Archive for the 'Book Reviews' Category

BURN01 arrived

05/10/2010 / in BURNmagazine, Book Reviews and Shortcut. 0 Comments

BURN01 arrived. And it did so very fast – only three days since ordering, which beats almost all my amazon orders – and in perfect condition. Thanks to Diego Orlando, who did a great job with the organisation of it all and even reimbursed me part of the shipping costs!

I am happy to say, that BURN01 is BEAUTIFUL! Just amazing! David Alan Harvey did a grand job of editing down the incredible amount of essays he got for burnmagazine.org towards something rich, vibrant and divers. Even though I know most of the material from burnmagazine.org , the printed version made me rediscover it in a completely new and different way. Anton Kusters’ elegant layout provids a good framework for the images.
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Book: Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s

15/02/2010 / in Book Reviews, Photobooks /general, Photography & Illustration and Shortcut. 0 Comments

There has been a lot of talk about “Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s”, and now that I hold one of them in my hands I totally understand the reasons for the applause. If you are interested in photobooks this is definitively a must-have book. But do not take my word for it, have a look here:

5b4
Conscientious
The British Journal of Photography

… and here is an interview with Ivan Vartanian, one of the authors, on japan exposures, who said that “apart from helping the reader learn how to understand Japanese photography books, I want them to know how essential it is to Japanese photography. It’s very different from western photography, which has this idea that photographs must exist as a print. Japanese photography, in its ultimate form, is the photobook. Communicating that simple idea, to even a Japanese audience, is the main homework of this project. And you’d be amazed how revolutionary that idea is to people who are well versed in photography in the West.”

I will be showing some of the work featured inside this wonderful survey in “photography & Illustration” next.


Photography & Illustration: Peter Beard

11/02/2010 / in Book Reviews, Contemporary Photographers and Photography & Illustration. 0 Comments

Peter Beard’s Book Zara’s Tales: From Hog Ranch – Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa is just one of his many books. It was written for his young daughter Zara, and bought by me for my young niece Carlotta – although I fear I will have to wait until she is a little older to understand the content.

The official description on his website: “Zara’s Tales is an intricately woven series of eleven irresistible stories told to Peter Beard’s daughter, Zara, about his adventures in Kenya. His tales capture the essence of East Africa, bringing to life a cast of characters, including a 300-pound warthog named Thaka, who lived near his encampment. Man-eating lions and fifteen-foot crocodiles are part of every day life for Peter Beard, as he draws on the richness and diversity of East Africa to seduce the reader into a world of exploration, creativity, and excitement.”

I am not familiar with all of Peter Beard’s books but with some. While I am not normally drawn to overly decorated photographs, I totally dig the diary aspect of his work, which actually for me changes the whole frame into something I can very much appreciate. It is thus important to know that Zara’s Tales, like most of Peter Beard’s work, is part of his extended form of diary-keeping, which usually not only includes his writings and photographs, but also drawings and paintings, collages, blood and whatever else he thinks is necessary …

Zara’s Tales was published 2004 as a hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf in NY. It has 176 pages and includes Peter Beard’s photographs as well as “paintings by Mbuno, Mwangi, Galo-Galo, Kivoi, and the other members of the Hog Ranch art department.” (the Hog Ranch is Peter Beard’s Ranch in Kenya)


Have a look at Peter Beard’s official website
Here is an interview with him from 1998 (in German only)
Here is some kind of trailer about him on YouTube: Peter Beard – Scrapbooks from Africa and Beyond
And you can still get Zara’s Tales at Amazon - at least at the time I wrote this post.

By the way, Peter Beard did the Pirelli Calender 2009 :)

Read an interview about how he sees the current situation in Africa (and more) on the National Post website.


A must have: Riley and his story

07/01/2010 / in Book Reviews and Shortcut. 0 Comments

lassal-riley1

“Riley and his story.
Me and my outrage.
You and us.”

I got this book via mail today and to say it in only a few words: it is one of the best photobooks I have ever held in my hands. If you get a chance to still purchase it at onestar press — because it is only an edtion of 1000 copies — please do so and I guarantee you will not regret it.

I am currently and for the next couple of days busy finishing the edit of Pink Lobo. Just had my breakthrough today so I am going to put my copy of Monica Haller’s 480 page book away for the time being – I cannot use too many distractions right now. But here is one more amazing detail about the book:

lassal-riley2When I first saw this detail (above) I thought that the book came damaged, but no, it looks this way because the pages are not of the same size! Monica Haller explains it like this: “These particular pages are different sized, some shorter than others. They are designed to mimic the nature of memories — overlapping and intersecting.” And this twist really does it for the book, which, as I mentioned before, is one of the best things I have had in my hands for a long time.

If it is still available, you can buy it at onestar press. And maybe you will still get a nice little card from Melanie, wishing you a happy new year 2010. Even though I do not appreciate the catalogues from onestar so much — because they come as posters, which I just find extremely unhandy — I loved the little handwritten card … :)

Also I saw that Alec Soth has written about it on Little Brown Mushroom, his new blog. He even included a video of an interview he did with Monica Haller. Check it out.

Last but not least, here is the link to the project’s official website.