By Lynda Klich, Benjamin Weiss, Anna Tome, Annie Rudd, Christopher B. Steiner, Eric Moskowitz, Jeff L. Rosenheim
Publisher : MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2022 | 311 pages
Postcards of a nation embracing a new democratic technology.
The ubiquity of photography and social media today makes it hard to imagine a time when it was not possible for ordinary people to take their own pictures and send them with short messages over long distances. But it was revolutionary when the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1903, unveiled a new postcard camera that produced a postcard-size negative that could print directly onto a blank card. Suddenly almost anyone, amateurs and entrepreneurial photographers alike, could take a picture―of neighbors at home and at work, local celebrations, newsworthy disasters, sightseeing trips―and turn it into a postcard.
This book captures this moment in the history of communications―from around 1900 to 1930―through a generous selection of what came to be known as “real photo postcards” from the extensive Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive. As the formality of earlier photography falls away, these postcards remind us that the past was occupied by people with distinct and individual stories, dramatic, humorous, puzzling and surprising.
After World War II, the American road trip began appearing prominently in literature, music, movies and photography. As Stephen Shore has written, "Our country is made for long trips. Since the 1940s, the dream of the road trip, and the sense of possibility and freedom that it represents, has taken its own important place within our culture." Many photographers purposefully embarked on journeys across the U.S. in order to create work, including Robert Frank, whose seminal road trip resulted in The Americans. However, he was preceded by Edward Weston, who traveled across the country taking pictures to illustrate Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass; Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose 1947 trip through the American South and into the West was published in the early 1950s in Harper's Bazaar; and Ed Ruscha, whose road trips between Los Angeles and Oklahoma formed the basis of Twentysix Gasoline Stations. Hundreds of photographers have continued the tradition of the photographic road trip on down to the present, from Stephen Shore to Taiyo Onorato, Nico Krebs, Alec Soth and Ryan McGinley. The Open Road considers the photographic road trip as a genre in and of itself, and presents the story of photographers for whom the American road is muse. The book features David Campany's introduction to the genre and 18 chapters presented chronologically, each exploring one American road trip in depth through a portfolio of images and informative texts. This volume highlights some of the most important bodies of work made on the road, from The Americans to the present day.
"We were lucky enough to work with some of the greatest photographers in the world who captured many magical moments of our career. This volume brings together some incredible pictures spanning the past fifty years."
Mick Jagger
Alongside an exploration of Bayard’s decades-long career and lasting impact, Hippolyte Bayard and the
Invention of Photography (J. Paul Getty Museum, $65) presents—for the first time in print—some of the earliest
photographs in existence. Among the Getty Museum’s rarest and most treasured photographic holdings is an
album containing nearly 200 images, 145 of those by or attributed to Bayard. Few of these prints have ever
been seen in person due to the extreme light sensitivity of Bayard’s experimental processes, making this an
essential reference for scholars and photography enthusiasts alike.
For seven years, American photographer Barbara Peacock crisscrossed the United States photographing people in the spaces they defined as their bedrooms. The bedroom is an inherently personal space where humans are perhaps at their most vulnerable. Whether a room in a house, a camper, or an outdoor space, Peacock presents a body of work that invites the viewer to consider the stories we each carry, and how those unify us all.
SINK / RISE is the third chapter of The Day May Break, an ongoing global series portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. This third chapter focuses on South Pacific Islanders impacted by rising oceans from climate change. The local people in these photos, photographed underwater in the ocean off the coast of the Fijian islands, are representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises. Everything is shot in-camera underwater.
The passing of time has a way of adding context and layers of meaning to any story, and photographer Lisa McCord's expansive and nuanced project and book, Rotan Switch, (Kehrer Verlag, May 2024) reflects the dedication of over 40 years of observation and documentation of her rural southern family farm and community.
I discovered Michael Joseph's work in 2016, thanks to Ann Jastrab. I was immediately captivated by the power of his beautiful black and white photographs from his series 'Lost and Found.' His haunting portraits of young Travelers have stayed with me ever since.
Through conceptual imagery, intimate portraits, and reflections in writing from a wide variety of women and girls ages 13-81, artist and former actor and model Jamie Schofield Riva presents an in-depth exploration of what it's like as a girl trying to navigate a world full of "preconceived notions of what it means to be a woman." Her selection of images presents an assessment between generations of the intersections between cultural and social conditioning and messages about the female gender, and considerations of the implication of the stereotypes of femininity.
Renowned photographer Brice Gelot is proud to announce the release his first Archives book. This stunning volume offers a captivating journey through his lens, showcasing his unique perspective and profound artistic vision, featuring a carefully curated selection of his most iconic works,
In January 2020, North Korea officially closed its borders. But even
before that date, photographing the enigmatic landscapes of North
Korea posed immense challenges due to the regime's strict control
and prohibition of unauthorized photography. However, from a vast
archive of images captured painstakingly over two years, in this book
Tariq Zaidi curates a selection of more than 100 remarkable photographs that offer a wider perspective on a society often misunderstood and overshadowed by stereotypes.
In his debut photobook 'Hong Kong' (Kehrer Verlag, April 2024), Finnish photographer and New York Times' photo editor Mikko Takkunen captures one of the world’s great metropolises in the aftermath of political protests and on the brink of a pandemic. Inspired by New York School masters like Louis Faurer and Saul Leiter, he presents Hong Kong in a new light, exploring hidden perspectives and moods. His photographs, balancing between documentary and subjective, are accompanied by an essay by Geoff Dyer. Amidst the city's uncertainties in 2020 and facing the impending relocation of his family overseas, Takkunen felt an urgent need to document the city while he still could. 'Hong Kong' is a poignant farewell, encapsulating his love for the city and concerns about what might be lost as it undergoes irreversible changes.
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