The Online Photographer

It's Saturday, and as you know I don't post on Saturday. TOP is closed for the day while I pretend to take the day off but actually use it to work on other work-related things. But in any event, I don't write posts today.

But what do you make of this?

Our friend Kirk Tuck down in Austin Tejas has written a novel. From scanning his post about it, looks like it's a photographer-centric thriller. It's called (well, I guess you can read the cover) The Lisbon Portfolio. It's available as a Kindle book right now, and will evidently be followed by a print edition later.

Whoever finishes first should definitely send me their thumbnail review!

The only Amazon review as of this writing says "Nothing about the book requires an interest in or knowledge of photography (it never gets bogged down in technicalities), but for those who do have an appreciation of the craft there are tasty photo-nuggets here and there which draw the reader even further into the story." 

Which reminds me...there is or was an audio writer who also wrote mystery novels (I think it was) that sometimes had audio-hobby subplots and leitmotifs. He used to write for Fi and then for TAS. I can't recall his name—can anybody tell me? [UPDATE: Jonathan Valin. Thanks, Jon Erickson. —Ed.] Maybe Kirk will be the photography-hobby novel author, like that guy was the audio-hobby novel author. Hey, the concept can work—didn't Dick Francis set most of his murder mysteries around horse racing? I'm sure John can inform us of some other examples.

The weapon on the cover looks like an F3 with a 105mm ƒ/2.5. (The camera, anyway. I have no idea about the revolver*.)

In any event, congratulations and a big pat on the back to Kirk. Success comes to those who finish things, and I think I can speak for many of us when I say I'm impressed.

Mike

*A joke. Don't go ballistic. 

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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John Camp: "The 'revolver' looks like a version of the Beretta 92 semi-automatic pistol, a specific version of which is the U.S. Army's standard-issue sidearm.

"Most of the lifestyle thrillers don't involve hobbyists, but professionals. Dick Francis wrote his books about horse racing, but not about amateurs. Randy Wayne White has a lot of Florida fishing in his books, but  his series character is a marine biologist. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe was an amateur orchid grower. There have been a number of novels about photographers (Bridges of Madison County, most famously, about a National Geographic photographer) but the characters are pros. I believe Chicago's Sara Paretsky's female character V.I. Warshawski was an amateur basketball player who was able to dunk the ball....

"You might find a lot more amateurs (hobbyists) in older British works (Miss Marple).

"It's a very common tactic in thriller writing to give the main character special skills involving violence (how else would he/she survive?) while also working another job, or following another enthusiasm. Michael Connolly's character Harry Bosch is a jazz enthusiast, but can a jazz enthusiast be considered a hobbyist? He doesn't try to play an instrument, he just appreciates. Anyway, you often have a guy in a straight job, who has these violent skills as well, usually from a past as a soldier or an intelligence agent. For example, Daniel Silva's Israeli character Gabriel Allon is a famous restorer of Renaissance paintings, but kills people on assignment from the Mossad. Usually, the hero or heroine just wants to be left alone, to lead a quiet life with his new family, but no, Dr. Evil won't allow that, so he has to resurrect his rusty skills in murder...."

David Bostedo: "I'm not sure if the 'revolver' joke is good or not, but I know the 'ballistic' joke is TERRIBLE.  :-) "

Mike replies: Thenk-yew, thenk-yew.

Mike R: "I just finished it last night. Was completely lost in it for two days. Will post my own review when I get home Sunday."

Fred: "These comments seem to be revolving about the cover and shouldn't one not judge a book by its...oh whatever.  :-) "

Jon Erickson: "Jonathan Valin is your crime-fiction-slash-music-audio writer. TAS and Fi, good memory."

Staffan C: "Maybe Sweden is the only country boasting a photographer as the main character of a celebrated series of crime stories? Author Stieg Trenter wrote more than 20 novels featuring photographer Harry Friberg, and the series was continued by his wife Ulla Trenter after his death in 1967. Friberg is modelled on a friend of the author, the very successful K. W. Gullers, and is, like him, a commercial photographer also doing book projects—Friberg and Gullers also share a studio address in central Stockholm. (Trenter’s Wikipedia article wrongly describes both Friberg and Gullers as press photographers.) The books are still great reads, not least because of the atmosphere and the location details of Stockholm in the middle of the last century."

Roger Bradbury: "I thought the 'Ballistic' joke was of extremely poor calibre. I can't believe that jokes of that standard are doing the rounds."

Mike replies: I'd fire back, but that would just give you more ammunition.

gary isaacs: "And the standalone senior point goes to: 'success comes to those who finish things....'"

Mike replies: To give credit where credit is due, that came directly from John Camp. He (generously) spent some time discussing novel-writing with me, and at one point I asked him what the secret sauce of success is, hoping he'd unlock the core code of making millions as a writer. He replied—I paraphrase—just finish it. He said that in his experience, everybody who writes is either thinking of writing a book or in the process of writing a book, but that very few people actually finish their books—and that, when they do, his observation has been that good things tend to happen. So that was his advice to me. If you want to succeed at writing books, finish one.

This flew under my radar until Mickey Fischer pointed it out to me.

Steidl is reprinting The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

If you don't collect photographic books, you probably won't recognize immediately just how momentous this is. This is the most famous book by one of the 20th century's most famous photographers, and it has never been reprinted.

Never as in ever. In 62 years. The French edition (Images à la Sauvette) came out in 1952, followed by the edition in English published by Simon and Schuster. It never got a second edition. It never got a second printing. The binding and dust jacket of the original are notoriously fragile—the latter is often missing on less expensive copies for sale—and today you will pay anywhere from $400 to $5,000 for a copy. (They've sold for higher than that, too.)

Of course as photographers we want to experience the book's photographs, not necessarily own an original artifact. I personally almost prefer reprints, because then I'm not responsible for preserving a precious original.

It's also important to acknowledge that I have no idea what the reprint will look like. Steidl's track record is all over the place—I've seen Steidl books that are masterpieces of the bookmaker's art and I've seen Steidl books that are too poor to even keep.

The page from the Fall/Winter 2014 Steidl catalog

The inscrutable phrase from the catalog—"This new publication is a meticulous facsimile of the original"—could also go either way. That word "facsimile" can be very suspicious, meaning that the publisher isn't aiming for an artistically valid reproduction but is merely providing a study copy of an original, warts and all.

Often, in the book world, "facsimiles" are mainly for scholars who don't have easy access to an original. The original repro of The Decisive Moment was gravure, which is probably why the book was never reprinted. "Facsimile" reproductions could mean they're pulling out the stops and giving the printing the Rolls-Royce treatment, or it could mean they're not going to try to match the richness or the look 'n' feel of the original gravures and are essentially giving us a capable digital equivalent of a Xerox copy. Which could be dreadful. I can visualize it.

So which will it be, or where in the middle? The relatively high price is a good sign, I must say.

But the book is available for pre-order and for $91.31 this one's a slam-dunk no-brainer. (Hey, it's Amazon, you can always return it.) Beats paying $1,200 for an original with a dust cover that flakes off in your hands.

Here's the Amazon U.K. link (£78), and here are the rest of our links. (Thanks for ordering through our links; it's what keeps us clanking onwards.)

I have the original, in as close to Very Fine* condition as 1952 DM originals get, so when I get the reprint, in the Fall, I can compare the two for you.

In any event, if the reprint is good, this is one of a small handful of books that belongs in any photographer's library regardless of your style or interests. If you have any photobooks at all.

Mike
(Thanks to Mickey)

*Antiquarian bookseller's term for "near mint."

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Matt Weber: "Mike, I have three copies of the book, and obviously I'm a big fan of HCB's work. The new edition will be of interest to me as I consider the original to be one of the best printed books I own. The gravure plates which are almost 11x14" are better than many original prints I have seen of his floating around auction houses. If Steidl can match the quality, I will be very impressed...."

Five more categories from my magnum opus "225 Books by Genre" reading recommendation list:

Pastoral

John Steinbeck, The Red Pony  [1933]
Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine  [1957]
James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small  [1972]
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [1884]

Science

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything [2003]
John McPhee, Annals of the Former World [1998]
Lewis Thomas, Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher [1974]
Richard Dawkins, River Out Of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life [1995]
Edward O. Wilson, On Human Nature [1978]
Henry Petroski, To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design [1993]
Eve Curie, Madame Curie: A Biography [1937]
Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind [1998]
Carl Sagan, Cosmos (book / television series) [1980]

UPDATE: The new "Cosmos," host by Carl Sagan protégé Neil DeGrasse Tyson, begins on the Fox channel here in the USA tonight at 9/8C. Thanks to Simon Griffee and Chuck Holst for pointing this out.

Romance

Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind [1936]
Craig Thompson, Blankets (graphic novel) [2003]
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre [1847]
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton [1848]
William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet (play) [1597]
Ivan Turgenev, First Love (novella) [1860]

Adventure

Beryl Markham, West with the Night [1942]
Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, Treasure Island (young adult) [1883]
Jim Tully, Beggars of Life [1924]
Jack London, To Build a Fire (short story*) [1903]
Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, The Odyssey (epic poem) [c. 700 B.C.]
Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail [2013]
Jon Kracauer, Into the Wild [1996]

Crime

Truman Capote, In Cold Blood [1966]
Mario Puzo, The Godfather [1969]
Richard Wright, Native Son [1940]
Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys [1975]
Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City [2003]

It's been nearly a year now since I wrote about my unpublished book about books and its accompanying list of recommended reading called "225 Books by Genre." I published only one "genre" in that original post, "Money and Finance," comprising seven titles. Which didn't get us very far, considering there are 36 genres and 225 books on the list.

The list was originally targeted at "bright teenagers." It consists of recommendations, not personal favorites; and enjoyment potential is ranked as highly as edification in the selection process. It's not a "greatest books" list in the usual sense, but more of a collection of good reads, not all of them difficult and none too much so. And it has taken an inordinate amount of research to compile it—it's a good thing I enjoy the work! I even went so far as to find a professional mathematician to see if he thought A Beautiful Mind gave a reasonably accurate picture of the practice of mathematics for laymen. (He thought that it did, as far as it goes.)

I should add that I don't necessarily agree with all the authors, politically or otherwise. The list is not meant to be a reflection of my prejudices and preferences, although of course in some senses it cannot help but be. Oh, and the list is Americentric, because I'm an American, although I don't think that disqualifies too many titles.

The goal of the list as a whole is to give an ambitious teenager or an adult autodidact a rounded and thorough grounding in cuture and intellectual cultivation—a sort of substitute education if need be—within a managable, varied and not overly punitive program of reading. The choices are meant to provide a sampling as well as a sort of "thumbnail" overview of the category, insofar as such a thing is possible.

Regarding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (note that most publishers get the title wrong; there's no definite article), the version to have is the facsimile of the first edition published by First Edition Library, which can be found at abebooks.com and sometimes on eBay. It reproduces all the original illustrations and chapter heads, which I think increases the enjoyment of the experience. There's a sorta-kinda good enough Kindle version which patches in the illustrations and reproduces the whole page on which chapter headings appear. Crude, and barely serviceable, but, like many too-popular books in the public domain, there isn't a readily available, wholly recommendable edition. You're on your own there.

(I do wonder if the "Crime" list is as strong as it could be.)

Also, if anyone finds any bad links, I hope you'll please let me know. It's a lot of fiddley work to build so many links, and my mind tends to wander.

Mike

*Entire story is at the link.

"Open Mike" is the editor's outlet page at TOP and our weekly jaunt off-topic.

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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R. Edelman: "Beryl Markham's book West with the Night is one of my favorites. It reads like Hemingway but without the machismo."

...And the Dan Winters tome is pretty amazing too.

I finally bought a copy of Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits, and it's even more wonderful than I thought it would be. Our esteemed friend Ken Tanaka wrote a fine brief review of the book back in November '13, so I won't write another review here. But I hadn't seen it myself before yesterday.

I think I like it best of the three books of her work I now have. The V.M. phenomenon is a part of the history of photography in the late 2000s, as I've opined elsewhere, and, really, she herself is the story, isn't she? Making this one of the important photobooks of the present era. The book has a completeness and a variety that makes it a very nice experience to look through. And the reproductions, as Ken said, are very pleasing. They look like...photographs, which I mean as high praise.

The woman seemed to have had a fascination with her own identity—or even her own existence. Her inclusion in many of these pictures is incidental, but she clearly thought of her reflection as part of her subject matter. The book is very well edited, I thought, and taken as a whole it's quite thought-provoking. This is one I'll return to.

I think this is the book of hers to have if you're going to have only one.

And before I leave the subject, why hasn't John Maloof gotten a MacArthur grant or—well, something of that sort? The guy is doing a stellar job as the custodian of Vivian's legacy. What luck that he happened to be the guy who bought the lion's share of her archive at that storage unit sale. I find myself just full of admiration for the fine job he's doing. Yes, I know he's been making some money from it, but good for him, really. He deserves it. What was going to happen to the archive otherwise? Every forgotten photographer should be so lucky, or even half so lucky. It's really fully the modern counterpart to Berenice Abbott's rescue of Atget.

The publisher of Road to Seeing sent me a copy, and I was taken aback at its size and breadth. It's a thick book, packed with text and illustrations. While I'm still not sure how much I'll engage with it, I really do admire its earnestness and enthusiasm. It's a thorough tour of one man's journey through photography with little held back. It's still basically a "how I shot this" book—but it's for sure the king of that genre, far surpassing most. If you have a liking for Dan's work, I'd say you'd better hop on this and hope that there actually is another shipment yet to come. As with the Vivian Maier book, you get very good value for your dollar with this one.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Tanaka: "I certainly agree that John seems to be very devoted to getting Vivian's work in front of as many eyes as possible. (Hey, I'd vote for him above Uta Barth for a MacArthur Grant...but I'm not on the committee.)

"Let's also not forget the other major holder of Vivian's work, Jeff Goldstein. He also deserves salute and encouragement for his devoted work towards this campaign, having produced the excellent Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows from his collection of Maier's work.

"And one more attaboy is due: Howard Greenberg has long been one of America's foremost dealers in 20th century photography. Rather than dismiss Maier's work, as all major art museum curators have done to date, Greenberg recognized and embraced the work's value and has devoted some resources to helping its exposition. (I'm sure that the upcoming generation of photo curators will follow Greenberg's leadership, as dealers are often major determinants of curators' preferences.) With a long and successful career in the bag, Greenberg needs Maier like a duck needs a third leg. Thank you Howard!

"I am glad you've enjoyed this book as I have, Mike. It's a lovely work."

Dan Winters' imposing 700-page tome Road to Seeing is finally shipping from Amazon, after being breathlessly awaited in numerous corners of the Web. Rather than try to cadge a few sales for myself by linking to it here (that's how we all survive, by linking to products), I'll refer you to Strobist, where David has been covering the book responsibly and well. You ought to order that one through his link, if you're going to*.

Mike

*I am not a good capitalist, when it comes right down to it.

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Paul Bass: "Maybe not, but you're my kind of capitalist."

Michael Perini: "A classy and rare gesture to David Hobby's Site. Nice.

"Not sure what happened, but I've had my copy for over a month and it is a very impressive book. Part history of photography and process 'as told by' Mr. Winters, part photographic biography, as well as a biographic sketch of how a style comes to be. All done in typical Dan Winters style—meaning the amount of thought and the amount of work done is imposing, and evident on every page.

"I read the book cover to cover over the course of just a few days. This is very rare for me, and was not my intention, but I couldn't put it down. To say I admire the level of craft that Mr. Winters  brings to everything he does would be an understatement. All excuses melt away in the heat of the laser-like focus he brings to his work. He seems to treat every project, big or small with the same respect and intensity. To see that demonstrated over and over is a very valuable part of the book.

"Mr. Winter's work which can be utterly wonderful but for this viewer, not homogeneously so. There is work that I will simply say I don't 'get' (I've never been a personal fan of the famous Laura Dern portrait for example) But for the most part, I feel drawn to his work, I like looking at it and the way he solves the issues of doing commissioned work, and makes it his own.

"It is a book I will re-read in my more usual piecemeal manner and it is a book I have learned from and will continue to learn from. One of those books that you are happy to own. A very impressive work, on his part, and on the parts of his editors and publisher.  I wondered more than once while reading, 'how did he get this done?' I'm glad he did."

D B: "I'm curious—do Dan's pictures appeal to you? Are you considering spending Own Money on the book?"

Mike replies: Not really, and no, I've decided against it. Nothing personal, and no judgment implied—we can't all engage with everybody, and DW is just a bit far from my personal taste. (This is the flip side of the "touchstones' point I made recently.)

A most interesting photographic book reissued and restored.

The Vintage illustrated bilingual edition of The Tao Te Ching (sometimes translated as "the way and its power" [Waley] or "the classic of the path of virtue" or simply "the book of the way") was one of the great populist-spiritual bestsellers of the 1970s in America. It featured the Chinese text in calligraphy by Gia-Fu Feng with an English translation by him (more about that in a moment) and was decorated throughout by black-and-white nature photographs by Jane English, who assisted with the translation.

The Tao Te Ching (or Daodejing in Pinyin romanization) is one of the foundational works of Chinese philosophy and one of the most frequently translated books extant; it consists of 81 brief, elliptical, poetic, aphoristic verses that define a mode of approach to life and to enlightened governing. If Confucianism is the objective/extroverted/strict/public-duty side of ancient Chinese philosophy, philosophical Taoism is its subjective/introverted/live-and-let-live/interior-life counterpart. There are many classics in the sprawling Taoist tradition (Taoism is both a philosophy and a religion, and the two seem little related), but the ancient and mysterious Tao Te Ching is bedrock.

The text dates from six centuries before Christ. According to legend it was written by Lao Tzu (Laozi in Pinyin), which means "old boy" or "old one," as a last commentary on life as he went into permanent exile—a former advisor to the Emperor, he was exhorted to write down his philosophy by a frontier guard as he departed society. More likely is that it is folk philosophy, a collection of related passages (some of which probably had a common author or source) that took shape and form over time, much like a folk song being transmitted from person to person, place to place, and generation to generation, repeated again and again.

It's worthwhile to note that Alan Watts thought this view an error, the result of a modern fashion for skepticism about the reality of religious leaders as individuals. Watts wanted to leave open the possibility of an actual single author.

A perfect translation is not possible. The text is mysterious and enigmatic in the original, veiled by its ancient origins and its essential inscrutability before one even arrives at the problem of bridging the archaic Chinese language to modern English or crossing the divide of the many disparities in the respective cultures. The book even begins with the famous phrase "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"—and the Tao that can be translated is not the definitive Tao, either. (By the way, "Tao," which means "way" or "path," is pronounced about like dow, as in Dow Jones.) Many translators have made the text "their own," imposing their own interpretation or even their own philosophy on their wordings; some translations take a literalistic approach, some a scholarly/historical approach, some an impressionistic, communicative intent. The Tao Te Ching has even had its share of "translators" who do not speak or understand Chinese! They work from other translations or from literal transliterations.

Toinette Lippe

That was not the case with the famous Vintage book. Gia-Fu Feng was not "artfully" fluent in English at the time, but he studied the text very deeply and respectfully; his wife, photographer (and particle physicist) Jane English helped make his words idiomatic. The idea of combining Chinese calligraphy, photographs, and English translation was theirs. But the original manuscript text, while thoughtful, was rough. The task of editing it fell, very fortuitously, to English-born Toinette Lippe, then an acquisitions editor at Alfred A. Knopf. The project came to her fortuitously and she believed in it—becoming its "midwife" to use her word. Toinette was well suited in temperament and intelligence to edit the book, and worked patiently with Gia-Fu Feng to mold the English text. She did so by comparing a dozen existing translations sentence by sentence and then trying to understand what Gia-Fu and Jane's interpretation was, helping to put that into felicitous English using words that didn't echo other translations.

The result soared. Although not persnickety or strictly scholarly (which can lead to layered, shaded meanings but plodding, earthbound English), translators and editor collaborated to create a version that cut to the essence of the ancient work in a way that spoke plainly and directly to modern English-speaking Westerners. Given that the late '60s and early '70s were a time when interest in Eastern thought and religion was flowering in America, it was as if every element came together in the best possible way: over the years, the book has never been out of print and has sold well over a million copies, astonishing for a single translation of an ancient Chinese classic with hundreds of translations. (If you can count just the translations currently available on Amazon, you are more patient than I.) The famous book changed the lives of the three collaborators...and, it's no exaggeration to say, of many readers as well.

I liked to tell the "hidden story" of Toinette's involvement for many years. The new (2011) edition of the book makes that unnecessary—it has a great new foreword that details the story of the book's creation, and that shares the credit all around generously and accurately. The new "front matter" alone is worth the price of a new copy.

I think the newly modified translation is better than the now-"classical" original as well. Gia-Fu Feng died in 1985 after a distinguished career, but Toinette and Jane worked together, and in consultation with the eminent philosopher and Sinologist Jacob Needleman, to refine the translation still more—for one thing getting rid of the sexist "he" and "his" (ancient Chinese doesn't use pronouns) and replacing "the Sage" (which can be read as singular and exceptional) with "the Wise" (more inclusive and encompassing). Jane English, who created a Tao calendar for years for her fans using newer photographs, replaced almost half the photographs in the book—about 100—with newer work.

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into English more times than any other book except the Holy Christian Bible. There are other translations that are indispensible (at one time I owned more than 30 of them, along with at least as many books of commentary and scholarship on the text—speaking, as we were recently, of personal touchstones), but for readers whose native tongue is English, the Feng/English/Lippe translation is the first to have and the one I recommend most often. A must for everyone's bookcase.

Oh, and there is a text-only edition—but get the one with the photographs! Or don't I need to say that here?

(Here it is at Amazon U.K. , and at The Book Depository. Links to Amazon Germany and Canada can be found here.)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Dave: "There is a well-worn copy of the original resting on my living room bookshelf. I leaf through it once every couple weeks. Of all my 'photography' books, this version of the Tao Te Ching provides the most inspiration. The photos are simple yet beautiful and they match the text perfectly. The book is a triumph of minimalist graphic design. It outshines the expensive hardbacks that surround it on my shelf. And, the lessons of The Tao are life-changing. What more could someone want in a coffee table book? I'm looking forward to this updated version."

Dennis Ng: "Zi is definite not 'boy' in this context and one hundred percent sure unlike those other arguments you may try. If you have to use this way then Confucius is a 'hole boy'...etc. It is more like 'master,' 'teacher,' 'respected name' as no one calling themselves zi except those old people around that time. 'Old one'...where you get that from? :-) A simple translation may be 'the old guy' if you have to remain colloquial."

Genesis, by Sebastião Salgado (trade edition), Taschen, 2013

• From Amazon U.S.
• Amazon U.K. lists it for three different prices and we can't figure out why, so best go suss it out for yourself....
• From The Book Depository with free international shipping

Reviewed by Geoff Wittig

Indian-born photographer John Isaac worked for many years for the United Nations, documenting its work around the world. Regular readers of Outdoor Photographer may be familiar with his work. After years of grueling first-person experience with natural disaster, environmental devastation and human suffering, Isaac suffered a spiritual crisis and retired from his job as chief U.N. photographer. He gradually healed and returned to creative life by immersing himself in nature, photographing India's tigers and remaining pristine rainforests.

The Brazilian economist-turned-photographer Sebastião Salgado has traveled a similar path over the last decade. Many will be familiar with his justly famous books Workers (1993) and Migrations (2000), photo books documenting, respectively, the toils and dignity of manual laborers, and the tribulations of displaced populations around the globe. More recent was Africa (2007), a stunning book that juxtaposes exquisitely composed photographs of the Rwandan holocaust with achingly beautiful landscape images. As Salgado explains in the foreword for Genesis, at the completion of these projects, "I had lost all faith in the future of humanity." He retired to his family's ranch in rural Brazil and commenced an intensive project of environmental restoration, replanting its eroded and degraded land with native flora.

As the land rapidly healed and native wildlife returned, so too did Salgado's enthusiasm. He initially considering documenting environmental degradation and global warming, but instead embarked upon an eight year project to explore and document what he terms the 46% of the globe that remains ecologically intact. He pointedly included the indigenous peoples still living close to the earth, relatively untouched by industrialization. This was a monumental project for the photographer, involving four months-long expeditions a year for eight consecutive years, complicated by a bout of malaria.

Salgado's work is exclusively black and white, and has been characterized by meticulous composition and a dramatic interpretive printing style. He has used Leica and Pentax 645 film cameras in the past, but migrated to digital capture during the course of the Genesis project. As explained by the photographer's wife and partner, the resulting digital files were converted into analog negatives and silver prints to insure a consistent æsthetic throughout the project.

Like Paul Caponigro at one time, Salgado has the good fortune to be married to his book designer. Lélia Wanick Salgado has created a beautiful volume. Genesis is too large to hand-hold comfortably, but does fine in your lap. Margins are generous, and the paper is a very nice heavyweight semi-gloss stock. The typography is a cut above the average; the Adobe Garamond typeface used includes the ligatures that are usually omitted out of sloth, and the type size is large enough to appreciate the subtle details of the font. The photographic reproductions are excellent, with deep blacks and endless detail in the 3/4 tones, features essential to sympathetic rendering of Salgado's dramatic print æsthetic. A good number are printed across the fold, though the book's sheer size makes this less objectionable than usual. There are also a smattering of gate-folds. Most welcome is a separate 34 page insert that provides details about each photograph's subject. Bravo; no more trips to the back of the chapter for footnotes.

The book is broadly divided into sections by subject: "Planet South" (Antarctica and adjacent ocean/islands), "Sanctuary" (isolated habitats such as the Galápagos, New Guinea, and Madagascar), "Africa," "Northern Spaces," and "Amazonia and Pantanal." Each includes exquisitely rendered pristine landscape images, wildlife often rendered as part of the landscape, and indigenous peoples both in formal portraits and integrated with the environment.

It would almost be superfluous to comment on the photographs themselves. If you like a simple, straight, documentary approach they may not be to your taste. But if you like the dramatic, expressive black and white æsthetic à la Ansel Adams, it's difficult to imagine a more beautiful book.

Geoff

©2013 by Geoffrey Wittig, all rights reserved

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Dennis: "How can you help but love a site where the readers' comments are often as enlightening as the original articles?"

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By Brett Weston

Great news—as a holiday present, and to kick off the brand-spanking-new Lodima Press home page, our friends Michael and Paula (you remember their print sale here last January) are offering for TOP readers a BIG discount on Lodima Press's wonderful series of Brett Weston monographs.

Each monograph looks like it might not be a very good value if you were comparison shopping with other books. They're paperbound, and they don't contain very many pictures—fifteen, give or take. But appearances are deceiving. Michael did his usual fanatically perfectionistic job with the printing of the images, making the printed page mimic Brett's original photographs far more closely than most printed images possibly can. The result are brief monographs showing actual-size pictures that are very close in their visual and artistic impression to Brett Weston's original photographic prints.

In other words, all the money was put into the printing.

As such, they're fairly priced. But at $54.95 to $69.95 each, they seemed expensive in absolute terms.

Until now, that is. Until December 21st, for TOP readers, they're only $30 each. And if all ten volumes of the projected nineteen-volume set published to date are purchased with this sale, the price is only $25 each.

Go to the new Lodima Press page, Lodima.org, and click on "Book Sale" at the bottom of the page. Then use coupon code TOP2013 for your purchase. I believe you can only enter the coupon code once (not sure, and I can't check it), so, just to be safe, be sure to finish loading your cart before entering the coupon code.

(Many other Lodima titles are priced at 50% off during this sale as well—a particular longtime favorite of mine is Paula's High Plains Farm, for the next five days only $39, a steal.)

I have all of these and they're absolutely lovely, a great way to enjoy Brett Weston's wonderful work.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Jim Weekes: "Mike, You have done it again. I ordered three of the Westons, a Robert Adams and the Eric Lindbloom. You do lead me unto temptation. But at those prices and with their quality I could not resist. Thank you."

Mike replies: 'S true. But I only lead you into good temptations, not bad ones. :-)

MM: "Buyers of the Brett Weston volumes (and I'm likely to be one) should be aware that Brett often wasn't big on retaining shadow detail the way that other West Coast photographers of the era usually were (including his father Edward). He tended to use the shadowed/silhouetted areas in his photos as negative space to form powerful, solid shapes that make a counterforce to lighter shapes, not as areas to be 'looked into' for subtle detail. The effect works for me and other fans of his, but those unfamiliar with Brett's work may at first think the printer used too much contrast and the shadows blocked up. I think book printers in the past had trouble printing Brett's photos—Dave Gardner (for years the printer of Ansel's books) being a notable exception, because he wasn't afraid to really 'lay on the black'—so it's a great thing that Lodima is going back to print these masterworks. Kind of like a great violinist issuing a fresh new recording of classical masterpieces...."

Fred: "I saw this post and based on Mike's recommendation took the plunge for the Weston set. I'm aware that the publishers are fine art photographers that contact print 8x10 and larger so I figured their affinity for the finer points of printing would also characterize their publishing. I placed the order using regular UPS ground for shipping and was pleasantly surprised when the order was packed and shipped the same day. I was even more surprised when the order showed up on my doorstep today, only a day after I placed the order. They are finely crafted books with wonderfully rich printing and a nice afterword in each edition and an introduction in some. This was a good buy. Highly recommended."

TOP World Headquarters, a.k.a. my home office, is, as regular readers know, sprawling.

It sprawls over more than 121 square feet (indeed almost 122) in a my 1950s ranch house in a town that's quiet to a fault in a let us say "out-of-the-way" State in the Midwest.

Not only that, but the Official TOP Library of Photo-Related Bookery overspills even these capacious facilities, occupying an uncomfortably large amount of space in what would probably be known, were I currently espoused, as "the living room."

Despite having all this space, there is regrettably not limitless room for all manner of photo-related bookery, and I have accordingly neglected several genres. For instance, photographer biographies. I have read and enjoyed several of these, and I have about two dozen of them, but I find myself somewhat put off by, say, the idea of buying a second damn'd thick, square book about some famous photographer when a first one about that selfsame individual is already squatting there on my shelf, glowering balefully down at me, persecuted by my neglect. Biographies of Stieglitz fall under this head. I am fated to die and turn to dust without reading much more about Stieglitz. Something about that fellow just flips my bored switch. I don't know what it is.

Another genre I am short on is what might be called the "How-I-Shot-This" genre. These veer perilously close to mere how-to books. The premises groan already with far too many of those, many inflicted on me against my will by hopeful publishers who haven't noticed yet that I don't promote them.

I suspect the distinction between the two largely concerns the accomplishment and renown of the author-photographer, and the accepted relative goodness of the pictures. With a no-name author, it's a How-To; when it's a famous or at least a rich photographer, then it's a How-I-Shot-This. If the pictures are a bit bleh, and might not be worth looking at except insofar as they illustrate the text, then it's a How-To; if the book discusses famous and good pictures, or at least pictures commissioned for large amounts of money by serious clients, then it's a How-I-Shot-This.

Sound reasonable?

Moving on. This type of book can be very entertaining, now and then. I like to use them as an occasional accent in my Photobookery Consumption—that is, sparingly. One every so often. Sort of like Ethiopian cuisine. I might not eat Ethiopian cusine as often as once a year. But when I do, I soldier through, pronounce it good, and then proceed to take another long stretch of relief from it. That is how I digest How-I-Shot-This books, too.

The How-I-Shot-This genre probably has a long and storied history; I'm not sure I'd know. The oldest clear example of the genre (i.e., not shading too much into the How-To genre) that I know but don't own is probably Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams, published in 1984. I was in Photo School in 1984, and had a very restricted photo book budget. In fact, it was a photo book budget which imposed itself significantly into the food and nourishment budget—and still didn't amount to beans. So I used to stand atop the stairs in the old Olsson's Books & Records in Georgetown, D.C., and read whole books without, erm, buyin' 'em. The bookstore employees either tolerated this or did not notice. So I have read Examples clear through.

I might actually own a copy now. If so I cannot find it, which is very similar to not owning it.

Another great How-I-Shot-This book from the same era worthy of all but the most hard-hearted photography enthusiast's attention is Mountain Light, c. 1986, by the late Galen Rowell.

More recent examples that I have enjoyed more than Ethiopian food are Annie Leibovitz at Work and The Life of a Photograph by Sam Abell (although the first Sam Abell book you should have is still Stay This Moment).

Annie Leibovitz at Work works for me more and more as time has passed since its 2008 publication date. Although I'm not a huge fan of Ms. Leibovitz's work in general and especially not of her recent rampant Photoshoppery, which is heartrendingly far removed from the beautiful simplicity of her early 35mm black-and-white work for Rolling Stone, it's not to be denied that her very best shots are spectacularly good, and she's been to some amazing places and met many fascinating people. And, as presented here, she's a good writer. And the book is very well done. It's a special little book. Very enjoyable. Although I digress. Although you cannot tell.

So anyway. The newest book making a splash in this category is Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits which, as we collectively established not long ago, is being discussed all over the photo blogosphere.

Ctein will be reviewing the Apple iPad Air next week. I recently got one as well, with the idea of investigating how it is to look at pictures on the thing. As Ctein will inform you in due course, it has a "Retina" viewing screen. "Retina," which I thought already had a settled meaning, is a word that, in this case, means "good." I'm actually not digressing this time.

Now add that dearth of free space at TOP World HQ I was talking about.

I took a deep breath, girded my loins, steeled whatever it is you steel, and downloaded The Kindle version of Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits.

A first for me. Never have I downloaded an e-book version of a photographic book before, of any sort.

And you know what? It's okay. I have survived. I've enjoyed reading the entertaining, well-presented text, and the pictures look quite nice on the "Retina" (sorry, I have to put that dumb name in scare quotes every time I use it) screen. Better than good enough. I mean, I'm certainly used to looking at pictures on computer monitors, and they look fine on the iPad Air as illustrations.

Portrait of Shaquille O'Neal by Gregory Heisler

Partly, I have to admit, that's because I'm not overly enamored of the pictures. Purely a matter of personal chemistry, but I've never been particularly fond of Greg Heisler's work. To me it seems like good, solid commercial/editorial portraiture that accords well with accepted '80s-and-onwards fashions in such work. But I don't get from it a clear sense of personal style or outlook—that is to say, I'm pretty sure if I came across a Heisler portrait in a context where it wasn't clear who took it, I wouldn't be able to guess it was his. His lighting is always excellent, but it's chameleon-like, without any common stylistic thread. Like most commercial portraitists, he borrows various tropes from a variety of sources.

I should tell you that I've always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about commercial photographers horning in on art-photography venues, markets, and even vocabularies. At least I've been consistent about this over the years. It pushes those buttons just a little that the subtitle of this book is "Stories and Techniques from a Photographer's Photographer." Excuse me? Not to me. That term might uncontroversially be applied to Danny Lyons or Ray McSavaney or Pentti Sammallahti or Saul Leiter or Ray K. Metzker or Lee Friedlander or a folder-full of other photographers depending on what type of photography floats your boat, but no commercial guy since Penn deserves to be called that if you ask me.

Why am I telling you this? Not to be obnoxious, although it's always a bit obnoxious to intimate, even gently, you don't really care for a good worker's good work. Only to emphasize that this is why I'm perfectly happy to read this book in its Kindle version on the iPad—because it's not close to my heart, either in terms of the book's genre or that of the photography. I don't really need to see a picture of Shaq sitting in a giant chair any better than I can see it on the iPad. I get the idea. But it's just this style of portraiture that I don't particularly care for—Gregory Heisler is very good at it, and the stories of how he worked to make them are excellent. The book is informative and easy to read and not condescending at all.

You might well feel differently than I do about the work; lots of people love this style. So if that's the case, maybe you'd be better off getting the paper version of this book and Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits in the Kindle version for your tablet, instead of the other way around.

Either way you'll enjoy it.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

stephen: "Oddly (or maybe not) the thing I liked best about the Heisler book was Heisler. He is, no doubt about it, a master of lighting, but, in the writing, he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, enthused about what he does for a living."

Gato: "I bought the Heisler book when you mentioned it a while back, not because I'm fond of his photography but because I like the way he talks/writes about photography. Tte majority of the text deals with his creative process and how he works with his subjects, which is what I hoped for. Technical details get a pretty light treatment, with hardly a brand name in sight. And I am liking more photos than expected, though I largely agree with you that Heisler is too much the chameleon. Although I bought the hardbound this does seem like a good candidate for a tablet. Much of the interest is in the text, and Heisler's photos, intended for magazine reproduction, depend more on content than reproduction quality to make their point."

Bruce Van Valen: "I was fortunate to have spent a week with Greg Heisler this past summer as a participant in his 'Lightwork' workshop at Maine Media. I think if he were to read your comments he would get a good chuckle at the notion that he is too much of a chameleon because I think he would say that that is exactly his intention. In fact he is very conscious in his avoidance of developing any trait that runs through the work that makes it identifiable, what he refers to as becoming 'a thing.' He is definitely a guy who enjoys his work and he is obsessed with light of all kinds. If any readers have the opportunity to attend one of his workshops I highly recommend it. He is a very down to earth guy and a great teacher."

Just yesterday I started to get word that readers are beginning to receive their copies of Peter's book French Kiss. All the comments I've gotten so far are positive, even glowing—and a pleasure to read. Perked up my day.

The pre-sale during the month of October was much more successful than anticipated, but there are still roughly 1,200 copies left out of the printing of 3,000...and plenty of time to order and receive a book before Christmas.

If you haven't gotten yours yet, it shouldn't be long now. Peter is working hard signing books (it's truly not a trivial task to sign 1,700 books being suitably careful not to damage or mar them in any way) and more books are being shipped every day.

I'd love to hear your impression if you've gotten yours.

The 'fatal personage'
Meanwhile, I've received more than half a dozen selected new books here at sprawling TOP World Headquarters in the past few weeks. Several are beautiful or fascinating, but the one that's got me completely gobsmacked is Aperture's Sergio Larrain, which is just a masterpiece in every conceivable way—just a superlative, superlative book.

...And fast becoming a favorite...I've been dipping into its riches little by little, the same way I read in three of my touchstone tomes, Orwell, de Maupassant, and Montaigne. The last photo book I "read" this way was the great Snaps by EE.

Larrain, who died last year, was too loose for his time. But he's perfect—perfect—for now. Looking through this treasure trove makes my eyes go wide with wonder.

I'll have more to say about this one anon, I'm sure. Whew. What a glory.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Chap Achen: "Peter Turnley's French Kiss is the best of all the books that I have ordered based on your suggestions. The images that are reproduced in the book make me want to a) go to Paris and b) get back in my darkroom. My wife also wants to know just how many books do you need, and where are you going to put them? Thanks again for all the great suggestions."

Victor Bloomfield: "Got it a couple of days ago. It's terrific: charming and moving scenes, beautifully captured and superbly printed. My wife, who sometimes sighs with impatience when another photo book arrives, said 'This one is really sweet!'"

V. Roma: "Can't believe I had never heard of Sergio Larrain. Thank you!"

ABCALOF: "Peter's new book French Kiss is absolutely fantastic, capturing the beauty and simplicity of Paris. It has inspired me to continue looking for the honesty and beauty in every day life that we so overlook as human beings. I'm honored to own a copy."

Michael Perini: "I received the book a few days ago, A really elegant package for a beautiful book. Knowing many of the pictures is like seeing old friends—you anticipate seeing them, and when they arrive with the turn of a page, they are even better than you remembered. I have my own informal test for separating good photographers from Really Good Photographers. It's in the hesitation to turn the page because the current photograph has a hold on you. Mr. Turnley easily meets the test.

"I am struck over and over by the simple humanity of the pictures. They are not showy but simple, real, and essential. A really lovely book. I did however, put it down to go slap my camera.  ;-)  More than once."

Giovanni (partial comment): "I totally agree that Larrain's book is to be savored page by page. Rarely seen such density of consistently great images, with a unity of vision that not even your friend Erwitt can match. (Yet I love Erwitt too!)

"Discovering him this summer and then seeing the exhibition running at the H.C-B Foundation in Paris just blew my mind. Still reeling."

Joe Holmes: "Shhh! Not so loud! I'm putting my copy away as a Christmas present for my wife. It would have been a Valentine's Day present, but are you kidding me, an extra six weeks' wait?"

Stephen F Faust: "It was a very good weekend—not only was it my birthday, but I received my copies of both French Kiss AND Here Far Away! Other than cracking French Kiss to briefly flip through it and see Peter's autograph, I haven't spent a lot of time with it, instead deciding to delve into Here Far Away first. No offense to Peter of course.  :-) ."

Steve Rosenblum (partial comment): "I like French Kiss so much that I sent signed copies of it to my children to keep as a symbol of love through the years."

Cathy Seith: "Your beautiful book French Kiss arrived in Atlanta today, a birthday gift to myself. Your images brought tears to my eyes. Lovely work Peter. I saw you speak for the National Press Photographer's Association about 25 years ago, when I was just starting out as a photojournalist. Then, and now, it opens up a whole new world to me."

Darnell Newsum (partial comment): "I received my copy of French Kiss late last night—unbelievably, the Post Office rang my bell at 9:30—a true special delivery! It is a beautiful, warm and inspiring book and I have been smiling since I opened it."

If any be afflicted, let him pray, and if any be merry
let him sing psalms: The Bay Psalm Book, A.D. 1640

You're looking at a JPEG of the title page of what later this month will become the most valuable printed book ever, surpassing Gutenberg Bibles, Shakespeare First Folios, and Audubon's Birds of North America. It's the rarest of the rare—a first edition of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in British North America. A copy is being auctioned at Sotheby's on November 26th. It's the first time the book has come up at auction in 66 years. The low end of the auction estimates is $15 million. (Yale University got its copy in 1947 for $151,000, an astronomical sum for a book at the time.)

If the bidding hits $30.5 million, which it could, this Bay Psalm Book would then  become not just the most valuable printed book but the most valuable paper document on earth, exceeding the $30+ million that Bill Gates paid in 1994 for Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester, a handwritten journal of the great humanist's scientific notes and inquiries.

Printed in 1640, in Cambridge, near Boston, Massachusetts, my Pilgrim ancestors in Plymouth would certainly have known the psalter. Seventeen hundred copies were printed; 11 survive. The copy to be auctioned is the property of Old South Church in Boston...which also has another one, which won't be sold. (At one time Old South Church owned five of the 11 surviving copies!) The idea of finding a previously unknown Bay Psalm Book is the Holy Grail for rare book dealers and collectors, and has been central to the plots of several novels, including Will Harriss's 1983 mystery The Bay Psalm Book Murder.

Back at the ranch house
Meanwhile, at sprawling TOP World Headquarters in idyllic Waukesha, Wisconsin, I've cycled onward in my e-reader evolution, having just acquisitioned the base model of the new iPad Air. There's nothing wrong with my iPad2 except I've been afraid it's going to attack me. I read in bed at night, with the iPad perched atop a pillow on my chest. I'm uncomfortably aware that if I doze off while reading, the iPad could easily pitch forward and hit me in the nose or the teeth. I'm hoping the new, lighter iPad will help limit the damage; I'm ugly enough as it is without a missing front tooth.

E-readers have required some reshuffling of mental concepts held dear. I've always (since I was small) loved not only books but the idea of libraries. I think of them classically and conservatively, as static collections, brought to a point of perfection and then enduring. The supreme example of this in the world is possibly the Samuel Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge. Samuel must have suffered terribly from OCD; the identical cases were custom-made, and the specially-bound books are ranged not only by subject but by size. This has never been the state of my own collection of books, which is a living, breathing thing, expanding and contracting, messy and sprawling, always in some parlous limbo between partial organization and total disorganization.

Being a man of small means, the idea of a so-called "cabinet collection" has long had a strong appeal to me. A cabinet collection is a miniature library—small enough to fit into a cabinet, or at least a single bookcase or a limited number of them. That idea made sense when books were more precious and relatively more expensive than they are now. Part of the idea is that it should make up in quality and selection what it obviously must lack in quantity.

The e-reader seems to encourage a different concept altogether: of books as consumables. That is, buy one, read it, move on. You can keep it, but there's no need. It's in the cloud. If you need it again, go get it again. There's no reason to archive it in physical form on premises.

In a way, these two conceptions are just opposite each other: the cabinet collection, a small, well-curated collection of high-quality printed books, possessed; and e-reader books, ephemeral by definition, books to be ingested like meals and then replenished by the next, never even granted a physical form.

How I read now: the Apple iPad Air

Gradually, more and more of my reading has become electronic. I've had two Kindles and now two iPads. Although the lastest Kindle Paperwhite in its neat case is the most elegant of the devices for reading, six inches tall and light and easily portable, I've come to prefer the iPad. I'm not really sure why; I just like reading on it better. (Amazon does make its own mini-tablet.) I would say I do 85% of my book reading now, or even 90%, on e-readers as opposed to paper books.

There's one great advantage to digital cameras that keeps me from going back to film: high ISO capability. And there's one great advantage to digital e-readers that printed books can't compete with: variable type size. Every book on the iPad Air is a large print book if I want it to be. It's very nice to be able to pick the most comfortable type size.

Too bad
The iPad Air has every bit of that "latest and greatest" glow that electronic devices have when they're new. It's so lovely I sometimes find myself just holding it, gazing at its new "Retina" screen in admiration. For the first time I'm interested to see what a portfolio of photographs would look like in this format. Type is very crisp and smooth.

I'm sure this glow will fade in a few years. But by then there will be a replacement. Meanwhile, I've deaccessioned more than 30 boxes of paper books in the three years since I first wrote about the Kindle.

Oddly, though, although these two ideas—the cabinet collection and e-books—are opposites, the one might actually enable the other. Of course I've focused my buying of paper books more on my specialty since e-books entered my life, but the other thing I've done is to buy a few nice books. Only a very few so far, but, added to the few "good" books I've had for a long time, I now have what might be called the kernal or the nucleus of a cabinet collection—not a whole case full of very nice books, but one short shelf of them.

Who knows? With most of my reading now taken over by the iPad, maybe I will have a cabinet collection after all, one day.

It won't include the Bay Psalm Book, of course, but I wouldn't want one anyway—the translations in it are not well thought of and no one uses them any more. It's an historical artifact like any other valuable museum antique, and I'm a reader. But I would like to have The Bay Psalm Book Murder by Will Harriss...

...But only if I could get it for the iPad. And you can't. It's not available. You'd have to go to Abebooks.com and buy a paper copy. Too bad; I'd like to read that.

Mike

"Open Mike" is a library of off-topic ramblings by Yr. Hmbl. Ed. that appears on TOP on certain Sundays.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Geoff Wittig: "To my mind, 'e-books' and actual printed books have as little in common with each other as JPEGs and physical prints. Less, really, as the type and formatting of an e-book is entirely 'virtual' and contingent, while the physical reality of an actual book is a very large part of its artistic virtue.

"I probably own (not really sure, to be honest) four copies of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, each of which serves a different purpose. One is a cheap paperback reading copy that probably should be tossed in the trash, but it sometimes bounces around in the trunk of the car in case I need something to read for those 15 minute bits of slack time. Another is the quite nice yet inexpensive 'Everyman's Library' version which reproduces the lovely typography and woodcuts of the Grabhorn Brothers' 1930 limited edition in more portable format. And I actually own a copy of the Grabhorn edition. It's the most expensive book I possess, much too big for casual reading, but flat-out gorgeous with hand-made paper, deep letterpress impressions and original woodcuts. It's a genuine work of art that conveys Whitman's poetry with an added layer of meaning of its own. The e-book version by comparison is just a cloud of electrons, one that evaporates the moment the source decides you no longer merit access."

robert e (partial comment): "I had to laugh—I've been struck in the face, neck or shoulders by iPhones, a Kindle and a Nexus 7 when using them (including to read books) while lying on my back...."

Michael Perini: "The iPad Retina is a really fine portfolio display device. I highly recommend an app called Portfolio, which allows a fair degree of customization of appearance and individual galleries against simple backgrounds. It comes with a free app for your Mac called 'Portfolio Loader' which can be pointed to any folder on your Mac, to Wirelessly transfer the files, which is a huge benefit.

"I size JPEGs  to fit within 2048x2048 to use all the resolution of the display. (You can make them bigger so that you can pinch and expand, but I choose not to do that so that pictures display as intended.) There are other portfolio apps that I have not tried, so I can't say Portfolio is the best, but I am quite pleased with it. Having selections of favorite images so beautifully displayed  (in any grouping or sequence you choose) on such an easily portable device is like travelling with old friends. Not as good as holding a real paper print in your hands, but a strong second place."

Steve Jacob (partial comment): "It took me about a week to get used to the [Kindle] screen and find a font size that worked. It also takes a period of psychological adjustment.

[...]

"I like books. I always have. But the books that I consider as 'more than just their content' are those illustrated references (including photo books of course) that I have collected over the years, and some nicely bound and rare hardback classics. For paperback novels it's not the book that matters, but the story. I now actually prefer reading novels electronically."

Mike replies: Your comment about the "period of psychological adjustment" is so true. Well said.

Mike D: "It's not just e-readers that can assault you. I once managed to pull a muscle carelessly removing Michel Frizot's A New History of Photography from the bookshelf. It's one big and heavy mother of a book!"

Curmudgeon-in-training: "Rumour has it the Google Guys (tm) will snap up the Psalm Book, slice its spine off, jam it into a sheet feeder, scan it, OCR it and post it on Google Books (tm). Just sayin'...."

I'm happy to say I've had multiple reports that Pentti Sammallahti's Here Far Away is finally shipping from Amazon.com. I hope this is the last update post I'll have to do on this subject; the saga has tired me.

I know how I can make myself feel better—I'll go look through the book again.

Mike
(Thanks to everyone who informed me that their order has been shipped)

P.S. When I was checking the orders I noticed that this book is our big seller for this month, despite the fact that I know nothing about it and have not even mentioned it. Interesting.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

ACG: "The portrait book was featured a few days ago on Luminous Landscape."

Mike replies: Ah, that explains it. Thanks.

Dave Stewart: "I see there's a certain D. Hobby who's written a glowing review at the Amazon link. Suspect some TOP readers have heard about it via his Strobist website (i.e., here)."

MarkR: "R.C. Concepcion mentioned that book recently on Scott Kelby's blog. Must be some sort of halo effect."

Mike replies: I guess everybody's talking about it, then.

RobinP: "It would be interesting to know how many (if any) TOP readers bought the Kindle edition of the Heisler book and what their opinion is re looking at a photo book in the new format."

Chris Gibbs: "Here's an interview with Heisler talking about that book. And he even segues into 'the look' he wanted for a certain shot. It ties in nicely with Mike's post 'Do You Really Need FF?'"