Documentary-Collection Books

This is a book for young and old. The photographs of environmentally-endangered areas across Canada are superb; the authors provide useful facts and figures as well as a touching and sometimes amusing narrative of their adventures as they journeyed across the country.

The Ozarks are known for their natural beauty and grace. No book can more fully capture both the complexity and simplicity of the area as well as Images of the Ozarks. Travel the area with some of the region's best photographers as they capture the Ozarks in their full splendor. With each turn of the page, the reader will find themselves more and more eager to visit each scene in person.

This catalogue from the inaugural exhibition of the National African American Museum at the Smithsonian is a compact survey of fifteen contemporary photographers whose work addresses "...themes relating to gender, family, race, differences, and stereotypes." The catalogue features reproductions of work not often available in publication form as well as artist statements about each body of work and a succinct summation of each aritsts practice from curator and author Deborah Willis. An excellent teaching tool and must have for any serious student of photography.

Dorothea LangeIn Focus: Dorothea Lange: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (In Focus (J. Paul Getty Museum))Dorothea Lange provides us with a great insight into the human condition and the state of humanity. Her photographs are timeless works of excellence. Anyone interested in photography, history or humanity will find her work compelling.

An excellent book outlining about 50 of Weegee's photographs currently on display at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. I saw the exhibit today and was so impressed I picked up the book at the museum bookstore. The book organizes the pictures by subject matter rather than chronological order. He covered the harsh reality of life in New York City from the 1930's through the 1960's. Following the photographs is a short colloquium on Weegee's life.

This is a book of beauty. It's not a catalogue of airplanes -- there are plenty other books like that -- this is a collection of pieces of photographic art. There are quotes and some intelligent interesting background information on each plane or spacecraft; but the stars are the almost abstract stunning photographs. The jet intake of a MiG-21F, a peeling paint close-up of Gemini IV, the lines of a Grob 103, the exhaust nozzle of an F-104A Starfighter. It's a Technicolor high-def love affair with mechanical bits of aviation history. Worth getting a coffee table for . . .

Thank you to Laura and Godfrey for capturing a piece of history that might have been otherwise been lost forever. These pictures and this story have an amazing lesson for all of us... that even the poorest of us can have rich blessings of friends, family and an extended network of community that can be more important than our physical surroundings. To all of us who have an influence over the shaping of bricks and mortar in communities, this book is a wonderful caution that we MUST NOT overlook the importance of community relationships in our zealousness to improve the physical conditions of the neighborhood. This is a delicate balance that must be preserved lest our community revatilization efforts be in vain.

This book shares the light, color, and poetry of Mexico with its readers. The photographer's passion for his subjects comes through with every photo. It is also an interesting view into the unique Mexican history of fiestas; the context of the traditions within daily life is very intriguing. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in either Mexico or color photography. It is a beautiful and sensitive work.

This is a magnificent book of hand-colored photographs of Christians, Jews and Muslims and their homes and villages. The photographs were commissioned by Ari Speelman, a Dutchman in the 1920s. Besides the photographs, the book also contains essays on the photos, an introduction to each image and on Speelman. This would make a great gift [and at a great price here], a beautiful coffee table book, and a wonderful browsing experience for armchair travelers.

During World War II, Heinrich Jost was a sergeant in the German Army stationed near Warsaw, Poland when he became curious about the corpses he had seen lying along the walls of the Jewish Ghetto. An amateur photographer, Heinrich took his Rolleiflex camera into the Ghetto in September 1941 (unaware of the situation that awaited him there) and spontaneously shot several rolls of film taking pictures of street vendors and corpse carriers, dying children and well-dressed women. He had no inkling that his photographs would become a vital document of the history of the Ghetto and the dire circumstances of its Jewish population brought about by implementation of the Nazi holocaust. Heinrich kept his prints hidden for decades without showing them to anyone. Then in 1982, he personally handed the photographs over to Gunther Schwarberg, then a reporter for the German magazine "Stern". Schwarberg gave the photographs to the Jerusalem Documentation Center Yad Vashem, where they were exhibited in the spring of 1988 and then sent on exhibition around the world. In The Ghetto Of Warsaw is the first time that Heinrich Jost's photographs have been published in their entirety along with his impressions and recollections as recounted to Gunther Schwarberg along side each picture. An essential addition to any personal, academic, or community library Holocaust studies collection, In The Ghetto Of Warsaw is a critically important and compelling document of both the ghetto and the atrocities of the Third Reich.