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Book Review Amc2 journal Issue 10: LagosPhoto 2014 Edited by Archive of Modern Conflict Reviewed by Sarah Bradley Issue 10 of AMC2 from Archive of Modern Conflict brings together three disparate collections of images related to Africa. The first is a series from film sets in Nigeria, the second most active film industry in the world and bearing the industry nickname Nollywood.

Amc2 Journal Issue 10: LagosPhoto 2014.
Edited by Archive of Modern Conflict.
AMC Books, 2014.
 
Amc2 Journal Issue 10: LagosPhoto 2014
Reviewed by Sarah Bradley

Amc2 journal Issue 10: LagosPhoto 2014
Edited by Archive of Modern Conflict
AMC Books, 2014. 84 pp., 8¼x8¼".


Issue 10 of AMC2 from Archive of Modern Conflict brings together three disparate collections of images related to Africa. The first is a series from film sets in Nigeria, the second most active film industry in the world and bearing the industry nickname Nollywood. My first encounter with Nollywood was though the images of Pieter Hugo who removed actors from the context of their films to perform for his camera in the surrounding world. Here, we see actual shots from sets, depictions of scenes, and off camera moments, each presented with a brief description of the movie.

photo-eye Gallery Interview & Portfolio: Tom Chambers on To The Edge As always, we are excited to present a new series of photographs by Tom Chambers: To The Edge. In addition to sharing the images, I have asked Chambers to speak about his experience photographing in Iceland, the inspirations behind his imagery, and his aesthetic.
The Trickster — Tom Chambers

As always, we are excited to present a new series of photographs by Tom Chambers: To The Edge. In To The Edge, Chambers takes us on a journey through Iceland. As usual, his images are inhabited by children and animals, but in this series Chambers takes us a bit deeper into his dreams. In the new images we start to see elements that boarder on the surreal — a boy with handmade bird wings soaring over a vast green landscape, children catching birds like butterflies  and a young girl speaking in flowers. Each image is carefully paired with lines of poetry by Allen Chamberlin inspired by Chambers' images. In addition to sharing the images, I have asked Chambers to speak about his experience photographing in Iceland, the inspirations behind his imagery, and his aesthetic.—Anne Kelly

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Maki Maki selects New Shinjuku by Daido Moriyama as Book of the Week.
New Shinjuku by Daido Moriyama 
Getsuyosha, 2014.
This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Maki who has selected New Shinjuku by Daido Moriyama published by Getsuyosha.

Book Review The Bungalow Sarah Bay Gachot The Bungalow resulted from a sequestering. Kruithof locked herself away with hundreds of vernacular photographs and made a record of those electrified, metaphorical moments of experiencing pictures — imagining exactly how she thought these images should be processed and presented as “screen reality” in book form; making new photography from old. The book contains five chapters and differing grades of paper — blue-tinted, white matte, and thin glossy-color and black-and-white.
The Bungalow by Anouk Kruithof.
Onomatopee, 2014.

The Bungalow
Reviewed by Sarah Bay Gachot

The Bungalow
By Anouk Kruithof
Onomatopee, 2014. 272 pp., 7½x9¾x2".


The Bungalow resulted from a sequestering. Anouk Kruithof locked herself away with hundreds of vernacular photographs and made a record of those electrified, metaphorical moments of experiencing pictures — imagining exactly how she thought these images should be processed and presented as “screen reality” in book form; making new photography from old. The book contains five chapters and differing grades of paper — blue-tinted, white matte, and thin glossy-color and black-and-white. Each chapter is a visual riff that categorizes or conjures, layers or double exposes. “In my view,” writes Kruithof in her essay that introduces the book, “this is the way to record the screen reality in which we live.”

Books In Stock at photo-eye: Signed Four signed titles from Ken Schles, Lucas Blalock, Daniel Coburn and Iseo Nose, all in stock at photo-eye Bookstore.
Night Walk
Photographs by Ken Schles
Published by Steidl
$50 SIGNED — Purchase Book

"Twenty-five years after the printing of his seminal 1988 book, Invisible City, Ken Schles revisits his archive and fashions a narrative of lost youth: a delirious, peripatetic walk in the evening air of an irretrievable Downtown New York as he saw and experienced it. Night Walk is a substantive and intimate chronicle of New York's last pre-Internet bohemian outpost, a stream of consciousness portrayal that peels back layers of petulance and squalor to find the frisson and striving of a life lived amongst the rubble."the publisher

Selected as one of the Best Books of 2014 by Markus Schaden


Book Review Tones of Dirt and Bone By Mike Brodie Reviewed by Sarah Bradley Tones of Dirt and Bone is the second monograph from Twin Palms and Mike Brodie, and despite its later release, the photographs were made prior to the work of the 2013 release, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. These are the Mike Brodie images that first floated around the internet, a series of Polaroid photographs made with an SX-70, the work that provided his moniker, The Polaroid Kidd.

Tones of Dirt and Bone. By Mike Brodie.
Twin Palms, 2015.
 
Tones of Dirt and Bone
Reviewed by Sarah Bradley

Tones of Dirt and Bone
Photographs by Mike Brodie
Twin Palms Publishers, Santa Fe, 2014. 84 pp., 49 color illustrations, 10x11".


Tones of Dirt and Bone is the second monograph from Twin Palms and Mike Brodie, and despite its later release, the photographs were made prior to the work of the 2013 release, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. These are the Mike Brodie images that first floated around the internet, a series of Polaroid photographs made with an SX-70, the work that provided his moniker, The Polaroid Kidd. It is composed mostly of portraits and still-lifes, though perhaps they’d be more satisfactorily described as details or small moments — instincts honed with a Polaroid camera that make some of what’s in A Period of Juvenile Prosperity so distinct. But they are different books; Tones of Dirt and Bone is quieter, softer.

photo-eye Gallery Jock Sturges: Fanny – Exhibition Introduction Video We were thrilled to celebrate the opening of Jock Sturges' exhibition Fanny with over 130 visitors to photo-eye Gallery. While he was in Santa Fe Sturges took the time to give us a short introduction to the show, discussing his relationship to Fanny, the length and scope of the project, and his trip to photograph her pregnancy.
Jock Sturges at photo-eye Gallery, April 2015
We were thrilled to celebrate the opening of Jock Sturges' exhibition Fanny with over 130 visitors to photo-eye Gallery. Currently on view through May 23rd, this series features 24 portraits of Fanny made over 26 years, showing her evolution from child to adult, continuing now through her pregnancy with her own first child. As Anne Kelly noted in her interview with Sturges for photo-eye Blog, the photographs also display "her growing rapport with Sturges. Sturges has a firm belief that a model's relationship with the photographer is evident in the images, and that each image is the result of a collaboration." The exhibition coincides with the publication of the book Fanny from Steidl.

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Andrew Roth Andrew Roth selects The Human Snapshot edited by Thomas Keenan & Tirdad Zolghadr as Book of the Week.
The Human Snapshot edited by Thomas Keenan 
Tirdad Zolghadr. Sternberg Press/Luma Foundation, 2013.
This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Andrew Roth who has selected The Human Snapshot edited by Thomas Keenan & Tirdad Zolghadr from the Sternberg Press/Luma Foundation.

Book Review In the Shadow of the Pyramids By Laura El-Tantawy Reviewed by Colin Pantall “There are 90 million people in this country. Ninety million stories to be told. This is the beginning of only one.”
The country is Egypt, the year is 2011 and the Arab Spring is in full flight. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is packed with protestors against the president’s rule and El-Tantawy is in their midst.

In the Shadow of the Pyramids.
Photographs by Laura El-Tantawy.
Self-Published, 2015.
 
In the Shadow of the Pyramids
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

In the Shadow of the Pyramids
Text and photographs by Laura El-Tantawy
Self-Published, Amsterdam. 440 pp., 125 illustrations, 9x7x1½".


“There are 90 million people in this country. Ninety million stories to be told. This is the beginning of only one.”

The country is Egypt, the year is 2011 and the Arab Spring is in full flight. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is packed with protestors against the president’s rule and El-Tantawy is in their midst. “In the square of Liberation I found dreamers. Just like in the films. Thousands of them. In Tahrir Square I found myself again.”

Book Review Amc2 Journal Issue 9. Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy Edited by Roger Hargreaves & Federica Chiocchetti. Reviewed by Sarah Bradley I confess that I am a bit behind. Two of the recent offerings from the Archive of Modern Conflict’s AMC2 series (though not the latest…) have both accompanied exhibitions of images from the archive’s collection; in the case of Issue 9, Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy, the images appeared at the 2014 Brighton Photo Biennial.

AMC Books, 2014.
 
Amc2 Journal Issue 9.  Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy
Reviewed by Sarah Bradley

Amc2 Journal Issue 9: Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy
Edited and with an essay by Roger Hargreaves & Federica Chiocchetti.
AMC Books, 2014. 136 pp., illustrated throughout, 8¼x11".


I confess that I am a bit behind. Two of the recent offerings from the Archive of Modern Conflict’s AMC2 series (though not the latest…) have both accompanied exhibitions of images from the archive’s collection; in the case of Issue 9, Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy, the images appeared at the 2014 Brighton Photo Biennial.

Book Review Half Wild By Peter Happel Christian Reviewed by Adam Bell The famed author, environmentalist, and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir first visited Yosemite in 1868. Years later in 1890, he successfully lobbied Congress to designate Yosemite a national park. Containing some of the most iconic landscapes in the United States, Yosemite often stands for archetypal wilderness in the United States.

Half Wild. By Peter Happel Christian.
Conveyor Arts, 2014.
 
Half Wild
Reviewed by Adam Bell

Half Wild
By Peter Happel Christian
Conveyor Arts, 2014. 112 pp., illustrated throughout, 5¾x8¼".


The famed author, environmentalist, and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir first visited Yosemite in 1868. Years later in 1890, he successfully lobbied Congress to designate Yosemite a national park. Containing some of the most iconic landscapes in the United States, Yosemite often stands for archetypal wilderness in the United States. Like many national parks, it serves as benchmark against which we measure the natural world that surrounds us, while also fortifying the illusion that we can maintain a place that’s untouched. National parks may be a necessary bulwark against rapacious development and expansion, but pose a vexing conundrum. The notion that one could cordon off a space and designate it as wild assumes we stand fully apart from nature. Borrowing its name from Muir’s book Our National Parks, Peter Happel Christian’s Half Wild explores what Muir described the “half wild parks and gardens of towns.” Through a mixed assortment of images, Half Wild explores the divergent ways in which we refashion, preserve, and map an elusive wilderness that is always out of reach.


Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Kevin Messina Kevin Messina selects R+R (Rest + Relaxation) by Ryan Arthurs as Book of the Week.
R+R (Rest + Relaxation) by Ryan Arthurs.
Houseboat Press.

This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Kevin Messina who has selected R+R (Rest + Relaxation) by Ryan Arthurs from Houseboat Press.

Interview Anouk Kruithof on Artist Books and AUTOMAGIC Eric Miles of photo-eye Auctions speaks to Anouk Kruithof about her practice of making artist book practice and her Kickstarter campaign for her forthcoming self-published book AUTOMAGIC.


Anouk Kruithof has one of the most distinctive voices in the photobook world, creating thoughtful books that dynamically engage the medium of photography and bookmaking — all while not being a "straight photographer," as she puts it. Kruithof's publications have been a staple of photo-eye's annual Best Books lists for nearly five years, receiving admiration from a wide range of photobook lovers, including Daniel Boetker SmithRuth van BeekChristopher McCallAlec Soth and Martin Parr. Recent titles include The BungalowUntitled: (I’ve taken too many photos / I’ve never taken a photo) (both selected as Best Books of 2014), Pixel Stress (selected as a Best Book of 2013), and the now out of print A Head With Wings and Happy Birthday To You (both selected as Best Books of 2011).  In his 2014 Best Book pick of Untitled, Colin Pantall described Kruithof and her book like this: "Anouk Kruithof is super smart and this is her super smartest book. She deals with hugely complex subjects (how we see, curate, and exhibit photographs) in a light and accessible form, making you work to see the pictures. Imaginative, intelligent and funny, it’s more about the process of how we select and view of images than a photobook."

from Untitled: (I’ve taken too many photos / I’ve never taken a photo) by Anouk Kruithof

While she's self-published in the past, her newest book, AUTOMAGIC, is set to be her most elaborate self-published book to date including 20 or so chapters and featuring a wide range of projects spanning many years of her artistic practice. To get the financial backing to make this book possible, Kruithof decided to try crowd funding, launching her first Kickstarter campaign.

In the round of promotion for her Kickstarter, Eric Miles of photo-eye Auctions got a chance to speak with Kruithof about AUTOMAGIC, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to also get into her thoughts on creating spectacular artist books.

Book Review Father Figure By Zun Lee Reviewed by Tom Leininger There are a many ideas of what fatherhood is: the stern taskmaster who refuses to accept less than perfection, the distant father who is consumed by work, the father indulgent in material things but not emotions. The portrait of masculinity presented in Zun Lee’s book Father Figure goes against a number of stereotypes in popular culture. This book is about the fathers who are present in the lives of their children and aims to demystify the concept of the absent black father.

Father Figure. By Zun Lee. 
Ceiba, 2014.
 
Father Figure
Reviewed by Tom Leininger

Father Figure: Exploring Alternate Notions of Black Fatherhood
Photographs by Zun Lee. Foreword by Teju Cole, Epilogue by Trymaine Lee.
Ceiba, New York, 2014. 128 pp., 61 duotone illustrations, 12¼x8¼".


photo-eye Gallery Interview & Portfolio: Jock Sturges on Fanny We are pleased to announce that on Friday April 10th, Jock Sturges will be at photo-eye Gallery for an artist reception for his new exhibition, Fanny — in celebration of his new monograph by the same title. In anticipation of the exhibition, we have asked Sturges to share a little more about his past, inspirations and how his long-term portraiture project in France began — and of course we discuss his goddaughter Fanny.
Fanny; Montalivet, France, 1995 — Jock Sturges

We are pleased to announce that on Friday April 10th, Jock Sturges will be at photo-eye Gallery for an artist reception for his new exhibition, Fanny — in celebration of his new monograph by the same title. The focus of this new book is one of Sturges’ most well known models and his goddaughter, Fanny. The images are photographed in the naturist community of Montalivet, France, where Fanny and her family make their home. The images span more than 23 years, beginning when Fanny was just four years of age. Produced in both black-and-white and color, this extended portrait documents not only Fanny’s journey from child to adult, but also her growing rapport with Sturges. Sturges has a firm belief that a model's relationship with the photographer is evident in the images, and that each image is the result of a collaboration.

In anticipation of the exhibition, I have asked Sturges to share a little more about his past, inspirations and how his long-term portraiture project in France began — and of course we discuss his goddaughter Fanny.—Anne Kelly

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Sarah Bradley Sarah Bradley selects A Perpetual Season by Gregoire Pujade-Lauraine as Book of the Week.
A Perpetual Season by Gregoire Pujade-Lauraine.
MACK, 2014.

This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Sarah Bradley who has selected A Perpetual Season by Gregoire Pujade-Lauraine published by MACK.

Book Review The Last Cosmology By Kikuji Kawada Reviewed by Colin Pantall Kikuji Kawada is best known for Chizu (The Map), his classic contemplation on post-war Japan. Chizu glories in its brooding blacks and radioactive greys. Published in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Kawada shows a Japan that is shamed and defeated, struggling to rebuild itself in an American nuclear shadow.
By the end of that volume, the question is answered.

The Last Cosmology.
Photographs by Kikuji Kawada.
MACK, 2015.
 
The Last Cosmology
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

The Last Cosmology
By Kikuji Kawada
MACK, 2015. 86 pp., 67 tritone illustrations, 11½x15¼x½".

Kikuji Kawada is best known for Chizu (The Map), his classic contemplation on post-war Japan. Chizu glories in its brooding blacks and radioactive greys. Published in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Kawada shows a Japan that is shamed and defeated, struggling to rebuild itself in an American nuclear shadow. It’s a dark flash of a book where the literal and the symbolic are folded together beneath a gatefold sleeve.

Book Review Alvin Langdon Coburn Photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn Reviewed by Karen Jenkins Alvin Langdon Coburn picked up the camera at age 8 and died holding the autobiography of his life in photography. In between those narrative bookends is a twenty year period at the turn of the twentieth century full of prodigious achievement and artistic zeal, in both his native America and adopted Britain.

Alvin Landon Coburn.
Fundacion Mapfre, 2015.
 
Alvin Langdon Coburn
Reviewed by Karen Jenkins

Alvin Langdon Coburn
Photographs by Alvin Coburn. Text by Anne Cartier-Bresson and Pamela Roberts.
FundaciĆ³n Mapfre, 2015. 296 pp., 8½x9¾".


Alvin Langdon Coburn picked up the camera at age 8 and died holding the autobiography of his life in photography. In between those narrative bookends is a twenty year period at the turn of the twentieth century full of prodigious achievement and artistic zeal, in both his native America and adopted Britain. On both sides of the Atlantic, Coburn inserted himself and his talent into photography’s clubs and coteries, earning his place with a devotion to technique and a fresh vision, and no small measure of moxie. Beyond this period of practical mastery and avant-garde firsts, Coburn’s affiliations and aspirations changed, as a search for a more meaningful inner life altered his photographic practice, or marked its absence. Today, the largest collection of his work is at the George Eastman House, the result of the artist’s bequest in 1962. The Royal Photographic Society was recipient of another substantial gift from Coburn in 1930, now part of the collection of the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK. The exhibition this volume catalogues is the only one drawn from these two collections in over half a century. Now in a substantially larger pull, it aims to introduce Coburn’s work to a new generation and solidify his place in the canon of masters with its just-past run at FundaciĆ³n Mapfre and showing at George Eastman House in late 2015.


Books In Stock at photo-eye: One Picture Books One Picture Books from Nazraeli Press are an on-going series of small, affordable signed and numbered photobooks that each include an original photograph and are limited to an edition of 500 copies. Today we highlight One Picture Books 85, 86, and 87 from Roger Ballen, Doug Rickard and Aaron Ruell.
One Picture Book #85: The Audience
Photographs by Roger Ballen from Nazraeli Press
Signed with original print $100 Purchase Book

Book Review Wayward Cognitions By Ed Templeton Reviewed by Blake Andrews I'd made it about halfway through Ed Templeton's new book Wayward Cognitions before an unwelcome question entered my mind: Would I care about these photos if they were by someone other than Ed Templeton?

Wayward Cognitions. By Ed Templeton.
Um Yeah Press, 2014.
 
Wayward Cognitions
Reviewed by Blake Andrews

Wayward Cognitions 
Photographs by Ed Templeton
Um Yeah Press, 2014. 160 pp., illustrated throughout, 8x10".


I'd made it about halfway through Ed Templeton's new book Wayward Cognitions before an unwelcome question entered my mind: Would I care about these photos if they were by someone other than Ed Templeton?

photo-eye Gallery Interview & Portfolio: Vanessa Marsh photo-eye Gallery is pleased to announce Everything All at Once, a portfolio by Vanessa Marsh, new to the Photographer's Showcase. Everything All at Once is a series of black-and-white cameraless images examining the sublime while comparing natural and manmade power.
Landscape #7, 2013 – Vanessa Marsh

photo-eye Gallery is pleased to announce Everywhere All at Once, a portfolio by Vanessa Marsh, new to the Photographer's Showcase. Everywhere All at Once is a series of black-and-white cameraless images examining the sublime while comparing natural and manmade power. Paradoxically both peaceful and eerie, Everywhere All at Once depicts an enigmatic abandoned landscape whipped by wind, and bathed in starlight. For the blog, photo-eye asked Marsh to elaborate on her choice of imagery, her inspirations, and the process used to create her photographs.

photo-eye Gallery Opening Friday April 10th: Jock Sturges - Fanny photo-eye Gallery is please to announce an exhibition of photographs by Jock Sturges titled Fanny, celebrating the release of his latest monograph of the same name published by Steidl.


Opening, Artist Reception and Booksigning: Friday April 10th, 2015 from 5 – 7pm
photo-eye Gallery, 541 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe
Exhibition continues through May 23, 2015