Dear friend of Beyond Words,

A very happy new year to all our customers. Apologies that the launch of our new website will have to be delayed till February. In the meantime, you are welcome to order through the existing website or, of course, by email or phone as usual.

At some point in February we should have stock of three new publications by Michael Kenna.  Gallery Kong in Seoul are producing a new, slightly extended edition of The Philosopher’s Tree as well as a new publication, Tranquil Morning.  I’m afraid I don’t have much information on the latter other than that it will be similar in format to The Philosopher’s Tree.  Please note, though, that we will be getting signed copies only of these publications so early ordering is advised.

RAM Publications, who produced the two beautiful Kenna volumes, In Japan and In Hokkaido, are also about to publish a companion volume In France.

The Getty Museum have produced a monumental work to celebrate the achievements of Carleton Watkins, foremost 19th century photographer of the American West, including Yosemite, San Francisco, and the Pacific Coast, as well as the development of railroads and industry. Between 1858 and 1891 Watkins produced nearly 1300 ‘mammoth’ (18 x 22 inch) glass-plate negatives, the majority of which exist in only one surviving print. Of these, fewer than three hundred have been previously reproduced or exhibited. Over 608 pages, The Complete Mammoth Photographs assembles all of Watkins’s known mammoth-plate photographs.

For a more contemporary take on the American West (though with the same monumental impact), take a look at Jamey Stillings’ The Bridge at Hoover Dam which documents the building of the new bridge. It’s another beautiful Nazraeli production, measuring 13.5 x 17" with 60 four-colour plates (click here for examples).

The Fraenkel Gallery are publishing a new edition of Prairie by Robert Adams whose influential landscape photography documents human encroachment on the plains of the American West. First published in 1978, this expanded volume includes all of the original images, along with new photographs selected and sequenced by Adams himself, many of which are being published for the first time.

In the US, Mark Klett’s name is almost as much revered among landscape photographers as Adams’ – particularly for his ‘rephotographic’ surveys of landscapes previously recorded by 19th century photographers - but he remains too little known here. His latest book, The Half-life of History – published by Radius, who can be relied on for quality – documents Wendover Airbase, once the world’s largest, now crumbling from neglect. Its historic significance is that it was where the bomber that carried the Hiroshima bomb was readied for its mission. See here for further examples of Klett’s work and see the Radius Books site for images from this book: We will have signed and unsigned copies of this title.

Master photographic printer and Yale College of Art professor Richard Benson has waited till retirement age to publish a monograph of his own work. Having been entrusted earlier in his career with printing photographs by Stieglitz, Strand, Friedlander and Atget, in North South East West he now presents nearly 100 of his own photographs from throughout the American continent. They highlight not only the unique properties of his prints, but also his fresh techniques for reproducing them on a printing press. You can find a wealth of Benson's images on the Pace/MacGill website

Peter Bialobrzeski is another photographer who deserves greater recognition here. A German photographer, perhaps best known for Neon Tigers, photos of fast-growing Asian metropolises. That book is now out of print but a selection is included in his new collection, The Raw and the Cooked, which represents a ‘best of’ his career so far (see the photographer's website for images). “Seductively beautiful tableaux from fourteen different countries depict the kind of ‘progress’ that triggers a sense of anxiety and trepidation”.

Like Bialobrzeski, fellow German photographer Jorn Vanhofen is concerned with the environmental consequences of rapid economic development. Aftermath documents his journeys to Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America, from the Chicago stock exchange, the townships of Cape Town, and the scorched forests in Apulia to abandoned factories in Detroit and salvage yards in his hometown in the Ruhr region. “His unique, poetic photographs depict ruins of our time. And while they may be fascinatingly beautiful, the looming consequences of our actions at the same time horrify us.”

Lukas Felzmann is a Swiss photographer whose work follows delightfully idiosyncratic directions. His latest work, Swarm, explores the flock movements of migrating birds. “The photographs offer a unique view of the beauty but also the complexity and diversity of shape variations. A swarm sitting on the ground mirrors the surface of the earth like a skin, but as soon as it lifts up it becomes a fluid three-dimensional system in constant flux. This aerial ballet reveals a rhythm of upward explosion and downward, cascading movement.” See the Lars Müller website for images.

Leonie Hampton’s In the Shadow of Things has been nominated for awards and features in many book-of the-year lists. For over a decade Léonie’s mother Bron found it impossible to empty the packing boxes which had filled her new home since the collapse of her first marriage. The boxes, along with packed plastic bags and accumulated artefacts from her former life, were a constant, physical reminder to her family of Bron's long-running battle with OCD. In 2007, a deal was struck: Léonie would help Bron empty the house on the condition that she be allowed to document that process. The book combines original photographs with found family images and transcripts of conversations, arguments and monologues. The result is an honest and intimate portrait of a family dealing with mental illness. See the photographer's website for images.

The prolific Michael Wolf’s latest book, Real Fake Art, explores the demand for cheap reproductions of classic Western Art works met by young Chinese men and women. The book consists of portraits of these artist/copyists taken in their home environment holding samples of their work.

Self-portraiture has been an important aspect of Lee Friedlander’s work throughout his career. Various volumes have been published before but none have the comprehensive scope of In the Picture: Self-Portraits 1958-2011, which includes hundreds of previously unpublished pictures among its 400 duotone images—from his first self-portraits, taken with cable release in hand, to recent images of the photographer with his family and extended network of friends.

There’s a useful new reference work for students of Diane Arbus. A Chronology is drawn primarily from Arbus’s extensive correspondence with friends, family, and colleagues; personal notebooks; and other unpublished writings. Further rounding out Arbus’s life and work are exhaustively researched footnotes that amplify the entire Chronology. A section at the end of the book provides biographies for fifty-five personalities, family members, friends, and colleagues. The texts in A Chronology originally appeared in Diane Arbus Revelations. This volume makes them available in an accessible, paperback volume for the very first time.

Still life seems to be a comparatively neglected area in contemporary photography so it’s good to note the appearance of Still Life in Photography, which traces its significance in the medium since 1827 through photographs selected from the Getty Museum’s collection. It includes work by Bayard, Fenton, de Meyer, Penn, and Weston, as well as a sampling of contemporary artists.

Many years ago, our Cockburn Street shop sold quite a few copies of an excellent collection, Reconstructing Space: Architecture in Recent German Photography. I had assumed it was out of print but was delighted to get hold of some copies which we are selling at the bargain price of £10. The architecture won’t seem so recent now (it was published in 1999) but the quality of photographers included (e.g Bechers, Demand, Gursky, Hofer, Struth) make this a very worthwhile collection

Two important mid-career retrospectives by influential contemporary photographers have recently been reprinted: Steidl’s Paul Graham and Hatje Cantz’s Andreas Gursky 80-08, reappearing in a revised edition.

At long last, the John Gossage/Alec Soth collaboration, The Auckland Project has been published. We are hoping to get signed copies eventually but order now if you’re happy with an unsigned copy..

Finally I should draw to your attention that Francesca Woodman’s Notebook has been released. This is a must-have for committed Woodman fans though not the best place to start if you are new to her work.

As always if you would like to order any of the titles listed or would like more information concerning anything mentioned in our newsletters please contact us by phone or at the email address at the bottom of this message. You may also order any of these books at www.beyondwords.co.uk.

Best Wishes,

Beyond Words

Tel: (01620) 895985

Email: info@beyondwords.co.uk
Web: www.beyondwords.co.uk

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