Carrie Mae Weems may be the most interesting photographer practicing today. Not the most interesting Black Photographer nor the most interesting Woman Photographer, but simply the most interesting photographer. Looking at the beautiful catalogue (Carrie Mae Weems: A Great Turn in the Possible) created for the European exhibition of Weems’ work, sponsored by Fundación MAPFRE, […]
For Black History month we are looking at four great African-American photographers. This installment features Dawoud Bey, an artist whose portraits draw on the the documentary tradition.
For Black History month, I am featuring the work of four outstanding African-American Photographers. The first essay features Gordon Parks and his work at the Farm Security Administration.
Photography Visionaries is a neat survey of 75 great photographers spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Each photographer is represented by at least three of their best-known images, along with a concise, well-written and insightful summary of their significance. Each essay/biography is a stand-alone document, so that readers need not move through the book […]
Geoff Dyer's "The Ongoing Moment" is a enjoyable, insightful meander through the common themes that have united and divided the artistic visions of great photographers. Dyer has both a discerning eye and an encyclopedic familiarity with photographers and their backstories, which he uses to carefully weave context into their work.
Many authors have tackled the idea of looking at photographs. The difference from this traditional approach is that in See/Saw we get a lot of Geoff Dyer as well. Dyer takes the artist’s background, significance and intent as a starting point, but uses his essays to expound on his own observations. In a sense, the […]
Looking for a great book for your favorite photographer. Try this list of timeless books designed to get your photographer thinking more deeply about the craft.
Need a gift idea for your favorite photographer? In this second column, I focus on some affordable book series that highlight individual photographers.
The Americans by Robert Frank First published in 1958, Robert Frank’s The Americans, ushered in a new era in documentary photography. There may be no single book in photography that has had a more significant influence on how we look at photographs and how photographers look at subjects than The Americans. That might sound like […]
