2011 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS | Part I

A few of my choices for

The Best Photography Books of 2011

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The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious
Aperture, 2011

The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the W.M. Hunt Collection
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York to Feb. 19, 2012

"When I turned 50, I decided my life’s mission would be to promote the pleasure of photography." William Hunt, collector, curator, consultant, writer, teacher... Read La Lettre's Interview with WM. Hunt

"The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious presents a wonderfully idiosyncratic and compelling collection of photographs assembled around a particular theme: in each image, the gaze of the subject is averted, the face obscured or the eyes firmly closed. The pictures present a catalog of anti-portraiture, characterized at first glance by what its subjects conceal, not by what the camera reveals. Amassed over the course of thirty years by New York collector W. M. Hunt, the collection includes works by masters such as Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Imogen Cunningham, William Klein, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Robert Frank as well as lesser-known artists and vernacular images." –Aperture

Eyewitness. Hungarian Photography in the Twentieth Century
Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi
Royal Academy Publications, 2011

"At a crucial moment between two world wars, five men changed the face of photojournalism and art photography, and inspired the world. With their groundbreaking shots, Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, and Munkásci radically redefined photographic practice and theory, ushering in the modern era." Publisher's Description

Vivian Maier, Street Photographer
PowerHouse Books, 2011

"The elusive Vivian Maier has left us many clues and a diary of over 100,000 negatives that reflect her time and her place. The quiet observer,the plain spoken no non-sense woman, the obsessive photo taker, the nanny and mysterious legend in the making. There are a lot of good images revealed in these books all leading us to learn a little more from this sphinx like creature" – John A. Bennette, Curator of Maier's first New York exhibition, "Vivian Maier, Photographer," at the Hearst Gallery, New York

In 2011, Aperture released Diane Arbus: A Chronology and newly reissued Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph and Untitled: Diane Arbus on the fortieth anniversary of the original publication.

Who Is Marvin Israel? DVD

You and I. Photographs by Ryan McGinley
Twin Palms, 2011

"Following in the footsteps of Allen Ginsberg and his "Snapshot Poetics," McGinley turned his lens on the bodies and pastimes of his Lower East Side milieu, adding another generation to the History of Photography. This work, from the first years of this century, has given way to Ryan’s subjects running through and falling out of otherworldly utopian landscapes, caverns, forests and deserts; worlds away from the Chinatown tenements he still calls home."–Jack Woody, Twin Palms Publisher

Ryan McGinley Portfolio on La Lettre

Bordeaux Series. Photographs by Mona Kuhn
Steidl, 2011

Working with preeminent photography publisher, Gerhard Steidl, on her newly released Bordeaux Series, Kuhn said, “The thing is, I only have really wonderful things to say about Gerhard. He is indeed a genius of publishing.”–Mona Kuhn

Read Mona Kuhn's Interview

Salt & Truth. Photographs by Shelby Lee Adams
Candela Books, 2011

The Bridge at Hoover Dam. Photographs by Jamey Stillings
Nazraeli Press, 2011

Moby: Destroyed
Damiani, 2011

“When I play music, I’m just exclusively focused on the music. When I’m taking photographs, I’m exclusively focusing on that. There’s not a lot of interdisciplinary stuff going on in my head.”– Moby

Read Moby's Interview

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Core Curriculum: Writings on Photography
By Tod Papageorge. Aperture, 2011

Core Curriculum: Writings on Photography is a collection of essays, reviews and lectures by Tod Papageorge, Photographer and Walker Evans Professor of Photography at the Yale University School of Art. Papageorge discusses with deep critical insight are Eugène Atget, Brassaï, Robert Frank (with Walker Evans), Robert Adams and his close friend Garry Winogrand.

Tod Papageorge

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Sylvia Plachy's Out of the Corner of My Eye: de reojo, Goings On About Town

Although Sylvia Plachy didn't publish a book in 2011, her work remains timeless. Plachy, a Hungarian/American photographer, was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1943. Her family moved to New York City due to the Hungarian Revolution where she met photographer Andre Kertesz. Plachy's photo essays and portraits have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Granta, Artforum, Fortune, and everywhere else. They have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Berlin, Budapest, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Her book, Self Portrait with Cows Going Home (2005), is a personal history of Central Europe with photographs and text, received a Golden Light Award for Best Book in 2004. In 2009, she received the Dr. Erich Salomon Preis in Berlin for Lifetime Achievement in Photojournalism. This January 2012, Plachy and Jeff Liao will be exhibiting Panoramic Photographs of New York City when The South Street Seaport Museum reopens.

sylviaplachy.com

2011 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS | Part II

JULIE BLACKMON: New Work

Snowday, 2010
Photograph © Julie Blackmon

Sharpie, 2011
Photograph © Julie Blackmon

Night Movie, 2011
Photograph © Julie Blackmon

Airstream, 2011
Photograph © Julie Blackmon

The Dutch proverb "a Jan Steen household" originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings.

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JULIE BLACKMON is the oldest of nine children and now the mother of three. Her photographs have been honored with numerous awards since she began exhibiting, including American Photo Emerging Artists 2008, first prize from CENTER/Santa Fe Center for Photography Project Competition, and PDN's 30, among many others.

DOMESTIC VACATIONS: "The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire this body of work. As Steen’s personal narratives of family life depicted nearly 400 yrs. ago, the conflation of art and life is an area I have explored in photographing the everyday life of my family and the lives of my sisters and their families at home. These images are both fictional and auto-biographical, and reflect not only our lives today and as children growing up in a large family, but also move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives, both imagined and real...read more

Julie Blackmon's Domestic Vacations
New Work at Photo-eye Gallery

RYAN McGINLEY: Twin Palms Retrospective

Dash Bombing, 2000. Photograph © Ryan McGinley

Jonas (Glow Falls), 2008. Photograph © Ryan McGinley

Read All: La Lettre de la Photographie

"Following in the footsteps of Allen Ginsberg and his Snapshot Poetics, McGinley turned his lens on the bodies and pastimes of his Lower East Side milieu, adding another generation to the History of Photography. This work, from the first years of this century, has given way to Ryan’s subjects running through and falling out of otherworldly utopian landscapes, caverns, forests and deserts; worlds away from the Chinatown tenements he still calls home." – Jack Woody, Twin Palms Publisher

You and I
Published by Twin Palms, 2011

"You and I carefully pieces together a ten-year overview of McGinley's work, resulting in a portrait of a generation. Taking us along on his youthful road trip across America, he incorporates the American landscape with nude figures of friends and acquaintances, perpetually falling from buildings, down waterfalls, out of trees, and over cliffs. McGinley said, "In the beginning, all the stuff was documentary, but after a while, I got bored with waiting for things to happen—for someone to light a Christmas tree on fire or take their clothes off and make love." read more on La Lettre de la Photographie

WHO IS MARVIN ISRAEL | DIANE ARBUS SLIDE-SHOW + TALK

Who Is Marvin Isreal? DVD
Directed by Neil Selkirk and Doon Arbus

WHO IS MARVIN ISRAEL? is a short documentary on the life, work, and world of the enigmatic Marvin Israel (1924-1984), artist, designer, art director, and teacher. Israel's influence on Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Lee Friedlander, and many others is explored in the words of those who knew him. Directed by Neil Selkirk.

Who Is Marvin Israel?
and
A Slide-Show and Talk by Diane Arbus

SVA Theatre
333 W 23 ST (8th x 9th)
Thursday December 15th 7:30 PM
Free Admission

Self-Portrait
Marvin Israel | Painter, Book Designer...my Mentor

Marvin Israel and Diane Arbus photographed at her
1971 master class by her student Cosmos Sarchiapone

SLIDE SHOW AND TALK BY DIANE ARBUS - DEC 15th

An original audio recording of a 1970 slide presentation by Diane Arbus in which she speaks about photography using her own work and other photographs, snapshots and clippings from her collection. Compiled and edited by Neil Selkirk, Doon Arbus and Adam Shott.

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An encore screening of a rare historic 1970 slide presentation given by the legendary photographer Diane Arbus where she discusses her work and her motivations. The presentation will be accompanied by a screening of the short documentary Who is Marvin Israel? (2005), an examination of the life of designer Marvin Israel, a friend of Arbus and an influence in her work. Presented by SVA and introduced by Chair of the Photography Department, Stephen Frailey, in conjunction with the Aperture Foundation.

A Slide-Show and Talk by Diane Arbus
and
Who Is Marvin Israel?

SVA Theatre
333 W 23 ST (8th x 9th)
Thursday December 15th 7:30 PM
Free Admission

Celebrating the release of Diane Arbus: A Chronology and the newly reissued Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph and Untitled: Diane Arbus, books will be available for purchase at a reception following the screening.

BID4FRIENDS ONLINE AUCTION: To Benefit The Angkor Hospital for Children

Angkor #79, Bayon, Cambodia 1994
Photograph (c) Kenro Izu

Estimated Value $300.00
Pigment print
10 x 14" on 14 x 20" mat
Edition no. 1
Date of Work: 1994 / Year of Print: 2011
Signed in pencil on the recto
Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery & Friends Without A Border

Boy Posing in a Courtyard, Rue Vieille du Temple, Paris
Photograph (c) George McClintock

Estimated Value $300.00

Gelatin silver print
10 x 10" on 16 x 20" mat
Date of Work: 1978 / Year of Print: 2011
Signed in ink on the verso
Series, Paris 1980, scheduled for exhibition in NYC in 2012

Japanese Monkey
Photograph (c) Eiko Tamaki

Estimated Value $400.00
Gelatin silver print
6 x 7.5" on 11 x 14" mat
Artist proof no. 1
Date of Work: 2004 / Year of Print: 2004
Signed in pencil on the recto

Home at Babulnath
Photograph (c) George McClintock

Estimated Value $200.00
Pigment print
10 x 14" on 14 x 20" mat
Date of Work: 2006 / Year of Print: 2011
Signed in ink on the verso

Pilgrims pass through this room on their way to the Babulnath temple in Mumbai, India. Recently exhibited as a part of collection at the Columbus branch of the New York Public Library.

Blue
Photograph (c) Jene Youtt

Estimated Value $300.00
Pigment print
16 x 12" on 20 x 16" mat
Edition no. 1
Date of Work: 2008
Year of Print: 2008
Signed in pencil and stamped on the recto
Exhibited in Kyoto, Japan

Bid4Friends Online Auction
View All Auction Images
Bidding through December 18th (Sunday) at 10pm

Friends Without A Border works to improve the health and well-being of children in Cambodia through its acclaimed Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) and associated programs. In a population of about 14 million, over one-third of Cambodians are children under the age of 15. In 1996, 1 out of 6 children died before the age of 5 from preventable illnesses such as diarrhea and respiratory infection. In recent years, the ratio has decreased to 1 out of 12—but the country still ranks tragically low by international standards. Friends Without A Border is now known globally for its commitment to “healing children, healing Cambodia” as it rebuilds the devastated healthcare infrastructure of a war-torn and impoverished country.

Founded in 1995 by world-renowned photographer Kenro Izu, Friends Without A Border receives much support from the photographic community – photographers, dealers, collectors, and curators – have each played a vital role in the creation of Angkor Hospital for Children and its ongoing success.

Bid 4 Good: Auction Images

Friends Without A Border

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Begin your Photography Collection now!

Brush up on your collecting skills in one of Collector Alice Zimet's basic or boot-camp Collecting Photography lecture series: Arts + Business Partners

ANTONIO LOPEZ: Instamatics

DIVINE (POLAROIDS), NEW YORK CITY, 1978

TINA CHOW, LONDON, 1975

MEN IN SHOWERS SERIES
KARL LAGERFELD, NEW YORK CITY, 1976

Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Berge, Marina Schiano, Jerry Hall, Paris, 1977

Read Jean-Jacques Naudet's tribute to Antonio Lopez
La Lettre de la Photographie 12.5.2011

"If Antonio Lopez had left us only his Instamatic photographs, and not his Drawings [and Fashion Illustrations] for which he is known, we would still have cause to celebrate a brilliant artistic vision. The compendium includes the most creative and innovative of those images, spanning the 1970’s. Most of these have never been published and will come as a revelation to those unfamiliar with this aspect of his achievements." – Twin Palms Publishers

"Antonio was a magnet for beautiful, fun, sexy people, and his portraits – done with a ten-dollar camera– exude that Latin lover artist passion that he was all about. He got more sex from a shoe and a drugstore camera than most fashion photographers got from nudes in a million-dollar studio. He never paid a hair or makeup man; he did it himself or had Way Bandy, then the best, do it for fun. Fun! Bandy worked five days a week for Avedon and Scavullo for huge money with contracts but worked all night free for Antonio." – from Instamatics, Antonio Lopez with Michael McKenzie Interview, June 28, 1976

Instamatics Antonio Lopez
Twin Palms, 2011

BENJAMIN LOWY: Iraq | Perspectives on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday Dec 5th!

Buy Iraq | Perspectives (Duke Press, 2011)

Taken through Humvee window
Photograph © Benjamin Lowy

Don't miss Iraq|Perspectives Photographer, Benjamin Lowy, as a guest on The Daily Show Monday December 5th! Iraq|Perspectives won the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize after being selected by William Eggleston. More about Benjamin Lowy, June 2009

LINDA TROELLER: MUCALINDA | Self-Portraits + Self-Reflection

Linda, Ansel Adams Bookmaking Workshop, Yosemite, Ca, 1974
Photograph by David Bales

Self-Portrait. San Jose Purua Hot Springs, Mexico, 1976

Linda Troeller's "Healing Waters" (Aperture) won 'Pictures of the Year' Book Award for Excellence. Cover, "Floating, Terme di Saturnia, Italy, 1996"

Mucalinda: Self-Portrait + Self-Reflection

"Mucalinda was a serpent king that emerged from the earth and protected Buddha with his hood from a storm. The book title is a metaphor of coming to terms with the multiplicity and the convergences of my life, an affirmation of the different moments which are represented in these self-portraits and portraits by other photographers."

"Self-reflection is reassurance for our psyche. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan coined the term “the mirror stage,” which refers to early development in which an infant sees his own likeness, watches it move as he feels his body move, and thus realizes for the first time that he is the master of his own corporal form."

"Florence Nightingale, the civil war nurse, wrote that color, form and light provoke a physical effect on well-being. Photographers enter into that realm of light with their eyes and sensation. Photography can connect us to ‘oneness,’ and a ‘source.’ Research shows that photographs are recorded in the frontal lobe of the brain, which control heartbeat, blood flow, and hormones. This optic –unconscious relationship brings us visions of places yet to be discovered, universal, and yet rare. I experienced this kinship with my first camera, a Rollei, at the age of twenty at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico when Georgia O’Keeffe told me, “Let the powers out there guide you.” The impulse to snap the shutter directly links us to mythic absorption which is what the Mexican painter, Leonora Carrington named “down below.” She said if I wanted to heal from a breakup and grow as an artist I would “take the waters in San Jose Purua and Ixtapan or mushrooms in Palenque” to access things internal, archetypal, redeemable. – Linda Troeller, Mucalinda

Linda Troeller Photography

Linda Troeller Exhibition Curated by Sabine Kutt
Art Basel/Miami Beach Dec 1- 3

Self-Portrait, Lobby, Chelsea Hotel, NYC, 2006

"Artist. Model. Author. Muse. Linda Troeller plays many parts in her photographic life. Throughout a prolific career photographing and publishing books on female sexuality, healing-water spas, the AIDS epidemic, and her home in New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel, Troeller has regularly served as a subject for the camera, her own and those of her colleagues. Mucalinda: Self-Portrait + Self-Reflection, a collection of images by Troeller and other photographers from the 1970s to today, is an intimate, illuminating assessment of one artist’s deep engagement with seeing and understanding herself through the camera’s lens."

"Troeller’s dual roles behind and in front of the camera make her an anomaly in a community where most hide behind their viewfinders. But her exceptional beauty, along with the strength, openness, and willingness to collaborate with other artists on subtle, spiritual levels manifested in each photograph, made it inevitable that she would inspire other photographers as a subject. In each fearless image Troeller depicts the creative arc of a soul in love with photography and life.”–Toby Kamps, Mucalinda

Toby Kamps, Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas

MUCALINDA: Self-Portraits + Self-Reflection
view and purchase here

Linda Troeller’s vast corpus of self-portraits spanning the length of her artistic career serve as testaments to the many faces that composite the idea of self. The compulsive remaking of her own image through the expanse of time (or timelessness) falls within the artist’s desire to inscribe her likeness on the visual field. It is as if Troeller is making up for the lack of the emancipated female subject in art historical discourse. Her images often elicit a dreamscape, as her body is often pictured in nature, floating in water or suspended in between the horizon line of ground and air. The transcendent quality of Troeller’s self-portraits point to her desire to achieve the liberated female subject in art through the constant re-imaging of her own body within the pictorial frame. – Kalia Brooks, Mucalinda

Kalia Brooks, Adjunct Professor, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Photography and Imaging Department, Exhibition Director, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)

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Upcoming News
Linda Troeller Exhibition Curated by Sabine Kutt
Art Basel/Miami Beach Dec 1- 3

Exhibition Mucalinda: Self-Portrait + Self-Reflection
Hellenic Centre for Photography, Athens and
Tenerife Photography Festival, Canary Islands, Spain
through the end of 2011

Linda Troeller will teach "Self-Portraiture and Poetry" with Maureen Alsop in Palm Springs, California, April 2-5, 2012. Many thanks to Linda for allowing me to excerpt from her book, Mucalinda: Self-Portraits + Self-Reflection

FOTOVISURA GRANT: Deadline December 5

Teresa Beatriz, Federico Nicolás y Ana, Trampolín, 11.26.2011

Photograph (c) Adriana Teresa

FotoVisura Grant Competition
Photographers: for Outstanding Personal Photography Project
Students: for Outstanding Student Photography Project
Enter Here

PICTURE BLACK FRIDAY: Capture The Day

Photograph (c) Ruben Natal-San Miguel

PICTURE BLACK FRIDAY
Photographers! Get your cameras ready !
The competition is FREE to enter

Jurors: Elizabeth Avedon, John A Bennette, Brian Ulrich,
Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Jon Feinstein and Shane Lavalette

11/25/11 Picture Black Friday III

MITCH DOBROWNER: USA

Rope Out: Regan, North Dakota
Photograph (c) Mitch Dobrowner

Cell Lightening: Dundee, Texas
Photograph (c) Mitch Dobrowner

Mitch Dobrowner
photo-eye Gallery: Group Exhibit to December 10
21st Editions, Prism Series Book Two, 2011

KEITH CARTER: Animals at photo-eye

Birth of Photography
Photograph (c) Keith Carter

Horse and Wolf, 1997
Photograph (c) Keith Carter

Keith Carter

photo-eye Gallery: A Selection of Animal Photographs
Group Exhibit to December 10