Recently Seen Books
Tim Daneliuk
Here are a few books I've run across recently that I thought many
might enjoy. Not all are new, but all should still be in print...
Art & Fear - Bayles and Orland - Capra Press
A *great* book on how and why we make (or should make) art. I've
recommended it here before. I'll say it again - buy this!
Overexposure - Shaw and Rossol - Allworth Press
Health hazards in photography. I just got mine - it looks like a fine
reference book for the serious (or not so serious) photographer.
Very readable from what I can see.
Scenes of Wonder & Curiosity - Orland - Godine Press
First shown to me by a colleague. A book of humor, whimsy, and
passion. The joy of photography seems to pour from this guy.
Brassai, From Surrealism To Art Informel - Funacio Antonio Tapies (publisher)
An very nice overview of Brassai's work. The intro has a bit too much art
critic blather about the meaning of his work, but Brassai's own writing
is interesting and the images will grab you. A worthy addition to your
library.
Atget Paris - Aget - Gingko Press
Paul Atget documented turn-of-the-century Paris. This book selects almost
900 of his images (from a library in the 10s of thousands). A stunning
work. If you were raised on a steady diet of American western photographers
(Adams, Weston, et al) as I was, this will be a wonderful eye-opener. This
book has caused me to rethink my rather narrow "landscape" bag and I'm now
itching to go shoot downtown Chicago.
The Family of Man - Museum Of Modern Art
This may be very hard to find, though MOMA may still have it in reprints.
(I found a first edition in a Maine bookstore this year for $8!)
The Family Of Man was (I believe) the first major photo show MOMA ever
did - circa mid-1950s - and was curated by Edward Steichen. In this age
of optical and mechanical perfection we seem to forget that the image is
*everything*. After 40+ years the images in this book are still immensely
compelling. The only problem is, with each rereading of the book, I am
reminded of how feeble a photographer I really am ;-)
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukha, Joyous Qwanza, Thrilling Winter Soltice,
Profound Ramadan to all (have I covered everything in PC completeness?)...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk
VoiceMail/FAX 847.827.1706 tun...@tundraware.com
Alan J. Rubin
As a professional in the field, I cannot recommend "Overexposure" by Shaw and
Rossol. It does not take into account the exposure of chemicals, hazardous in
bulk amounts, when in small quanitities, diluted and in solution as is found
in the home darkroom. In other words, it overstates the case and is thus not
a balanced presentation of what might be very real hazards in the darkroom and
in the home in general. The book encourages an overly exaggerated fear of
chemicals.
Alan
In article <34A0333A...@tundraware.com> Tim Daneliuk
<tun...@tundraware.com> writes:>From: Tim Daneliuk <tun...@tundraware.com>
>Subject: Recently Seen Books
>Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 15:55:06 -0600
Ben Weiner
Tim Daneliuk <tun...@tundraware.com> writes:
>Here are a few books I've run across recently that I thought many
>might enjoy. Not all are new, but all should still be in print...
...
>Atget Paris - Aget - Gingko Press
>Paul Atget documented turn-of-the-century Paris. This book selects almost
>900 of his images (from a library in the 10s of thousands). A stunning
>work. If you were raised on a steady diet of American western photographers
>(Adams, Weston, et al) as I was, this will be a wonderful eye-opener. This
>book has caused me to rethink my rather narrow "landscape" bag and I'm now
>itching to go shoot downtown Chicago.
If you like Atget's photographs, I highly recommend checking
out Berenice Abbott, the photographer who rediscovered Atget
and preserved his work. Her images of New York in the
thirties document that now-vanished city similarly to
what Atget did for Paris. Though her photographs do not
"look like" Atget's in the sense of being stylistically
the same, the style suits her city the way Atget's did his.
The New York Public Library has an exhibtion of Abbott's
photos on the web at
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/abbottex/abbott.html
Though of course the web versions don't do justice to the
original photographs, it's worth looking at.
I never thought of the idea that Atget would be an eye-opener
for someone primarily used to the American "West Coast" school
of landscape photography. (Probably because that isn't the
diet I was raised on. I like Western landscape photography
a lot, but I think the beautiful striking landscapes can be
a dead end sometimes - I think Richard Misrach's pictures of
ugly things are often better than some of his pictures of
pretty things, for example.) That's really pretty interesting.
Hope it leads you to productive places.
Lee Carmichael
There are real Berenice Abbotts on display in Dallas, Texas. They are
part of a group show now up at the Afterimage Gallery. You might try
http://www.afterimagegallery.com They have been in business for over 25
years and are still striving. Check them out.
I own a copy of the Family of Man and I love it. The history of
photography is there for us to discover. All we need is a reason to do
so. Whether we have to, as in, for some class or we somehow decide that
we need more that the diet we were raised on. We all come to that
crossroad from different directions and at different times in our
lives. I suspect that workshop Tim attended, did more for him and his
aesthetic than he first thought. That is how one grows in art. The
workshop might not have directly effected that growth but it put Tim in
a place that allowed him to find those books and really look at the
images. That, my friend, is what it is all about.
As usual,
Lee Carmichael
---Please remove the NOSPAM from the header before sending any email---
Tim Daneliuk
Ben Weiner wrote:
>
> Tim Daneliuk <tun...@tundraware.com> writes:
>
> >Here are a few books I've run across recently that I thought many
> >might enjoy. Not all are new, but all should still be in print...
> ...
>
> >Atget Paris - Aget - Gingko Press
>
> >Paul Atget documented turn-of-the-century Paris. This book selects almost
> >900 of his images (from a library in the 10s of thousands). A stunning
> >work. If you were raised on a steady diet of American western photographers
> >(Adams, Weston, et al) as I was, this will be a wonderful eye-opener. This
> >book has caused me to rethink my rather narrow "landscape" bag and I'm now
> >itching to go shoot downtown Chicago.
>
As someone else pointed out here, it is, of course, *Eugene* not Paul -
got my Agets and Strands confused for a moment.
> If you like Atget's photographs, I highly recommend checking
> out Berenice Abbott, the photographer who rediscovered Atget
> and preserved his work. Her images of New York in the
> thirties document that now-vanished city similarly to
> what Atget did for Paris. Though her photographs do not
> "look like" Atget's in the sense of being stylistically
> the same, the style suits her city the way Atget's did his.
>
> The New York Public Library has an exhibtion of Abbott's
> photos on the web at
>
> http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/abbottex/abbott.html
>
Hmm, I'll have to look at that...
> Though of course the web versions don't do justice to the
> original photographs, it's worth looking at.
>
> I never thought of the idea that Atget would be an eye-opener
> for someone primarily used to the American "West Coast" school
> of landscape photography. (Probably because that isn't the
> diet I was raised on. I like Western landscape photography
> a lot, but I think the beautiful striking landscapes can be
> a dead end sometimes - I think Richard Misrach's pictures of
> ugly things are often better than some of his pictures of
> pretty things, for example.) That's really pretty interesting.
> Hope it leads you to productive places.
My primary observation thus far is that almost all my cherished photos
are devoid of any evidence of human existence. This is particularly
odd since philosophically, I more-or-less am a Libertarian/Objectivist,
a philosophy which honors human achievement above all things. Clearly,
(at least to me) there is some kind of sub-concious aesthetic
tug-of-war going on which I never really payed much attention to until
lately. I guess that's the point of studying and thinking about art,
especially the art of others - it makes you confront your own assumptions...
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk Work: tim.da...@ps.net
VoiceMail/FAX 847.827.1706 Personal: tun...@tundraware.com
Paul Butzi
On 23 Dec 1997 21:19:56 -0500,
bwe...@muon.rutgers.edu.remove.kremvax.su (Ben Weiner) wrote:
>I never thought of the idea that Atget would be an eye-opener
>for someone primarily used to the American "West Coast" school
>of landscape photography. (Probably because that isn't the
>diet I was raised on. I like Western landscape photography
>a lot, but I think the beautiful striking landscapes can be
>a dead end sometimes - I think Richard Misrach's pictures of
>ugly things are often better than some of his pictures of
>pretty things, for example.) That's really pretty interesting.
>Hope it leads you to productive places.
For another example of someone who can make beautiful
photographs of less than beautiful things, you might
check out Ray McSavaney. (Ray has also done work
in the West Coast Landscape tradition.)
-Paul
Jean-David Beyer
Tim Daneliuk wrote:
> Atget Paris - Aget - Gingko Press
>
> Paul Atget documented turn-of-the-century Paris. This book selects almost
> 900 of his images (from a library in the 10s of thousands). A stunning
> work. If you were raised on a steady diet of American western photographers
> (Adams, Weston, et al) as I was, this will be a wonderful eye-opener. This
> book has caused me to rethink my rather narrow "landscape" bag and I'm now
> itching to go shoot downtown Chicago.
Who is Paul? The photographer's name was Jean Eugčne Auguste Atget and is
normally called Eugčne Atget. Atget's mistress had a son named Léon, but no Paul.
There is a 4-volume set of his work, "The Work of Atget" published by The Museum
of Modern Art, New York. Individual volumes are entitled "Old France", "The Art of
Old Paris," "The Ancien Régime," and "Modern Times." They are by Maria Morris
Hambourg, with John Szarkowski. They date from about the early 1980's and are very
well done.
--
Jean-David Beyer
Shrewsbury, New Jersey
Steve Shapiro
Finally, quote of the cnetury, View Camera, recently ... the only reward for
lugging around all that heavy euipment and spending the halves of hours
focusing those antiuated bellows cameras is not as much for the large
negtive and command of the focal plane, but the View.
Steve Shapiro
SGS...@worldnet.att.net
Tim Daneliuk wrote in message <34A09E67...@tundraware.com>...
>Ben Weiner wrote:
>>
>> Tim Daneliuk <tun...@tundraware.com> writes:
>>
>> >Here are a few books I've run across recently that I thought many
>> >might enjoy. Not all are new, but all should still be in print...
>> ...
>>
>>
>> >Paul Atget documented turn-of-the-century Paris. This book selects
almost
>> >900 of his images (from a library in the 10s of thousands). A stunning
>> >work. If you were raised on a steady diet of American western
photographers
>> >(Adams, Weston, et al) as I was, this will be a wonderful eye-opener.
This
>> >book has caused me to rethink my rather narrow "landscape" bag and I'm
now
>> >itching to go shoot downtown Chicago.
>>
>
>got my Agets and Strands confused for a moment.
>
>> If you like Atget's photographs, I highly recommend checking
>> out Berenice Abbott, the photographer who rediscovered Atget
>> and preserved his work. Her images of New York in the
>> thirties document that now-vanished city similarly to
>> what Atget did for Paris. Though her photographs do not
>> "look like" Atget's in the sense of being stylistically
>> the same, the style suits her city the way Atget's did his.
>>
>> The New York Public Library has an exhibtion of Abbott's
>> photos on the web at
>>
>> http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/abbottex/abbott.html
>>
>
>Hmm, I'll have to look at that...
>
>> Though of course the web versions don't do justice to the
>> original photographs, it's worth looking at.
>>
>> for someone primarily used to the American "West Coast" school
>> of landscape photography. (Probably because that isn't the
>> diet I was raised on. I like Western landscape photography
>> a lot, but I think the beautiful striking landscapes can be
>> a dead end sometimes - I think Richard Misrach's pictures of
>> ugly things are often better than some of his pictures of
>> pretty things, for example.) That's really pretty interesting.
>> Hope it leads you to productive places.
>
>