What to buy in November 2009

Elliott Erwitt has been a MAGNUM member since the 1950s and is definitely one of the world’s giants of street photography. His images do not only catch scenes and situations which most of us would not even notice; the special thing about Erwitt is the particular humorist approach toward his subjects.
To me, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt is one of the best street photographers of all time. Famous are his images of dogs (and their owners), people interacting with others or with their environment.

I don’t even know whether There are any publicized images in color, Elliott Erwitt is and will be known as a black&white photographer. This volume shows a number of his most famous photopraphs in a big size book with a great layout on beautiful paper. Special about this publication is also that most o the text is by Erwitt himself, giving an introduction about himself, his life, and his photography.

From the book:
“The dedicated photographer works with his own sensibility, instincts, and experience. He stays curious about everything visible. He looks, looks some more, and then looks again, because that is the fundamental basis of photography. And that’s all…just looking and making your own unique connections.”

This is his website!

You get this edition on discount here!

What to buy in October 2009

Steve McCurry (by Anthony Bannon)

Steve McCurry is one of the photographers that I was always a bit ambivalent about. Maybe that’s because much of his fame was so much based on this one famous image of an “Afghan Girl” (1979) that he had become much of an icon of mainstream travel photography. Every guy with a big SLR + long lens seemed to try copying that style, the colors etc.

However, when I walked into Kinokuniya Book Store (Singapore) yesterday, I had a look at the Phaidon Edition of Steve McCurry. Phaidon has been publishing this great series of books, introducing icons of photography like Mary Ellen Mark, Andre Kertesz, and others. It turns out that Steve McCurry is an absolute master of color photography, and a great portrait photographer, too. Of course I knew that before, but looking at these fantastic color portraits taken in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I realized that McCurry was at the time able to record South-/Central Asian life in a way which is hardly possible anymore. At the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 the country was already wrecked by civil war. However, the general attitude towards the West (i.e America) was not yet as negative as it is today. As McCurry points out himself: Portrait images like he took in Pakistan back then would hardly be possible anymore. Too much china has been broken, I guess.

This edition only gives a glimpse into this famous MAGNUM photographer’s work. The great thing about this series is also, that every image comes with a comment about how it was taken (not technical!). That makes it a pleasure to read. It’s also printed in high quality (Phaidon is a fantastic publishing house!) for a very low price. You can either buy it at your local art book store, or order it here! Check it out, it’s worth it!

What to buy in September 2009

The Polaroid Book:

The Polaroid picture has become an icon of 20th century photography. The possibility to create instant results was a small revolution when it was first presented to the market.
What also made the Polaroid camera special was the close cooperation between famous photographers and Polaroid. People like Ansel Adams contributed to the development of the Polaroid film to achieve the best possible results. The fact that artists embraced this technology lead to a whole new genre of photography.

“The Polaroid Book”, published by TASCHEN, gives a fantastic overview over the range of Polaroid Photography since the 1950. This includes images by Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Danny Lyon, Barbara Hitchcock, Bill Burke, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elliot Erwitt and many others. It also gives an overview of the history of the Polaroid camera, its creator Edwin Land, and all the different models since its introduction in 1954.
It’s a beautiful book to browse through. Highly recommended!

What to buy in August 2009

Russel Miller: Magnum 50 Years

In my last post I was talking about Eve Arnold being one of the most important members in the history of MAGNUM. I guess this is an opportunity to introduce a book that gives a good overview of the history, background and members of the world’s most famous photo agency.

Russel Miller’s work describes not only the way MAGNUM was founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and George Roger in the 1950s. He also gives very good insight in the psychology and dynamics of the agency by describing the life and the photography of some of it’s most famous members, including Werner Bischof, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, David Seymour, Josef Koudelka, Philip Jones Griffiths, and others.

Miller not only talks about the grandeur of the agency and all its achievements. He also describes the struggles, arguments, and crises that MAGNUM went through in its 50 years of history, almost almost being at the brink of collapse and bankruptcy. And it describes the way MAGNUM had to adjust to a world in which the still picture seems to have lost it’s position to the moving picture and TV coverage of world events.
MAGNUM stands for honesty and finding the truth in photo journalism. It was always a creation of it’s time, both catching and at the same time struggling with zeitgeist and the conflict between the freedom of art the commercial need of it’s members. A book definitely worth reading.

This edition can be purchased here!

What to buy in July 2009:

“Eve Arnold’s People”

Eve Arnold is one of the classics of MAGNUM – photography. She joined the agency in its first decade in the 1950s and has been one of the members that shaped MAGNUM and symbolized the spirit and the style of probably the most famous photo agency in history.
Eve Arnold has always been famous for her portraiture. Especially her images “on set” of Maryllin Monroe or her China images pop up when we think of her legacy. For me her style very much stands for an approach towards the subject that creates emotional depth by building up a relationship with the photographed person before shooting. especially her images taken on Hollywood film sets demonstrate this. Her intimate portraits of Hollywood actors are exceptional.

This volue is a compilation of Eve Arnold’s portrait photography. I had been looking for something like this for a long time. Most of her original books have not been published for a long time and could only be purchased on the art market for very high prices. This book is a good quality volume for an affordable price, always appreciated!

It can be purchased here!

What to buy in June 2009

Susan Sontag: On Photography

Two weeks ago I strolled through a local book store and found a discounted edition of Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”. Since this is an absolute classic, I did not hesitate to buy it.
Susan Sontag is one of America’s most acclaimed writers. Through her close association with America’s photographic scene, she not only managed to get a close insight into the work of some very famous artists; in 1973 she also published one of the most famous theoretical works about photography. Though already almost 40 years have gone bye, this little Penguin edition is still a very good way to approach photography from a theoretical point of view. Reading it it becomes very clear that the essence of photography can never be technical. The approach toward the image and the execution of the photographic act contains a sensual as well as a cultural implication.
In her essays Susan Sontag not only describes the development of photography during the last 100 years; she also points out how the perception of images and subjects changed through the ages. “When anything can be photographed and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely with no expectations of discovering what it means.”

This book doesn’t help you making better images. But it will help you understanding the way you behave towards the subject and it places you in a broader cultural and historical context of photography. A book that should not be missed!
Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” can be purchased here!
For Singapore Readers: I purchased the book at Kinokoniya book shop, Ngee An City.

What to buy in May 2009

Jock Sturges: Notes

Jock Sturges has for long been an icon of photography. The American who became famous by taking beautiful large format images of young man, women, and children, mostly on beaches in France. His images became famous for their natural beauty and technical perfection.

“Notes” is not only a beautiful crafted review of Sturges work over a longer period of time, showing images in color and b&W. It also gives a very interesting insight into the way Sturges worked and approached his subjects, from the polaroid draft image to the perfectly crafted end result.
Beautiful Photography without any vulgarity or kitsch. Highly recommended for a reasonable price. The book can be purchased here.

What to buy in April 2009

David Bailey: “Bailey’s Democracy”

A few months ago I already introduced David Bailey as one of the most important fashion photographers in history. This time I would like to introduce you to one of his most outstanding works.

“Bailey’s Democracy” is special in a way that the artist tried to get away from the common notion of beauty and aesthetics. The set up of the images reminds the viewer very much of Richard Avedon’s typical white backgrounds with people standing plain in front of the camera.

David Bailey used different kinds of women and men, ranging from artists, models and actors to ordinary people and let them pose strip naked, without any instruction or posing guideline.
The result is a series of images that show people not only without their “visual protection” of clothes and style, but also trapped in their own body language which reveals a lot about their characters.

“Bailey’s democracy” shows people barren of the protective clothes, there isn’t even any background. Everybody is the same in front of the camera (that’s why he chose the title). Some of these people are quite beautiful, some appear rather bizarre in their appearance and posing. Whatever is is, it is a great book to watch!
This project has been discussed and exhibited a lot. More information about this book and the whole concept and art of David Bailey’s photography can be found here!

“Bailey’s Democracy” is published by Thames & Hudson and can be purchased here! or here.
It’s not a small book, doing justice to the big portraits photographs. Anything smaller would have been a disappointment.

What to buy in March 2009

Sam Abell; “The life of a Photograph”

In January I stumbled over this book while trying out the photo art section of a book store in Singapore that I hadn’t been to in a long time.
Sam Abell’s book didn’t seem to be very impressive at the first glance. Color images about places in America, in a modern fashion, very subtle and without a lot of people. Usually not my peace of cake. I prefer images of people, characters that make me wonder about their lifes, how they feel, perceive the world etc.

Well I bought the book anyways. And after looking at the images for a few times, slowly the whole collection about ‘American Impressions’ started to make sense.
This book is not only about America but mainly about the dynamics of photographic images. The whole collection of photographs reveals how LOCATION, COLOUR, and first of all COMPOSITION actually make an image. Sam Abell’s photographs have a magic about them that is only revealed after looking at them a few times. They are well composed and thought through but at the same time natural, following the human’s way of looking at things. I recomend this book for anyone’s collection.

With US$ 26.00 this book has become an absolute bargain. It can be ordered here.

What to buy in February 2009

This is not a new release. Actually this book has been around for quite a while. I think I purchased it in 2005, but even then it wasn’t new.
I had already written about Sally Mann two months ago. She is an outstanding photographer, being famous for the outdoor nude images of her children. “Immediate Family” is probably her most famous publication and sparked a lot of controversy, especially in times when the public had become very sensitive towards topics like pedophile child abuse etc.

The images shown in this book are taken with a large format camera and beautifully crafted. They show Sally Mann’s children in and around their home. The pictures are strikingly open and natural, very much in the nudist tradition. The set up is similar to Jock Sturges’ images of nude colonies in France and the United States. They are in no way pornographic or indecent (whatever that word means). They are just beautiful!

The book can be purchased here…

This is from one of her exhibitions in Jackson Fine Art.