Best Books 2014: Blake Andrews

Best Books 2014 Best Books 2014 Blake Andrews Best Books picks from photographer and writer Blake Andrews.

Chewing Gum and Chocolate By Shomei Tomatsu Aperture A long overdue look back at post-war Japan through the eyes of a monochrome master, this work fertilized the field for much that grew later.	Moonshine By Bertien Van Manen MACK Thirty years of rural family history photographed in Van Manen's inimitable style. Her command of the snapshot aesthetic balances on the edge of sober precision and drunken chaos.	Bad Weather By Martin Parr Errata Editions For me this is Martin Parr's strongest work, and one of the most adventurous and funny street photography books ever made. The original has long fallen out of print. This ain't it exactly, but it's the next best thing.
On a Wet Bough By Keliy Anderson-Staley Waltz Books Forget that these are tintypes. On A Wet Bough collects some of the most probing portraits I've seen this year. Unsettled, honest, and spattered with scars, like any typical human.	Mangini Studio By Gordon Stettinius & Terry Brown Candela Books Two coiffure pioneers question identity and send up the studio portrait in this sharp satire. With faux-leatherette binding and an introduction from the infamous Dr. Manuel Moore.	Glimpse By Joel Meyerowitz Super Labo I love me some early Meyerowitz black and white. Finally there's a nice big book of it. This is street photography in the most literal sense, shot from a car. Most other street photos seem rather pedestrian in comparison.
Talking To Ants By Stephen Gill Nobody Gill ventures once again into uncharted territory, returning with an odd book of visual puzzles. Originality has rarely seemed so accessible, yet beyond easy reach.	Minutes To Midnight By Trent Parke Steidl Trent Parke explores Australia, family, and the outer limits of dark contrast in this long awaited reprint mixing images both spectacular and mundane.	Family In The Picture By Lee Friedlander Yale University Press A chronological history of Lee, Maria, and all that followed, with guest appearances by various photo luminaries. Play Spot-The-Famous-Shooter with whiskey shots while browsing. Doesn't get much better than that.
Larry Fink on Composition and Improvisation: The Photography Workshop Series By Larry Fink Aperture Elegant thoughts from a living master spurred by his own photos, this meta-manual takes its place alongside The Nature of Photographs and Why People Photograph as a simple classic.

Blake Andrews is a photographer based in Eugene, OR. He writes about photography at blakeandrews.blogspot.com.