No comments about Library of Dust.

No comments about Classic Essays on Photography.

No comments about The Europe Book (General Pictorial).

5 comments about In The American West.

1. People like to say Avedon strips down everything, background and context and props and even shadow, but that's not really true, each of these portraits contains the pieces of a really complex narrative, and these people come to life in ways that are simultaneously erotic and sad, flamboyant and inarticulate, haughty and humiliated.



2. Avedon's post-celebrity period, arguably more poignantly presented in this publication than in any other of his works, is a real mark of his maturity as a portraitist. This is a high quality, candid, provacative and haunting record of the liminal characters of the American west, a project Avedon himself said he would have been happy spending the rest of his life completing. Essential reading for aspirant or active professional portraitists.



3. I am not normally a fan of celebrity portraits, and perhaps moreso in Avedon's case. I find his celebrity work to be somewhat gimmicky, and not typically interesting to me. However, I recently was at B&N and took a look at "Avedon At Work: In The American West" and was very impressed by the photography (although not really by the book itself, which was really about the process, not the photos, besides the book being too expensive for what it was). This made me somewhat upset that all the normal Avedon work they had there was (primarily) his celebrity work, which, while bound and presented in a very interesting way, was not impressive to me visually.
   
   Thus, when Avedon's book "In The American West" popped up on Amazon for me, I was quite thrilled, and since I needed the extra purchase for free shipping anyway, I snatched it up. When it arrived, I was thrilled. The book is large (as large as Schoeller's "Close Up") but is also covered in a plastic sleeve to protect it even further, which is a welcome addition to such a gorgeous book. The cover has a great feel to it, and the pages are all a good weight and clarity. The photos are large, but not so large that you can't take it all while holding the book at arms length. They are detailed, highly personal, and extremely complex and subtle. They are what good portraits are. In the beginning and end of the book, it has a few pages of text talking about the overall project, and some specific people, however it keeps it separate from the images, which I find to be better, since you can then simply go through the images and view them as they are, without any other context or distraction. The only accompanying text for each photo is a brief caption including name, date taken, and occupation or title (Drifter, Oil Field Worker, etc.). While often they are predictable, there are a few captions that truly add a new depth to the image they are attached to.
   
   Overall this is a great book. It is unusual to find such high quality, large printed books for a great price like this, and so if you're considering, you should not pass this up.



4. In my personal opinion Avedons book "In the American West" is pure art, as he describes his images "A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows they are being photographed. A "sitting" is an exchange of emotions. The picture emerges when this emotions meet." Now we all have seen his pictures in magazines and on the web but "In the American west" is a superb printed book where you can appreciate every detail.



5. I remember seeing this book on its release in the 1980s. I couldn't afford it at the time, but I never forgot those images. Looking at them again, I can see the re-release of this group of Richard Avedon's work was fully justified.
   These portraits are raw - each man, woman and child is exposed. Avedon recognised that each of the individuals in these portraits were an entity unto themselves. Their lives are in their faces; there is no need for props or pictorial backgrounds. Everyone was photographed against a simple sheet of white paper - a groundbreaking approach for this genre at the time. No staging, nothing concealed, nothing enhanced and there is no evidence of tweeking.
   These photos distressed the romantic notion of 'the west' that prevailed until the late 1980s, and in turn contributed to its redefinition in popular culture. I still find myself looking at these pictures over and over again, wondering about the fate of some of these folks. This is another benefit of a book like this - it poses questions which cannot be easily answered - what happened to these people?
   I'm so very thankful I got myself a copy. If you, like myself, are working on building a photography book collection, then this is an essential addition.

5 comments about Perception and Imaging, Third Edition: Photography--A Way of Seeing.

1. While it is true this book is somewhat erroneously subtitled WRT to the Photography bit -it is relevant not only to photographers but also painters, illustrators and others- there is a wealth of information presented in a detailed and well-illustrated manner. This book covers everything from color relationships and meaning, to "geometric" fundamentals such as symmetry and gestalt grouping, to the human physiology behind why some things appeal to our eye and others do not.
   
   In short the book provides not only examples of what works in photographic composition (or a painting's composition), but explains *why* it works, without boring you to tears with a doctoral thesis in every chapter. Some books (such as Itten's color tome) do exactly this and it makes them almost painful works to finish, even though the information is valid. It provides just enough scientific context to give understanding, and then gets out of its own way by providing real-world illustrative examples (be they photos, drawings or illustration) to demonstrate the current concept.
   
   And there *are* many references to things specific to photography such as a sub-section on color management systems and how color is controlled in the digital world. Is it the same as reading one of Bruce Fraser's works on color manegment? No, but it gives you enough to put it in context and understand why it's important. So it is with all the other chapters in the book. Highly recommended if you are an art student or photography student, or even a professional looking to hone your skills.



2. I know that I will draw a great deal of critique for this review, but personally i did not find this book worth my time.
   
   For how well it might be written, for how easy and understandable the examples might be, for how precisely documented it is, it does not have what I was looking for in it: a partly theoretical and partly practical toolbox to expand my creativity when I create an image.
   
   The text is, as I said in the title, little more than a collection of well-catalogued, wide-ranging information regarding different fields of perception. Some of them are overly and uselessly technical, some are little more than tautologies, few are actually useful or stimulating. I could not find any reference, for instance, to "the rule of the thirds" (which might not be the ultimate principle of composition but is still an important starting point) but on the other hand there were more than a dozen paragraphs on colour notations and names, constantly moving between the obvious, the superfluous and the merely technical.
   
   On a sidenote, I do not understand why American writers in general assume that their readers have the attention-span of a goldfish and try to fit everything they have to say on an argument in half a paragraph, only to start a completely new one immediately after. It doesn't help, it creates unacceptable over-simplifications.
   Teaching is not made of putting on the table individual information, sweetened by a profusion of quotes and aphorisms. Teaching is a sequential activity, it involves a long propaedeutic phase, it entails the creation of foundations and builds upon them to get in the end to the real content. A book that teaches well cannot be accessed randomly at any page without missing any context. Useless to say, this one can.
   
   
   Andrea B., Verona



3. Encyclopedic in scope, but equally shallow and choppy.
   
   This is a textbook. Illustrations are student grade, margin notes are random, and exercises are strained. May be useful if you never took a basic design class or thought much about perception. Book gives a survey, oriented toward defining terms and concepts, but it never takes them anywhere.



4. This book takes you--step by step with clear and often startling examples and with exercises to apply them--through the fundamentals of perception. That is the most basic of a photographer's necessary skills. Understand the concepts, practice seeing, do the exercises, understand your perceptions. Become a better photographer and, in the process, enrich your daily life as you see and understand your world in new ways. Highly recommended.



5. New edition of a classic textbook by a well-known expert. Quite theoretical but very instructive. People take too many pictures unthinkingly, and should read on theory.

No comments about Digital Masters: Travel Photography: Documenting the World's People & Places (A Lark Photography Book).

5 comments about Un/Cut.

1. Yet another masterpiece by Giovanni. This book accompanies "Private Parts" and "Bites". A truly "must have" of the all natural uncut male.



2. Giovanni (a self-confessed moniker for a famous fashion photographer) continues to focus on an obsession/admiration for that object of historic dispute - the male phallus. For centuries art vogues have either lauded the masculine symbol for fertility and power, whether in sculpture of the Greeks or paintings of the Renaissance, or those passing fads have draped or even lopped off the au courant offending organ. While Giovanni is far from the only artist to finally bring full frontal male nudity to the same spotlight once monopolized by female nudity, he is one of the major voices working today who focuses his art away from fashion on the male penis.
   
   This book UN*/CUT is his third foray into the examination and presentation of the genesis of creation and it is in many ways his most successful. The photographs are all of the male sexual organ, this time around each of the organs is uncircumcised ('uncut'), and the penis is the sole point! The models doubtless are fine specimens of men, but here Giovanni limits his exposures to the groin. The photographs are beautifully executed, with some of the most sensitive lighting and composition imaginable, and the design of the book of both black and white and color images is of the highest quality. Giovanni is interviewed at the close of the book and his comments are warmly sensitive and honest, explaining and not apologizing for his choice of subject. There is a fine Foreword by Jazz expert Jim Eigo that sets the tone for the pages that follow - and those pages capture the penis in flaccid and erect pose, at times with the models' extremities as part of the image, but never with the faces showing, making it very clear what the message of the book is about.
   
   It is refreshing to finally see books of this quality offering a platform for what has become the last frontier of accepting our sexuality. Artists such as Giovanni discard the past prudish prejudices and let the images speak clearly for freedom of expression. This is a quality book and the audience will likely appeal to women as well! Grady Harp, December 07



3. If you enjoyed Giovanni's previous works, "Bites" and "Private Parts", you will be absolutely knocked out with "Un/Cut". I think it's the best of the three. The images of the models are beautifully photographed and quite thought provoking. These are some of the best "male members" you will see in any publication. Many of the photos display the foreskin drawn back to provide revealing shots. This is truly Giovanni's "crowning" achievement.



4. i've perused this a couple of times in the bookstore, and have been really underwhelmed.
   
   it's penises. lots and lots and lots of them. there's not much creativity in the composition or lighting. very few of the images has much aesthetically to offer except a penis with a foreskin, of which there are ample examples elsewhere, done more artistically. i was expecting a sort of celebration of the many variations of foreskin, but with many of the photos, they're erect and/or masturbating, so the foreskin is minimal or not visible at all.
   
   it's a professionally produced book, so as one reviewer observed, the images are "high quality"; the shots are close up and clear, it's true. but that doesn't mean that they're actually interesting to look at... if anything "un-cut" might refer to the lack of editing.



5. Un*/Cut is as beautiful a photo book about the penis you will ever see. There is a variety of penis types that keep you looking for more. There are black and white pictures as well as color. The models are as near perfect as you can get. I plan on buying several more copies for Christmas and give them as gifts to my special freinds.
   So, if you like full frontal nudity and close-ups of the penis, this book is for you.

5 comments about Behind the Beat: Hip Hop Home Studios.

1. this book is awesome, would recommend this book to anyone who is into music, a dj. real nice book



2. I bought this for my boyfriend as a gift a couple years ago (he is a hip hop head) and it is seriously his favorite book. He loves going through the different studios and it seriously inspires him. A lot of the producers in there are not mainstream and he loves that.



3. I recently purchased this book about a month ago, and I was very pleased with the quality of the photographs this book had. I was also surprised that some of the producers featured in the book had a lot smaller set ups than I imagined. So, it's actually good for the up and comers, that are on a budget to see that, just because you don't have million dollar equipment, doesn't mean you can't make million dollar records.
   
   -David Grants.



4. I've never spent so much time analyzing a photo book. Each picture occupies me with about five minutes of psychoanalysis, trying to figure out the motives behind each piece of gear or memorabilia in the pictures. Each studio also confirms my hypothesis: the cleaner the home studio environment/setup, the less that actually gets done.



5. This book is great!.
   Raph, amassed a nice volume that really captures the essence of the "home/bedroom" studio. He writes a blurb about how he encountered each DJ/Producer. Each snippet even contains a few spelling errors (normally that gets to me, but for this genre I just think it works). He puts a short discograpy of the producer, but the rest is pics. This is the best part of the book. His photography truly conveys the essence of that world we enter into when we want to create. The world we've made for our music that's full of snapshots, pieces, dusty loops, and complexly configured equipment. The lab. THis book is a great gift for any hiphop head, producer, studio music lover. I had it on my Christmas/b-day list for years and no one copped it for me. So I just decided to get it myself.
   My only criticism is the list of producers he didn't put in this book. Oh well maybe a Vol. 2 is in order.

No comments about Hedi Slimane: Rock Diary.

5 comments about English Cottage Gardening: For American Gardeners, Revised Edition.

1. This books seems full of gardening ideas for those of us who are going to try to plant a cottage garden. We lost our home in the recent San Diego fires so this book should be great when we start from scratch.



2. My sister and I love english gardens...I bought the book for her..it was difficult to part with!



3. This is a truly wonderful and totally inspiring book. I bought it in order to look at the lovely photographs, but ended up reading it from cover to cover late into the night. I am completely new to gardening and have found so many books to be so dry as to be unreadable, not so this book. The main message of this book is just to start... LIke the gardeners profiled in the book learn from trial and error and move things around as necessary. The author describes a very personal, relaxed and process oriented approach to gardening which to me seems like the reason for doing it in the first place. Thank you Margaret Hensel.



4. This is a garden book to keep by the side of your easy chair. Every time I pick it up, I start reading and enjoy the straight forward descriptions and plant recommendations and flower combinations.
   
   I've made the mistake of ordering a book or two from the internet only to find that "English Gardening" is all about estate gardening. Lovely, but I don't own an estate. Margaret Hensel has traveled through England and brought back practical advice about how to get the look of a small, intimate garden outside English cottages not castles.
   
   It's an easy read of information about what makes a cottage garden have the charm and intimacy that I think of when I envision my own plot of land. There are diagrams of the landscapes as well.
   
   There's encouragement about what makes a English cottage garden rather than the usual approach that it's not possible to create this kind of garden outside of England. So many books fall short because they begin with this premise and this leads to how to add tropical plants or other such nonsense.



5. I have owned this book for several years, and recently got a copy for a friend who is also into cottage gardening, and loves all things British. This book is chock full of ideas to help one create a beautiful garden. It is not a "How to" book, but a reference to help stimulate your own imagination. The photography is lovely, and the text is overflowing with information. I would (and did) buy this book again and recommend to anyone who loves English or cottage gardening.