Ryan Foerster 
Ryan Foerster 
7 x 8.5 in., 48 pages, soft cover, color offset 
Text by Bob Nickas 
Edition of 500 
ISBN 978-0-9847300-1-8 
Publication date: May 2012

(via Hassla)

•  22 May 2012

Unordinary Lives, Afghanistan 2003 - 2009
Manca Juvan
afterwords by Clare Lockhart and Karim Merchant, design by Bostjan Pavletic
196 pages
21 x 26 cm
Offset printing
Edition size: 700 copies
Price: 50 Euros + shipping

“More than ten years after 9/11 and the international community’s intervention against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the promises of bringing democracy and rebuilding this war-torn nation have proved elusive. The ongoing war and instability in Afghanistan - justified in the name of international security yet sweetened with fleeting glimpses of domestic peace, development and prosperity - continues to diminish the hope of the Afghan people, who have been caught up in this endless conflict of interests and struggles for money, power, and control. Stories of ordinary Afghans deserve to be both told and seen in order to remind us what the real images of war and poverty - of lives far from ordinary - look like.”

To order: http://unordinarylives.com/buy-the-book/

•  20 May 2012

The Soho described by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde as ‘a district of some city in a nightmare’ is dramatically different to the one discovered in 2011 by renowned Swedish photographer Anders Petersen. As part of a series of off-site artist commissions supported by Bloomberg, Petersen was invited by The Photographers’ Gallery to undertake a four-week residency in the bubbling creative underbelly of London. Turning his direct and unflinching gaze to the streets of Soho, Petersen produced a series which is both penetrating and sensitive to his subjects. His intimate, diaristic style of coarse black and white photography captures the essence of today’s Soho while drawing you back into the depths of its history.

For a month Petersen immersed himself in the life of the famous London district, documenting the streets, pubs, cafes and private homes of the residents. This latest installment of his series City Diaries is a testament to the dynamism and diversity of the area and the people who frequent and live in it.

(via MACK - Anders Petersen - SOHO)

•  20 May 2012

Who Dares Wins

By Stephen Wooldridge

Digital Colour print

289mm x 380mm

Edition of 300

Newspaper

28PP

Project Description:

Who dares wins is a fictional portrayal of four young men preparing for a career with the British Army. The series is a comment on both the Armed Forces and society, politically and socially. Using these autonomous characters, the viewer is prompted to consider these young men as individuals and as a representation of the British Army today. The series is at times absurd, dull and melancholic. Such are the lives of these individuals.

www.stephenwooldridge.com

•  6 May 2012

Fundraiser for Shane Lavalette

ABOUT THIS PROJECT:

” In 2010 I was commissioned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta to create a new body of photographs for their “Picturing the South” series, which includes past artists Sally Mann, Emmet Gowin, Richard Misrach, Dawoud Bey, Alex Webb and Alec Soth. I’m honored to be amongst these artists, and look forward to exhibiting new work with photographers Martin Parr and Kael Alford in June of 2012.

Having grown up in the Northeast, it was primarily through traditional music—old time, blues, gospel, etc.—that I had formed a relationship with the South. With that in mind, the region’s rich musical history became the natural entry point for my work. I was not interested in making a documentary about Southern music today, but desired to explore the relationship between traditional music and the contemporary landscape through a more poetic lens. Moved by the themes and stories past down in songs, I let the music itself carry the pictures. 

Two years later, with the project now complete, I have begun working on a mock-up of a book which I believe is the ideal venue for this body of work. From the beginning I imagined this project in book form. With your help, I hope to make this book physical in the coming months. “

– Shane Lavalette

(via Picturing the South, A Photobook by Shane Lavalette — Kickstarter)

•  28 April 2012

Paul Graham 
The Present

114 pages, including 13 gatefolds

24.5 cm x 30.5 cm
Hardback with embossed cover

Publication date: April 2012

ISBN 978-1-907946-18-9

Publisher’s Description:

Street photography is perhaps the defining genre of photographic art. Seminal works by Walker Evans, Harry Callahan, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand display photography’s astonishing dance with life, and its unique role in forming our perceptions of the modern world.

The Present is Paul Graham’s contribution to this legacy. The images in this book come unbidden from the streets of New York, but are not quite what we might expect, for each moment is brought to us with its double – two images taken from the same location, separated only by the briefest fraction of time. We find ourselves in sibling worlds, where a businessman with an eye patch becomes, an instant later, a man with an exaggerated wink; a woman eating a banana walks towards us, and a small focus shift reveals the blind man right behind her.

Although there are flashes of surprise – a woman walks confidently down the street one moment, only to tumble to the ground a second later – for the most part there is little of the drama street photography is addicted to. People arrive and depart this quiet stage, with the smallest shift of time and attention revealing the thread between them. A suited young businessman crosses the road, only to be replaced by his homeless alternate; a woman in a pink t-shirt is engulfed with tears, but seconds later there is a content shopper in her place.

The Present gives us an impression quite different to most street photography where life is frozen rigid. Here we glimpse the continuum: before/after, coming/going, either/or. A ‘present’ that is a fleeting and provisional alignment, with no singularity or definitiveness; a world of shifting awareness and alternate realities, where life twists and spirals in a fraction of a second to another moment, another world, another consciousness.

The Present is the third in Paul Graham’s trilogy of projects on America which began with American Night in 2003 and was followed in 2007 by a shimmer of possibility (winner of the Paris Photo Book Prize 2011 for the most significant photo book of the past 15 years). The Present takes Graham’s reputation as a master of the book form to new heights, employing multiple gatefolds to convey passages of time and the unfolding of urban life.

(via MACK - Paul Graham - The Present)

•  27 April 2012

Gazed Upon

Curated by Amy Elkins

Featuring artists, Jen Davis, 
Cara Phillips & Stacey Tyrell

Essay by photographer & writer, 
Sarah Palmer

5 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. 
Perfect bound soft cover 
74 pages 
29 plates 
Printed on Mohawk Superfine

Designed & published by Ampersand 
Printed & bound in Portland, Oregon

Edition of 100

Numbers 1-10 are signed by curator Amy Elkins & include one signed & numbered print by each artist.

In bringing together the work of North American artists Jen Davis, Cara Philips & Stacey Tyrell in the current exhibition, Gazed Upon, curator & artist Amy Elkins asks the viewer to interrogate his or her own sense of looking. We are presented with three artists who challenge standard notions of “beauty” & perception, causing a schism between what we think we see & how we might read or interpret it. Along these lines, we, as viewers, are directed through the title of the exhibition to employ the gaze, that loaded Lacanian term that piles all of our potency & desires onto the “object” upon which we gaze. These artists, working in different media & different shooting styles all dance with this complex set of ideas about the role of the observer, how the gaze, itself, is employed & how it might reflect back on an audience.

- Sarah Palmer (from the book essay)

(via Ampersand - Gallery & Bookshop — Gazed Upon - Guest Curated by Amy Elkins)

•  22 April 2012

Title: Surfing Hong Kong
Artist: James Feldman
Designer: Elise Inthavixay
40 pages, 37 color plates
24.4 x 16.8 cm / 9 5/8 x 6 5/8 in
edition of 500
offset lithograph
ISBN: 978-988-16222-1-1


In Surfing Hong Kong (2012) James Feldman combines “soulful” surf photographs taken 15 to 20 years ago in California, with more recent photographs taken in Hong Kong (where he has lived since 2005). In these 37 images, the moods and surroundings of two discrete periods of a life are woven digitally together, and resonate in a way that’s as uncomfortable with the label “fiction”, as with the label “documentary”.

book available here: http://hongkongpaintings.com/surfing_hong_kong_order.html

•  19 April 2012

Twentysix Gasoline Cans
Publication date: March, 2012
Perfect-bound, 5.5”x7.25”
Printed by McGreevy Pro Lab
© Joseph Putrock
Edition of 300

available through Small Batch Editions

Twentysix Gasoline Cans by Joseph Putrock is an homage to Ed Ruscha’s 1962 seminal book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. This book contains 26 color images shot by Putrock over a 3 year period. 

Twentysix Gasoline Cans is available for purchase for $20 for the book alone, or for $50 with a choice of one of two 8″x10″ digital c-prints by the artist. The two available prints are Hidden Gas Can (Option One - 20 available) and Hoader’s Can Can #1, Cohoes, NY (Option Two - 20 available).

About the artist 

Joseph Putrock’s photographs are simple observations of everyday life. His photographs contain nothing but the objects or scenes that everyone encounters on a daily basis, and often times miss. He merely captures these simplicities, which may have gone unnoticed, and holds them up for further contemplation. Odd Juxtapositions, idiosyncratic colors, and humor are all elements that creep into these sometimes complex, and sometimes pedantic images.

For more information on Joseph Putrock, visit Stafford Contemporary.

•  18 April 2012

•  1 April 2012

Sarah Hobbs: Small Problems in Living

Quote from publisher:

This is a superbly illustrated overview of the work of contemporary artist/photographer Sarah Hobbs. The photographs collected here are the product of an ongoing exploration into our neurotic tendencies. Hobbs’s work explores phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders and how we attempt to deal with them. Set in domestic spaces, the images illustrate the idea that even the most comfortable spaces can house our uneasiness. A compilation of three series, the book allows the viewer to see the work as a whole in order to gain a full understanding of Hobbs’ intent to explore the human psyche and relish the idea that we are all beautifully flawed.

Artists: Sarah Hobbs

Authors: Lisa Kurzner, Winifred Gallagher

Publisher: Charta

Format: 28 x 28 cm

Pages: 72

Binding: hardback

Illustrations: 25 including 24 in color

Year: 2011

Edition: english

ISBN 978-88-8158-831-2

D.A.P. spring 2012 catalogue: p. 172

www.sarahhobbs.net

•  22 March 2012