Broken Spine

photo-eye Bookstore | Yann Gross: Kitintale

Photographs by Yann Gross.
Yann Gross, 2010. 48 pp., Color illustrations throughout, 9¼x12½”.

Publisher’s Description:
Kampala area & the first East African skatepark constructed by local youngsters.

The first Uganda skateboarders were inspired by the television, but hadn’t any concrete to practice on in their neighborhood. They built the only skatepark of East Africa with their own hand in Kitintale, a working class suburb of Kampala. With no assistance from government or large NGO’s, kids from Uganda took significant steps to overcome boredom and poverty through skateboarding. Skateboarding keeps the youth busy, combats the development of negative habits and develops a sense of belonging to a community. The elder skateboarders became also kind of educators. They talk about the problems that many Ugandan families are facing like HIV or malaria and try to inculcate values such as respect and solidarity among the younger ones.

• 28 January 2011

photo-eye | The Best Books of 2010

Check out photo-eye’s list of this years best photography books, selected by some big names in the industry.

• 7 January 2011

Aperture Foundation | The Flesh and The Spirit - Sally Mann

The Flesh and The Spirit

Sally Mann (photographs)
John Ravenal (author)
David Levi Strauss (essay)
Anne Wilkes Tucker (essay)

Clothbound with jacket
11 1/2” x 9”
200 pages
1 six-page gatefold, 225 four-color images

Sally Mann: The Flesh and The Spirit is the artist’s first thematic survey focusing on her thirty-year exploration of the human form, tackling often difficult subject matter and making unapologetically sensual images that are simultaneously bold and lyrical. In collaboration with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and accompanying its landmark exhibition opening November 13, 2010, Aperture is pleased to publish the first in-depth look at this world-renowned artist’s approach to the body.

This beautifully produced publication includes Mann’s earliest platinum prints from the late 1970s, Polaroid still lifes, early color work of her children, haunting landscape images, recent self-portraits, and nude studies of her husband. The series document Mann’s interest in the body as principal subject, with the associated issues of vulnerability and mortality lending an elegiac note to her images.

In bringing them together, author and curator John Ravenal examines the varied ways in which Mann’s experimental approach, including ambrotypes and gelatin-silver prints made from collodian wet-plate negatives, moves her subjects from the corporeal to the ethereal.

- I am so excited that I get to see this show at the VMFA when I go home this Christmas.

• 13 November 2010

Aperture Foundation | Kodachromes- William Christenberry

Hardcover with jacket
11 2/5” x 9 2/5”
176 pages
115 four-color image

Publishers Description:

William Christenberry: Kodachromes is the first publication to showcase the artist’s stunning and previously unknown body of work produced with 35 mm Kodachrome slide film. Spanning from 1964 to 2007, only a small number of the images have ever been published or exhibited. As in all of Christenberry’s photographs, the subject matter is the rural Deep South: the twisting back roads, open landscapes, rusted signage, and ramshackle vernacular architecture found in Hale County, Alabama where the artist was born and raised. Though many of the sites pictured in this rare collection are new, other subjects grew iconic in Christenberry’s oeuvre as he has returned to photograph them for decades—the red building in the forest, Sprott Church, the Palmist Sign, and the Bar-B-Q Inn, among others. However, the photographs in William Christenberry: Kodachromes, made with a camera that allowed for greater mobility, reveal new ways of considering Christenberry’s perennial subjects and offer further insight into the working method of this venerable artist. With the recent discontinuation of Kodachrome film by Kodak, the work in this beautiful volume is rendered even more meaningful.

• 6 November 2010

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS’
BOOKS CONFERENCE

November 5-6
The NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1

Symposium on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture

Tickets begin at $20

www.nyartbookfair.com

——-

The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference is a dynamic, two-day event focused on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture. Full conference tickets, which include a newly commissioned book by Emily Roysdon, are now available online (single-session tickets are also available).

The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference is organized by Printed Matter, Inc. and The NY Art Book Fair, November 5–7 at MoMA PS1, featuring more than 280 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, museums, galleries, and artists from twenty-four countries, exhibiting the very best of contemporary art publishing. Admission to the NY Art Book Fair is free, including the preview, Thursday, November 4 from 6-9 p.m. Visit the NY Art Book Fair website and Facebook page for updates as well as a complete list of programs.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Furthering the Critical Dialogue
This session will further a key concern of last year’s Conference: the state of artists’ books criticism. Through myriad critical approaches, speakers will not discuss the “state of” artists books criticism per se, but instead directly engage in a critical evaluation of select works.

Participants include: Tate Shaw, director, Visual Studies Workshop; Karen Schiff, artist, New York; Susan Viguers, director, Book Arts/ Printmaking MFA program, University of the Arts; and Kathleen Walkup, professor and director of the Book Art program, Mills College. Moderated by Tony White, Indiana University Libraries.

2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Typography and Writing
Without typography, the published word does not exist. How do contemporary writers engage with form? How have designers grappled with the concept of authorship? With the rise of digital publishing, writers have new opportunities to think about how their work is produced and distributed. This session will explore typography and design across a range of current publishing formats.

Participants include: Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Maryland Institute College of Art; and Will Holder, artist, London.

4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Keynote: Richard Hell, Josh Smith, and Christopher Wool
A conversation between three artists whose recent collaborations include such books as Psychopts (JMC & GHB Editions, 2008) and Can your monkey do the dog (MFC Michele Didier, 2007).

5:45 - 6:45 p.m.
Pecha Kucha: Artists’ Books, Zines, and Publishing
This pecha kucha (the Japanese word for “the sound of conversation”), will consist of ten presenters offering fifteen slides each, displayed twenty seconds at a time. Presenters will have five minutes to discuss each project based on interest, influence, or intrigue. The quick pace and strictly enforced time limit of this session format ensures a lively, engaging and entertaining discussion.

Participants include: Tony White, Indiana University Libraries; Jae Rossman, assistant director for Special Collections, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University; and Karen Schiff, artist, New York; and others.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2010

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Experimental Libraries and Reading Rooms
What constitutes an experimental library? What is the impetus to create such a library and what impact do such spaces have on our exchange of ideas, the conduct of research, or the creation of art? Does this impulse stem from a need to create an intellectual community outside of academia, address an underrepresented subject, articulate an intellectual curiosity, or is it simply nostalgia for printed books and libraries? These spaces share the common trait of presenting unique collections of research material to the public. Martha Wilson of Franklin Furnace will give an introductory presentation.

Participants include: Wendy Yao, Ooga Booga; Andrew Beccone, the Reanimation Library; Robin Cameron and Jason Polan, the Assembled Picture Library; and Tiffany Malakooti and Babok Radboy, Bidoun Library. Moderated by Renaud Proch, Independent Curators International (ICI).

2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Riot Grrrl: Traces of a Movement
Riot Grrrl is a feminist movement that rose during the mid-1990s and is closely associated with punk rock, radical politics, and a DIY ethic. Its participants left behind a lengthy paper trail of film, photography, art, video, music, and zines, a selection of which have recently entered the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University. This panel of artists, musicians, and writers will discuss the history and cultural artifacts of the movement.
Participants include: Lisa Darms, Fales Library, NYU; Jenna Freedman, Barnard College
Library; Sarah Marcus; and Molly Neuman. Moderated by Gretchen Wagner..

4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
The Pedagogy of Artists’ Publications
Artists’ publications have a presence in academia beyond the usual bookmaking class. This session steps back from the technical aspects of publishing to survey the way in which this practice manifests within the classroom. How do conversations overlap or diverge from the DIY. ethos of artists’ zines? In what way might individuals and institutions continue to support the field of artists’ publications? By convening a group of practitioners from various backgrounds, including recent MFA-program graduates, this panel will explore the current climate of pedagogy surrounding artists’ publications.

Participants include: Kirby Gookin, department of Art and Art Professions, New York University; Duncan Hamilton, department of Communications Design, Pratt Institute; Megan Plunkett and Daniel Wagner, The Kingsboro Press; and Ruby Sky Stiler, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University. Moderated by Catherine Krudy, director, Printed Matter, Inc.

5:45 - 6:45 p.m.
Closing Reception, with Emily Roydson
Join us for a reception in celebration of the release of a specially commissioned book by Emily Roysdon, an interdisciplinary artist and writer who examines the intersections of choreography and politics. Roysdon’s book is a meditation on vintage photographs of the New York piers by queer photographer Alvin Baltrop.

Printed Matter, Inc. presents
The NY Art Book Fair, November 5–7, 2010
MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. at the intersection of 46th Ave., Long Island City, NY

Free and open to the public:

Preview: November 4, 6-9 p.m.
Friday & Saturday, November 5 & 6, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sunday, November 7, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Image: Emily Roydson with photography by Alvin Baltrop, West Street, 2010. Forthcoming artists’ book, published on the occasion of the NY Art Book Fair and the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference.

(via PrintedMatter.org)

• 31 October 2010

Aperture Foundation | Events | Discussion and Book Signing with Trevor Paglen

Artist Discussion and
Book Signing with Trevor Paglen

Thursday, October 21, 2010
7:00 pm

FREE

City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, California

Trevor Paglen will discuss his work in his long-awaited first photographic monograph: Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapesthat has received rave reviews from the press since its publication by Aperture in August 2010. Social scientist, artist, writer, and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies—the “black world”—for the last eight years, publishing, speaking, and making astonishing photographs.

As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his mysterious, compelling pictures often stop short of traditional ideas of documentation. Showcasing the artwork of an important emerging talent,Invisible speaks to the multidisciplinary practices employed by many of today’s most interesting contemporary artists. The book highlights the array of tactics used by Paglen to depict both what can and cannot be seen.

Rebecca Solnit, noted author on culture and photography, contributes a searing essay that traces this history of clandestine military activity on the American landscape

• 21 October 2010

My Grandma Was a Turtle.
Photographs by Cuny Janssen.
Snoeck, 2010. 84 pp., 85 color illustrations, 9½x12¾”.

Publisher’s Description
For this rhapsodic artist’s book, Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen visited that town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to photograph children with Native American ancestors and their surroundings. Her motivation was curiosity about what traces of their origins could be seen in these modern Native American children; the title refers to the Turtle clan of the Delaware tribe in Oklahoma. The 85 elegiac photos in this book, some in beautifully reproduced color, were taken with Janssen’s large format camera, and include surprisingly anachronistic images of the prairie, complete with bison. Janssen’s unique combination of children and history results in a lyrical bridge across time. The hand-pasted reproductions make this book feel like early photograph albums or collector’s albums for cigarette cards. Limited edition of 1000 copies.

(via photo-eye Bookstore | Janssen Cuny: My Grandma Was a Turtle | photobooks)

• 16 October 2010

Richmond Zine Fest 2010 – Oct 16 at the GCCR « The Richmond Zine Fest

It’s official! The 2010 Richmond Zine Fest will be on October the 16th at the Gay Community Center of Richmond from 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM!

This is an all-ages free event to attend!! If you wish to rent a table please visit the registration section of our page.

Also, the evening of October 15th we will be having a zine reading potluck at the Wingnut! So please get in touch with us if you would like to read your work to lots of fanzine fans the evening before the fest.

• 15 October 2010

Steidl– Contraband by Taryn Simon

Contraband

by Taryn Simon

Steidl & Partners

Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Co-published with Gagosian Gallery
480 pages, 1075 colour plates
24.5 cm x 16.5 cm
Softcover in one of three colours, selected for shipping at random.
Steidl & Partners
ISBN: 978-3-86930-134-1
Publication date: September 2010

Co-published with Gagosian Gallery

Taryn Simon lived in John F Kennedy International Airport from November 16 through November 20, 2009. JFK processes more international passengers than any other airport in the United States. Contraband includes photographs taken 24 hours a day of over 1000 items detained or seized from passengers and express mail entering the U.S. from abroad. Over five days, in both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Facility, Simon documented items including counterfeit American Express travelers checks, overproof Jamaican rum, heroin, a dead hawk, an illegal Mexican passport, deer penis, purses made from endangered species, Cuban cigars, counterfeit Disney DVDs, khat, gold dust, GHB concealed as house cleaner, cow manure tooth powder, counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags, prohibited sausage, undeclared jewelry, steroids and an ostrich egg.

• 15 October 2010

Here and There- The Blue Issue

Here and There 10also see Vol.1
Nakako Hayashi

4 Pages, 21 x 29.7 cm, Color Offset, Bilingual, First Edition, 2010

with Aki Goto, Susan Cianciolo, Bless, Laetitia Benat, Aoi Nagae, Yukinori Maeda, Akira Onozuka, Takashi Homma, Akira Minagawa, Nobuya Hitsuda, Shimabuku, Katsumi Omori, Mark Borthwick, Takehito Koganezaw

Publisher’s Description:

“A year ago, I visited Aichi prefecture in the end of summer. It was to reflect on the work of Nobuya Hitsuda, as well as to see the exhibition “In the Little Playground: Hitsuda Nobuya and his surrounding students” that reflects on the time, in his 40 years of teaching experience, he spent with his students, such as Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito, Kyoko Murase, Mika Kato and many more.

Although having visited on an assignment, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Even for people who are actively recognized, there are still moments, numerous times in your life, where one needs to spend those blue hours alone. The process, to be alone, to suffer with unsettled emotion, is necessary to move forward.

Around the same time, I was asked by chance to write an essay, and decided to write on raising children. Raising children is also about continuous time that cannot be controlled. In the end of that summer, those were the two things that were on my mind, so I decided to put together an issue for Here and There, focusing on the blue hour that can make our lives colorful, as well as the color blue itself.

I looked up at the blue sky. Blue is a color that represents the beauty of nature, but at the same time, it exists in many things manmade. Blue can be found in clothing you wear against your skin, somewhere near you, and far away. The aim is to seek for a blue in personal emotions and in the growing process of people and to find it scattered in the world. This, hoping that it will be an attempt to sprout something in people’s hearts.”

Nakako Hayash

• 13 October 2010

Colstrip, Montana.
Photographs by David T. Hanson. Introduction by Rick Bass. Text by David T. Hanson.
Taverner Press, 2010. 200 pp., 87 color illustrations, 11¾x9¾”.

Publisher’s Description
Over the past 30 years, American photographer David T. Hanson has scoured the American landscape for telltale signs of the way we live now-what we do with our land and how we live on it. Colstrip, Montana, is the site of one of the largest coal strip-mines in North America. Between 1982 and 1985, Hanson undertook a photographic investigation of the mine, power plant and industrial site. The Colstrip, Montana sequence was first exhibited by John Szarkowski at The Museum of Modern Art in 1986. This book publishes the entire series for the first time.

(via photo-eye Bookstore | David T. Hanson: Colstrip, Montana | photo book)

• 7 October 2010

MATTHIEU LAVANCHY: Staging Space book / Gestalten Verlag

matthieulavanchy:

Some of my work is featured in the new book from the Gestalten Verlag:

Staging Space

Scenic Interiors and Spatial Experiences

Featuring an extensive collection of work in which images and space meld seamlessly into a single narrative entity, Staging Space offers new solutions…

• 7 October 2010

Road Ends in Water.
Photographs by Eliot Dudik.
SAGA Publishing, 2010. 96 pp., 38 color illustrations, 11x8½”.

Publisher’s Description:
Change is descending upon an otherwise quiet, unhurried, unobtrusive, place. The main highway, U.S. Route 17, that bisects South Carolina’s ‘lowcountry,’ is being widened to accommodate commerce, tourists, and urban refugees. Not only are many homes, some historic, disappearing before the tracked blades of expansion, but also the newer, faster thoroughfare encourages greater disregard and obliviousness to the charm and culture the basin harbors.

This collection of images and thoughts is a tribute to, and an acknowledgment of, the respect the modest souls of this region, obscure from the mainstream, deserve for their tenacity, good humor, social commitment, and acceptance of the ebb and flow of the often incomprehensible vagaries of existence.

via(photo-eye Bookstore | Eliot Dudik: Road Ends in Water | photobooks)

• 4 October 2010