December 6, 2012 – 3:59 pm
As Photo-eye’s Best Books of 2012 is published online today, I thought I’d share my selections along with some others that nearly made it. Many of the books on my list were generously mailed to me by artists or publishers and, in turn, featured on this blog in the past, and some of the others are in the queue to be featured soon (keep an eye out). This process reminds me of what an exciting time it is for photobooks, with each year bringing forth new, powerful, and innovative projects. Lets be real… there are many, many more titles worth listing here.
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2013
Justin James Reed
Horses Think Press, 2012
The last remaining stock of ink made from fireflies was acquired for the making of this unique artist book, which without the use of a UV flashlight appears to be blank white pages. A witty concept, and a selection of images that’ll keep you wondering about the future.
Dive Dark Dream Slow
Melissa Catanese
The Ice Plant, 2012
Anonymous photographs culled from a personal archive and given new context—a magical, memorable sequence.
Looking for Love, 1996
Alec Soth
Kominek, 2012
Just when you least expect it, love comes along.
Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel
Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel
DAP
An important collection of work by one of the greatest collaborations in the history of photography.
In the Car With R.
Rafal Milach
Czytelnia Sztuki, 2012
Beautiful both as an object and a photographic exploration of place.
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Elementary Calculus
J Carrier
MACK, 2012
A quiet reflection on the human desire to connect through the world of migrant workers living in Israel who rely on pay phones to talk to their loved ones back home. An understated book that is not to be overlooked.
Another Language
Marten Lange
MACK, 2012
In the words of Einstein, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Executive Model
Ron Jude
Libraryman, 2012
Gettin’ down to business—a typology.
Die Son Sien Alles
Viviane Sassen
Libraryman, 2012
A playful, penetrating portrait of contemporary South Africa through the embellished interiors of Cape Town.
Imaginary Landscape No. 1
Hannah Whittaker
Blonde Art Books, 2012
Applying the structure of a seminal 1939 electroacoustic John Cage composition to a series of photographs. A clever first artist book.
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Honorable Mentions
I found it difficult to select just ten, so in no particular order here are some others that caught my attention.
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Hester
Asger Carlsen
Mörel Books, 2012
Brilliantly weird. Weirdly brilliant.
Coexistence
Stephen Gill
Nobody, 2012
Gill continues to push his photographic practice, and turns out a gorgeous series of artist books under his imprint delightfully named Nobody.
Retinal Shift
Mikhael Subotzky
Steidl, 2012
Perhaps one of the best retrospectives of the year.
A Natural Order
Lucas Foglia
Nazraeli, 2012
One of the best projects exploring this territory, and a luscious monograph to boot. Nice to see the zine included too.
American Portraits 1979-1989
Leon Borensztein
Nazraeli, 2012
An odd and touching portrait of America, with a nice edit by Todd Hido.
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Life Size
Sam Falls
Karma, 2012
“Speed is stunted intuition.”
The Afronauts
Cristina De Middel
Self-published, 2012
An elegant object that successfully combines photography, drawing, letters, and archival imagery. Bound to make many top ten lists.
Metsästä
Anne Golaz
Kehrer Verlag, 2012
Dark beauty. A nice introduction to her work for me.
The Actor
John Gossage
Loosestrife Editions, 2012
With six or seven books (I lost count) to come out in the last year, it’s tough to choose but this one keeps me looking and gains depth with the dedication.
Cathedral Cars
Thomas Mailaender
RVB Books, 2012
Photographic studies of human persistence. Unintentional sculpture.
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Bonus
War Primer 2 [eBook]
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
MAPP Editions, 2012
A nice use of the eBook format to provide access to a great book from last year that otherwise may be difficult for many to experience. Download for FREE.
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Spit in the Swamp, Louisiana, 2010
© Shane Lavalette
I’m very pleased to have finally launched a new website!
The site includes a very small preview of some new work in-progress, a commission for the High Museum of Art‘s “Picturing the South” series, of which I’m absolutely honored to be involved in. Past commissioned artists include Emmet Gowin, Sally Mann, Richard Misrach, Dawoud Bey, Alex Webb and Alec Soth. An exhibition will be on view at the museum in 2012 with newly commissioned works by myself, Martin Parr and Kael Alford.
In addition to the design update, the new site now seamlessly integrates the / Journal – something I’ve been meaning to do for a long, long time.
If you have a moment, take a look around and feel free leave a comment on this post with your thoughts.
January 27, 2011 – 1:43 pm
Baby Krishna, Vrindavan, India, 2009 [from "Waking Vrindavan"]
© Shane Lavalette
Of Gods and Monsters
Curated auction by Andrew Mroczek
(Gallery Director, Art Institute of Boston)
January 14 – February 3, 2011
Presented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art
Bid on my print here.
UPDATE: Sold! Thanks for those who viewed and to the high bidder for purchasing.
February 16, 2010 – 10:23 am
The Photography Post is a new website that aims to deliver the most current discussions on the state of photography by featuring live feeds from various fine art, commercial and fashion photography websites/blogs.
Along with the nicely designed “Live Feeds” display (which updates regularly with the latest posts), visitors to the site can sign up for an account to keep track of their favorite feeds. It’s a great idea that has been implemented in other forms already but never with such a clean design or with such fine people on board.
In addition to the live feeds, Editors Rachel Hulin and Kate Steciw as well as Publisher Danielle Franca Swift will be contributing original content to the site’s own blog as well as their Museum of Online Photography Collections.
Lots to see, so get to it.
January 14, 2010 – 5:30 pm
Photo-eye Magazine just published The Best Books of 2009, which brings together the selections of 25 prominent photographers, bookmakers, editors, publishers and critics. I’m happy to say that Lay Flat 01: Remain in Light was one of the featured titles, selected by Daniel Espeset (Contributing Editor at Photo-eye).
Have a look at all of the selections here.
January 14, 2010 – 4:33 pm
Altered State, 2009
© Noel Rodo-Vankeulen
Daniel Cooney‘s latest Emerging Artists Auction is now online and works are open for bidding. Some of the highlights from the photography section include Alexander Binder, Alison Malone, Grant Willing, Aaron McElroy, Bob O’Connor, Jake Stangel, Lyndsy Welgos, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen and one of my own prints can be found here.
The auction ends on February 4th.
December 4, 2009 – 11:06 am
Artist Book Database, “an online database of artist books, zines, catalogues and independent publications,” was just launched by David Schoerner (of Hassla Books). The website, which is updated daily, now has over 500 titles and 250 artists and looks to be a excellent, growing resource.
If you have a book to add to the database, write to info [at] artistbookdatabase.org
October 24, 2009 – 2:08 pm
I think my nerdiness just reached new heights… say hello to Stereogram Tetris.
October 21, 2009 – 10:35 pm
Marian Sunbathing, 2008 [from "Caught in a Secret History"]
© Michele Abeles
Tim Barber‘s online curatorial project Tiny Vices just got a fresh new design, and with it some cleaning up. At the moment there are just three portfolios from photographers Aaron Huey, Asger Carlsen and Michele Abeles. Don’t worry, though, all of the old content will return! As Tim writes,
For the re-launch I’m going to re-introduce all the content on the site bit by bit, day by day, along with new content, updated portfolios and other posts. So everything from the old site will get re-posted over the next few weeks/months…
Don’t miss the links page as well, which has become quite the photographic resource.
Well done, Tim.
October 8, 2009 – 12:13 pm
Photographer Taryn Simon gave a TED Talk last month which worth checking out if you’re interested in either her An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar or The Innocents projects.
Then go ahead and watch all of the other awesome talks on TED.
