2007, Martin Parr, The Photobook

 O livro dos livros

A primeira história geral do fotolivro enquanto género específico. Com uma passagem forte por Portugal

Expresso/Actual de 15-01-2005

  
The Photobook: A History Volume 1, Martin Parr and Gerry Badge

Nunca a fotografia ocupou tanto espaço nas paredes de galerias e

museus, exposta em paridade com a pintura ou a instalação num alargado

campo da arte onde domina a construção formal e a recepção estética –

mas já pouco depois de surgir como novo medium, nos anos 50 e 60 do

séc. XIX, era quilométrica a sua presença nas exposições universais e

salões, sem se dissociar ainda o que nela era progresso da ciência ou

da arte.

Ao mesmo tempo que a fotografia acede a essa circulação indistinta entre a «arte em geral», dois outros fenómenos asseguram-lhe formas de visibilidade que decorrem da sua originalidade (i)material e natureza intermediática. Por um lado, o trânsito através da Internet, sem que essa existência virtual se prolongue em qualquer exposição tradicional ou edição (impressão fotográfica ou em tinta). É o espaço dos blogues (Fotoblog, Flickr, Fotola), onde um massivo uso amador da fotografia como relação com o mundo e com outros, enquanto diário pessoal, «hobby» e arte, adquire uma inédita escala de comunicabilidade democrática. Por outro, a maior atenção prestada ao livro fotográfico, em especial ao fotolivro (a palavra é recente) enquanto género próprio no âmbito da fotografia publicada, visto como medium específico em si mesmo e autónoma forma de arte.

Sobre photobooks 1

Conversa com livros 8 Nov

1
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/

transcrevo do PhotoEye:

Book of 101 Books
Edited by Andrew Roth.
Distributed Art Publishers', New York, 2001. 320 pp., 500 color and black-and-white illustrations, 9½x11½".

Publisher's Description
Edited by Andrew Roth. Essays by Vince Aletti, Richard Benson, May Castleberry, Jeffrey Fraenkel, David Levi Strauss, Daido Moriyama, Shelley Rice and Neville Wakefield.


The history of the photographic book goes back well more than a century; the medium of photography and the book format were understood very early on to relate to each other on both technical and aesthetic levels. The examples of truly great combinations of photographic image and text, great design and typography bound together as books are numerous, and make up an impressive artistic, social, and documentary statement of the l0th century. 
Writer and rare book expert Andrew Roth has selected for this volume a group of 101 of the best photography books ever published: books that bring all of the elements of great bookmaking together to create, ultimately, a thing of beauty, a work of art. Mostly made up of publications in which the photographs were meant to be seen in book form, as opposed to the book being merely a repository of images, this list includes many artists and titles that will be familiar to the collector, but also not a few surprises. 

 Chronologically, the first book is Volume One of Edward Curtis's seminal 1907 The North American Indian, the last is David LaChapelle's LaChapelle Land from 1996, and in between are books by Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott, Atget and Brassai, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, and many other seminal photographers from all over the world. 
Each book in the catalogue will receive a double page spread which will include publication information, several image spreads, and a short text about it. 

The Book of 101 Books, however, is far more than simply an annotated and illustrated catalogue. 
Six important new essays on a variety of related topics from respected scholars, critics, and artists are included as well: here you will find Richard Benson on the history of printing techniques, Shelley Rice on the societal significance of photography books, May Castleberry on reprints, exhibitions, and keeping books alive for the public; Daido Moriyama on his personal memories of making his classic Bye Bye Photography, Dear, Neville Wakefield on the particular attributes of one of the most recent books in this group: Richard Prince's 1995 Adult Comedy Action Drama, and Jeffrey Fraenkel on the myriad perils of publishing photography books. 
The catalogue entries themselves are written by the well known critics Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss.Taken together, the depth and beauty of these essays and images will make The Book of 101 Books both an essential reference and an aesthetically compelling object.

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FOTOGRAFÍA PÚBLICA ou PHOTOGRAPY IN PRINT de Horacio Fernández (Museo Reina Sofia) Madrid, é de 1999


PHOTOGRAPHY UNTIL NOW de John Szarkowsky, MoMA, é de 1989
Chap. 6 Photographs in Ink
Chap. 7 After the Magazines

(ver Mary Price: The Photograph: A Strange Confined Space (Stanford University Press 1994: why p. can be understood only through context)

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