photo-eye Magazine, Winter 2007 by photo-eye Magazine

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photo eye

WINTER 2007 US $8.95/CAN $9.95/UK ÂŁ4.50

the international magazine of photography books

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CONTENTS Winter 2007

VOLUME 29 // ISSUE NO. 4

Detail of Haiti, 1986, by Alex Webb from Magnum Magnum. Published by Thames & Hudson.

About Our Cover 14

Publisher Profile 22

Survey of New Books 28

Detail of Snow storm, Hills, Iowa, 2004 from Driftless, by Danny Wilcox Frazier. Published by Duke University Press and the Center for Documentary Studies.

Lisa Robinson’s first monograph is a quiet meditation on Winter. » INTERVIEW BY PATRICK AMSELLEM One by one, we interview the publishers of the books we love. » A PHOTO-EYE QUESTIONNAIRE The quarterly survey of the best new photography books. » BY VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS

In the Shadow of Genius 48

Countess Sophia Tolstoy was an avid photographer. Leah Bendavid-Val presents her work in a touching new volume. » INTERVIEW BY DARIUS HIMES

Driftless 54

Danny Wilcox Frazier wins the Center for Documentary Studies/ Honickman First Book Prize in Photography for his work in Iowa. » INTERVIEW BY MARY ANNE REDDING

Roving Eye 66

Publishing the Photography Book 72

Editor’s Choice 104

Our Paris-based correspondent goes to Arles! » BY AVIS CARDELLA A column about the ins and outs of publishing. » BY MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON AND DARIUS HIMES Our editor reviews a singular title of the season. » BY DARIUS HIMES

ON OUR COVER From Snowbound © Lisa M. Robinson and Kehrer Verlag, 2007 (interview p. 14).

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

PHOTO-EYE PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY

PHOTO-EYE BOOKS & PRINTS 370 GARCIA STREET SANTA FE, NM 87501 TEL 505 988 5152 FAX 505 988 4487

DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER RIXON REED rick@photoeye.com EDITOR DARIUS HIMES darius@photoeye.com ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR HANNAH NEWBURN hannah@photoeye.com

A photobook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things “in themselves” and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book. —Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins

MAGAZINE & DATABASE ASSISTANT JENNY GOLDBERG booklist@photoeye.com

For the past five years, this magazine has been a celebration of the “dramatic event called a book.” The landscape of photobook publishing has changed and expanded rapidly over the course of the last fifteen years, with exciting new publishing companies cropping up around the globe. It has been a joy to survey that landscape and to provide you—our readers and avid collectors—with commissioned reviews and interviews by photographers and writers on some of the best titles out there. The primary and most fundamental function of the arts is to engage their audience and spark dialogue, in whatever manner seems best. This journal has attempted to do just that, by creating a space for reflection and insight, and providing an opportunity for conversation and questions to sprout and find life within the broader context of contemporary photography and the visual arts. Our cover image is by Lisa Robinson from her series and first monograph Snowbound, accompanied by an interview with Patrick Amsellem, associate curator of photography at the Brooklyn Museum. I have followed Lisa’s work for the past three years while she searched for a publisher, and am proud to feature the work and congratulate Kehrer Verlag for believing in it. Having been raised myself in a village in Eastern Iowa, it also brings me pleasure to feature an interview with Danny Wilcox Frazier, winner of this year’s Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. Frazier is also a native Iowan and his work brilliantly distills the experience of life on the farms and in the small towns that dot that agrarian and mythical landscape. As always, our intention with this photography magazine-cum-book journal is to inspire dialogue and discuss inspiration. We hope you enjoy the issue.

DISTRIBUTED BY: INGRAM PERIODICALS, TENNESSEE

Darius Himes, Editor

darius@photoeye.com

PROOFREAD BY: LAURA ADDISON PRINTED BY: THE STINEHOUR PRESS, LUNENBURG, VT

SUBSCRIPTION INFO COVER PRICE $8.95 ONE YEAR (4 ISSUES) $26, TWO YEARS (8 ISSUES) $50 CANADA/MEXICO: +$6 FOR POSTAGE (1ST CLASS MAIL)

SUBSCRIPTIONS HANDLED BY PRESTIGE FULFILLMENT TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION CALL 954 772 6659, 954 772 6823, OR 954 772 6848. ADDRESS ALL SUBSCRIPTION RELATED CORRESPONDENCE TO: PHOTO-EYE BOOKLIST, P.O. BOX 9823, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33310-9823. BY CHECK (US FUNDS DRAWN ON A US BANK) OR VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX, DISCOVER.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOEYE.COM/BOOKLIST

PHOTO-EYE MAGAZINE SUBMISSIONS POLICY THE EDITORIAL OFFICES OF PHOTO-EYE MAGAZINE ARE HAPPY TO RECEIVE REVIEW COPIES OF PUBLISHED BOOKS. UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS OR BOOK DUMMIES ARE NOT ACCEPTED. REVIEW COPIES WILL NOT BE RETURNED. PLEASE ALLOW 4-6 WEEKS FOR RESPONSE. PHOTO-EYE BOOKSTORE, A SEPARATE BUSINESS FROM THE MAGAZINE, CAN BE CONTACTED (SEE BELOW)

GENERAL PHOTO-EYE CONTACT INFO 800 227 6941 OR 505 988 5152

BOOK DIVISION MANAGER MELANIE MCWHORTER melanie@photoeye.com SHIPPING AND RECEIVING MANAGER DANIEL FULLER daniel@photoeye.com BOOKSTORE ASSISTANT MANAGER DANIEL ESPESET daniel.e@photoeye.com BOOKTEASE/GALLERY ASSISTANT VICKI BOHANNON vicki@photoeye.com SHIPPING AND RECEIVING ASSISTANT SHANNA BETTENCOURT shanna@photoeye.com GENERAL ASSISTANT BRIAN PAYNE brian@photoeye.com DIRECTOR, RARE BOOK DIVISION AND ONLINE AUCTIONS ERIC MILES eric@photoeye.com GALLERY ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ANNE KELLY anne@photoeye.com HEATHER PRICHARD heather@photoeye.com

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

PHOTO-EYE PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY

PHOTO-EYE BOOKS & PRINTS 370 GARCIA STREET SANTA FE, NM 87501 TEL 505 988 5152 FAX 505 988 4487

DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER RIXON REED rick@photoeye.com EDITOR DARIUS HIMES darius@photoeye.com ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR HANNAH NEWBURN hannah@photoeye.com

MAGAZINE & DATABASE ASSISTANT JENNY GOLDBERG booklist@photoeye.com

For the past five years, this magazine has been a celebration of the “dramatic event called a book.” The landscape of photobook publishing has changed and expanded rapidly over the course of the last fifteen years, with exciting new publishing companies cropping up around the globe. It has been a joy to survey that landscape and to provide you—our readers and avid collectors—with commissioned reviews and interviews by photographers and writers on some of the best titles out there. The primary and most fundamental function of the arts is to engage their audience and spark dialogue in whatever manner seems best. This journal has attempted to do just that, by creating a space for reflection and insight, and providing an opportunity for conversation and questions to sprout and find life within the broader context of contemporary photography and the visual arts. Our cover image is by Lisa Robinson from her series and first monograph Snowbound, accompanied by an interview with Patrick Amsellem, associate curator of photography at the Brooklyn Museum. I have followed Lisa’s work for the past three years while she searched for a publisher, and am proud to feature the work and congratulate Kehrer Verlag for believing in it. Having been raised myself in a village in Eastern Iowa, it brings me pleasure to feature an interview with Danny Wilcox Frazier, winner of this year’s Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. Frazier is also a native Iowan and his work brilliantly distills the experience of life on the farms and in the small towns that dot that agrarian and mythical landscape. As always, our intention with this photography magazine-cum-book journal is to inspire dialogue and discuss inspiration. We hope you enjoy the issue.

DISTRIBUTED BY: INGRAM PERIODICALS, TENNESSEE

Darius Himes, Editor

PROOFREAD BY: LAURA ADDISON PRINTED BY: THE STINEHOUR PRESS, LUNENBURG, VT

SUBSCRIPTION INFO COVER PRICE $8.95 ONE YEAR (4 ISSUES) $26, TWO YEARS (8 ISSUES) $50 CANADA/MEXICO: +$6 FOR POSTAGE (1ST CLASS MAIL)

SUBSCRIPTIONS HANDLED BY PRESTIGE FULFILLMENT TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION CALL 954 772 6659, 954 772 6823, OR 954 772 6848. ADDRESS ALL SUBSCRIPTION RELATED CORRESPONDENCE TO: PHOTO-EYE, P.O. BOX 9823, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33310-9823. BY CHECK (US FUNDS DRAWN ON A US BANK) OR VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX, DISCOVER.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOEYE.COM/BOOKLIST

GENERAL PHOTO-EYE CONTACT INFO 800 227 6941 OR 505 988 5152

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CONTRIBUTORS PATRICK AMSELLEM is the associate curator of photography at the Brooklyn Museum. Born in Sweden, he has written extensively on art and architecture for newspapers and magazines since 1993. He received a Ph.D. in art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. LEAH BENDAVID-VAL is a writer and curator of photography and as senior editor for National Geographic Books. She has been project director for more than a dozen books for National Geographic, has written about photography for the Washington Post, edited photography for U.S. News & World Report, Science magazine, National Wildlife, and others, and has curated photography exhibitions for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Geographic Society. AVIS CARDELLA is a freelance writer specializing in the areas of photography, art and pop culture. Her work has appeared in various publications, including American Photo, ArtReview, Picture, Surface and British Vogue. A born and bred New Yorker, she currently resides in Paris, France. DEBRA KLOMP CHING gained her M.A. in Critical History and Theory of Photography from the University of Derby (UK). The former Director of Pavilion (UK), she now resides in New York, where she is a freelance writer and the co-owner and director of KLOMPCHING Gallery (www.klompching.com).

PAUL KRANZLER is a Linz-based photographer and

artist. He has published two books, Land of Milk and Honey and Tom, both published by Fotohof Editions. Born in 1979 in Austria, he was educated at the University for Arts & Industrial Design in Linz. He has also worked with photographer Nick Waplington in London. Visit him at www.paulkranzler.com. LARISSA LECLAIR is a photographer, writer and

traveler. Her work focuses on visual history and culture, and international photography. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area. HANNAH NEWBURN, an editorial assistant with this magazine, is an art historian and photographer based in Santa Fe. ALAN RAPP is a design and photography book editor based in San Francisco. His writing also appears in Dwell and San Francisco magazine. MARY ANNE REDDING is the curator of photography

DANNY FRAZIER is a freelance photographer with

at the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Previous professional experience includes authoring essays for numerous exhibition catalogues and stints at New Mexico State University, the Light Factory, the Center for Creative Photography, the Art Institute of Chicago and Northlight Gallery at Arizona State University.

Redux Pictures. He has a master’s degree from the University of Iowa, and he has received awards from the University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year International, including its 2004 Community Awareness Award for selections of his work from Iowa. He has also received a Stanley Fellowship, as well as awards from the National Press Photographers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. His images have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Mother Jones, U.S. News & World Report, Life, and Forbes.

LISA ROBINSON is a Fulbright Fellow and has completed artist residencies at Light Work and the MacDowell Colony. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, most recently at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Santiago, Chile; Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Museo Tambo Quirquincho in La Paz, Bolivia. Snowbound will be exhibited this fall at Etherton Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, and in January in New York at KLOMPCHING Gallery.

MARY GOODWIN is an M.F.A. candidate in photog-

raphy at the University of New Mexico. She was a guest student at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, Germany, in the Summer 2006 semester.

GEORGE SLADE is the artistic director and lead curator of the Minnesota Center for Photography, located in “Nordeast” Minneapolis (www.mncp.org). He is a committed photo-bibliophile and a Minnesotan by birth.

PHIL HARRIS is a photographer, teacher and writer

MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON is an author, educator

who lives in Portland, Oregon. In 2000, he published a twenty-year photographic retrospective book, Fact Fiction Fabrication.

and consultant committed to helping photographers advance their careers. She lives and works in Tucson and New York City. Visit her at www.mvswanson.com.

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ABOUT OUR COVER

FOR THE PAST FOUR WINTERS, Lisa Robinson has been

photographing in the snow. She grew up in, and is comfortable in, the South. But the mental landscape that the spare, frozen white physical landscape suggests is one that has intrigued her enough to keep going back, even though she hates the cold. Patrick Amsellem interviewed the artist for photo-eye.

A Real and Imagined Winter Having grown up in the South, where a white winter was something only imagined, photographer LISA M. ROBINSON accepted a fellowship and found herself knee-deep in a new reality. This beautiful new book is the result. Interview by PATRICK AMSELLEM

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Patrick Amsellem: There are so many things that come to mind when I look at the images in Snowbound: the importance of the trace, the mystery of layers and, perhaps the strongest impression, the contrast of a kind of static, silent beauty with an underlying sense of forceful tension. Water is such a powerful element and even in its solid state of matter the potential of change is looming. What attracted you to these landscapes to begin with? Lisa Robinson: One of the first images I made that struck a chord I had not heard before was Running Fence. I was driving down the back roads of Pennsylvania one winter afternoon when the surrounding flat fields of snow were suddenly pierced by a bright orange fence that disappeared into the horizon. Approaching the quiet scene, I was lured by the opening in the fence, mesmerized by the ever-soslight separation of earth and sky. There were stories here, of human efforts to control and define, of suggested life beneath the snow, of the mysterious unknowns beyond the horizon. I had walked into a Japanese ink drawing splashed with color, and I just stood there in awe of its simple complexity. Here, on the side of a snowy highway in December, I experienced a connection between a waking and dreaming world, a place where time seemed suspended. The resulting image continued to work on me, and I asked myself why. I didn’t know the answer, but I sought understanding. Perhaps I was first drawn to the snow because it was so unfamiliar to me. I grew up in the South, so winter as a time of snow and cold was an imagined space that existed on classroom bulletin boards. Experiencing these landscapes for the first time, now as a photographer, was revelatory. That was the beginning. From there, I wanted to go deeper. I am less interested in documentation than in evocation. These spaces accessed an emotional and cerebral response in me that I wanted to understand. The tension you refer to is so important to me. I hate the cold. I much prefer a tropical climate. Yet something visual and conceptual compelled me into these icy landscapes. These were places I was not meant to be: walking on ice that creaks with flowing water below, trespassing onto private property, photographing in a heavy blizzard. I found that the physical challenge of photographing in these conditions was only quieted by the mind. The stillness of the image is a reflection of that inner space I found. And yet, simultaneously, the wind whipped around me relentlessly and the cold still numbed my toes. PA: You touch upon a feature of your work that I really appreciate: the subtle fusing of form and content. Your formal solutions are tight, elegant and beautiful, often with recurring shapes—circles, poles, ropes—that anchor the compositions. Now and again, as in

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Valhalla

Crush, you use the all-over to create dramatic, more abstract images. At the same time, as you allude to, the palimpsest quality of the pictures stretches much further than just the physical, tangible layers in the landscape so as to suggest almost meditative and even existential qualities. Could you talk more about this particular connection, this sense of evocation? And how do you arrive at your titles? LR: I have always been drawn to work that functions on multiple levels. Literature has taught me much about the power of a concept to take form in a specific way while still being enormously open. Ultimately, it is a very human impulse that I am listening to, giving voice to, trying to comprehend. The landscapes I enter are, certainly, very real. But I believe that what I see in the landscape is a reflection of the thoughts in my head, the questions I am engaging. The tundra is my canvas, my blank page. Winter is an idea that I enter, as much as a landscape I explore. So many writings about winter touch upon the thought of the world at sleep,

of dormant life. There is this underlying sense that Spring is synonymous with life and that Winter is the fallow period leading back to it. I believe in greater contradiction, greater ambiguity. All things are whole. I am seeking indications of this belief in the landscape. I enjoy the ways in which these images can comment on a very contemporary world at the same time that they resonate with deeper implications. The titles come from this same source, in some ways. Music and poetry possess the evocative powers I hope my images to convey. Oftentimes I will look at an image I have made and try to distill its essence for me, in my head. The very idea can then be articulated in a word or phrase that captures that spirit. It is as much an intellectual challenge as a poetic one, since I want to remain faithful to ideas that are often slippery, even changeable. Many of my titles embrace the ambiguity that defies simple categorization. They help me comprehend these images without closing them up. PA: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is a sparse and revealing white,â&#x20AC;? the poet Mark Strand 15

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ABOUT OUR COVER

Erasure and (above) and Invisible City (right)

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ABOUT OUR COVER

writes in the introduction to Snowbound. His two poems, “White” and “Snowfall,” create a beginning and an end to your book. Did Strand, former painter and United States poet laureate, write these pieces specifically for Snowbound? How did your collaboration come about? LR: Several winters ago, I began reading haiku. I was drawn to the complexity of such a spare and limited form, especially those poems that referenced aspects of winter. These images share a kinship with poetry, using a visual language that is both specific and metaphorical. So when I read Mark Strand’s poem “A Piece of the Storm,” I was mesmerized. It is a poem about life and death and time and nature, manifested in the ephemeral and the eternal snowflake. I wrote him a letter, accompanied by some of my images, and asked if he would be willing to write an introduction for the book. I was stunned by his generous and sincere response; he simply called me the morning he received my letter and offered to write something. We had several more phone conversations before he asked me if I might consider using a poem that he had written years ago, a poem which he felt spoke to my work. He read me “White” on the phone. It was perfect. He sent me the poem in a collection, where I also discovered “Snowfall.” It felt like the natural conclusion, that quiet dark whisper of a close. It is a privilege to have someone with such insight and eloquence to offer his perspective to this work. The images are cradled in the palms of poetry. PA: Indeed, poetry frames the photographs and articulates a certain mood, both emotional and existential. Word and image work together here, almost seamlessly. In your own introduction you talk about Snowbound as a journey, and in a previous conversation you have also hinted at the project in terms of a passage, a “heroic journey.” Even though the images don’t constitute a narrative as such, how do you think about this idea of a sequence or progression? For practical reasons, the book format also requires an order in which the images will be read. How did you make these

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decisions? And how was your collaboration with the publisher, Kehrer, structured? LR: Mark Strand’s poem “White” describes the existential space that Snowbound explores. The process of making this work and understanding it has enabled me to confront the pain of loss and embrace it as a part of life. My introduction sets a tone for Snowbound, revealing the sense of this work as a journey. The sequencing of the images is intended to reflect this evolution as well—from initiation, to challenges, to enlightenment, to a return (yes, the heroic journey). I do not wish to bash people over the head with these ideas— they have developed exceedingly naturally, revealing themselves over time, formulating the structure and significance of the work to me as I have sought to understand it as a whole. My sequencing is an extension of this logic—it is not formal, or geographic, or typological, but conceptual. Once I understood the broader swath of this work, I could manifest it through the book form. The book is not merely a catalogue of images, but a coherent work itself. I have given great thought to its design and flow. The decision to print one image per spread as a full bleed is one that enables the viewer to enter into the expansive space of this work, and to discover his or her own connections. The beginning image is echoed in the final one. The evolution of the work has led back to this point, continuing the cycle, but there has been a change. I thought of Joyce’s Ulysses, and the return to Molly Bloom’s bed. The experience of the journey lies within the space of this day. There is ambiguity in time, in space, in place. And yet, all things are connected. Snowbound. Photographs by Lisa M. Robinson. Introduction by Mark Strand. Designed by Lisa M. Robinson and Petra Wagner. Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2007. Trade edition of 1700. Limited edition of 75 printed by Cloverleaf Press, Austin. Photo-illustrated paper over boards. 112 pp., 50 color illustrations, 113⁄4 × 93⁄4 $60.00/$750.00

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Ruins (above) and Veranda View (below)

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PUBLISHER PROFILE

PHOTOGRAPHERS AND PUBLISHERS form the X

and Y axes upon which great photobooks are crafted. This column explores the vast continuum of publishers that exists in the world today, from small art presses to mid-size publishers to the large houses that have survived the decades. In this issue we speak with Denise Wolff, Commissioning Editor, Photography at Phaidon, based in London, UK. What is your vision of photography and publishing?

PHAIDON The column that surveys the publishers—one by one— who create the books we love.

We’re interested in all different kinds of photography and enjoy working with artists and photographers at the top of their field. We strive to make photography books that are definitive and lasting. It’s very important to us that each book has its own identity—a design created especially for the work itself, as well as with the audience in mind. And we collaborate with some of the most innovative designers and production specialists in the world to bring the photographs to life and manifest the photographer’s vision in book form. Our books, such as Inferno, The Devil’s Playground and The Fat Baby, resonate well beyond their publication date. As an international trade publisher, we keep our books in print and publish them all over the world in English and in different languages. Behind each book is a massive creative and logistical undertaking and this is absolutely mad and extraordinary and exciting all at once. Who do you see as your audience?

We publish different books for different audiences. Books like Century and The Photography Book reach a wide general audience. Others, such as Roger Ballen’s Shadow Chamber and The Photobook: A History Vol. I & II, have a more specialized photographic audience in mind. Our introductory monographs, like the new Martin Parr, are popular with students, and we also publish photography for an art audience with books such as Vitamin PH, Art & Photography, as well as our Contemporary Artist series. It’s a balancing act, and there are always surprises. What quantity of books do you publish per year/season?

We publish between 50 to 60 books a year in Art, Architecture, Photography, Graphic Design, Children’s, Travel, Cookery and Contemporary Culture. The photography books make up about ten to twelve books per year. How do you acquire new titles?

(left to right, top to bottom) Steve McCurry, In the Shadow of Mountains James Crump, Albert Watson Christy Lange, et al., Stephen Shore 30,000 Years of Art Catherine Johnson, Dogs

For the most part, we approach the photographers and estates we’re interested in working with, though we also consider projects that have come in spontaneously. I travel to exhibitions, festivals and review events to see new work and meet photographers. I look at hundreds of pictures a day in magazines and newspapers, on blogs, even on Flickr. And I speak with a lot of photo editors, photographers and professionals who give me great advice and ideas. What future projects really excite you right now?

I like all the projects I’m working on and love the variety—in 22 photo-eye Winter 2007

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PUBLISHER PROFILE

U.S. 97. South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973 from the series Uncommon Places, color photograph, 20 x 24 inches. From the new monograph entitled Stephen Shore, by Christy Lange, Michael Fried, Joel Sternfeld, and published by Phaidon Press.

one day I might get to work on everything from sea creatures to war, Henry Fox Talbot to Mary Ellen Mark. I’ve spent the last year and a half working with Max Kozloff on an important survey of portrait photography that is just now out on the market: Theatre of the Face. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about portraiture, and the book introduced me to many photographs I’d never seen before and also forced me to think in an entirely new way about the photographs I’ve seen so many times that I had stopped really seeing them. I’m also having a lot of fun on our forthcoming book with Stephen Shore, A Road Trip Journal. We’re reproducing the journal Stephen kept of his 1973 road trip across the USA—with all the Howard Johnsons receipts, parking tickets, postcards and careful notes he kept about what he ate, watched on TV and photographed—along with all of the photographs he took on the trip. It’s a fantastic book with a unique design and beautiful materials. We’re publishing it in a limited-edition run this spring, and it’s going fast.

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What are your submission guidelines?

Submissions guidelines are posted on our website. Outside of these, we request materials that we do not need to return; electronic is best. I most prefer to see the work by itself rather than in a book dummy. And I appreciate it when photographers do their research on our photography books and think about if and how their project fits on our list before they decide to submit it. Contact Information:

Denise Wolff, Phaidon Press 18 Regent’s Wharf All Saints Street London N19PA www.phaidon.com To see a list of the publishers to be featured in this column:

www.photoeye.com/templates/PubShowCase_home.cfm

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A Survey of New Books CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: DEBRA KLOMP CHING MARY GOODWIN PHIL HARRIS PAUL KRANZLER LARISSA LECLAIR HANNAH NEWBURN ALAN RAPP GEORGE SLADE BOOKS REVIEWED IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: p. 29 STEPHEN SHORE AND DAIDO MORIYAMA, WITNESS NO. 1 and NO. 2 p. 30 VARIOUS CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS, MAGNUM MAGNUM p. 31 KOHEI YOSHIYUKI, THE PARK p. 32 ED PANAR, GOLDEN PALMS p. 34 EDWARD WESTON, EDWARD WESTON’S BOOK OF NUDES p. 36 THOMAS ALLEN, UNCOVERED p. 37 DINU LI, THE MOTHER OF ALL JOURNEYS p. 38 ALEX WEBB, ISTANBUL. CITY OF A HUNDRED NAMES p. 40 ANDREW PHELPS, HIGLEY p. 42 JORDI BERNADÓ, TRUE LOVING AND OTHER TALES,

GOOD NEWS*, AND VERY, VERY BAD NEWS

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Stephen Shore | Witness no. 1 PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN SHORE. TEXT BY STEPHEN SHORE, JEFF L. ROSENHEIM AND MARTIN PARR. EDITED BY STEPHEN SHORE. Joy of Giving Something, New York, 2007. Trade edition of 1000. Cloth and paper over boards. 72 pp., 77 illustrations, 91⁄2 × 12 $40.00

Daido Moriyama | Witness no. 2 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAIDO MORIYAMA, EMI ANRAKUJI AND KEN KITANO. EDITED WITH TEXT BY DAIDO MORIYAMA. Joy of Giving Something, New York, 2007. Trade edition of 1000. Cloth and paper over boards. 96 pp., 58 illustrations, 91⁄2 × 12 $40.00

Photo foundation and exhibition packager Joy of Giving Something partnered with Nazraeli to produce a series of new artist-curated publications in a slightly less formal format than most photobooks. In one sense, per the mission statement in Witness No. 1, the idea is to make a magazine-like book. But the books still bear the hallmarks of Nazraeli’s sensibilities, in distinctive three-piece cases. The extent of each entry—that by Shore details the quotidiana of his day on August 31, 2005, and Moriyama’s is a take on Shanghai in his recognizable charcoal tones—is not that long, and moreover the artists each choose several younger artists for brief selections, which are themselves intriguing tangents from these preeminent artists’ minds. Three of Shore’s former students have a spread each, which seems too little to get a real taste or inference into what he finds valuable in their work. Moriyama’s book lacks the interview that Shore’s book includes, so his two curatorial choices—Emi Anrakuji’s bewilderingly spatialized sensual details and Ken Kitano’s overprinted portraits—are longer, more satisfying explorations. These elements add a more personal note to each of the core photo essays, because Shore and Moriyama’s styles—if we can use such a word to discuss these photographers’ work—are so distinctive that their curatorial choices reveal more of where they are in their artistic moments. Yet there is the potential, over the course of this series, that the effort will be subsumed by the brief, uniform format. So every photo has to count: it feels like déjà vu to see Shore’s picture of a plate in the soft diner window glow, reminiscent of those he took decades ago. But that photo is exquisite, allowing the mission of this series to be summarized. ALAN RAPP

Werner Bischof, International Press photographers covering the Korean War. 1952. From Magnum Magnum.

Alex Webb, Haiti, 1986. From Magnum Magnum.

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Magnum Magnum NUMEROUS CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS. EDITED BY BRIGITTE LARDINOIS. Thames and Hudson, New York, 2007. Clothbound with slipcase. 564 pp., over 400 color and black-and-white illustrations, 123⁄4 × 153⁄4 $225.00

In the latter half of the 1980s I was a picture researcher in Magnum’s New York office, discovering secrets of the files and archives and chatting with photographers, the busy, purposeful ones on their way from somewhere to somewhere else and the more leisurely ones, for whom the office functioned as a kind of coffee shop, living room, salon, bar. Whatever or wherever their photographers’ roots were, Magnum’s offices offered its polyglot assemblage a social space where opinions and feelings flowed freely. I’ve not experienced the worldwide offices firsthand, and have only a quick impression of the New York office now (much darker, fewer file drawers), but reading Magnum Magnum sends me back to the collegial, sometimes contentious, spirit of Park Avenue South. Over the years Magnum has proven itself to be both expert at visually interpreting events of the world and insistent upon defining itself in increasingly broad strokes. This new volume, commemorating the remarkable fact of the agency’s 60th anniversary, takes an intriguing, introspective turn, one that simultaneously humanizes its member photographers and expands our understanding of the richness of their work. Previous decade-commemorating books In Our Time (40 years) and Magnum Degree (50 years) were progressively hefty tomes. The latter was notable for being generated from within; Rene Burri was largely responsible for its look and contents. Magnum Magnum trumps its predecessors physically and conceptually, though it’s a centripetal grandeur that’s achieved. What’s celebrated in this volume, which weighs in at just over fourteen pounds, is the regard Magnum’s photographers hold for each other— one at a time. Sixty-nine photographers are represented, each with a handful of images, a concise biographical statement and an appreciation written by a fellow Magnum photographer, who also selected the reproduced works. The net result is less a catalogue of Magnum’s prominence than a massive, and highly illuminating, yearbook, revealing alliances between photographers and an assortment of images that seems akin to flipping through the archives. While not all photographers are good

writers, many of these quick profiles offer telling insights into subject and writer. Alec Soth and Lise Sarfati trade appreciations, as do several other pairs of photographers (including Jim Goldberg and Susan Meiselas, Jean Gaumy and Paul Fusco, Chien-Chi Chang and Bruce Davidson, Ian Berry and Philip Jones Griffiths). Two photographers selected and wrote about themselves. Regardless of the interpersonal politics, the resulting book is fascinating and generous, over 400 photographs and commentary mingling two Magnums, the one the world sees and the one insiders experience. GEORGE SLADE

Kohei Yoshiyuki | The Park PHOTOGRAPHS BY KOHEI YOSHIYUKI. TEXT BY VINCE ALETTI. INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST BY NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. EDITED BY YOSSI MILO. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2007. Designed by Stapelberg & Fritz, Stuttgart. Clothbound. 128 pp., 60 duotones, 11 3⁄4 × 9 1⁄2 $55.00

The bodies in Kohei Yoshiyuki’s The Park grope one another frantically beneath hiked-up skirts and unzipped khaki pants. The dark-haired girls are awkwardly pinned to the ground, spines crushed and bare thighs itching against the damp scrub grass. Yoshiyuki stumbled on the phenomenon of plein air coupling one evening after a photo shoot. He thought the practice “amazing” and quickly began using an infrared flash, which allowed him to prowl the parks at night, photographing both heterosexual and homosexual sex. The young gay men who troll for dates in the park are more tentative, exhibiting the tenderness of first-time hook-ups. The heterosexual couples enter the park together, the man leading a girlfriend by the hand. Their sex is hurried, almost violent; loving tenderness is reserved for the bedroom. These couples mate as if enacting an animalistic primeval ritual. The cover image depicts a prone couple in the grass, limbs intertwined, exposed and vulnerable in the ersatz wilderness of a city park, the lights of the Tokyo metropolis visible in the distance. In the opening photographs, the couples seem to be alone; the ensuing pages are increasingly peopled by lurking men. Some merely peep through leaves, others scramble on all fours, reaching with greedy fingers towards the bodies, or crouch nonchalantly close by, unabashed by their perverse prurience. Yoshiyuki’s photographs recall nature documentaries on the activities of nocturnal wildlife. The peepers seem to move like animals through the pages, grasping, clawing and loping towards the twisting bodies. The infrared filters render human flesh a reptilian, translucent white and the peeper’s eyes bestial glowing orbs. 31

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Untitled, 1971. From The Park, by Kohei Yoshiyuki.

The initial eroticism in Yoshiyuki’s photographs is lost beneath the lascivious fascination of these men. Their lasciviousness is only the first level of repulsion; the viewers’ own analogous peeping soon comes to the forefront of our aversion. Though we “peep” through the safe screen of the art page, we are voyeurs nonetheless, products of an image-saturated age in which we love to watch and be watched. Our conceptions of sex and relationships are formed largely through the fantasies of films, magazines and art. Yoshiyuki complicates our notions of sex, photographing for once the “real” thing. There is a decided awkwardness of sex in inopportune places and our voyeuristic and exhibitionist inclinations. The Park was first published in a thinly bound volume in 1980. Now, reintroduced in sober hardbound by Hatje Cantz, the photographs are no less seedy. Their overtones of voyeurism and perversion are more sinister than the conventional stuff of “kinky” erotica. That paragon of Japanese erotica, Nobuyoshi Araki interviews Yoshiyuki in this publication. Although both photographers feature the same subject matter, their modes are utterly different. Araki’s painterly photographs profer nubile girls, trussed, glossed and pinched to pink disheveled perfection. Yoshiyuki’s photographs are quickly snapped and composed. In the interview, Araki says of Yoshiyuki’s pictures: “Now this is photography.” HANNAH NEWBURN

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Ed Panar | Golden Palms PHOTOGRAPHS BY ED PANAR. INTERVIEW BY CHARLOTTE COTTON. EDITED BY ED PANAR AND JASON FULFORD. J&L Books, New York, 2007. Hardbound with debossed lettering and belly-band. 96 pp., 56 color illustrations, 10 × 8 $30.00

Los Angeles may be the quintessential American car town. L.A. conjures very few visions of angels but endless thoughts of freeways, cloverleaves and road construction. Driving is so deeply ingrained in the history and mythology of the city, it seems nearly impossible that someone could live in L.A. without a car. Yet, that is exactly what photographer Ed Panar did for two years, starting in 2002.

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Winter, 2004. From Golden Palms, by Ed Panar.

Instead of joining the car culture, Panar explored Los Angeles on foot. Walking the urban landscape slowed down the pace of his seeing, allowing the visual details that inform his unique vision of the city to emerge. The 58 images that make up Golden Palms piece together the remote, back-alley places of this city that is both ruled and made accessible by concrete. In the years from 2002 to 2004, when these images were taken, Panar’s camera must have been as restless as his feet. His camera sometimes looks upwards to capture a lone helicopter hovering in a cloudless sky; it also turns the gaze downwards to picture candy-colored flowerbeds that almost glow incandescent in the L.A. sunshine. Panar also trains the camera straight ahead on tree-lined streets, where the only sign of people is the armada of their cars that guards the thoroughfares.

The images in Golden Palms appear at various sizes within the book. Some photographs are no larger than a baseball card; other images range from 5 × 7 inches to full bleed. This variation in image size helps create a lively rhythm for the series and contributes to the feel that each page of the book, like each day in Los Angeles, offers a quiet, quirky discovery. The largest image in Golden Palms, entitled Winter, 2004, depicts a dwarfed, gangly shrub poking through a hole made especially for it in the concrete. Golden Palms makes it possible for the viewer to study the surface of Los Angeles, but penetrating this surface remains an unattainable goal, which appears to be precisely the photographer’s point. MARY GOODWIN

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A page from Edward Westonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Book of Nudes. Nude, 1936.

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Edward Weston’s Book of Nudes PHOTOGRAPHS BY EDWARD WESTON. TEXT BY NANCY NEWHALL AND BRETT ABBOTT. EDITED BY BRETT ABBOTT. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2007. Designed by Stuart Smith. Printed by the Studley Press, Dalton. Hardbound with tipped-on cover illustration. 96 pp., 1 color and 70 duotone illustrations, 103⁄4 × 111⁄2 $39.95

Believe it or not, there are photographers whose work doesn’t lend itself to book form. Or, if you don’t accept that premise, there are photographers who either haven’t cared to put time, energy, money and other resources into arranging work into a publishable sequence, or who haven’t known a visionary, motivated editor to facilitate that end. Alfred Stieglitz didn’t release a great monograph during his lifetime. Garry Winogrand’s pre-death books, while numerous, reflect his creative character only in their over-inclusiveness (The Animals, edited by John Szarkowski, is an exception and possibly the most concise statement of Winogrand’s art); Winogrand disparaged book publishing for himself, though he admired Evans’ American Photographs and Frank’s The Americans and respected Lee Friedlander’s dedication to book making. Dorothea Lange’s An American Exodus was a significant accomplishment during her lifetime, though it was dependent on its accompanying text by Paul Taylor and its provocative design. Edward Weston’s books also benefited from texts (mainly by Charis Wilson) and editors. His most collectible monograph is the beautiful 1947 book 50 Photographs by Edward Weston. Merle Armitage edited and designed that volume, which featured Weston’s own selection of works from his career. Weston was only a few years away from his death when the book was released; nonetheless, he inscribed every numbered copy with his initials. This book is now highly prized on the antiquarian market. Edward Weston’s Book of Nudes is a tantalizing reconstruction of an unpublished volume assembled fairly late in Weston’s life. Had it come out before his death, as editor Nancy Newhall fervently wished, it would likely have been as important as 50 Photographs. But publishers’ scruples were quite high during the late 1940s, and tolerance for pubic hair quite low. Weston’s reputation and artistic excellence notwithstanding, this fascinating and travelweary—there were no PDF versions of books then—maquette escaped publication and public attention until it was donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1985 and reconsidered two decades later by Brent Abbott at the Getty and, slightly before him, Jessica Todd Smith at the Huntington Library. The sequencing highlights Weston’s links between human and natural forms, and prompts new appreciation of the complex, contradictory attitudes he maintained between objective formalism and the clearly sensual attraction the female body held for him, in close detail and at contemplative distance. Among the half dozen models present, the sequencing reintroduces a female subject: an African-American woman seen full-bodied, who stared back at Weston as fervently as did Charis Wilson—does anyone know this woman, or sense a tale untold? (For the tale of Charis, and the persona behind Weston’s most innovative nudes, see the new film about her, Eloquent Nude, by Portland, Oregon-based filmmaker Ian McCluskey.) GEORGE SLADE

The cover of Weston’s maquette (above). The newly published volume (bottom).

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Thomas Allen | Uncovered PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS ALLEN. FOREWORD BY CHIP KIDD. Aperture, New York, 2007. Designed by Francesca Richer. Photo-illustrated boards. 48 pp., 27 color illustrations, 7 × 81⁄2 $24.95

We’re often told these days, in apocalyptic tones, that reading for pleasure is in decline, especially among the younger set. But it wasn’t so long ago that certain kinds of casual reading were quite controversial, or at least embarrassing. Nowadays, no one thinks twice about reading books laced with recreational sex and violence—at least they’re reading. But back when books trickled, then flooded down to the masses by way of the “paperback revolution” of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, public intellectuals (remember those?) alternated wringing and rubbing their hands over the proliferation of book racks in bus stations, department stores, beauty salons and corner candy stores. The subject of their angst was not the fact that millions of people were being turned on to reading (which the intelligentsia applauded), but how they were being turned on: the masses picked up 25-cent novels. It turned out that they were looking for something that would allow them to forget their weary lives for a couple of hours. Bertrand Russell probably welcomed the advent of a cheap, tastefully packaged, pocket-sized edition of Camus; Joe Public wanted as many babes, brawls and benders as the censors would allow, wrapped in lurid covers, and that’s what he got. Thomas Allen has scrutinized the results of the golden age of pulp, and then, with the skill and discrimination of an X-actowielding sculptor, lovingly carved tableaus from yellowing potboilers. His pop-culture surgery is packaged as a child-sturdy pun on pop-up books: his pop-ups are all photographic stilllifes, flat on the page. The pages are thick, stiff, glossy and rounded, as if the book were intended for the three-and-under market. The pictures rely on typical coded 50s and early-60s erotic icons and come-ons: sailors, cowboys, Stanley Kowalski types, show-biz smoothies, floozies, maneaters, the occasional ingénue. Allen’s talent is in his selection, his juxtapositions, and his steady hand. Selective depth of field allows the figures to leap off the covers (to which they’re mostly still attached), interacting in ways both suggestive and, you’ll pardon the expression, novel. The books function as pedestals for the newly animated cutout figures, which are reconfigured for our amusement. The results are arch, titillating and fun, a highbrow homage to the cheap pleasures of millions. PHIL HARRIS

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Topple, 2005. From Uncovered, by Thomas Allen.

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Dinu Li | The Mother of All Journeys PHOTOGRAPHS BY DINU LI. NARRATION BY YEUK LING LI. ESSAYS BY LISA LE FEUVRE AND MARK SEALY. Dewi Lewis, Stockport, 2007. Designed by James Corazzo. Printed by EBS, Verona. Clothbound with tipped-on illustration. Trade edition of 1500. 96 pp., 62 color illustrations, 111⁄4 × 83⁄4 $45.00

Dinu Li’s photographic project The Mother of All Journeys is an intimate and highly personal account of the journey his mother made from rural China, via Hong Kong, to a new life in the industrial north of England. In a remarkable collaboration with his mother, Li has utilised their combined recollections of family histories to reconstruct fragmented moments in time. Li and his mother revisited significant sites of memory, undertaking an arduous journey to chart actual places with those etched in their minds. Together with rediscovered family snapshots, Li’s contemporary photographs of the places revisited impart tantalizing glimpses of one woman’s journey that has spanned continents, decades, language, and cultural and societal norms. The journey begins in the context of the rural traditions of 1920s China. It traverses the evolution of Hong Kong from a fishing village in the 1950s to the 1960s sweatshop-driven metropolis that it became under British control. The journey

continues with migration to 1970s England and its transition from deindustrialization and labor strikes to multiculturalism and globalization. As a photo essay, Li’s project turns the traditional Family Album on its head. The contemporary images, juxtaposed with the older snapshots, combine to bring past and present together. The compelling narrative, written by Li’s mother, further compounds this. The oral history shared by mother and son is given a public face, and yet we are left to ponder what is left unsaid. This might be due to the fact that the narrative does not make any attempt to explain the images per se, or vice versa. There are gaps, just as in the case of memory and oral history. In this sense, this book is also a complex and challenging interrogation of the relationship between photography, time and memory. Textual narrative, situated on opposite pages to images, floats within a sea of white space, creating distance, and yet the connection between the two remains. There is a lack of uniformity to the image sizes: large, small, color, black and white, sepia-toned, bleeding to the edges, centered and so on. As a device, the layout encourages an active “looking” and relooking. It also, more importantly, quietly expects the reader to overlay the photoessay with his or her own narrative constructions. One of the most arresting images is right at the front of the book. It is of a woman standing in front of a window. A sheer curtain is pulled over her head and shoulders, enabling her to gaze outward, with her back to the camera. Dressed in pajamas and with a healthy head of black hair, this figure, we presume, may be Dinu Li’s mother. Here, at the beginning of our journey into someone elses, we might say that Mrs. Li is already contemplating her next one. DEBRA KLOMP CHING

From The Mother of All Journeys, by Dinu Li.

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Alex Webb | Istanbul. City of a Hundred Names PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX WEBB. TEXT BY ORHAN PAMUK. EDITED BY LESLEY A. MARTIN. PHOTO-EDITED BY REBECCA NORRIS WEBB. Aperture, New York, 2007. Designed by Patricia Fabricant. Graphicom, Verona, Italy. Paper over boards with photo-illustrated dustjacket. 136 pp., 77 color illustrations, 113⁄4 × 10 $40.00

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Magnum photographer Alex Webb’s world is a world of borders, in several senses of the word. His interest in national and cultural boundaries has led him to many of the world’s mixing bowls, including the U.S.-Mexico border, Amazonia and the Caribbean. His photographs are also blade-keen visual experiments in edges and contrasts, rollicking rectangles of tessarae made out of living fragments. Webb is a worthy successor to Kertész, Winogrand and Klein; his eye for framing passing gesture is every bit as original and ingenious. The spice that takes Webb’s visual stew to the level of haute cuisine, though, is color. In the photographer’s earliest work, such as Under a Grudging Sun, or Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds, he marinaded his pictures in the sort of color made possible by underexposing transparency film. The color was deep, sumptuous, often reducing the human presence in his complex imagery to De Chirico-like silhouettes. The shadows and highlights were sharp, cutting buildings and figures into fractions in a complex visual equation. While Webb’s eye hasn’t grown less complex, his color has gradually given ground, and the enigmatic figure has receded before a more readily decoded face. In his decade-long study of Istanbul, the

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Taksim, 2001 (left). Eminönü, 2004 (above). From Istanbul, by Alex Webb.

face seems, often, to wear an expression of resignation. Life in Istanbul, as Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk explains in his affecting afterword, is rooted in a form of collective melancholy. According to Pamuk, this melancholy can only be fully understood by the Istanbullu, born and bred, or by a sensitive observer. Such an observer would take in the mixture of Islamic tradition and modernity, Asia and Europe, lost empire and yearning for the European Union’s prosperity, that characterize Turkey’s bursting metropolis now. Whether he’s showing us children playing in the remains of Ottoman splendor, fractured reflections of people bustling through narrow, twisted commercial alleys, a moment of prayer in an tranquil corner, or exhausted workers commuting across the Bosphorus on an aging ferry at sunset, Webb proves himself a worthy successor to the long line of Western interpreters of this most subtle sadness. There are a few repetitive images here and there; but by and large, the book is an astute reminder that there is much more to the Islamic world these days than is usually dreamt of in our philosophy. PHIL HARRIS

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Andrew Phelps | Higley PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW PHELPS. TEXT BY TAMARA KAIDA AND ANDREW PHELPS. Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2007. Designed by Petra Wagner. Printed by Kehrer, Heidelberg. Photo-illustrated paper over boards. 128 pp., 80 color illustrations, 111⁄4 × 91⁄2 $54.00

A BRIEF CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS

Paul Kranzler: I came by your studio yesterday to make some prints and found a brand new copy of Higley, which is going to be launched two days from now at the Fotohof offices in Salzburg. Thanks for taking the time to chat a bit about the book. It is interesting for me to hold this project in my hands having seen the entire process of the making of this book. From

your first trip to Higley, Arizona, almost three years ago up to the editing process in the last months. I especially remember when you returned from that first trip with what was obviously a very personal set of images of a place from your childhood, a landscape you once called home. Now, after living in Europe for so many years, can you say how much of this project is about a farming community losing an ugly battle of globalization, and how much is really a story about you and your past? Andrew Phelps: Distance to a place, both geographically and espe40 photo-eye Winter 2007

cially time-wise, always creates a filter, usually one tinted with a bit of a nostalgic haze. I left the East Valley, as this part of Phoenix is collectively called, sixteen years ago with no intention of ever returning. The Higley that has played such a pivotal role in my work over the last three years is a place I would never have dreamed of photographing ten years ago. My return to Higley was marked by the simple fact that my sisters both bought track homes on converted farmland, land my grandparents came to settle and call home in the 1950s. When I returned, I found the place a sort of metaphor for the phenomenon that seems to be happening everywhere. Globalization is the catch-phrase you use, but that always seemed too big for me to take on in a photographic project. I decided that Higley would become my little microcosm. I could conceal my interest in issues of “progress” and the “homogenization” of the American West in a little collection of family photographs. Obviously not everyone photographed is part of my family, but it is closeness to my family, and yes even a nostalgic tint, that made me want to do work about the place I am from. Years ago, Bernard Plossu told me that I would someday get around to making a work about the place I was from; everyone eventually does, in one way or another. PK: A reoccurring theme in this book is the representation of family. Certain of your photographs show family snap-shots in empty living rooms in single-family homes. Simultaneously, the collective history of families is beng removed in order to provide space for a new wave of young, middle-class people looking for cheap land. It’s interesting that your second child was born during the making of this book; can you understand the longing for a house and home the way this new generation seems to be settling into Higley? AP: At first glance one wants to understand this book as a social documentary of a changing landscape; a farming community becomes a metropolitan suburb. It’s the easiest take and it’s already being sold under that pretense. But I don’t think it takes long to realize that it is actually about the shifting of the American Dream, of family histories and the challenge of keeping families together when the actual geographic location where the family was originally rooted simply doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t have a longing to move into a new Higley home, but I

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understand that a lot of people do. By no means am I being judgmental. PK: There are so many projects out there that document the changing of the landscape, both the social and physical landscape. Why do you keep it a secret that this is all about you? AP: I guess I want it to also be about someone else. I don’t pretend to think that anyone really cares about my family, but I think that the issues here go beyond my family history. I’m just not a political artist and can’t bring myself to address them in any other way besides telling my personal story. There are no titles under the images. I purposefully want it to have a more universal implication, yet the viewer who digs deeper will realize that the girl by the pool is my sister and the man in the goofy Elmo hat is my father. PK: Do you ever find this whole thing sad? AP: The word “sad” is tricky because it tends to be too nostalgic. I am not interested in living in the past. I’m as disinterested in the Higley of twenty years ago as I am in the Higley twenty years from now. I’m interested in telling the story of the collision that has occurred in the last five years. PK: You say you are interested in “telling the story” but this is much too personal for a photo-journalistic project. It’s personal yet you embrace a photographic style that often creates a distance between you as the photographer and the places or people you are photographing. Are there any specific photographers that directly influence you? AP: This body of work is definitely crying out to be called documentary, but that is just the style of photography I am interested in. I think I was and am still most influenced by two very contrasting circles. On one hand there is the New Topographics crowd. Geographically, in the American West, I was in a place to witness first-hand the vision that these photographers were getting at. William Jenkins, the curator of the New Topographics show, was a professor of mine, and no-one could sell that concept better than he. I am in awe of, and have a complete faith in the simplistic photographic image, yet I struggle to keep interested in a project where I don’t feel something coming from the gut, some kind of magic. This is where the contrast arises; I’m fascinated in the language of pure documentary photography, yet I am interested in twisting it to tell my own story, even if that includes a few lies. I have inherited this contrast from people like Tamarra Kaida and Nicholas Nixon. PK: You went back and forth to Higley several times; 5 trips in almost 3 years. When did you know it was finished? When did you know that you wouldn’t go back to photograph again? AP: I decided to let the end be defined by the ironic fact that Higley lost its name in May of 2007. It is now simply a part of Phoenix. This, plus the fact that Higley was not very big geographically and it only took about 3 years for what I was interested in witnessing to actually occur. Higley, in its transitional

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Both photographs this spread from Higley, by Andrew Phelps.

phase, is gone. I would have been content if this project had ended as a box of prints to leave for my daughters. The fact that it has become a book is just a blessing made possible by a handful of people who cared and to whom I owe so much. PK: Tell me about the lame attempt at a family portrait in the back of the book? AP: I had this grand vision of ending with a classical family portrait of everyone in my family who is living in and around Higley. I gathered them together: grandma and nephews, my daughters and wife who were with me on that trip, sisters, aunts and uncles. I waited for the perfect light and had the big camera set up. Everything was in place but somehow, as fate would have it, the self-timer released too early and all I have is a picture of myself running to join my family, who are barely visible behind the blur that is me trying to get into the picture. It’s all about trying to keep the family together in a preconceived form, and of course it just doesn’t work. PAUL KRANZLER

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From True Loving and Other Tales, by Jordi Bernadó.

Jordi Bernadó | True Loving and Other Tales TEXT BY ADELA GARCIA-HERRERA, CHRISTIAN CAUJOLLE AND VICENTE VERDU. Actar, Barcelona, 2007. Designed by Ramon Prat. Hardbound with a second small softbound book inset into cover boards. 160 pp., 100 color illustrations, 91⁄2 × 113⁄4 $59.00

Jordi Bernadó | Good News* TEXT BY JOAN FONTCUBERTA AND JOAN ROIG. Actar, Barcelona, 1998. Designed by Ramon Prat. Photoillustrated pillow-wrapped boards. 216 pp., 400 color illustrations, 61⁄4 × 121⁄2 $39.95

Jordi Bernadó | Very, Very Bad News TEXT BY GABRIEL BAURET. Actar, Barcelona, 2002. Designed by Ramon Prat. Photoillustrated pillow-wrapped boards. 200 pp., 360 color illustrations, 61⁄4 × 121⁄2 $49.95

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As you look through the photographs of Jordi Bernadó, always read the fine print or risk missing his work altogether. The humor is in the details and the clever juxtapositions. Each perusal through his early books Good News* and its sequel Very, Very Bad News, reveals something new, amusing or different. The point is to dwell in the images, enter into the spaces they depict and revisit them. Both publications are cleverly designed to mimic each other, with panoramic-shaped padded covers and images that run to the edge of each page. These two monographs enable the viewer to journey through the work and around the world without distraction, ending with cropped, magnified details to ensure nothing is overlooked. Bernadó brilliantly captures the humorous haphazardness of the contemporary landscape and man’s use of space. In the places depicted in these two early books—beach paradises, casino paradises, natural paradises, urban paradises—Bernadó finds the same back door to enter and presents the viewer with an unpolished reality. During his perpetual world travels, Bernadó often finds himself in the periphery spaces, choosing

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Covers of Good News*, Very, Very Bad News, and True Loving and Other Tales, by Jordi Bernadó.

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those spaces people travel through to get from one place to another. Where a tourist would take a right turn in Barcelona, Vancouver or Bordeaux, Bernadó takes a left, creating a photographic map of the benign and ordinary yet with wit and lightheartedness. Photographically Bernadó points out the dichotomy of place. There are countless world destinations advertised as perfection, but Bernadó’s images make one aware of the metaphorical fine print at the bottom of the glossy promo photo—perfection is only a microcosm within a larger picture of reality. The few people that are captured in Bernadó’s images hardly notice their own banal surroundings. Some choose to ignore the bland, but Bernadó celebrates it. Bernadó enables us to see and to think about what is around us rather than to just exist within it—the exterior and interior spaces one uses but does not consider. In his most recent book, True Loving and Other Tales, Bernadó seeks out places like Paris, Illinois, or Happy, Texas— names that evoke grand thoughts but that, as Bernadó depicts, fall drastically short of what these words embody. Bernadó intuitively follows a story and along the way showcases American kitsch in all its glory. He shows us that Utopia, Texas, is no more than a restaurant with a stuffed deer head on the wall dimly lit with dull yellow lights. As in Good News* and Very, Very Bad News, Bernadó deconstructs the city spaces, the

urban landscape, juxtaposing their commercial commonalities, similar nuances, glamor, and decay. In True Loving and Other Tales he continues to expose the continual structuring and restructuring of public and private space. This monograph rids itself of the panoramic format and includes a small gold book of essays set flush into the large front black cover. Good News*, Very, Very Bad News and True Loving, only three of Bernadó’s many books, present an enormous amount of this Barcelonabased photographer’s work. These three have been published by Actar and all have been praised. Good News* won the Laus Award in 1999 and Very, Very Bad News won the photo book award at Photoespaña in 2002 as well as Spain’s Ministry of Culture Award that same year. True Loving was selected as a notable book at this year’s Photoespaña. Earlier this year (April 20–June 24), a mid-career retrospective was held at the Centre d’Art la Panera in Lleida, Spain. Currently, Bernadó is working on Welcome to España and Dubai Brand and continues to add to his mountainous oeuvre. LARISSA LECLAIR

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From Saguaros, by Mark Klett. photo-eye Gallery exhibition Oct.â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Dec, 2007. Saguaros published in 2007 by Radius Books, Limited editions available. Please inquire, ext. 121.

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FEATURES

A BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH LEAH BENDAVID-VAL

IN THE SHADOW OF GENIUS Countess Sophia Tolstoy was a diligent editor of her husband’s most famous works. She was also an attentive photographic documentarian of their life at Vasnaya Polyana, the fabled Tolstoy estate outside Moscow. Interview with editor and author LEAH BENDAVID-VAL by DARIUS HIMES

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Darius Himes: How did the project begin, Leah? What was the state of Countess Sophia’s photographs and diaries when you began looking at them? Leah Bendavid-Val: Most of Sophia’s photographs are kept in candy boxes and envelopes in no particular order in the archive of the State Museum of Leo Tolstoy in Moscow. They’re stacked on shelves, and even on window sills, in a room that isn’t climate controlled. This sad state of affairs is due in part to lack of funds, a plight common to most historical photo archives throughout Russia. But Sophia’s photographs are further diminished because Tolstoy scholars consider them minor documents among the huge quantity of material accumulated for the purpose of studying the work of Tolstoy, Russia’s most revered genius. I first heard about Sophia’s photographs from Sam Abell, who had seen some of them while working on a National Geographic magazine story about Leo Tolstoy published in 1983, but I wasn’t interested at the time. Several years later I read a 1981 biography of Sophia by Anne Edwards, which had the effect of making her seem worthy of attention. Edwards mentioned the photographs and I remembered Sam remarking on them. I stumbled on an English translation of Sophia’s voluminous diaries done by Cathy Porter in 1985. This finally hooked me. After months of negotiation with the director of the Tolstoy Museum, I traveled to Russia to visit the Tolstoy archive, in Summer 2003, but when I arrived I was only permitted to see as handful of pictures. This costly and painful experience, I realized later, was due in part because the Russians were uncomfortable with the state of their archive. No foreigners were ever allowed in. After my failed trip in 2003 it took an entire year, with extremely generous help from Russian friends I’ve worked with since 1987 (along with a hefty research fee paid by me) to finally get access. DH: The book is divided neatly into numerous sections that deal with her life and life around the estate. How did you come to the divisions that you finally have in the book? LB: I felt I had several stories to tell. I prioritized them and wanted to link them in a (hopefully) relatively seamless narrative flow. The photographs are most important. Sophia was one of a number of affluent women who took up photography as amateurs in the 19th century. Lady Clementina Hawarden and Julia Margaret Cameron are two others who come to mind. (They had taken on romantic and spiritual themes whereas Sophia was a documentarian, though she did gently stage-manage her pictures when it suited her purposes.) Hawarden and Cameron weren’t considered artists in their day. Recognition came much later. The point is that Sophia’s photographs are completely unknown. And they are good. I want to make the case that she deserves attention. I felt the photographs had to drive the book. But as I got more deeply into Sophia’s pictures I understood that,

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September 23, 1910: The Last Wedding Anniversary—48 Years of Marriage. Photograph by Tolstoy’s secretary, Valentin Bulgakov, made at Sophia’s request.

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FEATURES

Leo Tolstoy with daughter Sasha at the shore, Shuvalov Dacha, Mskhor, Alupka, Crimea, September/October 1901.

first, her work is inseparable from her husband’s. And, second, her personal story is interesting: she had non-photographic concerns that are relevant even now. The challenge was to look at her life with Tolstoy, which began in 1862, and mesh it with her photography, which began 25 years later in 1887. I decided it was necessary to organize her photographs thematically in order to best consider their content, style and accomplishment. My text then had the responsibility to tie back frequently to the chronological thread of her life story, linking and layering diary dates with disparate picture dates to reinforce her life’s concerns and obsessions. Her diaries have been available to scholars for more than two decades. The task was only to pore through them, to settle on passages that communicate well and accurately represent her. In the introduction I set up the book’s structure and purpose. In addition, the family tree on the endsheets and chronology at the back of the book provide a sort of map of her life and times. I wanted to create a portrait of Countess 50 photo-eye Winter 2007

Tolstoy (more than a literal biography) with the goal of making a case for her photographs. It was a bookmaking challenge and I loved it. DH: There are some quite revealing passages that you quote from her journals, which open up very real, uncomfortable emotions. I’m thinking in particular of the passage at the beginning of the chapter on marriage, in which she describes being married to “a genius” and the difficulties (and resentment) involved. What were your first reactions to that passage? LB: Biographers have taken sides on the subject of the Tolstoy marriage. At first, and for a long time, historians maligned Sophia because she didn’t accept Tolstoy’s philosophy: She railed against his idea of giving all their possessions to the peasants and she wanted him to return to his abandoned literary career. She wanted to hold onto the aristocratic life to which she was accustomed. More recently, writers have switched to her side: She needed to be sure all her children were provided for. She knew it was his literary talents rather than his social

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philosophy that would stand the test of time. Tolstoy was demanding, dictatorial, cold, impossible to live with. Sophia and Leo Tolstoy were both complicated (I suppose everybody is). Not surprisingly, their marriage was also complex. By the time I encountered the passage you refer to I had come to think Sophia and Leo endured their love-hate relationship largely because they needed each other. (Divorce was most definitely an option in their day and they could have chosen it.) Yes, Tolstoy was extremely difficult to live with. Clearly Sophia was often lonely. She was also highly emotional and often difficult herself. But there was a kind of love that held them together for much of their 48 years. There’s a passage in her diary in which she ponders the result of a husband and wife knowing “every single aspect of one another.” In her view, “One can see all the lies and all the masks—and it’s not at all pleasant.” That sentiment is a reminder that relationships need to be tended to. Sophia and Leo didn’t give (or give in) to each other very often though both of them made an attempt from time to time. Sophia was a wonderful writer. And honest. In addition to recording her feelings about her marriage she reports on her efforts to balance conflicting daily demands and on her yearnings for a creative life of her own. The way she struggles with these issues is recognizable today. DH: To some extent Tolstoy’s groundbreaking work in the 19th century can be seen in Sophia’s photographs, for example his efforts to educate peasant children in hopes they would become literate and empowered. How did modernism, the accompanying new technologies of the day, and Tolstoy’s theories play out in the Tolstoy household and in Sophia’s photography? LB: Artists and scholars from around the world made pilgrimages to the Tolstoy estate to discuss and debate theology, politics and the future of Russia. Sophia photographed their visits. She was also the perfect hostess and thoroughly engaged by their conversations. Both Tolstoys were filled with intellectual curiosity and both loved literature and music. They kept up with new trends and developments in science, government and art. They shared and argued their viewpoints from the earliest days of their marriage until close to the end, when their relationship deteriorated beyond diplomatic dialogue. Tolstoy considered the new technologies of the day a good thing insofar as they directly served social and spiritual needs. Sophia was far more interested in photography than her husband was. In fact, as time went by, his initial mild interest was replaced by condemnation of the camera as a toy for the rich. Sophia kept up with technical developments in the new field. She didn’t belong to any organizations but asked for help from experts when she needed it.

DH: How many photographs make up the full body of work by Countess Tolstoy? What are two of your favorite images? LB: Sophia used a Kodak camera and 13 × 18 cm glass plates. She carried these around in a special road basket. She developed her photographs in a small room under an attic staircase. She printed about 1,000 pictures in all. Sophia produced classical compositions that are finely finished, and she also experimented. Two of her experiments are worthy of mention: she made a wonderful set of selfportraits in which she stopped development mid-process; her features had emerged only partially on the still submerged paper. The partial revelations emphasize her eyes and profile and have a purity about them. As a mark of respect for the creative process she framed these. She recognized the distinctive qualities of works in progress, as perfect in their way as final, finished photographs. In this she was far ahead of her time. In another self-portrait Sophia placed herself in front of a black backdrop. Behind and above the backdrop we see a portrait of Tolstoy. The photograph is a metaphor for how Sophia often understood her plight: She is alone, contained, isolated in her own private world. Her husband looms over her. The viewer is invited to consider the subject of framing and thereby allowed graphic insight into Sophia’s photographic process. DH: Can you tell us a little about the exhibition and its range and travel schedule? Are you going to be speaking anywhere about the work and Sophia’s life? LB: An exhibition of 70 photographs, exact replicas of the vintage prints, will be on view in the Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania during November and December of 2008. We are in the process of organizing further travel and welcome inquiries. So far I have given talks here in Washington at American University, National Geographic, and at Washington’s premier bookstore, Politics & Prose.

Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy. Photographs by Sophia Tolstoy. Text by Leah Bendavid-Val. Foreword by Vladimir Tolstoy. National Geographic, Washington, D.C., 2007. Hardbound with printed dustjacket. 240 pp., 180 color illustrations, 9 × 10 $35.00

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DRIFTLESS In an interview with MARY ANNE REDDING, Iowa photographer DANNY WILCOX FRAZIER reveals the very personal impetus behind his prize-winning photographic project about the land of his birth.

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BY W R I T I N G T H E P O E T I C FO R E WO R D to Driftless, Robert Frank is doing for Danny Wilcox Frazier what Jack Kerouac did for him 50 years ago when Kerouac wrote the introduction to The Americans. As the juror for the 2006 Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, Robert Frank selected Frazier’s work from 400 entries to receive $3,000 in cash, the publication of his first book, and inclusion in the biennial prizewinner’s exhibition. Frank was an outsider and an immigrant when he traveled across America on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955/56. On the road in a secondhand car, Frank looked with one skeptical eye and one romantic eye at his new country. The work he produced was out of focus, coolly removed and all jangled angles. This displaced itinerant photographer was also moved by what he saw; there is a gentleness in the gritty melancholy of his images. In contrast to Frank, Frazier is an insider. He grew up in Le Claire, Iowa, a small Mississippi River town. A freelance photographer who now travels the world, Frazier maintains his American roots. Married with two young children, he lives in Iowa City, where he has taught at the University of Iowa. Frazier is, admittedly, influenced by Frank’s tentative and imperfect imagery. When he first saw The Americans, he recognized his world: “I was blown away by it. Not necessarily because I understood the photography completely, but because I had lived it—it reflected how I felt about the world around me. I connected to the emotion of the photographs. And I was completely hooked.” Making pictures in rural Iowa for four years, Frazier knows firsthand the economic and cultural struggles currently playing out in the Midwest. The black-and-white images poignantly capture the tension of lives in transition. There are lots of guns, dead animals, and, similar to Frank’s imagery, parades and American flags permeate the pictures. The seemingly careless framing of Frazier’s photographs shares the same poetic grittiness of Frank’s in that it sets up a subconscious tension in the viewer. A BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH DANNY WILCOX FRAZIER

Mary Anne Redding: I find one of the most intriguing images in the book to be the image of the toy farmyard. It is the only image where you are not observing “real life”; rather the child’s toys are a simulacrum or stand-in for Iowa’s farms. What were your motivations for taking this image and including it in the book? Danny Wilcox Frazier: Iowa, and all of the Midwest, occupies a sentimental and symbolic part of our nation’s consciousness. The iconic images of Iowa painted on canvas or projected on screens show us a place that no longer exists, if it ever did—a fantasy of tranquility, of simpler times, a settled landscape full of passive people. Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. With my work I am trying to say, here is real life, dilapidated and 54 photo-eye Winter 2007

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Plastic farm scene, Fort Dodge, 2003

unpolished. The photo you mention [above] is my one reference to that fairy-tale notion of rural life, and like the plastic figures in the image, it is a fiction. MAR: How important to you is it that these images are made in Iowa, in communities that are in close proximity to you both physically and emotionally? Could they be taken in any other place? Does place matter? Since you are a part of these places, would you say your images are a part of your responsibility to the places and people you take pictures of, that you, and by extension your viewers, are responsible for these places? DWF: This is a very personal body of work, it’s true. But even though I am connected to Iowa both physically and emotionally, I feel I could make these images elsewhere. Photography allows me to give testimony to what matters to me. I have worked to study the class divide within America, to photograph the people and places stranded on the margins. These are troubled times for America—we’re a nation in which self-indulgence has overtaken our humanity. I think it is the responsibility of those who reap the rewards of our economic system, who prosper so much, to extend a safety net to those struggling to merely get by. I want my work to bring attention to the people who are trying to hold

on to a vital part of our collective history. As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities. MAR: So much of what is written about your works speaks to the harshness of life in the rural Midwest and to the heart of America being emptied. However, I don’t see these images as being empty; I see them as revealing the process of transformation. America has always been transformed. It’s true that small towns are losing their populations as many young people move away from the withering farmlands to larger cities with more options and as older generations return to the earth. There is a certain amount of pathos in your imagery, but there is also a certain amount of just plain old life, as most of us who aren’t super-rich know it. The images remind me of visiting my grandparents (second generation Irish and German immigrants) every summer in Dubuque, Iowa, when we were kids. I guess in that sense I relate to your images on a very personal level. How do you want your viewers, who will live all across America and come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, to relate to your images? DWF: As many of the images show, life here goes on much as it does elsewhere, with all the mundane tasks that require so 55

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Snow storm, Hills, Iowa, 2004

much time and attention, with the same kinds of social events and diversions. But that said, these images also represent a segment of society that is increasingly challenged by economic pressures, and that at present seems destined to fail in many places. If out-migration continues to depopulate communities, and immigration is stalled or suspended, it will become nearly impossible to maintain small towns and family farms throughout rural America. Consolidation of services is one aspect of our nation’s economy that seems to be speeding up that decline, though this trend could be reversed through financial incentives—many of the presidential candidates have plans that include economic support for individuals and businesses that are located in rural areas. And then, maybe, the rural culture I document will be maintained. I hope my photographs help viewers relate to those willing to stay behind in these forgotten places and, if I’m successful, feel a real connection to them and their circumstances. At the moment, only the most faithful have the strength to stay—Amish, Mennonite and those connected to the land through work. We forget, however, that we are truly a country of immigrants. As many Iowans leave the state, an influx of immigrants are filling the labor short56 photo-eye Winter 2007

age. Latinos are finding jobs in Iowa’s slaughterhouses and vegetable fields, bone-breaking work that most locals turn down. The Hispanic population grew 153 percent in Iowa during the 1990s, a sign some communities are redefining themselves in an almost all-white state. MAR: In interviews you have said: “The feeling of openness that so defines the Midwest’s rural landscape is being replaced by one of emptiness, as the economies of rural communities across America continue to fail, abandonment is becoming commonplace; these photographs document the human effect of this economic shift. What I hope they do is to force people to think about the decline of these rural places and start thinking of solutions. And I think the best solution is immigration. The anti-immigration debate in the U.S. is nothing more than political kowtowing. The argument that immigrants take American jobs is a complete farce and people are missing the real issue: immigration is probably the only thing that can save small-town America. People always say that something has to be done because they’re taking our jobs, but that’s completely misguided; we’re keeping people out who just want to come here and make a living—often doing jobs we don’t want anyway. And they’re filling the void left by the old people who are retiring

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Crossroads Grill and Bar, South English, 2006

and the young people who are fleeing. Without immigration, small, rural towns will inevitably die out.” Can you speak further to your politics on issues of immigration? DWF: To be honest, the statement you quoted pretty much sums up my feelings on immigration. I think the immigration question has been co-opted by those in politics looking to divide the electorate. Our economy depends on the labor of immigrants, legal or illegal. I have family members who have worked inside Iowa’s slaughterhouses, and their stories and scars are testament to what I consider the hardest, most bone-breaking form of manual labor. Immigrants now do the jobs no one else is willing to do. They perform extreme labors while being grossly underpaid; they do the thankless jobs, in the slaughterhouse and in the fields. If we really want to slow or stop illegal immigration, we need to target those who profit in the equation, and we Americans must also be prepared to pay much more for that beautiful cut of beef we throw on the grill each weekend. The truth is, the vast majority of us are descendants of immigrants whose ancestors came here for the same reason that Hispanics are immigrating—opportunity. The perilous journey illegal immigrants take should be enough testimony to their desire for a better life economically. Human traffickers and their

fees, as well as an unforgiving desert loaded with law enforcement all make the journey one of life and death. I am not naive, and I understand that we cannot open the border completely, but I also recognize the contributions Hispanic immigrants make in rural communities across the country. MAR: There is a certain amount of voyeurism in your imagery, both in the landscapes and in the environmental portraiture. Your vantage point often seems to be looking through dirty windows, straining to see around the body blocking the view, peering though the rain or the gathering dusk, through a fence or around some other barrier. Do you feel like a voyeur or do you feel like a participant when you are looking through the viewfinder? How conscious are you of the viewer’s thwarted desire to see more? DWF: I don’t think of my work as voyeuristic, but as stemming instead from a personal space where participation and connection would better describe my relationship to these people and places. But there is a level of discomfort in the photographs that relates to conflicting emotions I have for this place. I am from Iowa, and I belong here, but I have never felt at ease, and that often plays out in my photographs. Like so many young people that have fled rural 57

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(top) Sale Barn Cafe, Kalona, 2005 (bottom) Members of VFW Post 6414, Memorial Day, Riverside, 2003

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communities across the Midwest, I too wrestled with an unrelenting desire to escape the oppressive tranquility of my sleepy small town while growing up there. My feelings for this place are mixed, but I always find myself drawn to the rough landscape that seems to stretch beyond the horizon and to the humility of Iowans. Those who are willing to stay behind, who work to maintain their rural lifestyle, sometimes seem entombed in obscurity, forgotten by an economy that is too fast and fickle for lengthy growing seasons. I am committed to these people, and am slowly becoming more comfortable with my role and place here. As the concentration of wealth in America approaches levels not seen since Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office, those living in the shadows of an unjust economic system have become further disenfranchised. With my work, I hope to draw any amount of awareness for those beyond America’s attention. MAR: Why do you think Robert Frank picked your work? And, what does it mean to you that he did? DWF: Maybe, someday, I will have the chance to ask Robert Frank why he selected my work. I have always felt a deep connection to his photographs, to that sad poem that played out the first time I saw The Americans. It clarified a feeling I often had, a feeling of being alone even when surrounded by others. Frank’s photographs give voice to subject and photographer alike, and through that collaboration, a personal reflection is brought to light. I am both humbled and challenged by Mr. Frank’s selection of my work. It gives me confidence to continue no matter the difficulties ahead. MAR: You acknowledged musician and fellow Iowan Greg Brown for his company on your travels in your book. How do Greg Brown’s music and stories relate to your imagery? DWF: This is hard, but I guess it just comes down to the fact that Greg Brown’s music helped me find comfort in my own skin. While growing up in Le Claire, a small Iowa town that sat idle as the current of the Mississippi passed by, my most vivid wish was to escape. I think this emotion is often reflected in my work—a tension created, or found, in looking through a window and photographing teenagers who are laughing while playing a religious card came, their joy obstructed and distant but still warm and sincere. Greg Brown’s songs find joy in the endless gravel roads of Iowa, in the berry patches that line creeks surrounded by cornfields. When I was young, my dream of escape and my unhappiness played out in clichéd ways. It wasn’t until I lived in Africa, at the age of 25, that I began to look outside of myself. So much of my time as a photographer is spent alone, and while driving roads that seemed to go on forever, Greg Brown’s music gave me company. The book’s title, Driftless, is a reference to both the Driftless Area and a song by Greg Brown by the same title; it conveys the sense of melancholy I feel when I hear Brown’s music or think of David Lynch’s film The Straight Story. MAR: You often go on assignment to other places, other countries to report visually on life in those places. How do you think your images made at home differ from those made in distant lands; or do they? 59

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DWF: Driftless is my first major body of work, and it makes sense that it is of my home—I started taking photographs in the same towns and along the same gravel roads found in the book. I am excited about committing myself to the next project, but I realize it will probably take me away from home and that there will be new challenges in terms of access and in the level of intimacy I strive to have with my subjects. In Iowa, though not an outsider, I’ve never felt like a true insider. If I can find that same in-between place for myself when working abroad, I hopefully will be able to communicate the emotion and complexities of the place. MAR: Who are the image makers that have most influenced your image making? What advice do you give your students about making images? Are there any books you recommend reading? DWF: In Ghost Image, Hervé Guibert writes in his essay, “Advice,” that a young photographer questioning his approach should “photograph only those closest to you, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your lover. The emotional antecedent will carry the picture along with it. . . .” I am drawn to photography that reveals not only the emotion of the situation and the subjects, but also the photographer’s connection to and feelings for the people and places documented. It is within that relationship, between photographer and subject, that images develop their voice—an ability to evoke a response, even an attachment, in viewers. Since starting in photography, I have been drawn to work that plays on this dynamic. The Americans by Robert Frank, Exiles by Josef Koudelka, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin, and Tulsa by Larry Clark—these are all bodies of work that reveal both subject and photographer. After buying The Silence, Gilles Peress’s devastating document of the genocide in Rwanda, I read Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families. Both books revealed the horror of that time and place with such clarity, with such raw emotion, that I felt connected to the subjects of a situation I could never fully comprehend, and to the commitment and compassion of the people who showed it to me. Driftless: Photographs From Iowa. Photographs by Danny Wilcox Frazier. Foreword by Robert Frank. Duke University Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies, Durham, 2007. Hardbound with printed dustjacket. 120 pp., 80 duotone, 9 × 12 $39.95

(top) View of farm fields, Johnson County, 2003 (bottom) A storm over Interstate 80, 2006

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COLUMN: ROVING EYE

BOOK ’EM At Arles, and other photo fairs across Europe, books are hot! BY AVIS CARDELLA

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THE PHOTOBOOK AS AN ART FORM in its own right— it’s a concept that’s been steadily gathering force. Photography collectors are not only being seduced by large-scale prints they can hang on their walls, they’re gobbling up tomes to stack on their shelves. In response to the flurry of interest, publishers are putting out more exquisitely rendered, beautifully printed monographs, while vintage first editions are garnering top dollar at auction. But if evidence of the growing popularity of these bound and printed gems is apparent anywhere, it has been at some of the photography fairs taking place across Europe. Publishers are clamoring to exhibit and book aisles are crammed with elbowpoking enthusiasts. In May of this year, photo-London (now in its fourth edition and recently reconfigured to focus exclusively on photography from 1970 to the present) featured numerous book signings along with a panel discussion on the subject of photography books and the future of publishing. This month, the 2007 edition of Paris Photo will feature 22 publishers on its roster, including names from a wide spectrum of locals, such as Bologna, Italy’s Damiani Editore, London-based Simon Finch Rare Books, East Hampton, New York–based Harper’s Books. Earlier this year at the 38th edition of France’s long-standing and internationally trafficked Rencontres d’Arles festival, photobooks didn’t necessarily steal the show, but they sure made their presence felt—a little like Cinderella at the ball, everyone was talking about them. Of course, one of the undisputed highlights at Arles is the announcement of the winners of the festival’s prestigious book awards—the Contemporary Book Award and the Historic Book Award. This year’s winners were chosen by a jury of international experts including François Barré, President of Rencontres d’Arles. Both awards carry with them 8,000 Euros in prize money to be shared by the photographer and publisher where applicable. It was German publisher Steidl & Partners’ Laszlo MoholyNagy Color in Transparency: Photographic Experiments in Color 1934–1946 which grabbed the Historic Book Award. The book presents 100 images of the photographer’s largely unknown work in the realm of color, including advertisements, portraits, architectural and urban studies and abstract compositions. Moholy-Nagy has received significant interest recently with an international exhibition that’s landed at London’s Tate Modern and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. Michael Mack, managing director of Steidl, describes taking the prestigious award as an “unexpected surprise” that “does impact on the profile and hence sale of the book.” Mack, who also exhibits at photo-London, Paris Photo and even smaller

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fairs such as Art Brussels, is convinced of the growing importance of book fairs in light of the changing landscape of the book retail market. “Because the book trade has changed so dramatically, and book shops are less and less suited and willing to carry an extended range of diverse art books ... one response is to attend these fairs where we can exhibit our extensive backlist directly to our core audience,” he explains. Taking the coveted Contemporary Book Award was the Dutch photographic duo that goes by the name WassinkLundgren, with their quirky entry Empty Bottles, published by Veenman Publishers, Rotterdam. In Empty Bottles, conceptual documentary photographer Thijs groot Wassink and artist Ruben Lundgren chart the daily lives of refuse collectors and scavenger hunters in China. Gijs Stork, publisher of Veenman, who describes Arles as “the most important international photo festival in the world” for publishers of contemporary photography books, has been submitting entries for the Contemporary Book Award at Arles for years. He describes this year’s winning entry as a “unique project with a sharp selection of pictures combined with a subtle but strong graphic design.” After winning at Arles, Stork says the phone has been ringing off the hook. “Not only does the phone keep ringing for orders but for information about the kind of paper used and the binding of the book,” he explains. One drawback. “Already we’ve heard of copies of the concept,” he says. But what is it they say about imitation? Learn more about the Arles photography festival at: www.rencontres-arles.com

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Publishing the Photography Book: Limited Editions, Part III The ongoing column about publishing photobooks. MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON and DARIUS HIMES

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PREMIERING IN OUR REDESIGNED SUMMER 2004 issue, Publishing the Photography Book has been an ongoing column detailing the intricacies and complexity and hard work of publishing a book of photographs. In quarterly installments, our two co-authors have presented brief synopses of prominent figures in the current field of photobook publishing along with extensive insights on topics that range from working with a designer, getting a handle on the vocabulary of the printing process, hiring a publicist and developing a website that promotes an overall photographic career as well as promoting a new book. In this last of three focused installments on the diversity and role of limited editions in the world of photobooks, Swanson and Himes spoke with the founders of 21ST Editions, a publishing enterprise that creates gorgeous, high-end books as collaborations with major living photographers aimed at collectors and collecting institutions across the world. Steven Albahari, an entrepreneur and photographer whose background had included arts, manufacturing and marketing after graduating from Bennington College with an MFA and MIT with a MSVS, founded 21ST Editions in 1998. The company began as 21ST: The Journal of Contemporary Photography. The Journal was modeled after Alfred Stieglitz’s periodical Camera Work (1903–1917), a seminal publication in the history of photography. Camera Work was illustrated with original photographic imagery by leading figures of the day and included hand-pulled photogravures, articles by leading critics, and clearly set an enduring standard for high-end photographic publications. Albahari’s decision to form a publishing enterprise was ten years in the making. The launch was held at a dinner in New York City in 1998 in the company of an informal ad hoc advisory board composed of a number of luminaries representing the wide spectrum of contemporary photography at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. This informal advisory board included John Wood, a poet and photo historian; A.D. Coleman, noted critic and writer; the photographers Duane Michals and Olivia Parker; Daile Kaplan, head of photography at Swann auction house; Denise Bethel, VP of Photographs at Sotheby’s New York; and gallery director John Stevenson. Albahari then approached John Wood, who holds a Ph.D. in English literature and has held professorships in both literature and photographic history, to serve as editor of all 21ST Editions titles. Soon after its founding, artist and photographic historian Lance Speer, now a contributing editor and director of marketing, joined in partnership with Albahari and Wood. Albahari’s vision for 21ST Editions was to create a press dedicated to the twin arts of fine bookmaking and photography. Operating under the influence and in the spirit of Stieglitz’s visionary journal, the press would elegantly combine these two arts, with an emphasis on the rich traditions of craftsmanship to be found in both. Each

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From Songs of Innocence and Experience, by Joel-Peter Witkin

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From The Book of Life, by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

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book is handmade, one at a time, using the finest papers, bindings, and letterpress printing. The editions are small and take as long as two years to create. Reproduction of the photography also emphasizes the craft of a bygone era: original platinum prints, silver gelatin photographs and handpulled photogravures are standard for these limited edition books. Queried about his influences, Albahari was quick to point to a number of classic tomes, revealing in the process a real connoisseur’s eye: “A number of titles have always stood out to me as exquisite examples of the book-making tradition within photography: Camera Work, by Alfred Stieglitz, The North American Indian, by Edward S. Curtis, and London and New York, each by Alvin Langdon Coburn.” Beyond that, John Wood went on to list a wide variety of fine press books that are considered the rarest, most beautiful and treasured books of the 20th century. They are books such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses illustrated with original etchings by Picasso, bound in crushed-crimson Moroccan leather and limited to 145 signed copies; Balzac’s short story “Le chef-d’oeuvre inconnu,” also illustrated by Picasso, bound in Moroccan leather; Longus’s Daphnis and Chloe illustrated with original lithographs by Chagall on Arches cotton rag paper; Apollinaire’s Les Poèmes Secrets illustrated with eighteen etchings by Dali; and Matisse’s Jazz illustrated with twenty pochoir plates and limited to 100 copies, each signed by Matisse. Each of these handmade books established a standard of excellence with respect to the quality of the artists, the significance of the art, and the importance of the literature, yet also with respect to the quality of the design, the binding, the typesetting, the printing, and even the paper. Again, the level of connoisseurship involved with each of these projects is something that is actively addressed and promoted by the editors. The photographers published by 21ST Editions include some of the most prominent internationally known artists working today; the Platinum Series, illustrated with handcoated original platinum prints, includes books on the work of Michael Kenna, Greg Gorman, Sheila Metzner, Flor Garduño, Eikoh Hosoe, Sally Mann, Arthur Tress, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison and Joel-Peter Witkin. Contemporary writers, poets and critics are often involved, though occasionally classic literary works have been the inspiration behind certain projects. The most interesting example of recent years was the publication of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, in which new and unpublished work by Joel-Peter Witkin was paired with a lengthy poem of the same title by William

Blake. The results were extraordinary. Of the process of collaboration on the book, Witkin has stated that “John and Steve are curators who know what they are doing. I trust them.” The books range in price from $350 to $30,000 per copy, with many projects being rightfully termed “bound portfolios,” seeing as the reproductions are museum quality original prints. As one can imagine, books that cost thousands of dollars are not distributed in the same way that trade books are. Lance Speer, who is both a contributing editor and the director of marketing described their distribution process: “We announce new titles to our collectors well in advance of any general announcement to the public, and in advance of the actual availability of the book. We also attend a number of art and photography fairs around the country, where we showcase our fine press titles to an ever expanding universe of sophisticated collectors. One can also request a private showing of our books, as nothing compares to actually seeing, feeling, even experiencing the unique aroma of a finely made book. Our staff travels extensively in this regard, bringing these books to established and potential collectors around the country.” He went on to describe a recent project which illustrates the collectability and tiered pricing structure that 21ST Editions uses, which is similar to print pricing structures that artists use with their galleries. “We announced our new Michael Kenna Platinum Series title, Mont-Saint-Michel, to collectors in May of 2007. The opening retail price was $9,000, and the book was available at a pre-publication price of $8,500. As the book is not actually available until December 2007, we also offered a 6–7 month installment payment plan. With all these perks in place, and with a prior knowledge of both the quality of our books and our integrity, we sold out the entire edition of 60 copies—sight unseen—in 14 days! The books also increase in price as they sell out, usually closing in the $18,000 range for our Platinum Series titles. Those collectors who purchase a title early on can thus watch his or her book increase in value over time. A wise investment overall.” SALLY MANN TALKS ABOUT WORKING WITH 21ST

Another handsome project of recent years was Sally Mann from the Platinum Series. This book project brought to light an early group of sensual drapery and figure studies by the renowned artist. Paired with her own poetry, the eleven images were all reproduced as hand-coated platinum prints bound in a book. We spoke with Mann recently about the process of working with the editors at 21ST Editions. 75

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Swanson and Himes: What were the factors that convinced you to publish with 21ST Editions? Sally Mann: I first heard about Steve Albahari and 21ST Editions from my friend John Wood when I visited him back in the late 90s in his mind-blowing home in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Among all the wonders in his home—wonders which hung on the walls, covered the tables and chairs, leaned against walls and spilled out of unclosable drawers— were copies of all the 21ST Editions publications. These treasures were given their own tabletop, which I suspect had formerly been the dining room table. I marveled at the elegance of their reproduction and the care given to every detail. John also sang the praises of Steve. He described his dedication to the project, even to the point of mortgaging his own home to finance those first projects, as well as his commitment to quality, his generosity and kindness. Steve proposed a book that I couldn’t refuse—beautiful, restrained, elegant and requiring very little effort on my part (a real plus given that I was in the middle of the What Remains project—both the book and the film). Of course I said yes, with no hand-wringing. MVS and DH: Did you have any concerns about how a very limited deluxe book of this nature would affect your overall print collectibility? Were your dealers concerned that it might cut into sales of your other work at all? SM: The work in this book was from early in my career and there were so few prints of any of the images that no one was worried about sales. I was concerned, however, about people buying the book and cutting the very beautifully reproduced prints out and selling them as initialed artist’s

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prints. But I think the beauty and rarity of the book as a whole discourages that sort of thing. MVS and DH: Was the editing of the body of work for the book something that was collaborative or very much in your hands exclusively? And what about the overall design? Was that something you left up to them, or did you get really involved? SM: I usually am very hands-on and involved in projects that involve my work. But in this case I wasn’t. Steve made a point of running all the decisions by me, from the fabric on the cover to the paper, the tones of the prints, the typeface, type color, sequencing, text, etc. And it all seemed fine to me. It is a very understated and quiet book, like the images themselves. I came to trust all the people involved in the design and production and was not disappointed in that trust. I think the book is truly lovely. MVS and DH: How does the overall experience compare to working with other publishers? You’ve had books recently published through Bulfinch, Gagosian and 21ST Editions, all of whom are different types of publishers: Bulfinch is a trade publisher, Gagosian is a world-class gallery and 21ST only publishes these type of deluxe books. SM: The experiences are similar. In each case I have been blessed to have design and production professionals that know what they are doing and I trust them implicitly… not that I don’t have opinions (I can imagine my editors vigorously nodding their heads and rolling their eyes reading this) but I try to not be obdurate and to listen to their suggestions. I’ve learned over the years that this approach yields the best results.

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From Sally Mann Platinum Series

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From Mont-Saint-Michel, by Michael Kenna

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21ST EDITIONS BOOKS INCLUDE:

The Journal of Contemporary Photography There have been 6 volumes of The Journal published thus far: Volume I focuses on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;transcendent visionâ&#x20AC;? of 15 major contemporary photographers, illustrated in richly printed hand-pulled photogravure. Volume II extends the metaphysical themes of the first volume and brings together the work of 13 modern masters of the photographic arts. Volume III, entitled The Clandestine Mind, is devoted entirely to the lyrical work of John Dugdale. Volume IV, entitled The Gardens of DeCosse, focuses exclusively on the beautiful works of Cy DeCosse. Volume V, aptly named Strange Genius, is an insightful examination of the ways in which artists today make conscious attempts to create work that can often be unsettling, difficult, even horrific, yet all the while retaining that strangely mysterious sense of what can only be called beautiful. Volume VI, an international survey titled Flesh and Spirit, combines the images of some of the finest contemporary Belgian, Brazilian, Chinese, English, French, Greek, Mexican, Spanish, and American photographers with the writings of many of the most respected novelists, playwrights, poets, and historians.

Platinum Series Michael Kenna & Henry Adams Mont-Saint-Michel Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 14 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

Joel-Peter Witkin and William Blake Songs of Innocence Songs of Experience Edition of 65 signed and numbered copies per title, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints per book

Greg Gorman The Odes of Pindar Edition of 35 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

Sheila Metzner and Walt Whitman New York Edition of 35 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

Sheila Metzner & Hart Crane The Bridge Edition of 65 signed and numbered copies, 12 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

Silver Series

Flor GarduĂąo The Sonnets of Shakespeare Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints Eikoh Hosoe & Charles Baudelaire Flowers of Evil Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints Sally Mann Edition of 100 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints Arthur Tress & Guillaume Apollinaire Memories Edition of 40 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison and Morri Creech The Book of Life Edition of 75 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

VIEW MORE www.21stEditions.com

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison Listening to the Earth Edition of 65 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 signed free-standing platinum prints

Misha Gordin Crowd and Shadows of the Dream Edition of 33 signed and numbered copies, 15 bound and 1 free-standing silver gelatin prints per book Brigitte Carnochan and Raul Peschiera The Shining Path Edition of 40 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 free-standing hand-painted, silver gelatin prints Josephine Sacabo and Rainer Maria Rilke The Duino Elegies Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 free-standing fully signed silver gelatin prints Vincent Serbin and Daniel Westover Toward Omega Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 free-standing fully signed silver gelatin prints David Halliday The Perfect World of David Halliday Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 free-standing fully signed silver gelatin prints Josephine Sacabo and Ana Cristina Rudholm y Blamaceda Cante Jondo Edition of 60 signed and numbered copies, 10 bound and 1 free-standing fully signed silver gelatin prints

21st editions

Celebrating Ten Years

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Listening to the Earth and Book of Life | Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison signed & numbered 2 book set illustrated with 11 original platinum prints per book 16 x 20" matched set $55,000

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The Language of Craft

Crowd and Shadows of the Dream | Misha Gordin edition of 33 signed & numbered handmade copies illustrated with 32 original silver gelatin photographs 16 3â &#x201E;4 x 14 1â &#x201E;4" $14,500

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The Bridge | Sheila Metzner edition of 65 signed & numbered handmade copies illustrated with 13 original platinum prints 18 x 14" $10,000

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Sensuality Made Tangible

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Flowers of Evil | Eikoh Hosoe edition of 60 signed & numbered handmade copies illustrated with 11 original platinum prints 18 x 15" $14,000

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The Permanence of Vision

Sally Mann | Sally Mann edition of 100 signed & numbered handmade copies illustrated with 11 original platinum prints 14 x 12" $16,000

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The Journal of Contemporary Photography | Special Edition Bindings available in blue, green and black illustrated with 76 original photogravures & full color prints 15 x 13 1â &#x201E;2" $26,000 per six volume set

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21st editions

A Revolution of Tradition

The 21ST Master Collection 27 signed, fine press books in leather, silk, & elegant fabrics 281 original bound prints in platinum, silver & photogravure 111 fully signed, free-standing original prints $425,000

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editions

For a customized prospectus call 508.398.3000 ma | 585.473.7504 ny www.21steditions.com | 21st@21steditions.com 21ST Editions is also represented by Bauman Rare Books 535 madison avenue, new york, ny 10022 212.751.0011 | www.baumanrarebooks.com

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Stephen Shore

Martin Parr

Survey by Christy Lange. Interview by Michael Fried. Focus by Joel Sternfeld. Writings by Stephen Shore. 113/8 x 97/8 inches, 160 pp. 80 color and 40 b&w photographs

By Sandra S. Phillips. 95/8 x 8¼ inches, 128 pp. 46 color and 10 b&w illustrations

Paperback

978 0 7148 4528 9

978 0 7148 4662 0

$39.95 This monograph offers the first complete examination of Shore’s long and storied career, from his residency at Warhol’s Factory to his experiments in conceptual photography, from his landmark American Surfaces to his continued exploration of emerging techniques.

Albert Watson By James Crump. 113/8 X 97/8 inches, 128 pp 19 color and 46 b&w photographs

Hardback $24.95 An introductory monograph that charts Parr’s entire career including early black and white photographs, unpublished recent images, and works from his major projects, including Think of England.

Theatre of the Face: Portrait Photography since 1900

Hardback

By Max Kozloff. 105/8 x 81/8 inches, 416 pp. 70 color and 280 b&w photographs

978 0 7148 4755 9

Hardback

$39.95

978 0 7148 4372 8

The only career overview in print on one of the world’s most successful fashion photographers, featuring unpublished work and iconic images from both commercial and artistic projects.

$69.95 An engaging and authoritative account of the history of portrait photography by one of the world’s leading photography critics.

Steve McCurry: Looking East Text by Steve McCurry. 15 x 107/8 inches, 128 pp 75 color photographs

Steve McCurry: In the Shadow of Mountains

978 0 7148 4637 8

Steve McCurry with text by Kerry William Purcell. 113/8 x 97/8 inches, 152 pp. 110 color illustrations

$39.95

Hardback

A large format portfolio of the best portraits by Steve McCurry, known for his exquisitely beautiful and enduring images of the landscapes and cultures of Southeast Asia.

978 0 7148 4640 8

Hardback

$59.95 An intimate collection of never-before published images of Afghanistan and its people, celebrating the great and unique beauty of this divided country.

Dogs Collected by Catherine Johnson and words by William Wegman. 95/8 x 6¾ inches, 240 pp 500 b&w photographs

Hardback

The Photography Book 95/8 x 8¼ inches, 512 pp 144 color and 356 b&w photographs

Paperback

978 0 7148 4803 7

$14.95 This book features amateur, anonymous photographs of dogs from the turn of the century to the early 1960s and reveals not only a timeless love for man’s best friend, but also presents an appealing days-gone-by snapshot of family life.

978 0 7148 4488 6

$24.95 An unsurpassed collection of 500 superb images that represent the world’s best photographers from the mid-19th century to today in a new paperback format.

Available at fine bookstores everywhere and online at phaidon.com

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ÂŠ Willy Ronis, Quai Malaquais, Paris,1953

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Willy Ronis A Retrospective

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Consulting and Project Management on Photography Book Publishing In a profession that many of us are justifiably cynical and skeptical about, Joanna stands out as someone with genuine integrity, commitment and interest in helping her authors and photographers in the best way she can. —Nick Brandt, photographer “Joanna’s performance made a very real difference in our book’s sales and marketing. She has the right experience and industry contacts to help photographers with their special concerns, from finding the right publisher to contract negotiations, and later to active book promotion and packaging. She’s one-of-a-kind, and sorely needed.” —Mark Klett, photographer

PROJECT REVIEW, PACKAGING PLACEMENT, PROMOTION www.hurleymedia.com photopub@hurleymedia.com 505.982.4006

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“Untitled,” 2006, 7x7 inch c-print, 1/25, $300

Missy Gaido Allen www.argusgallery.com www.photoeye.com/gallery

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I’VE ALWAYS HAD A THING FOR SMALL BOOKS.

EDITOR’S CHOICE Each season yields scores of books worthy of note. Our editor, DARIUS HIMES, chooses one title or photographer that stands head-and-shoulders above the others.

Reading a book is an intimate and very tactile experience and a small book plays into that feeling. In general, however, art and photobooks are larger than your average book of literature, which makes reading them a different experience altogether. Another attraction of mine is books in a set or series. The world of literature is full of brilliant series: the Everyman’s Library by Knopf and most Penguin’s Great Ideas series immediately come to mind. It is therefore a distinct pleasure to come across photobooks that, in size at least, are akin to their literary cousins. Several running feet of my shelf space at home are dedicated to photobooks that are either a smaller trim size than average or quite thin, hovering around two or three signatures at most. And it is doubly thrilling to come across a publisher that is exploring the world of photography through a series of small books. A handful of publishers are currently doing just that. Both Phaidon and Thames & Hudson—two of Europe’s most well known and well established art book houses—have, in recent years, tested the market with series of small, traditional biographical monographs on important historical and contemporary photographers. In America the most notable example is the exquisite One Picture Book series, by Nazraeli Press. Each of the books in these series is an engaging and considered object, with a small, coherent body of work forming the core. What the small book format provides for a photographer is a chance to explore a limited body of work or a singular idea that falls outside the scope of their larger bodies of work. Or, in the curious case of Dutch photographer Paul Kooiker, it really lets you encapsulate an obsession. Seminar is the third book in an unnamed series from Kooiker published by Amsterdam-based Van Zoetendaal. The other two titles are Hunting and Fishing and Showground. Each of the books perfectly reveals an idée fixe—Seminar is filled with cropped and grainy photographs of a woman’s feet clad in modest but sexy black, French court shoes with kitten heels and a bow and eyelet in the back. Every image has the appearance of being surreptitiously snapped by a seminarstalker, as it were—we catch glimpses of the woman taking notes and sitting in the audience in a folding metal chair. Kooiker has given every image in the book a pink overwash, which only serves to overemphasize the femininity of the work. The effect is thoroughly engrossing (it also helps to be attracted to heels) and much like reading a short story. In this case, all three of Kooiker’s titles seem to embody the effect that Lewis Baltz has stated so clearly: “It might be more useful, if not necessarily true, to think of photography as a narrow, deep area between the novel and film.” Hunting and Fishing, Showground, and Seminar. Photographs by Paul Kooiker. Published by Van Zoetendaal, Amsterdam, 1998, 2004 and 2006. www.vanzoetendaal.nl

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