Documentary-collections Books

Soon after Daguerre demonstrated his photographic process in Paris in 1839, the new technology was used to capture in two dimensions the ruins of antiquity. Photography and archaeology, in fact, developed as disciplines more or less hand-in-hand. In this digital world, it is particularly interesting to be reminded of the effort that went into taking a single photograph at the time--the medium's pioneers traveling by sea and traipsing across Egypt or Greece or Italy lugging their easily damaged photographic equipment, the long exposure times required by then state-of-the-art cameras.

More than a hundred of these early photographs, from roughly the first forty years of the medium's history, are beautifully reproduced in Antiquity & Photography: Early Views of Ancient Mediterranean Sites, published by the J. Paul Getty Museum. (The photographs included are taken from the Getty Museum's Department of Photography and the Research Library of the Getty Research Institute.) Andrew Szegedy-Maszak of Wesleyan University (whom I have to thank for my copy of the book) provides the book's introduction, a survey of early photographic activity in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, and he has also contributed one of the book's four essays, "An American on the Acropolis: William James Stillman." Stillman was an amateur archaeologist who published a collection of photographs of the Acropolis in 1870. Lindsey Stewart ("In Perfect Order: Antiquity in the Daguerreotypes of Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey") writes about another amateur, Girault de Prangey, who made daguerreotypes throughout the Mediterranean in the middle of the century. In her essay "The Art and Science of Antiquity in Nineteenth-Century Photography" Claire Lyons writes about the use of photography by early archaeologists. The new technology allowed archaeologists to document their finds, and "facilitated a systematic reading of buildings literally as texts in stone, legible across their facades." And John Papadopoulos focuses on Athens in his contribution, "Antiquity Depicted," in which he demonstrates "how images negotiate between expectations, reality, and the ideal."

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

Magnificents are the monuments and buildings that appears in the photos, magnificents are the photos themselves as a token of the excellency of the technique even in so an early epoch and, at last, there is also sad magnificence in the daring and refined spirit of the first men that make use of the new tool to document the past. Looking at these photos as objets of combined antiquity you cannot but think in the people that took them, now they also antiquities in the history of photography, many of them forgotten, his memories dusty and crumbled. Magnificent, finally, the book in itself. A must for any art lover and history buff.

an excellent photojournalist book with a very good edit

Let me start this review by saying that I am *not* a photojournalist. I am an art photographer, and unlike these people at Reuter, I take weeks or months to perfect a print when they need only hours (although I am limited my darkroom availability at my school). So, I was judging this book not as a photojournalist book, but as a serious art photography book, since that is what I know.

That being said, this is an EXCELLENT art phorography book. I picked up this book to look at in Borders after being fascinated by the cover photography, which is more of an art photograph than anything. It was absolutely beautiful, with human faces blocked by simle white masks, and only black in the abckround. I didn't know this was a photojournalist book, I thought it was art photography. So, being so in love with the cover, I sat down and looked through every single photograph. About 1/5 of the book is sports photography, and I am not at all into sports, so I didn't much like those sections, but the rest more than makes up for it.

All of these photographs are greatly crafted and precise technically. There are beautiful ones like the one on the front, hillarious ones, ones that look unbelievable (I'm thinking of one with a skelton model about 50 feet high raised out of the water in a lake looking at a huge "book of life" that's actually an opera stage. I thought it was a digital piece of art at first!). The best, and most moving photographs in this book however are the war photographs. These are very, very hard to look at, but they show you what war is really like, the things you don't see in the regular news media. You see bodies burned so taht the yellow fat and muscles show. You see a body hunched over a railing with almost all of his back blown off and scattered about him, where you can see straight into the empty cavity of his back. You see a man shotting another man in a gutter. These are not fun to look at, but tehy are important, give such impact that the breath is knocked out of you several times.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is one of the best photography books I have seen. And to pay $[money]for a 200 page hardback is a real deal. Buy this book, if you can stomach teh ahrsh war photographs you won't regret it! And even if you can't, there's plenty of other, easy to view, excellent photographs.

This book is a great overall of Tress' work, covering his early workes to his present ones. As an art photo teacher, its a great resource to have to show examples for assignments such as dream, light and dark, series, and shadow.
The images are wonderfully reproduced and there is a great essay describing Tress and his vision. Each section of Tress' work also has an introduction by him.

Arthur Tress: Fantastic Voyage, Photographs 1956-2000 arose from the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) retrospective exhibition dedicated to this influential American photographer. Richard Lorenz's informative commentary is augmented by a contribution from John Wood on the life and work of Tress. Organized as a kind of autobiography emphasizing Tress' singular language of surrealism, humor and psychosocial commentary as expressed with an artist's eye through the medium of a camera's lens, this seminal work will introduce a master photographer to a whole new generation of appreciative students and photographer buffs.

Eugene Atget is a wonderful photographer and you can find many important images in this book. The book included 3 languages (English, French and German)Enjoy...

This is one of the more unusual books on my shelves, in that physically it is designed to bear a resemblence on its exterior to some travel guides. The photograph above doesn't do it justice. The material is kivar-like, and his famous photograph of the entrance to the Moulin Rouge is tinted in red and yellow. Inside, the photographs are arranged thematically, according such topics as Salesman and Traders on the Streets of Paris, or Trades, Shops, and Window Displays, or interiors of Parisian homes, or, my favorite, Old Paris.

As the introduction of the book points out, Atget was the great photographic recorder of Old Paris. It is to Paris of the turn of the 19th to the 20th century what Weegee was to lower Manhattan. The pictures in this book are nothing short of remarkable, and to look at them for any length of time helps transport one, to the extent that that is possible, to a world that no longer exists. This is not beautiful, genteel Paris. It isn't the Paris of Proust. It is more the Paris of Baudelaire fifty years down the road, the Paris of Toulouse-Latrec.

This without any question the finest inexpensive edition of Atget's photographs currently available, and since Atget is the predominant photographer of the Paris of a hundred years ago, the best inexpensive book of photographs of Old Paris.

As an Infantilist I dress like the babies in this book which I have found very interesting as I have met several of them recently

I found this review very helpful! You won't believe it, but I have the same fetish as the men in this book do! To back that up, I, when I get access to them, wear adult diapers and sometimes suck my thumb and drool! I am going to have a very happy AB/DL lifestyle forever and 24/7! I can't wait to get baby toys and be breastfed, diapered, etc.! I love it! ANYONE WHO ALSO HAS MY FETISH SHOULD DEFINITELY GET THIS BOOK! READ IT FROM THE FRONT TO BACK COVER! I STRONGLY RECCOMMEND IT!

This is a wonderful book filled with images of the beat coffeehouse hangouts in Greenwich village circa 50s and 60s. It is great to actually be able to view a photo of a poetry reading as it took place in one of these bohemian haunts. We are lucky that the author had the foresight to take photos in the smoke-filled coffeehouses and beat pads. I have a coffeehouse and the book is a great reference to utilize when trying to recapture the spirit and styling of the 50s coffeehouse.

McDarrah's photograpic work evokes what it must have been like to frequent the bohemian scene of the late '50s and early '60's. Anyone who is greatly interested in the literature of this genre, but too young to have actual remembrances of this era, will find this work fascinating. Many of the photos have never been published before, and thus are a refreshing change from the standard photos of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and crew that have been served up so many times elsewhere. McDarrah, who I believe worked for the Village Voice at that time, has done a fine job in selecting the photos in this collection. My favorites are one of Diane DiPrima, perched on a piano reciting her poetry, and Herbert Huncke visiting Allen Ginsberg and attempting to fix the latter's broken TV. I also enjoyed the many pics of other accomplished, but lesser known figures of the era, and the establishments they frequented, such as the Cedars Bar & Grill

This delightful book about the Beatles' meteoric arrival in America in 1964 is extremely well written. The nonpareil photographs make a good thing even better still. Benson had the unique advantage of traveling with the Beatles and capturing them up close and personal. Readers will delight at the boyish fun the Beatles had; they were really big children in those days. The ideal companion book to this one is The Beatles: A Private View. If you loved Benson's book, you will also love Larry Kane's Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles' 1964 and 1965 Tours That Changed the World. Kane was a reporter who got to travel with the Beatles during their heyday and had wonderful anecdotes as well as photographs to share.

I give this a hearty endorsement and a resounding yeah, yeah, yeah! I love it and have an autographed copy!

Some books are good because they're very well written. But in the case of this one, every fan will love it because it has impressive pictures on it. Harry Benson traveled with the Beatles and was very close to their environment, and so got the chance to capture lots of nice moments in paper. I recommend it to every one!

Dr. David Parker is a superb photojournalist and an advocate for one of the worlds most unforgivable problems. Child labour. This is one book that should be shown to school children worldwide as well as adults who don't quite get a gist of what goes on in Third World Countries. One of the best photo documentaries I have ever read. I hope it appears in every library and school. It will not be a moment too soon when child labour will be in our world's past.

For our students who are doing research on the working conditions that child laborers faced in the Industrial Revolution, this couldn't be a better resource. The fact that this sort of abuse and exploitation of children continues today is made clear by these heartbreaking photographs. Highly recommended for all school libraries.

This is a book of post-cards. This means that each portrait is printed on card (obvious, really) and held into the back by a tear-free glue. So, you can keep the collection, or send individual pictures to friends. You do need to be careful if you keep them because repeated creasing of the spine WILL loosen the cards.

The pictures themselves are the usual brilliant Bel Ami standard of this gorgeously put-together guy. Lighting and sharpnes of focus are exemplars.

This would make a wonderful stocking-filler for those of you who are into the Christmas thing. Otherwise, just wrap a copy and make your friend's day.

These color postcards of Lukas are beautiful. These are images by himself and with the many other top Bel Ami models. They are all nude shots except for a few. Lukas has always been the top model at Bel Ami, in both print and videos. This is a wonderful collection of postcards, that will surely delight anyone you send them to, or for your own personal collection. These postcard books will definitely become a valuable collectors item in the future. This is number #31 of the series, lets hope there are more.

If you live in the Midwest or try to photograph it, this may be the best $20.97 you can spend. It is a book of inspiring, panoramic, color photos of rural Illinois. Gary pulls the beauty out of a landscape that most people, including photographers, usually ignore. This book has opened my eyes to the state I live it and given me photographic ideas that I was blind to before.

I grew up in Illinois, but only after I moved away did I learn that the vast midwestern sky is unique. Irving's panoramic photos capture the beauty of the open sky as no others I've seen. Whenever I'm homesick, if I need to see a midwestern thunderstorm, I open Irving's book and I'm there.