"Roger Ailes: Off Camera" by Zev Chafets
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This is a good look at the behind the scenes world of news media and politics. It is sometimes funny, sometimes witty, sometimes satirical , but always entertaining. A quick read, good for a rainy afternoon.
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My name is Carl Hampton. I have over 35 images in the book and Jim Brown the photographer who taught me has the rest approximately 65 or so. Preston might have 3-5 pictures but has taken credit for all of them. Toward the end of the book is a picture of me at 21 with a camera. (currently do not have a copy to give yu the exact page #)
I was in Cairo for 2 years as the photographer for the United Front. Yu can be reached at 708 315 3374 to find out more or...
email: jiasenghe@yahoo.com.
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Gabriel Sherman did an excellent job of capturing Roger Ailes' personality, inner spirit, and work ethic.  The job of a historical biographer is not an easy task, but Mr. Sherman captured the man and the passion that motivates him.  I don't like Roger Ailes, he is definitely not someone that I want to know, but at the same time he is someone that I wouldn't mind sitting next to at a dinner party.

This contradiction is due to Mr. Sherman's writing skills, he can bring out the character of a man, lay it out for everyone to see, but at the same time keep the human perspective.

Partially, I was interested in the book because recently my cousin commented that she thought Fox News was unbiased.  Obviously, I knew this is not true but I didn't have any good specifics to really go into the matter.  Now I do.  Very good book.  I recommend it to all political persuasions.  If you are liberal, a good person to hate, if you are conservative, a man to mold yourself after.
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In 1926, a 24 year old Ansel Adams was introduced to poet the Robinson Jeffers.
"Return"
A little to abstract, a little to wise
It is time to kiss the earth again,
It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,
Let the rich life run to the roots again...
 Jeffers's word songs impressed Adams and gave him moral direction and navigation to find a subject to photograph. Conveniently, Roman Loranc's muse is his spouse Lillian Vallee. Her poetry is readable, but abstract enough to create a contrasting dialogue with 70 or so pages of well made black & white landscape photographs.
 Roman Loranc's subject is the California's northern central valley - a space mostly occupied by row crops, orchards, cattle, and grape vines. What is interesting about Loranc's photographs is the atmospheric quality of the images. His compositions are concerned with as much above the oak as the oak itself.
 Landscape photography which captures a moment, rather than description and texture is the brass ring of this art. It is a difficult maneuver to arrest gesture from the land. It's like finding life in a fossil, water on Mars.
 The portfolio of images are of an idyllic vision of the space and subject. On page 57, "Bare Trees by the River, Cosumnes River, 2000, reminds me of Michael Kenna's photographs of French classic water sculpture, "Chariot of Apollo, Study I, Versailles, France, 1988. I can almost make out the inverted water reflection of horse shapes in the Cosumnes image. The landscape photographer's lot in the field is made by the decision of how an image will form in the camera.
 The choice of lens, film and developer is a calculated workflow which ultimately doles out success or failure.
 Loranc's use of a slightly longer than normal focal length compresses far space to the near. His choice of Nikon glass generates more contrast which makes his use of Pyro for developing negatives a good choice. Especially for hardened cloudscapes as on page 1, "Private Road with Clouds, Stanislaus County, 1993. It is bizarre that Loranc's Oaks also produce the gall nut which is the prime ingredient of Pyro(gallol) he uses to process his negatives of Oak trees.
The production values of the book are excellent. The paper choice emulates the glossy photographic paper dried matt of the contemporary west coast print maker. The colophon does not indicate how many plates where used per image for reproducing Loranc's split toned prints, but I suspect a minimum of three. This would allow a close reproduction of sepia and selenium toned prints plus room for one additional plate for spot varnish which is used to deposit extra density to the 3/4 quarter tone portions of the screens. This book would be a fine addition to the library of any serious student of photography. It is a welcomed book on black & white landscape photography which are few like the great Oaks of the California landscape. Copyright Craig Carlson 2004. carlson1@mail.sdsu.edu
3828847
Glen E. Friedman has been capturing the high voltage energy of today's youth and those who speak to them for a long time. In this very interesting collection of photographs he manages to focus (pardon the pun) on skateboarders, rappers, the guys who hang out on the streets all living on the edge.  The energy he captures is inimitable.  Reading this book immediately after viewing the museum exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat makes it all ring true.  These may be the remembered commentators and artists of tomorrow.  But for now, this is a worthwhile journey into subcultures you may not know.  Grady Harp, July 05
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Lucy Pringle is one of the fine aerial photographer/researchers of the crop circle phenomenon.  Her shots are clear, beautifully framed, riveting!  This book is a catalog of some of her finest photographs of this enigma in the fields of England. It will fascinate believers and skeptics alike.
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I recently reviewed a wonderful book:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/New-York-N-Why/dp/1590052293/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">New York, N. Why?.</a>&nbsp;of sixty-seven Burckhardt photos, admittedly not a lot but what made the book special for me was the reproduction.  It was a carefully prepared facsimile of a photo scrapbook that Burckhardt made in the late thirties of his New York street scene photos.

On the strength of that book I wanted to know more about this Swiss born photographer and Phillip Lopate's book does nicely.  Burckhardt is another of those migr photographers who came to America to avoid the thirties turmoil in Europe.  The most famous is probably Robert Frank though Alexander Alland, John Gutman, Otto Hagel, Hansel Mieth, Lisette Model and Marion Palfi each achieved professional success partly due their European perspective of seeing things.

There are two essays in the book, over forty-four pages, the longest by Lopate is excellent and goes into just the right amount of biographic detail to keep the reader interested and fortunately avoids those elitist meanderings that seem quite common in art books these days (and certainly in photobooks from my experience).  Though Burckhardt isn't a photographer that you'll find in the Index of a history of American photography book his work here shows off his creativety.  I especially like the New York street scene photos taken in 1938 to 1940, it's much more controlled and considered than the New York School photographers output that came after the Second World War.

The 278 duotone (175 screen) photos  in the book are presented chronologically up to 1999, the year he died, aged eighty-five.  As well as plenty of New York images there are photos from trips to Trinidad and Alabama (both during military service) Italy, Spain and Morocco.  The back pages include artists at work, sidewalk and building shots and finally a nature selection taken in the Maine countryside.

Overall I thought this was a first-class monograph of a photographer (artist and filmmaker as well) perhaps not too well known but the photos here reveal a person bursting with creative ideas.

###LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
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Excellent short pieces on various avant-garde filmmakers, most of them personally known to Brakhage.  A perfect companion piece to my copy of his Film Biographies, now woefully out of print.
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As a student of photography in the 1970's, I was familiar with a few dozen of
these images. However I'm thrilled to be able to experience and share this
collection of hundreds of Robert Capa's images, in roughly chronological order, including a few glimpses shot by others which help give a sense of the
times and places in which he blazed fearlessly through his inevitably short life. This is a great gift for anyone interested in the life and work of the
photojournalist covering the frontlines of world conflict.
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This book provides a good overview of the works of Jock Sturges. There are some photos here from his other books such as The Last Day of Summer and Radiant Identities.
As a photographer, his technique is very good. However he only use one style of photography and all his photos are in grey-tone and not in colour.
Compared to other studies of nude photography, the many of the models of Jock Sturges are plain-looking and it shows in his photographs. Among his more attractive models, he is only able to partially brings out their beauty in his photographs.
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I was completely unfamiliar with this aspect of Ansel Adams' work and find it fascinating. The sordid episode of American history documented here is a reminder that even our republic is capable of the most ridiculous, unjust and totalitarian behavior at times. It serves as a warning that upholding the Constitution is of paramount importance at all times. It is only slightly comforting that the living conditions portrayed in the book are apparently adequate, albeit spartan, and that there are no visible signs of cruelty.

The photographs themselves remind me, again, of Ansel Adams' mastery of composition and exposure. There are portraits that could have been taken yesterday, so timeless are they. The banality of daily existence is well portrayed, as is the spartan nature of the internment camp. But, even then, the beauty of the surrounding landscape is clear.

This is a very complete collection. Many of the photographs are repeated, with slightly different composition and exposure. I guess even Ansel Adams didn't always get it right with just one shot.

As a study of a historical event, and as a view into a master photographer at work, this is very good indeed. At the price, it's a no-brainer. This has made me want to dive into Marc's work a lot more.
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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.
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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
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The brilliant, surreal, hilarious, ahead-of-their-time collaborative efforts of Mike Mandel and the late Larry Sultan have finally been collected and documented in book form. From the roots of their work as individuals, through billboards, murals, installations and the proto-postmodern masterpiece 'Evidence', this new monograph (with superb reproductions and incisive essays by Charlotte Cotton, Constance Lewallen and Jonathan Lethem), is essentially a catalogue raisonn for a pair of photographers who collaborated before it was fashionable, and whose output anticipated the referential, appropriative strategies of Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger by almost a decade.

 This book belongs in the library of every individual and institution that aspires to comprehensiveness in American photography and art since 1960.
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Les vignettes prsentes ici ont t slectionnes par l'auteur, elles n'y figurent donc pas toutes. En revanche, sur le dvd fourni, on trouve toutes les vignettes depuis la cration de la srie.

Les informations de l'auteur sur sa jeunesse apportent un vrai plus  cette compilation non exhaustive de Dilbert. Les commentaires de Scott Adams sous quelques gags sont un petit plus mais la valeur ajoute n'est pas extraordinaire non plus.

Une belle compilation, bien prsente dans un joli coffret avec le dvd qui contient vraiment tout. Ce n'est pas donn, mais l'ouvrage est trs volumineux.
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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?' "

[...]
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Bob McClurg's Diggers, Funnies, Gassers, & Altereds with Foreword by John Force is a great collection of photos from this era. This should come as no surprise as McClurg was a photographer for Hot Rod Magazine during the 1960s through 1970's. The different category of cars are correctly described allowing the reader to see the differences in the classes. It was a photo jornalist tour through my past. I remember many iof these cars and drivers and this book brought back memories and had me looking for my old photos. I recommend this book for anyone in an interest in cars and drag racing. Look back at what it was like.