Another great English photographer.

Click the image to go to Amazon US.

That fine English photographer Roy Hammans mentioned John Blakemore’s new book to me the other day and no more encouragement was needed to wave my credit card in Amazon’s direction.

Blakemore, born in 1936, has gone through several styles in his photographic life, starting with street work in London’s poorer areas (very moving), through theater, landscapes (excellent wind effect pictures) and still lives (see the cover, above), always finding something new and fresh in his approach.

The quality of the book’s production speaks to the photographer’s fastidiousness and perfectionism, the mostly monochrome prints rendered slightly warm to great effect. There is also some limited color content, original and beautifully reproduced.

This book is an example of what high quality photography books should be like. If you like the contemplative approach to these subjects, rendered with originality, this book is strongly recommended.

A book by Banksy.

I confess I adore Banksy’s graffiti work, not just for the powerful message but also because, like much street snapping, it has ephemeral appeal.

So when a friend mentioned his book ‘Wall and Piece’ I snapped up a copy. Like Banksy’s ethos, it’s cheap and abundantly illustrated.

Click for the Amazon US site. A poor illustration – the terrorist is actually throwing a bunch of flowers …. on the rear cover.

One of the funniest things is that he not only states how long it took to make many of the pieces – not long as he uses spray paint and stencils to reduce the risk of detection – he also adds how long those in art museums survived before the curators cottoned on to the hoax. In some cases that’s many weeks. Perhaps his finest comment, painted on the gutter outside the Tate, states ‘Mind the Crap’. This, let us recall, is the museum which gave us a crucifix in a pool of urine named ‘Piss Christ’.

His immense commercial success must give him pause for thought, given his Marxist pronouncements, but who could possibly argue with the following sentiment?

“Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.” He refers to this collectively as ‘Brandalism’.

As for the close of the book, his Manifesto, I won’t spoil it other than to say that this one page where he illustrates his beliefs is of such shattering intensity that it will leave you limp and in tears. The book is worth buying for these few words alone.

Banksy is a photographer by circumstance. His graffiti don’t last long so he is forced to record them for posterity.

A great artist.

Banksy does San Francisco – at Columbus Avenue and the Bankster building. G1, kit lens @34mm, 1/3200, f/5.5, ISO320.

An American master.

Click the image for the Amazon US site.

While there is only one very small color reproduction in this massive book, the whole thing is printed in four tone color, rendering the monochrome images in exceptional depth, mostly with a warm tone. As the sparse text points out, the magazine originals from Steichen’s time as the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair would have masked indications of manual retouching which are clearly visible here. Noses, in particular, appear to get a lot of work! The text also avers that Steichen differed from his successor Hoyningen-Heune and his successor Horst in that Steichen’s work was far more varied. I have to agree. Steichen was much more creative with props and locations, where Hoyningen-Heune and Horst tended to use the same Greek statues and painted backgrounds time and again.

A couple of special favorites include Lee Miller (Plate 100, 114) showcasing the beauty of a woman who would go on to become a great photographer in her own right, and of the peerless Vladimir Horowitz (Plate 107 – dark and brooding) whose Chopin and Scriabin are increasingly the only interpretations I care to listen to.

This book is not just a survey of great clothes and famous wearers, but most importantly it is a showcase for the work of a great American master photographer, the highest paid of his time.

Book review.

Click the picture to go to Amazon US where you will also find a video presentation by Allard.

Photographers like National Geographic’s William Albert Allard and Sam Abell pretty much put the nail in the coffin of tired and increasingly pretentious hack monochrome work. We live in a world of color and refusing to see it thus mostly testifies to the skill of the photographer, or lack thereof. Sure, every now and then something works better in black and white but mostly that’s for the artsy-fartsy set or for collectors of vintage images. Yes, HC-B is better without color, but he is in a class of one.

This is a magnificent book. The color photographs, their reproduction, Allard’s text – the whole thing is as good as it gets. Allard never pulls punches but that does not make his work in any way crude. Some of the slaughterhouse pictures will offend tender sensibilities.This is a great color photojournalist at work.

Highly recommended for anyone wanting to broaden his vision.

Allard writes:

“I think I can feel color … I can’t explain it, but I can feel it. In my photography, color and composition are inseparable. I see in color”. Bravo!

My favorite? ‘Outside my window’ taken in, where else? Paris, Le Marais on page 153. The cover picture of the Sicilian beauty Benedetta Buccellato, above, is interestingly not especially representative of his work, so don’t expect a book of fashion pictures. However, I can only agree with his friend’s comment on seeing the actress’s portrait gracing the cover of National Geographic: “A beautiful woman on one cover is worth ten months of monkeys”. You can keep the monkeys and you won’t find any in this book. The work here is that of a color street snapper par excellence.