The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
copyright 2005 Nick Brandt published by Chronicle Books First let me say, I am not a big fan of "animal" books. But this is not photographic book of animals in the usual sense. Oh, yes, Brandt does show us many of the wild animals of East Africa, but in a very different context than the normal safari document. There... Continue Reading →
Time Out, 2005 copyright of Julie Blackmon, courtesy Radius Books At first glance, Blackmon's photographs are super real observations of a large knit family on the edge of total chaos and about to go out of control. In others words real life with families and real children. Whether her photographs really are direct observations or a constructed reality they connect with the... Continue Reading →
Copyright 1987 Joel Sternfeld; 1994 stiff-cover edition published by Chronicle Books in conjunction with The Friends of Photography I will first have to admit that I like Joel Sternfeld's urban landscape photographs thus discussing his first book, "American Prospects" , will be a relatively easy task for me. Sternfeld photographs the urban landscape in a similar vein as... Continue Reading →
Windows and Mirrors by John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) When I initially wrote about Windows and Mirrors, American Photography since 1960 by the late John Szarkowski in August 2008, it was from my personal perspective of how I have used this book over the years to try to help me understand his two basic photographic tenets; a... Continue Reading →
review by Douglas Stockdale • I recently had the opportunity to purchase a used copy of the Aperture Monograph of Diane Arbus, which had been reissued in softcover in 1997 as a twenty-five year anniversary issue. With a retrospective look at a photographers body of work there is an opportunity to see how well it weathers the test of... Continue Reading →
"cour 7 rue de Valencia", 1922, Eugene Atget, courtesy of MOMA I had published an earlier article in Singular Images about my continuing interest in Eugene Atget's photographic urban landscapes. I subsequently purchased the hardcover book Atget by the late John Szarkowski published by MOMA as a first edition in 2000. All I can say is that this is a wonderful book for... Continue Reading →
Book review by Douglas Stockdale • After purchasing Robert Frank's PARIS, published by Steidl in 2008, I have been hesitating to publish my book review. Part of my procrastination was purchasing a copy of Frank's The Americans, published by Steidl as part of their "Robert Frank Project", as a baseline for comparison. I am happy that I did buy... Continue Reading →
The Americans - copyright of Robert Frank published by Steidl, 2008 special edition How one thing sometimes leads to another, as I had recently purchased a new Robert Frank book Paris while I was in Philadelphia and I figured it would be easy to relate Paris to The Americans without owning a copy of The Americans.... Continue Reading →
The (softcover & hardcover) book, Octave of Prayer, Edited by Minor White and published by Aperture books (1972), was a distillation of Whites thoughts on how a photograph could have meaning beyond the image on the paper. And in true White fashion, he has included only one of his own photographs in the book, but probably most... Continue Reading →
Placerita Canyon Cascade, photograph copyright of Douglas Stockdale (Originally published in Singular Images, 05/31/07)...Minor White published the text for Octave of Prayer as an Aperture publication in 1972 concurrent with an exhibit of the same name at MIT. Worth reading if you can find a copy. I have been re-reading my tattered copy (a "HURT" book to begin... Continue Reading →
