Books


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David McIntyre's several years of wandering the 13 mile length of Broadway are waiting to be collected into a book. You buy one, one gets donated. Win-win!

"Pushing back against the voices of intolerance by celebrating the beauty and strength of New York's diversity."

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"This project aims to publish a hardcover book of social documentary photographs taken on Broadway, not the theater district but the 13 mile long street that runs through the entirety of Manhattan. The collection is a meditation on the city's diversity and the tolerance that holds it together. 

"I'm launching this in this moment because I want to be proactive and push back against the intolerant voices that are overpowering the conversation and sowing the seeds of division by presenting a celebration of the great strength that comes from embracing diversity. New York's success over the years, it's growth into one of the worlds capital cities is proof of this. 

"In a desire to spread the word beyond the 'bubble' of Manhattan and other urban centers I'll going to match every backer by donating a copy to free to a school or college."

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All images © David McIntyre



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Omar Clay, Newport Jazz Festival, 1963 © Jim Marshall

Oh yeah - Reel Art Press does it again! The Estate of Jim Marshall is pleased to announce the launch of "Jim Marshall: Jazz Festival" (Reel Art Press, September, 2016). We lost a true hard-working character when Jim died, and we thank Amelia Davis for her dedication to keeping his work out there, and editing such a rich and fabulous book (and for letting me make an edit for this story! Thank you!) The book covers six years of Monterey and Newport Jazz Festivals, on stage and behind the scenes, and is chock-a-block with pics.

In time for the holidays this is a good bet for music lovers and those interested in jazz and its history.

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Sonny Rollins, Newport Jazz Festival, 1963

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Johnny Hodges, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1961

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Nina Simone, Newport Jazz Festival, 1963

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Cannonball Adderley Sextet, Newport Jazz Festival, 1963

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Duke Ellington Orchestra, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1960

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Odetta, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1960

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Dizzy Gillespie, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1963

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Crowd, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1960


See previous aCurator posts on books from Reel Art: Disco by Bill Bernstein and Woodstock by Baron Wolman.

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Zoo, Anthrocon © Arthur Drooker

When I first met Arthur Drooker, at PhotoLucida portfolio reviews in 2015, his book on conventions was still a twinkle in his hungry eye. Arthur had hit upon the idea of covering a variety of the countrywide events held for certain, specific interests.

"In 2013, while researching a potential photo series about historical reenactors, I came across the Association of Lincoln Presenters website. They were promoting their upcoming convention. When I saw that, a bell went off in my head. That's it! Conventions."

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Hail to the Chiefs, Association of Lincoln Presenters convention

'The Association of Lincoln Presenters welcomed me to their convention and it was a great experience. From there I began researching other conventions, specifically quirky and photogenic gatherings that really show like-minded people sharing their passion whether it be taxidermy, clowning, or fetishes."

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Her knight to remember, Military History Fest

"Each year, according to a Convention Industry Council study, there are 1.8 million conventions, conferences, and trade shows in the United States. These gatherings directly support 1.7 million jobs, $263 billion in spending, and $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue. As impressive as these figures are, they don't interest me as a photographer. I see conventions not as revenue sources but as visual treasures. To me, they're unique expressions of community, culture and connection."

Fast forward a year or so and I'm behind the curve but pleased to report, "Conventional Wisdom" is now in print through our friends at Glitterati.

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Mernage a Trois, Merfest

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All together now, VentHaven ConVENTion

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Clown cluster, World Clown Association
Not scary!

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Blown Away, Military History Fest

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Brony parade, Bronycon
All images © Arthur Drooker

See also: Pie Town Revisited, Arthur's previous feature here in the blog.
"The remote New Mexico community of Pie Town is famous for the photographs that Farm Security Administration photographer Russell Lee made there during the Great Depression. In this book author-photographer Arthur Drooker documents his own travels to Pie Town to find out what became of it seventy years after Lee visited."

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© Jamel Shabazz from "Back in the Days" coloring book, published by powerHouse Books

The press release tells you all you need to know about this brilliant new publication (August, 2016, powerHouse Books). If you aren't familiar with the wonderful archive of Jamel Shabazz, get busy. This book is a real treat, and affordable enough to get one for everyone on your holiday list. It's fun for ages 1 - 100! I asked the publicist for enough to fill mine but she not unreasonably sent me only one. 

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"Straight from the old-school streets of NYC at the dawn of the hip-hop scene comes Back in the Days Coloring Book. Here is your chance to redraw the birth of old-school hip-hop fashion: hangin' in Harlem, kickin' it in Queens, and cold chillin' in Brooklyn. Based on the legendary and original street-style book, Back in the Days by Jamel Shabazz."

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"Style with an attitude not seen in fashion for another 20 years to come, Shabazz's subjects strike poses that put supermodels to shame--showing off Kangol caps and Cazal glasses, shell-top Adidas and suede Pumas with fat laces, shearling coats and leather jackets, gold dookie chains, door-knocker earrings, name belts, boom boxes, and other 80s designer finery. Featuring 30 original drawings, now it's your turn to get in on the action. Pull out your Crayolas and markers and help everyone look their best by adding your own vibrant colors to these fly outfits."

What a brilliant and accessible way to keep your images out there!

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All images © Jamel Shabazz from "Back in the Days" coloring book, published by powerHouse Books

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 Give it up for Aunt Doll! Sharing her Aunt's realness with the rest of us in a rather fabulous fashion, Michelle Maguire, a photographer and prop stylist based in Columbus, Ohio, has published a "small-edition artist's book featuring eye-popping, hand-printed images of my blunt, funny, completely unimpressed Italian-American great-aunt, Doll, with colorful Aunt Doll anecdotes by my husband Aaron Beck."

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"Aunt Doll, age 84, has lived in Canton, Ohio, her entire life. She cusses, loves cured meats, knows more about the NFL than you do, plays strip mall slot machines with her vegetarian hairdresser of 42 years, isn't trying to be funny but is, worships the sun from her concrete-slab patio, and frets about nothing except her beloved Italian bread causing her to pack on the pounds."

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"Aunt Doll makes the most if it. The gist of her story: enjoy every chicken wing while you holler at the Browns on your gigantic analog TV, because we aren't here forever. She'll cuss you out in one breath and in the very next, offer you a salami sandwich."

Definitely good value and Michelle is also making the most of it over on her website in the Salami Dreamin' pages.

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All images © Michelle Maguire

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Nude Reagan © John Brian King
 
Using the weird and wonderful Fujifilm Instax Mini 8, John Brian King photographed 23 models each wearing only this Ronald Reagan mask. Making the photos in an empty office, the women posed however they liked. The resulting images are an ironic reflection on the American right wing's much-loved conservative leader. 

Tits to you and your memory, Ronald.

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The mini-roids are collected in a book: Nude Reagan is out now from Spurl Editions.

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All images © John Brian King

"John Brian King is a Los Angeles native who graduated with a degree in photography from the California Institute of the Arts. He designed the film titles for over thirty films, including Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love and The Ring. He wrote and directed the feature film Redlands, an examination of creativity and horror in relation to photography." Read more over at Spurl.

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© Frédéric Moreau de Bellaing, 1995

 After making two trips to the West Bank twenty years apart, Belgian photographer Frédéric Moreau de Bellaing has collected his photographs into a book, titled "Lueurs d'espoirs / Glimmers of Hope." The book shows de Bellaing's travels through everyday life in both 1995 and 2015.

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The book includes an essay by Leila Shahid, Palestine ambassador in France and then Belgium for the last 20 years. 
Here is Frédéric's own statement:
"When I present this project, the same question comes back again and again: "Why Palestine?" Of course there is my indignation against oppression but, rightly, some respond to me that the Palestinians are not the only ones suffering. As often in this case, it is the personal journey that makes the difference.

The first intifada broke out in 1987. I was 16 years old. TV screens fed me up me with pictures of teenagers fighting with stones against heavily armed soldiers. I was shocked but the media release their floods of dramatic images all day long drowning indignations in an ocean of bad news.

Two years later when I began high school, I met Mina Shamieh. He was Palestinian and student like me. He was a warm person and his smile was disarming. We quickly became good friends. Until then, the Palestinian issue was but a media abstraction. Through my friendship with Mina, it took human shape.

The media feed us with pictures which are sometimes sensational but generally disconnected from human touch and identification to the Palestinian people has, for too long, take shape through empathy for their suffering.

To overcome this cathodic anesthesia, we must awaken the sympathy and empathy, in other words, we must become human.

With "Glimmers of Hope", I hope to convey the warmth and the desire to live which inhabit the Palestinian people.

To you, Mina, my old friend, with whom I have enjoyed sharing the small pleasures of everyday life."

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Above: images from 1995. All © Frédéric Moreau de Bellaing

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Images from 2015. All © Frédéric Moreau de Bellaing

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Betty Davis, 'They Say I'm Different' photo shoot, Just Sunshine Records, 1974. Photo by Mel Dixon. Courtesy of Light in the Attic Records and powerHouse Books

 Lost Rockers: Broken Dreams and Crashed Careers (powerHouse Books) is a fascinating collection of tales about musicians who almost made it, back in a time when really making it through hard work and dedication, without entering a TV talent contest, was an option. "Some were ahead of their time, some were ill-equipped to deal with success, some simply fucked up." 

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Gloria Jones, Los Angeles, 1973. Photo by Jim Britt

'Lost Rockers' digs deeply into each of the 20 or so musicians in the book, with several pages about their histories, success and failures, and even lyrics, accompanied by lots of great photos and ephemera. I was interested to see Betty Davis on this list, but the book suggests her "cuckolded" ex-husband, Miles, played a role in her early retirement from the industry. It is hard to summarize what went awry for each here in the blog, so go ahead and pick up a copy of the book for under $30. 

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Rik Fox, hair metal hero, Surgical Steel, 1986. Photo by Michael Richard Sneeburger. Courtesy of the Rik Fox Archives

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Kenny Young, "Bow Wow, Kenny with his Pomeranian," New York, 2003. Polaroid Color 668 by Gail Thacker. Courtesy of Gail Thacker

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Chris Robison and David Johansen with Andy Warhol, Max's Kansas City, 1975. Photo by Bob Gruen

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Cherry Vanilla, New York, 1978. Photo by Leee Black Childers. Courtesy of Leee Black Childers
All images courtesy powerHouse Books.

Lost Rockers: Broken Dreams and Crashed Careers, by Steven Blush with Paul Rachmann and Tony Mann, is out now from powerHouse books. 

Thanks to Madison Morales for her publicity skills.

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 It was in 2010 that Robert Rutöd first contacted me and made me smile with his photographs. Since then he has stayed right in the zone, consistently entertaining. So I'm happy to report the news that he has collected 50+ into a new book. 

Right Time Right Place is out now in a limited edition available from the artist.

"Being at the right place at the right time is usually associated with happiness and success. But what happens when we are at the right place at the wrong time? Do we even know that this is the right place? And what if it turns out that it is the wrong place after all? But the right time!"

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'Right Time Right Place' received several awards including the New York Photo Award, the Special Prize of the Czech Center of Photography, and most recently Artist of the Year at Dong Gang International Photo Festival 2015 in South Korea.

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All images © Robert Rutöd

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Robert Mapplethorpe, American, 1946-1989
Identical self-portraits of Robert Mapplethorpe with trip cable in hand, 1974
Gelatin silver print. Sheet (each): 9.3 x 11.6 cm (3 11/16 x 4 9/16 in.)
Gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Held at the Getty Research Institute, 2011.M.20.24
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

The first photography exhibition I ever saw was Robert Mapplethorpe, in London, and I have always said it ruined me for life. In my memory the exhibition was at the Festival Hall, but the web won't support this and insists it was the National Portrait Gallery, 'The Perfect Moment' retrospective, 1988/89. Regardless, I remember staring endlessly at one of his highly sexual portraits and listening to the outrage of the person viewing next to me. I felt happy. 

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Ajitto, 1981
Gelatin silver print. Image: 45.4 x 35.5 cm (17 7/8 x 14 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.7.13
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

That Mapplethorpe-related happiness has carried me through my journey in the world of photography so I was beyond thrilled when a review copy of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs (J. Paul Getty Museum, March 2016) arrived. What a book! 

Mapplethorpe's most recognizable and less-known images, both the graphic and the gorgeous, are drawn from the J. Paul Getty Museum's own collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, and Mapplethorpe Archive housed at the Getty Research Institute. 

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Grapes, 1985
Gelatin silver print. Image: 38.5 x 38 cm (15 3/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.7.20
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas, 1987
Gelatin silver print. Image: 48.8 x 48.8 cm (19 3/16 x 19 3/16 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.7.31
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

"This publication is issued on the occasion of the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium on view at both the  J. Paul Getty Museum and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from March 15 and March 20, respectively, through July 31, 2016; at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montreal from September 10, 2016, through January 15, 2017; and at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, from October 28, 2017, through February 4, 2018."

Let it be known that the young me spent not inconsiderable time wondering if she could scrape together the £1,500 that a print was going for back then. They say one only regrets the things one did not do... But then, how would I have chosen?

Get your copy of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs for under $60. Money well spent for a lifetime of Mapplethorpe mastery.

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Calla Lily, 1988
Gelatin silver print. Image: 49 x 49 cm (19 5/16 x 19 5/16 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; partial gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; partial purchase with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.9.26
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Derrick Cross, 1983
Gelatin silver print. Image: 48.5 x 38.2 cm (19 1/8 x 15 1/16 in.)
Promised Gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, L.2012.88.910
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Flower Arrangement, 1986 
Gelatin silver print. Image: 49 x 49 cm (19 5/16 x 19 5/16 in.)
Promised Gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, L.2012.89.566
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Self-Portrait, 1980
Gelatin silver print. Image: 35.6 x 35.6 cm (14 x 14 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; partial gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; partial purchase with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.9.21
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Robert Mapplethorpe
Self-Portrait, 1985
Gelatin silver print. Image: 38.7 x 38.6 cm (15 1/4 x 15 3/16 in.)
Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation, 2011.7.21
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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