Robert Frank - The Americans x 2 First Editions

 

Robert Frank - The Americans, 1958 Paris, First Edition

If you're in New York this coming Friday morning you can go along to Sotheby's at 11am and bid on copies of Robert Frank's The Americans.

There is a chance to buy the 1958 Paris first edition published by Delpire, this with an estimate of US$3,000 - 5,000.
The first ever printing of Robert Frank's The Americans, the French edition featured writing by Simone de Beauvoir, William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Henry Miller, and John Steinbeck positioned opposite the photographs. Cover illustration by Saul Steinberg. The formatting of the book was totally revised for the subsequent American publication which featured only short captions and an introduction by Jack Kerouac, making the sole feature of the work Robert Frank's photography. Extremely rare, this book is essential for any collector interested in modern publishing, book design, or photography. 

Or you can put your hand up for the American first edition published in 1959 by Grove Press and signed by Robert Frank. This with an estimate of US$25,000 - 30,000
The first American printing of the groundbreaking photography book, The Americans by Robert Frank.  Due to Frank's unique photographic style, the book was first published in France, and radically reformatted and edited before American publication. The style of this first U.S. printing would go on to influence photography and art books into today. The 83 images culled from Frank's initial 20,000 photographs show Frank's unique and influential photographic style. Superb association copy of the American first edition. Signed by Robert Frank to Barney Rossett, publisher of the first American edition and one of the most influential publishers of the postwar era.

Robert Frank - The Americans, 1959 USA, First Edition

What is the greatest ever photobook? A survey by Source magazine

 

Source is a quarterly photography magazine, available in print and as a digital edition, published in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They publish emerging photographic work and engage with the latest in contemporary photography through news, thoughtful features and reviews of the latest exhibitions and books from Ireland and the UK. The Source website brings together an archive of writing and pictures from the magazine alongside current blogs and features. You can check Source out HERE. 

What is the greatest ever photobook? Source conducted an international poll to discover the answer to this question, asking photographers, publishers, critics, booksellers, collectors and others to nominate their favourite books of all time. They have collated the nominations into a top ten list and then lists of runners up. 

Books receiving the most votes:

1 The Americans, Robert Frank, 1958.

2 Evidence, Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, 1977.

3 The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Nan Goldin, 1986.

4 New York, William Klein, 1956.

5= In Flagrante, Chris Killip, 1988.

5= Farewell Photography, Daido Moriyama, 1972.

7 Ravens, Masahisa Fukase, 1986.

8 The Map, Kikuji Kawada, 1965.

9= Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, 1972.

9= Sentimental Journey, Nobuyoshi Araki, 1971.

9= William Eggleston's Guide, 1976.

9= For a language to come, Takuma Nakahira, 1970.

13= American Photographs, Walker Evans, 1938.

13= The Decisive Moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952.

13= Waffenruhe, Michael Schmidt, 1987.

16= Redheaded Peckerwood, Christian Patterson, 2012.

16= U-NI-TY, Michael Schmidt, 1996. 

My list and comments:

The New Color Photography, Ed: Sally Eauclaire, 1981.

William Eggleston, The Democratic Forest, 1989.

Lee Friedlander, Like a One-Eyed Cat, 1989.

Larry Sultan, Pictures From Home, 1992.

Gabriel Orozco, Photographs, 2004.

Collier Schorr, Neighbors / Nachbarn, 2006.

Paul Graham, A Shimmer of Possibility, 2007.

New Topographics, 1975.

Sacha Maric, Good Mother and Father, 2012.

Mitch Epstein, New York Arbor, 2013. 

My criteria? Well, it's to do with a bookwork that resonates and doesn't give too much away, is demanding and beckons me back, has a sort of energy about it. Visually strong, of clear voice, is authentic and intelligent. Certainly not clever. The work is convincing and clearly comes from the artist's heart and head.

You can see the full list of poll results HERE indexed by voters name.

INFOCUS - self-published photobooks at the Phoenix Art Museum

 

Harvey Benge - UN-SOLVED and NOT FOOD

In August 2016, INFOCUS at the Phoenix Art Museum called photographers internationally to submit their photobooks to the second triennial Juried Exhibition of Self-Published Photobooks. The purpose of the exhibition was to explore the range of ways that artists were using newly available commercial technologies in order to express themselves. A jury of eight industry professionals reviewed 179 submissions and selected 111 books for the exhibition.

These books hail from all over the United States and 12 countries on five continents, including Australia, Russia, Chile, Norway, The Netherlands, England, Germany, France, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Italy.
Selected books showcase a wide range of printing technologies, including offset lithography, digital inkjet printing, letterpress, laser printing, and photocopying. In some cases, self-publishing artists worked with boutique operations like Conveyor Arts in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Edition One Books in Berkeley, California; in others, they worked with print-on-demand online publishing platforms like Blurb, MagCloud, MyPublisher, and Shutterfly.
Books were requested on any subject including retrospective, project-based, souvenir albums, fictional narrative, exhibition catalogues, poetic, biographical, or children’s books, and welcomed collaborative or collective books in addition to those by a single author. They found that in a well-crafted book, the artist considers every element of the book’s design, and uses each to enhance the finished product. Among the selections are noteworthy selection of paper weight and surface; cover material; printing method and reproduction quality; font style, color and size; text placement and justification (centered, aligned to the right or left); end-paper and title page design; binding (spiral bound, hard bound, paperback); size and placement of the images; sequence of the images; and inclusion (or exclusion) of and placement of the caption information.
 All submissions were created between 2014 and the present, representing some of the best examples of self-publishing from the last three years.

I was pleased to be included (along with friends Lydia Panas and Mark Power) in the show with two of my bookworks: UN-SOLVED PUZZLES RE-MAIN and NOT FOOD OR SEX.

The exhibition runs until April 9, 2017. You can see a full list of the artists and books included HERE. 

Lydia Panas - Falling From Grace (selection of images)

Mark Power - Destroying The Laboratory...

Paris in November, first pictures...

After a month in Europe I'm now back in my Auckland studio. Here are a few pictures made in Paris in November...

Paris...

Harvey Benge - Paris, November 2008

I'm in Paris for Paris Photo from Wednesday November 9 until November 17... and London a week after that. If any photo friends feel like a coffee or a beer, whatever... please get in touch: harvey.benge@xtra.co.nz

Harvey Benge - Paris, November 2008

The geometry of framing, shapes within the frame

 

This short YouTube video is worth checking out. Although it deals with cinematography, I think you'll agree that the ideas apply to still photography as well. Basically different shapes within the frame convey different meaning.

You can go to the YouTube video HERE.

Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now at San Francisco MoMA

 

Lieko Shiga, Tomlinson FC, from the series Lilly, 2005

Back in October I was pleased to get a preview of the the show - Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now. Curated by Sandra Phillips the show opened October 15 and runs until March 12, 2017.

SF MoMA say this: One of the most significant contributions to the art of photography comes from postwar Japan. After World War II, the country began to produce film and camera equipment, supporting a large amateur photography culture and sponsoring native photographers as important artistic producers. This exhibition highlights SFMOMA’s considerable collection of Japanese photography, focusing on generous gifts from our community and the important donation of the Kurenboh Collection, Tokyo. Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now includes photographs from the 1960s, when major figures such as Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama investigated Americanization and industrial growth; the more personal and performative work of Nobuyoshi Araki and Eikoh Hosoe; and photography addressing the present culture and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Organized thematically, the show explores topics such as Japan’s relationship with America, changes in the city and countryside, and the emergence of women, especially Miyako Ishiuchi, Rinko Kawauchi, and Lieko Shiga, as significant contributors to contemporary Japanese photography. 

This is an immersive show which touches all the bases and is the best overview of Japanese photography I've seen.

See more on the SF MoMA site HERE.

Eikoh Hosoe, Kamaitachi #17, 1965

Tsunehisa Kimura, Untitled, 1977

Sunny October in San Francisco - first images

 

San Francisco, October 4 to 8. Up hill and down dale, sun shining. Nice. Here are some of the first images I've printed.

Polycopies - an authentic photography experience in Paris, not to be missed!

 

© Koji Onaka

If you are in Paris next week for Paris Photo do not miss going along to Polycopies on the boat Concorde-Atlantique moored on the Siene a few minutes walk from the Grand Palais.
Founded in 2014 by the photo luminaries Laurent Chardon and Sebastian Hau, as always Polycopies is a total dedication to the photo book. I describe then event as authentic, it is that because at Polycopies there is a chance to meet the photographers (this year Pieter Hugo, Takashi Homma, JH Engström and Roger Ballen among many others) and publishers all of different stripes. All brought together in an intimate setting.

Polycopies say this: Since 2014 Polycopies has been hosting every year a selection of 35 specialised international photo book publishers. Polycopies is an association for the distribution and promotion of the photographic edition, which for four days during Paris-Photo becomes a large ephemeral bookshop, a space completely dedicated to photo books. Although Polycopies is first of all a market place, it has also become an important place to meet where a lively crowd of amateurs, collectors, photographers and publishers of different horizons share and confront their ideas on photography, better understand the stakes of publishing, exchange on discoveries made and favorite books, or even show their book dummies and see new projects come to live.
 
Exhibitors this year include:
/ AKINA BOOKS (It) / CAFE LEHMITZ PHOTOBOOKS (De) / CESURA (It) / CHACO BOOKS (Es) / CHOSE COMMUNE (fr) / DALPINE (Es) / DIENACHT (De) / EDICIONES ANÓMALAS (Es) / EDITIONS BESSARD (Fr) / LES EDITIONS QUEBECOISES (Ca) / EINER BOOKS (No) / FOTOHOF (At) / GWINZEGAL (Fr) / HERMANN LOHSS (De) / HOXTON MINI PRESS (Gb) / JIAZAZHI PRESS (Cn) / JOURNAL (Se) / KAUNAS (Lt) / MILLION BOOKS (De) / OODEE (Gb) / PHOTOBOOK PUBLISHERS NETWORK (Us) / PHOTOBOOKS FROM TURKEY (Tr) / PHREE (Es) / POURSUITE (Fr) / RODOVID (Ua) / RUSSIAN INDEPENDENT SELFPUBLISHED (Ru) / SKINNERBOOX (It) / THE ERISKAY CONNECTION (Nl) / TROLLEY BOOKS (Gb) / ZEN FOTO & SHASHASHA (Jp) /

Polycopies is open:
Wednesday Nov. 09: noon to 9pm / Thursday Nov. 10: 11am to 9pm / Friday Nov. 11: 11am to 10:30pm / Saturday Nov. 12: 11am to 6pm.

You can go to the Polycopies website HERE for among other things a list of the book signings.

Barbara Kruger - NEW YORK magazine cover

David Salle tells it like it is... Looking, Talking and Thinking about Art

In his new book 2. 1. 3. to how see, Looking, Talking and Thinking about Art, painter David Salle cuts to the chase in this assembly of his critical essays. Salle has the knack of avoiding bullshit and theoretical cul de sac's. His writing gets directly to the guts of what it's about to make art that works. Great art even.

I particularly liked what he had to say in an essay about artist Dana Schutz: Remember talent? A person who is said to have talent can do something: often it's physical, like throwing a football or playing the cello. Then there is imagination; the difference between it and talent is often misunderstood. Imagination fuels talent and funnels into it, but on its own lacks body. Today talent is easily confused with knowingness or a desire for attention, and what passes for imagination is often nothing more than a reshuffling of cultural signs. That's fashion. Occasionally an artist comes along with both talent and real imagination as well as the ability to combine them - to cast an original idea into pictorial form... as with all effective art, the greatness is partly a matter of the imagination behind it and partly a matter of style.

For more on David Salle you can go to his website HERE. And if you're interested you can go to amazon HERE to get a copy of 2.1.3.

Jim Goldberg - Raised by Wolves bootleg

 

Jim Goldberg writes:

Dear Friends and Family, 

As some of you may already know, I have just self-published (what many consider my most iconic work) Raised By Wolves, as a xerox-style Bootleg version.
The original book is largely unavailable except at very high prices - and with this new edition, an entirely new generation will have access. It’s also a way to re-stock all those school libraries that have had RBW stolen off their shelves. 

I am having a book signing on November 12th at Uptown in San Francisco from 3-5pm, where I'll be signing each book in a unique way. I hope to see you all there. If you know of anyone who can't make it or is interested in purchasing Raised By Wolves (Bootleg)... 

Here's the link: jimgoldberg.com If you’ve already purchased the book, many thanks.

Jim

Often considered Goldberg’s seminal project, Raised by Wolves combines ten years of original photographs, text, and other illustrative elements (home movie stills, snapshots, drawings, diary entries, and images of discarded belongings) to document the lives of runaway teenagers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The book quickly became a classic in the photobook canon and, thus, the original is essentially unavailable.

In the spirit of Tweeky Dave, Goldberg is releasing a xerox style bootleg version of the book with numerous surprises inserted by the artist. At 9x12 inches, the same size as the original, the re-issue features 320 color and black and white pages, perfect bound, with a color softcover. Raised By Wolves Bootleg re-issue - $100 plus shipping*

William Eggleston - The Democratic Forest at David Zwirner NYC

 

William Eggleston - Untitled from The Democratic Forest, c. 1983-1986

David Zwirner New York presents its first exhibition with William Eggleston since having announced the gallery’s exclusive worldwide representation of the artist. On view at 537 West 20th Street in New York will be works from Eggleston’s monumental project The Democratic Forest.

Over the course of nearly six decades, Eggleston has established a singular pictorial style that deftly combines vernacular subject matter with an innate and sophisticated understanding of color, form, and composition. His photographs transform the ordinary into distinctive, poetic images that eschew fixed meaning. His 1976 solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by John Szarkowski, marked the first presentation of color photography at the museum. Although initially criticized for its unfamiliar approach, the show and its accompanying catalogue, William Eggleston’s Guide, heralded an important moment in the medium’s acceptance within the art historical canon, and it solidified the artist’s position as one of its foremost practitioners to this date. Eggleston’s work continues to exert an influence on contemporary visual culture at large.

The Democratic Forest is among Eggleston’s most ambitious projects and a prime example of his uniquely recognizable aesthetic. Likened to an epic journey or an enduring narrative, it comprises a careful selection of works from over ten thousand negatives he took in the mid-1980s across the southern and eastern parts of America and in several European countries. These photographs of rural back roads, industrial and residential environs, architectural details, restaurant interiors, and parking lots, among other locales, eluded the conventions of both reportage and the black-and-white art photography practiced by many of the artist’s peers at the time, and instead shaped their own definition of what a photographic image could be—intuitive and charged with imaginative possibilities. Collectively, the project echoes Eggleston’s predilection for the “democratic” vision of the camera, able to render equally what is in front of the lens.

The exhibition runs October 27 - December 17, 2016. There is a  catalogue published by David Zwirner Books/Steidl on the occasion of the show.

You can read more on artdaily HERE 

William Eggleston - Untitled from The Democratic Forest, c. 1983-1986

William Eggleston - Untitled from The Democratic Forest, c. 1983-1986

William Eggleston - Untitled from The Democratic Forest, c. 1983-1986

Anthony Hernandez at San Francisco MoMA

 

Anthony Hernandez, Discarded #50, 2014

It was a treat, to say the least, to get to see the Anthony Hernandez retrospective at San Francisco MoMA. The show spans Hernandez's lengthy career from his early street photography to his current way of seeing - spare, large format images devoid of human presence yet loaded with meaning.

SF MoMA say this about the show: Anthony Hernandez is the first retrospective to honor the more than 45-year career of this major American photographer. Featuring approximately 160 photographs — many never shown before — the exhibition includes a remarkably varied body of work united by its formal beauty and its subtle consideration of contemporary social issues. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Anthony Hernandez developed his own individual style of street photography, one attuned to the desolate allure and sprawling expanses of his hometown. Over the course of his career, he has deftly moved from black-and-white to color photography, from 35mm to large-format cameras, and from the human figure to the landscape to abstracted detail. Highlights from the exhibition include black-and-white photographs from the early 1970s taken on the streets of downtown L.A., color pictures made on Rodeo Drive in the mid-1980s, and selections from his critically acclaimed series Landscapes for the Homeless, completed in 1991. Although Hernandez has turned his lens on other cities — including Rome, Italy, and various American locales — Los Angeles, and especially the regions inhabited by the working class, the poor, and the homeless, has been his most enduring subject.

The exhibition runs until January 1st next year and it's a must see. if you are in San Francisco next week, on Thursday November 3,  there is a chance to hear Anthony Hernandez in conversation with Jeff Wall. You will find details on the SF MoMA site HERE.

And don't overlook the stunning exhibition catalogue that supports the show. Hardcover, 280 pages, with contributions from Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Erin O’Toole, and Ralph Rugoff.

Anthony Hernandez, Forever #74, 2011

Anthony Hernandez, Landscapes for the Homeless #1, 1988

Autumn in New York - first images

 

New York, Autumn, perfect! Here are some of the first NYC photographs I've printed... pictures made in Manhattan between October 8 to 18.