Brian Griffin – Business as Usual

Copyright 2013 Brian Griffin published by Editions Bessard

 

At first, the cover image was vexing; why an individual might be photographed with his head “cut-off”? Then serendipity in the timing of my recent review of the Tall Poppy Syndrome by Amy Stein and Stacy Arezou Mehrfar. This individual represents a successful business leader, thus he is a tall poppy that needs to be taken down to size. Brilliant!

As Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison later developed the character of “everyman” in their epic photobook “The Architect’s Brother”, likewise Griffin develops a metaphoric collective portrait of “everybusinessman”. His subjects play various parts and roles in the theather of business life; a business man who would rather be out playing golf, a behind the back attack of a business associate, the overlapping time constraints of a hectic meeting schedule, the endless juggling of tasks, or an anonymous corporate talking head. Although this project was created in the 1970’s, the life of a everybusinessman has not changed much in the ensuing years.

This stiffcover book is the sixth edition of the Editions Bessard ZINE Collection. It is nicely assembled with a European saddle stich (with exterior loops), although the black and white plates have a low contrast, with the darks not really becoming a rich black. There is also a limited edition color print with this edition, glued into an inside page. Initially reading this color photograph (below) did not prepare me for the ensuing black and white project. This color photograph creates an odd but yet very interesting juxtaposition.

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

 

Amy Stein & Stacy Arezou Mehrfar – Tall Poppy Syndrome

Copyright 2012 Stein & Mehrfar, published by DECODE

The photobook Tall Poppy Syndrome by Amy Stein and Stacy Arezou Mehrfar utilizes metaphors to narrate their joint investigation of a subtle cultural trait in Australia. In Australia, as in some of the other regions of British cultural influence, the Tall Poppy Syndrome is a term to describe a social phenomenon in which successful people (the “tall poppies”) get “cut down to size”. A collaborative and indirect story about social conformity and maybe what it might feel like to not to fit-in or conform.

Their photographs frequently have a humorous undertone, sometimes subtle, sometimes bordering on cliché. They explore the visual metaphors for what it may feel like to be ostracized by a lager or peer group; a single cow in a meadow, a singular tree in a field, a women dressed in black (an interesting version of who might be the “black sheep”) who appears to be ignored by all of those who surround her as she appears to vainly stare into the camera lens. An interesting layering of the narrative is the double-page spread of the athlete group portraits, which opens to a double gate-fold of the four cut and topped trees.

They investigate an informal social policy that perhaps beckons back to the Australian founding fathers, as this region was established as a British penal colony, a group of individuals who probably did not have great social aspirations. Nevertheless, who has not encountered some aspects of social criticism at one time or another? As a society, there is usually a strong desire for individuals to belong to a group.

Yet in reflection, as an American I should not be throwing stones, as we can be cruel in our treatment of those who excel. Who has not heard the comment of someone having a “swelled head” or “bit too big for their britches”.  Stein and Mehrfar raise questions about a cultural fascination with dwelling on the troubles of those who have achieved fame and fortune. Have we not heard of children in school, perhaps more so in the middle and high schools, about becoming ostracized for being “too smart”? When their peers perceive them as the “know it all”, that they are then at the risk of not being popular (or in my day “cool”). Thus to stay popular is to be seen as to not to excel, thus some children learn at an early age as to how to down-play their achievements and success. There are social consequences if one proudly gloats about their success, perhaps becoming labeled as being obnoxious.

An investigative story constructed from a social fabric and perhaps a resonating lesson for us all.

The case bound book includes a translucent belly band that is permanently attached to the inside of the covers, creating yet another interesting metaphor. The plates have a slight luster and read very well, with the page stock a slightly creamy color that works well with the overall book presentation. The color plates are numbered with the captions are summarized in a table at the end of the book. The accompanying text is minimal, only to provide a high level summary of their concept for this project. The book has two double-gate folds which creates a nice layering to their narrative, with one of the two gate folds provided below. The use of a gatefold is a layout design that appeals to me, as it is similar to peeling an onion to dive deeper into the narrative as a potential layered reading of the photographs.

Another photobook by Amy Stein reviewed on The PhotoBook: Domesticated

by Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Torbjorn Rodland – Vanilla Partner

Copyright Torbjorn Rodland 2012 published by MACK

This is the fifth book published by Rodland and previously I have only the opportunity to quickly browse his books, thus this is my first time to spend an extended duration with one. I can state that my first conclusion supports those earlier quick reads, this books is a quirky, complex and an odd mashup of absurd, if not at times silly, collection of photographs that Rodland has created.

The individual photographs included in this volume were created over the past ten years. This re-packaging of photographs reads like a Dadaism manifesto, which rejects rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. Rodland stages ambiguous photographs that are purposefully difficult to read and then combines these with others to create a non-documentary and abstract narrative.

In a 2008 interview with Shane Lavalette (Lay Flat), Rodland stated his interest in photographs that have mythical potential, and that he is bored with thematic photography books, which place too much focus on motifs. That the logic of his books should be perforated and therefore erotic. (an Ed Ruscha style statement, of whom Rodland has acknowledged) And yes, there are a number of photographs that have a sexual, if not erotic, undertone.

Rodland draws upon a number of his photographic series that are interwoven through the book, which creates a complex visual layering. The disjointed sequencing is similar to a drive in which something seen reminds us of an earlier and somewhat related observation. As such, Rodland appears to investigate the non sequitur qualities of daily life.

The book has cloth boards with a printed embossed cover and spine. It is beautifully printed and bound; the paper has a nice feel and the photograph plates are not varnished and read very well. All of the photographs are framed with adequate white margins and includes one gate fold. The book is not paginated or provided an accompanying text and does have a summary of the captions provided at the conclusion of the plates.

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison – The Architect’s Brother

Copyright Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison 2000 published by Twin Palms Publishers

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison’s photobook The Architect’s Brother is a beautiful enigma.  The book is composed of eight sections that were developed over a span of seven years (1993 – 2000). The sections are sequenced serially, The Architect’s Brother (1993 – 1994), Cardboard Sky (1994), Witnessland (1995 – 1996), Exhausted Globe (1997), Industrial Land (1997), Promisedland (1998), Earth Elegies (1999 – 2000), and Kingdom (2000).

I find it easy to become visually captivated with the underlying techniques that the ParkeHarrison’s utilized to create and embellish these magical photographs; the elaborate staged sets, backdrop paintings, and complex sculptural structures of their own invention. The reader will also recognize one consistent individual who is found within each photograph, as the subject for these photographs is Robert ParkeHarrison, who portrays the role that has become known as “everyman”.

This body of work has been written about frequently since its inception over the past thirteen years, with one statement by Marc Ruby that I think summarizes it well; “Many of the images are ambivalent, touching on both darkness and light, making a clear decision impossible. The figure seems melancholy, engaged in strange almost hopeless acts. But he persists, carrying on a quest intended to heal or repair a desolate world.”

The ParkeHarrisons have stated “We create works in response to the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature. These works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology’s failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition.  Strange scenes of hybridizing forces, swarming elements, and bleeding overabundance portray Nature unleashed by technology and the human hand.”

The hard cover folio is in black cloth with a tipped-in print on the front boards. The photobook used in conjunction with this review is from the 7^th printing, whereas the first edition has a dark blue cloth and tipped-in print. The first edition was initially attributed only to Robert ParkeHarrison but in subsequent printings his wife Shana, his artistic partner, is included as a co-author of the work. For the second edition, another chapter, Passage created in 2001, was included with an additional five plates.

Other Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison book reviewed on the The Photobook: counterpoint

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Bernhard Fuchs – Roads and Paths

Copyright Bernhard Fuchs 2009 published by Koenig Books

In Bernhard Fuchs Roads and Paths, the vacant roads and byways of a rural region of Austria create lyrical metaphors for various aspects of life’s journey. Fuchs creates a sense of ambiguity at the moment of exposure; whereas the viewer is not certain if they are looking at the future of the journey to come or in the past, of the journey taken.

The photographs are metaphors for the journeys of one’s life, the seasonality, as well as the ups and downs. For me, the photographs of this book were at first perhaps a little too much of a cliché for this metaphor, thus it was necessary for me set it aside for a long while before the inclination to pick it up again for a deeper inspection.

The photographs are imbued with a type of light that portrays a sense of time, as stated by Heinz Liesbrock in the Afterword “In the pictures light remains indirect, all direct manifestations of the sun are avoided. It is a warm, almost human light. It has discreet quality that gives the pictures an unmistakable tone. Fuchs does not seek out the light at high noon, but in the intermediate zones, the morning and the late afternoon hours….moments of transition between the visible and hidden.”

Concrete and paved roads speak to a rigid and exacting journey that will lead to a known destination. I sense that these roadways can be symbolic of our youth, attending schools that have a very specific learning regime that will lead to graduation and then to a potential career; whether that be a carpenter, teacher, scientist or a business mogul. While the unpaved roads hint of rough trip, implying the potential difficulty, rough patches and travails to come. It is a bumpy journey, but perhaps more interesting.

The snowy road is a tale of the seasonal difficulties encountered on life’s journey, that it is not always easy and smooth sailing. The pathways enveloped in fog are symbolic of the uncertainty of life’s travels, not knowing what lies ahead. It could be a scary future or just beyond the dense layer of fog a clearing of blue sky and unlimited visibility. Fuchs reminds the viewer that during these times and circumstances the unknown lies ahead.

For me, the slightly worn pathway through the meadow talks to an infrequently journey, the relatively lesser known journey taken by an adventurer or an artist. This is the pathway of unknown possibilities, of exploring vague ideas that inherently have greater risks and corresponding, more interesting rewards. As you might suspect, the photographs of these faint pathways resonate most with me.

Fuchs raises the inevitable questions, what does the future hold? What are the stories that have come to pass?

The photobook has a cloth hardcover with a tipped in image on the front cover. The color plates, one per spread, each encased in a classic white margin, are printed on a soft luster paper that allow the photographs to display beautifully. The Afterward essay was provided by Heinz Liesbrock.

by Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Nick Brandt – On This Earth, A Shadow Falls

Copyright Nick Brandt 2010 published by Big Life Editions

This photobook is a sublime compilation of Nick Brandt’s two earlier published photobooks, On This Earth and A Shadow Falls. This book containing 90 photographs selected from the first two books. What seems to be missing in this new book are photographs of the animals in the context of man-made structures and most the bluish toned photograph plates that are in the photobook On This Earth.

There is a dichotomy between the underlying sadness regarding the state of the environment and future for these animals in Africa found in the essays and the lyrical portraits of these animals. As a result, this dichotomy reminds me of Mitch Epstein’s American Power, non-confrontational environmental portraits that hint at the dark undercurrent of the economics and consumption of energy, while Brandt is very concerned with the ecological changes occurring in Africa. In turn, the situation in Africa is also symbolic of a myriad of other global situations in which local economics (survival/profiteering) is running counter to ecological and environmental survival.

Brandt states in his 2004 introduction “Ultimately, I’m not interested in creating work that is simply documentary or filled with action and drama, which has been the norm in the field of photographing animals in the wild. What I am interested in is showing the animals simply in the state of Being. In the state of Being before they no longer are. Before, in the wild at least, they cease to exist.”

Thus the photographs draw the reader deep into the book, only then to confront the difficult text of the accompanying essays. Indirectly the photographs are a call to action. Perhaps the last photograph in the book, the abandon egg sitting on the dry, parched earth is a final symbolic reminder of the dismal possibilities.

The texts by Jane Goodall, Alice Sebold, Vicki Goldberg, Peter Singer & Nick Brandt

My earlier commentary about Nick Brandt’s photobook: On This Earth

by Douglas Stockdale for The Photobook

Brandt Nudes

Copyright Bill Brandt Estate 2013 published by Thames & Hudson

Throughout his photographic career, Bill Brandt (Hermann Wilhelm Brandt, b. 1904 Hamberg, Germany – 1983) continued to explore the poetry of the nude form. Brandt had assisted Man Ray in his Paris studio in the 1930’s when Brandt started to think of using a nude subject to investigate the unique perspective of a camera versus the normal human visual perspective. Brandt’s poetic experiments resulted in his use of high contrast and the distorted nude subject in conjunction with the built and natural environmental landscapes.

The editor of this book created seven sections to complement the visual design chosen by Brandt in his two earlier books on this same subject. As Brandt mixed earlier and later work in each section, the editors chose to follow this same practice. The sections are; nudes in the interior environment, abstraction with wide-angle perspective, very close perspective in which the nude subject becomes ambiguous shapes and patterns, nude in the natural landscape (beach), then into the structured interior environment (usually artist studios), nudes with objects bordering on surrealism, and finally back in the seashore landscape.

Brandt was attracted to the “unsettling combination of realistically rendered nude women and conventional interiors.” Whether he directed his models to look bored or due to his photographic process, his subjects rarely provide more than a relatively blank expression. While sitting, his models usually have their heads propped up against one arm or their arms are folded, appearing to otherwise be patiently waiting for the modeling session to end. Nevertheless, the averted head and eyes provide a very contemporary appearing gaze. The model’s visual interaction with the photographer, thus the viewer, is minimalistic.

This handsome hardcover book with dust jacket has a preface text by Lawrence Durrell, first published in conjunction with Brandt’s “Perspective of Nudes” (1961), and commentary by Mark Haworth-Booth.

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Keith Carter – Fireflies

Copyright 2009 Keith Carter, published by University of Texas Press

In his 2009 photobook Fireflies, Keith Carter takes the reader on a delightful photographic journey investigating childhood fantasies.  These are ambiguous and mysterious images, which are perhaps stories that are about every-child.

Carter taps into the childhood emotions of joy and elation. Later as an adult, observing the same events can become one of fear and dread of harm, foreseeing potential injury, and the scariest fear for a parent, the death of their child. Nevertheless the photograph of a young girl amidst the fireworks of a sparkler magically transported me to an almost lost place. I can recall my delightful memories when I first held my glowing and sputtering sparkler. I can recall my ooohs and aaaahs of watching these specular fireworks, which were an experience that I think went well beyond wonder and joy.

Carter’s photographs uncannily create emotional triggers for forgotten events of my youth. If there is an overriding narrative beyond these singular images, it is a narrative about naiveté and the state of youth. As to be young is to be direct and carefree and amazed with wonder of new discoveries and those things that abound.

I think back to my first experience, while visiting my grandparents in Pennsylvania, encountering in the early dark spring evening, the flittering and glowing fireflies. That was an amazing experience, perhaps a surreal moment. All too similar to Carter’s photograph of the two boys, my brother and I also chased the fireflies that balmy evening, also capturing them in a glass jar.

Carter is well known for his evocative black and white photographs, with his subject moving in and out of focus within the pictorial frame. As a result, the photographs appeared to be embedded with a sense of mystery, the entire story of each singular image is left undone, waiting for me to fill in the blanks.

Carter states below, from the book “Over the Years I tried to establish a sense of implied narrative in my photographs, hoping viewers might find their own connections”. For me, mission accomplished!

The large hardcover book with dust jacket is classically designed, with most of the photographs having a nice margin of white around each of the black and white photographs. Each photographic plate is numbered and captioned. Carter provides an introduction with his additional thoughts interspersed though this body of work.

Other Keith Carter book reviewed on The PhotoBook: Mauro Fiorese & Keith Carter – “Dream of a Place of Dreams“

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Irving Penn – Small Trades

Copyright 2009 the estate of Irving Penn, published by the Getty Museum

Small Trades is but one of many projects that was completed by Irving Penn (b. 1917 Plainfield, NJ – d. 2009), and one that actually spanned his photographic career. The photographs were created in the early 1950’s in Paris, London and New York. As a body of work, Penn would return to these negatives to continue his investigation of what a photograph print should look like.

The original photographs were made on 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 roll film (Rolliflex), but usually cropped into a vertical image and printed on gelatin silver enlarging paper. Penn has stated that his studies were primary inspired by Eugene Atget’s petits métiers (small trades), early 1900’s photographic studies of workers in their Paris environments. As has frequently been mentioned, the viewer can also find themselves noticing the similarities to August Sander’s “People of the Twentieth Century” environmental studies created in the 1930’s in Germany. Penn on the other hand removed his subjects from their environment to a more neutral sitting located in his studio.

In the 1960’s while investigating the printing qualities of platinum/palladium printing, Penn returned to this body of work to further investigate the potential print qualities of these images. He also found that different negatives could be more expressive in platinum over the earlier gelatin silver paper process. The first image I provide below (Chamois Seller, London, 1950) provides a comparison of these two printing methods. I am not sure if the difference will be apparent on your monitor, but it is apparent in the printed pages of this book. In the book, the cooler silver plates represent his gelatin silver prints, while the warmer plates represent the platinum prints.

As noted in their introductory essay, “Quite often, Penn’s choice of a different negative for the platinum/palladium print triggered a subtle shift from the description of a figure in space to a more fundamental concern with the relationship of figure to space”. The differences between the two printing methodologies are only hinted at in the printing of this book.

In his later printing sessions, Penn would crop the photographic boundaries even tighter around his subject. Then later still, Penn began printing the entire square negative, revealing the edges of the studio and his backdrop which had been cropped out in the earlier versions.

This is a thick and beautifully printed hard cover book. The book was edited by, with an introduction essay, Virginia Heckert with Anne LaCoste.  Anne Lacoste also interviews Edmonde Charles-Roux, Penn’s assistant during his creation of this body of work. My review is completed from the book’s second printing, which is virtually unchanged from the first edition.

Note: In conjunction with the Shpilman Institute for Photography (SIP), this review (ארווינג פן – מקצועות קטנים: ביקורת ספר צילום) has been translated into Hebrew, which is available here.

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Mario Giacomelli – The Black is Waiting for the White

Copyright the estate of Mario Giacomelli published 2009 Contrasto

I know that sharing my thoughts on Mario Giacomelli (b. 1925 Senigallia, Ancona, Italy – d. 2000) retrospective “The Black is Waiting for the White” is a tad overdue. Okay, better late than never, eh?

For the selection of photographs that I have curated to illustrate this book, I have to begin with one of Ciacomelli’s more iconic and surrealist photograph from his series Scanno (1959). I also have to admit that seeing this photograph for the first time a long time ago was a very startling experience for me. My very first impression was that the MoMA (NYC) had made a very big mistake including this photograph in an exhibition. My sensibilities were that such that a photograph should look “natural”, that if there were any retouching, it should not be noticeable to the viewer. And this graphic photograph was in direct contradiction to everything I thought a photograph should look like, as I felt it was very apparent to even the most naive viewer, that it had been heavily manipulated. As you might suspect, I was caught up in the physicality of a photograph, not the symbolism or poetic intent of the image’s content. Interestingly, this single photograph also had the most impact on me as Giacomelli’s name and image were as though seared permanently on my memory.

To not understand that Giacomelli was all about interpreting, not illustrating, poetry is to really miss a basic understanding of his extensive body of work. To creatively interpret a poem allowed Ciacomelli to feely manipulate his black & white photographs, pushing the boundaries, to distill an image as part of a creative act of poetic investigation.

His idea of using photographs as a narrative can be traced to his first series in 1955, “Verra la morte e avra i tuoi occhi” (Death will come and have your eyes) at a time when interpretive photographic narratives were relatively unknown. Life and Look magazines, as well as most others at this time, had been publishing photographic stories, but these were very straight and documentary photographs and the story was relatively easy to read.  Ciacomelli has stated “Why do I tell stories rather than using single images as many do? Because you can develop an idea in a story, whereas a single image is sometimes only a beautiful image and nothing more.”

Giacomelli continued to interpret poetic work by creating photographic series for the remainder of his life. In additional to providing the singular images from his various series, this book provides an overview of each of his series in a compilation of thumb nails, which are sequenced chronologically. It should also be noted that Giacomelli felt that there was a specific sequence for the photographs of a series in which for them to exhibited or displayed.

If you wanted one comprehensive book that examines Giacomelli’s extensive body of work, or to provide a retrospective overview for your Giacomelli collection, I would recommend this book.

This dense hardcover book with dust jacket was edited by Alessandra Mauro with essays by Christian Caujolle, Alistair Crawford, Goffredo Fofi, Simone Ciacomelli, Paolo Morello, Ferdinado Scianna and Roberta Valtoria. This book also includes a Biography, Exhibitions & selected Bibliography and is beautifully printed by EBS in Verona, Italy.

by Douglas Stockdale for The Photobook