy in much the same way." His assessment is correct. However, the extraordinary gift he has for revealing the extraordinary cannot go without mention. -- Belinda Acosta, for The Austin Chronicle.

Opening this book you step into the world and life of photographer Milan Sklenar. He shows the viewer the places he has been, and the faces he has seen. The range of faces and emotions - fear, hope, despair, joy, boredom, suspicion - are matched by the diversity of locations - Mexico, New York, Thompson, Los Angeles, Montreal, Prague. Although each viewer will undoubtably bring his own experiences to the book and form his own interpretations, no one will be unmoved by these powerful images.

Over 100 photos of this Czech-American artist are presented for the first time in Milan Sklenar: Photographs, a volume which captures urban and street life in stark black and white photos. The artist lived in the streets - his photos of street life in different cultural settings from Mexico to Montreal provide intriguing contrasts and similarities.

The surrealism was an unholy movement in french construction of culture. Tonns too much human (passed definition), tonns too much animal (current def) Francesca Woodman as any one of the (Rimbaud, Jean Pierre Duprey, Roger Gilbert-Leconte) brothers in arms involved in the GRAND JEU did not find the time to experience the quest further than its incarnation. Another group at the same time involved itself in the same quest as FW for the body and soul reconciliation through sensations and emotions. Roger Gilbert-Leconte, Rene Daumal, Joseph Sima more than the surrealists were FW's brothers in arms...

fun france I live with an as assumed as a modern woman can be clone of Francesca Woodman

This book is an excellent collection of the limited work of a young woman who would have dominated American Photography had it not been for her unfortunate demise. It is essential for all serious art photographers
I first saw a retrospective show of her work in Boulder Colorado after her death and it has never left my mind. I find it hard to believe that it has taken this long for a published collection like this to come along.
It is truly remarkable in every way.

However remarkable and achingly tender, Woodman images are as rare as a rhinoserous horn at an Asian bazaar. Some years ago a portfolio of Woodman photographs was reprinted. This small handfull of images was reproduced again and again. The group of "known" images grew somewhat as various small books or catalogs were published. The real strength of Woodman as an artist is evidenced by the fact that as every heretofore unseen image gets published, such as in this sizable book, the delicacy, richness, and complexity of Woodman's moltenly beautiful yet hauntingly tragic body of work grows exponentially. The original group of oft-reproduced images is revealed as random sampling of many images of the same captivating quality. There is so much that is not known about this work that each expanded treatment becomes a startling revelation. Gracious thanks to any book that begins to give this most underappreciated genuis suicide her due.

Jon Ortner takes exceptional photographs. For New York City lovers, it truly doesn't get any better than this. Though I live about 70 miles from Manhattan (Long Island, NY), I rarely get the opportunity to visit, making this book perfect for me. This book truly brings the best of Manhattan right to you.
Mr. Ortner covers all aspects of the city, including climbing to the top of the famous Verrazano Narrows Bridge (Brooklyn- Staten Island, NY) and taking exceptional view photos.
This book is a wonderful buy. $42 is worth it. You won't be sorry you purchased it!

If you're looking for just one volume of photographs of The Big Apple, you've found the one to buy. I've just completed my 6th visit to New York since 1997, and I'm so glad I found this book. Believe me -- I'm really picky about this sort of thing, and each one of Jon Ortner's photographs is breathtaking. All the other New York books don't even begin to compare with this one. Looking through this book is like being back in New York again. All the major sites of Manhattan are there -- The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, Central Park and more.

Don't hesitate to buy this book.

I found this book by chance in a 2nd hand bookstore the day when the towers of the WTC collapsed. It brought tears to my eyes to see how impressive and beautiful the skyline and these buildings were.

The pictures in this book are excellent and show the city in the mellow light of early morning and evening. My favorite is the one showing the Statue of Liberty with the WTC towers behind it, almost dwarfing it. For me this picture captures the essence of NYC.