Documentary-collections Books

In the tradition of the Eugenes (Smith and Richards), this book dives into places that seem so far away from your life but could be right around the corner. Brenda Ann Kenneally's work will be a future hallmark for the way photojournalism should be done. Also, the idea that you can buy this book for under $50 is almost a crime! Buy this book now.

An intimate look at a neighborhood struggling with the causes and effects of addiction and the bonds and culture that hold a community together. Great photojournalism.

I bought this book for my wife to use as a reference for her artistic painting. The images are wonderful, with the bodies used almost as abstract materials. Great examples of lighting, and positive and negative space. I highly reccomend this book.

This gorgeous oversized book (I don't have a coffee table) presents Bitesnich's unique view of the human form. Somehow, as that cover photo shows, he uses utterly literal renderings of figure to create mysterious abstractions. Many, like the set for which Guilia and Maria posed, offer at least three visual layers. The first layer exposes living curves of shoulder, arm, or other part in isolation. Light and dark play over the organic complexity, but the angles and curves don't yet merge together into anatomy that makes sense. In the second layer, the parts combine to form baffling wholes. Unusual poses, often taut and enclosed on themselves, show one or two bodies in unfamiliar perspectives and juxtapositions. Then, in the third depth, the viewer discovers the person within the image - just a person, with all the usual parts, even if the view isn't a familiar one.

Bitesnich covers a wider range of models than many photographers do. Men appear almost as often as women. Couples appear, too, adding more geometric possibilities. His photos of Dagmar show that beauty transcends the moment's fashionable looks; she radiates as much physical power as the male bodybuilders, but a power of uniquely womanly kind. And, perhaps best of all, Bitesnich works across a range of skin tones, from the palest to the glossiest darks. This contrast fascinates me. Light interacts differently with surfaces of different tone, so that lighter forms seem defined by their shadows, but deep-toned figures seem defined by their highlights. A few times, he even works with middle skin tones where both effects come into play.

I'm convinced that human vision evolved with an innate sensitivity to human forms; for example, scientific research suggests that babies are born preprogrammed to respond to faces. Bitesnich taps into that deep, wordless force within the viewer's mind. Then he uses that in a wonderful sense of play, as in the pictures of Irina, or simple and monumental tributes to the human animal.

-- wiredweird

The other day I went to the university library only to discover that it was closed. My natural reaction was to head over to the Henry Art Gallery (in Seattle) to check out the new photography exhibit at the Henry called Small Wars by Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê. I didn't really know what to expect. I was very pleased that I absolutely loved the photographs. Lê captures compelling the peformativity of war in her two series, "Small Wars" and "29 Palms." The former depicts images of Vietnam reenactors in Virginia and the latter military training and preparation for war in the Middle East on the 29 Palms military base. The images are deeply affective - emoting a sense of absurdity in the very plasticity of the convoluted term we all hear and throw around so often: war. Yet it is in this realization of the "un-realness" of "the wars" in the images that brings forth the disturbing and haunting aura of the word in any and all its permutations, spectral or not.

I just got a copy of _Small Wars_ by An-My Lê (the book, published by the Aperture Foundation), and I've been reliving my experiences seeing the photographs at the Henry. Included in the book that was left out of the exhibit is a series of photographs taken in Vietnam, which serves as the book's opening. The semiotics of the arrangement of the photographs create a powerful narrative of the wars that Lê personally navigates through, in all its fictions and truths. I highly recommend this book! It's fantastic!

An-My Lê is a photography artist whose technical talent with the 5-by-7-view camera serves to capture her insightful, powerful imagery of landscapes that serve as matrix for the exploration of war and its impact on individuals. She combines images of actual wartime situations with 'practice/artificial' war training camps and the juxtaposition is startlingly surreal in capturing the reality of war.

Lê fled Saigon at age 15 during the US exodus in 1975. For the first series in this stunning portfolio from 1994 to 1999 Lê returned to Vietnam in an attempt to reconnect with her homeland. While there she photographed rural landscapes and urban views that, though still scarred by the incisors of the Vietnam War, are moments connecting her memory of home with the passage of time and change. The images are not manipulated, they are simply shot with clarity and in that vein such powerful photographs as 'Untitled Hanoi, 1995' is at once a stark apartment housing project 'fortress' in the foreground of which is the unfocused movement of young boys playing soccer while a central figure on a tree stump, in focus, stares off into what feels like a broken vision of hope.

In the period of 1999 to 2002 Lê turned her camera toward the activities of a Virginia-based club self-named 'living historians' as the reenacted events from the Vietnam War (wargames these are) and in posing as a player, both civilian and enemy, she managed to penetrate the strange obsession with these men in somehow maintaining the myth of the war. 'GI' is a simple portrait of a reenactor at rest in battle regalia gazing into Lê's camera with occult thoughts of intention. It is a very human testimony to the confusion the concept of war creates.

In 2003 and 2004 Lê installed her camera and eye on the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms at a time when troops were training for Iraq and Afghanistan, absorbing not only the machinery of war but also the effects of landscape in the process of being altered by war machinery. Many of these photographs are serenely beautiful: 'Night Operations III' is a night photograph of aerial bombing in the desert, the streaks of mortar fire and illuminators create a balletic frenzy in the black sky over the miniaturized training camp facilities.

An-My Lê takes her title 'SMALL WARS' of this profoundly impressive book from the military term for guerilla warfare - warfare that stretches from the military zone into the land. Her emphasis is on the landscape in each of these personal images, a factor that subtly focuses on the smallness and vulnerability of the subjects. She puts war into a context where few have ventured and the result is an intense experience and a book of substantive beauty. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

Samuel Chamberlain's ineffaceable black & white photographic images of New England landscapes and interiors are vividly captured in this book. This book serves more or less as a summary of over fifty years of Chamberlain's efforts and works published in numerous books, which are now highly sought after. Many of his best photographs are represented in this single volume. I consider this to be the best book of photographs taken on New England because it represents the spirit and essence of the land and the people who inhabited this region of America through the first half of the twentieth century.

I highly recommend this book because if you are unacquainted with Samuel Chamberlain and his work this book will give you insight and appreciation for his legacy as one of America's greatest photographer artists. This book stands as a compendium to works on his best known subject, New England. Samuel Chamberlain was one of America's preeminent photographers during the early and mid 20th Century. He is conspicuously and sadly forgotten today. I use the word conspicuously because if you every see his photographs as originally published he no doubt would have left you intrigued and impressed by the richness of the work. It is amazing how his black & white photographs could actually capture the colors of the New England foliage. One can feel the sun shining through autumn colored leaves. I think his greatest passion and love was the rural New England setting. I was recently very pleased to see "The New England Image" back in print and on the bookshelves. The first printing, which was bound and printed by Conzett & Huber, Zurich, Switzerland, 1962 is one of Samuel Chamberlain's best-known and most popular books. Discover or re-discover Samuel Chamberlain with "The New England Image."

I really love this small book. The pictures let you write your own story. Who owns the bike with the full size rocking horse or black raven on the handle bar, and who attached an old vaccum cleaner as a tailpipe? Who secures a 3lb, 15yr old bike with a 50lb chain? The beautiful photography, design, and writing showcase the quirky, weird underside that makes New Orleans unique.

This small scale but very heady book published by the always excellent firm of Mark Batty Publisher is not only an entertaining, beautifully designed and produced series of images of bicycles, but it is also a cultural study of a city antiquarian in nature and hanging on to a rich past by its fingertips. Photographers and writers Nicholas Costarides and Mary Richardson wandered this great mecca for bohemians for a year and a half - before Katrina's heinous visitation - falling in love with the city's preoccupation with the bicycle, the primary mode of transportation in this flat and poverty stricken lady of a city. They discovered that not only were bicycles a proven means of peripatetic survival but that they also became symbols for the people who owned them, people whose pride and idiosyncrasies flavor the appearance of these timeworn bi-pedals, releasing torrents of information and fantasy to the searching eye and mind.

Mary Richardson opens the book with a comment 'On Spinning Wheels' which reads like an extended poem. 'These are not just bicycles, they are extensions of personalities, tainted with the grime of the city. And they are individuals in the rawest sense'...'It's a life that can't exist outside the schizophrenia of unlimited limitations. New Orleans bicycles: the crippled potential, the lust to keep pushing down the same old streets, the looks of peace as they're chained and bound to their city, and the knowledge that it's just a short distance to their destination, but lack of motion can be paralyzing.'

The book is then graced with the formal foreword by Andrei Codrescu, the author 'New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty years of Writing from the City' which segues into countless photographs of some of the strangest, most humorous, sentimentally stained bicycles imaginable. Costarides and Richardson have photographed panoramas of sidestreets, bicycles chained to posts, intimate details of the decor and personality imposed on these time honored modes of transportation, and the peculiar accoutrements that offer such strong personalities to the bikes and their owners. The photographs are richly colorful and immaculately reproduced on quality paper. The design of the book is by Costarides and is not only of the highest quality of concept and execution, but it also uses some fascinating imprints on the pages of writing that subtly introduces the grime of the city we are about to visit.

The book ends with an Epilogue entitled 'On Katrina' and leaves the reader with the sense of resilience that New Orleans will never die but will prosper BECAUSE of the tragedy. It is as moving as the book is entertaining. This is a superb character study presented in the top of the class manner. Bravo! Grady Harp, January 07

The pictures presented in this book are original and historic. The one you can't make anymore.

....before it was Starbuck-ed, Disney-ized and Giuliani-fied, before "Sex & the City" made it a boring cliche... If you can remember when real people could still afford to live in Manhattan, this book is for you. The black-and-white photographs are not of landmarks and tourist attractions, but of the everyday miracles that made New York the city it was back then. A bunch of guys helping to push out a car stuck in the snow. A lady doing a grand jete over a massive puddle. A child peeking out of an upper window, a sense of wonder in her eyes. The photos are simple, sometimes elegiac and often brilliant in composition. Wandering through these photographs felt as intimate to me as leafing through a family album.

I have bought this book 4 times, and each time it was with the intention of keeping it for myself. But every time, I end up giving it away as a present because it is just so beautiful. I really enjoy this book and the shiny foil packaging box is some of the best I have ever seen. The first time I bought it was at full price of $40 in a gallery book store in New York. I thought it was worth that price, and have been happy to purchase it at less than half the cost on Amazon.

This book, which comes in a case with a magnetic closure, is perfect for fans of the urban environment and especially for New Yorkers. There are only a couple nature shots, with the focus on the reflective properties of our glass boxes, the juxtaposition of art or nature or squalor with these behemoth skyscrapers and the ornamentation of the buildings themselves. The photographs span the past decade and there are a couple photographs of the intact World Trade Center. The final page contains 3 photographs taken on Sept. 11, 2001 (Setboun was in Lower Manhattan that morning). I appreciated the focus being on intact, vibrant New York, rather than the tragedy we see over and over again.

Had really no time to finalize the book so far, however, quick overview: as always, one of the most original authors on photography (along with Ian Jeffrey), Max Kozloff exploits the depth of the medium with exceptional originality and taste. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the medium of photography as such as well as to those interested in excellent criticism of nowadays.

New York: Capital of Photography is one of those rare books that takes on a difficult subject and carries it off so well that more is achieved than any reader could normally expect.

The subject is New York City in the 20th century. How did the most prominent and highly respected photographers look at and capture the Big Apple? That's the subject here. The only photographers that you might have expected to be in the book that aren't are Diane Arbus, Roy DeCarava and Robert Frank -- due to disputes with Ms. Arbus's daughter and the latter two photographers. So it?s quite complete.

I am a photography fan, and was familiar with most of the photographers covered in the book. But I found the book built on my previous understanding of their work by exposing me to works that I had not seen before and by carefully explaining those works. Some may be disappointed that many iconographic works are not included here . . . but many of those are referenced in Max Kozloff's essay. So you'll see them indirectly in your mind.

The plates capture many different focuses for photography, different styles, varieties of techniques and equipment, and different philosophies about the purpose of photography. As such, they present a catalog of the whole field of photography in the last century. That catalog is more valuable because it concentrates on one subject . . . in many different dimensions.

Frankly, how do you capture New York on film? You can't. Most photographers tried to capture tiny elements that express universal truths. Some succeeded in timeless ways while others created time-limited archives of the past.

As wonderful as the photographs are, the essay by Max Kozloff is what sets this book apart from other photography books. It's as though he gives you a personal tour of the show and answers your questions about the photographers and the plates in as much detail as you want. Almost every plate is discussed and some figures are added for context as well. Seeing the collection through his eyes was like suddenly being loaned an advanced degree in photography studies. Enlivened by this education, I'm sure my eye will always notice more about fine photography when I see it displayed in the future.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of this field. In addition, I strongly urge New Yorkers to get copies. The sights captured here will trigger many important memories.

As I finished this wonderful volume, I thought about how fortunate photography students would be if their teachers used this book as a source . . . and then assigned the students to photograph New York.

If you've heard of Nobuyoshi Araki, want to get to know him, or are a little curious, this is the perfect book to look at. It is an anthology of his career, with a preface interview, history of each of his major releases, every well known shot, all presented in a highquality book.

Araki is a prolific artist who helped define Japans photographic conscience. Starting as most professional photographers do working for an ad agency, he spent his free time creating photos to express his past, environment, and passions, all tinged with his sense of playful rebellion. I would also highly suggest getting Araki by Araki, a compilation done by him of his favorite works. There is also a documentary based on him called Arakimentary that gives a true look at what kind of person he is. I first heard of him from my art teacher, browsed the local book stores, and was amazed. Above all, he wants to have fun and challenge convention, but doesn't give his art any esoteric meaning. His work is very controversial, but by todays decency standards in America, is very tame. His work includes traditional portraits, capturing the playfulness of children, architecture of Tokyo as it was developing post-war, flowers distorted to look like abominations, the sex scene of the early 90's, a tribute to his wife after her death from cancer, intimate nude portraits of beautiful women, and shots of everyday life in Tokyo.

My back still aches from carrying the damn thing home with me from the office which should give you an idea of just how comprehensive the work is.

The initial impression that most people have of Araki is that he's a dirty, dirty old man.

Which is true.

More importantly, he's someone who has documented every aspect of his life through photography. As much as people will focus on the sexual aspects of Araki's work, its just a part of the larger body of work which quite simply, includes everything. The book does an excellent job of selecting some highlights from an immense body of work produced by everyone's favorite dirty uncle. I have yet to extensively go through the interviews and writing but they provide a nice insight into his process and philosophy of photography.

Beautiful book, good selection of works, very interesting angles of photos.
As a CG 3D modeler I find it very useful as reference.
I'd recommend this book to any figurative painter/sculptor/3D modeler.

Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years contains the photogaphs of David Finn and an essay on the sculpture and the photographs by Vicki Goldberg.

Photographer Finn found that art critics had found the work of the sculptor Antonio Canova to be academic and cold. I have to admit I also found this to be true, especially of the well know work "Paolina Borghese as Venus" located in the Borghese Palace in Rome. However, Finn shows us another side of Canova in his photographs of "Cupid and Psyche" from the Louvre. This work, when viewed directly from the front, is wonderfully composed with Psyche's upstretched arms circling the head of Cupid, while his arms enfold and support her. However Finn shows us a view from behind the figures where the narrative is not as explicit but the composition just as beautiful as the front view. In this back view, an urn has been overturned which can't be seen from the front view and the loving embraces of the front view become more ambiguous and maybe threatening when seen from behind.

Finn also photographs "The Three Graces" by Canova, located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Finn narrows the focus to the torsoes and legs of the three maidens, revealing a rhythmic flowing pattern of pure elegance.

The photographs are organized chronologically, starting with a fertility figures that is over 6500 years old, that is highly stylized and almost contemporary in wit and modeling. The works of the Egyptians follow with an incredible naturalistic wooden nude young man from 2200 B.C. that is modeled, posed, and executed with high reality and attention to the natural form rather than to the Egyptian artistic canon. The slim young male body, realistic genitals, relaxes stance, and realistic gripped hand, are superb.

Finn then takes us to the work of the Greeks. Be ready to be amazed at the perfection in his detail of "Riace Warrior A". The backside of this warrior is about as sensual as any work of art I know.

The interpretations of the nude in the Hindu and Buddhist sculptures of India, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Japan range from the highly sensual to the contemplative.

Micelangelo's sculptures have such bulk and presence, as if his first and foremost goal is to fully develop a solid shape, something which can't be easily ignored - which must be dealt with.

Two male nudes by Baccio Bandinelli of "Hercules and Cacus" could not be any more perfect. Benvenuto Cellini's "Perseus", photographed from the side, integrates the nude male into a complex pose and composition. Giambologna's "Rape of a Sabine" is shown just in detail, and the rape imagery is lost as we see the male figure in awe of the female's breast or gently holding her buttocks. This deconstruction of the whole image into details that imply totally different meaning is evident also in Bernini's "Pluto Abducting Persephone" and "Apollo and Daphne" where the male's touch holds the female firm but does not bruise.

Into the 19th century we come to Rodin's "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" a challenging work of art for all viewers in all times. I can hardly describe this work of art for the work seems both floating and contorted as the female figure balances on one foot while holding her other leg into the air, totally exposing her gentials as boldly as the male genitals are sometimes revealed.

A final favorite of mine is "Man" by Gaston Lachaise, a work that seems both comic and heroic as the nude male figure seems struttpuffed up like a rooster and purposefully massive as a god.

Very fine photography.