Books


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 Images by David Pace and Stephen Wirtz/Schilt Publishing

 Congratulations to friend of aCurator David Pace for his new book, a collaboration with gallerist/collector Stephen Wirtz, which is out this March. David Pace and Stephen Wirtz Images in Transition, Wirephotos 1938-1945 is published by the fabulous folks at Schilt Publishing (available in stores March, 2019, and for pre-order online for €50 / £45 / $55)

The two examined Wirtz' collection of wirephotos from World War II - images transmitted by radio. Pace says: "Together we re-cropped and re-edited the original prints to make new images that show the transmission defects and extensive retouching that was common at the time."


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Images by David Pace and Stephen Wirtz/Schilt Publishing

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 © Rob Hann

 This is it! Look no further! The bumper book of Rob Hann's Best Road Trips is out now! The simple layout of this book lets the images shine. aCurator is Hann's biggest fan.


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All images © Rob Hann


Invisible Britain is a platform that is working with underrepresented individuals and communities to amplify their voices and help enable them to to tell their stories via a diverse range of creative projects. The platform will also run workshops on the creative arts, a mentorship scheme and provide practical support and advice regarding creative opportunities, as well as offering paid work placements on film and television productions.

The book Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience (Paul Sng, Policy Press) reveals untold stories from people in the margins of British society, left out of the conversation and suffering at the hands of government policy. 

Visit Invisible Britain for information on film screenings and book signings, beginning November 1st, 2018.




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 Saxophone Player and Young Girl, 11th Street, 1977 © Larry Racioppo Courtesy Cornell University Press

 "Brooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971-1983" is a new book of photographs by Larry Racioppo, out now from Cornell University Press. The book is chock full of street scenes of Brooklyn, a couple of decades before the gentrification of large parts of the borough. Larry recorded the feelings and the fashion in his beloved neighborhood. 

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Guitarist, 40th Street, 1971

From the preface: "When I returned to Brooklyn in December 1970, after two years in California as a VISTA volunteer, I had no plans and a thrity-dollar camera I barely knew how to use. I was twenty-two years old and I wanted to become a photographer. I took a course at the School of Visual Arts, a job with the telephone company, and I began to photograph my family and friends in South Brooklyn."

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Children on a Break from Pentecostal Church Services, 7th Avenue, 1979

I love this excerpt from Julia Van Haaften's essay: "Art photography was in full ascendency by 1980, when the critic John Russell asked Berenice Abbott, the rescuer of Atget's archive, about her professional practice a lifetime earlier. "Of course," she told him of her experience starting out from Man Ray's studio in 1925, "there were hardly any photographers in Paris then. It wasn't like today, when every other person is a photographer."

"Brooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971 - 1983" is out now from Cornell University Press, with essays by Tom Robbins and Julia Van Haaften. Hardcover only $34.95. If you like Arlene Gottfried, you are safe with Larry!

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John's Caddy, 6th Avenue, 1975

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All images © Larry Racioppo

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 Afterlife: Pier Remnants © Michael Massaia

 Scenes from a Childhood, the debut book by photographer Michael Massaia, is a collection of images revealing symbols of childhood joy and adventure through the nostalgic longing of adulthood. Massaia's captivatingly beautiful photographs are whimsical while edifying subjects that are disappearing from childhood today. Scenes from a Childhood includes four of Massaia's photographic series: "Afterlife", documenting vacant amusements of the Jersey Shore and what remained following Hurricane Sandy; "Saudade," portraits of pinball machines at New Jersey's last remaining arcades; "Quiet Now," still lifes with Fourth of July fireworks; and "Transmogrify," abstractions of melting ice cream pops. With each of the series, Massaia asks viewers to recall the magic of our own youth and ponder how it shaped us as adults.

Get a copy of this gorgeous book and escape for the holidays. Three editions available now at Bergen County Camera.

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Afterlife: Fun House Entrance

From the book: Watching a young artist develop their style and technique over a period of years can be a fulfilling experience. When the artist is as compelling as Michael Massaia, it becomes a privilege fraught with anticipation. Time stands still when a new portfolio arrives; breath is held, expectations are managed.

The backlit black-framed environment of my online photography magazine, aCurator, coddles Massaia's photographs. I have published at least ten of his portfolios over the last six years. It is only when you are stopped dead in your tracks by one of his particular handmade prints that it becomes clear that although the web loves and has embraced him, it is in his prints that true mastery is witnessed, enough to make your heart sing, and your eyes water. 

In his book "The Botany of Desire," (Random House, 2002) American author, journalist, activist, and professor Michael Pollan wrote: "Memory is the enemy of wonder, which abides nowhere else but in the present. This is why, unless you are a child, wonder depends on forgetting - on a process, that is, of subtraction." The photographs in the four portfolios that make up this book re-introduce wonder, re-present the familiar and connect us to feelings and memories of our own childhood. 

The subjects of "Saudade," "Quiet Now," and "Afterlife" are devoid of their cacophony, allowing us to experience stillness and imbue them with our own reminiscences, while the wacky, sticky trails of "Transmogrify" take us back to that horrifying moment we experienced in slow motion as a much-craved creamy treat toppled to the floor. 

In the more controlled environment Massaia needed to produce the still lifes, instead of managing how the wind and sea affect his long exposures on the shore at night, he had complete control over the elements, but he never takes an easy option. Photograph a pinball machine, all lights and glass? Nigh on impossible. Make a lurid kids' ice cream into a work of art? Unlikely. 

Massaia is self-effacing about his incredible artistry, but he knows he must produce. His physical process chases almost impossibly after the vision in his imagination, and he is dedicated to "the importance of creating something from start to finish, by hand" while, as he describes it, "managing failure." He is propelled forwards at all times. He is driven to create, if he does not create he will probably disappear. There is nothing of the current zeitgeist about his photographs. Indeed, contrary to the ubiquitousness of digital imagery, because of his fine practices his costs steadily increase and availability of materials diminishes. Compared with volumes of trivial disposable snaps, many of which reach pointlessly towards nostalgia, it's almost impossible to conceive the lengths to which he goes to achieve such superb results.  - Julie Grahame, November, 2016.

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Saudade: Gottlieb's "Centigrade"

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Saudade: Williams' "Fun House"

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Saudade: Gottlieb's "Charlie's Angels"

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Saudade: Gotllieb's "Slick Chick"

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Quiet Now: Beer Can & Bottle Rocket
 
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Quiet Now: Wolfpack Missile

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Transmogrify: SpongeBob

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Transmogrify: Neapolitan Bar. All images © Michael Massaia

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 Photos by Nigel Henderson / Tate Publishing

 Welcome to Nigel Henderson's "Streets". This wonderful book comprises Henderson's photographs made in London's East End from 1949 to 1953 - around Whitechapel, Bethnal Green and Bow - and is out now from our friends at Tate Publishing. 

"Nigel Henderson started to take photographs in 1947 when he borrowed a Leica camera from Mr. Humphrey Swingler to document Slade School of Art. His mother-in-law offered to buy him a camera so he bought his own, purchasing a Rolleicord that Henderson used to document the East End, producing small square negatives from which the photographs in this book have been reproduced."

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The book is chock full of Henderson's black and white records of the neighborhood, many of which were unpublished during Henderson's lifetime. It also includes a smattering of quotes. My favourite:

"I wish, looking back, that I had been better technically; that I sung the song of every small blotch and blister, of every patch and stain on road and pavement surface, of step and rail and door and window frame. The patched garments, the creaky shoes, the worn bodies, the stout hearts and quirky independent spirit... the sheer capacity to get on with it of the disregarded... the humour and fatalism of those trapped, possibly by choice in the small tribal liaisons of the back and side streets."

I think you did OK, Mr. Henderson.

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The book explores Henderson's place in this post-war era, with fascinating tidbits such as Henderson's guiding Cartier-Bresson around Bethnal Green in 1951.

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The Tate Archive acquired his collection across two decades and has now digitized 3,000 Henderson negatives, which you can explore here.

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Nigel Henderson's "Streets" is out now, £24.99 over at the Tate's website. Added bonus - a Martin Parr quote: 'Henderson knew how to turn a street into his own theatre. He understood the simple strength of documenting the streets of London, with their players, dramas and characters. This beautiful book really brings his photographs to life.'


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All photos by Nigel Henderson / Tate Publishing

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 From Live Burls by Kirk Crippens and Gretchen LeMaistre / Schilt Publishing 

Friend of aCurator Kirk Crippens (see previous article on the Great Recession) has a new book out now in collaboration with photographer Gretchen LeMaistre (from the lovely people at Schilt Publishing

One has to ask, WTF is wrong with people?  "In 2013, an alarming number of Redwood National Park redwood trees were shorn of their knobby protrusions, called burls. The trees were disfigured by thieves aiming to sell the distinctive burl wood on the black market. One team was bold enough to fell an entire tree for its burl. Concerned over the welfare of these iconic treasures, Kirk Crippens and Gretchen LeMaistre worked with park rangers to access each damaged tree. From 2013 to 2016, they made many visits to the redwood forests of Humboldt County, California, observing the trees in changing light and seasons."

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The trees are almost gone. Buy a copy of this book in remembrance!

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"Redwood trees are living witnesses to our human history, sometimes existing for as long as three thousand years. Out of respect for their ancient heritage, and after an extended period of aggressive logging in the late 1800s, Theodore Roosevelt championed protection efforts that led to the formation of the National Park Service. Pioneering photographers such as Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge also fostered preservation through their striking images, many of which influenced the United States Congress. Crippens and LeMaistre honor the link between the history of photography and conservation by retracing the paths and methods of the early photographic masters."

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"Today less than 5% of old-growth coast redwood forest remains in the Northern Hemisphere, most living in the Redwood National and State Parks of the United States. Since redwoods propagate through their burls, poached trees' ability to reproduce is threatened. They also become vulnerable to disease. Decades may pass before the full impact on the forest can be assessed. Live Burls marks the conflict between entitled consumption and celebration of natural resources at the heart of the American ethos.

Kirk Crippens & Gretchen LeMaistre:
Live Burls is out now from Schilt Publishing.

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All images © Kirk Crippens and Gretchen LeMaistre, courtesy of Schilt Publishing.

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 All images © Bruce Morton.  From "Forgottonia: The Audience"

The latest installment from the delightful Bruce Morton.

I have been following Bruce for a few years now and learned much through his series Forgottonia, which is the nickname for several counties in far west central Illinois. With the recent US election I realized how ignorant I am about much of America. In Bruce's images we see his eye is kindly and fully open. 

This book of 99 pages contains 67 color photographs with an essay by Paul Berlanga of Berlanga Fine Art/Photographs, Chicago. In reference to the first two books of this trilogy Paul writes "....what make these publications really stand out are not any individual works of artistic merit (which they certainly possess) but their sense of purpose - a mission to make a record of something special that is in the ineluctable throes of passing from the scene."

Get more info on Bruce Morton's website 
See our last post on Forgottonia.

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One Hundred Nights at the 100 Club is a book documenting 100 different nights at London's longest running and revered music venue.

Two photographers have combined their coverage of years' worth of gigs at London's 100 Club and are reaching out to you to help fund the book. This year, it's the 75th anniversary of live music at the club. Perfect timing!

Picture it...
"The idea of this book started life, like a lot of things, down the pub. We were four mates and regular gig goers, moaning about the prospect of yet another music venue being forced to close."

"And then it came to us. Two of us - Darren Russell and Kingsley Davis are regular photographers at the 100 Club. Stephen Dowling is a music writer, and Neil Pond is a publishing project manager. That meant we had an archive of photographs taken at London's most iconic venue, spanning four decades, and writing and design experience as well. The 100 Club's 75th anniversary was approaching, so we saw the opportunity to create a high-quality photographic book that would not only celebrate this wonderful venue, but also include the voices of the people who help make the 100 Club what it is."

Bands in the book include such diverse musicians as Babyshambles, Chuck Berry, Hugh Laurie and Lee Scratch Perry!

Check out the rewards - not least of all this tasty lens cloth. And listen to Darren and Kingsley on the Robert Elms show to learn much more.

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Aerated Bread Company, 1981 © David Bailey

A newly curated series of David Bailey's quiet photos of the NW1 area of London taken in the early 80s is available in a gorgeously printed, small but perfectly formed, limited edition book from HENI Publishing in London. Cop a load of the blacks in these images and then, if you can, go see the prints which are on show through the end of January at HENI's gallery space, 6 - 10 Lexington Street, in the heart of London's Soho. 

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St. Pancras Station from Euston Road, 1981 © David Bailey

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Primrose Hill, 1981 © David Bailey

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440 Buck Street, 1982 © David Bailey

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Buy your signed, limited edition copy of NW1 from HENI. Thanks and props to Mark Best of Blah PR

And for my American friends who have never seen this - enjoy!

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