photography september 2013

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Philip-Lorca Dicorcia - A Storybook Life Twin Palms Publishers 2013 ISBN 9781931885232 Acqn 10709 Hb 37x29cm 160pp 75col ills £70 The disparate photographs assembled here were made over the course of twenty years. None of them were originally intended to be used in this book. By ordering and shaping them I tried to investigate the possibilities of narrative both within a single image and especially in relation to the other photographs. A Storybook Life is an attempt to discover the possibilities of meaning in the interaction of seemingly unrelated images in the hope that content can constantly mutate according to both the external and internal condition of the viewer, but remain meaningful because of it's inherent, but latent content. The conscious and subconscious decisions made in editing the photographs is the real work of A Storybook Life. -Phlip-Lorca diCorcia

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Michael Wolf - Small God, Big City Peperoni Books 2013 ISBN 9783941825444 Acqn 22631 Hb 20x29cm 124pp 71col ills £32.95 What happens when a small, rural god moves to a big city? In this series of colourful and thought-provoking images, Michael Wolf focuses attention on overlooked objects in the visually overwhelming environment of Hong Kong. Found commonly in doorways of shops and homes, Earth God shrines are physical manifestations of the vulnerability of traditional beliefs and practices. The context of the images, the ingenuity by which these small shrines position themselves in the urban surroundings, raises questions about the Earth God’s relevance in an increasingly modern and urbanised city. Includes an illuminating essay on the subject by Lee Ho Yin and Lynne D. DiStefano.

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Osmos Magazine: Issue 02 Osmos 2013 ISBN 9780988340428 Acqn 22127 Pb 23x28cm 120pp col ills £16.50 After cofounding Fantom in 2009 in Milan and New York, Cay Sophie Rabinowitz is continuing the endeavor by launching her magazine with the new name of Osmos. Nourishing contemporary perspectives in photography and the visual arts, and delivering a unique view on the art of photography and contemporary creativity, its content is divided into recurring thematic sections: “Collections,” about a curatorial and archival practice; “Means to an End,” about the side effects of non-artistic image production; and “Picture Perfect,” where photography is implicit in the production of the featured work, but is not always the resulting final medium, alongside more conventional genres such as Essay, Interview and Portfolio. With a radical blend of arresting images, print quality and distinctive design, Osmos is the only magazine on the market fostering photography as the medium crossing all creative industries and practices--advertising, art, design, fashion and media--aiming at the core of our imaginations.

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Jason Lazarus - Your Time Is Gonna Come University Galleries Illinois 2013 ISBN 9780945558019 Acqn 22154 Pb 23x22cm 84pp 50col ills £18.95 Chicago-based photographer Jason Lazarus (born 1975) is known for using both traditionally developed photography as well as found and solicited images and texts in collaborative installations. Among the projects examined is Too Hard to Keep, an ongoing archive through which Lazarus preserves photographs too emotionally charged to keep yet too meaningful to destroy. Text by Michelle Grabner, Kendra Paitz, Barry Blinderman, Nicholas Wylie.

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Saigoku - Pilgrimage of the 33 Temples, Photographs by Simone Sassen Schirmer Mosel Verlag 2013 ISBN 9783829606431 Acqn 22517 Hb 22x27cm 200pp 126ills 111col £42 Text in German Saigoku, the “pilgrimage of the 33 temples”, is one of the most prominent pilgrimages in Japan. Doing it in different seasons, Cees Nooteboom and Simone Sassen created a splendid portrait of Japan far from bustling cities, of a natural world of silence and beauty that sets the mind at rest.

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Aaron Huey - Mitakuye Oyasin Radius Books 2013 ISBN 9781934435519 Acqn 21420 Hb 23x31cm 144pp 88col ills £38 In this powerful new book of photographs, Aaron Huey portrays both the broken social landscape and the ceremonial warrior culture of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This body of work goes far beyond the obvious poverty and into the world of the tribe's visions and dreams. It is a witness to both the dark and the light, and is intentionally presented as more of a prayer or poem than documentary. The book begins and ends with a traditional Lakota prayer, suggesting that the intervening images may be analogous to a transformative ceremonial experience. The Pine Ridge Reservation, located 75 miles south east of the Black Hills in South Dakota, is sometimes referred to as Prisoner of War Camp #344, and is now the home of the Oglala Lakota. Sadly, Pine Ridge is now the quintessential example of the failure of the U.S. reservation system imposed upon the Lakota and other tribes, with staggering statistics on everything from violent crime to education. The unemployment rate is nearly 90% and the life expectancy for men is 48, roughly the same as Afghanistan and Somalia. Huey, a photographer who has covered war and crises in some of the most far-flung places on the planet for magazines like the New Yorker and National Geographic, stumbled upon Pine Ridge seven years ago. Since then he has created one of the single largest bodies of work on a contemporary Indian Reservation. His color photographs stand as a testament to the incredible difficulties facing the tribe and the reparations yet to be made to them, but also to the strength and beauty of their spirit, which shines through all of the darkness. Mitakuye Oyasin is printed with a 'lay-open' binding (i.e. the book block is not attached to the spine), so that the book can be laid flat.

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Glen Rubsamen - Rhynchophorus Ferrugineus Osmos 2013 ISBN 9780988340466 Acqn 22580 Hb 21x26cm 80pp 36ills 32col £27 Glen Rubsamen’s latest book is an extension of his new body of photographic works. It revolves around the Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, better known as the Red Palm Weevil--an insect with Asiatic origins that has moved quickly westward over the last century, aided by technology and globalism. The weevil’s arrival in Southern Europe has devastated palm trees around the Mediterranean, a development Rubsamen describes as a case of “globalization eating colonialism,” as many of the affected palms were planted in the last century for touristic and political reasons. Rubsamen depicts a process by which romantic elements in the landscape change meaning as things disappear from the mix; it is an investigation of a subtractive aesthetic event. In addition to the photographs and collage endpapers designed by the artist, the book contains an explanatory text by Stille, fiction by Licht and an interview by Soyez-Petithomme. The book is blind stamped with limp cloth binding.

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Jacques Henri Lartigue - A Sporting Life Actes Sud 2013 ISBN 9782330016111 Acqn 22784 Hb 30x30cm 272pp 170ills £57 Jacques Henri Lartigue was fascinated by the ascent of sport in the early twentieth century as a fashionable pastime for the middle classes, and was himself a keen sportsman. Lartigue’s entirely unposed photographs, presented album-style in this gorgeous, luxurious and delightful volume, capture both the joyous exuberance of amateur sports--racing, skiing, tennis, gymnastics, hang gliding--and the particular character of its popularity in the first half of the twentieth century. Lartigue is an absolute master at conveying the dynamism of the human body at play--the peculiar shapes it can contort into, and the gestures that can express anything from easy nonchalance to fierce focus. These photographs also serve as a historical catalogue of the paraphernalia and smart casual clothing associated with each sport. A Sporting Life is divided into five themed chapters: “The Sportsman,” “Taking the Air,” “Training,” “Women and Children” and “Sport as Spectacle.” Here, we witness how sports were transforming social relations, introducing new opportunities for expression, especially across gender lines. In an essay, historian Thierry Terret reveals the complexity of Lartigue’s technical approach to photography, and looks at the issues surrounding the rise of sport in its modern incarnation as a leisure pursuit and as commerce. In a preface, novelist Anne-Marie Garat (whose own narratives often feature the themes of photography and family) provides a personal perspective on Lartigue’s sports photography, also exploring the role played by sport in the development of photography itself. The book is copublished with Hermès, in celebration of its 2013 sports theme. Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894–1986) was a French photographer and painter, most famous for his photographs of the leisure activities of France’s middle and upper classes. An avid photographer from the age of seven, Lartigue gained fame for his photo albums, which provide a comprehensive chronicle of the twentieth century in France and abroad, and for his official portraits.

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Fashion Portraits By Louise Te Poele - Look Book 2007-2013 ArtEZ Press 2013 ISBN 9789491444128 Acqn 22787 Pb 11x17cm 116pp 152col ills £19 Each year since 2007, Dutch photographer Louise te Poele makes stylised portraits within a conceptual framework of the graduating bachelor class at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem. Beginning with portraits inspired by late 19th-century socialites, the tradition became an annually recurring part of the programme, an expression of the character of each class and something experienced by the group as a whole. A primary challenge, therefore, is to create a coherent narrative from the varied spectrum of individuals within a single class. Design alumnus Djovrie Krüs is responsible for styling, hair and make-up, and the astonishing results have exceeded all expectations.

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Ives Maes - The Future Of Yesterday Ludion 2013 ISBN 9789461300867 Acqn 22798 Hb 25x29cm 248pp 198col ills £42.95 In this fascinating collection of photographs, the Belgian artist Ives Maes explores the architecture of world expos. He sets the faded glory of these sites against the ambitious and utopian project, full of promise, represented by the first world exhibition. Maes shows how time has taken its toll on these architectural monuments and pavilions, now decayed, abandoned, or torn from their original context. In this comprehensive book, Maes’s photographs are set alongside images of the Great Exhibition in London (1851) through to the most recent expo in Shanghai (2010). The images are accompanied by essays from Anna Jackson, Elena Filipovic and Catherine L. Futter on the history of world fairs, the role of photography and the sculptural character of Maes’s photographic work.

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Richard Misrach - 11.21.11 5:40 PM Fraenkel Gallery 2013 ISBN 9781881337348 Acqn 22573 Hb 39x30cm 32pp 16col ills £34.50 In the early 2000s, Richard Misrach (born 1949) began a series titled On the Beach, a body of work that travelled extensively and has been highly influential. These colour photographs deal with the human figure seen at a distance, on an unspecified beach or in the water, observed from an unsettling and difficult-to-identify point of view located high above. Misrach has continued this work, while vast changes in photographic technology over the intervening decade have caused a shift in approach, both conceptually and technically. Untitled is an artist book based on two photographs: the one made by Misrach and the other made concurrently, at the time of exposure, by the subjects of his photograph. The extreme detail explored in this work concisely summates both the artist’s concerns and the ubiquity of digital technology as we are portrayed and portray ourselves.

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Paul Bogaers - Upset Down 99 Publishers 2012 ISBN 9789078670162 Acqn 22797 Hb 18x22cm 162pp 150ills 75col £31.50 Dutch photographer Paul Bogaers here organises his work in a completely new mode. On every right page, the image is upright, while on every left page, it is upside down. The book can therefore also be read in reverse, overturning this order and enabling other perspectives regarding the same pairings of photographs. In this way, it presents two different but closely interconnected experiences – a disorienting journey that can be traced from either of the book’s two front covers. Following the consistency of the rules he has applied, unexpected and bizarre revelations occur that would otherwise have remained hidden behind the ostensibly average photographs.

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Marnix Goosens – Yonder ROMA Publications 2013 ISBN 9789491843013 Acqn 22793 Hb 21x28cm 128pp 95ills 90col £37.95 Dutch photographer Marnix Goossens spent seven years documenting surrogate nature in somewhat run-down interiors, a recurrent theme reflecting our underlying yearning for the freedom inspired by exotic destinations and wide-open spaces. In place of the real thing, Goossens pictures palm-print wallpaper, false wood grain adhesive, flowery motifs and faded posters of snow-capped mountains. Otherwise mundane and overlooked details and decorative elements are appreciated anew and in unexpected ways through a profusion of detail, colour nuances, and careful lighting. The book is published on the occasion of a solo exhibition by Goossens at Foam, Amsterdam.

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Christoph Klauke - Double Portraits DBA 2013 ISBN 9780989054102 Acqn 22827 Hb 24x29cm 124pp 56col ills £45 Double Portraits is a series of double portrait photographs by Christoph Klauke. The images are arranged in three chapters and were taken over the course of several years, representing three stages in the photographer’s life: in Spitalfields, London, around the turn of the millennium, in New York after 9/11 and finally in Southern California. Far from being duplicates, these double portraits further emphasize the photographer’s long-term interest in the human face as a mirror of thoughts and emotions. For the first photograph, on the left, Christoph Klauke composes the image on film through the ground glass of his beloved 10 x 8 inch camera - then presses the shutter. For the second photograph, on the right, he exerts absolutely no control for several seconds - while the sitter attempts to maintain his or her pose. Then he operates the shutter for the second time. The differences between the two portraits are slight but strangely unsettlingly. It is as if we are looking at identical twins who are, mysteriously, never actually identical. Or as if we are being invited to imagine the moments between the shots, the un-shown.

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Alain Bizos - Regard Fulgurant Aman Iman Editions 2013 ISBN 9782953391077 Acqn 22813 Hb 22x29cm 116pp 100col ills £40 The catalogue for the first solo exhibition devoted to Alain Bizos, whose personal aesthetic, developed in the formative years between 1977-1982, straddles art and information, marking a turning point in photojournalism. The colour-saturated, pop aesthetic that can be found in his photos has since influenced numerous photographers whose work blurs the lines between documentary and fine art. Through an array of subjects, from violence and war to cultural icons like Nina Hagen, Bizos offers provocative and comical reflections, and tackles issues like gender identity. Included are series from the late 1970s through early ‘80s in full colour and with many fold-out pages.

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South Of No North - Laurance Aberhart, William Eggleston, Noel McKenna Museum Of Contemporary Art Australia 2013 ISBN 9781921034596 Acqn 22815 Hb 22x29cm 140pp 75ills 45col £33.95 Part of an ongoing series of exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia that aims to position work by individual Australian artists in a broader global dialogue through pairings with international artists. In ‘South of no North’, the work of two photographers, New Zealander Laurence Aberhart and American William Eggleston, was shown alongside that of Australian painter Noel McKenna. The three share a connection through their respective interest in the vernacular, a regional sense of place and a similar visual sensibility, drawing their subject matter from travels, the built environment, and everyday narratives. Includes texts by Glenn Barkley and Noel McKenna.

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Daan Paans - Letters From Utopia The Eriskay Connection 2013 ISBN 9789081838467 Acqn 22816 Hb 16x20cm 160pp 70ills 65col £27 For the book Letters from Utopia photographer Daan Paans went looking for people who want to extend the human lifespan extremely or even aim to become immortal. He examined five different movements and their protagonists who seek a utopian world order. In five chapters he shows stories that range from an occult belief from the past to a scientific outlook for the future. Overcoming ones (own) mortality, aiming for infinite life, has fascinated man since immemorial times. Physical immortality, in this case. Because when we leave aside the particular religious assumption of an 'afterlife’, a fascinating area remains in which a variety of ways to extend life is considered and experimented with. It is here where Paans’ fascination starts.

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Louis Porter - Conflict Resolution Twenty Shelves 2013 ISBN 9780646588186 Acqn 22820 Pb 20x27cm 144pp 80col ills £30 Australian photographer Louis Porter takes us on an exploration of forgettable urban spaces that visibly reflect the memory of an event, often interpreted as acts of violence. Categories range from the rather humorous “crap paint jobs” to carelessly scrawled harbingers of extremist undertones, “suburban swastikas”, and the narrative possibilities of “signs of a struggle”. Porter applies wry cynicism with “emergency assembly points”, where signage indicates mundane locations to gather in case of calamity. He also scrutinises various discarded objects, from paper aeroplanes to correspondence and dismembered teddies. Includes a text by Porter analysing these disruptions.

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Pieter Henket - The Way I See It Waanders & De Kunst 2013 ISBN 9789491196386 Acqn 22823 Pb 23x34cm 96pp 61ills 52col £21.50 Published on the occasion of his first large solo exhibition, this striking catalogue of work by New York-based photographer Pieter Henket brings his powerfully clear artistic language to the fore. The cinematographic qualities of his images are both evocative and vibrant, with bewitching effects of light and colour. Focusing on portrait photography in recent years, he places his (often celebrity) subjects against voids with bold lighting design, catching them in seemingly casual or accidental expressions, yet also representing the individual’s essence. With his shrewd eye, Henket uses subtle humour to portray the cult of personality, getting under the skin of celebrity culture.

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Jo Rottger - Landscape And Memory Peperoni Books 2013 ISBN 9783941825482 Acqn 22825 Hb 31x26cm 104pp 30col ills £37.95 For this deeply captivating series, photographer Jo Röttger accompanied a German military unit from a training ground in their homeland to deployment in Afghanistan and back. Despite the banal, threefold pattern of departure, a distant place and homecoming set by the series, Röttger’s journey is neither a sentimental one nor a photo reportage. It emphasises the distant place, that which is unfamiliar and alien, with images that sensitively capture how war leaves its mark on both people and landscape, an observant view that confronts our Romantic myths while describing the universal interdependency between man and nature. Includes essays by Röttger and Martin Bayer.

photography september 2013

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