I buy a lot of books on photography, thanks to Jim Johnson, this new Duane Michals book looks like one worth getting.
Not only is Mr Michals a witty and intelligent photographer but the book seems to take the piss as well.
Technorati Tags: book, Duane Michals, photographer
For both my readers a free book to download and do as you please with, I recommend reading/viewing it on screen but if you can justify the cost for printing and binding them go ahead print it out and bind it, all I ask is that you send a postcard from where ever you are, or better still somewhere exotic.
l will acknowledge ALL postcards somewhere in cyberspace.
There WILL be others, how often I'm not sure.
Technorati Tags: art, book, dtp, e-book, photography, publishing
Currently reading a book titled, "Thinking With Type", by Ellen Upton, pub Princeton Architectural Press.
In the section where the writer talks about, text, this passage has struck a particular chord with me.
Another Model, which undermined the designer's new claim to power surfaced at the end of the 1990s, borrowed not from Literary criticism, but from human—computer interaction [HCI] studies and the fields of interface and usability design. The dominant subject of our age has become neither reader nor writer but user, a figure conceived as a bundle of needs and impairments-cognitive, physical emotional. Like a patient or child, the user is a figure to be protected and cared for but also scrutinised and controlled, submitted to research and testing.How texts are used becomes more important than what they mean. Someone clicked here to get over there. Someone who bought this also bought that. The interactive environment not only provides users with a degree of control and self direction but also, more quietly and insidiously, it gathers data about its audiences. Barhtes's image of text as a game to be played still holds, as the user responds to signals from the system. We may play the text, but it is also playing us.∗
∗pg 73 Thinking With Type, by Ellen Upton, pub, Princeton Architectural Press 2004, ISBN 978-1-56898-4483
A whole unit of research there alone in this one quote.
Thanks to my stats on flickr I rediscovered this site this morning. http://www.earthalbum.com. and of course the vain part of myself went looking for my own photos. Very nice tool indeed.
Maps and photography have long been an interest of mine, now with these techonolgies Web is added to the equation quite nicely. In fact this idea will form a large part content of my next e-book.
...by someone else...
Review of the recently republished Robert Classic, "The Americans"
Two Thousand Odd Words on Robert Frank’s “The Americans”
[From 2point8]
My publishing empire continues to grow, I just this morning received my invite to publish, via Magcloud.
The question is WHAT to publish.
When does a photo album become a book?
[From Inside on Flickr - Photo Sharing!]
This image from flickr by a commercial photographer working in the states has me thinking about what differentiates a photo album from a book? More specifically, a 'Photo Album' from a 'Monograph'. Is it just me or does the phrase 'Photo album' have connotations of a highly personalised history, family or otherwise, whereas a 'Monograph' has slightly more serious undertones, with a whiff of Academia?
Which of these values, defines one over the other, can one be both?Time to make another I guess?
Popped in to read some blogs via newsfire, my news reader, when I hit Jörg Colberg's weblog, he recently wrote an article about, W. Eugene Smith. What was interesting was that a lot of Mr. Smith's work is being hosted by Google allowing easy access to a large number of his images.
I recently purchased a book called 
Dialogue with Photography ,a series of interviews on some of the photographic movers and shakers from the 20th century. W. Eugene Smith's article was the 2nd I read after Henry Holmes Smith. Both passionate about their chosen paths, Henry Holmes Smith a passionate educator as well. While I find, W. Eugene Smith's most renowned work interesting and inspirational, I find Henry Holmes Smith's work more engaging. The two essays amplified this, and reading between the lines of the essay about W. Eugene Smith, there's an implied notion of modernist "truth" that no longer sits very well with me.
In unrelated news, I'm hoping to check the Gursky show next week, and thanks to Gary on Junk for code, I'm going to check it out with a renewed vigour.
Finally, this in from 3thousand a small street e-mag.
As much as we hate to use this word... CRISIS! Melbourne's artist-run galleries have been getting rather large rent hikes inserted into their rectums recently. And it's time for us all to adjust our perspectives, because if we don't start doing more than drinking free goon at launches of a Thursday night there'll be no more launches to drink goon at.
A Japanese Artist who uses a phonecam to create diaries
Rinko Kawauchi Diary
I plan on adding a 3rd book of phonecam photography to my slowly evolving series over the holidays, too.
This, sentence, on a collector's blog surpises me.
"Collector's POV: Prior to this show, we knew nothing about the work of Ray Mortenson."
The reason being, the fist photographic monograph I bought, way back in, 1989, was by Ray Mortensen, entitled, Meadowland.
Books figure very highly in my creative output and inspiration, and while I had to 'think' about the name, I recognised it eventually, which I then confirmed by checking my library.
For all you collectors of photography books, [I am one], here's 2 new polaroid books on the market.
Here goes my credit card again! Frank's book still to this day has some impact on my approach and work, even more so in my digital work, on flickr, and on my mophone blog.
[From Review: Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans by Sarah Greenough et al. (Conscientious)]
And I haven't even read the review—yet.
I am very pleased to announce that altfotonet.org now has an ISSN,[ International Standard Serial Number]. This means that the National Library of Australia recognises it as a serial publication, and may at some point in the future add it to it's archive, Pandora's box.
Blurb now allows you to upload a pdf for publication. Using their own templates is part of the process, but I always found their software slow and clunky on my computer.
And it is rumoured that the colour quality is better from them compared to lulu.com, too.
So look out.
Revisiting a favourite bookshop, in Daylesford, I recently returned with several gems of books. Jo Spence's Autobiographical treatise on herself and her photography [Putting Myself in the Picture: A Political, Personal and Photographic Autobiography], and 1999 exhibition catalogue of William Wegman's work.
While I have yet to pick up the Jo Spence book, my last reading would have been whilst at University, I did have a read of the Wegman catalogue. I was very surprised to read that he began his creative career as a painter sculptor and conceptual/experimental artist. Wegman picked up photography out of convenience, to document his art work, while also experimenting with video. His art works, in the early days were fleeting and ephemeral, thus photography proved the work existed.
Slowly his attention shifted to the way images could be made that questioned the nature of the document created, till eventually all his work became photographic while still proudly displaying his surreal and conceptual roots. The work featured in the catalogue is at times funny, and others deadly serious. His dogs feature only briefly towards the end of the catalogue. The time this work was being made? In the 1970's.
It's fortuitous or perhaps, disastrous that the 2 books surfaced AFTER I submitted some work for publication in 2nd Nature, published by RMIT. As being able to refer back to these early pioneers of 'documentary photography' would have helped bolster my argument about the my use of photography, with my mobile phone, in this day and age of wireless networks and mobile computing.
It seems I'm not the only person concerned about what will happen to photo-book publishing in the future? The good folks over at, Resolve, LIVE BOOKS BLOG, have started an online collaboration that looks at the future of the photobook.
Pop in add your 2¢
From where I sit, there will be online publications such as cod magazine, who most likely will exist as pure online entities. Publicationss like, RMIT's second nature, will offer both online and hardcopy, as I will with several of my own future projects, I already have two e-books available for download.
An essay from, AMERICANSUBURB X
[From "Perfect Uncertainty - Robert Adams and the American West (2002)"]
My admiration of Mr. Adams is well known by those who know me well enough, this essay I stumbled upon on AMERICANSUBURB X is yet another glimpse at Mr Adams creative output adding to the already impressive body of written work about him that exists. It is just a pity it took me 8 years to find this one. Something that I've now come to take for granted is the speed and frequency of readily available information out there on my favourite subject Art Photography. Obviously this wasn't the case in 2002.
I Recently signed up for another book publishing idea, this time over at, SoFoBoMo, the challenge is to produce 35 images in a pdf format book in one month. So I plan on uploading a book of 35 images minimum by the 19th of July. "SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish in 31 days.
SoFoBoMo 2010 is running from 1st June to 31st July."
Fingers crossed, I've a busy month ahead, a return to the EOTOB program for 2010, albeit a short 7 day stint this time, and a few days off to make images, in what can be gorgeous winter light.
This month I got involved in:-
SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish in 31 days.
SoFoBoMo 2010 is running from 1st June to 31st July.
My book is uploaded, and freely available, have a look see what you think?
I recently purchased two new books, while in Sydney.
"Wim Wenders: Journey to Onomichi: Photographs" (Heiner Bastian, Wim Wenders), and,
"Lee Friedlander: America by Car" (D.A.P./Fraenkel)
For those who are curious, here's a peek at my entire library of books for the last ten or so years, on librarything.com, I'm also reading a very engaging series of books, STUDYING PHOTOGRAPHY: A Survival Guide,"Your Assignment: Photography (Photo Developing)" (Douglas Holleley), and, "Photo-Editing and Presentation: A Guide to Image Editing and Presentation for Photographers and Visual Artists (Photo-Developing)" (Douglas, Ph.D. Holleley), again real refreshing insights into teaching Photography, not only the technical processes, but the creative and the organisation process as well, from creation to presentation.
Standby for a flurry of input, as, now I'm toting an iPhone everywhere, and making images, constantly on the fly, with the ability to upload immediately if I so choose to flickr, my posterous account, the shared posterous project, or twitpic.
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