Hipshots

Paul Graham

© Paul Graham

Following Mark at Manchester Photography’s post about Paul Graham’s Shimmer of Possibility, Steidl have recently announced the launch of an affordable softcover edition.  Combining all 12 books of the set into a single 376 page softcover volume, the new edition looks sure to sell out quickly at its RRP of £40 (see pre-order link at Amazon here).Full details of the new edition are not on the Steidl website, but can be found in the Spring 09 Steidl Catalogue downloadable from the Steidl website here.

Also due out in 2009, is a much needed Paul Graham retrospective from Steidl.  A huge 400 page collection of his work, including images from those impossible to find early books - it looks a must-buy for anyone interested in contemporary photography.  UPDATE: It’s now available for pre-order here.

Photobooks to look out for

The Fall 08 Steidl Catalogue can be downloaded here.  I have selected a few personal highlights that will make my shopping list:-

Christer Stromholm - Poste Restante has been “coming soon” for the best part of the year, but hopefully this limited edition (of 1000) reprint will finally appear by the end of the year.   The original 1967 version of Poste Restante commands huge prices on the used market, so this one is sure to be a fine investment, as well as an essential photobook.  Available here.

Saul Leiter - Early Black and White is another title that has been scheduled to be released for some time.  Early Color is one of my favourite photobooks of recent years, and this Steidl collection will be well worth a look - I will be interested to see if Leiter’s images seem so special in black and white as they do in colour. Available in October here.

Ray Metzker - Light Lines has been recently released.  Little is heard of Metzker in Europe, but this beautifully produced huge monograph makes for the perfect introduction.  See a full review at 5B4 here.  Book available now here.

Raymond Depardon - Manhattan Out features New York street photos taken by the french photographer Raymond Depardon in the early 1980’s .  Depardon shot all the images without looking through the viewfinder of his camera, working incognito in the nooks and crannies of New York. He was so disappointed with the results, that the negatives were never shown to anyone until recently.  From the few images available on the Steidl site, we can be thankful that these Winogrand-esque images were mercifully saved and finally shown to the public.  Available later this year here.

Joel Sternfeld - Oxbow Archive is featured in the current issue of Aperture Magazine.  A quiet thoughtful work, showing how photographing very little, can evolve to be so much.  Available in December here.

Photography Book Now - Peoples Choice Award

Blurb have added an extra category for their very popular Photography Book Now competition, entitled The People’s Choice Award.  Now there is the best part of 2000 entries, so quite how the general public is expected to choose I am not quite sure, but having said that your vote would be richly appreciated!

The Photography Book now site, only allows a 15 page preview, so to offer a proper look at my entry, I have created a gallery of all the images here or alternatively point your browser to http://www.racingseen.co.uk. Editing down all the 100 or so images here, wasn’t easy but I am pretty happy with the final result.

Voting closes Sept 10th, good luck to all the entrants.

UK Newspapers round-up - Koudelka, Eggleston and Paranoia

A few interesting pieces to pass on in the UK newspapers from the past week:-

© Josef Koudelka

First up, a wonderful interview with Josef Koudelka by Sean O’Hagan of the Guardian. One of the true living greats of photography.

© William Eggleston

Also from the Guardian, the news that William Eggleston will receive a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art this November. The exhibition will tour next year - the nearest to me looks like being Munich…sigh. If you get the chance, see the show, as it will be a long time before such a major retrospective will happen again. Read the official news here.

Finally from last weekend’s Telegraph, a report on the increasing troubles faced by photographers, amateur and pro, when shooting out and about in the UK. I’m not sure the situation is quite as bad as painted, but with a scaremongering fear-fuelling mass media at large, things certainly are getting worse.

Weston-Super-Mare Pier R.I.P.

I watched in horror this morning as Sky News showed live pictures of Weston-Super-Mare Grand Pier being destroyed by a large fire. See the story at Reuters here.

When I lived in the southwest, Weston and the Pier in particular was one of my favourite places to take photos. From my earliest black and white forays into photography to later exhibited colour work, the pier was a place where I would head back to time and time. I learnt a lot photographing there, as I am sure have many other photographers. It will be sadly missed.

© Martin Amis

Photography Book Now

It was a bit of a last-minute scramble (isn’t entering contests always like that?) but I got my entry in for the first Photography Book Now contest. All the entries (1527 of them) can be found here, with a preview of mine here. All the front covers look better than mine, but I’ve never professed to be much of a graphic designer. Overall though, I am quite happy with my efforts, it’s very healthy to wade through your work and sort the wheat from the chaff. In this case I edited the final version down to a tight 32 images, now fingers crossed I make it through the first round and get my work seen by the great bunch of jurors.

Thanks to Andrew for putting me on his shortlist in his round-up here. Ta!

UPDATE SEPT 4th: A run-through of the book can be seen here or at http://www.racingseen.co.uk

Thin

© Martin Amis

Entries have been pretty thin on the ground this past month and will continue to be for a while - the business of photography and photobooks has taken over.

A few recent bookmarks:-

Vewd - a new documentary photography website which is open for submissions. In particular check out Shane Bauer’s excellent multimedia essay Hotel Poverty.

The lure of the street - an excellent piece by the ever readable Geoff Dyer, about the recent Tate Modern show Street & Studio.

Hands on with pictures - A feature on the exhibit of photobooks at the V&A which accompanies the Blood on Paper main artist book exhibition. The essential photobook blog 5b4 deservedly gets a mention. Another great entry by Liz Jobey from the Guardian Arts blog.

Who Cares About Books? - An illuminating essay by Darius Himes, about the importance of photobooks, which suggests we are entering a new golden age of photobooks.

Bruce Gilden (again…)

© Bruce Gilden / Magnum

I’m a big big fan of Bruce Gilden. He has undoubtedly had an influence on my own style of photography - so no apologies for another post about him.

In case you haven’t seen it already check out WNYC’s video of Bruce on the streets demonstrating his craft here on Youtube. There’s a WNYC street photography challenge online here at flickr (note that this is a contest for US residents only…sigh).

I was fortunate enough to finally see Misery Loves Company: The Life and Death of Bruce Gilden (thanks Ed). I will save a review for another time, but needless to say if your a Gilden fan, or a lover of street photography in general it is well worth a viewing. Although probably the best way to learn more about Gilden’s work is to pick up one of his photobooks, most of which, with the exception of GO, can be picked up for a song.

Telegraph stories

© Robert Frank

The weekend editions of The Daily Telegraph frequently feature some excellent pieces on photography, and this weekend was no exception. Check out:-

Here for an excellent article on the reissue of Frank’s The Americans (one of many such articles over the coming weeks I am sure…).

Here for a piece on Martin Parr’s Postcards - a new book about his postcard collections by Chris Boot.

and perhaps most interestingly…

Here for an excellent introduction to next week’s New York Photo Festival.

Racing Seen - April 08

© Martin Amis

More Racing Seen images here.