Documentary-collections Books

Andrew Bush is one of the premier photographic artists living today. This wonderful collection of his candid photos of drivers in their automobiles in and around Los Angeles is one of the most startlingly original artistic concepts ever seen. These photos capture ordinary citizens in their most unguarded moments. They are realer than real when engaged in that quintessential American activity: driving their cars. Each photograph, taken from a camera mounted on the side of Bush's own car, is the same in format, but infinitely varied in its effects. One stares and stares at each image wondering what is going on in the minds of the drivers. It is anthropological as well as artistic. We learn that these photographs exist in greater than life-sized formats. Certainly one should try to see them exhibited if possible, but every lover of photography needs to add this reasonably priced book to their collection. The images are timeless, and more fascinating every time one looks at them. The wonderful interview with Bush at the end gives an unusual glimpse into the mind of an exceptionally fertile creative artist.

Photographer Bill Ganzel grew up on the Great Plains and after seeing an exhibition of Farm Security Administration photos in 1970 had the unique idea of searching out the places and people of the original photos and photographing them again. This stunning book is the result of his quest. All the photos have detailed captions and also the thoughts of those Ganzel interviewed.

Of the hundred and eighty-nine photos in the book just over half are from the FSA files, the rest are the result of Ganzel's searching out the original locations over a five year period. Amazingly he found several people who had become famous (though still anonymous) because their photos were widely reproduced in newspapers and magazines in the thirties.

One of these was Florence Thompson who was the Migrant Mother in the world famous 1936 photo by Dorothea Lange. I think it is the greatest photo ever taken and Roy Stryker head of the FSA photo section said it was THE image of the collection. This is what he said in 1972 ...''After all these years, I still get that picture out and look at it. The quietness and the stillness of it...Was that woman calm or not? I've never known. I cannot account for that woman. So many times I've asked myself what is she thinking? She has all the suffering of mankind in her but all the perseverance too. A restraint and a strange courage. You can see anything you want to in her. She is immortal. Look at that hand. Look at the child. Look at those fingers--those two heads of hair.'' So it was a wonderful surprise for me to see the photo Ganzel took in 1979 of Florence and her three healthy grown-up daughters on page thirty-one facing the original Migrant Mother photo of her on page thirty.

He also found Darrel Coble who was the young boy running after his father in the well known 1936 Athur Rothstein photo 'Fleeing a dust storm', taken in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Another unknown yet famous person who survived the Depression and prospered.

Other photos show railroad crossings, houses, tractors in 1936 fields with combines in 1977 fields, cowhands at dinner, churchs, gas stations, county fairs, court houses. Everyday life and people on the Plains separated by forty years.

This is a wonderful book capturing the feel of the thirties on the Plains and again in the Seventies. If you collect books of documentary photos this one must be in your collection. A gem.

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

I have never seen such beautiful slides of the Southwest. If you have never seen the Southwest this books brings to life the true beauty of this enchanted land to life. I highly recommend it.

This book has a magnetic power that draws you into the pictures. This is all that could be said. This book doesn't have a lot written in it, but it doesn't need anything more. Just by looking at the pictures, you understand what is going on. It is an eye opening view into the lives of people all around the world.

a somptuous book bringing together a series of photographs taken over the last ten years. Deserted places, abandoned objects, people seen from the back in transitory places, airport corridors or subway escalators are her recurring subjects. Colors are deep and dark, people and things immerged in artifial lighting, closed places.

A race destined to fade from the earth - many assumed this of the Native Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century. "Edward Sheriff Curtis" displays one man's photographs of these people as they held on to their millennia-old traditions. A powerful collection of imagery, capturing the spirit and ideals of a culture faced with possible extinction, "Edward Sheriff Curtis" is a highly recommended coffee table book.

Efe pygmies: Archers of the African Rain Forest is a sumptuously illustrated tome that will long grace my coffee table. The main part of the book - a subtle photographic study depicting the Efe subsisting precariously but harmoniously in the depths of the Ituri forest - is preceded by a brief but fascinating scene-setting section of white-on-black text.

The author presents vivid visual and verbal images of his subjects making baskets, carrying hunting nets, filing their teeth, smoking tobacco, playing music, dispatching a net-caught antelope, touchingly expressing grief at the death of a newborn, and fleeing from their leaf huts into the night beneath a cracking and crashing, lightning-weakened tree.

Skillful, intimate photography makes us yearn for the easy laughter and simplicity of these gentle, peaceful people, yet we are simultaneously made aware of the dangers and discomforts they must constantly face.

It is a fitting tribute to a people as "primitive" and untouched by global culture as any on earth, and the precariousness of their independence. Moreover, it is a compelling and persuasive insight into our own hunting and gathering origins, and the thoughts, feelings, and reactions we all share as part of the human family.

While William Wheeler's book may not lead us to put on treebark loin cloths and chase wildlife through the forest, it is an evocative portrayal of another culture, one that can teach us something about how to live surrounded by danger and dark forces and yet keep on reverentially singing, laughing, and living for the moment.

Although the Efe are clearly too humble and happy a people to bother sending missionaries to us for our edification, this beautiful and moving book affords a glimpse of what such a mission might convey.

This work is a compilation of newspaper advertisements for runaway servants. A brief introductory essay offers a good summation of general patterns. The masters offered thorough descriptions of the servants they wanted captured and returned. These detailed descriptions also give us a good look at these individuals.

Those interested in Irish history would find this interesting. While a number of ethnic groups are mentioned, an overwhelming majoirty of the servants advertised in 18th-century Philadelphia were Gaelic-speaking Irish just beginning to learn English. This should also be interesting for students of labor history. The skills and experience of the servants are listed, as are a number of injuries, most presumably work-related.

The Electric Image is the most compelling photographic book I have seen in a long time (and I look at hundreds every year). It challenges us to look beyond the obvious and look again... what is real and what is not? The amazing thing is the images are the real thing, not some post-production manipulation. The concept, subject, photographs, text, design and production of this unusual book transcends its genre... all for the better. For those who actually read, the essay is provocative. I predict this book will quickly become a much sought after collector's item and source of constant wonderment. Bravo!

Owning this book has been a total pleasure and inspiration. It'sthe next best thing to having one hanging in your home, and more affordable.