The Photobook Thread

MTGseattle · Aug 28, 2023

I'll do a bookshelf study eventually, I need to reorganize and clear the rest of the clutter (dust. Lego, etc ) out of the way first.

That Trent Parke is interesting.

Monument

Stanley Barker 2023 Flexibound, 1st edition/1st printing, 294p New Trent Parke’s landmark publication Monument is a portal through which we bear witness to the disintegration of the universe over 294 expertly printed pages. The monolithic publication is bound in leather bearing totemic...

photobookstore.co.uk

albireo · Aug 29, 2023

American Prospects (2023) - Joel Sternfeld

Born of a desire to follow the seasons up and down America, and equally to find lyricism in contemporary American life despite all its dark...

steidl.de

Steidl is on fire as of late. Been wanting to get this for a long time.

logan2z · Aug 29, 2023

albireo said:
American Prospects (2023) - Joel Sternfeld

Born of a desire to follow the seasons up and down America, and equally to find lyricism in contemporary American life despite all its dark...

steidl.de

Steidl is on fire as of late. Been wanting to get this for a long time.

I have the 2012 edition printed by Steidl and distributed in the US by D.A.P. The new Steidl edition looks to be priced pretty well and worth getting if you are a fan of Sternfeld's work.

logan2z · Aug 29, 2023

I just bit the bullet and picked up a copy of W. Eugene Smith's The Jazz Loft Project. I'm completely out of shelf space so I have no idea where I'm going to put it, but I'm weak and couldn't hold out any longer

albireo · Aug 29, 2023

logan2z said:
The new Steidl edition looks to be priced pretty well and worth getting if you are a fan of Sternfeld's work.

Thanks. I have nothing by him. Is this a good place to sample his work or will it set me on a wrong course?

Alex Benjamin · Aug 29, 2023

albireo said:
American Prospects (2023) - Joel Sternfeld

Born of a desire to follow the seasons up and down America, and equally to find lyricism in contemporary American life despite all its dark...

steidl.de

Steidl is on fire as of late. Been wanting to get this for a long time.

Wonderful book. Would also be in the "American" section of my bookshelf if it weren't so huge. Same with Avedon's In the American West.

Great of Steidl to re-publish this and make it available again. Bugs me a little, however, that when editors do so, they add new photos. Now I don't know if it's worth it for me to get this one or not, and it makes the one I already have not worth as much on the used market should I want to keep just the newer one...

(I know, I know, there are much bigger problems in life...)

Bwbuff · Aug 29, 2023

If you don't mind sharing your shopping experience please, do you normally buy the books directly from the publishers ? I live in Canada, I normally order thru Amazon, Indigo and Abebooks.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Alex Benjamin · Aug 29, 2023

Bwbuff said:
If you don't mind sharing your shopping experience please, do you normally buy the books directly from the publishers ? I live in Canada, I normally order thru Amazon, Indigo and Abebooks.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm also in Canada. I try as much as possible to buy from the publishers, but sometimes I go for Amazon if shipping is too expensive.

For used books, I generally shop at biblio.com. Used books prices are just insane on Amazon.

Bwbuff · Aug 29, 2023

Thanks for your reply. Yes, especially the heavier books with extra shipping cost, I choose Amazon.

logan2z · Aug 29, 2023

Bwbuff said:
If you don't mind sharing your shopping experience please, do you normally buy the books directly from the publishers ? I live in Canada, I normally order thru Amazon, Indigo and Abebooks.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I personally avoid Amazon like the plague. They pack books incredibly poorly for shipping and they often arrive damaged. Yes, you can send them back for returns/exchanges but that's a nuisance - and the chances of the replacement book arriving unscathed aren't much better. I'd rather pay a bit more and buy from a book seller that actually cares.

I generally either buy directly from the publisher or from a specialized photo book seller like Baltimore Photo Space, Photoeye, etc. For used books, I usually start with places like Moe's Books and Jeff Hirsch Books and then have a look at Abebooks if I'm having trouble finding something. If necessary, I'll resort to eBay where there are some decent used book sellers.

logan2z · Aug 29, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
Wonderful book. Would also be in the "American" section of my bookshelf if it weren't so huge. Same with Avedon's In the American West.

I forgot how big it was until I pulled it off the shelf today, prompted by @albireo's post.

Here's another recommendation for the 'American' section of your bookshelf, that isn't huge: Jerry Berndt's Beautiful America published by Steidl. I took a flyer on this one a few months back during a sale (at Artbook/DAP, I believe) and it was better than I was expecting. Sort of like The Americans but a bit more scathing

Bwbuff · Aug 29, 2023

Thank you logan2z.

I agree with you, it happened to me too some hardcover books arrived with bent corners , and in one occasion, they just sticked the shipping label on top of the plastic seal no wrapping or any protection at all. I was very surprised they do that.

logan2z · Aug 29, 2023

Bwbuff said:
in one occasion, they just sticked the shipping label on top of the plastic seal no wrapping or any protection at all.

That's unbelievable, I've never personally seen that. But I would normally receive books in an oversized box with zero packing materials inside. So the book was allowed to freely slide around banging into the sides of the box which dented the corners. I did receive one book from them that looked like it had been through a shredder - the softcover was torn to pieces and many of the pages were bent. Oddly, the outer box wasn't damaged so someone/something must have put it into the box in that condition. Pretty crazy.

One of the more bizarre photobook shipping incidents I experienced actually didn't involve Amazon. I was looking all over for a new copy of Sage Sohier's Americans Seen and the only place I could find one for a somewhat reasonable price was a gallery that had exhibited her work. The book was a fairly large hardcover and somebody thought it was ok to ship it in a thin padded envelope. The envelope arrived from USPS, torn open, with no book inside. I guess it ripped open at some point and the book fell out somewhere. USPS wrote a note on it and delivered the empty envelope. The gallery did send a replacement and the book is great so the story had a happy ending

Mike Lopez · Aug 29, 2023

logan2z said:
I forgot how big it was until I pulled it off the shelf today, prompted by @albireo's post.

Here's another recommendation for the 'American' section of your bookshelf, that isn't huge: Jerry Berndt's Beautiful America published by Steidl. I took a flyer on this one a few months back during a sale (at Artbook/DAP, I believe) and it was better than I was expecting. Sort of like The Americans but a bit more scathing

You had me at "more scathing!"

Thanks for the lead. Steidl is indeed on a tear right now.

Alex Benjamin · Aug 29, 2023

logan2z said:
I personally avoid Amazon like the plague. They pack books incredibly poorly for shipping and they often arrive damaged. Yes, you can send them back for returns/exchanges but that's a nuisance - and the chances of the replacement book arriving unscathed aren't much better. I'd rather pay a bit more and buy from a book seller that actually cares.

I generally either buy directly from the publisher or from a specialized photo book seller like Baltimore Photo Space, Photoeye, etc. For used books, I usually start with places like Moe's Books and Jeff Hirsch Books and then have a look at Abebooks if I'm having trouble finding something. If necessary, I'll resort to eBay where there are some decent used book sellers.

Nice list. I forgot to add Photo book store in the UK to mine. Got a lot of stuff from them.

Photobookstore.co.uk

Online bookstore, based in the UK, offering worldwide shipping of a wide range of photobooks. Many signed, limited edition and rare titles in stock.

photobookstore.co.uk

logan2z said:
I forgot how big it was until I pulled it off the shelf today, prompted by @albireo's post.

Here's another recommendation for the 'American' section of your bookshelf, that isn't huge: Jerry Berndt's Beautiful America published by Steidl. I took a flyer on this one a few months back during a sale (at Artbook/DAP, I believe) and it was better than I was expecting. Sort of like The Americans but a bit more scathing

Thank you. Now on my wish list.

albireo · Aug 30, 2023

logan2z said:
I forgot how big it was until I pulled it off the shelf today, prompted by @albireo's post.

Here's another recommendation for the 'American' section of your bookshelf, that isn't huge: Jerry Berndt's Beautiful America published by Steidl. I took a flyer on this one a few months back during a sale (at Artbook/DAP, I believe) and it was better than I was expecting. Sort of like The Americans but a bit more scathing

I have it. Excellent. I pick it up from the shelf more often that Robert Frank's ATM.

albireo · Aug 30, 2023

logan2z said:
I forgot how big it was until I pulled it off the shelf today, prompted by @albireo's post.

Here's another recommendation for the 'American' section of your bookshelf, that isn't huge: Jerry Berndt's Beautiful America published by Steidl. I took a flyer on this one a few months back during a sale (at Artbook/DAP, I believe) and it was better than I was expecting. Sort of like The Americans but a bit more scathing

I have it. Excellent. I find myself picking it up from the shelf more often that Robert Frank's atm.

Alex Benjamin · Aug 30, 2023

Important note to be added to this thread:

Anybody who ever sees a reasonably priced copy of Sergio Larrain's Valparaiso cannot buy it. It's mine.

Of all the unobtainable books on my wish list, this one is the unobtainablest... It's like the Maltese Falcon of photobooks.

logan2z · Aug 30, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
Important note to be added to this thread:

Anybody who ever sees a reasonably priced copy of Sergio Larrain's Valparaiso cannot buy it. It's mine.

Of all the unobtainable books on my wish list, this one is the unobtainablest... It's like the Maltese Falcon of photobooks.

The Larrain books by Aperture seemed to go OOP pretty quickly. Aperture still has 'Limited quantities' of London 1959 in stock if you don't have that one yet - and it's on sale now.

https://aperture.org/books/new-releases/sergio-larrain-london/

Alex Benjamin · Aug 30, 2023

logan2z said:
The Larrain books by Aperture seemed to go OOP pretty quickly. Aperture still has 'Limited quantities' of London in stock if you don't have that one yet - and it's on sale now.

https://aperture.org/books/new-releases/sergio-larrain-london/

I have London. 1959, and really love and admire it. Grainy. Unsharp. Mysterious and immensely poetic. He is unique in the same way Saul Leiter is, i.e., the meaning seems to come from a poetic stance rather than from the subject itself.

The little I've seen of Valparaiso seem even more imaginative, but with a different light.

Valparaiso • Sergio Larrain • Magnum Photos Magnum Photos

The experimental Chilean photographer's iconic depictions of his homeland in the 1960s offer intimate insights into the artist’s inner life

www.magnumphotos.com

logan2z · Aug 30, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
The little I've seen of Valparaiso seem even more imaginative, but with a different light.

There's a flip-through of the whole book here:

There's also a flip-through of the eponymously named Sergio Larrain here. A much larger book than Valparaiso or London 1959.

Alex Benjamin · Aug 30, 2023

logan2z said:
There's also a flip-through of the eponymously named Sergio Larrain here. A much larger book than Valparaiso or London 1959.

Also been on my wish list for a while, but...

BTW, how anybody can justify a CA$346.38 for SHIPPING !!!! is beyond me...

logan2z · Aug 30, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
Also been on my wish list for a while, but...

View attachment 347809

BTW, how anybody can justify a CA$346.38 for SHIPPING !!!! is beyond me...

That's insane - both the book prices ($271 for GOOD condition??) and the shipping cost to you from Tennessee. I can fly one-way from Tennessee (Nashville) to Montreal on American Airlines for $240

logan2z · Aug 30, 2023

Uh oh...

Winogrand Color (Pre-order)

Alex Benjamin · Aug 30, 2023

logan2z said:
Uh oh...

Winogrand Color (Pre-order)

Oh my...

The Photobook Thread

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency