Today we revisit three recently reviewed books -- signed copies of all have recently come in stock. Copies are limited.
Prairie Stories
By Terry Evans. Published by Radius Books
Prairie Stories is beautiful monograph pulling together Terry Evans' 20 years of photographing in the tiny Kansas town of Matfield Green.
"Time is as much the subject of the book as the land and the people are. From 1990 to 2010 Evans, a Chicago photographer, made pictures in and around the small town in the Flint Hills. The book focuses on seven stories inspired by the people of the town. How many people live there? According to the U.S. census, 33 in 1990 and 47 in 2010 and the city consists of .14 square miles of land... Working in the documentary tradition, Evans takes advantage of the square frame to create direct images laden with mystery." --
Tom Leininger
Purchase Book
Up and Down Peachtree
By Martin Parr. Published by Contrasto.
"Originally commissioned for Atlanta's High Museum of Art's June 2012 "Picturing the South" exhibition, Parr's documentary project was exhibited at the High Museum alongside work by photographers Kael Alford and Shane Lavalette. A documentary about Parr's work in Atlanta in 2010 and 2011 has also been made into a documentary film, "Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South" which premiered in June 2012. Though Parr was on assignment in Atlanta rather than on holiday, he has the eye of a consistently curious and genuinely engaged outsider who wants to document even and especially the most quotidian of details. For Parr, the everyday is rich, valuable and often wryly comical." --
Joscelyn Jurich
Vanilla Partner
By Torbjørn Rødland. Published by MACK.
"
Vanilla Partner is just plain weird. There is no introduction or explanatory text, just images and captions. After a brief visual preface of held faces and hair-draped orange slices, the book shifts to traditional black and white. Thirty pages in it pulls a Wizard-of-Oz switch, after which the remainder is in muted color. This much can be pinned down. As for the rest… Well? Certain subjects repeat throughout the book: Statues, gelatinous textures, cropped limbs, multiple exposures, tubular forms, physical punishment, graffiti on skin, defanged political symbols, and of course the beautiful young models which form the book's core. These are often slouched or in mysterious poses, and sometimes tarred and feathered. But beyond that it's wide open. 'I want the book to be surprising throughout,' says Rødland (Vice). Hey, the man knows what he wants. Sometimes he wants UFOs and judging by some of these photos he's gotten them." --Blake Andrews
