The Top 15 Photo Books of 2008 by Melanie McWhorter
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The World from My Front Porch.
Bird.
Soul and Soul 1969-1999. Suzuki, together with fellow photographers Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama cleared the way in Japan for an emotionally involved and personal form of photography. However Suzuki had also a passion for the medium of the book and its special qualities. This quality production, made with love and attention, brings together the two mediums in a worthy tribute to the artist that surveys both his approach to photography and the various book dummies that he designed.
MK 95. The centerpiece of this impressive collection of Albrecht Fuchs photographs (nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008) is Fuchs' photos of the controversial conceptual artist Martin Kippenberger, whose untimely death in 1997 cemented his reputation as the enfant terrible of contemporary German art. In a homage to the Dawson City; but wherever the two worked together, they struck sparks of creativity. The book is published in an oversized format, carefully printed with rich full color reproductions. An amazing follow up to Fuchs past publication, Portraits, and a must-have for Kippenberger followers.
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air. As one of the largest world industries today, tourism and leisure have a profound impact on our way of life, reflecting the shifting cultural, economic, and social realities that take place across the globe. In the past, Delphine Bedel has explored this issue through different media including a photographic series, videos, texts, talks and publications. With this book, Bedel expands on her 2007 Amsterdam exhibition Reality Check with photographs and an array of contemporary perspective that address questions about representation, art, and tourism from artists and critics such as Franscesco Bernardelli, Rachel Esner, Frederikke Hansen, Bruno Latour, Marco Pasi, Renee Ridgway, Thibaut de Ruyter and Olivier Rolin.
Baghdad Calling. BAGHDAD CALLING is an exceptional photography book. Photojournalist Geert van Kesteren shows how Iraqi refugees are living in Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Besides these professionally shot images, the book reveals everyday life in the Iraq of 2006 and 2007 through the eyes of Iraqis themselves: a team round Van Kesteren amassed hundreds of photos from the mobile phones and digital cameras of Iraqi citizens that reveal places where journalists dare not tread for reasons of personal safety. These present a sequence of exploding grenades, family parties, ethnic cleansing, dancing in the park, demolished infrastructure, and hope of better times to come. The combination of professional photos, amateur snapshots and interviews with refugees, giving their first-hand accounts of the horrors that have befallen them, provides a penetrating insight into the situation in which the Iraqi citizens find themselves. Despite some optimistic reports in autumn 2007, the country is still in a state of collapse, into which it descended after the 2003 invasion. Baghdad Calling is an appeal to those countries of the Western coalition to shoulder their responsibilities and afford the Iraqis some hope of a better future.
Parrworld. Martin Parr’s vast collections of photography books and postcards are world-renowned. Unbeknownst to many, he is also an obsessive collector of photographic and themed objects. In Parrworld: Objects and Postcards, a luscious two-volume set, his procurement abilities are presented with appropriate thoroughness, and with typical Parr humor. Some of the items in Objects have already achieved notoriety—for instance, the wrist watches featuring Saddam Hussein’s visage. Others mythologize well-known figures such as Lenin and the Spice Girls. Then there is the kitsch: wallpaper, trays, and objects commemorating Sputnik, Chuck and Di’s wedding, and 9/11. While Objects is the first publication to document his twenty-five-plus years of such collecting, Postcards is the “last word” on an extraordinary collection of over 20,000 cards. This highly entertaining, yet serious study of postcard history includes early cards that depict local news events such as car crashes and murders. The book finishes in Boring Postcards territory with a selection of cards promoting motorways and shopping. Objects is introduced by Parr and Postcards features an introduction by Thomas Weski, curator of the companion exhibition Parrworld, which is touring internationally. This affordably priced set is bound to appeal to a wide audience, but in particular to collectors who thought they already owned everything Parr. A special limited edition is also available; for details, see page 29.
Dogs on Rocks. Dogs on Rocks is a volume of new photographs ofWilliamWegman’s famous Weimaraners, taken while he was in residence at The Acadia Summer Arts PrograminMaine or at his own home inMaine.Many of these stunning shots— of the dogs alone, in pairs or in groups—take advantage of the breathtaking vistas of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island,where the program is located.Wegman’s formal portraits of the animals are framed by the natural beauty and muted tones of the island’s forest and rocky beach.“I don’t feel lonely when I’m around them,”Wegman has said about his beloved dogs,“But I love also listening to them. I always make sure I spend some time just seeing what they’re really doing. Especially outside, you know,when you’re alone with them. Because so many people, including myself, fill in a whole vocabulary for them that is ours and not theirs. I remember spending some time for the first time with Man Ray,my first dog. I didn’t talk that day. I just listened to what he was listening to, the whole aura of smells and sounds and sights and things that he was picking up on during that day.”The Acadia Summer Arts Program was founded by Marion Boulton Stroud, the founder of The FabricWorkshop and Museum in Philadelphia,where she is the Artistic Director.
Deformer. Eleven years in the making and compiling more than 30 years of material, Ed Templeton’s scrapbook of his upbringing in suburban Orange County California is a much-anticipated book. Its photographs give a sun-drenched glimpse of what it might be like to be young and alive in the “suburban domestic incubator” of Orange County, conveyed in the idiom of Nan Goldin or Larry Clark (and with a sharp eye for the streets that recalls GarryWinogrand or Eugene Richards). For like his groundbreaking predecessors, Templeton is always a participant in the scenes he shoots. From the Alleged Press series curated by Aaron Rose, Deformer interweaves disciplinary letters fromTempleton’s grandfather and religious notes from his mother with sketches, snapshots, telling images and the occasional brutal tale, laying out an unresolved narrative that plunges readers headlong into Templeton’s chaotic youth and his reliance on art and skateboarding to accommodate its stresses and joys.“Skateboarding allowed me to travel the world, and that showed me that where I live is totally messed up,” he observes.“That perspective has fueled me and been a source for my art.”Through photographs, stories and ephemera of all sorts from his youth and teenage years, Templeton offers readers an intensely close and personal look at an artist’s coming of age. Deformer is also available in a boxed limited edition which comes with a signed and numbered photograph by Ed Templeton.
Rock Diary. This beautifully designed three volume boxed set presents new photographic work by Hedi Slimane, the iconic fashion designer who, during tenures at Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, has infused men’s fashion with an androgynous, rock n’ roll swerve. The first volume is an album of Slimane’s photographs of the Lollapalooza-esque three-day Festival Internacional de Benicássim on the East coast of Spain, the second is devoted to images of the new British and American rock scenes and the third contains essays on Slimane’s work by art critic Vince Aletti and music critic Jon Savage. In a 2003 conversation with Interview’s Ingrid Sischy, Slimane discussed his beginnings as a photographer: “I started taking pictures before I even began in fashion. I didn’t start with clothes until I was 16, but I had my first camera when I was 11. I’ve always taken pictures, almost like some people take notes or write down their thoughts.” As this collection reveals, Slimane’s photographs of the international music scene are as fresh and intrinsic as his paradigm-shifting work in fashion.
Marc Jacobs Advertising 1997-2008. For more than a decade Juergen Teller has worked with Marc Jacobs on the advertising campaigns for each of the Men’s andWomen’s Marc Jacobs collections,Marc by Marc Accessories and perfume lines. Teller’s idiosyncratic visual style and use of unusual models has been instrumental in establishing what has become one of the preeminent fashion brands of our times. Reflecting the intelligence and individuality of the Marc Jacobs brand, the models have included Sofia Coppola, Charlotte Rampling,MegWhite, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore,Michael Stipe, RufusWainwright, Harmony Korine, Cindy Sherman,William Eggleston, Samantha Morton,Winona Ryder, Roni Horn, Victoria Beckham and Teller himself, among many others. This volume brings together a selection of images from all the campaigns to create a single collection that marks the significance of this collaboration in both fashion and visual culture.
New Mexico.
Blumen. The American photographer Collier Schorr has been working in Southern Germany for the past 13 years, compiling Forest and Fields, a fictional documentary portrait of a small town inhabited by historical apparitions. Merging the roles of war photographer, traveling portraitist, anthropologist and family historian, Schorr interweaves tales of war, emigration and family. As an ongoing suite of artist’s books, Forests and Fields is also a project about bookmaking. In the latest installment, Blumen, Schorr moves away from portraying the figure and instead creates arrangements of objects against the landscapes and domestic or commercial settings of her much-investigated town.When people do appear in Blumen, they are usually props in a larger examination of this dialogue between objects and landscape. Flowers, signage, plums, chairs and plaster fawns are the real protagonists of this volume, further detailing the daily life of the townspeople of Schwabish Gmund. A boxed, numbered and signed special edition of the complete set of the Forest and Fields series will be available when the project has been completed.
Deconstructing Osama. Shocking photos! Chilling documents! Secrets revealed! The amazing scoop from the Al-Zur News Agency. A project by Joan Fontcuberta In November 2006 Al-Zur (the Qatar-based news agency) photojournalists, Mohammed ben Kalish Ezab and Omar ben Salaad, pulled off one of the most stunning scoops in the annals of investigative journalism. Ben Kalish and Ben Salaad followed the trail of Dr. Fasqiyta-Ul Junat, a leader of Al Qaeda's military wing. This is how Joan Fontcuberta’s latest fiction project starts. A complex and ironic vision of how Western World envisages the arabic world. Photography and deception meet in this publication, which will not leave you indifferent.
Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures. The influential Louisiana bluesman, Lead Belly, wrote and performed some of the best-loved songs of the twentieth century, including 'The Midnight Special,' 'Rock Island Line' and his signature song, 'Goodnight, Irene,' which became an international hit in 1950, eight months after his death. John A. Lomax, the esteemed Library of Congress folk music anthropologist, discovered Lead Belly serving time (for assault and murder) at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1934. He immediately saw that Lead Belly was a walking anthology of African-American music, and arranged for him to come to New York, where he created a sensation. Reporters followed Lead Belly everywhere, theaters clamored to book him and celebrities thronged to his concerts. His influence on a later generation of popular musicians was massive: Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Van Morrison, Robert Plant and Beck have all paid their respects. Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures is a treasure trove of rare, unpublished photographs, news clippings, concert programs, personal correspondence (including letters from Woody Guthrie), record albums, awards and other memorabilia retrieved only recently from a basement trunk in New York.
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