12.30.2016

2016 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS and HONORABLE MENTIONS : PART II



By Mark Speltz, with a Preface by Deborah Willis
Publisher: Getty Publications / J. Paul Getty Museum

"For this powerful and compelling book, North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South, author and historian Mark Speltz shines a light over the most iconic photographs from the history of the civil rights movement. He carefully selected one hundred photographs, some never-before-seen or published, taken between 1938 and 1975 in more than twenty-five cities in the Northeast, Midwest and West by photojournalists, artists, and activists that include Bob Adelman, Ruth-Marion Baruch, Charles Brittin, Diana Davies, Jack Delano, Leonard Freed, Don Hogan Charles, Gordon Parks, Art Shay, Morgan and Marvin Smith, and Maria Varela. Together these photographs offer a broader, more complex view of the American civil rights movement than is usually presented by the media. "Hardcover, 160 pages, 100 b/w images.

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The Swiss. Photographs by Christian Nilson

  (c) Christian Nilson

Publisher: Scheidegger + Spiess

I met Zurich based photographer, Christian Nilson, at the Landskrona FotoFestival Portfolio Reviews and was amused by his view of Swiss life, now in a signed and numbered Limited Edition, wrapped in cheese paper, with a signed A5 print. "Affectionately, and without ever being patronizing, the Swedish photographer Christian Nilson captures a country in his pictures that oscillates between openness and reticence, between tradition and progress—a country that has been his beloved chosen home for many years: Switzerland.” First Edition, published by Scheidegger + Spiess: 1000 copies including 100 Limited Edition copies, 96 pages, 67 colour plates. U.S. publication by the University of Chicago Press in February 2017.

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(c) Harold Feinstein 


SAYING YES – Harold Feinstein
Publisher: Christopher Rauschenberg/Blue Sky Books

"No matter the context, with his camera or in a classroom, Harold Feinstein believed in the power of photography to reveal the human condition. All you need to do is look at the photographs in this volume to know he was constantly searching to connect with the world around him, to share the beauty he experienced in the everyday and to open the eyes and hearts of his fellow travelers – to be more appreciative of the world around them." – Sean Corcoran, Curator of prints and photography, Museum for the City of New York. "Saying Yes" sequenced by Christopher Rauschenberg, 130 pages. Blue Sky Books
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Libyan Sugar.  Michael Christopher Brown
Publisher: Twin Palms Publishers

"Centered around the 2011 Libyan Revolution, Libyan Sugar is a road trip through a war zone, detailed through photographs, journal entries, and written communication with family and colleagues. A record of Michael Christopher Brown’s life both inside and outside Libya during that year, the book is about a young man going to war for the first time and the desire to get as close as possible to a conflict in order to discover something about war and something about himself." Casebound, 412 pages, 280 4-color plates. Twin Palms

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By Paula Bronstein
Publisher: University of Texas Press

"What sets Paula Bronstein's photographs apart from many of her peers is her choice to spend most of her time with the Afghan people. Her work goes beyond war coverage to reveal the full complexity of daily life in what may be the most reported on, yet least understood country in the world. The result is an intimate photographic portrait of this war-torn country's people." With a Foreword by Kim Barker and Introduction by Christina Lamb, 228 pages, 114 color photographs.

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Unspeaking Likeness.  Arne Svenson
Publisher: Twin Palms Publishers

"Unspeaking Likeness is a series of images of forensic facial reconstruction sculptures. Occasionally, when investigators call for it, shortly after an unidentified corpse (or part thereof ) is found, a forensic artists constructs an artificial face made of clay or plaster to better aid in victim identification.” Casebound, 108 pages, 49 duotone plates. Twin Palms

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 RICHARD BRAM  NEW YORK
Publisher: Peanut Press

"Richard Bram's “NEW YORK” reflects his attention to the energy and people of the city. Richard is attuned to the small gestures that pass in an instant before his eye as he goes about the city." 1000 copies printed in three editions. Find out more here: Peanut Press 

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 (c) Simon Johansson


I met photographer Simon Johansson at the Landskrona FotoFestival Portfolio Reviews and viewed this terrific series now in a handsome linen hardcover book with a tipped in photo on the cover. “The sound of the Öland Bridge expansion joints against the tires. The first years, when the bridge was new, islanders would come out in droves along the road to look at the invasion of the mainlanders. They don’t anymore. Apart from that most things have kept the same, time runs slower here. I see friendship, happiness, love, a breakup and a sorrow. There is so much ugliness here. So much beauty.”—Simon Johansson. Black/white photographs.

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Portraits by Linda Hansen
Publisher: Fotografisk Center

I met Copenhagen based photographer, Linda Hansen, this past summer at the Landskrona Fotofestival Portfolio Reviews. Her series, Naevus Flames,  breaks with established visual standards. Naves Flames, or port-wine stain, is a congenital vascular malformation, and as such it is almost invariably present at birth. “Her book brings together her photographs, representing a group of courageous people who are part of a community where 0.3% is the new norm, proud they show their unique brands forward.” Available : fotografiskcenter.dk

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August Eriksson is a photographer based in Sweden I met this summer at the Landskrona FotoFestival Portfolio Reviews. In The Walk, sixty-six images follow one after another, all with the same strict composition: the path, seen from the eye level of the walker, disappears into the vanishing point of the image. This is Eriksson’s second book, he first published ’Sacred Waters’ about the Japanese bathing culture. The Walk is “One of the 5 Best Art Books of 2016" (Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm newspaper). 80 pages, 66 color images. English. Kerber Verlag

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(c) Torsten Schumann

Fotografien von Torsten Schumann
Publisher: Peperoni Books

I met Berlin based photographer, Torsten Schumann, at the Landskrona FotoFestival Portfolio Reviews this past summer and was amused by his eye for the absurd in his series, More Cars, Clothes and Cabbages. "The ludicrous story about a black dot and a passport control that starts the book already says a lot about Torsten Schumann and his view of the world. His images even say more. Namely, that life in the so called civilized world is full of curiosities. Schumann photographs on the street, nothing special actually. And yet we see in his book the sinking of the Titanic, a woman who disappears under a magic hat, a sausage, which mutates to a ventilation tube, a designer furniture made of foam and bottom panels and a bikeway turning into a rushing river.” Hardcover: 96 pages, English, German
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(c) Heather Evans Smith 


Seen Not Heard  Heather Evans Smith
Publisher: Flash Power Projects

"Seen Not Heard takes its title from the Old English adage "To Be Seen and Not Heard", a term often thrown about in reference to the desired behavior of children. These images are silent, but they create a voluble visual narrative on the relationship between parent and child. They explore the cycles that are passed down through generations and the tension between keeping to what is known and forging a newer, and perhaps stronger, path. As strong as the close, forever bond between mother and daughter is, there also exists a distance inherent between two different individuals." Hard cover, 80 pages, 31 color images. Edition of 500.

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Frank Hamrick Tintypes

"Harder Than Writing A Good Haiku was an analogy I spoke of while guiding my senior photography students as they struggled to edit their BFA portfolios to a slim number of prints that would fit into their allotted wall space while at the same time still conveying their original concepts." A limited edition artists’ book featuring seventeen tintypes created during the summer of 2016 in the hills around Whites Creek, Tennessee." –Frank Hamrick

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Lissa Rivera. Motel from Beautiful Boy Series
The Peter Urban Legacy Award


22nd Annual Juried Peter Urban Legacy
Exhibition Catalog

"I was honored to be invited to jury the 2016 Griffin Museum of Photography’s 22nd Annual Peter Urban Legacy Exhibition. With this call to entry, no boundaries were set, no requests were made to follow any particular theme, medium, style or schools of thought to participate. Traditional, contemporary, experimental and mixed-techniques were welcome and encouraged. I believe the unspoken commonality was our shared love of the medium and magic of the photographic image.” –Juror, Elizabeth Avedon. Exhibition catalog with the over 60 selected images. Griffin Museum  catalog

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1 comment:

Raphael Shammaa said...

Beautiful work.

Also pleased my work is represented in the Griffin's exhibition catalog mentioned here.