Category: Books

  • The Best Photo Books 2009 – Conscientious

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    It’s that time of the year again, so without further ado, these are the photo books that impressed me the most this past year. I’m listing them in no particular order, with the exception of the very first one: jpegs by Thomas Ruff. Cutting-edge work, challenging the way we think about photographs, presented beautifully in…

  • Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon – The Observer

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon | Book review Sean O’Hagan applauds a meticulous biography of the photographer Dorothea Lange who will forever be defined by her images of the Great Depression via the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/06/dorothea-lange-biography-review Sean O’Hagan applauds a meticulous biography of Dorothea Lange who will forever be defined by her…

  • Heart of brightness: the Gentlemen of Bacongo

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Heart of brightness: the Gentlemen of Bacongo A group of dandies gussied up in tailored tweeds and bowler hats have transformed their Brazzaville suburb into Congo’s most unlikely style capital via the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/nov/30/daniele-tamagni-gentlemen-of-bacongo?picture=356236609 A small suburb of Brazzaville in Congo has become an unlikely style capital, thanks to its dedicated followers of foppish fashion.…

  • Arnoud Bakker – Atropa bella donna « The PhotoBook

    Arnoud Bakker – Atropa bella donna « The PhotoBook

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Arnoud Bakker – Atropa bella donna Copyright Arnoud Bakker, 2009, courtesy Stichting Fotografie Noorderlicht To be in love, or perhaps in lust, is to experience a kind of narcosis and paralysis, with an inability to focus, while the… via PhotoBook Journal: http://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/arnoud-bakker-atropa-bella-donna/ The subject of Bakker’s book recently published by Noorderlicht, both directly and indirectly,…

  • photo-eye | Magazine — 50

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Spending time with Duane Michals recent book, 50, was essentially re-experiencing much of my own photographic life, having come of photographic age with his Somnambulistic period. His fascination with dreams, dreamlike states and dream-walking precedes our current interest with making connections to memories. He is whimsical, elusive, sensitive, cerebral, witty, caustic, introspective, challenging and seemly…

  • 'My Prison, My Home – One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran,' by Haleh Esfandiari – Review – NYTimes.com

    'My Prison, My Home – One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran,' by Haleh Esfandiari – Review – NYTimes.com

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Haleh Esfandiari: Prisoner of Tehran A love of Iran underlies a scholar’s memoir of surreal interrogation and solitary confinement in Tehran. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/books/review/Secor-t.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss In 2007, Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, told Iranian intelligence everything she knew. She was interrogated for almost eight months, nearly four of them…

  • Matt Logue's "Empty Los Angeles" photography book – Boing Boing

    Matt Logue's "Empty Los Angeles" photography book – Boing Boing

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Matt Logue’s “Empty Los Angeles” photography book Matt Logue says: I just completed a self-published book depicting an uninhabited Los Angeles, and it got an honorable mention in the photography.book.now competition at blurb.com!  The photos were … via Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/matt-logues-empty-lo.html

  • photo-eye | Magazine — Hard Knocks

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    The first image in Shelley Calton’s Hard Knocks, is a wonderful set-up for the brief, wild ride into the kinetic world of women’s roller derby that is to come. Titled “Agent Belligerent,” the opening portrait is of a woman who looks set for combat – and she is. Link: photo-eye | Magazine — Hard Knocks

  • photo-eye | Magazine — Fake Holidays

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Accompanying this wry volume’s many accomplishments, Reiner Riedler deserves credit for reminding us that the United States does not monopolize the global marketplace for vicarious experiences available at cost. Yes, Orlando and Las Vegas hold places of honor in this collection. But Riedler, identified in the fall 2009 issue of PDNedu as “one to watch,”…

  • What Makes A Photo Book A Bestseller? 2009 Edition

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    For some insight into the commercial photography book market, PDN recently obtained data from Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks retail book sales, to see which new titles are among the bestselling photography books this year. Link: What Makes A Photo Book A Bestseller? 2009 Edition

  • 'My Paper Chase – True Stories of Vanished Times,' by Harold Evans – NYTimes.com

    'My Paper Chase – True Stories of Vanished Times,' by Harold Evans – NYTimes.com

    —

    by

    Trent
    in ,

    When Type Was Poured Hot In his new memoir, Harold Evans recalls an exuberant run in 20th-century journalism. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Carr-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss Sir Harold Evans knows his way around a story, having served as the editor of The Sunday Times of London, The Times of London, and all manner of publications up and down the food chain.…

  • Grunge – WTJ

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    In celebration of the release of his latest book ‘GRUNGE‘ Michael Lavine is this weeks WTJ? sponsor. Michael took the pics and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore provides the text. Grunge is not only a collection of portraits of musicians synonymous with the 80’s punk scene and grunge explosion in Seattle but also documents the counter…

  • lens culture: "Transsibériades", Klavdij Sluban

    —

    by

    Trent
    in ,

    Klavdij Sluban won the European Publishers Award for Photography 2009, for his book Transsibériades. Link: lens culture: “Transsibériades”, Klavdij Sluban

  • Review: Dorothea Lange – A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon – Conscientious

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    I have always been under the impression that America has not given its female photographers the credit they deserve(d), and that it is maybe a bit too generous with its male ones. Link: Review: Dorothea Lange – A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon – Conscientious

  • photo-eye | Eddie Adams – Vietnam

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    “Eddie Adams,” writes his widow Alyssa Adams in her Author’s Note to Vietnam, “would never had let this book be published if he were alive.” Link: photo-eye | Magazine — Vietnam

  • A soldier's photographs of Afghanistan – The Guardian

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    A soldier’s photographs of Afghanistan Alexander Allan’s newly published collection of pictures from his tour of duty in Helmund offer an extraordinary new perspective on the conflict via the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/27/photographs-afghanistan Alexander Allan’s newly published collection of pictures from his tour of duty in Helmund offer an extraordinary new perspective on the conflict

  • PDNPulse: Ex-Corbis Employee Working on Tell-All Book

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Corbis, which shuffles its executive team around every couple of years, is frequently the subject of gossip about company politics. Recently, one internal feud spilled out in public on a blog by Jon La Grace, a former editor at Corbis Outline, the stock agency’s celebrity portrait division. Link: PDNPulse: Ex-Corbis Employee Working on Tell-All Book

  • Book Review – 'Dorothea Lange – A Life Beyond Limits,' by Linda Gordon

    Book Review – 'Dorothea Lange – A Life Beyond Limits,' by Linda Gordon

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Picturing the Depression A highly political biography of a transformative figure in modern photojournalism, the documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss perhaps the most iconic image — gracing textbooks, hanging from dormitory walls, affixed to political posters, even adorning a postage stamp — is Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother,” taken at a California farmworkers camp in…

  • alex webb & rebecca norris webb – violet isle | burn magazine

    —

    by

    Trent
    in ,

    alex webb & rebecca norris webb – violet isle [slidepress gallery=’awrnw-cuba’] Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb Violet Isle play this essay   Q&A with DAH &n… via burn magazine: http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/10/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-violet-isle/ (1) Both of you have heretofore been solo artists. What sacrifices did you make…

  • photo-eye | Bureaucratics

    —

    by

    Trent
    in

    Link: photo-eye | Magazine — Bureaucratics: Sushma Prasad is an assistant clerk to the Cabinet Secretary of the State of Bihar, India. Her desk is relatively neat, but behind her is a chaotic pile of irretrievable facts buried in hundreds of tattered paper files. Prasad is one of fifty civil servants Jan Banning photographed in…