The Reading Room

[Walter Glover]

A week or so back we briefly touched on a book of the work of Frederick H Evans.

It has got me thinking that perhaps there might be some interest in book recommendations, offered as they arise.

So here goes with a kick-off:

WalKer Evans "AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS" — a reprint from MOMa of the 1938 masterpiece of documentary photography.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087070 ... inephot-20

While you are at it, there is a weighty tome due for release shortly:

Aperture Magazine Anthology: The Minor White Years, 1952-1976 that you can pre-order.

http://www.amazon.com/Aperture-Magazine ... pd_sim_b_4

I have greatly slowed-down my book acquisitions but there are some that I see at 'must-have' ..... such as these.

[Walter Glover]

Well, the Frederick H Evans book arrived and is a total charm (as I thought it would be).

Yesterday my copy of NOTES by Jock Sturges arrived and it is also most appealing.

I have had a keen interest in Sturges for many years now, possibly because in many ways we are kindred spirits photographically.

In NOTES Sturges provides commentary on his life and work which is as honest and open as anybody could expect.

One point which might be of interest is:

"During a typical year for me in Europe and on the West Coast of the UNited States,I expose somewhere between two- and four-thousand sheets of film with an 8-by-ten view camera. The logistics of such a quantity of large-format work are daunting. The development of the film alone can take in excess of two months of seven-day weeks, fourteen-hour days of solitary labor in total darkness.

The book is in a more compact format than some of his other monographs and in addition to the usual creamy smooth plates there are Polaroids and digital shots of his interaction with the families that he shoots.

ISBN: 978-1-931788-47-2 Publisher: Aperture.

[Ray Heath]

I once had a wonderful monograph of the work of Roger Mayne, a London street photographer from the 50's and 60's. He mostly photographed children being children in time when children played in the street and photographers weren't suspected of evil doings.

Mayne's work is very similar to that Of Helen Levitt the New York street photographer of slightly earlier.

Both these make me think of the Whitby photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe who practiced his craft at an even earlier time.

Alas I no longer possess, or have access to, any of their works.

I do however have many other beautiful books. To name a few of my more recent acquisitions (read, bought from the cheap book shop) I must mention;
"Still Life: inside the Antarctic huts of Scott and Shackleton" by Jane Usher,
"E. O. Hoppe's Australia" by Graham Howe and Erika Esau,
"Local Colour" by Bill Bachman.

[Alastair Moore]

I would appreciate any more recommended reading. Perhaps we can continue this thread?

[Walter Glover]

I pre-ordered this book a few months ago and it will finally be in stores on November 7.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159711 ... inephot-20

Happy reading!

[Walter Glover]

A couple of months ago I took advantage of a discount offer and ordered "Edward Weston — LIFE WORK" from Lodima Press (ISBN: 1-888899-09-3)

Despite delays caused by the cyclone that hit East-Coast US of A recently the book finally arrived yesterday and was well worth the wait.

Why anther book of Weston's works, you ask? After all, I already have several.

Well, because this volume is stunningly reproduced, and the originals from which the book is compiled are all from private collections and not all have been seen before.

No expense was spared in production—the printing cost the better part of $170,000. The book reproductions are the same size as the originals, and the publishers went to fanatical lengths to reproduce every detail of the originals, including color and surface. To give you an example, on several occasions they flew to the locations to compare the printer's proofs directly to the originals on the wall. The printer was Salto of Belgium, the only printer in the world that works with 600-line screen quadtone (with a fifth ink—to match the print color on Weston's early prints—which had never been done before. And the book uses two different kinds of paper, with a softer matte paper used to match the papers Weston used early in his career). You can't even see the printing dot pattern with a loupe.

Weston has always been in my pantheon and so all I can do is hope that similar publishing deals happen for some of my other deities.

[Alastair Moore]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for the review of the Weston book. I've seriously been contemplating buying this and your review has convinced me to do so! Cross fingers they still have a copy left. It does sound a fantastic book.

Cheers

[Walter Glover]

It turned out to be a great week for books. Two more Amazon acquisitions arrived today and promise to provide a summer of reading - and more:

Core Curriculum writings on photography by Ted Papageorge. Aperture: ISBN978-1-59711-172-0

190 pages of broad ranging essays and supporting plates by most of the artists worth looking at.

Aperture magazine Anthology — The Minor White Years 1952-1976. Aperture: ISBN 978-1-59711-196-6

Here is a chance to dive into the early years of one of my favourite photography magazines and sip from the font of Minor White who is my foundation and my goal.

[Alastair Moore]

I just bought Looking At Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier Bresson - Landscapes/Cityscapes. I thought my shelves were a little bare of photography books outside "educational" books so where start better than HCB and AA.

[Walter Glover]

so where start better than HCB and AA.

That's funny Alastair,

We all have AA and HC-B books and it is probably as good a place to start as any. But after decades of involvement I am firmly entrenched in my belief that they are two of the greatest arseholes that ever drew breath. Particularly Adams. The one breath of fresh air with HC-B is his portraiture; it provides a very different interaction with the rich and famous than we will encounter elsewhere.

HC-B was an independently wealthy man and mixed in the society of the glitterati. Photographic portraits of the high flyers of the era abound shot by all manner of folk but Henri had a different encounter with them than anybody else. All the portraitists that shot these folk, even the most revered portraitists such as Newman & co, were jobbing photographers commissioned by publications to go and do their schtick with this one or that one. Friendship may have ensued, but the sessions were commercial with a distinct brief and a distinct 'style' forming a barrier between snapper and sitter. With HC-B it was a meeting of mates, buddies, or whatever the Froggie equivalent may be. The portraits are far more open and honest depictions — personal encounters as opposed to time-constrained fulfilment of meeting clients' expectations. Check out the HC-B portraits and be surprised.

Conversely, the best of Adams' oeuvre, in my opinion, his commercial work. Sadly, thanks to Turnage, his commercial work is seldom, if ever, seen. In one of the Aperture volumes that arrived yesterday there is a glorious industrial site photograph of Adams.