Man Ray: Paris Photographs 1920-1934
(Delano Greenidge Editions. Man Ray: Paris Photographs 1920-34. New York, NY, 2000)
Bio: Man Ray is known as one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890. He then moved to New York as a young child and spent his time as a youth there studying and showing in many different exhibitions starting at a young age. He was not only a photographer but also a painter, film maker, sculptor, and writer. He was very involved in the Dadaist and Surrealist movement in New York and Paris. He moved to Paris at the age of 31 and lived there until World War II. During the war he moved to Hollywood and finally moved back to Paris to live out the rest of his life there and inevitably died there.
This photography book was filled with large black and white prints that were taken over the course of about 15 years. Man Ray defined "his" women (his subjects) as ideal beauty. He considered their nude figures and his photographs as "the mental transformations of eroticism." There is a beautiful combination of still lifes, landscapes, portraits, nudes, and solagrams from experimenting in the dark room. His photographs are the definition of classic beauty.
Graciela Iturbide, Juchitan de las Mujeres 1979 > 1989
(Poniatowska, Elche and Bellatin, Mario. Graciela Iturbide Juchitan de las Mujeres 1979 > 1989. Verona, Italy, 2010)
Bio: Iturbide is a Mexican photographer. She was born in 1942 and grew up in a large family. She ended up marrying an architect and having three children. Tragically in 1970 her six year old daughter died. Her death inspired Iturbide to become a photographer and focus on families in her country.
Graciela Iturbide's photography book is filled with touching portraits and family scenes that have a comedic feel to them. Each image is a crisp black and white photograph that has a lighthearted feel to them. While many pictures have a somber feel to them, they are all filled with so much life. As a whole this collection seems to capture the culture in the Oaxaca community exceptionally. There were two images that really stuck out to me. The first was of a woman with about ten iguanas crawling on her head, seemingly coming out of her hair. She seemed completely serene. The other photograph was of a woman sitting on a toilet completely drenched in water. It's hard to tell where this water came from but the oddity of the photograph drew me to it. In the introduction it describes how in their culture the women are in power and homosexuality is very much accepted because that only means women's sons will never leave them. These people have no sense of shame and no visible class difference. It is also a very sexual community. The first page is entitled "The man with the sweet penis." It also goes on to refer to having sex as the "little death."
Bassman | Himmel
(Kehrer. Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel. Hamburg, 2009)
Bio: Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel were a couple that were known for their creative tensions and their ability to also create beautiful art together. They were independent in their own work but also collaborated together frequently. As they both grew older they both grew more interested in street photography and social motifs. Bassman changed how many view fashion. Himmel gave up photography when he got older because he claimed he "no longer saw any way to progress in the field." Their images have now become interchangeable because they used the same camera and worked together on so many different shoots that many times you can not tell their work apart.
Within this book its obvious how experimental both Bassman and Himmel were during their careers. There is a lot of play on focus and the lighting tends to be the most important element in these images. Abstracted figure and portraits seem to be a re-occurring theme. There is beautiful movement captured in the series with the ballerinas. They have long exposures and give the illusions of ghosts dancing. Through the book the studies change slightly from ghost like figures to beauty shots from Vogue and Bazaar, to playing with color patterns and solarization.
Graciela Iturbide's photography book is filled with touching portraits and family scenes that have a comedic feel to them. Each image is a crisp black and white photograph that has a lighthearted feel to them. While many pictures have a somber feel to them, they are all filled with so much life. As a whole this collection seems to capture the culture in the Oaxaca community exceptionally. There were two images that really stuck out to me. The first was of a woman with about ten iguanas crawling on her head, seemingly coming out of her hair. She seemed completely serene. The other photograph was of a woman sitting on a toilet completely drenched in water. It's hard to tell where this water came from but the oddity of the photograph drew me to it. In the introduction it describes how in their culture the women are in power and homosexuality is very much accepted because that only means women's sons will never leave them. These people have no sense of shame and no visible class difference. It is also a very sexual community. The first page is entitled "The man with the sweet penis." It also goes on to refer to having sex as the "little death."
Bassman | Himmel
(Kehrer. Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel. Hamburg, 2009)
Bio: Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel were a couple that were known for their creative tensions and their ability to also create beautiful art together. They were independent in their own work but also collaborated together frequently. As they both grew older they both grew more interested in street photography and social motifs. Bassman changed how many view fashion. Himmel gave up photography when he got older because he claimed he "no longer saw any way to progress in the field." Their images have now become interchangeable because they used the same camera and worked together on so many different shoots that many times you can not tell their work apart.
Within this book its obvious how experimental both Bassman and Himmel were during their careers. There is a lot of play on focus and the lighting tends to be the most important element in these images. Abstracted figure and portraits seem to be a re-occurring theme. There is beautiful movement captured in the series with the ballerinas. They have long exposures and give the illusions of ghosts dancing. Through the book the studies change slightly from ghost like figures to beauty shots from Vogue and Bazaar, to playing with color patterns and solarization.
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