Documentary-collections Books

True Color

I, a son of Wilkes-Barre, spent weekends with my father and grandfather in the Heights Section of this fabled coal-town. Though, my time there came years after Cohen's published street work, I can still relate to those dusty images, a virtual urban playground for little boys. Tackle football in the backyards, bordered by massive, dilapidated fences; the distinct, sharp smell of cigarettes in the hands of kids no older than 13; boarded windows, with peep-holes just my height. The alleys I walked never struck me as eerie, they were the norm, they were Wilkes-Barre and to some degree the same is true today. Cohen's unique visual-ethnographic study of urban banality, makes beautiful the unusual and awkward character of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I lived on Grim Street . In the mid 1970's I lived in the Heights Section of Wilkes-Barre Pa where Mr Cohen did many of the photos in this fine collection. He was a quiet fixture on those streets on a late Sunday afternoon. One would see the tall lanky stranger in his army fatigue jacket and horn rimmed glasses walking along those streets occassionally stopping to quickly photograph a stray dog or an unwashed child along the sidewalk. There was almost a random approach to his subjects but he would bend and sometimes stoop as he would click off 4 or 5 quick "snaps" of his subject and then be off after his next subject. I was in my early 20's at the time and curious as to how anyone could find interest in those mundane often grimy if not grim scenes in that neighborhood. I now have the answer over 30 years later. This fascinating collection evokes a time and place that could represent any of our inner city neighborhoods. The black and white of the pictures captures the mood and feel of the subjects. I recommend this volume as a must have for any serious student of photography or urban life over the past century.

Mark Cohen is a restless poet of a photographer. In GRIM STREET he demonstrates his enormous ability to grasp a winking moment of life in the back streets, isolated fleeting views of the ordinary made extraordinary. This very fine book of photographs is less attuned to compositionally correct images as emotionally charged ones. As such it is a monograph of the smarmy, dark, seedy and at times embarrassingly immediate life of the underbelly of America as represented by the streets of Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Cohen's successful forays in to this territory are accompanied by 'interviews' conducted by Anne Wilkes Tucker and Thomas Southall. The composite result is a book that 'reads' like a novel and will remain compelling present in the mind's eye long after perusing it. Fine work! Grady Harp, August 05

"A lot of it is mood driven, but I don't exactly know where the motive and inspiration to take pictures comes from. So it's very spontaneous work; there's not a lot really to plan." So it would seem at first glance upon Mark Cohen's masterful collection of work presented in his first (and hopefully not last) book Grim Street . From this revealing quote by the author, we are lead to believe that Cohen himself discovers in his darkroom much of the beauty portrayed in his work.
As anyone who has followed Cohen's work knows, Mark has been influenced greatly by the renowned street photographer Cartier-Bresson with his ability to capture the unfolding "decisive moment." But Cohen's work is anything but unfolding, on the contrary; it is literally in-your-face obtrusive, grabbing on film fleeting sublime moments, otherwise lost forever in eternity. One can almost amusingly imagine Cohen, armed with his trade mark flash and wide angle lens, scurrying around a photo-opportunity with Bresson. While Bresson contemplates from a distance the "decisive moment" to release the shutter; Cohen (in his own words) uses "grab shots" often without even the use of a viewfinder to capture what could be called "multiple moments." It is apparent from this exquisite body of work that Mark Cohen is the heir apparent to the recently deceased Bresson, and, one might say, an "impatient" 21st Century updated version of the master.
Ignoring for a moment the obvious psychological and sociological content of Cohen's work, the visual subject matter of Grim Street is indeed at first glance difficult to digest. It is anything but "cheery", often times seedy, sometimes voyeuristic, and occasionally downright lascivious. But the ultimate irony is that these qualities of course are passing and superficial, as fleeting as Cohen's flick of the shutter. For it's only with pausing and contemplating the work that the disquieting subject matter "disappears" and the true mastery reappears. That perfect wisp of hair, that "just so" turn of a cat's tail, that flawlessly lit foreground and carefully nuanced background, those repeating diagonals inside exquisite compositions, and all the artistic universals that forever have withstood the test of time, are there to be discovered in this collection.
May this reviewer be so bold as to suggest an answer to Mr. Cohen's own query about the source of his inspiration referred to earlier? A grim street is down-and-dirty, mean and often times dangerous. Surely there is no inspiration to be found in such a secular reality, unless one has the genius and magical gift to capture a transcendent glimpse of a more perfect place. The source of that gift, the inspiration is not temporal. Undoubtedly we're all traveling on a type of "grim street." Thank God we have inspired and graced artists such as Mark Cohen to give us an occasional glance at our idyllic destination.

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

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.

The title translates to "Young Men". An excellent coffee-table book featuring photos of teenage and 20-something boys taken in Germany in the 1920's and 30's. If you like looking at cute young guys this is an excellent book. :-)

Paul Jasmin is one of my favorite photographers so maybe I am biased in his favor. I even began a Flickr group "Inspired by Paul Jasmin" ([..])

Paul Jasmin is a photographer of the young and beautiful in Hollywood and Southern California. His work is characterized by rich tones, deep shadows, gorgeous hues and with an emphasis on people portraits and naturalism.... not things.

What is the photograph inspired by Jasmin?

It is a romantic and a melancholic artist.
It is the lone person in the lens.
It is late afternoon or early morning when the sun is gentle and the indoor light is dim and golden.
Its the lovely young woman on the unmade bed with the light peeking through the Venetian blinds.
It can be anywhere in the world where love and loneliness coexist.

HOLLYWOOD COWBOY is a perfect companion work to Paul Jasmin's LOST ANGELES. Jasmin is a sensitive observer whose camera seems to gravitate toward romantically inclined casual portraits of beautiful people in enchanted environs. Here is a full mixture of males and females, nude and clothed, all seeming to have that intransigence of the private or public desire to 'become' in Hollywood. There are actors and actresses, models, hustlers, loners, and crowd leaners captured by Jasmin's dramatic focus in moments of ultimate vulnerability.

Though not all of the subjects for these photographs are what we would consider 'beautiful', there is an innocence that is beguiling. Whether captured inside decorous or smarmy rooms or out on the streets and parks, these people find their way into our own dream factories, whether or not those dreams ever were realized or not. A beautiful collection with excellent color and black and white reproduction. Grady Harp, March 05

If you like this book , his new book (Lost Angeles) is going to blow your mind. Trust me.

This is a beautiful book! I was so anxious to see Paul Jasmin's long-awaited first book, having recently heard so much about this remarkable photographer. Over the years, I have researched many photographers, but wasn't familiar with Paul's work at all. Well, I now have another favorite photographer. These are stunningly seductive, moody, romantic, and erotic images, to name only a few feelings that came to me while viewing this sampling of his work. These images are taken from the 1950's right up to 2001. A great selection that covers male and female nudes, portraits of friends, people of the entertainment & art world, fashion shoots and peaceful travel images.

Jasmin states, "I still dream in the 1950's", well, lucky for us. You get a feeling from these photographs that you don't get from the current photographers images, and that's a feeling of innocence. A time when sex was more innocent and much more sensual. A long time friend of Bruce Weber, you can see the influence in a few of these photos. Paul Jasmin have appeared in many leading fashion magazines such as Arena, Vogue, W, and L'uomo Vogue. There are three informative and touching essays by Sofia Coppola, Grazia D'Annunzio, and critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. They help to highlight & explain Jasmin's life and career. Arena Editions has again published another striking book on quality paper, that is handsomely designed.

This is a rare opportunity to enjoy a photographer who exposes us to a time that is now lost, a time of innocence and youthful carefree ways. I really enjoyed this collection of his images. Highly Recommended!

Joe O'Donnell captured the aftermath of World War II with his photographic record of the Japanese rubble. As a 23 year-old US Marine, O'Donnell served as a photographer, and a sample of the photographs he took are included in his book, JAPAN 1945: A US MARINE'S PHOTOGRAPHS FROM GROUND ZERO. The collection is a visual snapshot of the Japanese landscape of the cities and towns, Sasebo, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, almost a month after the atomic bombings and air raids.

Indeed, JAPAN 1945 includes poignant and moving exposures of remnants of the worn torn landscape. The book is a composition of photographs of O'Donnell's seventh month long tour of the Japanese cities in which he documented what was left of the cities -- pure destruction without a living thing in sight. There are numerous shots worth mentioning, such as the boy and his young brother on the cover of the book, the boy served as O'Donnell's guide through the streets of Hiroshima, as well a man severely burned, "Victim with Rope" who is covered with an immense amount of clothing in order to protect his skin. However, there are also photographs depicting reconstruction, such as the shot where a teacher leads a class with the classroom still intact despite the outside view of the devastating rubble that lurks in the background.

JAPAN 1945 is an excellent photographic record of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. O'Donnell's account of what he had seen has been best described not with words, but with the photographs he presents. The book may further provide a better understanding of World War II history as well as how photographs provide a template to how history is interpreted.

Photographer Joe O'Donnell, a 23-year-old Marine assigned to the occupation of Japan, has released many of his photographs that he took while on station. Locked away for some 45 years, these vivid, graphic, and moving photos show what life was like immediately after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

O'Donnell's photo archive begins with images from his arrival in Japan. A prayer service offered aboard a landing ship, and the unloading of equipment are shown in this section. The harbor at Sasebo is photographed with many American ships filling its waters, but it is in this section where the reader gets their first glimpse of the level of destruction wrought by American planes; most of the surrounding city is literally flattened. Many displaced Japanese citizens are shown wandering the streets of what has become a barren wasteland.

O'Donnell has also included images of American soldiers giving candy to Japanese children, and Japanese geishas performing dances. Images of children with babies strapped to their backs cleaning rubble and elderly displaced civilians with few or no possessions really touch the reader.

The most eye-catching part of the book for me was the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both cities were literally wiped off the face of the earth; only massive piles of rubble remained. O'Donnell had to travel by horse to navigate through the massive piles of debris. Images of people wandering about aimlessly, smashed factories, and burn victims dominate this part of the book.

The most piognant pictures I saw in the book are the one of the three brothers in Nagasaki; the eldest pushing his brothers in a make-shift cart, and the most heartbreaking one, the photo of the child who has come to the cremation site in Nagasaki with his dead baby brother strapped to his back, all the while struggling to keep from crying. I can't remember seeing a more moving photograph.

This is a tremendous book. Each photograph tells its own story, and O'Donnell has provided excellent narrative above each photo. I highly recommend this fine book. Open it up and take a photographic journey through a defeated Japan. Some photos will inspire awe; others pity, and you'll get a true sense of what it was like in Japan immediately after the war ended.

Could it be that we see a photo of an 8 or 9 year old boy bringing the body of his dead baby brother to a site in Nagasaki for cremation? Could it be that this photo was taken by a 23 year old American Marine? Would it be possible that the Marine was mistaken, perhaps he misunderstood? Perhaps the baby is only sleeping. Alas, the older brother's face belies the truth as the baby's body hangs lifeless. Marine photographer Joe O'Donnell was obviously moved by many of the photos he took during his time in Japan, just after the war ended.

But it's not just bombed out cities that he shares with us. There are happier times when American GI's were talking to children, geisha and hotel maids and other slices of Japanese life that would interest most any foreigner (or perhaps today's Japanese even). We can only wonder how many other photos he has that are have not been published.

I think Japanese history is at its most interesting when it interacts (or collides) with other countries. O'Donnell shares with us images of a Japan that no longer is. Perhaps Japan never has publicly atoned for its war time actions sufficiently; but this book shows clearly that it certainly was punished sufficiently.

We've all seen the pictures of Hiroshima where everything but the shells of a few building is flattened. Here are seventy-four pictures from several cities, fire-bombed with conventional munitions, not atomic bombs, that look just as devastated, just as destroyed.

But more than that are pictures of the people. There's a picture of the crowd at an Athletic Day - women, children, and old men - the young men are gone, probably never to return. There's a picture of a young boy, perhaps eight years old. To his back is strapped his little brother, perhaps one year old. The little brother is dead and the boy is delivering him to the cremation site.

Yes the pictures from other wars, the child at the railway station after the rape of Nanking, those from the camps in Germany are equally tragic. Even the pictures showing Charleston after Sherman's army went through show this kind of destruction.

But there is a special feeling I get from these pictures. Perhaps it comes as a residual of the racial hatred this country felt towards Japan. I hope not, but the fact is that these striking photographs make me feel terrible.

MY PARENTS WERE BORN AND RAISED IN JERSEY CITY AND JUST LOVED THE BOOK. SO MANY NICE PICTURES AND MEMORIES FOR THEM. THEY ORDERED MORE AS GIFTS FOR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS.

This book is full of beautiful photos to remind those who are old enough how nice Jersey City used to be. I guess we can all thank genius Frank Hague for preserving the atmosphere and history of Jersey City...

I WAS LOOKING FOR A BOOK OF PICTURES THAT WERE TAKEN AT THE SAME TIME THAT I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN JERSEY CITY. IT SEEMS THAT EVERY STREET I WALKED AS A CHILD, THE SCHOOLS I ATTENDED, AND THE PLACES I SHOPPED, WERE THERE. IT IS THE CLOSEST THING I HAVE TO A PHOTO ALBUM OF THE CITY IN WHICH I LIVED. IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK IN TIME, THIS BOOK DELIVERS THAT FEELING. I WISH MR.FRENCH WOULD DO ANOTHER AND ANOTHER AND THEN ANOTHER. IT WAS OBVIOUSLY WELL THOUGHT OUT WHEN THE PICTURES WERE ARRANGED AND GROUPED. YOU WILL FIND HE HAS IDENTIFIED THE PHOTO'S VERY WELL USING FEW WORDS.

I thought it was an absolutely wonderful book that you can reread many times and never get bored. I found so many familiar places in the book and it brought back so many wonderful memories.

This book is simply wonderful. It has some of the most intimate and beautiful pictures of John and Yoko ever published. A must have for any Lennon fan!

It's a superb book, very nice photos, most of them i have never seen before. The thing that i notice in the pictures, is that John never smiled in this book (apart from the cover and other two pictures, i think), he look's old, small, sad or maybe depresed. I have the Instamatic Karma too, and it's other John that appears on this book, he looks alive, happy and reflexive. In the end, it's a must buy for any Lennon fans.

Thanks.

Allen Tannenbaum's book "John And Yoko: A New York Love Story" is a candid photo album of John and Yoko at work and play in and around New York City. Tannenbaum is granted amazing access to the couples lives. The photos are beautiful and give one a sense of intimacy of John and Yoko's life together. The overall effect of the book is to remind us of the tragic lost of John Lennon for Yoko, Sean, and the rest of us.

John and Yoko: A New York Love Story contains a collection of photographs by photographer Allan Tannenbaum of the long lasting romance between John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Many of the photos may have been seen by the public, and several have not been published before. Tannenbaum shows John and Yoko in their most intimate moments, which were shot at New York's Sperone Westwater Gallery and Central Park; the concluding photographs do not need too much description and show fans paying tribute to John as well Yoko posing in the same spot where John and she had walked days before. And by looking at the photographs, one can see it was yet another end to an era.

The most interesting part about the book is its beautiful layout. With the turn of the first page one can see what they are in store for. The pages are comprised of a variety of size photos from proofs to blown-up portraits of John and Yoko in glorious b/w and color, which capture their candidness as a couple and individually; Tannenbaum and book designer Barbara Genetin do a great job displaying the images.

Overall, this is a highly recommended book for John and Yoko fans or photography aficionados. With its over-sized coffee table book format, this may make a nice addition to anyone's book collection.

... and she let out a squeal when she unwrapped it, so I guess it was a hit. Personally, I don't get the whole Depp thing, but there ya go....

The photos were fantastic! The written material was very interesting and the fact that Johnny's own words were included made the material much more interesting and memorable. I truly enjoy having this book and look forward to adding more Johnny Depp books, DVD's , etc. to my collection.

Bought this for my sister who is the HUGE Depp fan. She loved it!

Book is very enlightening on Johnny Depps career. Shows how he has broadened his career as an actor. Photos were great. Looking forward to more of his movies and acting career.

"Richard Kern rapes the nude brain of a chemical=anthropoid and generates the cyber-pornography for a drug fetus." - Kenji Siratori, author Blood Electric

Richard Kern here has presented a fine collection of photographs. Though his style, at least in this presentation, seems to be mostly snap shots of ameture models; there are some nice shots none the less.

This volume could also be called 'The Best of Richard Kern' as it presents a review of his work ranging from 1976 to 2001. Covering a wide range, we find bondage shots and girls with guns, as well as girls in the bedroom, bathroom and other scenarios, presenting an overview of Kern's interests and low-key fetish work.

Perhaps the strongest pictures are the close-up portrait shots, where the models reciprocate your gaze, as though daring you to enter their slightly dark and edgy world. In one shot, a small lizard crawls over a model's face, in the stark monochrome looking almost like a tribal tattoo. Most striking is the picture from 1993, simply titled 'Monica with Candle'. The model tilts her head backward and a lighted candle protrudes upright from her mouth. A very arresting picture the first time you see it (why that was not used on the cover is a mystery. Too provocative maybe?) Certainly a deeply erotic image.

Like all the best books of photography, this one starts well and gets better the more you look into it. A good one to keep on the bookshelf and delve into from time to time, and well worth buying.

As a young man I have been searching for the perfect woman and theres no such thing. But Kern captures both a meaningful persona and porcelain like femininate in his photography. And this book delivers all expected from Kern and more, its better than New York Girls and thats hard to do. This book deseves to be on even the Queen of Englands coffe table but I for one will keep it hidden away as a unsering boy may hide his chocolete easter eggs from his anoying sister. (ABLOL)

I am a nurse practitioner who has worked in trauma centers (mostly inner-city ones) for more than 20 years. "The Knife and Gun Club" was not only a trip down memory lane for me but also a decent reflection of the trauma business as it still occurs across the US -- the only really obsolete material in the book is the technology.

We have a higher success rate with really severe injuries now because the science has advanced, but unfortunately the social and economic forces that created the Friday Night Knife and Gun Club have not abated. Rather, they've increased, so the Club now meets every night in most cities in the US, with penetrating trauma (from knives, guns, ice picks, screwdrivers, etc.) increasing for the past 20 years.

If I were to recreate this book in the current system, the only thing I would add is the impact of 48 million uninsured and the change in hospital emergency departments as they have become primary care providers for those uninsured. These are the people who wait for 8, 12, 16 hours to see an ED provider because they cannot afford to see someone before an illness becomes serious.

Richards' book is (and deserves to be) a classic.

This book is an honest look into what goes on in a busy, public emergency room. It's filled with amazing black and white photography that captures so much emotion and drama. In between the pictures are candid interviews with the emergency room staff...their stories about the harsh reality they work in astonished me. This book is so much better than any medical TV show simply because everything in this book actually happened...and the true stories are better than anything I've ever seen on TV.

The Knife and Gun Club gives a candid and uncensored look into Denver General Hospital's Emergency Room and Paramedic Division. Richards has captured the spirit of the personell of the Denver General ER. As an EMT trained at Denver General and the daughter of one of Denver General's first paramedics, I found this book very accurate and true to life. It spares no detail and gives the true flavor of one of the nations top trauma centers and emergency departments. If you have any interest in the emergency field, I suggest you read this book for a truthful look into an emergency room and the lives of the people who work in the emergency system. This book is fabulous, and very well written. Richards pulls the reader in to Denver General and all its supporting emergency systems. I have never read a better documentation or representation of the way emergency medicine in all its aspects truely is.

Richard's provides an unbiased look into the world of emergency medicine at Denver General hospital and Denver Emergency Medical Services. This book couples full page black & white pictures with interviews with various health proffesionals. A true look at the events and emotions surrounding emergency care.

This wonderful collection of color photographs reminds us that through the introduction of color we moved from the world of Black and White into the world of Color Photography;and that it took place in a relativly short period of only 20 years-1939 to 1959.
Though the change was somewhat imprecise,over a short period we came to think of color as opposed to black and white in virtually every medium where images were made This included everything from persnal snapshots,movies,newspapers,TV,the Comics,wedding pictures,...you name it ,color became the norm.
As a young lad,I along with everyone "saw" WWII as Black and White.Yes there was some color around,as this book points out in the years leading up to WWII, and pretty much into he ffties. We even thought that to view images in B&W was normal.Ihe wholesale change happened without us even noticing it.
This was brought home to me in 1959. I was attending a Hockey Game of the Montreal Canadians at Molson Stadium . In walked a man with his son who was about 8 years old. When they started down the aisle ,the boy exclaimed;"Look,Dad,it's in color!!" Yes even then,we were mostly watching sports,news and all, on B&W TV's.
It wasn't until much after WWII that we saw those images of Hitler,bombed out cities,Pearl Harbor,Buchenwald,Nurenberg,Patton,Roosevelt,Churchill,Stalin,Truman,and all the Soldiers,Sailors and Airmen and their weapons in reality through color.
It's hard to realize that the ability to make pictures like we see of the World's Fair in New York in 1939,was already here;but it took many years to become the norm.Another thing that comes through very clear is the expert skill of the photographers to use color at its advantage. Also clear is the high quality of Color almost from the beginning.
A wonderful tribute to the people who transformed our world of images from B&W to "Living Color-in Kodachrome".

This is a glorious volume that reproduces, beautifully, some of the most stunning images of the mid-twentieth century, captured on what is probably the finest colour medium ever produced. Look on these works, ye digital photographers, and despair!

Kodachrome, along with Technicolor, passed into the language as a byword for quality; sadly, it's now passed into history. I am grateful to the publishers of this book for producing a worthy epitaph.

Great book Great bargain.

An intriguing look at the recent past that most of us have only seen in black and white. Intriguing in that most of the exterior shots, especially the news photos still sort of look black and white, the overall colors that come across are grey and beige. This only makes the remaining photos, mostly interior studio work, seem dazzling. The cost of producing, in print media, regular color images was too expensive so color was basically left to advertising until the mid-fifties. It wasn't until the late seventies that color art photography was finally accepted.

The book certainly has some fascinating photos, not so much the political figures and celebrities of the time but images of everyday life. It is here that I thought the book was rather disappointing, of the 207 photos about a quarter are studio portraits of celebrities, just the sort of photos that were printed in color on magazine covers to be found on any newsstand. I would have preferred to have far fewer of these portraits.

If you are interested in color photos from the past have a look at Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43 with 175 images of daily life in America (and fortunately no celebrities). A book that covers Britain in color, from 1945 to 1952, is The S&J;Silver Lining Cross R by Robin Cross. Like 'Kodachrome' these two books offer a new look at the past.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

I have to say that this book is AMAZING! My wife wanted it and telling me the title all I thought about was that Paul Simon song.

Upon getting the book, I could understand why she wanted it so badly. It is amazing to see images of Hitler and WWII from my history book except in full blown color.

This is a great book for anyone out there who is interested in history, photography, or if you are interested in seeing history in a whole new light.