The real Hanoi laid bare by the unflinching lens of a great photographer
598173
I first became aware of Andre Lutzen's work in January of 2011 when one of his images from Hanoi dominated the cover of the Leica Fotografie International magazine issue #1/2011.  His images of Hanoi are not of "pretty" Hanoi, the tourist destination; this is not a Lonely Planet guide to all the touristy locations but rather an unyielding and objective look at the underbelly of unseen Hanoi.

Lutzen went in search of the Hanoi known and inhabited by the local population and in so doing, produced an outstanding body of work that gives us an insight into the lives and living conditions of a people who continue to struggle under the bootheel of a repressive Communist regime.  The images are at once surreal, beautiful, thought provoking and vaguely unsettling.  Mr. Lutzen's images leave a claustrophobic aftertaste in revealing the tiny, cramped living spaces that the residents of Hanoi call home - yet his images also show the world a resilient people who in spite of their difficult lives manage to survive and even on occasion find cause for laughter.

Lutzen did almost all of his photographing at night, in pursuit of the complex light offered by the many neon lamps and mixed source lighting of the city.  I suspect that a desire to at least partially avoid the hellish heat and humidity during the May to mid July time frame when he photographed in Hanoi may have been a factor too - and justifiably so, as daytime temperatures routinely climb above 40C (122F) with humidity over 90%.

By photographing with a Leica M6 and color film, Andre Lutzen produced images that reveal a distinct visual fingerprint which gives us a refreshing respite from the banal and cliched look of overprocessed digital images that are so prevalent in today's world.  In choosing a traditional silver based emulsion with which to create his outstanding body of work, he also has proven yet again what discerning imagemakers have always known:  Film cameras and traditional silver based emulsiions can still get it done.
1221095
Not for the weak, The Bang Bang Club takes readers directly to the violence and brutality depicted in the four prize-winning photographs scattered throughout the pages.  The writing is down and dirty, like the photographers themselves.  But it works because of the subject.  Get in click the photo and try not to throw up while you're doing it.  Like most Yanks living a cozy life, I didn't know many details about the famous struggles in SA in the early 1990s.  And I wouldn't have chosen to read a straight history.  But the combination of first-person accounts of tragedy together with terrifically vivid and horrible photos and a gripping tale of danger lurking around every corner makes for an ideal way to learn something about that fascinating and difficult time in world history.
4617074
Che Guevara was one of the greatest man to hit this earth.  His influence has touched millons of people worldwide.  This photobiography shows the respect due to a man that of his statute,"the Jesus Christ of his  time" only in a guerrilla costume. They say a picture is worth a  thousand words, well this is book is worth a lifetime and a half worth of  words.  Without photography it would be impossible to know how idles such  as CHE himself would have lived.  Words only begin to describe a person and  his personal lifestyle, but when you see it throu pictures is like you live  that life.  Till this  day Che is the only man that makes me  get goosebumps everytime i see the  picture of him lying there, dead, with his eyes open.
1867004
Gary Cialdella's photographs of the Calumet Region are beautifully subtle and moving. This is photography at its best revealing universal truths from a personal perspective. The book's essays, design and sequencing strengthen and support the artist's vision of this fascinatingly complex social landscape. Fans of photography, American history and specifically the history of industrial America should take note of this extraordinary collection.
1790199
"From this lofty peak of my old age, I look back toward the memories of my young days, and they still stand before me, vivid and clear as the crystal streams of my land, Nyarong."
So begins the autobiography of Rapten Dorje, known as Aten, as told to Jamyang Norbu in 1974 from exile in India.  Aten, who was born in 1915, speaks in lucid and heartfelt tones of his life as a child in the tribal culture of Nyarong, which is located  in the eastern province of Tibet, Kham. This short and incredibly poignant book provides a sharper picture than any I have previously encountered of the pre-1950 culture of Tibet and its near-total destruction during the Chinese invasion of the 1950's and its aftermath.  In a voice that calls forth eerie reminders of Wounded Knee,  Aten laments in the book's opening page of the slaughter of his family in a surprise Chinese attack, "...On a frozen wasteland, thinly covered with wind-swept snow, I left behind me the twisted, bullet-ridden carcasses of my family and my only little daughter...So much sorrow, so much pain and death."
The Khampas (people of Kham), who seem to have a reputation in Asia reminiscent of the Sioux on this continent,  are a striking people.  Incredibly skilled horse riders, they were also fierce warriors who fought a guerilla war against the Chinese for years in the face of scorched earth tactics and overwhelming odds before being finally crushed.  Yet Kham was also filled with monasteries and produced many of the greatest meditation masters of the Kagyu and Nyingma Buddhist traditions.  Of those who escaped into exile, a number of Khampa Buddhist teachers played key roles in introducing Tibetan Buddhism in the West.  Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche immediately come to mind as examples.
This is a beautifully spoken book,  whose simple and straightforward style help shape it into an elegy for the Khampas.  We're fortunate to have such a fine book among the incredibly limited literature in Eng! lish on Kham.
3232130
The project that stern Fotografie has assumed over time has produced some of the more important monographs of contemporary photography before the public today. This particular monograph, No. 69 in their series, concerns the work of Nadav Kander, who was born in Israel, raised in South Africa and lives today in London. It is a revelation to those unfamiliar with his work.

Whether capturing and manipulating landscapes (there is a section of images from along the Yangtze River in China) opens the book and the images are strange and stunning. According to Kander, `I always look for the places on the edge of uneasiness, I've called them troubled lands in the past...I photograph very intuitively and try to see what affects me in the place. The Yangtze River was a way of giving me a pathway through China...It's a great metaphor for change, of course, and also very spiritually in the hearts and minds of most Chinese people.' And in addition to foggy riverscapes Kander focuses on strange picnics below a pier, partially lifted/completed bridges, rocket launchers, bathers, submerged motorcycles, houses - all in a strange light that could just possibly be a comment on the air pollution in the massively industrialized country.

But Nadav Kander is best known for his portraits of celebrities (David Lynch is the cover of the book), among these being moody images of Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbinder, Lily Allen, Boy George, Benecio del Toro. Mark Strong, Julian Schnabel, Desmond Tutu, Sophia Loren, Michael Caine, Spike Jones (with fennel), President Obama and his supporters  - each is a seductively surreal mood with that sort of privacy shared that few other photographers can capture. As a comment in the book explains, `His pictures are more than mere photography. They show us landscapes, people and bodies in their nakedness and vulnerability. His work has augmented photography. At first glance, his photographs depict peace and quiet; look again and you see the disquiet of out existence.'

The final spread in this very fine book is a series of men and women Kander painted white and then posed them with great artistry. As kinder states, `The bodies were painted white and on most of the pictures their faces are turned away from the viewer. So they're there and they're not there - and that reflects the melancholy in us. Below the surface beauty always has some difficulty, and that's a wonderful thing.  The vulnerability through form is what I'm seeking to show. What it is to be alone in the world. What it is to be human.'

This is book, an artwork that is very special indeed.  There are hours of contemplation awaiting the reader, the viewer, the receptor.  Grady Harp, February 13
4299068
First, let's acknowledge that Arthur Lubow's writing is, at best, pedestrian. None the less, this biography of mid-20th century photography icon Diane Arbus is a must read page turner for any student of photography, or the arts in general. The possessor of a truly brilliant, wildly original mind, Arbus was wracked by insecurity, self doubts, and, most likely, by that psychiatric illness de jour, bipolar disorder. I have long been troubled by ethical issues related to the way she appears to have taken advantage of her vulnerable subjects, but after reading Lubow I think I understand the basis of those lapses, and see her work in a new light. In addition to being a biography of Arbus, this is a fascinating snap shot of mid century New York City and its world of photography and fashion.
439256
True to its title, this elegant little book takes up the personal lives and characters of a collection of participants in the Tour de France.  Translated from the French edition, it is perhaps the only book in the English language to do so.

Its greatest asset is undoubtedly the extraordinary and historic photographs, some of which have become famous in their own right and are now available as poster-sized reproductions.  They alone make the book a treasure.  By "intimate" the author means just that: Coppi soaking his tired feet in a bidet; Anquetil getting a haircut; Pingeon in his bath.  Sometimes the photos tell a story on their own: Charly Gaul looking through a glass, darkly; Hinault and LeMond as passionate friends.

What the book lacks-frustratingly and sometimes maddeningly-is any sort of organization. It is a more or less chronological series of portraits beginning with Bottecchia and ending with Indurain, but there are no headings or chapters and there is no table of contents. So, while you can safely assume that Thevenet precedes Hinault, you might never guess that Dietrich Thurau appears in between, let alone that a single photograph of a sleeping Luis Ocana is also sandwiched in.

A far more serious fault is the simply abysmal quality of the writing.  It is at best idiosyncratic, always prone to purple and sometimes all but incomprehensible.  On Merckx: "Annihilated by the controversies of life, he was very disconcerted by the brutal disappearance of his manager ...  This sphinx was an ecumenical and taciturn human being that destiny refused to spare."  Forensic analysis places the blame on a translator armed with little more than a French-English dictionary.

Nevertheless, if you love the Tour and its history, buy the book.  Soon, before it goes out of print.  Don't expect biography, though, or try to look up your favorite rider.  Just turn the pages, look at the wonderful pictures, and use the essays as a point of departure for thoughts of your own.
1309361
This collection of photographs is remarkable for several reasons: 1) the photos document the final stages of horrendous diseases (many of which are rarely seen these days); 2) the images are portraits of real individuals in great pain, but presented with stoic dignity; 3) it provides an insight into the remarkable level of surgical skill at work in Meiji-era Japan; and 4) the very survival of these photographs at all is something of a miracle when one considers they were sitting near  ground zero when the American atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima.

Truly, this is not a volume for the squeamish.  In these pages one finds a startling array of diseases, from smallpox to the bacterial infections that ravished faces and limbs.  Tumors, conjoined twins and leprosy each receive equal billing, and with often startling clarity.  Also here are the before-and-after shots where one sees how Japanese surgeons excised tumors or reconstructed a missing nose, which is especially poignant when one considers the very rudimentary level of sterility and anesthesia available at the time.

One can't help but be moved by these documents of human suffering and triumph, and then thank one's lucky stars that they live in an era of modern antibiotics and surgical practice.

My one reservation (hence the four out of five stars) is that the captions for the photographs don't actually appear in the book itself, but rather on the publishing company's website.  A bit more explanation readily at hand would have made many of the photographs less mysterious - or perhaps even more compelling.
3623351
The last major retrospective of Gary Winogrand's work was published in 1988, with John Szarkowski, the aging but still authoritative god of photography as the editor and essayist--and the most notable disclosure in that work was that Winogrand died with a freezer full of exposed film--2,500 rolls--plus thousands more rolls of work never really edited or printed--and that Winogrand, at the end, didn't even care enough to hold the camera steady.  The view given by Szarkowski seemed to be that no one in their right mind would ever stagger through Winogrand's every last frame, just to see what was there, and that much of what the man saw would never be seen again.

Twenty five years later, a team of dedicated scholars have proven Szarkowski wrong (much to his posthumous delight, I'm sure)--this very thick and heavy volume is teaming with Winogrands never seen in print before, presented in parings and sequences that delight the eye.  I'm old enough to remember (as a child) much of the world that Winogrand photographed (almost old enough for a reprise of the Tom Lehr joke about Mozart--when he was my age, he'd been dead for two years), and am amazed at how he captured not just the surface, but he essence of the eras he lived through.

While some of the other reviewers have complained about how the new images are being printed from digital scans of the negatives, I have no problem with this way of presenting the images, at least in book form--first, all the images in the book are reproduced in duo-tone, and are based on electronic scans--and secondly, I suspect that the complaints are being registered by those who never experienced the "donkey-work" involved in processing silver materials--and worth noting is that Winogrand always processed his own film, but he didn't print even work prints after 1971--I'm grateful for the new digital technology, especially the ability to scan an entire "contact sheet" of a roll of film, and very quickly invert and enlarge the images--I don't think we would have this new look at Wiongrand's work without this change.  Secondly, I don't think Winogrand every really gave much of a damn about printing--I own one of his "finished prints", which I'm certain was produced by a custom printer and signed later in a batch--but I'm glad that Winogrand spent his time making new images, and not in the darkroom, cranking out print after print of the same images, trying to meet what his gallery considered what the market would bear...  I haven't seen the show hanging on the wall--maybe the new digital images are weaker in that form--but once again, I don't have a problem with work being presented in any form, just so we can see it...

I feel, at the end of scanning this book for the first time, like I've just had one of the best meals ever--one photograph more would be too much.  I can't imagine a better book of his work.  My advice--buy this book--now.
3110209
Harold Davis is a fine photographer, as his many books attest.  Yet, it's not as a photographer that I am reviewing his book Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harlod Davis.  I seem to lack any kind of photographic skill, but I admire it in others.  Harol Davis makes me look at things in ways I have not experienced before, from the smallest center of a flower, to ordinary objects, to the vastness of stars.  This book especially seems to open worlds of images to viewers that we might otherwise miss, and ways of looking at flowers that are exciting and filled with a spectacular beauty that is often breathtaking and surprising.  I turn to Harold Davis's photos for inspiration in my own work, from drawing and painting, to poetry.  One of my all time favorite photos is one facing the inside back cover, a pink flower so perfect you wonder that it can be real, so delicate, and yet so vigorous that it seems to rise off the page.  Even if you are not a photographer, this book is one that will fascinate you and reward you time and again with images that will stay with you long after you put the book away, and with Mr. Davis's own enthusiasm and excitement for his work and for the wonders he presents to the world. I will leave it to the photographers to recommend it for his approach and knowledge of their work.  Without reservation, I can recommend this book to anyone looking for a fresh outlook on natural beauty and wonder,for images you just don't want to miss, for walking into the center of strange worlds present in the center of flower, or in the shining of light though so much sheer loveliness.
2417931
Don Farber set the standard for photographing Asian Buddhist teachers in America. Some Farber photos are posed, others candid; the teachers maybe teaching or simply relaxing; the on-lookers are sometimes prayerful, sometimes beaming. Each picture delivers a unique moment, powerful and memorable.

This book is devoted to photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, some of which were taken in the U.S, others in India. It more than lives up to what we have come to expect from Mr. Farber. The images capture the many aspects of His Holiness the Dalai Lama so beautifully. In these wide-ranging photos the Dalai Lama can be seen teaching; interacting with children, one of whom is in a wheelchair; addressing a huge crowd in Central Park; receiving his Congressional Medal inside the Capital, surrounded by the most powerful people in America in 2006; and just having a good laugh at his birthday party in California in 1989. There are also posed and formal photographs, but the "action shots" make apparent not just the Dalai Lama's love for all people, but also his great energy and his zest for living, things you might not expect to find in a Buddhist master. I'm glad Don Farber found them and delivered them to us in this wonderful collection.
3384106
This is a very particular, tightly focused work of photography, capturing the illuminated Ponts de Paris with few distractions, few human elements aside from the very human-scale architecture of the bridges. I'm familiar with the bridges both in day light and at night, but not as seen this way with few people and few vehicles. The gorgeous illumination of the bridges a few hours after I went to sleep is something to behold.

The pre-publication copy of the book that I reviewed (a free copy in exchange for an honest review) was unfinished, but the photos were printed on good quality paper. The book is a marriage of the photography and extensive research into the bridges' pasts. I learned a lot about the bridges that I would casually cross when visiting Paris. No justification is needed for centering such a work on the bridges, they seem like characters on their own as well as means of connection between the two sides of the river, and between the classical architecture of Paris and our modern lives in the city of lights.
4636023
The marvelous photographs in this book have been reviewed by prominent art critic Julian Spalding on his site: [...]

"Immediately I saw Errol Sawyer's photographs I was surprised by their compositional completeness - which lifts them out of time, and gives one the feeling that they are held forever (that `hold it' moment)  - and by their utter naturalness - that gives one the impression that life is flowing through them and nothing in them is forced, arranged for show, or in any way artificial.  Their authority as artistic expressions lies in this confluence.  Errol Sawyer is that rare thing today - a classical black and white photographer in the Henri Cartier-Bresson tradition, using the camera at its simplest and most challenging, as a trap for catching time. Looking at his pictures, I feel more fully in tune with living today, and my guess is that people in the future will continue to look at them, and by doing so, get a glimpse of what it was really like to be alive today.

Errol Sawyer was born in Miami in 1943.  He was brought up by his mother, part African American and Cherokee Indian, first in Harlem, then the Bronx, where he learnt to survive in the city jungle. He became a brilliant chess player, and then took to photography in 1966.  He became famous in the seventies as a fashion photographer, but withdrew from this world in the late 80s to return to his roots in the streets. He has written beautifully about what he is doing. `A good picture results from a subconscious dance between being present and not being present.'  `I measure myself as a craftsman in proportion to the degree of consciousness I bring to bear upon a given event at its inception, not at its conclusion!'  And on the subject of politically motivated photography, he asks, `While I applaud the efforts of many photographers ... to raise our consciousness regarding the horrendous plight of those who are confined to the third world, I'm nagged by the question: whose interests are actually served by the process?' "

[...]
743351
The author's intimate relationship to the material only vivifies the  moving photos that capture a world on the edge of destruction. A must read.
2088302
Magnum, a name synonymous with upper echelon of documentary photography.  Just a mention of the name brings instant thoughts of Capa, Parr, and Bresson.  The most recognized name in the photo world brings their take on a very photographic country: Ireland.

If you are looking for beautiful scenic and landscape shots of the Irish countryside, look elswehere.  If you love reportage/documentary photography than this will instantly become a photo book favorite of yours, even if you do not have much interest in the country itself.

What lies here is Magnum's best work from the past 5 decades, breaking each into it's own section.  We get some brief text to start each decade, drawing a light timeline for us, and then it's on to the pictures.

You would think the 50's would be mostly black and white shots, but think again.  Along with some great shots by Henri Cartier-Bresson, we get some vibrant color images by Inge Morath.  All the photos simply have one thing in common: capturing life in this country in all aspsects.  Depicting people lounging, fighting, and dancing, and the objects, places, and buildings in which they dwell.

You get over 30 of Magnum's top names, including Eve Arnold, Martin Parr, Steve McCurry, and Bruce Davidson, who lend photos covering both Ireland and Northern Ireland.  I didn't recognize of a few of the Parr photos, and I have nearly all his books including Photographs of the West of Ireland, so I am assuming that some of these photos may be appearing in book form for the first time.

It's a real treat for Magnum and documentary fans, and at the price I see right now on Amazon (way, way below list price) this is a must buy!
22777
Absolutely beautiful book filled with memories from a talented photographer.