BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF 2018 : ROUND-UP PART I

SALLY MANN  A Thousand Crossings

Photograph © Sally Mann

SALLY MANN  A Thousand Crossings
Photographs by Sally Mann
Text by Sarah Greenough and Sarah Kennel
Contributions by Drew Gilpin Faust, Hilton Als and Malcolm Daniel
Produced by the National Gallery of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum (Abrams, New York)

For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements.

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MONA KUHN  Bushes + Succulents

 Photograph © Mona Kuhn

As a photographer, my female gaze highlights an unfiltered admiration for the female form and the works of other women such as Lee Miller and Georgia O’Keeffe. – Mona Kuhn

 

MONA KUHN  Bushes + Succulents
Photographs by Mona Kuhn. Poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks
(Stanley/Barker, London)

Bushes + Succulents is Mona Kuhn’s artistic response to the ongoing currents in contemporary feminism. "Reminiscent of Georgia O’Keefe’s floral paintings, your eyes wander around the graceful lines, not knowing exactly what you are looking at. The images are a celebration of the female essence — confident, raw and elegant, yet confrontational and unapologetic. The solarization process reveals human imperfections. 60 silver and color illustrations."

I'm always impressed by Mona Kuhn's methodology when embarking on a new series.  I spoke with her about her inspiration with these alluring botanicals. Read our Interview here

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 TOD PAPAGEORGE  

Dr. Blankman's New York

 Photograph © Tod Papageorge

I’d like to think that, in Dr. Blankman´s New York, you’ll find a persuasive account of what it meant for me to be free with a Leica in the streets of my newly adopted home of Manhattan, a record drawn with Kodachrome film and its rich, saturated colors." —Tod Papageorge

Photograph © Tod Papageorge

TOD PAPAGEORGE Dr. Blankman's New York
Photographs by Tod Papageorge. Text by David Campany
(Steidl/Pace/MacGill Gallery) 


Tod Papageorge: Dr. Blankman´s New York "documents a brief but critical moment in the photographer's early career, the two years Papageorge shot in color in New York in the late 1960s. Black-and-white  photography was still the "serious" medium, and color reserved for commercial applications; Papageorge--25 years old and newly arrived in New York City--was encouraged by his fellow photographers to seek paying magazine work by developing a body of work in color..." continue reading here

Listening to my photography professor, Tod Papageorge, late '60's

Photo: Alan Kleinberg

Tod Papageorge (born 1940) picked up photography for the first time as a student at the University of New Hampshire. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. From 1979 to 2013 Papageorge served as Yale University’s Walker Evans Professor of Photography and Director of Graduate Study in Photography.

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EMILY SHUR  Super Extra Natural!

Imperial Palace Gardens with Wall, Tokyo
Photograph © Emily Shur

 Super Extra Natural!  Vimeo link

Emily's "Baroness" in their shipping department via Instagram

EMILY SHUR  Super Extra Natural!
Photographs and text by Emily Shur
(Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg)

I first met and fell in love with the work of American photographer Emily Shur at CENTERS 2009 Review Santa Fe! Her book Super Extra Natural! is a collection of images made in Japan between 2004 and 2016. "What began as a one-time getaway possessing no agenda beyond experiencing something new expanded into a long-term body of work that has resulted in over 15 trips to various parts of the country. Shur says, “Everything made sense. Lines, shapes, light, and color fit together like a math equation that added up to what still feels like a supernatural high.”

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TODD HIDO  Bright Black World

 #11389-3087 from the series Bright Black World

Copyright © Todd Hido

#11755-2192 from the series Bright Black World

Copyright © Todd Hido

TODD HIDO Bright Black World
Photographs by Todd Hido. Text by Alexander Nemerov
(Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA).

"Exploring the dark terrain of the Northern European landscape and regions as far as the North Sea of Japan enchanted Hido, calling him back on several occasions. This newest publication highlights the artist’s first significant foray extensively photographing territory outside of the United States, chronicling a decidedly new psychological geography." read more here for Bright Black World

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 VIVIAN MAIER  The Color Work

   

Vivian Maier: The Color Work

VIVIAN MAIER  The Color Work
Photographs by Vivian Maier.
Text by Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck
(Harper Design, New York)

"Photographer Vivian Maier’s allure endures even though many details of her life continue to remain a mystery. Her story—the secretive nanny-photographer who became a pioneer photographer—has only been pieced together from the thousands of images she made and the handful of facts that have surfaced about her life. Vivian Maier: The Color Work is the largest and most highly curated published collection of Maier’s full-color photographs to date."

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 YUKARI CHIKURA  Zaido

 Zaido (Steidl)

Photograph © Yukari Chikura

 Zaido (Steidl)

Photograph © Yukari Chikura

I first met Yukari Chikura at Houston's Fotofest Portfolio Review.

YUKARI CHIKURA Zaido
Photographs by Yukari Chikura.
(Soon to be published by Steidl, Germany)

This book is Yukari Chikura’s record of the 1,300-year-old Japanese ritual festivity known as Zaido. "Following a series of tragedies, including her father’s sudden death, her own critical accident and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Chikura recalls how her father came to her in a dream with the words: “Go to the village hidden deep in the snow where I lived a long time ago.” With camera in hand she set off on a pilgrimage to northeast Japan. There, Chikura discovered Zaido, where inhabitants from different villages gather on the second day of each new year and conduct a ritual dance to induce good fortune. The performers dedicate their dance to the gods and undergo severe purifications." read more

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 TOM CHAMBERS  Hearts and Bones

The Trickster Photograph © Tom Chambers

 Vineyard Blush Photograph © Tom Chambers

TOM CHAMBERS  Hearts and Bones
A Retrospective of Tom Chambers' Photomontage Art
Photographs by Tom Chambers. Foreword by Elizabeth Avedon
(Unicorn Publishing Group, Chicago)
 

Hearts and Bones is the first comprehensive collection of Chambers' work. More than one hundred color photomontages are included in this volume, spanning his entire career. 

"Chambers uses photomontage to present unspoken stories that illustrate fleeting moments in time and are known for being extremely evocative, eliciting feelings ranging from tranquility to turbulence—and all the points in between. Through his intentional use of magical realism, Chambers' photomontages look believable, but improbable. Each, in fact, has been carefully constructed, using both planned images and ones that unexpectedly enhance the story he wishes to tell. Through such techniques Chambers moves beyond documentation of the present in order to fuse reality and fantasy into musings about the possibilities of the future"

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 The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 2

 Austin, Randy and Justin, Nevada © Robin de Puy  
Juror’s Pick, LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017

BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

  The Bass Family ©  Kremer/Johnson
1st Place, LensCulture Portrait Awards 2018
BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

  Lost Family Portraits © Dario Mitidieri
LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017, Finalist
BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 2  
(Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam)

Here are 162 award-winning photographers you should know. These exciting contemporary photographers come from 38 countries on 5 continents, and they are making remarkable work right now in diverse cultures around the world. It’s fresh, inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking. This book celebrates excellence in the visual language of photography in all genres: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, portrait, street photography, abstract, landscape, architecture, nature, alternative process, experimental, poetic, personal, and more. Anyone who is serious about the current state of photography around the globe will be delighted to discover the rich variety of photographers and their imagery presented in these pages. The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 1 and 2 here

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 JANELLE LYNCH 

Another Way of Looking at Love

“…full of delicate hope!” -Charlotte Cotton 

 JANELLE LYNCH
Another Way of Looking at Love
Hardcover, Accordion fold

JANELLE LYNCH
Another Way of Looking at Love

JANELLE LYNCH  
Another Way of Looking at Love
Photographs by Janelle Lynch. Essay by Darius Himes
(Radius Books, Santa Fe)

"In Another Way of Looking at Love, the landscape is explored as a metaphor to consider the personal, societal, and environmental consequences of disconnection, and simultaneously, our yearning to be connected. From 2015-2018, Janelle Lynch (born 1969) has used an 8 x 10 camera to create still lives in the landscape that combine similar and disparate visual and biological elements." Hardcover. Accordion-fold...read more  

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SHERI LYNN BEHR  BESEEINGYOU 

I photograph the surveillance cameras that hide in plain sight. When they blend into the walls, disappear into the architecture, or become part of the decor, I make these pictures so we see them, always watching us. Do we know who is taking our picture?  – Sheri Lynn Behr
Buy it here

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 RICHARD RENALDI  "I Want Your Love”

 Richard Renaldi "I Want Your Love”

RICHARD RENALDI  
"I Want Your Love” 
(Super Labo)

Richard Renaldi's autobiographical photo book I Want Your Love navigates through the most intimate moments in a happy life. "I Want Your Love follows the arc from childhood to middle age, exploring what it means to be young and perpetually seeking, and what it means both to find and to lose the things we most deeply treasure.” In an edition of 1000. 

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BILL SHAPIRO  WHAT WE KEEP  

What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning

BILL SHAPIRO WHAT WE KEEP 
150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning (Running Press Adult)

Author / Editor Bill Shapiro is the former editor-in-chief of the iconic LIFE Magazine. "All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning–something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro, with Naomi Wax, collected this sweeping range of stories–he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter–to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects. With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, James Patterson, and many more–this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them." What We Keep

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Don't miss 

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF 2018

ROUND-UP PART II

If it's in RED it's a link. Many descriptions are from the publishers promo's.

Follow Jonathan Blaustein’s Photography Book Reviews all year on aphotoeditor.com

Happy Holidays! 

Happy Holidays!

MONA KUHN + STEIDL + PARIS PHOTO: "Private" Book Signing at Paris Photo

Mona Kuhn "PRIVATE"

Monograph Published by Steidl (Nov 2014)

November 15, 2014

"Private" Book Signing at Steidl Booth, ParisPhoto 

Grand Palais, Paris  4PM

"PRIVATE" 

Photograph © Mona Kuhn

"PRIVATE"

Photograph © Mona Kuhn

MONA KUHN + STEIDL + PARIS PHOTO

"“Private” is a personal journey, weaving together the desert beauty with its brutal sense of mortality, understanding mysticism and our place in it." – Mona Kuhn

Mona Kuhn Talks About "PRIVATE"

with Elizabeth Avedon on L'Oeil de la Photographie

“Private” is a calm and introspective series; a meditative collection of images I took over a period of 2-years. I entered the heart of the American desert, traveling through the Mojave and Arizona regions, entering for the first time the remote parts of a Navajo reservation, areas close to James Turrel’s Roden Crater. “Private” is a personal journey, weaving together the desert beauty with its brutal sense of mortality, understanding mysticism and our place in it.

I usually start a new series with colors. I knew I wanted a little bit of that golden sand skin tonality. I wanted black as it has a certain sense of mortality. You are constantly testing your endurance in the desert, the limits of how long you can stay out there or how debilitating it is to be at 100 and some degrees. Your system really slows down and you can’t think straight. So the whole series is about our vulnerability in that environment as a metaphor to life.

At the time I was reading T. S. Eliot  “The Waste Land.” There are no direct parallels, but I noticed a certain essence of his poem in the work, like a perfume that stays in the air after someone left.

I wanted to approach what is truly strange, beautiful and disorienting about the desert. Aside from vast landscapes and intimate nudes, for the first time I also photographed a few desert animals as metaphors. I was intrigued by their mysticism, like desert shamans, they have an instinct of their own. They know well their place and function in that vast space. Like the California pale moths that fly into the light. Or a black widow tattooed on a woman’s hand. I photographed a majestic black condor, then I photographed a Nephila’s golden spider web. Animals seem to understand nature's balance and survive better than humans in the desert.   

I met a lot of people who moved to the desert because they want to escape or get “off the grid”. But the desert is not for the weak of the heart. It offers an alluring American sense of freedom, but its harsh reality does not cease to remind us of our own limitations. It is shocking to face one’s own mortality. Lee Friedlander once said: “The desert is a wonderful, awful, seductive, alluring stage on which to be acting out the photography game.”

One of the homes I stayed in was built on top of this slanted rock formation. Underneath that slanted rock, there was a large shaded open area, like the shape of a mouth half open. A perfect habitat for rattlesnakes.  This guy had dozens of stretched rattlesnake skins stapled on plywood board to dry out, all over the place.  Hundreds of snakes live right under his rock foundation.  I arrived at places and entered homes I could have never imagined before. But at the same time, being who I am, I wasn’t going to photograph the desert like “Breaking Bad.” I wanted to photograph the desert with a certain human element to relate to the beauty and the harshness. So there is a lot more landscape in this series than most.

The light is incredibly sharp; it contracts the pupils into tiny dots, making views of crystal clarity in which light and land are one. At times, I would photograph just the light by itself, its abstractions, bright sunlight and the graphic dark shadows - it had a powerful and minimal feel to it. 

I photographed some people along the way, at times in their homes. Most homes I have been inside had their curtains closed. People get tired of the heat, you start feeling the weight of light, it becomes heavy. You go into people’s homes and all shades are down. Some of the desert people I met prefer to live in darkness. 

You can easily loose the sense of scale in the desert.

In 1930’s, Georgia O’Keefe would often refer to what she called the “Faraway Nearby”.  I photographed what seemed to have a force and scale of its own, that being macro or micro.

One of these beautiful places was Grand Falls in a Navajo Reserve in Arizona.  It is a larger than life multilayered waterfall system. But the water is not clear; the water carries this monochromatic sand-like tonalities with it. It looks like a waterfall of skin tones.  There, water and skin become one.

On the opposite scale, I found a little spring flower that was so frail. It’s very delicate image shot from above.  T.S. Elliot would say that Spring season lasts only one day in the desert.  The Spring flower rises in the morning and dies at night. 

Along a similar scale curiously I shot from the computer screen an image of California City, a planned but unrealized urban development.  The roads marked out in the dust for a civilization that never really came, seen from a camera orbiting miles above the desert.   Like ruins in reverse.

November 13-16, 2014

Private, solo booth at Jackson Fine Art, ParisPhoto

Grand Palais, Paris

November 15, 2014

Private Book Signing at Steidl Booth, ParisPhoto 

Grand Palais, Paris  4PM

Mona Kuhn Website

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS 2021 ROUND-UP PART I

Where the World is Melting. Photographs by Ragnar Axelsson

 

Where the World is Melting. Photographs by Ragnar Axelsson. Kehrer Verlag
"Where the World is Melting includes, among others, unpublished photographs which Ragnar photographed on Hvísker at the age of ten years old, and the well-known series’ Faces of the North, Glacier, Last Days of the Arctic, and Arctic Heroes. The eminent Icelandic photographer’s themes are the physical and traditional realities of the North...For over 40 years, Ragnar Axelsson (RAX, b. 1958) has photographed people, animals, and landscapes in the most remote regions of Greenland, Iceland, and Siberia. In simple black and white photos, he captures the elementary human experience in nature on the edge of the habitable world. RAX highlights the extraordinary relationships between people, animals, and places in the Arctic and their extreme environment – relationships that change in profound and complex ways due to unprecedented climate change." Buy it here

 

Balancing Cultures. Photographs by Jerry Takigawa

 

Balancing Cultures. Photographs by Jerry Takigawa. Self-Published
"Balancing Cultures presents the work of a multi award-winning photography series about the artist’s family’s experience with the WWII American concentration camps. This project presented an opportunity to confront the racism perpetrated on the Japanese that resulted in their confinement in the American concentration camps sanctioned by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 issued on February 19, 1942." buy it here

The Day May Break. Photographs by Nick Brandt

 

The Day May Break. Photographs by Nick Brandt. Hatje Cantz
"The environmental threat to life on this planet - both human and animal - is realized by Nick Brandt in The Day May Break to devastating effect in these powerful yet tender portraits. Art of this calibre is in a unique position to challenge and engage audiences in environmental conversation...Photographed in Zimbabwe and Kenya in late 2020, The Day May Break is the first part of a global series by acclaimed photographer Nick Brandt, portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction.”

“The people in these photographs were all affected by climate change, displaced by cyclones and years-long droughts. Photographed at five sanctuaries, the animals were rescues that can never be rewilded. As a result, it was safe for human strangers to be close to them, photographed so close to them, within the same frame. The fog on location is the unifying visual motif, conveying the sense of an ever-increasing limbo, a once-recognizable world now fading from view. However, despite their respective losses, these people and animals have survived, and therein lies possibility and hope.” — Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Climate Change, Chair of The Elders. buy it here

 

The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship 

 

The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship 

by Deborah Willis. NYU Press
"At a time when victory in the Civil War was anything but assured, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass urged the North to arm African American soldiers to fight against the forces that had enslaved them in the Confederate South. In doing so, he recognized the vital visual argument for citizenship that a uniformed Black man would make with ‘the brass letter, US’ on his belt and an ‘eagle on his button.’ Now, in this breathtaking volume, the scholar Deborah Willis reveals to us the fullness of their humanity through a photographic record she interprets through the paper trail they left behind. At once intimate and panoramic, The Black Civil War Soldier is both a major contribution to Civil War studies and an album of our ancestors’ journey at the critical hour of American history that belongs to all of us as the descendants of their sacrifice." ― Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University. buy it here

A Photo Spirit. Photographs by Ruth Orkin

 

A Photo Spirit. Photographs by Ruth Orkin. Edited by Mary Engel and Nadine Barth. Hatje Cantz   

 "American photographer Ruth Orkin earned acclaim for her work as she combined her love for travel and her experience growing up in Hollywood into a practice that captured the cinematic elements of everyday life and revealed the humanity of the upper crust...The atmospheric photographs taken by Orkin in cities such as Florence, New York and London still shape the image of these metropolises today: her street scenes consistently offer penetrating insights into the personality of her human subjects as well as their environments. This unique quality also manifests in her celebrity portraits of figures such as Albert Einstein, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams and Lauren Bacall: though clearly posed, these photographs offer a certain level of candor that allows the viewer to connect with the sitters on a human level. She also pursued filmmaking with two successful features, Little Fugitive (1953) and Lovers and Lollipops (1955)—and she did all of this as one of the few female practitioners in the field. Published on the occasion of what would have been the photographer’s 100th birthday, this illustrated volume celebrates Orkin’s life and career with an equally extensive and fascinating overview of this exceptional artist's oeuvre." A Photo Spirit here

 

 

Mona Kuhn: Works: Photographs by Mona Kuhn

 

Mona Kuhn: Works: Photographs by Mona Kuhn. Thames & Hudson 

Text by Rebecca Morse, Simon Baker, Chris Littlewood, Darius Himes, Elizabeth Avedon.  "A stunning career retrospective of Mona Kuhn, one of the most respected contemporary photographers of her time, best known for her large-scale photographs of the human form. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity’s longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and bucolic settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art.”

“Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers—her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States. Mona Kuhn: Works, the artist’s first retrospective, features images from throughout her career, accompanied by insightful texts by Rebecca Morse, Simon Baker, Chris Littlewood, and Darius Himes. An interview with Elizabeth Avedon provides insights into Kuhn’s creative process and the ways in which she works with her subjects and locations, and achieves the visual signature of her imagery. It is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the human form in contemporary art.” order a signed copy here

 

Blue Violet. Photographs and text by Cig Harvey

 

Blue Violet. Photographs and text by Cig Harvey. Monacelli Press  

 

"...Blue Violet is inordinately voluptuous for a photobook. One half expects to catch whiffs of the blooms Harvey describes. You’ve been warned. Open Blue Violet and prepare to be seized.”— George Slade, Photo-Eye

“Blue Violet is a vibrant meditation on the procession of seasons, sensory abundance, and the magic in everyday life. Part art book, botanical guide, historical encyclopedia, and poetry collection, Blue Violet is a compendium of beauty, color, and the senses…Plants, flowers, and our experience of the natural world are the threads that tie this unique book together. Exploring the five senses, Blue Violet takes the reader on a personal journey through nature and the range of human emotions.” buy it here

 

The African Lookbook: 

A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women

 

The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women. 

By Catherine E. McKinley. Bloomsbury Publishing  

 

"A visual history of African women told in striking and subversive historical photographs―featuring an Introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a Foreword by Jacqueline Woodson. Curator Catherine E. McKinley draws on her extensive collection of historical and contemporary photos to present a visual history spanning a hundred-year arc (1870–1970) of what is among the earliest photography on the continent. These images tell a different story of African women: how deeply cosmopolitan and modern they are in their style; how they were able to reclaim the tools of the colonial oppression that threatened their selfhood and livelihoods. and works by celebrated African masters, African studios of local legend, and anonymous artists, The African Lookbook captures the dignity, playfulness, austerity, grandeur, and fantasy-making of African women across centuries…These photos tell the story of how the sewing machine and the camera became powerful tools for women’s self-expression, revealing a truly glorious display of everyday beauty." Lookbook here

 

9 Peanut Portfolios 2021 

Brian Day, David Gonzalez,  Jean-Pierre Laffont, Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber, 

Barbara Peacock, Michelle Rick, Aline Smithson, and Preston Utley

 

9 Peanut Portfolios 2021. Peanut Press 

Brian Day, David Gonzalez, Jean-Pierre Laffont, Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber, Barbara Peacock, Michelle Rick, Aline Smithson, and Preston Utley Peanut Press 2021 books.   

Purchase separately or the full set of the 2021 Peanut Portfolio Books includes eight signed original photographs and eight signed and numbered hardcover books, eacb book has 40 pages, 18 color plates. peanutpressbooks.com/

 

Anne Berry: Behind Glass. Self-published anneberry.bigcartel.com 

"Behind Glass is a collection of photographs made in monkey houses of small zoos throughout Europe, thoughtfully constructed from exquisite archival materials. Anne Berry is recognized for her ability to create lyrical, intimate portraits of animals, and her photographs demonstrate a perception for capturing the animals’ emotional states and intense facial expressions. They reveal an undeniable communication between herself and the primates she visits and her adept ability to capture this connection. Berry’s powerful and moving photographs gently confront the viewer to facilitate a reexamination of the human, and often personal, relationship with the animal kingdom. Berry's book "Behind Glass" features a message from Dr. Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, essays by primatologist Jo Setchell and Atlanta art critic Jerry Cullum, with 50 duotone plates in a beautifully crafted hardbound edition www.anneberrystudio.com

She. Photographs by Rania Matar

 

She. Photographs by Rania Matar. Radius Books “Portraits of American and Middle Eastern young women entering adulthood from Rania Matar, author of L’Enfant-Femme. As a Lebanese-born American artist and mother, Rania Matar’s (born 1964) cross-cultural experiences inform her art. She has dedicated her work to exploring issues of personal and collective identity through photographs of female adolescence and womanhood—both in the United States where she lives, and in the Middle East where she is from.”

“Rania Matar focuses on young women in their late teens and early twenties, who are leaving the cocoon of home, entering adulthood and facing a new reality. Depicting women in the United States and the Middle East, this project highlights how female subjectivity develops in parallel forms across cultural lines. Each young woman becomes an active participant in the image-making process, presiding over the environment and making it her own. Matar portrays the raw beauty of her subjects—their age, individuality, physicality and mystery—and photographs them the way she, a woman and a mother, sees them: beautiful, alive.” buy it here
 

 

kissing a stranger. Photographs by Joni Sternbach

 

kissing a stranger. Photographs by Joni Sternbach. Dürer Editions  

“This title, kissing a stranger, is a study of Sternbach’s early work made during the 1970s and 1980s. In essence it is a portrait of the artist as a young woman forming her visual language through freedom of experimentation and expression. She says ‘finding my way towards independence and autonomy as a young art student was both intensely lonely and toughening. A camera around my neck afforded me a feeling of protection. It allowed me to project myself onto the world around me; with my needs, my desires and my loneliness exposed – I felt less vulnerable.” buy it here

 

 

 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS 2021 ROUND-UP : PART II (soon)

Many thanks to the Publisher's Descriptions.