 |
Maze by Celine Clanet
 |
Winner of the PhotoLucida book prize, Celine Clanet's
Mazé is a stunning series shot in one of the most northern places on the globe and focusing on the lives of the indigenous people for whom this land is home.
"Céline Clanet's book
Mazé contains a set of photographs made among the Sami culture in Northern Norway, at the outer edge of Europe. She is not from there, but managed to ensconce herself enough among the locals that the images have a ring of authenticity. And they are lovely, to be sure... I've seen documentary films and TV travel shows that have visited this place before, so it was not entirely unfamiliar to me. Yet the quality of the photographs and the poetic use of symbols enabled me to enter into a different world as I turned the pages of the book. That is why we look at photo books, I think." -- from the
review by Jonathan Blaustein
Purchase Book
 |
| from Maze by Celine Clanet |
About to enter its third printing, photo-eye still has a handful of copies of the second printing of Mike Brodie's
A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. Brodie's evocative images of train hopping youths have been widely shared on the internet, but are especially remarkable as presented in this beautiful book.
"The beautiful and romantic photographs of natty, if dirty, young vagabond train hoppers -- cultural outsiders living a life of freedom most dare only fantasize about -- are captivating. As is Brodie himself. He hasn't simply documented the strange and lovely creatures of this life; he's one of them -- thus providing the authenticity the art world often craves... It’s like art-world catnip – enticing and edgy subject matter, an embodiment of a spirit of youthful adventure, and an undeniably authentic photographer who has quit the art world right when interest is peaking. There is a lot here to talk about, but ultimately it all gets in the way of what actually makes the images in
A Period of Juvenile Prosperity so special. None of it accounts for the power of Brodie’s photographic voice, which has been so thoughtfully distilled in the book from Twin Palms." -- from the
review by Sarah Bradley
Colleen Plumb's
The Animals Are Outside Today presents a series of lovely subtle images investigating our relationship to animals. Plumb's lens finds animals or representations of them in every corner of our lives, at once bringing into view our love for other living creatures and the contradiction of how we often treat them.
"For the past fourteen years Plumb has turned her lens not only on living animals but also on those which are (among other things) dead, stuffed, painted, drawn, plucked, slaughtered, roasted, euthanized, and caged, all of which appear in this book... Whether behind fences, in a bag or a box, a frame or a jar, many of these animals are separated from humans by a literal divide. On a symbolic level, this separation between humans and nature runs contrary to animism -- the notion that animals (among other things) contain spirits or souls -- but is consistent with the disassociation from nature prevalent in Western culture. At the same time, however, many of the animals in Plumb's photographs are not separated from the viewer; in some cases, they are (or seem) very near..." -- from the
review by Ellen Rennard
