While I was developing my review of Linda Connor's Odssey, I was contacted by Ben Zlotkin who founded Edition One Books and who by chance had been a student of Linda Connor. Subsequent conversations with Ben and Linda then segwayed to an introduction to Anne Veh, the photographic curator at Cavallo Point, a resort lodge across the Golden Gate... Continue Reading →
Jerry Burchfield – Understory
Photographs copyright of Jerry Burchfield 2009 courtesy of Laguna Wilderness Press Jerry Burchfield’s recent (2009) photobook Understory: Florida Lumen Prints, is his sequal to his 2004 photobook Primal Images, both of which utilize his camera-less photographic process to create his unique Lumen prints. The subject of this book has shifted from the plants and flora of... Continue Reading →
Dan Nelken – Till the Cows Come Home
Copyright Dan Nelken, 2008, courtesy Kehrer Verlag Dan Nelken’s Till the Cows Come Home, is a culmination of nine years photographing county fairs in the rural NorthEast region of the United States. His project evolved into creating moving portraits of the farming participants, especially the youth and the animals that they raised. Not shown are... Continue Reading →
Debra Bloomfield – Still
Copyright Debra Bloomfield, 2008 courtesy Chronicle Books The subject of Debra Bloomfields latest book, Still, published in 2008 by Chronicle Books, is a series of oceanscapes; composed of part ocean and part sky with a horizon somewhere in between. Which is also to say that she treads softly on the edge of sentimentality and cliché.... Continue Reading →
Recent International Book Awards – June 2009
I am getting caught up on other book publishing news and I want to pass along two recent international book awards. The Europena Publishers Award went to Klavdij Sluban, a French photographer, and the Award guarantees that his project 'East to East' will now be published in book form. So we look forward to seeing it probably sometime... Continue Reading →
David Maisel – Library of Dust
Photographs copyright of David Maisel courtesy of Chronicle Books As a designer, principally developing sterile barrier systems for medical products, it was jarring for me to see David Maisel’s photographs from his recent book, Library of Dust. Seeing containers in these deplorable conditions is the stuff of nightmares for me. So I see his photographic content in a... Continue Reading →
Darius Himes – Photography.Book.Now
I had an opportunity recently to discuss with Darius Himes, co-founder and editor of Radius Books, about his role as lead judge for Blurb's Photography.Book.Now contest. The deadline for entries is July 16, 2009. DS Darius, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to discuss your involvement with Blurb's Photography.Book.Now competition. This is your... Continue Reading →
Roger Ballen – Boarding House
Copyright Roger Ballen, 2008, courtesy Phaidon Press For most of the photobooks I review, they usually are stand alone books, but I feel that Roger Ballen's recent book Boarding House needs to be placed into a larger perspective. Specifically to the content of his two previous books, Shadow Chamber, published in 2005 and Outland, published in 2001, both by Phaidon Press. Otherwise, it feels... Continue Reading →
Graciela Iturbide – El Bano de Frida Kahlo
Copyright Garciela Iturbide, 2008 courtesy ROSEGALLERY This an interesting little book, perhaps two books within one set of covers, a fictional story, complemented by a related photographic body of work. The fictional story is written by Mario Bellatin, titled Demerol, Without Expiration Date and is about the "recent" artistic work being completed by Frida Kahlo. Except of course that Kahlo... Continue Reading →
Linda Connor – Odyssey
Copyright Linda Connor, 2008, courtesy of Chronicle Books and Joseph Bellows Gallery; Astrophotograph, copyright of the Regents of California, the Lick Observatory Plate Archive In Homer's Odyssey, an early Greek poem, Odysseus is on an epic journey and encounters endless trials and tribulations during the ten years it takes for him to reach his home. Odysseus was not only trying to reach his home during his struggle... Continue Reading →