New York Art Book Fair

I should probably mention that the New York Art Book Fair is quickly coming upon us. Here are some details:

2009 NY Art Book Fair

Presented by Printed Matter, the Fair hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, and independent artist/publishers presenting a diverse range of the best in contemporary art publications

The Fair opens for preview October 1, 6-8 PM at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

FAIR HOURS

Friday/Saturday, October 2 & 3, 2009, 11am – 7pm

Sunday, October 4, 2009, 11am – 5pm

LOCATION

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

22-25 Jackson Ave at the intersection of 46th Ave

Long Island City, NY 11101 (map)

The NY Art Book Fair is FREE and open to the public.

I wish I was in the vicinity for this event, perhaps another time, eh?

Best regards, Douglas

Paul Kopeikin – Gallery exhibition catalogs

  

Photographs copyright J Bennett Fitts courtesy Kopeikin Gallery

Recently I acquired the two latest exhibition catalogs for J. Bennett Fitts from his exhibitions at the Kopeikin Gallery.  The earlier catalog was “no lifeguard on duty”, exhibited/published in 2006 and “Industrial Landscap[ing]” which was exhibited and concurrently published earlier this year (2009).  Fitts landscape photographs seem to have a special appeal to me, and it is evident that he has been influenced by the earlier work of Lewis Baltz, especially with his Industrial Landscape[ing] series.

Both of these are nice catalogs, printed with softcovers in a size of 8″ x 10″, with off set printing printed and bound in Asia and reasonably priced. It seems that these gallery catalogs are evloving in a similar pattern as to the self-publishing fine art sector of Blurb, Apple and the twenty some other print on demand publishers. Big museums are know for their lavish hardcover exhibition catalogs, but it seems that the smaller galleries are creating a niche for their “self-published” catalogs as well.

With that in mind, I sent Paul a series of questions about his gallery exhibition catalogs.

DS Paul, first, about how long have you been publishing these exhibition catalogs?

PK I’m not exactly sure, but probably in the last five or six years

 

DS Typically, what is the decision process to determine if a catalog will be produced? Is this entirely your decision, the photographers request, or an outcome of a discussion. Does the photographer help fund the catalog?

PK Really it’s a financial one. If the artist has some resources and/or is willing to split the cost with me I will consider it.

 

DS At this time, how many different artists catalogs have you published?

PK A half dozen or so. We usually print about 1,500 copies of each exhibition catalog.

 

DS How involved is the photographer in designing and creating the catalogs?

PK As involved as they want to be, but usually very involved.

 

DS What life do you see for these catalogs? Do they then become a part of the photographers published body of work, morph into a larger mainstream published book?

PK Yes, I think they are a great way to present the work before, during and after it has come off the walls.

 

DS I note that you have these for sale on your web site, what has been the response?

PK The sales do trickle in.

 

DS There is a recent trend in collecting photobooks with some big price appreciations and increased traction in the secondary market, e.g. auctions. What do you think and see as the potential collectibility of these catalogs?

PK None, I make too many of them. Although Jill Greenberg’s first catalog has become a sort of collectable.

 

DS What additional changes and trends do you see in gallery published photobook catalogs?

PK Now that one can do much smaller runs locally I think you’ll see a lot more cataloges. Then people are bound to want to set them apart by making them special in some way, so they are more collectable. So they willl have the collectability in mind from the begining.

 

DS Paul, thank you for your time and consideration.

  

“no lifeguard on duty” copyright 2006

  

“Industrial Landscap[ing]” copyright 2009

by Douglas Stockdale

Anne Veh at Cavallo Point

While I was developing my review of Linda Connor’s Odssey, I was contacted by Ben Zlotkin who founded Edition One Books and who by chance had been a student of Linda Connor.  Subsequent conversations with Ben and Linda then segwayed to an introduction to Anne Veh, the photographic curator at Cavallo Point, a resort lodge across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. Okay, where oh where is this going, eh?

Trying to make a long story short, Cavallo Point had decided to place contemporary photographs in each of their guest rooms, their restaurant and on their grounds. After an early discussion with the Cavallo Point Executives with Linda Connor, Anne Veh was hired as their curator for the acquisition and hanging of this exhibit, which entailed 800+ photographs. Although the photographers chosen were mainly from the SF Bay area, there were a number of internationally known photographers selected by Veh.

The roster of photographers is impressive and include: Tom Baril, Linda Connor, Robert Dawson, Lukas Felzmann, Candace Plummer Gaudiani, James Henkel, Michael Kenna, Mark Klett, Wayne Levin, Arno Minkkinen, Chris McCaw, Camille Solyagua, Rick Chapman, Eirik Johnson, Ken Fandell, James Henkel, Charles LaBelle, Lisea Lyons, Amanda Marchand, Arno Minkkinen and Sangyon Joo.

Really interesting for me, and finally to my point of this, was the Cavallo Point decision that each of the photographers chosen would have an opportunity to co-develop with Veh and Cavallo Point, a small photobook on a project of their own choosing. With the large investment into exhibiting all of the prints, Veh essentially deferred to a Print on Demand photobook produced in conjunction with Zlotkin and Edition One Books.

The resort would not need to make a large investment in each of the books, especially with only a limited amount of  photobook selling experience and unable to predict the sales. Their small book inventory could be quickly replenished by Edition One Books. To keep the book price reasonable, the books are priced very close to their cost, as the resort would like their guests to feel like acquiring a nice photobook as a part of the experience of their stay.

For Veh to provide some design consistency, the 20 photobooks were developed with a similar format; book size of 9 1/4″ x 9 1/2″, stamped cloth hardcover, same color endpapers and similar number of pages. Now that I  have acquired a couple of these books, I find that they are very nicely produced, and part of an interesting Print on Demand evolution for quality photobooks.

I expect to review at least one of these photobooks, perhaps Mark Klett’s Time Studies, before the end of the summer.

At the moment, these photobooks are only available at Cavallo Point.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Photolucida Critical Mass publications

 

  

One of potential opportunities of participating in Photolucida’s Critical Mass juried event is becoming published, as the top three photographers will be rewarded with a book. For the person who scores the highest, their book will be in hardcover, not softcover. All of the books are the same size of 8 1/2 x 10″, although not anotated within the books, they are printed in Hong Kong.

The 2006 Critical Mass winners books, Camille Seaman’s The Last Iceberg, Amy Stein’s Domesticated, and Donald Weber’s  Bastard Eden, Our Chernobyl, have just been released by Photolucida. These three books are added to the previous three titles they published from the 2005 Critical Mass.

While providing my recent book making workshop at the 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, I acquired five of the six titles, above. I will be reviewing these five titles over the next couple of months.

By Douglas Stockdale

New Mexico : Lee Friedlander

Photographs are copyright of Lee Friedlander, courtesy of Andrew Smith Gallery and Radius Books

New Mexico :  Lee Friedlander was published concurrently by Radius Books with the Friedlander exhibition at the Andrew Smith Gallery, Sante Fe, NM in the Fall of 2008. Thus in one sense, this book can be viewed as one heck of a great catalog.

Usually I defer to the end of the review to discuss a book’s workmanship, such as the paper and book binding, but for this book I will make an exception, in as I almost screwed up my copy from the get-go. I was mildly surprised when I opened the book for the first time to find the front end papers missing, the binding not glued or sewn to the spine, as well as the back end papers also missing, with the page page glued to the basic cover plate. Yikes!

My initial thought was that this was a Chinese book-binding screw-up. But then as I had my bottle of book binding glue in mid-air, I had second thoughts as I studied the re-seal-able poly pouch that the book came in. hmmmmm, Radius Books is innovative, so perhaps I should check-in first and not make assumptions (I need to get better at this).

So after a quick query to Darius Himes, co-founder of Radius Books, I received the following reply, which is probably best stated in his own words:

No, you’re not going insane. The book is a very intentional object:  no end-pages, the book block “sits” against the raw book boards, naked and exposed on the rough terrain of those boards, if you will.  The back of the book block is secured to the back board as a structural device.  This very raw object is clothed in a very elegant dust-jacket with a debossed and duo-tone printed, inlaid image.  Again, the effect is a raw object clothed with elegance (kind of like New Mexicoand Santa Fe itself).  So, no, the book is not supposed to have front end-pages and the spine is not meant to be glued to anything…. you’re seeing right to the skeleton of any book.

skeleton of this book

So now, getting into the book itself. As to the relevancy of another Friedlanderbook, this has already been discussed by Jeffery Ladd on SB4 and the counter viewpoint by Darius Himes on his blog, DariusHimes, so need to cover that aspect again. I think that Darius’s quote by Friedlander is probably most telling;

“This is not an important body of work, so I don’t want a big pretentious monograph.”

Thus Darius sums up the books intent as “ in the sense that this work is not ground-breaking. He’s (Friedlander) not pushing the envelope, he’s not looking to re-forge a photographic identity, he’s not looking to make his name with these photographs, nor, in the end, with this book” …”to think of each of Friedlander’s books as though they are each a poem in an anthology”.

As to this body of work by Friedlander, I think it is agreed that he does not break any new ground, but it is a continuation of his “voice” as expressed in his particular photographic style. Much like hearing a new song on the radio and instantly recognizing the voices and melodies of one of your your favorite groups. You enjoy the current song with its new lyrics, but you also are carried along with memories of their earlier recordings.

This body of work is thematic about a place, but in true Friedlanderism, you may not not be able to state that you know a lot more about New Mexico per se for reading the book.  Although you will get a sense of its topology. The book does reinforce the Friedlander style, both with the photographic content as well as how the images are displayed on the pages.

The book has essentially two types of Friedlander photographs, in the car/urban landscape and the multifaceted and slightly destabilizing natural urban/rural landscape photographs. All of course with the trademark super-wide square format of his Hasselblad,  blazing bright front lighting with something up close and out of focus that breaks up the resulting image. And his shadow in the lower edges to provide that missing human element.

His work has become more mature and the initial jolts that resulted from his earlier work are no longer occurring, but now with repetition, it allows you to perhaps dig a little deeper. He continues to come back to those same viewpoints and compositions, no longer thought of as chance mistakes, but as deliberate  and accepted acts.

I am reminded of the quote from Frederick Sommer, another photographer of the Southwest, who stated; “It is the time you spend setting up and considering the scene that is the art of photographing; it’s really of very small consequence whether you press the button or not. “

Yet for most of us, we may not push the button when we saw these same sights, but Friedlander does consistently press the button for very similar compositions.  Much like an urban landscape photographer in Southern California who is instantly drawn to photographic compositions if palm trees are present. For Friedlander the things that draw him out is the act of photographing out the car window, compositions that contain things that can divide the image, a mess of bushes or tree limbs that can obscure the “facts”. Which are now “Friedlander moments” as we pass through a parking lot or down a sidewalk, glance over a fence, come across a bizarre hedge or unable to find a clear view of landscape subject.

These are all things that we see as we move about in our daily lives, but do not give enough significance to to commit to memory and experience. Until we have seen Friedlandersphotographs, and the quick synapse of recognition occurs. Unlike Aaron Siskind, who had stated that for him “a photograph should be an altogether new object, complete and self-contained, whose basic condition is order“, Friedlander appears to be searching for the collolary disorder and a high degree of chaos.

For me, Friedlander photographs are metaphoric for the disorder and chaos that occurs in our daily lives, the things we try to shut out in favor of the better memories and experiences. Things are not always pretty, but can get messy, especially if we take note of how things do grow and flourish in nature. We might step to the right or left to get an unobstructed viewpoint, but momentarily we were standing in front of the pole or sign post. And that did leave us uneasy and uncomfortable.

So we have tried to create and make a comfortable order in the middle of chaos, but as Friedlander chooses to again and again remind us, we may be only momentarily fooling ourselves.

The order and sequencing of the photographs within the book are a nice flow, with related photographs on facing pages that provide that additional viewpoint of a Friedlander moment. The hardcover book with dust jacket is 11 1/4″ x 12″, which allows plenty of space for the photographs to well displayed. There is a classic Friedlander white margin of approximately 1/2″ around each square photograph, with no bleeds or two page spreads of the same image, thus nothing lost in the gutters. And there are 45 duotone photographs within the 80 pages, along with a Foreward by Andrew Smith and an essay by Emily Ballew Neff. A very pleasing design by the team of Skolkin+Chickey, two of the Radius Books principals.

A limited edition of 200 books with slip covers is also available.

 

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Virginia Beahan – Cuba

 

Photographs  copyright Virginia Beahan, courtesy of Pond Press & Joseph Bellows Gallery

Virginia Beahan’s new book Cuba, Singing with Bright Tears, Pond Press, available in April 2009, is a big, breathtakingly beautiful book that takes full advantage of Beahan’s large format photographs.

Her landscapes are a delight to read, with a tonal palette that reminds me of the seminal Joel Meyerowitz’s Cape Light photographs.The hard cover book is 12 3/4″ x 11 1/4″, which provides pages that are 12 1/2″ x 11″, and plenty of real estate for the images, all of which are surrounded by a classic white margin, a nice design by Kay Homans. When a photograph requires a two page spread, there is nothing lost in the gutter, as the images on facing spread each continues with the white margins. And in the one case of a three page gatefold spread, all three images retain their white margins, which creates an impressive spread of photographs as it opens before you, and you see the full effect of this transfixing photograph of the bay.

The series also takes on a documentary feel, especially the first section, with her captions placing the photograph’s into a contextual relationship to Castro’s control and the current economics. We also see the irony of what Castro had hoped to create, versus the almost poverty level subsistence that his people now maintain. It is also evident that their lives are lived with a somewhat quiet respect and dignity, making the most of what they do have.

I also enjoy Beahans  wry humor, of the Cuba which is taught to fear the potential next invasion from the “imperialist” USA, but yet a run down ball field is ready to report the progress of the ball game with a mix of American and Spanish. When you are Out, there is really only way to state that with the proper baseball authority, eh?

The current state of Cuban under Castro is shown with empathay by Beahan, providing a balanced and sensitive view point. Cuba is has become a very third world country, as its economic security with the former USSR is now a thing of the past. All of this may change again with a coresponding leadership change. If Cuba is allowed to have a huge tourist flux from the United States, this landscape will morph rapidly again by the resulting tourism infrastusture investments.

She captures the colorful Carribean residences and businesses facasdes that make up the Cuban urban landscape, using that wonderful sun drenched light. I have had the pleasure to work and play on the islands surrounding Cuba, each with their own particular landscape that reflects their respective culture.  Thus I can almost feel the humidity rising off the pages and smell the heavy fragrances of the Carribean .  Such that these photographs resonant with memories within me.

One single image can not really define a culture, but only provides a snap shot or visual “sound” bite. Beahan seeks to go well beyond that with this series of photographs. There is a sense of what Cuba is as a result of the accumulation of her landscape images. To go beyond the facades and to patiently observe, all the while,  she is being obviously seen. There is a small dance taking place between the Beahan and those who are in the landscape before her camera.

As a result of her photographic tools, she does move slowly and while looking at the surface topology, finds hints of the underlying subtlety that define the Cuban culture. She does not capture the full essence of the island, which would not possible with her photographic tools and techniques, but she does capture a slice of that essence very well.

The hardcover book with dust cover has 162 pages, with 97 color photographs, with essays by John Lee Anderson and Pico Iyer. Although I have not been to Cuba, I now feel more of connection than I had before reading this book.

 

 

 

 

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Humble Arts – Collectors Guide to Emerging Art Photography

 Humble Arts has published at the end of 2008 an informative softcover publication, Collectors Guide to Emerging Art Photography. This is by no means inclusive of all of the emerging fine art photographers, but it does provide an interesting selection of many photographers who are starting to create a presence.

This 10 1/4 x 13″ softcover, 180 page book does provide a brief glimpse of each of the 163 photographers selected by the curators of this special edition book, Alana Celii, Jon Feinstein & Grant Willing. What I like about this large size book is the ample amount of room that allows the photographs to be seen and more critically reviewed on the wonderful printed luster pages. What I don’t like about this large book is knowing where to put it, although resting on its spine, I can get it pretty much out of traffic.

Like wise, one photograph per photographer is enough only to just tease the appetite, but that may be the point, eh? I did find that it did take only one photograph to provide enough information to determine who were the social exterior (landscape) photographers from those who provide the intimate people photographs, and those who subtly manipulated the two dimensional “reality” to those who created completely new realities. And those who did not fit nicely in pre-defined categories, which was nice.

The selection as noted above, was very broad and nicely balanced, although there were a minimum of heavily manipulated alternate reality photographs. Some of the names may even seem a bit familiar to be classified as “emerging” part, such as Amy Stein, to the very unknown or some in between such as Liz Kuball. Also interesting that the book’s curatorsthought enough of themselves to jury each other into the book, which question’s some of the books objectivity.  Nevertheless, I appreciate the international representation within the book, looking beyond the US borders, although there is a heavy US presence in the book.

A nice reference book, as it may help with linking a briefly seen image while cruizing the web with a name. And it always seems that those brief glimpses create memories that be-devil you later, as just who was that photographer?

 Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

TheGuardian – A Message For Obama

All photographs copyright of the photographers, courtesy of TheGuardian

I had essentailly stated a couple of days ago here, that with the advent of the Print on Demand (POD) book, we can have a book in print almost 10 days after an event has occurred. With the recent election of Barrack Obama as President of the United States, I am going to review a couple of these “hot off the press” books about his election.

The first review is the hardcover 7″ x 7″ book published by Guardian News &  Media in late 2008, titled A Message For Obama. This 120 page book was developed by the Guardian staff, as a collabortive with the visitors who posted messages about their thoughts and feelings to either their site or a Flickr site. They state that they were able to commission, complie, edit and print their book all within three weeks. Not bad, not internet or a newspaper speed, but it is amazing to have a published hardcover book available in that short amount of time, eh?

One of the interesting aspects of this small book is that the photographs were contributed from folks located through out the world and that it was edited by a staff in the U.K.  Such that it might be considered to be a more unbaised and objective assessment of the US policts and the election of Obama.

Regarding the photographs, probably the vast majority were non-professional photographers, but made by individuals who passionately hoped to pass a personal message to Obama. There is that Flickr rawness to them, direct and unpolished, sometimes literally wearing their message on their sleeve, forehead or on the back of their hands. The lighting is sometimes poor, compositions weak, images very grainey and overall bad technical photographs. But the photographs carry the big emotional impact, ranging from the totally dedicated, to the non-believers and skeptics.

The book design and layout reflects the edgness and rawness of the photographs within, but respectfully not loosing anyone or anything in the gutters, and it is not apparent that any content is slipping off the full bleeds. The book is not monantonus to read and has a nice pace, using a variety of the layout templates to provide variety. Will it be on someone’s best of 2009, very doubtful (well maybe the folks at TheGuardian), but perhaps this may be a book that may have a lot of intest in 10, 20 or 30 years, after Flickr is long gone and folks who are interested in what did happen with this election and how did the global community react.

It is also very nice that the proceeds from the sale of this book are going to TheGuardian’s long term aid project for Katine, more info here.

 

 

 

 

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Bruce Davidson – Central Park in Platinum

Verso Limited Editions has recently published their latest title, Bruce Davidson: Central Park in Platinum, which I had an opportunity to review at photo la last week. This book is really an object de arte, considering the exquisit use materials for its construction.

But first, I want to discuss the photographs of Bruce Davidson in this book, which are from his Central Park series. For background, this was a initially a commissioned project by National Geographics in 1991, which was subsequently cancelled four months into the assignment. Over the following four years, Davidson continued to work on this now self-assigned series.

The selection of the fourteen photographs that are encased in this book are an interesting selection, from those that perhaps could be easily associated with Davidson to many which are not.

Perhaps in an attempt to try to interpret Central Park in a unique manner, many of his photographs are made with an extremewide angle lens. To photograph an iconic location is daunting. He is most successful in what Davidson seems to do best, to capture the essence of the people who use the Park, especially with the photograph of  the women feeding the pigeons (Women at the Pond). A few give you pause to wonder why they are even included in this series, as you would expect some of his best work to be included in this small selection.

I am not sure that I have any better feeling or understanding of Central Park for looking at and studying these photographs. Perhaps that was not the intent. A couple of the landscape images are a delight to look at, with the Poets Walk of the snow falling in the park on the walk way, the most intriguing use of the atmospheric conditions, but these are not the photographs that I would usually associate with Davidson from his earlier work.

And perhaps that may be the point, that this is a small body of work that Davidson has allowed himself to stray from his normal style to follow different and perhaps more personal muse. To try to visual explore a thematic subject and to take some chances.

As to the book itself, the list of fine materials of construction seems to go on and on, such that the book is as much about the book itself as it is about an artist work. I was not prepared with a set of white archival gloves to handle the book and its pages directly. Something about feeling the need to handle a book wearing gloves may not bring out the best in me.  Perhaps the need is more apt if you were looking at fine photographic prints, which is what this book aspires to. Considering the price of $12,500 for the book, it is relatively expensive as new books go.

The book is printed in platinum, as are the two free-standing photographs, the text has been handset by the Press & Letterfundry of Michael & Winifred Bixley, letter pressed on 100% cotton Cranes Rag Paper at KatRan Press by Michael Russem. The master bookbinder for the twelve bound images was Mark Tomlinson, working with a design by Skolkin+Chickey and the entire collection is encased in a custom crafted mahongany box, in a limited edition of 50 books. It is very impressive to behold and does leave a big impact in of itself.

 The introduction was written by Charlotte Cotton, curator and departement head of photography at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

 

 

 

 

 

 Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Photo l.a. update

Last Friday I had an opportunity to attend photo l.a., which is a wonderful opportunity to see a broad spectrum of photographs, but also see the most currently published books and sometimes meet the photographers who created them.

Thus, I have a large pile of new books on the nightstand;- )

I did have an opportunity to meet with Jeffery Ladd and briefly review and discuss his recently published books with Errata Editions, who in turn steered me to Bertrand Fleuret and subsequently snag a Schaden sponsored limited edition (#10/100) copy of his J&L published book, Landmasses and Railways. Oh, yes, going towards the top of the pile on the nightstand. FYI, those interested in Jeffery’s Limited Editions of his four new books should be acting fast, or else, no regrets.

Equally exciting was to meet, discuss, and interview Alexey Titarenko, whose book Alexey Titarenko: photographs which although was published in 2002 by the Nailya Alexander Gallery, is a Russian photographer who is not as well known here in the United States. I hope that changes, but his book is also right there at the top of the pile.

My one regret was not having the time to meet Chris Pichler, the owner of Nazraeli Press. Or I should say, that every time I went by the Nazraeli booth, it was really clogged and busy and Chris had a circle of folks that he was talking with. Since I expect to be in Portland this March for my book publishing workshop at the 23 Sandy Gallery, I hope to carve out some time to see him and Alison at their Portland offices.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale