Book Review Astres Noirs By Katrin Koenning and Sarker Protick Reviewed by Colin Pantall There’s a lot of black in photography at the moment. Awoiska van der Molen’s photobook Sequester shows us the gradations of blacks in her European landscape work, Paul Gaffney’s Stray takes us on a night-time journey through the forest in a psychological exploration that makes us part of the landscape we live in.

Astres Noirs. By Katrin Koenning & Sarker Protick. 
Chose Commune, 2016.

 

Astres Noirs

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Astres Noirs 
Photographs by Katrin Koenning and Sarker Protick.
Chose Commune, Paris, France, 2016. 168 pp., 79 black-and-white illustrations, 6¼x8¾".

There’s a lot of black in photography at the moment. Awoiska van der Molen’s photobook Sequester shows us the gradations of blacks in her European landscape work, Paul Gaffney’s Stray takes us on a night-time journey through the forest in a psychological exploration that makes us part of the landscape we live in. From Spain, David Jimenez and Jon Cazenave are working with extremes of light to express the sensations of land, of belonging, of home, and of the metaphysical.

Book Review End. By Eammon Doyle Reviewed by Colin Pantall Watch Hitchcock’s Vertigo and you quickly understand Saul Bass’s belief that it’s important that the film starts with the titles, that they have a message that goes beyond the merely functional or decorative.

End.  By Eammon Doyle. D1, 2016.

 

End.

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

End. 
Photographs by Eamonn Doyle
D1, Dublin, Ireland, 2016. In English. 140pp pp., 293 illustrations, 19¾x28".

Watch Hitchcock’s Vertigo and you quickly understand Saul Bass’s belief that it’s important that the film starts with the titles, that they have a message that goes beyond the merely functional or decorative.

It’s the same with photobooks. In a good photobook, the book should start with the title. And everything that is in that book, the text, the images, the cover, the end pages, should serve the message of the book as a whole. That doesn’t often happen, but in an ideal world, in an ideal book, it should.

Book Review In Flagrante Two By Chris Killip Reviewed by Colin Pantall In Flagrante by Chris Killip was published in 1988 and is a classic example of empathic British documentary photography. Made in the northeast of England between 1973 and 1985, the book showed marginalized communities on the edge of change; seacoal gatherers, fishermen and other working class communities are shown struggling in environments that are expressively harsh.

In Flagrante Two.  By Chris Killip.

Steidl, 2016.

 

In Flagrante Two

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

In Flagrante Two
Photographs by Chris Killip
Steidl, Gottingen, Germany, 2016. In English. 108 pp., 50 black & white illustrations, 14¼x11¼".

In Flagrante by Chris Killip was published in 1988 and is a classic example of empathic British documentary photography. Made in the northeast of England between 1973 and 1985, the book showed marginalized communities on the edge of change; seacoal gatherers, fishermen and other working class communities are shown struggling in environments that are expressively harsh. There is the wildness of the Northumberland coastline, driving blizzards brought from Siberia across the ferocious waves of the North Sea, the chimneys and cranes of the region’s industrial landmarks, and the rubble of neighborhoods destroyed in the name of urban development. It’s an unrelentingly gritty backdrop.

Book Review Noroc By Cedric Van Turtelboom Reviewed by Colin Pantall Noroc by Cedric Von Turtelboom is a book about Romania. "Noroc" means both "Good Luck" and "Good Health," it tells us on the first page.

Noroc.  By Cedric Van Turtelboom.

Self-Published, 2015.

 

Comfortable Discomfort
A review by Colin Pantall

Noroc
Photographs by Cedric Van Turtelboom. Texts by Jean-Marc Bodson & Cedric Van Turtelboom.
Self-Published, Bruges, Belgium, 2015. In English. 86 pp., full color illustrations, 6¾x8¾".

Noroc by Cedric Von Turtelboom is a book about Romania. "Noroc" means both "Good Luck" and "Good Health," it tells us on the first page.

Book Review Greetings from Auschwitz Edited by Pawel Szypulski Reviewed by Colin Pantall The photographs of Auschwitz that were taken during the war are revealing. They show the breadth of photography, the functions it serves, and the regimes it serves under. They encompass the history of photography.

Greetings from Auschwitz.  Edited by Pawel Szypulski.

Edition Patrick Frey, 2015.

 

Greetings from Auschwitz
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Greetings from Auschwitz
Edited by Pawel Szypulski
Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich, Switzerland, 2015. In German/English. 88 pp., 75 color illustrations, 8½x8¾".

Selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by:
Aaron Schuman
Rafal Milach

The photographs of Auschwitz that were taken during the war are revealing. They show the breadth of photography, the functions it serves, and the regimes it serves under. They encompass the history of photography.

Book Review The Longest Way Round By Chris Dorley-Brown Reviewed by Colin Pantall There was a suitcase filled with letters, photographs, folders and boxes that sat in Chris Dorley-Brown’s studio year after year. In it were images, notes and memories from his parent’s past lives that weren’t quite ready for the family album. They were eventful lives.

The Longest Way Round.  By Chris Dorley-Brown.

Overlapse, 2015.

 

The Longest Way Round 
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

The Longest Way Round
By Chris Dorley-Brown
Overlapse, London, England, 2015. In English. 168 pp., 183 colour and 43 black-and-white illustrations, 10¾x8½".

There was a suitcase filled with letters, photographs, folders and boxes that sat in Chris Dorley-Brown’s studio year after year. In it were images, notes and memories from his parent’s past lives that weren’t quite ready for the family album. They were eventful lives. His father, Peter Dorley-Brown had been in the British army during the Second World War. He was captured by the Germans while fighting on Crete in 1941, and spent the next four years holed up in Stalag VIII B, a prisoner of war camp 30km east of Krakow. “For you Mr. Dorley-Brown, the war is over.”

Book Review The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 Edited by Manfred Heiting and Mikhail Karasik Reviewed by Colin Pantall The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 is a comprehensive heavyweight affair that gives a history of the greatest period of photobook production ever undertaken. It’s a serious book with serious texts on a serious subject. And it’s astonishingly illustrated with spreads taken from publications few of us ever knew even existed.

The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941. 
Edited by Manfred Heiting and Mikhail Karasik.

Steidl, 2015.

 

The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 
Edited by Manfred Heiting and Mikhail Karasik
Steidl, Gottingen, Germany, 2016. In English. 636 pp., 10½x11¼".

The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 is a comprehensive heavyweight affair that gives a history of the greatest period of photobook production ever undertaken. It’s a serious book with serious texts on a serious subject. And it’s astonishingly illustrated with spreads taken from publications few of us ever knew even existed.

Book Review Gathered Leaves By Alec Soth Reviewed by Colin Pantall Back in 1935, Marcel Duchamp begin constructing his Boite-en-valise, or Box in a suitcase. These boxes contained miniature versions of his work put into a suitcase. They were like portable exhibitions that, if you had a room small enough, you could use to curate a Duchamp exhibition in your own home.

Gathered Leaves. By Alec Soth.

Mack, 2015.

 

Gathered Leaves

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Gathered Leaves 
Photographs by Alec Soth.
Mack, London, England, 2015. In English. Unpaged, Clamshell box housing four mini facsimile books (4 vol. set), and 28 large-format postcards., 9x8¾".

Back in 1935, Marcel Duchamp begin constructing his Boite-en-valise, or Box in a suitcase. These boxes contained miniature versions of his work put into a suitcase. They were like portable exhibitions that, if you had a room small enough, you could use to curate a Duchamp exhibition in your own home. He made over 300 of these suitcases and they were all ‘luxury’ editions. In addition to the miniature reproductions of the Urinal, Mustachioed Mona or Nude Descending a Staircase, these would come with something unique. If you’re used to photobook publishing and the rise of the special edition, it all seems incredibly familiar.

Book Review The Whiteness of the Whale By Paul Graham Reviewed by Colin Pantall In 2000, Jens Liebchen published his book dl 07: Stereotypes of War. It’s a modest book with only a handful of photographs, but the picture they create is clear. Open it up and you see dirty, grainy images of a soldier holding a machine gun at the top of a concrete stairway.

The Whiteness of the Whale. By Paul Graham.

Mack and Pier 24 Photography, 2015.

 

The Whiteness of the Whale
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

The Whiteness of the Whale
Photographs by Paul Graham. Texts by David Chandler, Herman Melville and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa.
Mack and Pier 24 Photography, London/San Francisco, 2015. 240 pp., hardback book with embossed with tipped in image, housed in a printed mailing box, 9½x12".

In 2000, Jens Liebchen published his book dl 07: Stereotypes of War. It’s a modest book with only a handful of photographs, but the picture they create is clear. Open it up and you see dirty, grainy images of a soldier holding a machine gun at the top of a concrete stairway. There’s a shot of a desolate building photographed through a broken window pane; a detritus lined street shot from above, two civilians rushing past the wreckage and dereliction. Another shows a helicopter looming ominously overhead, its rotors all blurred and menacing.

Book Review Before the War By Alejandro Cartagena Reviewed by Colin Pantall The history of Mexico’s drug industry makes for fascinating reading. Marijuana and heroin production flourished in the 1930s after the collapse in the price of gold and the discovery of a demand for recreational drugs. The illegal drug industry expanded, addiction rocketed and by the end of the decade Mexico had a drugs crisis on its hands.

Before the War. By Alejandro Cartagena.

Self-published, 2015.

 

Before the War

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Before the War
2nd Edition.
Photographs by Alejandro Cartagena. Edited by Fernando Gallegos.
Self-Published, Mexico, 2015. In English. 102 pp., 1 booklet, 1 poster, 1 foldout Risograph, Offset printing., 11¾x9¼".

The history of Mexico’s drug industry makes for fascinating reading. Marijuana and heroin production flourished in the 1930s after the collapse in the price of gold and the discovery of a demand for recreational drugs. The illegal drug industry expanded, addiction rocketed and by the end of the decade Mexico had a drugs crisis on its hands.

Book Review ON By Eamonn Doyle Reviewed by Colin Pantall Eamonn Doyle’s first photobook, i, made street photography personal. That’s a strange thing to say of a book that consisted of high-angle pictures of the backs of Dublin’s elderly pedestrians. In i, the street was reduced to sidewalk and roadway, the minimal textures of the tarmac and concrete echoed by those of the headscarves and coats that Doyle’s subjects wore.

ON. By Eamonn Doyle.

Self-published, 2015.

 

ON
Reviewed by Colin Pantall

ON
Photographs by Eamonn Doyle
Self-published, Luxembourg, Belgium, 2015. In English. 104 pp., 51 Black & White tritone printed illustrations printed on Lessebo design naturel 150 gm paper.  

Eamonn Doyle’s first photobook, i, made street photography personal. That’s a strange thing to say of a book that consisted of high-angle pictures of the backs of Dublin’s elderly pedestrians. In i, the street was reduced to sidewalk and roadway, the minimal textures of the tarmac and concrete echoed by those of the headscarves and coats that Doyle’s subjects wore. i was a homage to the old people of Dublin, an Eleanor Rigby of our times with worn wool and hunched backs providing the peg on which we could hide out empathy.

Book Review Leviathan By Morgan Ashcom Reviewed by Colin Pantall Two years ago, From the Study on Post Pubescent Manhood by Stacy Kranitz was published. This was a saddle-stitched affair that featured full-bleed spreads of Kranitz’s immersive photography as she participated in the life of Skatopia, the anarchist skatepark farm run by Brewce Martin in Appalachia.

Leviathan. By Morgan Ashcom.

Peperoni Books, 2015.

 

Leviathan

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Leviathan
Photographs by Morgan Ashcom.
Peperoni Books, Berlin, Germany, 2015. In English. 74 pa pp., 33 illustrations, 11¾x11¾".

Two years ago, From the Study on Post Pubescent Manhood by Stacy Kranitz was published. This was a saddle-stitched affair that featured full-bleed spreads of Kranitz’s immersive photography as she participated in the life of Skatopia, the anarchist skatepark farm run by Brewce Martin in Appalachia.

Book Review Early Works By Ivars Gravlejs Reviewed by Colin Pantall ‘I often felt nauseous before going to school because of the humiliation that I faced with my teachers. The only way to survive school was to do something creative…’ says Latvian-born artist, Ivars Gravlejs. And that’s what he did; he got creative with a camera and he made a series of pictures centred around school that are now being published by Mack as a book called Early Works. It’s a great book.

Early Works. By Ivars Gravlejs. 
MACK, 2015.

 

Early Works = Early Works

A Review by Colin Pantall

Early Works
Photographs by Ivars Gravlejs
MACK, London, England, 2015. 144 pp., 8x10¾".

‘I often felt nauseous before going to school because of the humiliation that I faced with my teachers. The only way to survive school was to do something creative…’ says Latvian-born artist, Ivars Gravlejs.

And that’s what he did; he got creative with a camera and he made a series of pictures centred around school that are now being published by Mack as a book called Early Works. It’s a great book.

Book Review I Went to the Worst of Bars Hoping to Get Killed. But All I Could Do Was to Get Drunk Again By Ciaran Og Arnold Reviewed by Colin Pantall Photobooks based around bars, clubs and pubs figure large in lists of the best photobooks ever made. The mix of music, alcohol, and confined spaces all mix to create worlds that follow their own orbit.

I Went to the Worst of Bars Hoping to Get Killed. 
But All I Could Do Was to Get Drunk Again.
 By Ciaran Og Arnold. MACK, 2015.

 

The worst of bars, the best of books

A Review by Colin Pantall

I Went to the Worst of Bars Hoping to Get Killed. But All I Could Do Was to Get Drunk Again
Text by Ciaran Og Arnold.
Mack, 2015. 76 pp., 43 color illustrations, 6¼x8¾x½".

Photobooks based around bars, clubs and pubs figure large in lists of the best photobooks ever made. The mix of music, alcohol, and confined spaces all mix to create worlds that follow their own orbit. Books such as Café Lehmitz, Billy Monk, and Krass Clement’s Drum all feature small communities in closed spaces. Making meaningful pictures in these kinds of environments is a rare skill. There is horrible light, little control, and pictures have to be taken (or set up) amidst a background of visual noise; all the time there has to be a distillation of experience that preserves some sense of what it is like to be in this club, this pub, this bar. It’s not easy.

Book Review Until Death Do Us Part By Thomas Sauvin Reviewed by Colin Pantall I still have a certain nostalgia for the days when I smoked. In England, it was the ritual of rolling up Golden Virginia in English pubs with ceilings glowing yellow with the accumulated deposits of nicotine and tar. It was beautiful, atmospheric and, strangely enough, did not smell smoky. In Indonesia, the attraction was the sweet clouds of clove-flavored kreteks.

Until Death Do Us Part. By Thomas Sauvin.

Jiazazhi Press, 2015.

 

Until Death Do Us Part

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Until Death Do Us Part 
By Thomas Sauvin
Jiazazhi Press, China, 2015. 108 pp., 2x3¼".

I still have a certain nostalgia for the days when I smoked. In England, it was the ritual of rolling up Golden Virginia in English pubs with ceilings glowing yellow with the accumulated deposits of nicotine and tar. It was beautiful, atmospheric and, strangely enough, did not smell smoky. In Indonesia, the attraction was the sweet clouds of clove-flavored kreteks. Gudang Garams were my favorite, best taken with dark coffee and a volcano in the background. And if there wasn’t a volcano, well the traffic jams of downtown Jakarta were a pretty good substitute. Head to the States and smoking made you feel like a man. Cowboys smoked and so did the characters in Robert Frank’s The Americans or William Klein’s New York. And if you weren’t a man, cigarettes were torches of freedom. You’ve come a long way baby, who could say no.

Book Review Ama Lur By Jon Cazenave Reviewed by Colin Pantall The title of Jon Cazenave’s first book is Ama Lur. That’s Basque for Native Land, and that is exactly what his book is about, the land of the Basque Country, and how it is lived, experienced and seen.

Ama Lur. By Jon Cazenave.

Dalpine, 2015.

 

Ama Lur

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Ama Lur
Photographs by Jon Cazenave
Dalpine, 2015. 64 pp., 10x7½".

The title of Jon Cazenave’s first book is Ama Lur. That’s Basque for Native Land, and that is exactly what his book is about, the land of the Basque Country, and how it is lived, experienced and seen.

Cazenave’s landscape narrative is pinned down by a series of images of cave paintings. These paintings might not be far from the surface, but Cazenave takes us deep into the earth, a fact emphasised by the deep black vignetting found at the edges of the images. The lines, the dots and the primitive designs look as though they have been illuminated by flashlight, adding to the exploratory nature of the images; the idea is that Cazenave is getting on his hands and knees and trawling into a kind of Basque subconscious.

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 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 Spook Light Chronicles Vol. 3: We Always Lie to Strangers By Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal Reviewed by Colin Pantall “I guess I keep coming back out here for something. For the life of me I don’t know what.” –from the start of the first volume of Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal’s Spook Light Chronicles
By the end of that volume, the question is answered.

Spook Light Chronicles Vol. 3: We Always Lie to Strangers.
By Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal, Search Party Press, 2014.

 

The Spook Light Chronicles: Thankful for a chance to say goodbye

A review by Colin Pantall

Spook Light Chronicles Vol. 3: We Always Lie to Strangers
Photographs by Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal.
Search Party Press, 2014. 60 pp., 52 color illustrations, 7x9".

“I guess I keep coming back out here for something. For the life of me I don’t know what.” –from the start of the first volume of Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal’s Spook Light Chronicles

By the end of that volume, the question is answered. The reason she or he keeps coming back to the dark woods of the Ozarks is the Spook Light, a light that comes out at night to haunt the locals. What is this Spook Light? Is it a natural, man-made or supernatural phenomenon? Is the mysterious light that floats along the Bible Belt hotspot of Devil’s Promenade really Satan in disguise, or is it car lights from Route 66 reflected through the forests and the glades, or is it a manifestation of the spiritual baggage that weighs so heavy on the few souls who live in this isolated corner of the United States?

Book Review Wild Pigeon By Carolyn Drake Reviewed by Colin Pantall Wild Pigeon by Carolyn Drake packs it in. It comes in five visual sections and the page size marks off each chapter. There’s also a little booklet stuck onto the back end-page that contains studio portraits photoshopped into exotic backdrops. Most importantly, the book is accompanied by a short story that gives the publication rather more than your usual photobook point.

Wild Pigeon. By Carolyn Drake.
Self-Published, 2014.

 

Wild Pigeon

Reviewed by Colin Pantall

Wild Pigeon
By Carolyn Drake. An allegory, retold through visual collaborations with Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Original story by Nurmuhemmet Yasin.

Self-Published. 128 pp., 9½x12¼".

Wild Pigeon by Carolyn Drake packs it in. It comes in five visual sections and the page size marks off each chapter. There’s also a little booklet stuck onto the back end-page that contains studio portraits photoshopped into exotic backdrops. Most importantly, the book is accompanied by a short story that gives the publication rather more than your usual photobook point. The short story's called Wild Pigeon and its writer was sentenced to 10 years for writing it. His name is Nurmuhemmet Yasin and he's from Xinjiang Province in China. It's a province that is home to the Uyghur people, a population who, like many Chinese minority populations, are not enamoured with Beijing rule.