5B4

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

5B4 Best Books of 2007

OK…the end of 2007 is nigh and although there are still two healthy weeks left I have decided to put out my ‘Best Of” list now instead of spending my New Year’s Eve huddled over a keyboard since I’d rather be drink in hand trying to make that Terry Richardson clown puzzle sign Ole’ Lang Syne. (Maybe that’s an image best put out of your mind ASAP.)

So here are my favorites in an attempted order with five Honorable Mentions. Now mind you I haven’t seen ALL of the books that were published in 2007 so I’m sure I’m missing a few gems. Regardless, all of these titles made me think about photography in new ways even if some held firm to convention.

Favorite Books of 2007

1. Shimmer of Possibility by Paul Graham (Steidl)

2. Scrapbook by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Steidl)
A great study of Bresson. Perfect package.

3. The Park by Kohei Yoshiyuki (Hatje Cantz)

4. On the Beach by Richard Misrach (Aperture)

5. Putting Back the Wall by John Gossage (Loosestrife Editions)
Haven’t written about this one yet but it is a must see.

6. United States 1970-1976 by Jacob Holdt (Steidl)

7. Suzi Et Cetera by Boris Mikhailov (Walther Konig)

8. LA Waiting, Sitting...by Anthony Hernandez (Loosestrife Editions)

9. Some Afrikaners Revisited by David Goldblatt (Umuzi)

10. Passing Through Eden by Tod Papageorge (Steidl)

Honorable Mentions

1. Hackney Flowers by Stephen Gill (Nobody)

The first time I was provoked to buy one of Stephen’s books. I will feature this one at some point. Lightyears better than the more desired and over-hyped Hackney Wick.

2. Me and My Brother by Robert Frank (Steidl)

3. An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar by Taryn Simon (Steidl)
Intriguing book that challenges my usual suspicion of text and image. Elegant design and presentation.

4. This Is War! by Robert Capa (ICP/Steidl)

5. My America by Christopher Morris (Steidl)
Never featured this but I pick it up frequently and I am always surprised at how much I enjoy it.

Favorite Discoveries of 2007

This is a list of my favorite discoveries of the year. ‘Favorite Discoveries’ are books by artists I either didn’t know about or artists whose work I knew but did not expect I would enjoy as much as I have. Not all of the following titles were released in 2007 but that’s when I discovered them and this is my list so I make the rules.

1. Interregna by John Pilson (Hatje Cantz)

2. Photoworks 1982-2006 by Joachim Schmid (Steidl)

3. Memory of Pablo Escobar by James Mollison (Chris Boot Ltd)

4. The American War by Harrell Fletcher (J&L Books)

5. Zwischenzeit by Roland Schneider (Der Alltag)

6. The Day to Day Life of Albert Hastings by Kaylynn Deveney (Princeton Architectural Press)

7. On Duty by Arnold Odermatt (Steidl)

8. I Am A Real Photographer by Keith Arnett (Chris Boot Ltd)

9. Slipstream by Patrick O’Hare (Self-Published/Shared Ink)

10. Irish Travellers by Alen Machesney (New England Collage Press)

11. Ball Nights 1934-1950 by Jakob Tuggener (SCALO)

12. Pornografie by Klaus Staeck (Steidl)

13. Paris by Moi Ver (L7/Steidl)

14. Tempo Tempo by Marianne Brandt (Jovis)

15. Miroslav Tichy (Dumont Literatur)

Best Historical Books of 2007

The following are five of my favorite historical collections from the year.

1. Foto: Modernity in Eastern Europe (Thames and Hudson)
Great catalog that set me on the trail of another dozen artists I didn’t know existed. I will probably feature this early next year. Very handsome volume with hundreds of illustrations.

2. Books of Nudes (Abrams)

3. Art and the American Snapshot (NGA/PUP)

4. Dreaming in Black and White (PMA/Yale)

5. Dada (DAP)
This one is an oldie from 2005 but I bought it this year and I love it so much I am slipping it in to this list. Fine reproductions and well written texts all contained in this great catalog from the exhibition. A must have study of one of the most creative and influential time periods and movements.

I punished my bank account and shelves this year with well over 100 new additions/editions to the 5B4 Whiskets Center for the Understanding of Compulsive Behavior Research Library. I have already heard some buzz about new books for 2008 so funding for further research is being obtained and we will try to keep in stride with all breaking book projects...stay tuned, there are sure to be great wallet emptying times ahead.

Happy Holidays…Mr. Whiskets and Jeff

Monday, December 10, 2007

Enrique Metinides from Ridinghouse and The Photographer's Gallery

I have heard Enrique Metinides referred to as the ‘Mexican Weegee’ linking him to Arthur Fellig, the famous New York crime photographer of the 1930’s and 40’s. I think this is understandable since, if you photograph crime scenes or accidents well, the comparison is just waiting to be made. But ultimately, that comparison doesn’t allow Metinides to be his own man. Metinides photographed for Mexico City’s daily paper La Prensa and other ‘notas rojos’ tabloids that depicted the suffering, catastrophe and violent deaths of mostly average citizens. The book, Enrique Metinides, published by Ridinghouse in collaboration with The Photographer’s Gallery in London brings together 73 of his photographs spanning over thirty years.

Metinides started photographing at twelve. The son of a camera salesman, it almost seemed inevitable that one would fall into his hands. The fact that he would specialize in photographing crime scenes and accidents later in life was also as fortuitous as his childhood home sat on a street corner that was plagued by car accidents and pedestrian deaths.

Similar to Weegee, Metinides kept a radio tuned in to the frequencies used by the Red Cross and police- making himself available to cover any breaking news at all hours. And interestingly, when 23, he developed a system of codes for the Red Cross so that any situation could be explained in a matter of seconds.

Not surprising, Metinides’ photographs cover a wide swath of catastrophe from building fires, bus and airplane crashes to accidental electrocutions, drownings and suicides. Many of his images seem to tease at the idea of the existence of fate or at least a desire to explain the sudden appearance of death. Disasters will happen, what is not easy to divine is what leads up to them crossing with our lives. (After seeing a man get hit by a falling air conditioner, I often think of the seemingly insignificant fractions of time that can be contributing factors between life and death.) My older brother, when promising to follow through with retribution used to perversely warn, “when you least expect it…expect it.”

Mexico, as a part of the culture, rejoices in mocking and making fun of death but in this collection, the spectators on the scene seem to be looking for clues that unlock the mysteries of the circumstance. In Geoff Dyer’s fine introduction, he speaks of them (and us) as participating in a kind of vicarious participation. As he states: “The gathered crowds often have something in common with the people glimpsed in the background of photos of fisherman who has the good fortune to land a record-breaking marlin.”

Two of the most saddening photos are of suicides. One is an attempt caught mid-drama and the other is after the fact. In the first, a woman stands on the ledge of a building while rescue workers try to talk her down. Shot from street level and looking up, the woman is such a small part of the photographic frame yet her taut body language carries the weight of the picture. The second photo I mentioned is of a woman after she has hung herself in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City‘s equivalent of Central Park. This photo (see my composite above) has a tone that is so lonely I can hardly stand looking at it. The small detail of her handbag, hung for safety-sake around head and shoulder is a heartbreakingly human touch that is both confusing and yet entirely understandable. If she was knowingly going to die then why not put the purse on the ground?

The most famous image from Metinides is of a woman killed by a white Datsun while crossing the street. Her body is contorted and held awkwardly aloft by a fallen lamp post while her open eyes and blank expression belie the violence that had just taken place. It is often this reality is stranger than fiction quality that gives some of the images an intensely dark touch of humor.

Published in 2003, the book is nothing much to get really excited about with its straight forward design but it isn’t the worst home for a group of photos. Both the color and black and white reproductions read very well. It includes essays by Geoff Dyer and Nestor Garcia Canclini and an interview between Enrique Metinides and Gabriel Kuri.

Buy online at The Photographer’s Gallery

Saturday, December 8, 2007

The Ninth Floor by Jessica Dimmock

Photographers have bridged many different social gaps throughout the history of the medium. From Edward Curtis and the Native American Indian to Walker Evans and the Burroughs family in Alabama to Eugene Richards and crack addicts in East New York, these photographers have found the trust and consent of their subjects to use invasive means in which to record life. I should say invasive and potentially harmful as photography had lost its innocence long ago. We have become suspect to the camera’s presence and now look upon photographers with a certain amount of suspicion. (Ed Ruscha in an interview once said that photographers in the 1950’s used to be looked upon as either “geeks or pornographers.”)

Somehow, the camera provokes the subject to think of the lowest and base intention of the photographer. If a man photographs an attractive woman on the street, he is thought to be doing so because he is a ‘pervert’ and photography is his only way to ‘possess’ her. Or in different light, if one photographs on the street, many subjects pounced upon may be concerned that fun is being poked at their expense. After all, how many horrible street photographs have been simple one-liners whose punch line relies on the subject’s momentary awkwardness?

In the case of photojournalists documenting the world’s harsh realities of drug addiction or homelessness photography does not somehow miraculously escape the fact that, regardless of the photographer’s good intentions, photographs leave the viewer to judge the subject and the subject has no recourse for defense. This is where a subject could appear to be used. While the photographer is praised for their ability to live among ‘the other,’ the subject is left potentially hanging in the wind.

Jessica Dimmock’s book The Ninth Floor published by Contrasto is another example of a photographer gaining entree into the lives of the dark and secretive world of drug addicts.

For approximately three years, Dimmock photographed the residents of a drug den located in Manhattan’s flat iron district. Gaining entrée through a chance meeting with a cocaine dealer, she follows and describes the main characters as if she and her camera were invisible. We are compelled to look as the residents shoot up, nod off, fuck (love is not being made), fight, become hospitalized and somehow avoid death. The depravity of the surroundings, an apartment trashed through neglect, the owner who is an addict himself with no control over his home, the blatant picturing of self destruction, is all truly nauseating.

Nauseating and frightening for I am completely afraid of her subjects. Jesse, Rachel, Dion, Mike and others project a street knowledge and a carelessness of attitude that will evoke fear in most viewers. They display a look of unpredictability in their eyes which sets the course for unease and tension.

Dimmock’s pictures are devoid of the tell tale language usually spoken by photojournalists. This may be because Dimmock was still a student when she started her project and thankfully she had not been poisoned by too many references to the likes of other journalists or documentarians. She seems to be responding quickly to the happenings and that directness, without pretentious ‘picture-making,’ is her strength.

It is Dimmock’s avoidance of the easy conventions of this genre that is important. This is one aspect that I am very critical of in other works of addicts like Eugene Richards’ Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue. His book is regarded as a great achievement due to the dynamic imagery and for Gene’s ability to enter this secretive world of cocaine addicts. His getting the ‘in’ was an amazing achievement but his ’dynamic imagery’ is far too stylized for me to relate to the realness and tragedy of the situation. Gene’s ultra close-ups and splayed perspectives lend themselves closer to the language used in comic book illustrations than a language that represents reality. In fact, when I look through that book its self-consciousness constantly reminds me more of Gene Richards, the photographer, than the subjects. It may be a disturbing thought but I believe that when photographers look at that work, they may be responding more to Gene and his photography than to the subject. Dimmock avoids being present. She becomes the fly on the wall and sets no artificial barrier between us and the witnessing of events.

The other complicated territory that Dimmock’s book avoids is where some of Gene’s photos cross the line on what we should see and when it might be best to put the camera away. It probably relies on your political sway as to how you digest many of these images but I am not sure I actually need to see a black woman about to humiliate herself by fellating a man for drug money while her child hugs her back. Yes, arguably the world dealt that card to Gene but does he really need to play it? That picture gives image to the stereotype of irresponsibility at the full expense of that woman‘s dignity.

Ultimately, the hardest thing for me to overcome with this type of work is that it always seems to give image to our mental laundry list of what we would expect when imagining a drug addict’s life. Besides the specific facts provided by the photographs, how much is my understanding of the subject being pushed into more complex territory?

The complicated territory in Dimmock’s book will be navigated by way of our judgment. Dimmock focuses mainly on Jesse, whose long-term use of heroin has drastically weathered her former beauty. She, unlike the others, wears a look of sadness in her eyes that may be read as a desire to clean up. Jesse is the only character whom we might care for enough to wish for her escape. But as the book ends, she is in the hospital and still shooting up right in the bed. In the last picture, she finally engages directly with the camera and though her look we suspect that sadly there is little hope and she will take the disease to the grave.

Rachel and Dion on the other hand, come across as two pathetic and hopelessly wasted lives that will always cause distress to others through their destructive behavior. They may have the disease just as Jesse does but their selfish and decadent behavior fuels a resentment towards them that is not present in the photos of Jesse. Perhaps because these two are shown to have each other for support and Jesse is mostly alone but our anger towards these two reaches fever pitch when Rachel becomes pregnant and gives birth. One image of the couple with the newborn on a train provides a horrifying forecast of the baby’s doomed fate. See what I mean about passing judgment through photographs?

The book is inventively designed with many gatefold images and pages of mini-sequences that keep the book interesting. The paper choice is well thought out and the printing is good. Dimmock adds a 'photographer’s note' of a few thousand words that give some insight into her relationship with her subjects and Max Kozloff offers one of his more enjoyable and eloquent introductions.

I have raised the question before of who the audience is for books of this sort. Not that I think the work should be hidden, a book is a natural and perfect vehicle, but it is a world that I do not wish to participate in even voyeuristically. Because of Dimmock I have been given a taste of life on the ninth floor of 4 West 22nd street and I have found it bitter and so nauseating that I have permanently shut the door.

This is a decent book that I will be happy to never open again.

Book Available Here (The Ninth Floor)

Buy online at the ICP

Buy online at Contrasto

Friday, December 7, 2007

Sand In Der Vaseline: Kunstlerbucher II 1980-2002

For those of you interested in books about artists books, there is a German volume published by Walther Konig in 2002 called Sand In Der Vaseline: Kunstlerbucher II 1980 - 2002. This is an exhibition catalog from a show that traveled to a few venues in Germany from 2002 to 2004

From what I can see being that I do not read or speak German and it is available in only German language is that the show divides the 500 artist books from 30 different artists into six thematically arranged chapters: Introduction into thinking, Adult comedy action drama, Visible World, True stories, Becoming a landscape and Edition Separee.

Introduction into thinking is mostly dedicated to the books and catalogs of Martin Kippenberger although other artists included are: Werner Buttner, Georg Herold, Franz West, Albert Oehlen and Heimo Zobernig. It was a book by Kippenberger published in 1986 that lends the exhibition its name. Kippenberger apparently appropriated that title from an Ed Ruscha painting from 1974 called Sand in the Vaseline.

The chapter Adult Comedy Action Drama actually gives more space to Raymond Pettibon’s SST, Superflux and MDA published Xerox booklets than to Richard Prince whose 1995 SCALO book gives this chapter its name. Frankly, I can’t look at that section of Pettibon books without producing a certain amount of acid reflux as in the mid-eighties I had a whole slew of them and they are somewhere six feet down in a landfill in New Jersey. For years Pettibon’s art was used on album covers for his brother Greg Gin’s infamous Hermosa Beach hardcore band Black Flag on SST Records (Minutemen, Husker Du, Saccharine Trust). The booklets were available signed and numbered from SST mail order for about a dollar and a half each and were usually about 20+ pages of Pettibon’s disturbing psychodrama and wit. Now they command prices between 100-250 dollars each.

Visible World is more concerned with photographic artist books with examinations of Han Peter Feldmann, Martin Parr, Boris Mikhailov, Nobuyoshi Araki, Larry Clark, Fischli and Weiss, Nan Goldin, Wolfang Tillmans and Henry Bond. One of my favorites, the great Boris Mikhailov 2-volume set At Dusk and By the Ground published by Oktagon in 1996 is given a decent amount of attention.

True Stories includes books by Barbara Bloom, Sophie Calle, Jenny Holtzer, Barbara Kruger and others.

Becoming a Landscape features an unexpected mix of eclectic works by Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov and Els Scholten.

The last chapter, Editon Seperee looks at small art book publishers such as the Eschenau Summer Press and Temporary Travelling Press publications, the Imschoot, Uitgevers publications, the Sonne Busen Hammer publications, the Fama & Fortune Bulletin publications, the Edition Separee books, and lastly publications by Agnes B.

Due to the language, the deeper discussion beyond the obvious implications due to the chapter titles escapes me so I cannot vouch for the quality of the essays that accompany each chapter. For many readers, this book will serve as an interesting checklist of the exhibition that may add several unknown books to your growing wish list. That is a warning…sort of.

Book Available Here (Sand In Der Vaseline)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Red-Color News Soldier by Li Zhensheng

When Li Zhensheng interviewed for a position as a photographer at the daily newspaper in Heilongjiang province in China in 1963, it was his physical appearance that got him the job. The editor in chief of the paper, seemingly displeased with the physical appearances of the other four photographers on staff, needed at least one that he considered ‘presentable’ to cover visits by foreign guests. Thus was how Li Zhensheng would be cast as one of the most important photographers during China’s most tumultuous periods, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Red-Color News Soldier, published in 2003 by Phaidon collects Zhensheng’s photographs in a handsome volume complete with his personal written accounts of the events.

The Cultural Revolution was an attempt to weed out counter-revolutionaries and solidify support for the communist doctrine of Mao Zedong after his prestige had begun to wane. Five years before, Mao’s attempt to institute a vast network of ‘people’s communes’ aimed at boosting grain and steel production had ended in human disaster with over twenty million dead from famine. With the ensuing criticism of Mao’s policies and the threat of ideological treachery beginning to rise, millions of ‘educated youth’ and party officials started a decade long witch hunt for all enemies of the state that would seem to corrupt the progression of the People’s Republic.

Li Zhensheng’s photographs document fervor and confusion that was to overtake the country for the next decade. Many of his photographs describe the fascinating ways that the people denounced as enemies were put on display and humiliated. Forced to wear giant dunce caps and their faces smeared with black ink, they stand bowing for hours before crowds of hundreds of thousands. Some of Zhensheg’s more disturbing sequences follow several of the accused as they are paraded through the streets on the back of trucks, driven out to the outskirts of Harbin, and executed before crowds of onlookers.

Zhensheng used 35mm and medium format cameras in the production of thousands of negatives during this time. Besides being a remarkable photographer who had a front row seat to most of the events, what is curious to me photographically is how he experiments with different ways of documenting those events. He often took multiple exposures while panning over the landscape so that the three or four images sitting side by side produce a panoramic view. In the one marvelous gatefold in the book, he individually photographs each of seven accused Party secretaries complete with placards hung around their necks as they are denounced and the effect of seeing the photos side by side is akin to some perverse conceptual art piece.

Zhensheng’s writing is a fascinating account of his experiences. One of which tells of his own moment before a crowd as a suspect being denounced and the subsequent investigation into his life and ideology. It was during this investigation that many of his photographs were confiscated but foreseeing the potential for such an event, he hid his negatives under the floor of his apartment. It is the telling of this personal history and the detail in which he is able to remember all of the events that makes this not only a great read, but an important document for history.

The book itself is also one of Phaidon’s finer accomplishments. The printing is good but the designer Julia Hasting should get extra praise for her design and for introducing two different types of paper stocks to differentiate between the Li’s text pages and the photographs. This adds a more seductive tangible quality to the whole production. The cover stock is a bright red plastic that echoes Mao’s little red book and a paper wrap around adds a nice design touch.

Word of warning: Buy a 'new' copy of this book from a trusted source as many available from used sellers are sans cover wrap around and many are stamped with the annoying ’Phaidon non-mint copy’ on the front end paper. I purchased mine ‘new’ but it came stamped and without the wrapper.

Book Available Here (Red-Color News Soldier)

Buy online at Phaidon

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Kunsthaefte 1 - 14 by Jesper Fabricius

Around the time of the Printed Matter Art Book Fair this past summer I mentioned buying a set of books from a Danish artist named Jesper Fabricius. Jesper publishes small handmade artist booklets that range from 8 pages to 20 pages in length under the imprint Space Poetry. One ongoing series of books called Kunsthaefte is currently 14 books strong and counting (I assume there will be more).

Using snippets from existing printed images from magazines he emphasizes relationships of color and texture while giving hints to the original image’s content. For instance, many of the crudely cut snippets seem to have derived from porn magazines or books published in the late 1970’s and 1980’s so after Jesper’s scissors are through, an image might draw your attention incidental details like to part of someone’s face and a painting hanging on the wall behind them instead of the act of sex.

Kunsthaefte nr. 1 was published in 1998 is the largest in trim size of all of the Kunsthaefte series at 8 by 11 ½ inches and contains 8 pages of images in stapled folios. The images use multiple pieces of cutouts placed on the page to create more of a sense of collage than most of the other books have.

Kunsthaefte nr. 2 was published two years later in 2000 and here the trim size has been dramatically reduced to a petite 4 by 5 inches which is the smallest of the entire series. Here the content is abstracted to the point of being a kin to abstract painting. Only rarely does the viewer have enough information of the object the patterns and color were taken from to identify what it is. This is the first of the books that is several folios sewn together in a simple figure 8 stitch as a binding.

Kunsthaefte nr. 3 was published in 2002 is slightly larger in size at 4 by 5 ½ inches and this seems to be the standard for the rest of the series with only a couple exceptions. The content is arrangements of cutout speech balloons. I wish I knew what they say.

Kunsthaefte nr. 4 published in 2002 is one of the shortest at only 8 pages and four images. The content is close up cutouts of a woman or a couple women alternated with two images of a girls hair parted with blue ribbons.

Kunsthaefte nr. 5 published in 2002 is also a short one of 8 pages of women’s breasts.

Kunsthaefte nr. 6 published in 2006 is 12 pages drawing our attention to flower arrangements and plants.

Kunsthaefte nr. 7 published in 2002 is 12 pages of abstracted background patterns some with printed flowers.

Kunsthaefte nr. 8 published in 2003 is a larger booklet of 16 pages at a trim size of 5 ½ by 8 ½ inches. The content is more like nr. 1 with its multiple image collage. Each page has a different background color so the emphasis seems to be on the entire composition of the page rather than on the individual image like in numbers 2 - 7.

Kunsthaefte nr. 9 published in 2004 reverts back to the 4 by 5 ½ inch trim size and it is the first of a few that are sexually explicit in subject matter. Here we are bombarded with creative image grids of close ups of genitalia and intertwined bodies that are bizarre, surreal and often very grotesque.

Kunsthaefte nr. 10 published in 2004 draws our attention to the paintings hanging on the walls just above the faces and tops of heads of people presumably having sex.

Kunsthaefte nr. 11 published in 2007 is 12 pages of photos of vaginas arranged in grids.

Kunsthaefte nr. 12 published in 2007 is 16 pages of photos of penises arranged in grids.

Kunsthaefte nr. 13 published in 2007 is 20 pages of people’s heads. This is an interesting one as the individual pictures are common daily expressions except you notice that some (maybe all) are taken from images of people’s faces while engaged in sex.

Kunsthaefte nr. 14 is 12 pages of individual images of women’s breasts and torsos bound by different configurations of rope.

I like these books for their ready-made and casual look. They probably are labored over by Jesper in their creation but they have an un-precious and disposable feel that suits the imagery. Jesper is one of many artists that uses material at his disposal to re-contexualize the image and divert our attention away from the original intention. As we look, he may be challenging us to pull our mind away from its primal instinct of voyeurism and push our thoughts elsewhere. As we try to evaluate each photo as a new work of art that is complete in its own way, our imaginations and instinct try to expand those boundaries far past what he has presented. This tug and pull is what makes many of these booklets interesting.

The books are occasionally available through Printed Matter in New York City or through the website. Space Poetry. Printed Matter sells most of the recent booklets for around $4.00 US.

www.spacepoetry.dk

www.printedmatter.org