Book reviews and mentions from Photography blogs...

Trevor Paglen: Invisible

Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes is Trevor Paglen's long-awaited first photographic monograph. Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years, publishing, speaking and making astonishing photographs. As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional...

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Trevor Paglen: Invisible

Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes is Trevor Paglen's long-awaited first photographic monograph. Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years, publishing, speaking and making astonishing photographs. As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional ideas of documentation. In the series Limit Telephotography, for example, he employs high-end optical systems to photograph top-secret governmental sites; and in The Other Night Sky, he uses the data of amateur satellite watchers to track and photograph classified spacecraft in Earth's orbit. In other works Paglen transforms documents such as passports, flight data and aliases of CIA operatives into art objects. Rebecca Solnit contributes a searing essay that traces this history of clandestine military activity on the American landscape.

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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
Bryan Peterson

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutt...

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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
Bryan Peterson

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, including how to achieve successful exposures in seemingly difficult situations. You’ll learn:

• Which aperture gives you the greatest contrast and sharpness, and when to use it 
• Which apertures guarantee the background remains an out-of-focus tone 
• Which one aperture—when combined with the right lens—creates an area of sharpness from three feet to infinity 
• How to creatively use shutter speed to either freeze an action or imply motion 
• Where to take a meter reading when shooting a sunset, snow, or a city at dusk

With new information on white balance, flash, HDR, and more, this updated classic will inspire you to stop guessing and take control of your settings for better photos anytime, anywhere, and with any camera.

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Digital Masters: Nature Photography: Documenting the Wild World (A Lark Photography Book)
Ralph Lee Hopkins

The newest in the popular Digital Masters series is designed to develop and expand photographers' unique vision of the world's wildlife and wild places. It's a lavishly illustrated workbook that photographers will return to again and again as they master the techniques-and move beyond to the creative side of picture making. Covering everything from preparation and camera basics to lighting, wildlife encounters, and conservation, Ralph Lee Hopkins describes a variety of approaches to ca...

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Digital Masters: Nature Photography: Documenting the Wild World (A Lark Photography Book)
Ralph Lee Hopkins

The newest in the popular Digital Masters series is designed to develop and expand photographers' unique vision of the world's wildlife and wild places. It's a lavishly illustrated workbook that photographers will return to again and again as they master the techniques-and move beyond to the creative side of picture making. Covering everything from preparation and camera basics to lighting, wildlife encounters, and conservation, Ralph Lee Hopkins describes a variety of approaches to capturing the best possible photo in the moment. In the process, he gets to the essence of nature photography as a skill and an art.

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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Hist
S. C. Gwynne

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the mos...

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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Hist
S. C. Gwynne

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.

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Katherine Avenue
Larry Sultan

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Katherine Avenue
Larry Sultan

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The Pleasures of Good Photographs (Aperture Ideas)
Gerry Badger

"If looking at photographs is a pleasurable activity, it is pleasurable in a complex, transformative, frequently unsettling sense. It is not pleasure unalloyed, for no profound pleasure is pure... Like many truly enriching pleasures... photography has its dark, troubling, even dangerous aspects." -Gerry Badger
The Pleasures of Good Photographs is an intellectual and aesthetic excursion led by Gerry Badger, one of the field's eminent critics and popular writers and the author of more...

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The Pleasures of Good Photographs (Aperture Ideas)
Gerry Badger

"If looking at photographs is a pleasurable activity, it is pleasurable in a complex, transformative, frequently unsettling sense. It is not pleasure unalloyed, for no profound pleasure is pure... Like many truly enriching pleasures... photography has its dark, troubling, even dangerous aspects." -Gerry Badger
The Pleasures of Good Photographs is an intellectual and aesthetic excursion led by Gerry Badger, one of the field's eminent critics and popular writers and the author of more than a dozen books including both volumes of The Photobook: A History. In this new volume of essays, Badger offers insight into some of his favorite images, artists and themes, drawing upon nearly three decades of experience writing and thinking about photography. With deep discernment and a readable blend of scholarly finesse and wit, Badger elucidates works by dozens of photographers, from Dorothea Lange and Eugene Atget to Martin Parr, Luc Delahaye, Susan Lipper and Paul Graham. Among the broader topics discussed are the photobook, where Badger believes "photography sings its loudest and most complex song," and Photoshop's role in art-making. An interlude at the heart of the book pairs the author's evocative meditations with nearly a dozen particular images. Alongside some of Badger's classics, The Pleasures of Good Photographs showcases primarily new essays, making it an important addition to the canon of photographic writing.

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The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
Joseph Campbell

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

As ...

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The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
Joseph Campbell

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

As part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars.

As relevant today as when it was first published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists—including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers—and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

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Seattle 100: Portrait of a City (Voices That Matter)
Chase Jarvis

Seattle 100: Portrait of a City is the culmination of a two-year personal project by renowned photographer, filmmaker, and social artist Chase Jarvis. Both a creative project and an insightful ethnography, Seattle 100 shares—via more than 300 stunning black-and-white portraits and biographies of each subject—a curated collection of leading artists, musicians, writers, scientists, restaurateurs, DJs, developers, activists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and more, all of whom are defi...

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Seattle 100: Portrait of a City (Voices That Matter)
Chase Jarvis

Seattle 100: Portrait of a City is the culmination of a two-year personal project by renowned photographer, filmmaker, and social artist Chase Jarvis. Both a creative project and an insightful ethnography, Seattle 100 shares—via more than 300 stunning black-and-white portraits and biographies of each subject—a curated collection of leading artists, musicians, writers, scientists, restaurateurs, DJs, developers, activists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and more, all of whom are defining and driving culture in Seattle. Some faces you will know, other names you may have heard in passing, and others will have been unknown to you until now.

With this book, Jarvis has created a snapshot of a city’s culture through its people. And it’s inclusive. Descriptive rather than prescriptive. It’s a 100, not an exclusive the 100, and it invites each of us to survey our own surroundings, our lives, our friends—and those not yet our friends—that make up the place we live, whether that’s Seattle or anywhere else. Individually, the images and words here introduce you to 100 engaging and important people. Collectively, this portrait of a city tells a fascinating, interwoven story about a unique and vibrant place.

Beyond the photos and commentary by Jarvis, there are pithy musings by a select handful of subjects on the topics of art, food, community, region, culture, and film. In addition, many of the subjects share their favorite things, places, and doings in and around the Seattle that they have explored, discovered, and rediscovered time and again.

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Portraits Of American Bikers: Inside Looking Out
Beverly V. Roberts

Introduction (portion of) By Bill Hayes, Author, Motorcycle Culture Historian, and American Biker. It s been a long time since the mainstream media first discovered the motorcycle club culture and its seductive appeal. That particular journey has seen our lifestyle creatively populated by villains, clowns, cutthroats, buffoons, deviants, sadists, criminals, badasses, and everything in between. But no matter what characters or images the writers, reporters, producers, and directors have devise...

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Portraits Of American Bikers: Inside Looking Out
Beverly V. Roberts

Introduction (portion of) By Bill Hayes, Author, Motorcycle Culture Historian, and American Biker. It s been a long time since the mainstream media first discovered the motorcycle club culture and its seductive appeal. That particular journey has seen our lifestyle creatively populated by villains, clowns, cutthroats, buffoons, deviants, sadists, criminals, badasses, and everything in between. But no matter what characters or images the writers, reporters, producers, and directors have devised to represent our lifestyle, the bottom line is that people love it. They fear it. And deep down in those trembling, vicarious bones they would give anything to be a part of it. Anything, for just one ride in an endless pack, hammer-down in the screamer lane of some interstate. Anything, to walk proudly into a bar or an event with a set of colors on recognized colors that are not given, but earned, through serious effort, blood, and brotherhood. Anything, to be able to call a brother at any hour of the day or night when they needed help with anything, and to know that their back is covered. Anything, to be intimate with the powerful family life that is truly enjoyed and unapologetically embraced by so few. But envied or not, this way of life often comes at a high price. A patch on one s back can translate into a titillating target for law enforcement, as well as media. For a variety of reasons commercial gain, high-profile PR, and political pandering among them both have dipped to sordid lows in their pursuit of the biker essence. Those clowns and buffoons of the old B biker movies have increasingly given way to the cutthroats and the criminals. Entire television networks use shows about the presumed inside of the motorcycle clubs as their commercial anchors. Dozens of books and productions glorify the dirt-digging adventures of undercover law enforcement infiltrators, turncoats, and snitches...

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301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers (Digital Process and Print)
Andrew Darlow

The tools and techniques necessary for great digital output are now readily available and more affordable than ever. "301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers" shows photographers of all levels how to make high-quality prints through step-by-step instructions and hundreds of full-color examples from more than 20 professional photographers and other artists. You'll discover how to choose the right inkjet printer for your output needs, how to save time an...

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301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers (Digital Process and Print)
Andrew Darlow

The tools and techniques necessary for great digital output are now readily available and more affordable than ever. "301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers" shows photographers of all levels how to make high-quality prints through step-by-step instructions and hundreds of full-color examples from more than 20 professional photographers and other artists. You'll discover how to choose the right inkjet printer for your output needs, how to save time and select the proper materials when prepping files and prints, how to manage your digital images, how to create captivating portfolios and framed art, and much more. Whether you are a professional photographer or a serious hobbyist this book will help you learn how to enhance and perfect your digital output skills and use your computer and inkjet printer to better express your vision and creativity. You can read the book cover to cover, or only the chapters that feature the specific tips and techniques that interest you. A comprehensive index and a searchable companion web site will ensure that you find the information you are looking for. Additional content for this book, including hundreds of clickable links to many of the resources covered throughout the book can be accessed at: www.inkjettips.com

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
Martin Evening

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom was designed from the ground up with digital photographers in mind, offering powerful editing features in a streamlined interface that lets photographers import, sort, and organize images. This completely updated bestseller, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book, was also written with photographers in mind. Author Martin Evening describes features in Lightroom 3 in detail from a photographer’s perspective. As an established commercial and fashion photogra...

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
Martin Evening

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom was designed from the ground up with digital photographers in mind, offering powerful editing features in a streamlined interface that lets photographers import, sort, and organize images. This completely updated bestseller, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book, was also written with photographers in mind. Author Martin Evening describes features in Lightroom 3 in detail from a photographer’s perspective. As an established commercial and fashion photographer, Martin knows firsthand what photographers need for an efficient workflow. He has also been working with Lightroom from the beginning, monitoring the product’s development and providing valued feedback to Adobe. As a result, Martin knows the software inside and out, from image selection to image editing to image management. In this book you’ll learn how to:

• Work efficiently with images shot in the raw or JPEG format
• Import photographs with ease and sort them according to your workflow
• Create and manage a personal image library
• Apply tonal adjustments to multiple images quickly
• Integrate Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop
• Export images for print or Web as digital contact sheets or personal portfolios
• Make the most of new features in Lightroom 3, such as automatic lens correction and improved noise reduction

Photographers will find Lightroom 3—and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book—indispensable tools in their digital darkrooms.

“With Martin’s expert guidance, you’ll soon find that you have precisely the tools you need to turn your concentration back where it belongs—on making better pictures!”
—George Jardine, Lightroom instructor

“As a photographer himself, Martin Evening knows what tools photographers need to realize their creative vision. In this book, he shows not only how Adobe Photoshop Lightroom works but also why it will become an essential part of any photographer’s workflow.”
—Greg Gorman, photographer

This book’s companion site, www.thelightroombook.com, offers video tutorials, articles, sample images, and updates from author Martin Evening.

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Pictures Under Discussion
John Loengard

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Pictures Under Discussion
John Loengard

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Outdoor Photography Masterclass
Niall Benvie

Want to capture the glory of a sweeping meadow or an old oak tree at sunset? Learn how, in just three days, with Outdoor Photography Masterclass! Day one begins with a technical overview, from sharpness and calibration to workflow and digital options. Next, exercise those new-found skills right in the field. Finally, helpful tips guide photographers through finishing effects and the final presentation. Niall Benvie makes the seminar easy to follow, and examples of his own work provide ...

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Outdoor Photography Masterclass
Niall Benvie

Want to capture the glory of a sweeping meadow or an old oak tree at sunset? Learn how, in just three days, with Outdoor Photography Masterclass! Day one begins with a technical overview, from sharpness and calibration to workflow and digital options. Next, exercise those new-found skills right in the field. Finally, helpful tips guide photographers through finishing effects and the final presentation. Niall Benvie makes the seminar easy to follow, and examples of his own work provide inspiration.

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Parisians: Photographs by Peter Turnley ; Forewords by Edouard Boubat and Robert Doisneau ; Text by Adam Gopnik and Peter Turnle
Peter Turnley

As his loving but crisply unsentimental images make evident, Peter Turnley is a clear-eyed descendant of such master French photographers as Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Edouard Boubat; the latter two, in fact, have written brief tributes to him that serve as forewords to this book. That Turnley's work has been inspired by these earlier influences comes as no suprise, for as a young photographer he worked as Doisneau's assistant, and he subsequently became a close frie...

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Parisians: Photographs by Peter Turnley ; Forewords by Edouard Boubat and Robert Doisneau ; Text by Adam Gopnik and Peter Turnle
Peter Turnley

As his loving but crisply unsentimental images make evident, Peter Turnley is a clear-eyed descendant of such master French photographers as Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Edouard Boubat; the latter two, in fact, have written brief tributes to him that serve as forewords to this book. That Turnley's work has been inspired by these earlier influences comes as no suprise, for as a young photographer he worked as Doisneau's assistant, and he subsequently became a close friend of Boubat, meeting him "at least once a week for an afternoon glass of rouge and warm conversation." Yet Turnley's work is uniquely his own, rooted in his 25-year affair of the heart with the most beautiful city in the world. A longtime resident of the city, he invites us to share an intimate Paris that outsiders rarely see, giving us seductive glimpses of Paris life as lived on the street, in the Metro, and at countless neighborhood cafes.

160 duotone photographs
168 pages
11 3/8 x 11 3/8"
Trade Cloth

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August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set)
Susanne Lange

Revered as a father of modern photography, August Sander (1876- 1964) so refined the art of portraiture that his moving images of his fellow countrymen have been heralded both as an important sociological document and a photographic masterpiece. But those images make up only a portion of this deluxe seven-volume set, which will stand as the definitive collection of Sander's considerable achievement.

The books include some 150 never-before-seen images and essays by leading experts on th...

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August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set)
Susanne Lange

Revered as a father of modern photography, August Sander (1876- 1964) so refined the art of portraiture that his moving images of his fellow countrymen have been heralded both as an important sociological document and a photographic masterpiece. But those images make up only a portion of this deluxe seven-volume set, which will stand as the definitive collection of Sander's considerable achievement.

The books include some 150 never-before-seen images and essays by leading experts on the German photographer's work. Praising Sander's "vision . . . his knowledge, and his immense photographic talent," the writer Alfred Döblin said: "Those who know how to look will learn from his clear and powerful photographs, and will discover more about themselves and more about others."

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From My Window
Andre Kertesz

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From My Window
Andre Kertesz

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Lee Friedlander: Self Portrait
John Szarkowski

Lee Friedlander's surreal sensibility is on full display in this set of photographs, originally published in 1970. Here Friedlander focuses on the role of his own physical presence in his images. He writes: "At first, my presence in my photos was fascinating and disturbing. But as time passed and I was more a part of other ideas in my photos, I was able to add a giggle to those feelings." Here readers can witness this progression as Friedlander appears in the form of his shadow, or reflected ...

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Lee Friedlander: Self Portrait
John Szarkowski

Lee Friedlander's surreal sensibility is on full display in this set of photographs, originally published in 1970. Here Friedlander focuses on the role of his own physical presence in his images. He writes: "At first, my presence in my photos was fascinating and disturbing. But as time passed and I was more a part of other ideas in my photos, I was able to add a giggle to those feelings." Here readers can witness this progression as Friedlander appears in the form of his shadow, or reflected in windows and mirrors, and only occasionally fully visible through his own camera. In some photos he visibly struggles with the notion of self-portraiture, desultorily shooting himself in household mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Soon, though, he begins to toy with the pictures, almost teasingly inserting his shadow into them to amusing and provocative effect--elongated and trailing a group of women seen only from the knees down; cast and bent over a chair as if seated in it; mirroring the silhouette of someone walking down the street ahead of him; or falling on the desert ground, a large bush standing in for hair. These uncanny self-portraits evoke a surprisingly full landscape of the artist's life and mind. This reprint edition of Lee Friedlander: Self Portrait contains nearly 50 duotone images and an afterword by John Szarkowski, former Director of the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art.

Friedlander has created a dialogue between his own image and a wonderful array of his other subjects. --Walter Hopps, Artforum, December 2000

Afterword by John Szarkowski.

Hardcover, 10 x 9.5 in./104 pgs / 49 duotones.

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Lee Friedlander: The American Monument
Lee Friedlander

With more than 200 photographs scrupulously reproduced and bound ledger-style, The American Monument is a humorous, lyrical, and excessive expression of a country's obsession with immortalizing itself. Leslie Katz writes: "This photographer in these photographs affirms the residual order in the crazy scene. He understands and brings us human civilization, embattled but intact in the various wilds of American enterprise, whether downtown, in suburbia, or on the roof." First-edition classic, es...

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Lee Friedlander: The American Monument
Lee Friedlander

With more than 200 photographs scrupulously reproduced and bound ledger-style, The American Monument is a humorous, lyrical, and excessive expression of a country's obsession with immortalizing itself. Leslie Katz writes: "This photographer in these photographs affirms the residual order in the crazy scene. He understands and brings us human civilization, embattled but intact in the various wilds of American enterprise, whether downtown, in suburbia, or on the roof." First-edition classic, essay by Leslie Katz.

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At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women

At Twelve is a composite portrait that is both universal and intimately personal. As Ann Beattie writes in her perceptive introduction, "These girls still exist in an innocent world in which a pose is only a pose--what adults make of that pose may be the issue." Sally Mann's work is in the collections of major museums across the country. "Haunting black-and-white studies of children, shown here as surprisingly sensual and often distant beings, the magical keepers of some obscure and v...

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At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women

At Twelve is a composite portrait that is both universal and intimately personal. As Ann Beattie writes in her perceptive introduction, "These girls still exist in an innocent world in which a pose is only a pose--what adults make of that pose may be the issue." Sally Mann's work is in the collections of major museums across the country. "Haunting black-and-white studies of children, shown here as surprisingly sensual and often distant beings, the magical keepers of some obscure and vaguely frightening secrets." --Karen Lipson, Newsday At Twelve is a composite portrait that is both universal and intimately personal. As Ann Beattie writes in her perceptive introduction, "These girls still exist in an innocent world in which a pose is only a pose-what adults make of that pose may be the issue." Sally Mann's work is in the collections of major museums across the country. "Haunting black-and-white studies of children, shown here as surprisingly sensual and often distant beings, the magical keepers of some obscure and vaguely frightening secrets." -Karen Lipson, Newsday "Sally Mann's photography is a clear pane . . . not intrusion, but revelation. These young women distill something for the eye . . . something beautiful and sad and moving, something purely female." -Diane Sawyer Introduction by Ann Beattie. Paperback, 9.5 x 11 in./56 pgs

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Richard Misrach: Destroy This Memory

The photographs in Richard Misrach's Destroy This Memory are a stark, affecting reminder of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina as told by those on the ground, and seen through the lens of a contemporary master. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach--who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his ongoing Cancer Alley project--found himself drawn to the hurricane-inspired graffiti: messages scrawled in spray paint...

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Richard Misrach: Destroy This Memory

The photographs in Richard Misrach's Destroy This Memory are a stark, affecting reminder of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina as told by those on the ground, and seen through the lens of a contemporary master. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach--who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his ongoing Cancer Alley project--found himself drawn to the hurricane-inspired graffiti: messages scrawled in spray paint, crayons, chalk or whatever materials residents and rescue workers happened to have on hand. At turns threatening, desperate, clinical and even darkly humorous, the phrases he captures--the only text that appears in the book--offer revealing and unique human perspectives on the devastation and shock left in the wake of this disaster. Destroy This Memory presents previously unpublished and starkly compelling material, all of which Misrach shot with his 4 MP pocket camera while also working on a separate archive of over 1,000 photographs with his 8 x 10 large-format camera. Created between October and December 2005, this series of images serves as a potent, unalloyed document of the raw experiences of those left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of Katrina. With no essay, titles or even page numbers in the way, the words on these homes, cars and trees offer a searing testament that continues to speak volumes, five years after their original inscription.
Richard Misrach (born 1949) is credited with helping to pioneer the renaissance of color photography and large-scale presentation in the 1970s. He has exhibited extensively, and his work is held in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Art Institute of Chicago.

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