Book Description
Much Anticipated Second Volume of the Story of Photographythrough the History of the Photobook; Compiled by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger "The Photobook: A History, Volume I, by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, isthe most important contribution to the field since modern histories ofphotography began to appear in the early twentieth century.We can be surethat this book, and its forthcoming second volume, will lead the way torevitalization of thinking and publishing in the field.It dwarfs previouspublications in both its scope and the information it provides."(Photo-Eye, December 2004) More photobooks are being published now than ever.For most photographers,this format is the ideal vehicle to present their work and communicatetheir vision to a mass audience.While the history of photography is awell-established canon, much less critical attention has been devoted tothis alternative history of the medium through the pages of the photobookFollowing the critically acclaimed first volume, THE PHOTOBOOK: A HISTORY:VOLUME II, co-edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, brings the mostcomprehensive illustrated history of the photobook fully up to date. Featuring over 200 photobooks, this lush survey offers a fresh approach tophotographic history and is a celebration of the medium's diversity. Broadly thematic in structure, each chapter features an introductory easyfollowed by detailed discussion of the individual photobooks alongsideimages of the book covers and spreads. While the first volume stressed the subjective nature of the history of themedium and how that history was molded by the influences of curators andhistorians, the second volume brings a new perspective from the viewpointof the photographer and the editor.A secret web of influences andinterconnections between photographers and photographic movements aroundthe world is revealed producing a global network of ideas.Spanning from Edouard Baldus's magnificent book for the Paris-Lyons RailwayCompany of 1861 to Stephen Shore's American Surfaces of 2005, thedevelopment of photography in its published form is the main focus.THEPHOTOBOOK: A HISTORY: VOLUME II is a chronicle of contemporary life,covering key artistic genres, including The American Photobook, TheEuropean Photobook, The Artist's Photobook and The Company Photobook. Gerry Badger explains the narrative function this unique format provides,"The photobook has become a worldwide phenomenon as practitioners of allcultures look to photography as a means of understanding the world aroundthem."The books that fill the pages of this magnificent volume havedefined photography, telling us just as much about the history of themedium as the history of the world.THE PHOTOBOOK: A HISTORY: VOLUME II isan indispensable resource.
Customer Reviews:
Through the lens with print: part two.......2006-12-27
As I wrote in my review of the first edition, both will surely become the standard reference about photobooks. This second one is mostly concerned with contemporary photography and the coverage is really impressive which raises an important point: both books regard their subject as a lively and energetic creative medium and not a dry academic one reflecting an elitist point-of-view.
Just over two hundred photobooks are considered in nine chapters and like book one each has a technical caption (publisher, size, pages, date etc) and an excellent analysis of the photos and the book. The coverage, as I mentioned is very comprehensive. There is a chapter devoted to books that are not commercially available (The Company Photobook) and the twenty-five covered include a high school yearbook, or chapter six: Looking at Photographs, where the theme is the picture editor as author with twenty-two books. Controversy is not avoided either, chapter eight looks at the work of the New Topographic photographers with their stark takes on blast furnaces, prisons and other potential visual failures of society.
This second book is the same design, with excellent printing and paper, as the first (and to my mind) has the same fault in that there are not enough spreads shown from all the books looked at despite plenty of white space on each page. This does seem an odd editorial oversight when the purpose of the book is to show pages from books full of photographs. The first book had a few examples of many pages from a particular book but I could only find one in this book: a 1957 Norfolk and Western brochure where seventeen pages are shown (out of eighteen) using Winston Link's wonderful train photos
Look through the 656 pages of these two books and you'll soon realise that Badger and Parr have achieved a remarkably lively study. Surely the photobook gold standard.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
An excellent sequel..........2006-10-29
Just where Volume 1 left off, Volume 2 takes off. Very thorough and well organized, be reminded this is not an all inclusive book of books. You may agree with some of the entries and you may also disagree, but, most important, you'll end up learning on new possible entries for your library as well as discarding considered ones.
All in all an exquisite reference book. Enjoy...T
Average customer rating:
- Creating a Canon For Selling Collectible Books
- Superb undertaking, despite some conceptual flaws
- Through the lens with print
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The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1
Martin Parr , and
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ASIN: 0714842850 |
Amazon.com
From Street Life in London to Hiroshima, from The Royal Mummies to Perspective of Nudes and The Sweet Flypaper of Life, photobooks encompass a tremendous diversity of subjects and styles. While some of these illustrated volumes are famous (Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion, Robert Frank's The Americans), many others are known only to specialists. The Photobook: A History offers an engrossing survey of this art form, beginning with early experiments in photography in mid-19yh-century England and ending with raucous Japanese photo-diaries of the 1990s. The scope of this handsomely designed book—the first of two volumes—is so broad that only a few pages of each photobook could be illustrated, and some of the 750 color and black-and-white reproductions are quite small. But the incisive commentary by British photographer Martin Parr and photo critic Gerry Badger opens up new worlds of visual information. The authors provide essential grounding, not only in the history of photography, but also in the artistic and social movements that influenced the look and content of photobooks. In the 19th century, the object was to collect and to classify, whether the subject was a foreign landscape, a war, the surface of the moon or the manufacture of bread. Conversely, 20th-century photobooks are often frankly subjective, drawing on movements ranging from surrealism to the Beats. Yet a quasi-scientific approach could result in poignant imagery (as in Facies Dolorosa, a study of the faces of seriously ill people), and artistic subjectivity could yield bitter truths (Helen Levitt's A Way of Seeing, images of poor children in New York). Describing photobooks of the polemical 1930s as "the great persuaders," Parr and Badger remark that the best documentary work demonstrates an awareness of the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the medium. Although we tend to think of propaganda solely as the product of totalitarian regimes (see "Long Live the Bright Instruction," a Chinese tract featuring unnervingly happy workers), the authors remind us that photobooks celebrating the American way of life often naively ignored the complex socio-political forces that underlie a sentimental or cheerful scene. The final chapter, devoted to postwar Japanese photobooks, vividly illuminates the cocktail of hedonism, rage and despair that makes these volumes extraordinary visual documents. --Cathy Curtis
Book Description
From Street Life in London to Hiroshima, from The Royal Mummies to Perspective of Nudes and The Sweet Flypaper of Life, photobooks encompass a tremendous diversity of subjects and styles. While some of these illustrated volumes are famous (Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion, Robert Frank's The Americans), many others are known only to specialists. The Photobook: A History offers an engrossing survey of this art form, beginning with early experiments in photography in mid-19yh-century England and ending with raucous Japanese photo-diaries of the 1990s. The scope of this handsomely designed book#151;the first of two volumes#151;is so broad that only a few pages of each photobook could be illustrated, and some of the 750 color and black-and-white reproductions are quite small. But the incisive commentary by British photographer Martin Parr and photo critic Gerry Badger opens up new worlds of visual information. The authors provide essential grounding, not only in the history of photography, but also in the artistic and social movements that influenced the look and content of photobooks. In the 19th century, the object was to collect and to classify, whether the subject was a foreign landscape, a war, the surface of the moon or the manufacture of bread. Conversely, 20th-century photobooks are often frankly subjective, drawing on movements ranging from surrealism to the Beats. Yet a quasi-scientific approach could result in poignant imagery (as in Facies Dolorosa, a study of the faces of seriously ill people), and artistic subjectivity could yield bitter truths (Helen Levitt's A Way of Seeing, images of poor children in New York). Describing photobooks of the polemical 1930s as "the great persuaders," Parr and Badger remark that the best documentary work demonstrates an awareness of the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the medium. Although we tend to think of propaganda solely as the product of totalitarian regimes (see "Long Live the Bright Instruction," a Chinese tract featuring unnervingly happy workers), the authors remind us that photobooks celebrating the American way of life often naively ignored the complex socio-political forces that underlie a sentimental or cheerful scene. The final chapter, devoted to postwar Japanese photobooks, vividly illuminates the cocktail of hedonism, rage and despair that makes these volumes extraordinary visual documents. --Cathy Curtis
Customer Reviews:
Creating a Canon For Selling Collectible Books.......2007-03-16
This volume, along with its companion volume, offer little in the way of useful or intelligent commentary (it is otherwise recycled pabulum wasted on a body of books that, for the most part, were treated to celebrity status by Roth). Instead, we're treated to an obscure and incomprehensibly limited canon which is sold as if it were created in a vaccuum with only the purest of intellectual and aesthetic intentions and aspirations (please look at Parr's actual photographs before buying this book--you can get a better appreciation of his specific photographic style). The reality--both of these volumes (and the books contained therein) seem to have been selected primarily for their price in the rare book world (Roth is guilty of basing his selection process on the market as well, but at least he's tranparently a rare book dealer). This wouldn't bother me so much except that there are glaring omissions from both Parr/badger volumes (Misrach's Bravo 20, anything from John Pfahl, anything from Helmut Newton, Frank Horvat, Andres Serrano, Jan Dibbets, Ken Schles, James Van Der Zee, Jerry Uelsmann, Richard Prince, etc...) It is also troubling because up until perhaps even a year ago the rare photobook market was dominated by a handful of collectors (whose ability to judge photography, as far as I can tell, is somewhat suspect). The general proposed intent of the project is noble (cataloging the important photobooks of the world), but I don't think that these authors are qualified in any way to be the critics of what photobooks have actually been important (can we get Irving Penn, William Klein, Araki,and a panel of actual legends to make some selections?). And so, we are treated to a very strange mixture of blue chip photobooks, some of which are obviously important, and some of which are just expensive cult favorites with the collectors. Buyer beware--most of the books within have catapulted even higher in value almost exclusively based off of the premise that they were included in these books. There are plenty of photobooks worth collecting (perhaps even more worthy than most of the books included herein) and there are lots of little-known volumes from the greats (also not treated here) worth pursuing and, more importantly, viewing and enjoying. Photobooks were being produced before this list was assembled and will continue to be created long after these forgettable volumes are replaced with more academic and more interesting attempts. These books are not a terrible point of departure for the neophyte collector but be advised that these books repeatedly confuse monetary and artistic merit without apparently being aware of their own confusion. If you are interested in serious collecting, I'd advise either finding a copy of Roth (if you are interested in collecting a canon of well-established books that are unlikely to shift in value significantly) or, more simply and elegantly, spend some time at your local library learning who Mapplethorpe, Lartgiue, Saudek and rest really are (you can find the names on the internet fairly simply and looking through the actual books beats reading these surveys any day). It's free and you'll be able to craft your own tastes before you begin the process of investing in your won photobook collection.
Superb undertaking, despite some conceptual flaws.......2005-12-21
This is a marvelous volume that can be enjoyed by book and photography lovers alike. As an object in its own right it exhibits a level of refinement in conception and execution that has become rare in our age of mass-produced books. Of course, there are many specialist photobook publishers but they seem to focus exclusively on print quality to increase the perceived value of their publications, whilst neglecting the vital contribution of design in a book's overall appearance (and desirability). In the Phaidon-volume, the exquisitely judged rhythm of layout and typography complement the vivid reproductions of vintage photobook material into a very exciting whole.
To be sure, the care spent on the production of this book is not gratuitous. To the contrary, it is a statement that reinforces the basic conceptual tenets held by Badger and Parr. From the introductory pages we learn that not every and any book that has been conceived around a collection of photographs merits to be included in the class of "photobooks". A photobook - as Badger and Parr understand it - is more than just the sum of its parts: pictures, words, design, and choice of subject all contribute to something which transcends the meaning of a photographic portfolio. This is all illuminating and one could certainly say that the "Photobook" is an instructive example of this synergy between various elements.
However, I wished that the editorial team would have left it at that. I think Badger and Parr are moving onto much more controversial ground when they hold forth that the emblematic photobook is a kind of dramatic event, "comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film" in which the individual photographs lose their own character as things in themselves. Apart from being theoretically doubtful, I believe this criterion is simply too stringent and many vintage photobooks featured in this survey do not comply with it. For example, many of the early books were photo albums in the true sense of the word: bound collections of original prints glued onto white pages. Similarly, it is difficult to see in some of the modernist books - such as Erhardt "Das Watt" or Mendelsohn's "Amerika" - anything more than an expertly produced photographic portfolio. In each of these examples there is coherence, but it does not derive from some kind of dramatic or narrative logic. It can simply be a unity of style which holds a photobook together. Positioning the photobook "between the novel and film", therefore, raises more questions than it provides us with answers. It doesn't really help to make sense of "a ragged and sprawling subject, with more than its fair share of anomalies".
It is perhaps more useful to investigate how Badger and Parr have tried to organise their material within the confines of this volume (and the next). They seem to have relied on three different lines of thought. The first is chronological (it's a history after all). The survey starts with the very first publications, early on in the history of photography and will end with a section on "The Photobook and Modern Life". In this sense, the book can be studied as a remarkably lively and varied panorama of how photographers have engaged with their craft over the last 150 years.
The second organising principle is geographical: some of the individual chapters focus on a distinct area of cultural production (the US, Europe and Japan; the next volume features a chapter on "The Worldwide Photobook"). Finally, there is "intention" as a structuring element. Photobooks have been produced to serve a variety of purposes: to tell a story, to tell a non-story (stream-of-consciousness-like books), to non-tell a story (to deconstruct), to document, to persuade, etc. Indeed, a valuable photobook can even limit itself to simply showing. Most of the chapters in the two volumes put some kind of "intention" at the center of the discussion.
I think Badger and Parr's conception of their own book is to a certain extent at odds with their conceptual emphasis on the dramatic nature of photobooks. If there is drama in "The Photobook", it is mediated by the words that accompany the various chapters, not by the visuals. In other words: it is a conceptual not a photographic narrative that unfolds. As regards the visuals, curiously enough the daring use of white space and drop shadows around the book and page reproductions really make them stand out as preciously unique. Leafing through the book is akin to walking between carefully presented museum exhibits. In this sense, "The Photobook" clearly `shows' and, therefore pulls us away from the dramatic sweep of history.
Despite these theoretical misgivings there is not a shade of doubt in my mind that this book deserves five stars. It is a fabulous book and I look forward with keen anticipation to the second and final volume.
Through the lens with print.......2005-02-19
This book (and the next volume) will surely become the standard reference for anyone wanting to know about photobooks and in creating a new word for photographs in a book perhaps this will create a new publishing genre too. The author's rightly point out that photography is a printed-page medium and the four hundred and fifty titles examined, with just over two hundred in this first book, probably represent the best (or most interesting) titles ever published.
The nine chapters give a lucid in depth review of photobooks to the 1970s with Anna Atkins 1843 'Photographs of British Algae' taking the first photobook prize. I particularly enjoyed chapter six, Medium and Message: the photobook as propaganda, basically dealing with Soviet books in the Thirties and the examples shown are quite extraordinary in their use of images and design. Reproducing the pages from these books would easily make a separate title. The other fascinating chapter was nine, dealing with postwar Japanese books, again the reproduced jackets and spreads show amazing creativity and vision, not only in the choice of photos but also in the use of printing and binding techniques.
Stunning though this book is I thought there was one particular weakness, in so many of the books there are not enough pages shown. Many of them have two pages, for instance 'An American Exodus' by Lange and Taylor, there are fifteen spreads so it is possible to follow the flow of images or Avery Brodovitch's 'Ballet' with eighteen spreads to capture the feel of the subject. Most of the titles though are two or three to a spread allowing mostly a cover plus four or six pages from inside the book but annoyingly there is easily room for more pages had there been a slight adjustment to the book detail text that accompanies each photobook. The excess white space really should have been put to better use. Despite this the paper and printing of the book is first class, the images are reproduced in a fine screen as cut-outs with a drop shadow and run of varnish to really make them sparkle.
Parr and Badger have almost created a unique book but Andrew Roth's 'The book of 101 books: Seminal photographic books of the twentieth century' (ISBN 0967077443) published in 2001 must be regarded as the first attempt to capture the essence of photobooks and in both titles the editorial concept is the same, reproduce the covers and pages rather than show individual photographs. As a designer this makes both books come alive for me but I prefer 'The Photobook' for its exhilarating coverage in both words and images.
Average customer rating:
- Boring? Not!
- Great Gift Idea
- not boring, really real
- You might have been there!
- humerous
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Boring Postcards USA
Martin Parr
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ASIN: 0714843911 |
Amazon.com
You know those old postcards that show the local meatpacking factory in all its cinder-block glory or the sickening color scheme of a cheap '70s motel room? Well, here they are. Beginning with panoramas of highways in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and other U.S. states, Boring Postcards segues to truck stops, restaurants, motor inns, malls, airports, military bases, factories, tools, and automobiles. Every image is certifiably boring, whether by dint of a photographer's ineptitude (dead-on views taken from too far away) or the sorry state of corporate architecture and interior design. And yet, as earnest advertisements for the American Way of Life, they all radiate a sunny faith in the uniqueness and desirability of whatever they portray.
There's not a word of commentary in this book, but that part is up to you. Certain things begin to stand out as you flip through the pages. Like the always blue skies. (Positive thinking!) Or the potentially interesting details that are uniformly obliterated, thanks to those polite middle-distance views and the muddy qualities of cheap lithography. There's a weird tension between the blandly generic ("Fine Food" reads the only visible sign atop a low-slung white building) and the proudly local (according to the postcard caption, this is "The famous Blue Grill on U.S. 40, St. Elmo, Ill."). In its silently subversive way, Boring Postcards proposes that we look more closely at this hallowed form of marketing to see what it tells us about the values and standards of mainstream American culture. --Cathy Curtis
Book Description
You know those old postcards that show the local meatpacking factory in all its cinder-block glory or the sickening color scheme of a cheap '70s motel room? Well, here they are. Beginning with panoramas of highways in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and other U.S. states, Boring Postcards segues to truck stops, restaurants, motor inns, malls, airports, military bases, factories, tools, and automobiles. Every image is certifiably boring, whether by dint of a photographer's ineptitude (dead-on views taken from too far away) or the sorry state of corporate architecture and interior design. And yet, as earnest advertisements for the American Way of Life, they all radiate a sunny faith in the uniqueness and desirability of whatever they portray.There's not a word of commentary in this book, but that part is up to you. Certain things begin to stand out as you flip through the pages. Like the always blue skies. (Positive thinking!) Or the potentially interesting details that are uniformly obliterated, thanks to those polite middle-distance views and the muddy qualities of cheap lithography. There's a weird tension between the blandly generic ("Fine Food" reads the only visible sign atop a low-slung white building) and the proudly local (according to the postcard caption, this is "The famous Blue Grill on U.S. 40, St. Elmo, Ill."). In its silently subversive way, Boring Postcards proposes that we look more closely at this hallowed form of marketing to see what it tells us about the values and standards of mainstream American culture. --Cathy Curtis
Customer Reviews:
Boring? Not!.......2007-09-02
This is an awesome book, made up entirely of old postcards with pictures of highways, restaurants, airports, and other prosaic places.
The postcards aren't like the ones you see today, photographs of beautiful places. They look like someone snapped a picture of the highway or restaurant, without even bothering to pick a scenic spot. Only, many of them have captions describing the pictures as 'beautiful' or 'scenic.' That only makes it funnier.
On the one hand, I applaud the use of average, even somewhat ugly images in this book to convey a feeling of time and place. At the same time, I can't believe anyone thought these pictures would make good postcards -- even decades ago.
The pictures are quirky and make me laugh. Best of all, they feel like a window into another time. I can look at these photographs and feel like I'm there... in that prosaic, rather ugly place, probably filled with real people with all their quirks and oddities. It's like a time machine!
All in all, I'm very glad I acquired this book.
Great Gift Idea .......2007-08-09
I have sent this as a gift several times. All recipients loved the book but all were sorry that postcards were not removable.
not boring, really real.......2007-03-25
i agree with other reviewers in that the post cards speak for themselves. Perfect!!! as a footnote, i'd like to add, i have actually been to at least 8 -10 of these places, not because i was trying to find it, but coincidentally went through these places as well, many still exist. scary.
You might have been there!.......2006-01-29
This makes an interesting gift for a friend or relative.
If you are older than 45, or so, you have probably visited at least one of the places shown in these pictures!
humerous.......2005-10-08
These postcards are really boring, but they make for a funny collection of airport and shop postcards.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent real life photos
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Small World
Simon Winchester
Manufacturer: Dewi Lewis Publishing
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The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton
ASIN: 1899235051 |
Book Description
In this biting, very funny satire Parr looks at tourism worldwide, exposing an increasingly homogeneous 'global culture' where in the search for different cultures those same cultures are destroyed. Parr's larger-than-life troupe of tourists are ultimately bemused victims of consumerism, locked into the late twentieth century's insatiable craving for spectacle. These Small World citizens become symbols of the freedoms of Western prosperity; declaring their power and their right to travel, to choose and, above all, to consume.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent real life photos.......2000-06-30
These photos capture exactly what it feels like to be a tourist at many places around the world. These aren't beautiful scenery or architectural portraits, but photos of real people acting and feeling like tourists in touristy places. Sometimes funny and ironic, sometimes depressing. The Great Pyramids with people posing in front of them, surrounded by local sellers of miniature trinkets. The leaning Tower of Pisa, with lots of tourists all doing the same schtick. I don't recommend this if you are looking for nice photos of world attractions. But I recommend it very highly if you are looking for photos of real people doing real things, acting themselves. Or if you want photos of what it's really like to be a tourist. Martin Parr has a couple other books out there - The Last Resort is also an excellent collection of real people photos of New Brighton.
Book Description
For much of his career, Martin Parr has specialized in skewering the eccentricities and peculiarities of his native Great Britain--in particular those having to do with food, tourism, bad fashion choices and more food. Mexico is Parr's first new thematic series to be published in book form since 2002, a distinct geographical departure, and in part a greater departure as well. Parr is struck not only by Mexican culture, but also by the clear impact of America's pop culture and economy on Mexican life--the juxtaposition of Mickey Mouse with brightly colored saints, Nike logos with Day of the Dead skulls and Coca Cola with cacti. Here viewers are in recognizable territory with Parr's colorful close-ups of food, hats, signs and souvenirs, garishly shot with medical efficiency--but Mexico also includes some straight records of human faces, images that capture photographer and subject in the act of mutual contemplation. These moments of mercy are one with the underlying theme of Parr's more ironic work, calling up equally the corruption of authentic cultural forms by global consumer culture, which he both critiques and celebrates. As Parr puts it, "What I am saying is that it's a good and a bad thing. I'm constantly trying to express ambiguity. And that's what photography does very well."
Customer Reviews:
A stunning visual impact.......2007-02-04
Martin Parr's Mexico pairs photos by Parr with an essay by Rogelio Villarreal as it blends social documentary with a photographic survey considering the impact of America's pop culture on Mexican life. Full-page color photos - some quite startling - capture Mexican pop art from food to faces to graveyards and provide a stunning visual impact perfect for not only college-level art libraries, but any collection strong in Mexican culture.
Think Think of England, only Mexico style........2007-01-25
"Nothing we haven't seen before." A quote from Rogelio Villarreal from the book's forward sums it up, as Parr's style is not new to anyone, and this book does not stray from his past iconic work that he is already well known for. The photos are very similar to past photo works like British Food, Think of England, and Common Sense, all done with a Mexican twist. Like his past works, there aren't many dull photos, as all offer very interesting close-ups and juxtapositions, making even the most trivial of everyday items and people seem camera worthy. There were one or two shots that didn't make me feel they went hand in hand with Mexico at all, such as a close-up of a car windshield with two Nike logo window shades inside, and the disgusting shots of packaged animal feet that could have been sold in any country, but overall, the Mexican theme is quite prevalent, adding many instant classic shots to Parr's ever increasing back catalog.
One of my favorites is the shot of two female tourists, one taking a picture of the other in front of some beach ruins, and the girl taking the photo with her back to Martin's camera is wearing a shirt with a print of a beach scene on it, on top of holding a handbag with an extremely colorful floral print. It's a typical Parr shot, explosive in rich colors. Another highlight is the shot of religious statues being sold streetside, with a McDonald's in the background.
It's another fine addition to the Parr book library, and expect lots of your typical Parr shots.
Average customer rating:
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Tutta Roma
Martin Parr
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ASIN: 8869650162 |
Book Description
TUTTAROMA stems from the Rome International Festival of Photography. For the 2006 edition, the city assigned British photographer Martin Parr the task of creating a comprehensive guide of the eternal city. His resulting portrait is that of a place filled not only with natives but, above all, with visitors, the latter contributing to Rome's life with their enthusiasm and curiosity, their many languages and fashions, their colorful presence. With extended captions written by Ivana della Portella, a historian and member of the Municipality Council of Rome.
Beloved by Italians and outsiders alike, Rome has always inspired foreign artists and intellectuals. Following Henry James, Howard Hawks, and William Klein, Martin Parr shows us today's tourists in today's Rome, in its archeological sites, in its museums, and in its famous piazzas, as they struggle with maps and guides, as they consume pasta and wine. He takes on Rome with his unconventional and controversial trademark style, capturing the unique beauty of a city that owes much of its fascination to its swarms of devoted admirers.
Average customer rating:
- Great Brook
- Covers well over 150 years of photography
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Singular Images
Darsie Alexander ,
Roger Hargreaves ,
Liz Jobey ,
Mary Warner Marien ,
Sheena Wagstaff ,
Dominic Willsdon ,
Geoffrey Batchen ,
David Campany ,
Nigel Warburton ,
Val Williams , and
Martin Parr
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Goldin, Nan
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Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography
ASIN: 1597110175
Release Date: 2006-02-01 |
Book Description
Spanning 170 years, from William Henry Fox Talbot's first negative to Jeff Wall's latest constructed tableau, Singular Images collects thought-provoking essays on individual photographs, one image per writer. The essayists consider, sometimes in highly personal ways, the artist's intention, their own response, the work's technical complexities, its historical context or its formal properties. Each text captures a sense of how challenging it is to create a perfect single piece. Art photography has been increasingly well-surveyed in recent years, but individual works have rarely been written about at length, perhaps because of lingering doubt that a single photograph can command the kind of sustained attention often given to individual paintings or sculptures. Singular Images is a lively inquiry into the value of analyzing individual photographs, and it persuasively encourages the reader to engage at length and in depth with one remarkable piece at a time. With its broad scope and diverse range of issues, it can also be read as an informal--and thoroughly entertaining--introduction to art photography. Featuring essays by some of the most brilliant critical minds in the field, including David Campany on Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, Darsie Alexander on Nan Goldin and Liz Jobey on Diane Arbus.
Customer Reviews:
Great Brook.......2007-04-01
Great book with interesting approches on the images.
I'm glad to have it.
Covers well over 150 years of photography.......2006-09-09
Singular Images: Essays On Remarkable Photographs covers well over 150 years of photography, from Talbot's first negative to the latest changes in photographic art. Essays collect analysis of individual photos however, not the genre as a whole, focusing on a single image's achievements and exploring artist intention, technical and historical background, and the artistic community's response. Black and white photos blend with in-depth analysis to show what makes an achievement exceptional in the photography field.
Book Description
Magnum photographer Martin Parr's vision of contemporary England in 100 colour photographs.
Customer Reviews:
a tongue-in-cheek look at the British.......2006-05-31
Martin Parr is one of the great documentary photographers of Britain and this book is a prime example of his talent in the field. This book is a wonderful collection of the quirks and eccentricities of the British. No subject is overlooked as Parr covers food, dress, interior design and gardens, pomp and circumstance and Brits at the seaside. It's a view of England not seen by most tourists which makes it all the more relevant for foreign audiences. Browsing through the book one can see several cultural similarities like the picture of a winning dessert at a district garden society show, or people talking on their mobile phones.
If you're a bit of an anglophile or simply enjoy good photography, this book won't disappoint. I bought this book at the Tate Modern after having seen several of the photos in various galleries, and find it inspiring to aspiring photographers like myself.
Book Description
Martin Parr's classic 1986 book Last Resort remains hugely controversial. Described by some as cruel and voyeuristic, and by others as a stunning satire on the state of Britain, it established him as one of the world's most influential and admired photographers and revolutionised documentary photography in Britain.
Average customer rating:
- Irresistible little gem of a book!
- Is this the best book I have ever read?
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Langweilige Postkarten
Martin Parr
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0714840629 |
Book Description
Magnum photographer Martin Parr is a key figure in the worlds of photography and contemporary art. He has been an avid postcard collector for twenty years and in Langweilige Postkarten he presents the pride of his 'boring' collection: 160 postcards from Germany that take you on a daringly dull tour of its autobahns, airports, hotels, factories, shops, border posts, tower blocks and new towns.Presented without commentary or introduction of any kind, and with the original captions, the postcards are allowed to speak for themselves. They were all made before German reunification and provide fascinating and hilarious insights into German social and architectural values between the 1950s and 1980s. The two nations' special relationship with concrete and the functional modernist block is nostalgically and repetitiously celebrated in postcard after postcard, and the volume provides a revealing context for consideration of the work of contemporary German art and landscape photographers.
Customer Reviews:
Irresistible little gem of a book!.......2003-04-07
There is something addictive about this little book, filled with seemingly dull, commercial postcards from Germany. The heft and compact size of it make you want to pick it up again and again and dream about the modern Europe of the 60's and 70's. No words get in the way. The images are of autobahns, health spas, restaurants, apartment buildings...and the overall effect of seeing these tidy, newly built spaces--without people--is somehow poignant, hopeful, serene and surreal. Often, geometric shapes dominate a landscape or visual field, and the postcard becomes a reduced, abstract scene which may or may not have been photographed on earth. "Boring" postcards is strangely fascinating!
Is this the best book I have ever read?.......2001-07-15
Yes, this is the best book I have ever read.
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