I’m off to France! Destination upon arrival: Pont-Aven. I’m not sure how much computer or internet access I’ll have in the countryside, so the blog will likely be quiet until I return in August. If anyone has any recommendations of parts of France to visit, restaurants to eat at or anything at all, please leave a comment!

And, yes, I do plan to check out the Les Rencontres d’Arles. If anyone’s going, let me know and perhaps we can meet there.

L to R: Pirelli Work, Here Comes Everybody and In Flagrante by Chris Killip

I went to visit Chris Killip in his studio today and had a great chat with him about his life and photography – eventually to be a published interview, stay tuned for that! – and thought I’d take a brief moment now to mention a few of his books while I’m on the topic of fine publications that live on my bookshelf.

Pictured above are the titles of his that I own: Pirelli Work (Steidl/Eskildsen, 2006), which includes commissioned photographs from the Pirelli tire factory, In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008 – originally published by Secker and Warburg, 1988), photographs of communities in Northern England, and Here Comes Everybody (Thames & Hudson, 2009), images of a religious pilgrimage in the west of Ireland. Both Pirelli Work and the recently released Here Comes Everybody are fantastic but any photographer who has not had a chance to experience In Flagrante has not lived. The book is in my opinion one of the most beautifully sequenced and photographed in the history of photography and it’s a wonder that I haven’t mentioned it already.

It’s nearly impossible and wildly expensive to own the original of In Flagrante, so the Errata Editions “Books on Books” version came at a nice time for myself and others who have long desired a copy. Despite the small size of the pages within the book and absolute fetishization of the original (which makes it harder to experience the images themselves), it is a great way to view an object which is otherwise rather difficult to find.

Some sample spreads:

spread from In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008)

spread from In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008)

spread from In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008)

spread from In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008)

spread from In Flagrante (Errata Editions, 2008)

To readers, I highly recommend either picking up a copy of this book or, better yet, setting aside some time soon to go track down and sit with the 1988 copy. You will not be disappointed.

And to Chris, thanks again for a thoroughly inspiring morning… my congratulations on the release of Here Comes Everybody!

Here Comes Everybody, signed by Chris Killip

Over the last few months I’ve received a number of fantastic self and independently published photography books in the mail. These books are approachable, affordable and, in most cases, beautifully designed. Many of them actually look and feel more like an ‘artist book’ than a standard mass-produced monograph. Very refreshing.

I wish I could highlight every single book that photographers and publishers have been kind enough to send me, but the task would easily eat up my whole day. So, here are a few that have made their way onto my shelf (cheers to self and independent publishers!):

Coley Brown: Jam Jelly Honey Wild Rice (Gottlund Verlag, 2008)
48 pages with 31 color images
Each with a unique letterpress cover
10 x 13 in.
Edition of 250
SOLD OUT

Nicholas Gottlund: Wild Prayer (Gottlund Verlag, 2009)
16 pages
Black & white offset on newsprint
15 x 22.5 in.
Edition of 1,000
$8

Bertrand Fleuret: Landmasses and Railways (J&L Books, 2009)
208 pages, black & white
6.7 x 9.5 in.
Edition of 1,000
$33

Lucas Blalock: I Believe You Liar (iceberg, iceberg, iceberg, 2009)
36 pages with 25 color illustrations
8 x 8 in.
Edition of 500
$28

Kin Subscription Series Number #2 (These Birds Walk, 2008)
featuring books by Todd Hido, Abner Nolan, Marianne Mueller and Alec Soth
(above: Todd Hido: Ohio and Abner Nolan: Away)
48 pages each
6 x 8 in.
Edition of 800 each
$100 for all four

Ron Jude: Alpine Star (A-Jump Books, 2006)
96 pages with 49 black & white illustrations
8.5 x 6.25 in.
Edition of 500
$20

Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard: Tree Zone (Hassla, 2009)
32 pages
6.5 x 9.5 in.
Edition of 500
$22

Eric Marth: Sixteen Minor Studies and Closecut Lawns (Medium Rare, 2009)
34 pages and 42 pages, black & white
7 x 7 in.
Edition of 45 each
$7 for both

Mårten Lange: Anomalies (Farewell Books, 2009)
64 pages with 35 black & white illustrations
6 x 8 in.
Edition of 800
$20

Untitled [from "The Face of Forgiveness"]
© Steven Katzman

Quit Your Low Down Ways
by Bob Dylan

Well, you can read out your Bible,
You can fall down on your knees,
And pray to the Lord, pretty mama,
But it ain’t gonna do no good.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Well, you can run down to the desert,
You can stick your head in the sand.
You can raise up your right hand, pretty mama,
But your good man aint comin’ home you better understand.

Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Well, you can run down to the White House,
You can gaze at the Capitol Dome
You can knock on the President’s gate, pretty mama,
But you know it’s gonna be too late.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

And you can hitchhike on the highway,
You can stand all alone by the side of the road,
Try to flag a ride back home, pretty mama,
But you can’t ride in my car no more.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Oh, you can read out your Hymn Book,
You can fall down on your knees
And pray to the Lord, pretty mama,
But it ain’t gonna do no good.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Stone Wall on Cappanawalla, 2008 [from "Slí na Boirne"]
© Shane Lavalette

Tomorrow night I’ll be at the Center for Photography at Woodstock celebrating the opening of Photography Now 2009, juried this year by Charlotte Cotton (Curator and Head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Along with my own photographs from my project Slí na Boirne, the exhibition will feature work by Alex Aristei, Clint Baclawski, Yijun Liao, Betsy Seder, Lacey Terrell, Stacey Tyrell and Toshihiro Yashiro.

Those of you in the area (or driving distance) should head to Woodstock, NY for a night of good photography and food! Hope to see you there.

Photography Now 2009
June 10th – July 26th, 2009
Center for Photography at Woodstock
Woodstock, NY

Opening reception: Saturday, June 13th from 5-7pm

More info here.

Unbound photographs from Lay Flat 01: Remain in Light
photographed by Panorama (Tokyo, Japan)

The response to the launch of Lay Flat has been phenomenal. Shortly after the release of Lay Flat 01: Remain in Light, the book received critical acclaim both in print and across the internet and a slew of positive e-mails came in through the website. The book quickly climbed to be the “#1 Best Seller” on Photo-eye and, in just the last few months, nearly all of the 1,000 copies have been sold through the Lay Flat website or in various bookstores across the globe. This is a very exciting time for photography and I’m thrilled to be working on this project, which I see as crucial collaboration between the artists, curators and writers of our time.

As I’m in the process of assembling Lay Flat 02, I wanted to send one final notice to let everyone know that there are only a few copies of Lay Flat 01 still available through the website. So, consider this a last call…

Lay Flat 01: Remain in Light
40 pages and 20 unbound photographs
5.5 x 7.5 in.
$25 + S&H

Included in Lay Flat 01: Remain in Light are essays by Tim Davis, Darius Himes, Cara Phillips and Eric William Carroll, an interview with Mike Mandel by Shane Lavalette and a poem by Jason Fulford, all accompanied by 20 unbound photographs from a selection of international photographers: Andreas Weinand, Anne Lass, Coley Brown, Debora Mittelstaedt, Ed Panar, Estelle Hanania, Gustav Almestål, Hiroyo Kaneko, Kamden Vencill, Mark McKnight, Michel Campeau, Nicolai Howalt & Trine Søndergaard, Nicola Kast, Nicholas Haggard, Shawn Records, Raimond Wouda, Richard Barnes, Thobias Fäldt, Whitney Hubbs and Yann Orhan.

Visit www.layflat.org to order.

Deer Slayer [from "Young Blood"]
© Erika Larsen

I’ve always thought highly of Erika Larsen’s project Young Blood. Big congratulations to her for winning the first ever WIP-Lightside Individual Project Grant of $3,000 to support new work. Her online showcase will appear on Women in Photography on June 16th (or see her original feature here).

New Horizons, 2006
© Michael Vahrenwald

Amani Olu of Humble Arts Foundation has put together what looks to be a nicely-curated group exhibition titled After Color. The exhibition includes black and white photographs by Michael Bühler-Rose, Talia Chetrit, Matthew Gamber, Stephen Gill, Adrien Missika, Pushpamala N, Arthur Ou, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen and Michael Vahrenwald. From the press release:

After Color examines how artists employ conceptual black-and-white photography to strengthen their ideas and how such usage comments on the dominance of large-scale, color photography as seen in the contemporary art world over the last 25 years.

The show is on display from July 8 - August 21, 2009 at Bose Pacia in New York. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, July 8th from 6 to 9pm.

More info here.

Ban Sissavath, Street 7, Vientiane, 2009 [from "Sunday in Vientiane"]
© Marc Henrich

Marc Henrich wrote to tell me about his latest project entitled Sunday in Vientiane, which he describes in these words:

Taken mostly on Sundays, when the town is resting, these images of buildings in and around Vientiane, Laos present an unsentimental view of this city’s history through architecture. The sobering clarity and understated simplicity of these meticulous compositions are a testament to the quiet but brutal passage of time. The worn and faded facades allude to other times: the historical, the political, the cultural and the social — each building revealing a fragment of the city’s colonial past.

See more of Marc’s work here.

Ceiling Fan, Gustine, CA, 2007 [from "Gustine"]
© Grant Ernhart

Grant Ernhart wrote to let me know that he just updated his website with work from a new project titled Gustine. Have a look.