In video #44 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Camouflages by Joan Fontcuberta co-published by Contrasto.
Showing posts with label Erin Azouz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erin Azouz. Show all posts
In video #43 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Dead Man's Hand self-published by Jonah Samson.
In video #42 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Top Secret: Images from the Stasi Archives by Simon Menner published by Hatje Cantz.
In video #40 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Don McCullin published by the Archive of Modern Conflict.
In video #38 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen from DelMonico Books.
In video #36 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Semicircle Law by Tomoki Imai from Taka Ishii Gallery.
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Lorna Simpson. Prestel, 2013. |
Simpson began her foray into photography in the late 70s while living in New York City and attending the School of Visual Arts (SVA). She began making documentary photographs of the world around her – crossed glances, pauses in conversation, moments exchanged between strangers. Simpson expressed interest in the roles of the photographer, subject and observer -- roles that later became cornerstones of her photography and video installations.
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| from Lorna Simpson |
Over her thirty year career, Simpson has actively questioned the assumption of truth presented in the photographic image, taking on such "definitive" truths as identity, race, gender, sexuality, memory and history. In her early documentary work, she used photography to capture the decisive moment during which she related to her subject. By the mid 1980s, Simpson suspended the decisive moment in time – begging the audience to come into relation with her – to attach meaning to the images and words she presented to us by bringing our own judgments and preconceived notions to the table.
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| from Lorna Simpson |
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| from Lorna Simpson |
We, as the viewer, are required to fill in the blanks of her intentionally broken narratives. And for me, that space is riddled with the violent history of racism. The word "noose," appearing in several of her pieces, carries with it a powerful testament to the cruel and unjust racism that has permeated Western Civilization for centuries. I conjure images of Sara Baartman ("the Venus Hottentot") who was taken from her home in South Africa in 1810 and relocated to London, where she became the object of scientific study and exhibited as a "freak" across Britain. I can't help but think of Eugenics and the 19th century widespread embrace of the concept of genetic (racial) superiority.
Simpson alludes to these dark moments in history through serial imagery in her own work and the texts that accompany the images. These are not portraits of black men and women, their hair, lips and postures -- these are scientific studies. They are cold, sterile and dark.
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| from Lorna Simpson |
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| from Lorna Simpson |
Presence and absence are driving forces in Lorna Simpson’s work. The absence of the black face in her portraits parallels the absence of the black person in history. A faceless person does not have a story, a voice or an identity, nor do they have a hand in writing history -- and it is this absence that creates such a strong presence in her work. Perhaps what is so powerful about Lorna Simpson’s work is how she entrusts the viewer with the almost daunting task of attaching meaning to her work. She creates visual and poetic riddles that beg to be solved and that, without an active participant, are unsolvable. This handsomely printed volume of her work invites us to dive into the murky waters of historical accuracy and representation as well as consider the blurred lines of gender, race and sexuality. --Erin Azouz
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For this installment of Photobooks Under $30, we traverse a snowy Colorado landscape in LBM Dispatch #5 by Alec Soth & Brad Zellar, consider the connection between religious poetry and photographs of nature in Prayers in an American Church by Robert Adams, and dive into an abstract, murky world of black & white photographs in Back Yard by Daisuke Yokota.
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| Alec Soth & Brad Zellar'sLBM Dispatch #5: Colorado |
In LBM Dispatch #5 — a newsprint publication of photographs by Alec Soth and writings by Brad Zellar — the two trek through the state of Colorado documenting small towns and the people they meet as they crisscross the Continental Divide. Charming portraits mixed with vast, snowy landscapes give us a sense of life in Colorado's small towns during the Spring.
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| Robert Adams' Prayers in an American Church |
Prayers in an American Church is one of the more personal photobooks of photographer Robert Adams. Published in an edition of only 1,000 hand-numbered copies, his black & white photographs of trees are paired with prayers and religious poetry. Prayers in an American Church invites the viewer to consider the parallels between art and religion, both of which require faith and belief.
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| Daisuke Yokota's Back Yard |
Selected as a Best Book of 2012 by John Gossage, Back Yard is a curious little softbound photobook self-published by photographer Daisuke Yokota. The heavy black photographs appear to be reproduced on a photocopier – and the dark, grainy reproductions work well to permeate the book with mystery. Sometimes it is hard to discern the details of the photographs but the abstraction is welcome. The mind loves to look for distinguishable details in the darkness, occasionally finding something that reveals the contents of the photograph. The only words printed in Back Yard appear on the cover – giving us no context but a title, leaving room for the viewer to attach their own meaning and understanding of what is presented. --Erin Azouz
In video #33 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Love and War by Guillaume Simoneau from Dewi Lewis.
In video #31 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us The Line self-published by Palíndromo Mészáros.
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| Black Maps by David Maisel Published by Steidl |
An essay that provides deeper understanding of the individual projects, written by photography curators and critics, precedes each project. In the first two bodies of work, Maisel uses black & white photographs to explore the effects of mining and rapid sprawl in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico and documents a massive logging project in Maine. The aerial photographs provide a bird's eye view of the marred landscape, giving a sense of scale that is both compelling and frightening, and borrowing from the book's subtitle -- apocalyptic and sublime. Silvery shards of wood come to life in black & white, lining the shores of lakes and ponds in Maine. We marvel at the beauty of what is presented to us, but as soon as we recognize what we're looking at, dread quickly follows.
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| Black Maps by David Maisel. Published by Steidl. |
Something shifts in the third body of work, The Mining Project, when Maisel begins photographing in color. Are these oil paintings? Doctor's slides placed beneath a microscope? These exquisite colors surely cannot be found in nature and point to something far more sinister: large-scale human intervention.
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| Black Maps by David Maisel. Published by Steidl. |
The rich colors draw us in while the depletion of natural resources (copper, silver and gold) makes us turn away. What does it mean for something to be beautiful and horrifying? Natasha Egan explores this dichotomy in her essay, Eliciting Anxiety in The Presence of the Sublime. She writes, "We see beauty in toxicity and witness the sublime in the seditious treatment of nature… Consequences of our fascination exist, of course, but they cast neither guilt nor absolution."
Maisel photographed the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana thirty-four years after mining began in 1955. The mine remains inactive after rising energy costs forced its owners to suspend operations in 2000. However, the pit continues to fill with heavily acidic water, leaching arsenic, cadmium, zinc and sulfuric acid from the rock -- dangerous chemicals that contribute to the bizarre, psychedelic colors we find in Maisel's photographs. The Berkeley Pit presents a much larger problem in the wake of large-scale, systemized extraction of natural resources. Long after the mines are defunct, toxic chemicals continue to endanger nearby communities.
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| Black Maps by David Maisel. Published by Steidl. |
The Lake Project explores Owens Lake just east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. The lake suffered from large-scale irrigation in an effort to divert water to Los Angeles in the late 1800s. By 1928 it was bone dry, causing massive dust storms that halted growth in the Owens Valley. Eventually, water was diverted back into the lake, but the surrounding landscape never quite recovered. Oblivion documents the massive sprawl of Los Angeles in black & white -- from complex arcing freeways to gridded communities. For Terminal Mirage, Maisel switches back to color to photograph the Great Salt Lake and surrounding mining projects. The colors are so nauseating (yet beautiful) that they are perhaps the most difficult to absorb as natural landscapes. Finally, the book concludes with the American Mine project -- also in color. Maisel has clearly perfected his technique here, blending elements from his previous bodies of work in a stunning climax. Scale is the operative force in these almost unfathomable photographs, with which we come to grasp by scanning the frame and recognizing a tree, car, or building. We get the sense that he could continue making these photographs forever -- all over the world.
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| Black Maps by David Maisel. Published by Steidl. |
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| Black Maps by David Maisel. Published by Steidl. |
Maisel does not concern himself with the politics of environmental wastelands. He does not call for more stringent mining and logging laws or to eradicate the exploitation of non-renewable resources altogether. His role is that of interrogative artist, presenting the sites exactly as they are, and leaving the viewer to garner their own interpretation of the work. What strikes me is not the ease with which we can point fingers at logging or mining companies responsible for the degradation of the environment, but the implication that we all play a role in it. The photographic evidence is staggering, but how do we begin to reverse humanity's crippling affect on the landscape? -- Erin Azouz
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In video #28 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Sàmi by Erika Larsen published by Emphasis.
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In video #27 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Dangerous Women edited by Melissa Catanese and published by Spaces Corners.
photo-eye In-Print Photobook Video #27: Dangerous Women edited by Melissa Catanese from photo-eye
photo-eye In-Print Photobook Video #27: Dangerous Women edited by Melissa Catanese from photo-eye
In video #26 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Means of Reproduction self published by Svjetlana Tepavcevic.
photo-eye In-Print Photobook Video #26: Means of Reproduction by Svjetlana Tepavcevic
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photo-eye In-Print Photobook Video #26: Means of Reproduction by Svjetlana Tepavcevic
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In video #24 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Minescape by Brett Van Ort published by Daylight Books.
In-Print Photobook Video #24: Minescape by Brett Van Ort from photo-eye
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In-Print Photobook Video #24: Minescape by Brett Van Ort from photo-eye
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In video #23 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Timeline by Tom Young published by George F. Thompson Publishing.
In-Print Photobook Video #23: Timeline by Tom Young from photo-eye
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In-Print Photobook Video #23: Timeline by Tom Young from photo-eye
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Collecting photobooks is endlessly rewarding in and of itself, but the habit will certainly cost you. Thankfully, photo-eye stocks a great number of photobooks under $30, which I have written about here, here, here, here and here. These monographs, anthologies and magazines can provide you with an opportunity to explore the works of many talented photographers, often in one fell swoop. For this installment, we focus on three exquisite monographs. A love doll factory in China provides the fascinating backdrop for the photographs in Marco Van Duyvendijk's Love Doll Factory, teenage apathy inspires Charlie White's Such Appetite, and finally, we traipse through a summery backyard with Catherine Angel's three daughters in My Daughters. In addition to these three fantastic titles, Melanie McWhorter also recently explored Andy Mattern's Driven Snow ($20 signed) in our In-Print Photobook Video Series. That video can be seen here.
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| Marco Van Duyvendijk – Love Doll Factory |
In Marco Van Duyvendijk's new softbound monograph, Love Doll Factory, we travel to the manufacturing plants of China where blow-up dolls are assembled. Designed to relieve the stresses of modern man, the anatomically correct dolls are pictured here in their birthplace, giving a rare and welcomed glimpse into a different kind of toy workshop. Stacks of plastic breasts, hands, legs and arms fill the pages of Love Doll Factory, and we catch glimpses of the female factory workers who carefully put the dolls together. The sterile, cold factory is a subtle and smart metaphor for the intended sexual use of the dolls, perhaps a comment on the dispassionate nature of sexuality today.
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| Charlie White – Such Appetite |
As a follow-up to American Minor, which was recently featured on the Huffington Post, Such Appetite by Charlie White explores the banality of teenage life and suburban ennui. In this monograph, White follows a melancholic adolescent girl through her daily life in a vapid suburban town. The photographer injects a bit of humor and sarcasm in this series with his deadpan photographic compositions, playfully reiterated by Stephanie Ford's poetry.
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| Catherine Angel – My Daughters |
Published on the occasion of the exhibition at Grant Hall Gallery in 2002, My Daughters by Catherine Angel is a tender and touching look at Angel's three daughters and their relationship to one another. The three young girls are photographed swimming and playing in the nude in their own backyard. Each of the girls possess a subtle confidence, complemented by Angel's poetic compositions. It is rare that a photographer so close to her subjects can capture their graceful beauty without becoming overly sentimental, but Angel achieves a fine balance. –Erin Azouz
Over the last several months, I've been writing about great little photobooks $30 and under. Those posts can be found here, here, here and here with some titles still available. For this installment, I'd like to shed light on three new magazines we have in stock: Ain't Bad Magazine #4 (Grand Illusion), Ain't Bad Magazine #5 (Surface), and European Photography No. 92. Each of the magazines contain the works of multiple artists, so if you are looking for new and exciting photographic work, these are some great titles to consider.
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| Ain't Bad Magazine #4 |
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| Ain't Bad Magazine #5 |
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| European Photography No. 92 |
European Photography No. 92 features the work of Jun Ahn, Gerco de Ruijter, Sungseok Ahn, Patrick Gries, Michael Rohde, Nygårds Karin Bengtsson, Osamu Yokonami, Michael Somoroff, Ernst Logar, Robert Harding Pittman, Nigel Dickinson, and POPCAP Award winner Namsa Leuba. Also included are engaging responses from art, media and photography field experts on the subject of Photography's Reinvention, as well as fascinating articles 'Photography and Suicide' by Boris von Brauchitsch, 'Crowdfunding' by Manfred Zollner, and a Guide to International Portfolio Reviews. --Erin Azouz
In video #21 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Hester by Asger Carlsen published by Morel Books.
In-Print Photobook Video #21: Hester by Asger Carlsen from photo-eye
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In-Print Photobook Video #21: Hester by Asger Carlsen from photo-eye
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In video #19 of our In-Print Photobook series, Erin Azouz shares with us Medic by Jennifer B Hudson published by Photolucida.
In-Print Photobook Video #19: Medic by Jennifer B Hudson from photo-eye.
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In-Print Photobook Video #19: Medic by Jennifer B Hudson from photo-eye.
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