| FinePhoto
News will
be your source of news relating to what is happening with Fine
Photography Books & Prints web site and news from the
photography book world. Our plan is to help you stay abreast with the
latest news about photography books, artist's books, and photography
related issues.
In this issue:
New
on the Web site
This
months featured book
News
New
releases
Soon to be released
Book Thoughts - Getting Intimate with Photographs
About FinePhoto News
New
on the Web site
We changed the look of the web site. The site now boasts a
simplified (at hopefully more modern) look. The navigation of the site
has stayed the same ... for now. Also, a new page featuring new released
books and additions to the site has been added, NEW
ADDITIONS.
Featured
Book
Fotofest 2004
Catalogue from the Tenth International Biennial Photography and Photo-Related
Art held at this years FotoFest, Houston, Texas.
To read more about this book, click
here.
News
This past January the first museum dedicated to one photographer
has opened. The O. Winston Link Museum (www.linkmuseum.org)
opened in the renovated 1940s train station of Link's famed Norfolk
and Western Railroad in Roanoke, Virginia. Over 200 framed photographs,
including flashlighted night shots of locomotives, combine with interactive
installations and a theater running films and documentaries about the
artist.
back
to top
New
Releases
Here are a couple of newly released books:
back
to top
Soon
to be released
back
to top
Book
Thoughts
Getting Intimate (with Photographs)
During the past
decade photographs in galleries and museums have become over sized and
super-sized images. Photographs have been enlarged to create a viewing
distance that forces the viewer to step back to examine the image and
experience its total effect. This trend is not necessarily new, since
the early days of photography, multi-image, panoramic, and projected
pictures have been created to provide the viewer with alternative visual
experiences. What then is the effect of viewing these same photographs
in book form where the viewing distance is scarcely a couple of feet?
Does the viewer have a completely new experience and interpret the photographs
differently? Has the visual communication of these same photographs
transformed themselves when placed into a book?
Transformation
by sequence -
I have been writing about the photobook as a “narrative”
and photography in books that create “bookworks.” The assumption
has been that the photographer intended for the photographs to be viewed
in the intimate setting of a book. Perhaps this is not a safe assumption.
Photographs that
are in the context of books take on an entirely new visual communication.
These images no longer exist as singular works of art on the wall. They
are in the context of the images that came before and the ones that
follow. The photograph is now framed by the page. When on the wall,
the photograph communicates to the viewer as an individual entity, the
photograph in the book communicates with continuity of the preceding
image. The photographs go through a transformation of standing on their
own to becoming part of a sequence.
Transformation
by size –
The photographic image does not live in a room, but in the context of
the book. This creates a very different experience of intimacy. The
viewing distance of the photobook creates a very personal and individual
experience. The rare exceptions are books that are oversized and require
special stands to support them (Helmut Newton’s SUMO).
Most photobooks, even “coffee table” volumes are designed
to be experienced held in one’s lap. This creates a one-on-one
relationship between the artwork and the viewer. Now the experience
has become very private and the communication of emotions and ideas
is directed into the heart and mind of only one viewer at one time.
Transformation
of meaning -
How does the change of image context affect the content of the photograph?
I propose that when an image that has been created for display in a
gallery or a museum goes through the transformation of being placed
into a book, that photograph takes on a new life and new meaning. Take
for example the photographer Andreas Gursky. His work when exhibited,
are towering images that take on the presence of paintings where color,
texture, shape and form dominate the subject being photographed. Each
image stands alone and becomes a statement unto itself. These same images
presented in book form, now become something completely different. These
photographs are now reduced in dimensions from several feet to mere
inches and the content transforms the subjects of landscape or cityscape
photographs. The meaning of these photographs does not really change.
They remain a commentary on contemporary society, however the change
of context provides us with a very new experience of these images. We
now view the images in sequence and experience a narrative where the
visual communication of the work becomes clearer. By bringing the work
closer, reducing the viewing distance, and creating a more intimate
space we experience the work and gain an understanding that is closer
the photographer’s original intent.
Your feedback and
comments are welcome.
back
to top
About
FinePhoto News
Founder, editor,
and proprietor: Philip Malkin
contact: info@finephotobooks.com
In the U.S. - 425.831.1870
To suggest
a book to be included on our Web site, send an email
with the pertinent information.
To subscribe
to this newsletter, send us an email
with the word subscribe in the subject line. To unsubscribe to this
newsletter, send us an email
with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
As many of
you already know, we sell the majority of our books via our association
with Amazon.com. We do not earn much revenue from this source, actually
pennies on the dollar. Our intent is to provide a resource to individuals
interested in the art of photography, photography books, and artist's
books.
FINEPHOTONEWS
archive.
back
to top
©
2004 Fine Photography Books & Prints |
