Rangefinder Magazine
December 2004

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Photography Book Round-up by Andre Crump
Your Guide to Some of the Year’s Best

The past year in photography has seen great change. Legends have lived, died, and been born. Change has also been demonstrated in innovation and accessibility. Books that, in the past, may not have found an audience or publisher are now on shelves showing strong sales. This year-end round-up of new publications was selected with the Rangefinder readership in mind, knowing you have a professional and personal interest in photography trends and events and the human form. Several of these books can be purchased from the Rangefinder Marketplace (www.rangefindermag.com/marketplace/).

Autumn, Jean Mulatier
If you love the changing colors of leaves in the fall, Jean Mulatier’s Autumn is a year-round reminder. Compiled over three decades, Autumn includes richly toned images from Mulatier’s travels to Japan, Canada, New England and elsewhere. Although Mulatier’s caricatures appear in Esquire, Graphis, Playboy and Elle, this is his first book of photography. The result reflects his seasonal passion.

(Autumn, by Jean Mulatier, 240 pages, ISBN: 0847826392, $16.95, Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications, web site: www.rizzoliusa.com).

Heaven & Earth: Unseen by the Naked Eye, Katherine Roucoux
It’s all relative in Heaven & Earth. A tiny Swedish ivy pollen grain, perfectly symmetrical and patterned, is still huge compared to frozen carbon dioxide crystals, and on the page both are imaged as large as your coffee cup. In contrast, these objects are as large as entire universes when compared to the size of an actual gold atom, visually captured by a scanning tunneling electron microscope. Pages later, the planet Mars is presented in all of its glory, only to be subsequently dwarfed by the majesty of the Horsehead Nebula. Every photograph in this book is inspiring and original, created by whatever technology is capable of producing these mysteries near, yet small, or large but far, far away. (Heaven & Earth: Unseen by The Naked Eye, by Katherine Roucoux, Mini-paperback edition, 392 pages, ISBN: 071484439X, $16.95, Phaidon Press, www.phaidon.com)

Hippie, Barry Miles
Barry Miles’ chronicles of the Hippie is a fascinating walk through a cultural revolution that changed the way America viewed itself and the world. Though not an official photography book, Hippie has over 600 illustrations that take you on a groovy trip through the clothes, music, literature, movies and politics of the counterculture lifestyle. (Hippie, by Barry Miles, 384 pages, ISBN: 1402714424, $24.95, Sterling Publishing Co., www.sterlingpub.com).

Portraits in Fashion, Robin Muir
Curator Robin Muir has conceived a lovely and informative tribute to Norman Parkinson, one of Britain’s top fashion photographers for over 50 years. Parkinson shot images for Vogue, Town & Country, Queen, and Harper’s Bazaar, where he championed a sense of individuality in glamour shots and his fashion portraits are icons. Supermodel Iman provides the foreword to this classy publication. (Norman Parkinson: Portraits in Fashion, by Robin Muir, foreward by Iman, 191 pages, ISBN: 1570762775, $45, Trafalgar Square Publishing. www.trafalgarsquarebooks.com).

Women, Stefan May
German-born Stefan May presents sensual black-and-white photographic images that focus on people/celebrities and beauty/body subjects. He is famous for his books, Couples and Men, published by teNeues. In his new edition, Women, May proceeds with his artistic quest of glorifying the human figure and form. The images are languid and luxurious in style and substance, and are a perfect completion to this three part series. (Women, by Stefan May, 128 pages, ISBN: 3823845764, $45, teNeues, web site: www.teneues.com)

Sex &Landscapes, Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton’s Sex & Landscapes was timed to coincide with the inauguration of the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. It is now also known as one of the last books designed during Newton’s life. Taschen presents a unique and well done volume of Newton’s little-known landscape and travel work, accented with various Newtonian nude images. The result is described by Philippe Garner of de Pury & Luxembourg as “Helmut’s world of dark, brooding seas, baroque statuary, crashing waves, a long desert highway under threatening skies, a Berlin park at dusk, enigmatic apartment buildings at night, the Rhine seen from the air, the shadows of airplanes, all this interwoven with hard and voyeuristic sexual imagery, plus a touch of his high style and glamour.” (Sex & Landscapes, by Helmut Newton, 112 pages, ISBN: 3822835064, $39.99, Taschen America, web site: www.taschen.com).

Retrospective, Bettina Rheims
Bettina Rheims has been a popular fashion photographer for well over a decade, and her glamorous images continue to grace the covers of the world’s top magazines. Her seductive visuals with Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima of Victoria’s Secret fame have helped to propel both of their careers into the stratosphere, and her books are always on the bestseller lists of photography collectibles. In this retrospective, Rheims’ work on projects such as Female Trouble, Modern Lovers, and even new publication Shanghai are collected and presented as an accompaniment to a traveling exhibition organized by the Helsinki City Art Museum. (Bettina Rheims: Retrospective, 207 pages, ISBN: 3829600615, $49.95, Schirmer/ Mosel, distributed by Prestel Publishing (U.S.), www.prestel.com).

Corpus, Alejandra Figueroa
Fine arts publishers Rizzoli and Nazraeli Press both released beautiful editions of photographic work over the last 12 months. Presented in 69 quadrotones, Alejandra Figueroa’s Corpus is a black-and-white photo-essay of statues from the world’s leading museums. Because of her ability to capture the texture and form of not only the stone pieces but also of their original human models, it is often easy to forget that the subjects photographed are not actually alive. (Corpus, by Alejandra Figueroa, 88 pages, ISBN: 0847825922, $60, Rizzoli International Publications, web site: www.
rizzoliusa.com)

Ops Opis, Ron Van Dongen
Nazraeli Press has mastered the art of fine photography publishing, and Ron van Dongen’s Ops Opis and Todd Hido’s Roaming are perfect illustrations of this fact. Van Dongen’s previous bestsellers were oversized monographs of botanical still lifes. This new duotone, cloaked in Japanese green cloth, is the fourth in the series. Plant life on paper has never looked so exquisite. (Ops Opis, by Ron van Dongen, 56 pages, 32 duotone plates, ISBN: 159 0050967, $75, Nazraeli Press, web site: www.nazraeli.com)

Roaming, Todd Hido
Rising star Todd Hido is a genius. His ability to look at our everyday environment and infuse it with a magical still-life quality, even while he’s moving, is part of his magic. It’s also why he has received such international acclaim. His previous monographs have captured suburbia, from tract homes to lone buildings at night, but in this one he goes across the United States. (Roaming, by Todd Hido, 56 pages, 25 four-color plates., ISBN: 1590050959, $65, Nazraeli Press, www.nazraeli.com)

Photographs, Paul M. Smith
Goliath Books and Taschen have several titles for adventurous audiences with a passion for the cutting edge. Goliath shows the world you can do well by giving people what they want. Of course, exactly what that is remains open to debate, but in the case of Paul Smith and Natural Beauties, it appears to be wackiness and sexuality. Smith, internationally recognized for energetic, experimental digital photography, explores various themes, such as war, masculinity, friendship and gender roles, in which he visually merges men and women. (Paul M. Smith: Photographs, 112 pages, ISBN: 3936709106, $44.95, Goliath Books; www.goliathbooks.com)

Natural Beauties, Eolake Stobblehouse
In Natural Beauties Eolake Stobblehouse poses page after page of nudes in primarily outdoor settings, where their natural beauty can be fully appreciated. (Natural Beauties, Eolake Stobblehouse, 368 pages/350 photos, ISBN: 3936709084, $39.95, Goliath Books; www.goliathbooks.com)

Roy Stuart, Volume III, Alison Castle & Roy Stuart
Roy Stuart, Volume III takes his study of sensuality and seduction to a new level. Provocative and daring, Stuart questions society’s standards on beauty and attraction. His racy work has been exhibited in galleries across the globe, and his previous Volumes have quite a following. (Roy Stuart, Volume III, by Alison Castle & Roy Stuart, 240 pages, ISBN: 3822860549, $39.99, Taschen America; web site: www.taschen.com)

Shooting Stars, Richard Young
Richard Young is no paparazzi, and the A-list photographer has the clients, stories, pictures and party invites to prove it. Young has photographed luminaries and event lovers like Princess Diana, P. Diddy (Sean “Puffy” Combs), John Kennedy Jr., Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Elizabeth Hurley. This easy-to-read collection captures years of his celebrity photo work and his experiences as photographer to the stars. Shooting Stars is a model for photographers with a similar goal, or those who just want to read about it. (Shooting Stars, Richard Young, 260 pages, ISBN: 1843580969, $29.95, Metro Publishing, U.S. distr. by Trafalgar Square Publishing, www.trafalgarsquarebooks.com).

Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers, Elyse Weissberg
Last but not least is Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers. This book is a must-have for any professional or semi-professional photographer. Written by the late Elyse Weissberg, a successful New York photo rep, this guide to marketing oneself is full of tips and information worth its weight in gold. Some useful topics include making career goals, targeting clients and getting their attention, designing mailings, and understanding your value as a photographer. (Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers, by Elyse Weissberg, 160 pages, ISBN: 081745926X, $29.95, Amphoto Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, www.watsonguptill.com)

A.K. Crump has over 25 years of experience in photography, and is founder & publisher of TCB-Café Publishing. His first book, the photo-essay entitled, "Green Eyes, the Greenest Fields," came as a result of time spent in Brazil and France.