RE: Books

[Keith Gerling <Keith@GumPhoto.com>]

Interesting work.  The website is interesting as well.  Funny how we get
used to clicking "galleries" to see an artists work, but here you are herded
into the REAL galleries: places you can purchase his work.  "Martin's Work"
doesn't produce much either.

So that leaves "recent work".  Nice, but not much different than countless
other blogs and whatnot.  I wouldn't put him in the "sucky" category with
Ansel, but then again, I wouldn't put Ansel in there either.   I'm no big
Ansel fan to tell you the truth, but I'd choose Adams over Parr. I'm pretty
sure history will lean in the same direction.

Still, thank for sharing.  His work is fun.

-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Seigel [mailto:jseigel@panix.com]
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 4:29 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Books



Thanks to Scott for mentioning some I'd forgotten, namely:

On Thu, 3 May 2007, Weber, Scott wrote:

> Susan Sontag, On Photography (love her or hate her she always stirs things
> up in my classes)

> Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, The Architect's Brother

both of them among my favorites, too, tho interestingly (I suppose) some
of the others Scott mentioned are among my least-favorites (or my "yuck"
pile).

But my alltime favorite for this moment is Martin Parr's "Common Sense,"
which was given to me about a year ago (I'd never heard of it) but I
understand is now -- ta da -- a collector's item !  I can look at it every
day, or  wish I managed to... It says more about photography, people, the
world, than I thought humanly possible.

And Martin Parr is my favorite photographer for all time at this moment.

His website

www.martinparr.com

is also a favorite, if not THE favorite. When time permits I'll write
about the sheer genius of his series, "The Last Parking Space" and relate
it to Christina's picture of "Wrong Way."  Among other insights.

Another point is that this "poll" conflates picture books, how-to books,
and theory books, which very different, and even have subsets within each.

Finally, I can't resist mentioning that listing "Ansel Adams" among
favorites is... who did that?  Don't want to make a young person cry.
But REALLY .... um (muffled explanation, and fighting back words sounding
like "sucky"... But now back to my needle & thread, have to go to wedding
tomorrow in Wash DC, need to sew a dress.... putting on my grandmother's
old lace.  Anybody got the arsenic?)

Judy