Robert Frank: The Americans, Sotheby's offer The Ruth and Jake Bloom Collection

 

Robert Frank: Hoboken (Parade) 1955

This Thursday December 17, Sotheby’s NYC will offer at auction an outstanding collection of images from Robert Frank’s The Americans, one of the most influential books of photography ever published. Collectors Ruth and Jake Bloom assembled this extraordinary group of iconic photographs over more than two decades, collecting 77 of the 83 pictures reproduced in the 1959 book. This seminal series of images, so compelling on the printed page, gains a new resonance when seen as photographic prints. The sale represents
the first time such an extensive collection of photographs from The Americans has appeared at public auction.You can see the complete auction catalogue HERE.

NOT FOOD OR SEX - new bookwork

I have just produced a series of three bookworks under my imprint FAQEDITIONS. Initially the set of three books were offered on photobookstore UK, where each book has with it a limited edition print. If you are interested in the book / print option you can go to the photobookstore HERE.

Over the coming weeks I will be releasing each of these books here on my blog. The first in the series will be NOT FOOD OR SEX. With photographs made in the real world, the book is an exploration into the nature of things. The edit of 33 pictures is a playful narrative of seemingly disconnected images. Sequencing is bizarre and unusual and is open to many interpretations. There are never any answers only questions.

The book is a signed and numbered edition of 50 copies, 255 x 180mm, 32 pages printed on 130gsm satin stock with a 300gsm satin cover.  Prices are, €30 / £22 / US$34 / A$45 / NZ$48, which includes packing and postage. For payment you can simply log on to my PayPal account using my email address harvey.benge@xtra.co.nz

Here are the spreads from the book: 

Photobooks - the best of 2015 from photo-eye

 

Photo-eye have just published their best-of-list... there are 150 titles that make up their lists with 24 reviewers presenting a point of view. Photo-eye say this: Since 2009, photo-eye’s Best Books feature has been comprised of lists from multiple contributors. In recent years multi-contributor lists appear in an increasing number of venues. At photo-eye, Best Books is not about achieving an authoritative overview. In fact, we're confident in saying no one assembling a multi-contributor year-end best photobook list could possibly expect to meet this goal — it would be antithetical to such a project to begin with. But while the expansion of voices dilutes the concept of arbiters, it better reflects our topic — the varied, expanding and unpredictable world of photobooks, too vast for any one expert to command.

You can check our the photo-eye lists HERE.

Photobooks - best of 2015, my list

 

Martin Amis at the photobookstore UK asked me to compile my "best list" for 2015. You can check it out below. And while you are at it you can go to the photobookstore and have a look at their other lists. Recommendations from among others: Simon Baker, Mark Power, Erik Kessels, Pierre Bessard... HERE.

Ron Jude - Lago - quiet authenticity shines in this book which is full of unexpected surprises 

Goran Bertok - Requiem, a direct and uncompromising meditation on the subject of death

 J H Engstrom - Random, crazy juxtapositons in Engstom’s signature style, mirrors life itself

 

Daido Moriyama - Dazai - a beautiful object full of stunning, superbly printed Daido works

 

Viviane Sassen - Umbra - light and shadow collide in Sassen’s crazy universe

 

Carlos Spottorno - Wealth Management - a timely take on the influence of global finance

Paul Graham, Jörg Colberg - the Whale in the Room and the need to take risks

 

Paul Graham - The Whiteness of the Whale

If you think Paul Graham and his work keeps cropping up on my blog, you're right. I mention Paul's work because in my view he is at the forefront of those camera artist's who look hard and long at the world and make pictures from life.
Jörg Colberg is a photography writer I admire equally and if you haven't yet discovered his blog Conscientious I urge you to do so. You can go there HERE.

In a recent post Jörg talks about Paul Graham's The Whiteness of the Whale series, three books ostensibly pivoting on the loose theme of America. Jörg Colberg makes the point that Graham has moved to a position more in line with Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman or Thomas Demand and further he comments on the intellectual rigor, the thinking, that is apparent in Grahams work.
Graham is too cerebrally careful... might gain a little from focusing less on the ball and more on the play. I feel too much thinking... Where are the errors? Where are the fuck ups? Where do we get to see that something didn’t quite work out? I just wish Paul Graham’s work were just a little bit flawed, a little bit less careful, less cerebral. but couldn’t there be a bit wabi-sabi?

Yes, Paul Graham's work is intellectually rigorous. That is how the man is. It's his make-up, his personality. I put him in the same ball park as Lewis Baltz... both abundantly perceptive and astute.

Too much thinking can eliminate the possibility of risk taking, curbs spontaneity and kill intuitive decisions. The fact is we are all stuck within the confines of our own inner make-up and like it or not our work will carry the stamp of a visual handwriting that is distinctively our own. If we are confined to a particular way of seeing we are also confined to the process as a whole. That is, what we make and what we do with it. We operate within the confines of our own particular set of blinkers. And there is nothing much we can do about this. Tough but true. The truth is we know too much, we think too much and we go by the rules when we shouldn't. And worse, we avoid risks.

Of course then there are those that say they do take risks. This can be a slippery slope. Are these risks for the right reasons? Very easy to make work for all the wrong reasons, abandon authenticity and slide into clever and not intelligent. There is a lot of this about.

If you risk nothing, you risk everything. Geena Davis

You can the read Jörg Colberg's full piece Paul Graham and the Whales HERE.

Robyn Daly, CONFETTI, a new photobook

 

Robyn Daly is a Melbourne based photographer who makes photobooks. Very good photobooks. Robyn has just sent me her latest self-published edition, CONFETTI. There is more than a hint of irony in the books title because despite Robyn's use of a pastel color palette the images are hard edged with a touch of menace. And to throw the reader completely off-balance the color work in CONFETTI faces off grainy black and white pictures. A hard act, but an accomplished one here. The images and the books edit has all the things I look for in cohesive body of work, mystery, surprise and enigma. Recommended!

CONFETTI / Limited edition of 111 / 68 page spread / 200mm x 275mm / 160gsm text, 300gsm cover / Perfect bound / Debossed cover

You can order a copy direct from Robyn Daly's website HERE.

Here are some images from the book:

Harvey Benge - three new photobooks

I have just released under my own imprint, FAQEDITIONS, three new photobooks each in a limited edition of 50. The books are available at photobookstore uk and come with a signed and numbered print, one image from each book-work, in an edition of twenty.

The photobookstore says this: These three new books from prolific book maker Harvey Benge continues his exploration into the nature of things and the profundity to be found in the banal, the trivial and the overlooked.

Benge believes in the democracy of images where no picture can out-weigh another, however he equally accepts that there is strength in numbers. This gives rise to the bizarre and unusual sequencing found in these book-works with strange narratives open to many interpretations. In Benge's surreal world there are never any answers only questions.

Signed and numbered edition of 50 copies only, 33 photographs, 32 pages, 255 x 180 mm with a 150 x 100 mm signed and numbered print (edition of 20) slipped into the book between IFC and page 1. Beautifully printed on 130gsm satin stock with the cover on 300gsm satin stock.

For more information you can go to the photobookstore uk HERE and also see a video run-through. Here are just a few of the pages: