Best Books 2013 Best Books 2013 Christopher McCall Best Books picks from Christopher McCall, Director of Pier 24 Photography.
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By Jason Fulford
The Soon Institute
Fulford has a cult following in the photobook world. This book will only build upon the foundation he’s laid. An amazing combination of text, superb images, and playful layout. Hotel Oracle paints a narrative you hope will never end.
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By Cuny Janssen
Snoeck
Yoshino is a beautiful oversized book from Amsterdam based photographer Cuny Janssen. Known for her wonderfully designed books, Janssen continues to impress with this offering. The peaceful, serene photographs of the sacred mountain Yoshino benefit from the large scale. The only struggle is finding a bookshelf large enough.
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By Todd Hido
Nazraeli Press
Hido is forging a new direction, which he hinted at with Ohio and Nymph Daughters. This time around, his voice is louder and clearer. The gatefolds in Excerpts unveil stories akin to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet — a seedy side of suburbia opened for the viewer to complete. We finally get to see what is happening behind those lit windows Hido started with in House Hunting.
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By Mitch Epstein
Steidl
Epstein is an underappreciated photographer who continues to produce bodies of work at an exceptional level. New York Arbor is quiet, concise, and the edit is tight. The design is executed flawlessly from the slipcase and paper selection to the fonts. Steidl makes this work sing with a traditional but modern design.
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By Paul Salveson
MACK
This book is a beautiful object. Mack has taken strong, odd, quirky, graphic work from Paul Salveson and embellished it with great book design. Constructed from common household objects, Salveson’s still lifes are visual candy. The thick-paged, boardbook design gives Between the Shell a great object quality; the book looks and feels great in your hand.
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By Thomas Sauvin
AMC Books
The Archive of Modern Conflict has developed a track record of printing wonderful books from their vernacular collection. Silvermine continues in this tradition. These delicate accordion books edited from discarded Chinese negatives are small and precious, but reveal something much greater upon looking deeper.
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Various Artists
Spaces Corners
Culling the work of photographers from a Midwestern region historically known as “the foundry,” Notes from the Foundry is the first offering from Pittsburgh based Spaces Corners. A small, well-crafted, perfect bound book with exceptional design and feel. An interesting group of image makers in the right hands… rarely does a compellation edit make so much sense. Like the best 80s mix tape you have ever heard.
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By Henry Wessel
Steidl
Henry Wessel is a master of the medium, and the best editor of his generation, seamlessly combining work from 1967 to 2010 in Incidents. This volume reveals a darker side of Wessel’s work, and continues to entice with deeper looking.
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By Anouk Kruithof
RVB Books
Anouk tackles the stress fueled environment of Wall Street with her latest offering Pixel Stress from RVB Books. The well-executed book operates as documentation of the artist’s Wall Street intervention - pixelated photographs of stress, collages, and images of the participants are just a small piece of this intriguing unbound publication. Kruithof is one of the best young artists working in the book medium, and another non-traditional volume only adds to her already strong library.
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By Viviane Sassen
Oodee
Viviane Sassen has put together another strong book. Well edited and concise, Etan & Me explores ideas related to the self and other. Beautiful, colorful photographs of Etan are paired with fluid, abstract portraits of Sassen, which appear to be photographed via reflections on crumbled metallic paper. They create a great rhythm throughout the book, and the design and feel make it the perfect companion to Sassen’s last book with Oodee, Roxane.
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Christopher McCall is the Director of Pier 24 Photography in San Francisco, one of the largest exhibition spaces devoted to photography. In 2002, McCall received his MFA in Photography from California College of the Arts, studying under Jim Goldberg and Larry Sultan. After teaching for 7 years, he joined Pier 24 Photography in 2009 as the inaugural Director, assisting in the conceptualization of the organization’s mission and operating principles. Since opening the doors of Pier 24 in 2010, McCall has overseen the presentation of five exhibitions and spearheaded the creation of the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program, a program in collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and California College of the Arts.
