I'm pleased to note that we have succeeded in luring the Squid from the depths—he has left a short comment on books about the artworld (as one word it reminds one of the word underworld) which I have added as an update at the Engagé post. Just didn't want you to miss it.
Despite his fondness for tight places, Cal hates being pigeonholed, yea even described at all, but at the risk or arousing his ire I would describe him as a mover and shaker in the art world, or artworld—albeit one who moves mostly beneath the waves, far from the red reach of the sun.
Mike
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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
, for example, is currently ranked #3 on Amazon in the category of Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Professional.
, the book 
, which certainly does seem to pull the curtain aside to reveal the little man at the levers. (Although to center the argument on Damien Hirst might be, ahem, shooting fish in a barrel. I'm only part way through the book.) You really can see the contemporary art market purely in economic terms, if you consider that displaying status is an essential human need.
, and here's 
by Sarah Thornton struck the nice balance, 
reflected mere facile dismissiveness, and 
by William Dyer Grampp provided a good non-sensationalistic perspective from classical economics.
, a book which, to the extent it is known at all, is admired as a noir crime novel but deserves instead be recognized as brilliant commentary on the artworld." —Cal Amari
from Editions Hazan in Paris (that's the amazon.com link; here's 
by Sandra S. Phillips, David Travis, and Weston Naef—Naef retired as the top curator at the Getty in early 2009). I hardly need yet one more. But I'm just circling this exciting volume—it's calling to me, or more accurately nagging at me, like a duck pecking steadily at my consciousness. I just don't think I'll be able to resist, in the end, no matter how I try.
and most recently 
is currently at work on an extensive biography of Kertesz. Something to look forward to."
. It's a insider's view of city life by an outsider artist.
fame) and Gary Stochl (of 
fame). If I had to collect only one genre of photo books from here on in it would be street photography from previously little-known photographers with a long history of insightful and original unpublished photos."
is back in print, after being in Steidlimbo for a number of months. People weren't happy with the website interface, but liked the pictures.
. I have to admit this is a guilty pleasure—I'll browse along for page after page and then every now and then something will just really crack me up.
, with country singer Kris Kristofferson as the Kid and James Coburn as the Lincoln County Sheriff who finally did him in. The film features a twitchy performance by Bob Dylan, who also wrote the memorable if somewhat overemphasized 
. The actual history of the west is almost fugitive at this point, because the myths and the legends are just so strong and so alluring to so many, and the truth has been so thoroughly eclipsed by the myths and mannerisms beloved of pop culture. And pop culture just gets so much of the actual history wrong. For instance, the Apache are conventionally considered the quintessential southwestern desert tribe, the wildest and most warlike, mainly because Geronimo was one of the last Indian holdouts to be brought to heel (and because he survived to go on tour back East—he rode in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade, for instance). But that's not even close. By far the most powerful tribe of the West—the best horsemen (and women) and the most vicious fighters—were the Comanche, who stopped Spanish expansion northward and, for many years, American expansion into Texas and the Southern Plains.
is nonpareil in my opinion, a category of one. (The link is to the illustrated edtion; there's an inexpensive paperback as well.) But Empire of the Summer Moon is at the top of the rest.
provides a great overview of all of his books for $50–60."
, click on "3 new for £9.99," then select "Add to Basket" for the Bluecoat Press option. Ignore the bit on the Amazon page about the book being temporarily out of stock.)
. This is a gorgeously made little volume, with very attractive embossed pale green paper covered boards (hardcover, that is) and complementary mustard-colored endpapers, and what I would call a mature design: elegant, skillful, but not extrovert. (Note that it may have several different covers: the one illustrated on the Amazon page is not the one I bought locally and that is shown here.) The book is well supported with text, mainly an extensively revised and translated c. 1980 long essay by Jean-François Chevrier (although modified for this book, it retains the tense of the original, written when Doisneau, who died in 1994, was still alive). I'm tempted to call it mainly a reader's book—it even has a bound-in placemaker ribbon; the plates don't start until page 81.
and one for 
, has just been published (last June 13th), at a list price of $400. Each oversized book—and I mean oversized; at 500x375mm (19.75x14.75 in.) and 320 pages, your coffee table had better have sturdy legs—is signed, and comes with an original photograph which is also signed by the photographer. There are 3,300 copies overall, 1,100 of those for the U.S.
is still in print for a more palatable $31 (and a bargain at that price, given its stellar printing quality). In fact I think I'll go console myself about not being able to afford the big book by pulling Looking East down off the shelf.
(for the Iconic book, I mean), and here's one for 
. A seasoned author (and an advertiser here) with several popular how-to books under his belt, Alain also very much knows whereof he speaks when it comes to, well, marketing fine art photography—he's one of the few photographers in the country who makes most of his living through the sale of prints (there aren't as many like that as you might guess: in the late '80s, I recall, one expert pegged the number of such photographers at six). According to the publisher: "After a series of trials and errors, Briot devised a marketing system that allowed him to get out of debt, pay for a state-of-the-art studio, and purchase his first home, all from the sale of his photography."
is the second Lark (Pixiq) edition (firsts were selling for $70–$125 until a few weeks ago), but there were earlier iterations that I watched go in and out of print over the years—the first one in English, from Hove, came out in the summer of '87. (In general it spends more time out of print than in. I lost my only earlier copy in the '90s when it went the way of most loaned books, refusing to find its way home again.)
(also hot off the presses—published a week ago), and 2009's 
by the friendly Brian Bower, whose earlier Leica books have been enormously popular. (Brian is one of the few photographers I know of who has a real feel for the 21mm focal length and really handles it well. I always enjoy deconstructing his WA pictures in his Leica books to see how he sees.)
by Alexandre Buisse, and 
by Chris Brown. I am an armchair reader of mountaineering books such as 
and 
(both terrific, by the way), so I paged through Alexandre's book with the same sort of detached fascination with which I read about improbable people clinging to improbable verticalities—but just because it has no potential practical value to me doesn't mean it might not for you! The pictures sure are stunning...doubly so for me, with my fear of all but literary heights. And as for Chris, some of his pleasurable Grand Canyon pictures can be seen 
. Author Ben Greisler sums up his approach to digital asset management thusly: "After a lifetime of photographic experience collided with my current experience as an IT professional, I saw a need for mixing the two disciplines in a way that took the needs of the creative professional and combined them with solid IT best practices. My goal for this book is to show you how to do this without being overwhelmed by the process." This book is also new to the world, as of last month. Unfortunately I can't tell you how it compares to the better-established alternative, Peter Krough's 
, the second edition of which just turned two, because I don't know that one. But the present title is a thorough but digestible primer on the subject by a guy who knows what he's talking about.
(at $40.81). We cleaned 'em out the first time around—98 copies delivered from Amazon U.S. and U.K. before supplies temporarily ran dry.
. 
? Hard to beat for pounds (or kilos) of book per dollar. Reproduction quality has varied from just okay to pretty good. More recent titles include Sebastião Salgado's beautiful book 
[now out of print —Ed.], with reproductions that are very good indeed.
) is a large, heavy volume that provides brief but pithy coverage of literally hundreds of individuals. The author's explicitly stated criterion for inclusion is "those whose contribution to the culture of the photographic image is beyond question, whose work is internationally recognized, presented and discussed–even if controversial." Koetzle acknowledges a preponderance of Americans and Europeans, but there is also extensive representation of Asian and Latin American photographers.
featured one or two images from each of 200 famous photographers. Phaidon's 
was more explicitly a survey of the 20th century in photography, but covers some of the same ground, with a very well-chosen selection of images. Finally, Phaidon's 
is the closest equivalent, with "500 pages on 500 photographers," each represented by a single iconic good-quality reproduction. Taschen's new book has a rather more eclectic mix, with a wider selection of Asian and Latin American photographers. In customary Taschen style, there's also a larger representation of nude and erotic subjects—Araki gets two pages, Walker Evans only one. Overall it's a fascinating selection of styles and eras. And for the lover of photo books, the bibliography entries are priceless. Just be forewarned that this feature may end up costing you far more than the purchase price!
**, which belongs in every collection of American photography books—was edited by John Szarkowski, who discovered Eggleston and brought him to the world's attention. Michael Almereyda has also done a superb job of picture selection—he seems to have picked particularly Egglestonish Egglestons with an unerring eye. Some of the NOS (new old shots—my weak humor again) are banal even by Eggleston's standards, which is saying something, but, if you think about it, this is the opposite of challenging work. Like many did, I originally came at Eggleston with my back up, but that's ancient history now—I long ago learned how to look at him and to love his best. These pictures will reward anyone who's done the same—they're fully in the vein of his most characteristic work. Comfortable as an old shoe, but fresh as new fruit.
, and the photography is outstanding...while the book is sort of provisionally okay. A lot of the pictures are presented one to a page. But a fair number of them are full bleeds with a third of their picture area spilling over the gutter, which is a particularly unhappy way to look at photographs in a book. I don't hate it, but the book certainly could have been better. As bookmaking, it falls solidly in the "not too bad" category.
, which just came out a month ago from Princeton Architectural Press.
is back in stock at Amazon. I know it gets to be a bit of a bore, keeping up with the availability adventures of Steidl titles, but I told you I'd let you know.
, by Richard Nickel and Aaron Siskind with John Vinci and Ward Miller, is so far over on the sincere side of the spectrum described above that it's almost impossible to convey it adequately. It might be a start to note that one of the authors essentially died for the project.
by George Barr
