Jean-Christophe Béchet retraces here a subjective history of photography and claims its influences: from Eugène Atget to Stéphane Couturier, via Robert Frank, August Sander or Diane Arbus, the great photographers of our time are a major source of inspiration. Text in French.
In 1911 the French publisher Lucien Vogel challenged Edward Steichen to create the first artistic, rather than merely documentary, fashion photographs, a moment that is now considered to be a turning point in the history of fashion photography. As fashion changed over the next century, so did the photography of fashion. Steichen’s modernist approach was forthright and visually arresting. In the 1930s the photographer Martin Munkácsi pioneered a gritty, photojournalistic style. In the 1960s Richard Avedon encouraged his models to express their personalities by smiling and laughing, which had often been discouraged previously. Helmut Newton brought an explosion of sexuality into fashion images and turned the tables on traditional gender stereotypes in the 1970s, and in the 1980s Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts made male sexuality an important part of fashion photography. Today, following the integration of digital technology, teams like Inez & Vinoodh and Mert & Marcus are reshaping our notion of what is acceptable-not just aesthetically but also technically and conceptually-in a fashion photograph.
When battlefield prowess and political manipulation are not enough to achieve peace through victory, we summon our best and brightest to negotiate an end; we celebrate peace settlements; and we give prizes, if not to victors, then to visionaries. We exalt peace as a human achievement, and justly so. But the reality of peace is flawed. The rewards of peace are elusive for the men and women who live in the post-conflict societies of our time. Why is it so difficult to make a good peace when it is so easy to imagine? That is the question behind Imagine: Reflections on Peace.
In this stunning collection, photographic essays make grippingly palpable the stakes during war and peace. Samantha Power, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Justice Richard Goldstone, ICTY prosecutor, and Jonathan Powell, chief negotiator for the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement, are joined by world-renown writers Jon Lee Anderson, Philip Gourevitch, Jon Swain, Robin Wright, Anthony Loyd and Martin Fletcher in revealing the complexities of redemption and rebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda. We hear first person accounts of survival and the search for inner peace that bring the big picture to the personal. With added insights from scholars and practitioners, the book offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into the unvarnished story of peace and a window into what it takes for societies and individuals to move forward after unspeakable brutality.
Apple's latest iPad tablet has been an incredible success and generated a lot of interest from photographers soon after it was released. Instead of hauling a laptop along on vacation or to a photo shoot, a photographer can bring the lightweight iPad and take advantage of its large screen, third-party software, and online access. The iPad is great for reviewing photos on-site using something other than a camera's small LCD, editing photos, presenting a photographer's portfolio, and more. This fully updated 2nd edition of the iPad for Photographers will help novice, intermediate, and pro shooters to: • Get photos onto the iPad. Import using the camera connection kit. • Take photos with the iPad. • Back up photos. Copying photos from memory cards; using iCloud Photo • Stream as online backup; uploading files to Dropbox; and so on. • Organize your photos. • Rate photos and assign tags in the field--instead of waiting until you get home! • Edit photos on the iPad. • Share photos with others: iCloud Photo Stream, play on an Apple TV, and more. • Create your portfolio. Use portfolio software to give impressive presentations to prospective clients. Great for wedding photographers meeting people face to face, for example. • Video. Edit clips in iMovie, create slideshows, rough cuts, and more. In addition, photographers will learn other clever uses for their iPad, such as triggering the shutter using an iPad; using the screen as a fill flash; storing PDFs of camera manuals, books, etc.; and much more!
Agony in the Garden is the second monograph by Magnum Photographer, Lúa Ribeira, created
in her native country of Spain between 2021 to 2023 in the peripheries of Madrid, Málaga,
Granada and Almería. Inspired by the revealing potential of contemporary counter-culture,
she has collaborated with young people to make images that reflect on the alienation and
uncertainty of the present era, evoking a dystopian landscape suspended in time, one that
appears both contemporary and ancient while reflecting the signs of contemporary youth
movements and how they convey the alienation and uncertainty of the present-era
This series of black-and-white portraits depicts the people around whom Denis Dailleux grew up, between love and hate. Created when he was 25 years old and full of doubt, the project marked a turning point in the photographer’s work.
Anastasia Samoylova’s Atlantic Coast is more than a photography book—it is a journey through the evolving landscape of the United States, both literal and metaphorical. Retracing U.S. Route 1 from Key West, Florida, to Fort Kent, Maine, seventy years after Berenice Abbott first documented the road, Samoylova offers a meditation on the tensions between nostalgia and progress, myth and reality, that define the American experience.
Gumsucker laments the loss of untamed Australian wilderness to civilization, ever encroaching, domesticating the land and spirit. It is a ghost story of sorts, populated by withering vestiges and isolated souls. Its title, drawn from the archaic term once used to describe native-born European Australians, also recalls ‘The Gumsucker’s Dirge,’ a 19th-century poem mourning the erasure of wilderness as the frontier was pushed further out and the dream of an untouched wilderness became increasingly inaccessible.
Having spent decades immersed in photography, encountering Daido Moriyama’s work is always a jolt to the senses—but Quartet, the new Getty Publication release edited by Mark Holborn, takes that jolt to another level. This isn’t just a photobook; it’s a journey into the formative pulse of one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
Janet Delaney has always been drawn to the ways work shapes people’s lives, families, and communities. In her latest book, she turns her lens closer to home, retracing a week she spent in 1980 with her father, a beauty salesman on the verge of retirement. What began as a daughter’s curiosity became a vivid portrait of long days on the road, endless conversations, and the quiet determination behind a lifetime of providing for others.
Through humor, candor, and empathy, Delaney’s photographs reveal not just the hustle of a salesman, but also the love that fueled it. To learn more about this project and her reflections on it, we asked her a few questions.
Blood Bonds: Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda is a new photobook by photographer Jan Banning and journalist Dick Wittenberg, with an essay on forgiveness by philosopher Marjan Slob. It addresses the genocide in Rwanda, the reconciliation programs that followed, and presents 18 joint portraits of survivors and perpetrators.
I first encountered a few of Coreen Simpson’s images without realizing it was her work, and receiving Coreen Simpson: A Monograph was a revelation. This book, the second volume in Aperture’s Vision & Justice series, offers an in-depth look at the career of a photographer and jewelry designer whose work spans over five decades. The monograph itself is beautifully produced, with a tactile, leather-like hardcover that makes holding it feel like handling an art object.
To commemorate the legacy of one of fashion photography’s most influential figures, the Rodney Smith Estate is pleased to announce several international exhibitions, both the first retrospectives in their countries, and a new book.
