photo-eye Magazine Blogs - Melanie McWhorter

Andy Adams and Miki Johnson's "Best of Photobooks 2009"

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:25:00 -0400

"In the wake of the Best Book announcements posted on photo-eye Magazine we often encounter many more contributions to this "award" after publication. This year on the photo-eye blog, we posted Grant Willing's response to our best book list (originally posted on Humble Arts) and now Andy Adams, the noteworthy founder of Flak Photo, and LiveBooks and RESOLVE blogger Miki Johnson, have contributed their own response. As a follow-up to their hugely popular online discussion The Future of the Photobook (a follow-up to Joerg Colberg's post on Consciencious), Adams and Johnson have listed here their 10 most exciting photobook related projects for the 2009 year including print-on-demand books, newly founded blogs, not-for-profit publications and many other photography projects. We hope you enjoy this unique contribution to our Best Books lists."--Melanie McWhorter

Flak Photo.

RESOLVE

For a month starting in early December and prompted by a FlakPhoto feature of Blurb's Photography.Book.Now winners, we conducted cross-blog discussion exploring the question, "What will photobooks become over the next decade?" More than 50 bloggers from every corner of the photo world contributed posts with their ideas. An equal number of people added their comments on RESOLVE, especially on our three final discussions, mediated by top bloggers, examining innovative means of creating, consuming, and funding photobooks. One of our goals for this experiment in crowd sourcing was to pool the collective wisdom of so many thinkers to find the most exciting photobook projects going on right now. Below is a list of our favorite 10 (in no particular order) -- you can find even more fascinating projects and publications in our complete Future of Photobooks coverage. 1. Jörg Colberg (Conscientious) and Hester Keijser (Mrs. Deane) launched The Independent Photo Book in early January. The project consists of a blog where photographers can send their independently produced and distributed books and zines, along with information on how to purchase them, creating a simple online clearinghouse for visual texts -- 70 so far.
2. Although this book contains no photographs, it is nonetheless the most futuristic book idea we came across. It is a physical book that you read by taking a photo of it with your cameraphone, which converts an abstract digital image into words, which update automatically every week from a keyword search on Twitter. Get it? Just watch the video. We promise, it's cool. (via Jonathan Worth) 3. A country road. A tree. Evening is a "film in progress" art project installed on a digital tablet and sold through a gallery. We're not sure if it's a book -- or even if it's physical or digital -- but it's definitely thinking outside the box. (via Harlan Erskine) 4. The 13th issue of Hamburger Eyes (a San Francisco-based street photography magazine) was funded through the online fundraising site Kickstarter last summer. The magazine met it's goal in only three days and even took in an extra $1,000, allowing them to print a larger magazine than ever before. (via Jin Zhu) 5. The collaborative online essay project Words Without Pictures, a simple blog format that became something of an online phenomenon, is now available as a physical book through the print-on-demand service, Lulu and soon to be printed by Aperture. (via Larissa Leclair) 6. Pictory is a beautiful new crowd-sourced, curated online magazine from former JPG maven Laura Brunow Miner. She works with guest editors for each issue and emphasizes personal, detailed photo captions to provide context, something sorely lacking with most of the millions of digital images we're bombared with daily.

From One hundred flowers 7. Small runs of myriad unclassifiable art books became available this year through the new Lozen Up shop, the physical extension of the LOZ blog photography showcase. (via Laurence Vecten) 8. The international multimedia piece Around the World, Street Photography in B&W highlights a growing movement toward collaborative creative projects, spurred by the ease of contact provided by online communications as well as the increasingly isolated nature of creativity in a digital world. (via Francesco Gallarotti) 9. More collective creativity, this time with physical results, produced two of the most widely recognized photo books this year, both highlighting images from a wide variety of photographers: Publication from Nick Turpin and Lay Flat from Shane Lavalette (with guest editors Michael Bühler-Rose and Karly Wildenhaus). (via Nick Turpin, Francesco Gallarotti, Bryan Formhals) 10. The Obama Time Capsule, a book released early this year by A Day in the Life creator Rick Smolan, is a print-on-demand book documenting the historic election. The true innovation (and something we're sure to see more of) is readers can add their own images to the book and received a personalized (print-on-demand) version to not just commemorate the event but incorporate it into their own family history. (via Jonathan Worth)

Grant Willing's Top 9 Books of 2009

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:57:00 -0400

Grant Willing from Svart Metall.

Grant Willing's book Svart Metall was selected by Ron Jude & Danielle Mericle of A-Jump Books as one of the best books of 2009. In light of our impressive list of Best Books of 2009, Grant has picked his book and listed on the Humble Arts Blog. Here are Grant's picks for The Top 9 Books of 2009: the change we wanted, and the change we got
Alex John Beck / Inadequate Animal Sketch of Home
JH Engström Farewell Horse Roe Ethridge Shocked Into Abstraction
Mattias Faldbakken Landmasses and Railways
Bertrand Fleuret From Blue To Blue
Martien Mulder From Back Home
Anders Petersen & JH Engström A Day In The Life Of
Torbjørn Rødland Elisabeth - I want to eat
Mariken Wessels

Renee Jacobs Interview with Charis Wilson

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:04:00 -0400

AT THE AGE of 93, Charis Wilson has seen more than most people ever will -- and the art world has seen more of her than almost any other woman in the history of photography. As Edward Weston's lover, writer, companion, driver (Weston never learned to drive), and model from 1934-1945, Charis left an indelible imprint on Weston's work and the way in which his photographic nudes are examined. Read the entire interview on PHOTOICON

Ed Burtynsky on Ted.com

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:40:00 -0400

Elizabeth Avedon Interviews Rare Book Specialist Eric Miles

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:23:00 -0400

Josef Sudek: Fotografie (Signed in 1959).

Can you give a brief history of your work with photo-eye Auctions, beginning in Santa Fe and expanding to NYC? EM: I started working with photo-eye in January of 2004, just a few months after the auctions launched. Initially, I was hired to do cataloging. As with many positions at photo-eye, job descriptions have a way of rapidly expanding to include many other tasks. Thankfully, in my case, most of these had to do with administering the auctions: cataloging, scanning, and working with consignors. Within about six months, they had become more or less my exclusive domain. For this reason, the move to NY in the fall of 2007 was pretty much seamless. Being in NY, I obviously get out more and am able to secure more and better consignments. Read the entire interview on Elizabeth Avedon's blog.

Dan Milnor interviews Ed Grazda on Smogranch

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:09:00 -0400

Ed signing books in his New York apartment. copyright Dan Milnor.

Much time had passed since my days in Austin. I still own Grazda's first book, and knew now there was a follow up book, Afghanistan Diary 1992-2000, which chronicled the following ten-year time frame in the life of Afghanistan. And there was also a book regarding the Masjid in New York. Doing what we do today when we try to find something or someone, I Googled Ed, and low and behold there he was. An email address. I wrote to Ed, he wrote back, and a few short days later I was sitting in his apartment with a tentative list of questions and slightly sweaty hands.

Read the entire interview on Dan Milnor's blog Smogranch.

Charis Wilson dies at 95

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0400

Edward Weston, Edward Weston Archive/Center for Creative Photography
Charis Wilson pictured in Edward Weston's "Nude, 1936." .

Charis Wilson, who was lover, muse, model, amanuensis and wife of the photographer Edward Weston and the subject of many of his best-known nude portraits, died on Friday in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 95. Read the entire obituary by Bruce Weber in The New York Times.

FotoGrafia--Fotofestival Internazionale di Roma Book Prize

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:44:00 -0400

Shown from top, clockwise: Deformer, Elisabeth- I want to eat, and Open See. In May 2009, FotoGrafia- Fotofestival Internazionale di Roma celebrated its fifth year under the direction of photographer and publisher Marco Delogu of Punctum Books. The festival hosted a mix of lectures and exhibitions by photographers such as Nan Goldin, Rinko Kawauchi and Don McCullin. Other special events included a slide exhibition featuring the work of Gus Powell and Juliana Beasley, and the Premio FotoGrafia Libro Award for the best Italian and International photobooks. The jury for this year's Premio FotoGrafia Libro Award was comprised of myself; Benedetta Cestelli Guidi of S.T. Foto Libreria Galleria; curator Marta Dahó; Erik Kessels of KesselsKramer; and Michele Smargiassi of la Repubblica. We judged over 180 books in the second Italian and first International book award of Fotofestival di Roma. Each judge selected 5 to 10 books from the books on display and all the votes were tallied. The Damiani book Deformer by Ed Templeton was unanimously selected for the Italian Book Award. Steidl's book Open See by Jim Goldberg was selected in the first round of voting for the International Gold Metal Award. Then the jury had to revisit all books with 2 or 3 votes. After some espresso, pastries and a vigorious hand-washing, the jury was ready to tackle the final list of six books for the second place winner: Episode Books' Baghdad Calling, Postcart's Non si avrà ragione di me: Poeti del Novecento per Dino Campana, Contrasto's Oltrenero, Hysteric Glamour's Hokkaido, plus the self-published books 101 Billionaires by Rob Hornstra and Elisabeth- I want to eat by Mariken Wessels. Each judge was allowed as much time as needed to decide on the Silver Award winner for the International Prize. After a brief time of deliberation the jury came to a consensus on young Dutch photographer Mariken Wessel's book Elisabeth. Benedetta Cestelli Guidi questioned whether the books were too similar in content to be on the final list. After some thought on the topic all of the judges agreed that "all the books selected by the jury are finished works in their own right, greater than an exhibition of their parts. The narrative characteristics normally associated with the nature of a journal are present in all the final selections." The judging of the book prize was a wonderful and rewarding experience. Italian printing, and particularly photobook printing, has a reputation for being the best in the world while Rome is a mecca for many photographers to shoot and study at higher schools of learning such as the American Academy, British School, Academie de France or Czech Cultural Institute, all located in the city. The festival's motivation is to establish Italian photography's place in the world by showcasing Italian-made works and bringing international photographers to Roman audiences. It was a world-class festival and I was honored to be involved in their first International Book Prize.

photo-eye Magazine Named Amazing

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:33:00 -0400

Last week, Smashing Magazine announced their selection of 40 Amazing Online Photography Magazines. We were excited to make the cut alongside a slew of our wonderful contemporaries including Flak Photo, lens culture, Deep Sleep, Purpose , Ahorn, 1000 Words and VII, is photo-eye's Online Magazine. This seems like a decent time to recap what we've been up to for those of you who may be newcomers to the site -- after over 25 years of printed text, we launched our online magazine in August 2008 with a salute to the The Americans and two articles on Frank by Jeff Ladd and Karl Baden entitled Report from the May 15th Robert Frank event at Lincoln Center and Covering Robert Frank. Since then we've been honored to feature stories on a slew of wonderful photographers and their books, including Zoe Strauss, Mary Ellen Mark and Hank Willis Thomas-- among others.

Robert Adams wins 2009 Hasselblad Award

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:47:00 -0400

Robert Adams getting the diploma from Barbro Osher © Joshua Chuang

The Hasselblad Foundation announced today that photographer Robert Adams has been awarded their prestigious annual prize. Adams was one of the photographers featured in the legendary New Topographics exhibition, and has since produced an enviable set of publications including What We Bought. The New World, Scenes from the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1970-1974 and denver. A Photographic Survey of the Metropolitan Area, 1973-1974 (both links here, second edition), and Eden. More info can be found on the Hasselblad Foundation website including the transcript from the live chat with Robert Adams that took place earlier today.

Art 21 Series Now Available at Hulu.com

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:46:00 -0400

An-My Le hanging photograph in a still from Protest

The first of four episodes of the PBS documentary series Art 21 first aired in 2002 with the theme of Place. PBS followed with four episodes per season in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Each episode was themed with titles like Consumption, Power, Romance, and Paradox. All four seasons of are now available at hulu.com at no charge. Artists interviewed come from varied backgrounds and media. Some of the photographers include Robert Adams (Ecology), Roni Horn (Structures), Hubbard & Birchler, An-My Le (Protest), Sally Mann (Place) and William Wegman (Identity).

Interview with Malick Sidibé

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:31:00 -0400

Your studio portraits... As a rule, when I was working in the studio, I did a lot of the positioning. As I have a background in drawing, I was able to set up certain positions in my portraits. I didn't want my subjects to look like mummies. I would give them positions that brought something alive in them. When you look at my photos, you are seeing a photo that seems to move before your eyes. Those are the sort of poses I gave them. Not poses that were inert or lifeless. No. People who have life need to be positioned that way. In '57, there was a young lady who wanted to be photographed. One day she came in and I placed her in front of the camera. I had a Semflex. I positioned her and said, "Right, let's take your photo."

Read more of the interview at lens culture. The interview was transcribed from the video produced by Jerome Sother for Gwinzegal. Recorded in Rouen, 2008.

LIFE Archive Now Online

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0400

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Beginning today, LIFE.com will provide users with access to more than seven million photos from the LIFE and Getty Images archives, with approximately 3,000 new photos from Getty Images added daily. The site's dynamic, user-friendly interface will make it easy for consumers to find photos from Getty Images' comprehensive archival and current collections and LIFE's extensive photo archive, including photos from as early as the 1850s, the vast majority of which were never published in the pages of the magazine. The site will also offer photo galleries, including news, celebrity, sports, travel and animals; the most relevant and timely photos will be featured daily. Additionally, celebrity curators will create galleries that feature their favorite photos of a particular subject or theme. The site launches with Ellen DeGeneres as the first celebrity curator. Her gallery features some of her favorite dog photos and commentary.

View the archive at LIFE.com.

Photographer Helen Levitt dies at 95

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:11:00 -0400

Photograph from Helen Levitt by Helen Levitt, published by powerHouse Books, 2008

Helen Levitt, a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York, died in her sleep at her home in Manhattan on Sunday. She was 95. In Ms. Levitt's best-known picture, three properly dressed children prepare to go trick-or-treating on Halloween 1939. Standing on the stoop outside their house, they are in almost metaphorical stages of readiness. The girl on the top step is putting on her mask; a boy near her, his mask in place, takes a graceful step down, while another boy, also masked, lounges on a lower step, coolly surveying the world.

Read more of the Helen Levitt obituary in the New York Times. Read Sybil Miller's photo-eye Magazine feature.

The American Dream as Concept vs. Reality

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:26:00 -0400

The American Dream, however that is defined by each individual grasping for it, is a nebulous creature always seductively luring the lower classes (as the upper classes have supposedly reached the finish line) to its bosom often to find out that a wet nurse is needed. David Kamp in the new issue of Vanity Fair discusses this illusive creature and the many years of discourse surrounding how this American concept, as he states there is no "Canadian Dream or Slovakian Dream", was founded as a "freedom from want, not freedom to want world away from the idea that the patriotic thing to do in tough times is go shopping," and its evolution through the years.

The American Dream was now almost by definition unattainable, a moving target that eluded people's grasp; nothing was ever enough. It compelled Americans to set unmeetable goals for themselves and then consider themselves failures when these goals, inevitably, went unmet. In examining why people were thinking this way, Easterbrook raised an important point. "For at least a century," he wrote, "Western life has been dominated by a revolution of rising expectations: Each generation expected more than its antecedent. Now most Americans and Europeans already have what they need, in addition to considerable piles of stuff they don't need."

Illustration from the Article "Rethinking the American Dream."
Family Romp in the Living Room (1959), by Lee Howick. 2009 Kodak, courtesy of George Eastman House.

Thanks to Scott Lessing's blog for an introduction to the article.