Documentary-collections Books

This book is just amazing. The pictures speak for themselves, and they are gorgeously reproduced from their origianal platinum printed beauty. The introduction essay is also informative and interesting. I use it with my photography students as a treat, and it is always a good experience. This is a one of a kind book. It is pure gold.

This is a beautiful book. A photographers must have...

The contemporary fashion portrait is the focus in FACE OF FASHION, which brings together paintings made for the fine arts yet embodying fashion styles, standards, and art. The array of photographers whose works appear here all have a distinct, unique style within fashion photography, making FACE OF FASHION an excellent juxtaposition of varying approaches and styles and a top pick for any college-level art or fashion library. Full-page color images blend with essays and writings about the photographer's approach and the fashion and art worlds.

If you think of fashion photography as being the pictures of clothes draped across beautiful bodies to be shown in advertisements, you will find only a small percentage of the pictures in this book to meet that expectation. Instead here you will find photographs that are striking, that don't really fit with the idea of selling a dress. Indeed if 'fashion' implies clothes, some of the pictures here don't show any clothes at all, just the form of the model.

The result is a collection of photographs that show what the best of the best of photographers are doing today. Striking, yes. Disturbing, sometimes. Beautiful, often. Sexy, usually. Each page brings something to the eye that's usually a surprise.

What did America look like on its way to war in Iraq? Anthony Suau's Fear This could have easily been presented in our Art section for its photographically astute and involving artistic creations but is featured here for its equal strength in hard-hitting political pictures. Black and white photos capture anti-war demonstrations, soldiers leaving home, and reflections on war alike in a series of revealing social commentaries.

Anthony Suau is a brave photographer who has won not only the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the famine in Ethiopia but also a prize for his coverage of the war in Chechnya. Thus is it with credentials such as these that we are forced to pay close attention to this startling folio of black and white photographs of the response of Americans to the war in Iraq. It is work such as this that may bring the country to seriously ponder the situation in Iraq that daily appears to darken into yet another war of error not unlike the Vietnam experience.


The power of Suau's visual statement lies in the apparent simplicity of his extemporaneous views of the Americans' responses to the preemptive invasion of Iraq, its effects on the families of soldiers killed, the political outbursts of citizens in opposition to the war, the photographs transmitted from Iraq as seen in context of US newspapers and postings, the response to the capture of Saddam Hussein, etc. The photographs are as dark as is the cloud that hangs over this country in the wake of the war that should have never happened.

This is photojournalism of the highest order. FEAR THIS, succinctly stated, translates to "fear our stance", and without preaching or pamphleteering, Suau calls for an awakening of response to call an end to this war. This is a very powerful book that hopefully will find wide audiences. We all need to see this documentation. Grady Harp

Der mexikanischen (in der Schweiz lebenden) Fotografin Flor Garduno (* 1957) gelingt es, auf mystische, surreale Weise innerpsychische, archaische, traumhafte Vorstellungen von Körper-Platzierungen durch ihre Kunst nach außen, in eine Welt von Zuschauern (und Museen) zu transportieren, die sich erst einüben muss in die metaphorische, klausulierte Mitteilungsart ihrer visuellen Botschaften. Mit 62 sehr stilisierten schwarz-weißen Fotografien überrascht sie jeden sensiblen Betrachter damit, dass ihre Bilder ihm oft nach Wochen aus dem Langzeit-Gedächtnis wie verloren geglaubte Wasserleichen wieder an die Oberfläche seines Bewusstseins gespült werden.

Wie mit Geheim-Nachrichten über die psychoanalytische Verankerung von toten Fischen und Krawatten, Sphinx-ähnlichen Kindern, Frauen hinter riesigen Urwaldblättern oder weiblichen Akten, rückwärts wie eine Opfergabe auf Mühlsteine gespannt, macht Flor Garduno dem Altmeister Dali und seinen Mannequin-artigen Giraffen mit Schubladen in den schlanken Cat-Walk-Beinen nachträglich Konkurrenz.

Bei Garduno, die noch bei dem 100 Jahre alt gewordenen mexikanischen Fotografen Manuel Alvarez Bravo in die Lehre gegangen ist (der unter anderem die berühmte Frida Kahlo porträtierte) - bei Garduno finden sich ungewöhnliche Dialog-Darstellungen mit einer Schlange, einer Krähe, einem Schwan - mystischer noch (und schwieriger auf den realen Auslöse-Ursprung zurückzuverfolgen) als jenes, was Frida Kahlo in ihrer surrealistischen Malerei ausbrütete.

Ein Bild von Fischen, die als Krawatte sich formen, wird verblüffend betitelt: PATRONENGURT, eine vergleichbare Aufnahme (Aal-Haare) trägt den Titel MEDUSENHAUPT. Ein Riesen-Rhabarberblatt dient als Rock beim Tanz einer Urwaldschönheit, ein abgetrennter Schwertfischkopf verhüllt des Fischers halbnackte Frau, als Ruhekissen bietet uns Flor, die zuweilen auch einen Hang zum Zynischen hat, einen Grabkammerschädel.

Die meisten Kompositionen sind extrem konsequent nur zweiteilig in ihrer kommunikativen Syntax: einem weiblichen Akt ist stets nur ein einziges, rätselhaftes Symbol beigegeben. Man darf in sich graben, was die Erfahrung weiblicher Nacktheit zu tun haben könnte mit Schlangen und abgeschnittenen Fischköpfen, mit tropischen Blättern und Holzkatzen, mit Schwänen oder schweren Mühlsteinen.

Flor Garduno wandelt das üblicherweise von männlichen Sichtweisen beherrschte Akt-Fotografie-Business um in oft eindeutig feminin, um nicht zu sagen feministisch basierte Kommunikations-Thematiken: dem Titelfoto, female nude, rückwärtig auf einen Tisch drapiert, welcher eine hölzerne Katzen-Skulptur darstellt, - diesem Starter folgt weiter hinten im faszinierenden Fotoband die in diesem Genre sehr selten gesehene Ergänzung: das selbe Akt-Modell ist nun hoch schwanger.

Flor Garduno arbeitet abwechselnd in ihren Ateliers in Mexiko (Tepoztlan), und in der Schweiz (Stabio). Ihr Buch wurde in 7 Sprachen übersetzt (englisch, italienisch, französisch, deutsch, spanisch, portugiesisch und japanisch), ihre aufs Wenigste konzentrierten, fast minimalistisch zu nennenden Bildwerke wurden in mehr als 40 Museen gezeigt - Ende offen.

Flor Garduno is an amazing photographer. Following in the footsteps of the incredible Mexican photographer, Manuel Alavarez Bravo, whom she assisted for several years, her timing, technique, lighting and juxtapositioning of objects around her nudes and still lifes are nothing less than genius. I cannot recommend this book more highly. What a gift to look at these photos and get a glimpse of this relatively young photographer (48 years old).

Having previewed many of these photographs in New York magazine over the years, I was pleasantly surprised by how amazing they looked in the book! Amy Arbus has an incredible talent for hitting on the characters true essence. Stunning, stunning work!

Beautiful portraits in a perfect printed grayscale. I like the way the actors were taken out the scene and become reallife people

This book is a gorgeous coffee-table volume. It is divided into sections by time periods beginning in the 1840s and continues to the present. Each chapter is introduced with an in-depth discussion of what was happening at that time, then moves to captioned photos. The book is large, 10"x12", and is presented on heavy, high quality paper; a pleasure to hold and look at! My only criticism is that readability was sacrificed for design. The type is very small and, therefore, difficult to read, and the caption reference number below each photo is mircoscopic. Also, even though I'm sure the photos were reproduced perfectly, some are hard to make out (what do I expect for 100+ year old photos!) I recommend this book whether you are interested in this subject, interested in photography or just love beautiful books.

This is an absolutely gorgeous book, very comprehensive and tons of excellent pictures

After seeing the film "Frida" starring Selma Hayek, I wanted to see more of Frida Kahlo's paintings. (I had already been to Mexico City where the guides readily show you Diego Rivera's murals but say nary a word about Frida except when she appears in Diego's works).

I am pleased I chose this beautiful and profusely illustrated coffee-table style book. It holds a place of honour on my bookshelves, its cover-jacket and self-portrait of Frida & her trademark "unibrow" facing the viewer as you walk in the door.

The book was produced to accompany the 2005 Tate Gallery exhibition of Frida Kahlo's work, and is a must-have for anyone wishing to have a closer look at her life and art without the trouble and expense of travelling to Mexico.

The catalogue for the 2005 Tate exhibition, this book is a complete survey of F.Kahlo's career. Present here are her major portraits (of the Mexican high society as well as of her husband, Diego Rivera) and also her more famous self-portraits. An informative text helps the reader forget all the recent hype surrounding the artist and concentrate on her best legacy: her paintings, many of which are masterpieces of introspection and portraiture.Seeing all the self-portraits, one after the other, makes you understand the artist's life, pains and sorrows, better than any Hollywood mega-production...

in terms of color street photography, this is about as good as it gets. along with people like robert walker, costa manos, and anthony hernandez, webb helped create a new genre, perceptive and intuitive like cartier-bresson with the eyes of a colorist. webb has a few great books, this is my favorite.

as publishing goes, i'd say this book is average, and an updated, expanded edition would be great.

The images in this book provide a seldom-seen commentary on aspects of life within a state know primarily for its tourism industry. Here, Alex Webb pulls back the curtain to reveal the other worlds that co-exist with most of the images tha come to mind when we hear the word "Florida." These photographs wildly exceed one's expectations for just how perfect a seemingly random moment can be, and Webb manages to do it with an eye for the abstract, the absurd, and while providing social commentary, humor and beauty.

Stephen Shore's The Gardens At Giverny: A View Of Monet's World is a breathtakingly beautiful compendium of forty four-color photographs inspired by the paintings and subject matter of Claude Monet and a celebration of the restoration of the gardens at Giverny, Paris. Here are sumptuous images reflecting the many moods and textures of an inspired and inspiring landscape. A superbly presented work of landscape photography as art, The Gardens At Giverny is also available in hardcover (0-893781-113-0, $40.00) which would be the preferred recommendation for academic and community library photography book collections.

This is a great artist's amazingly beautiful garden. And the photographs are not just pretty pictures of flowers, but are full of emotion.

Photography gathers many unusual images of perspective and still life: changes in light change image results substantially. Enjoy Gathering Light, a superb collection of full-page photographic images which illustrate this point, with texts by Dave Hickey and Eduardo Cadava accenting some startling photos.

Mr. Ross wields the camera like Shakespeare wielded the plume, gathering images more beautiful than the white cliffs of Dover at dawn. In passing from page to page, Ross takes you on a journey from the bayou to Burma and everywhere in between, focusing in on places Indiana Jones would have thought too difficult to reach. And all through the mind's eye of a true gatherer of light. I felt like Kim Basinger looking at slides in "Nine and a Half Weeks." Arousing to say the least.