Photo Books

Apropos of nothing, I thought I'd talk about some of the photo books I've recently bought that I liked.

• James Nachtwey's Inferno. A physically large book (about 11x17 inches), bound in black cloth, Nachtwey's Inferno is a 470-page history of his war coverage. Somalia, Sudan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Zaire, Chechnya, Kosovo; Nachtwey has seen the worst of humanity. Inferno bears witness to war's inhumanity with beautiful, heart wrenching black and white images, many of which U.S. magazines and newspapers would not run. Inferno is a difficult, important book.
• Paul Strand circa 1916. I'm a big Paul Strand fan; I purchased this one to round out my collection of classics. Covering his time in New York City, the book consists of 170 pages of very well reproduced (duotone and tritone) prints, along with a lengthy introduction. This book is notable because most of the prints are reproductions of original, vintage prints.
• To round out my Strand books, I also picked up Paul Strand Southwest. Recently printed by Aperture, this book covers his time in New Mexico (1926, 1930-32). During this time, Strand split from his mentor Alfred Steiglitz and developed astounding prints of the southwest as well as some wonderful portraits.
• Recently reissued, in a large, beautifully printed edition, Richard Avedon's In The American West collects my favorite of his portraits. 120 11x14" reproductions of his American West photos, taken over five years in the early 1980s, lay bare the nature of every day western life.
• Because I like Avedon so much, I picked up an Aperture monograph of Martin Munkasci. Though Avedon is often credited with breaking fashion photography open, popularizing photos of powerful, dynamic women, he could not have done so without the groundwork lain by Munkasci. Working from the early 1920s, Munkasci's unconventional poses (running, jumping) clearly influenced Avedon's work.
• Though he is constantly mentioned, I had no books with any Marc Riboud photos. That was, until I picked up a copy of Marc Riboud: 50 Years of Photography. Very interesting photography. Surprising. He has traveled the world making beautiful, intimate photographs. I found myself frustrated looking through the photos in this book; they were the photos I would like to make, only better than I could possibly do.
• I've saved the most interesting book for last. I had seen this collection of Ralph Eugene Meatyard's photos before, but passed if over, not knowing who he was. But, wow. What a surprise. Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, working as an optician. he bought a camera to make family snapshots, but soon grew more serious, making photos of people and places around Lexington. Astounding photos. Landscapes, abstracts, portraits, and a number of surreal scenes involving masks and people in motion. An excellent, surprising book.