By Eve Arnold, Susan Meiselas, Abigail Heyman, Clara Bouveresse
Publisher : Actes Sud
2019 | 168 pages
As feminism gained momentum in 1970s America, three photographers―Abigail Heyman, Eve Arnold and Susan Meiselas―published massively influential photobooks informed by the movement.
The first, Heyman's Growing Up Female (1974), is a kind of feminist diary: the photographer casts a lucid eye at her own life and questions the imprisonment of women in stereotype roles. The second, Eve Arnold's The Unretouched Woman (1976), shows unknown women and celebrities in spontaneous everyday moments. The photos were deliberately not retouched or staged and offer a nuanced vision of women far from the glamor of glossy magazines. The third, Susan Meiselas' Carnival Strippers (also 1976), is the fruit of three years of investigation into fairground striptease sideshows in the Northeastern United States.
Since the invention of photography almost 175 years ago, the medium has proven itself understandably adept at capturing what is there to be photographed: the solid, the concrete, that which can be seen. Another tradition exists, however; a parallel tradition in which photographers and artists have attempted to depict via photographic means that which is not so easily photographed: dreams, ghosts, god, thought, time. The Unphotographable explores this parallel tradition, and is published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, presenting photographs by anonymous amateurs alongside those of artists such as Diane Arbus, Bruce Conner, Liz Deschenes, Adam Fuss, Man Ray, Christian Marclay, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Alfred Stieglitz and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Jules-Bernard Luys and Émile David are represented by a photograph taken toward the end of the nineteenth century, of fluidic emission from the fingers of two hands; Richard Misrach captures a sandstorm in California in 1976; and Conner is represented by "Angel Light," one of the Angels series of dramatic, life-sized photograms he created in 1973-75, and which explore the disjunction between vision and phenomenological experience. Since opening in 1979, Fraenkel Gallery has presented close to 300 exhibitions exploring photography and its interrelations with the other arts, and The Unphotographable is one of its most ambitious projects to date. The catalogue is edited with an essay by Jeffrey Fraenkel, and includes 50 images in color.
From the water's surface, it's a simple exercise: a dog's leap, a splash, and then a wet head surfacing with a ball, triumphant.
But beneath the water is a chaotic ballet of bared teeth and bubbles, paddling paws, fur and ears billowing in the currents. From leaping lab to diving dachshund, the water is where a dog's distinct personality shines through; some lounge in the current, paddling slowly, but others arch their bodies to cut through the water with the focus and determination of a shark.
In more than eighty portraits by award-winning pet photographer and animal rights activist Seth Casteel capture new sides of our old friends with vibrant underwater photography that makes it impossible to look away. Each image bubbles with exuberance and life, a striking reminder that even in the most loveable and domesticated dog, there are more primal forces at work. In Underwater Dogs, Seth Casteel gives playful and energetic testament to the rough-and-tumble joy that our dogs bring into our lives.
For some travelers, a hotel is simply a place to stay. For LEONE, it is an experience shaped by atmosphere, people, and a sense of belonging. His third book, *A Place We Like*, grew out of a years-long search for that elusive feeling. Published as the inaugural title under the Leisure imprint of C41 Magazine, the project serves as both a visual guide to some of Europe’s most remarkable hotels and a personal reflection on the meaning of hospitality.
Discover Crossing, Kaplan’s powerful documentary photography project capturing Roxham Road, the irregular Canada-US border crossing used by refugees from 2018 to 2023.
Spurred by Trump-era immigration policies, this tiny site between New York and Quebec became a safe, highly unusual microcosm of global migration. Over four years, Kaplan photographed the entire ecosystem—from local cab drivers and border police to the asylum-seekers themselves. Moving past traditional media tropes of victimhood, these photographs challenge stereotypes to highlight the immense courage and resilience required to step into an unknown future before the site's closure in 2023.
I have spent years looking at Lee Friedlander’s America. It has always been a country of sharp angles, cluttered street corners, and shadows that seem to swallow the photographer whole. So when I picked up his latest monograph, Life Still, I expected the familiar noise of his world. Instead, I found something stranger: a 91-year-old master holding his breath.
Part of a bigger journey of liberation through self-exploration, this new photobook by Jo Ann Chaus is above all a collection of self-portraits, complemented by landscapes, still lifes and domestic interiors observed and inhabited by the photographer-cum-model
Blending photography and poetry, Burnt Eyes explores nostalgia, memory, and identity, offering a profound reflection on the complexities of belonging and the stories that shape us.
Seasons of Time by Nathalie Rubens is an intimate and fearless photobook exploring the emotional distance and deep connection between mother and daughter, while confronting the beauty, vulnerability, and physical reality of a woman’s aging body with rare honesty.
1804 continues Rich-Joseph Facun’s exploration of life in the Appalachian foothills of Southeast Ohio, this time turning his lens toward the local university and its complex, symbiotic relationship with the surrounding community.
GOST Books presents Robin Bernstein’s debut photobook MAPALAKATA, a compelling visual investigation into landscape, memory, and the layered histories of Southern Africa. The project offers a nuanced reflection on how geography is not only inhabited, but continually rewritten through movement, extraction, and shifting narratives of belonging.
