The Photobook Thread

[albireo]

Are you familiar with the work of Michael Schmidt? His last book Natur was published by Mack Books in 2014 and is still available.

He is an absolute legend. His 'Waffenruhe' and 'Wedding' are highlights in my collection. Thank you for letting me know about Natur! I thought it was long out of print! Instantly ordered.

 

[albireo]

I’ve looked at these photographs from "Natur" too, and honestly, they feel a bit like what you might get if a child wandered through the forest with a camera.

Sorry but you're just a very tenacious troll or perhaps just someone really, really thick.

This used to be a gentle, respectful, informative thread. Can we keep it like that?

 

[nikos79]

Another book I’ve been enjoying lately by Craigie Horsfield.

These are his very first photos which he kept unpublished for almost two decades!

For me, this feels like some of his strongest work.

 

[albireo]

Imagine you're on a walk, you see a tree, you particularly like how the light fall on it, so you take a photo. Coming back, you see that tree again, the light has change, and you also particularly like how it falls on it, so again you take the photo. Doing that, you are no longer photographing a moment in time, but the passage of time, and how it has many ways to transform us. That is your intent, so you include both photos in your book, as there is no "best" of the two.

You could even imagine yourself just sitting in front of that tree one day, from dawn to dusk, and photographing it every hour, or every half hour, or every time the light changes in a way that speaks to you — it would be the same tree yet never the same —, and then making an entire book only of these photos. (Since I made the suggestion, of course I'd have no choice but to buy it ! )

Having two of the same, yet different, is a great way to draw the viewer in. Viewer has no choice but to stop and look, even if just for differences, not only in the surface of the photo itself, but also in feeling. Viewer becomes more attentive, and that attention is then kept on single images.

I may be wrong — memory fails me — but I think Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri did this a lot.

Beautifully put - as usual - and the photographer you're thinking of is probably Guido Guidi, not Ghirri.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

and the photographer you're thinking of is probably Guido Guidi, not Ghirri.

Thank you !!!! This was driving me crazy.

Reminds me, however, that both Col tempo and Puglia are still not in my bookshelves...

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Extreme—but fascinating—example of this is the book TTP by Hayahisa Tomiyasu, who spent four year photographing a ping pong table in a park from the window of his Leipzig appartment.

TTP (First edition, Fourth printing)

Winner of the 2018 MACK First Book Award TTP is a series of photographs made by Hayahisa Tomiyasu from the window of his former student apartment in the German city of Leipzig. From his south-facing view we see a 'tischtennisplatte' or ping pong table used for a plethora of purposes – including...

mackbooks.co.uk

 

[MTGseattle]

That’s how i heard about it. Pure dumb luck that local half price books had one.

 

[nikos79]

Didn’t also Andre Kertesz photograph the view from his window in Washington square many times during many years? Some of them also found their way to a couple of books

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I don't know how I forgot to include Rafael Bosco Vieira's channel, I subscribe to it and watch it all the time.

What has been added in the two-and-a-half years since this post is simply insane...

 

[MTGseattle]

Extreme—but fascinating—example of this is the book TTP by Hayahisa Tomiyasu, who spent four year photographing a ping pong table in a park from the window of his Leipzig appartment.

TTP (First edition, Fourth printing)

Winner of the 2018 MACK First Book Award TTP is a series of photographs made by Hayahisa Tomiyasu from the window of his former student apartment in the German city of Leipzig. From his south-facing view we see a 'tischtennisplatte' or ping pong table used for a plethora of purposes – including...

mackbooks.co.uk

I want a full flip through so I could see if he ever captured anyone playing ping-pong.

 

[MTGseattle]

This is the Joel Meyerowitz work I was thinking of. I didn't do a very thorough search (to find him talking about the work) I am not sure if his tripod placement/composition was literally the same every time, or just similar.

Bay / Sky — Joel Meyerowitz

Publisher: Bulfinch Press Bay/Sky, the masterwork of photographer, Joel Meyerowitz, pays elegant homage to the beauty of that place where the sea meets the sky. The culmination of sixteen years of photographic exploration and observation, this book features forty-seven color plates depicting the ep

www.joelmeyerowitz.com

He's a photographer I had pigeonholed as simply a "pretty colors guy," but he has quite the wide body of work.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Alec Soth's latest video, in which he talks about Martin Parr, his favourite Martin Parr books, and his favourite book of 2025, a very strange book titled "Touch" by a Chinese photographer who calls himself 214.

214: Touch

Pb., 115x170 mm, 364p, 116 pictures I love the word "touch"—both its meaning and its sound. The photographs in this book span over a decade of my life. Below are fragments of my thoughts and feelings while capturing these images: Sometimes it wasn’t easy. I wrestled with myself in those...

jiazazhistore.com

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Fascinating Instagram post by photojournalist Christopher Anderson on his book Capitolio and its ties to current events.

Anderson writes:

Between the years of 2004 and 2008 I photographed the country of Venezuela and regime of then president, Hugo Chavez, the predecessor to Maduro. In the early days, I was an invited guest of the regime who provided me access to photograph the power infrastructure of the country and Chavez himself. The strange welcome grew weirder with each trip I made, culminating with the last trip in 2008 when I was arrested by Chavez’ personal security detail as he was speaking on stage at a massive rally in front of me. As they arrested me, Chavez announced that the CIA was planning to assassinate him by posing as journalists. They filmed my arrest and aired it on state tv, proclaiming they had caught an American spy. I was hauled away on motorcycle to the DICIP headquarters where I was interrogated and threatened repeatedly at gun point throughout the night. The next morning they released me and I went back to my hotel. Once there, the phone rang and a voice I didn’t recognize told me I needed to leave Venezuela immediately. My life was in danger. I left that night and have not returned since.
The pictures from my time there became the book, CAPITOLIO, seen here. For me, this book was sort of my farewell to a certain way of working as a photojournalist and a questioning of my notions of objectivity and subjectivity.
Strange to see this place again through the filter of the crazy events of the past days.

The book is difficult to find—or too expensive when found. I read it was made into an iPhone app in 2011, but I don't know if that's still available.

Images are strong.




Some can be also seen on the Magnum website:

https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/politics/christopher-anderson-capitolio/

Link to the Instagram page:

 

[albireo]

I just unwrapped a Christmas present which I had set aside following a short trip and forgotten about: Bernard Plossu, Western Colours.

I am probably the only one on here to be absolutely ignorant of this artist - so I approached this work with completely fresh eyes.

The foreword by Lewis Baltz (apparently the two were good friends) only piqued my interest further.

I am absolutely mesmerised by these images. I am of course intrigued by the subject, which has been explored by more than a few of new New Topographers I'm fond of, but I find the Plossu's technique also particularly captivating: the images are grainy and the colours are ever so slightly off. They remind me of old Provia 400X positives. I only meant to briefly skim and go to bed due to a bad cold but I found myself lost in this for a couple of hours. Wonderful.

I look forward to explore his work further.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

but I find the Plossu's technique also particularly captivating: the images are grainy and the colours are ever so slightly off. They remind me of old Provia 400X positives.

Plossu uses the Fresson process for his color prints (a process I'm totally unfamiliar with, to be honest).

The Printing in photography: Interview with Bernard Plossu

Bernard Plossu isn't usually very forthcoming. Each word reveals the coherence of a reasoned worldview, studded by aesthetic references. DK2R had the opportunity to ask him about printing, and his answers extend this central subject of the photographic act.

www.thedarkroomrumour.com

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Forgot to add that The Darkroom Rumour has a video on the process

Watch The Workshop | The Fresson Process (Documentary Film)

A documentary film by Thomas Goupille (2013 - 50')| In the secrecy of their workshop, a real time capsule that takes us back to the 19th century, the Fresson grandson and great-grandson are at work. Guardians of a legendary photographic process, they can spend up to two weeks on a single print...

www.thedarkroomrumour.com

 

[albireo]

Plossu uses the Fresson process for his color prints (a process I'm totally unfamiliar with, to be honest).

The Printing in photography: Interview with Bernard Plossu

Bernard Plossu isn't usually very forthcoming. Each word reveals the coherence of a reasoned worldview, studded by aesthetic references. DK2R had the opportunity to ask him about printing, and his answers extend this central subject of the photographic act.

www.thedarkroomrumour.com

Thank you Alex. Just noticed the back cover note mentions this, too. 'Fresson Carbon printing process'. If anyone has more info about this I'd be interested to know more.

 

[MTGseattle]

The colors remind me a bit of when current film makers switch from whichever 4k gear they are using and splice in some actual film shot segments (or possibly film emulation software)

Fresson Quadrichromy | Timeline of Historical Colors in Photography and Film

is a comprehensive resource for the investigation of film color technology and aesthetics, analysis and restoration, developed and curated by Barbara Flueckiger since 2012. In 2024 Sylvie Pénichon joined the Timeline as a co-curator for still photography.

filmcolors.org

 

[nikos79]

Thank you Alex. Just noticed the back cover note mentions this, too. 'Fresson Carbon printing process'. If anyone has more info about this I'd be interested to know more.

I just know that there is only one lab in France doing it. I really like Plossu’s Fresson prints. This book has some reproductions from US but there are also some he did in Normandy.
I was able to look at the originals at a special book in a museum’s library. Instead of pages the book consisted of separate Fresson prints. I had to wear gloves to leaf through them. They were beautiful. I think you can try this method if you contact the lab. They charge like 70 euros per print I think. There are also ways to mimic the Fresson effect either in darkroom or lightroom

 

[nikos79]

Plossu btw has done and tried almost everything. He wasn’t even afraid to photograph with disposable cameras and include images in his books. His images might have this light feeling of chalance or spezzatura or snapshot aesthetics

There is also a book he did and published only in Greece with his photographs he did while traveling there.

 

[albireo]

Thanks for the info, @nikos79!

 

[nikos79]

Thanks for the info, @nikos79!

You re welcome!