photo-eye | BLOG: August 2016

Michael Kenna has released more than 90 publications during his prolific 30-year career, and photo-eye Gallery is honored to have a number of exquisite limited edition, 1st edition, and sold out monographs available during our retrospective. The Gallery staff has curated a selection of our five favorite Kenna books now on hand, including a first edition copy of Kenna's seminal 2003 monograph Japan, as well as two of the delightful – and hard to find – One Picture Books by Nazraeli. Please contact the Gallery if you are interested in more information regarding any of these monographs, including their condition, images of signatures, or if you would like the full list of available rare and limited Kenna books currently in stock. Michael Kenna: A Retrospective is on view through September 10th.

My Air Force By Vojtech Veškrna. Self-published, 2016.

Ania Nałęcka-Milach selects My Air Force self-published by Vojtech Veškrna as Book of the Week.

The Oxford Pictures.
By Paddy Summerfield. Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2016.

The Oxford Pictures
Reviewed by Christopher J Johnson

The Oxford Pictures.
Photographs by Paddy Summerfield. Text by Gerry Badger and Patricia Baker Cassidy.
Dewi Lewis Publishing, Stockport, England, 2016. 96 pp., 57 duotone illustrations, 8¾x9¾".

Some places are timeless; the power they hold and the history that has passed through them is evident in their human structures, their traditions and, though flora and time may wear them, it only adds to the sense of their greatness. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu make great examples of the style of place I am speaking of, but many many more places, which might not come immediately to mind, have this quality too.

Michael Kenna, Hokkaido, Japan, 2015 © Tsuyoshi Kato

Michael Kenna: A Retrospective, is currently in it's fourth week at photo-eye Gallery. The exhibition continues through September 10th and the detail, tone, and richness of Kenna's gorgeous Gelatin-Silver prints is something one must experience in person. If you haven't already visited our Gallery in Santa Fe to see the retrospective, please do so, as the images on display have quickly become favorites of the photo-eye Gallery staff. Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry asked Kenna to explain the making of, or share special memories behind, five of the fifty-five photographs currently on view.

Walking. By Yusuf Sevincli. Filigranes Editions, 2015.

Christopher J Johnson selects Walking by Yusuf Sevincli published by Filigranes Editions as Book of the Week.

Maybe. By Phillip Toledano.
Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2015.

Maybe

Reviewed by George Slade

Maybe.
Photographs by Phillip Toledano.
Dewi Lewis Publishing, Stockport, England, 2015. 76 pp., 37 color illustrations, 7x10".

When we are young, our parents may project upon us and imagine what we might become as adults. I remember a Mad magazine comic strip on this topic, in particular one in which parents, watching their child tear around the dining room, envision a track star. The strip traveled into the future to show that headlong, juvenile eagerness resulting in a suited businessman lustfully chasing a woman (secretary, administrative assistant, intern?) around a desk. We become the person we are meant to become, regardless of interventions.

Divination by Cards, 2015, and Divination by Double Take, 2015 © Rachel Phillips
Displayed in Stands Made by the Artist

photo-eye Gallery is excited to publish Divinations a series by California based photographer Rachel Phillips on the Photographer's Showcase. While Divinations is Rachel's first portfolio on the Photographer's Showcase, a selection of prints from her Field Notes series were on view in our 2014 Photo Objects and Small Prints exhibition. Like Field Notes, Divinations layers new black-and-white imagery on top of antique ephemera lending old objects new context, meaning, and aesthetic. Phillips combines imagery based on divinations, styles of fortune-telling, with 19th Century cabinet card portraits in, as the artists describes, a "playful and poignant attempt at using the proverbial crystal ball to see into the lost past, rather than the unknown future." The result is a unique and sumptuous object filled with whimsy, intrigue, and a touch of mystery. Selections from Divinations are currently on view at photo-eye Gallery alongside Michael Kenna: A Retrospective, and Lucas Shaffer spoke with Rachel Phillips to learn more about how the series came to be.

Motsure Hotsure Tsumugu. By Marco van Duyvendijk.
Self-published, 2016.

Sarah Bradley selects Motsure Hotsure Tsumugu self-published by Marco van Duyvendijk as Book of the Week.

PRE-ORDER DEADLINES

Nudes Curated By Julie Dossena
Photographs and text by Coco Capitán

French designer Julien Dossena has worked towards a contemporary vision of femininity for the Paco Rabanne fashion house since 2013, most recently by commissioning Spanish photographer Coco Capitán to revisit Clemmer’s images in a new portfolio shot on the grounds of the 1920s Villa Noailles. Poems by Capitán accompany the sensual and bold images.

photo-eye is taking pre-orders for copies of Nudes Curated By Julie Dossena. If our supplier runs out, orders will be fulfilled in the order in which they are received. The cutoff time for ordering is Tuesday, August 16th at 12:00 PM Mountain Time.

Pre-order copies of Nudes Curated By Julie Dossena or read more

Deadline Volume 2. By Will Steacy. b.frank books, 2016.

Deadline: Volumes 1 and 2 is the culmination of 7 years of work for photographer Will Steacy, five of those years spent in intensive documentation of the newsroom and printing facilities of The Philadelphia Inquirer as the paper was in the midst of a serious downturn. This was by no means an isolated case — newspapers nation-wide have seen a sharp decline in circulation and ad revenue resulting in significant lay-offs and downsizing — but Steacy was uniquely position to tell this story. Blake Andrews describes Steacy in his review of Deadline: Volume 1: “Enter Will Steacy, photographer by trade, journalist by heritage. His father was a newsman (an editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer), along with his grandfather, as was his great-grandfather and so on, back to great great-great-grandfather Hyram Young, proud founder of a daily paper in 1876. Steacy escaped the cycle, sort of, pursuing a profession outside of newspapers, but it remained in his blood.” Given unrestricted access, Steacy meticulously photographed The Philadelphia Inquirer as it contended with a shifting industry making considerable changes itself, including layoffs (Steacy’s father, an editor with the Inquirer for 29 years, among them) and a move from their 526,000 square foot offices in the iconic Tower of Truth to a single floor of an office building.

On Monday August 1st, 2016 photo-eye was very sad to hear of the loss of our colleague, collaborator, and friend Elaine Ling. We would like to take a moment to recognize and celebrate Ling’s life and work.

The Narcissistic City. By Takashi Homma.
Mack, 2016.

Colin Stearns selects The Narcissistic City by Takaishi Homma published by Mack as Book of the Week.

"More often than not, I gravitate to photobooks that leave me asking questions, and Takaishi Homma’s The Narcissistic City certainly satisfies this requirement for gravity. The Narcissistic City is a physically engaging photobook that visually leads us through urban landscape images of Japan and the United States.

In Stock

A Topical Times for These Times
Book of Liverpool Football
Photographs by Ken Grant

Since the 1980’s Ken Grant has photographed football culture in Liverpool, his home city. With football serving as a central thread in the working and social lives of his contemporaries, it has always been an element of Grant’s wider work about the city. This book brings together his pictures of the game, the land and the people who populate it.

Order book or read more

Seeing Things: A Kid's Guide to Looking at Photographs.
By Joel Meyerowitz. Aperture, 2016.

Seeing Things

Reviewed by Blake Andrews

Seeing Things: A Kid's Guide to Looking at Photographs.
Text by Joel Meyerowitz.
Aperture, New York, USA, 2016. In English. 80 pp., 8¼x11¼".

What's gotten into the water at Aperture Foundation? Based on its recent run of book titles, readers might wonder if they've tapped a fountain of youth. In 2014 Jason Fulford's delightful This Equals That targeted the under five demographic. This was followed by Alice Poujansky's kid activity book Go Photo! Sandwiched in between were two efforts — a photographer's playbook and photographer's cookbook — which, while not overtly aimed at children, put a buoyant, informal twist on the material. These books have all come out in the past two years, on the heels of Aperture's 50+ year history of sober, ceremonious monographs.

There seems a conscious effort afoot by Aperture to deflate their pompous reputation, pivot to the future, and expand the audience. The cause of this shift is less clear. Is it indeed a fountain of youth? Editors of child-bearing age? A publisher's midlife crisis? Some broader cultural shift among photobook makers? I'm not sure. But regardless of cause, the editorial winds at Aperture have shifted in a sprightly direction.

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 59, Nottinghamshire, England, 1993 – © Michael Kenna
Gelatin-Silver Print | 6 x 9" | $2500

photo-eye Gallery is honored to host the revered Michael Kenna for an artist reception this upcoming Friday for Michael Kenna: A Retrospective. The exhibition features selected work from 30 years of Kenna's career and from countries around the globe. Regarded as one of today’s most influential photographers, how does one lay the groundwork for such a prolific career? Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry asked Kenna to share a bit of his background and inspirations.

Michael Kenna: A Retrospective is on view at photo-eye Gallery through September 10th. The artist reception and book signing will take place on Friday, August 5th from 5 – 7 PM.

A Song for Windows. By Takashi Homma.
Libraryman, 2016.

Laurence Vecten selects A Song for Windows by Takashi Homma from Libraryman as Book of the Week.

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