Photography Books

As a 21 year old gay man, it is heartwarming and touching to see a such a beautiful coffee table book dedicated to portraying gay men positively and humanely, in addition to giving me hope that a long-term relationship can exist in a circuit/club/Abercrombie gay world. The stories of men who have been together for 10, 20, 30 + years are not only inspiring, but well written and accompanied with stunning black and white photos. However, while there was a considerable effort (and a good one at that!) to include a range of HIV positive and negative couples and while there were are three black men and possibly one Latino, I would have liked to have seen more gay men of color. I know there are Asian, Native American, and more Latino gay men in committed relationships, so it would have been nice to have them represented. Overall, it's a wonderful book and contribution to the GLBT community and worth buying--if anything, I just wish it were longer, so that it could include more diversity.

My partner and I are two of the subjects (or is it ONE of the subjects?) of this book. Andy Jones has shown great perception in his interpretation of the interview that we gave and his pen has told 29 very different stories with charm and wit. David Fields black & white photography is stunning and dramatic.

Althouh I'm gay, I still believe in love, married and family. This book show that these things are possible for gay couples. Some people always think of gay men as feminine-type of guy who like to act as women and running for every good-lookig guy on a street. This book will give readers more understanding in gay people.

Like one of the other reviewers on this page, I grew up without positive Gay role models, and it took decades for me to learn self-respect. This book reminds us that well-adjusted Gay couples can be found throughout our culture, something that's important for young Gay people to learn and for older Gay people to remain aware of.

I'm lucky enough to be acquainted with one of this book's subjects, Steve Langley of Washington, and I have a lot of respect for the choice he and his partner have made to be included. It's a beautiful book.

I gave this book to my mother when my partner and I decided to have a commitment ceremony. Mom was having trouble understanding and didn't seem to recognize our commitment to each other as equally valid to straight marriages. After she read the book, she sent my partner a HUGE bouquet of flowers and a card telling him she was so pleased that he was going to become an "official" part of our family!

Contemporary Mexican history is definetely shaped by the events (Mexican Revolution and its impact on Mexican society) that took place in the early 20th century. Casasola could be considered the father of Mexican photojournalism. Along with many other photographers that followed his steps or worked under his wings, Agustin Victor Casasola left an invaluable visual legacy of Mexican history and the participants that took place on it (from the radical painter to the workers on the streets). I recommend this book for anyone interested on Mexican history.

A terrific introduction to the work of the relativly unknown [ outside of Mexico that is] photographer Augustin V. Casasola. Casasola ran a small commercial photographic studio in Mexico during the long turbulent years of the Mexican revolution. Although he generaly worked with various medium and large format cameras the work is often astonishingly modern, direct and immeadiate. Covering not only demonstrations, firing squads, battles and the rebel leader Emiliano Zapata, but also intimate portrayals of daily life; its all at a level to obliterate any distintion between photojournalism and 'art' photography. If only we had photographers like this covering todays news and events.

This is a terrific book of photos of the Mexican Revolution and other photos of historic Mexico. I highly recommend it.

We saw this exhibit at the Museo del Bario in New York City and the photos are wonderful. Many were taken 90 years ago yet they are in beautiful condition and give a wonderful sense of history. The book does complete justice to the photos. Terrific size and detail. It is better than I expected.

Mexico has a great history of producing world class photographers. Along with Hugo Brehme, Augustin Victor Casasola is one of the founders of that tradition. His photographs of the Mexican Revolution have passed into the realm of iconic. Casasola is so esteemed that the Mexican Government purchased all of his negatives and used them as the foundation of a National Photographic Archive.

In 1912, Augustin and his brother Miguel started the Casasola Photo Agency. They hired a number of photographers around the country to take pictures of the great events of the day. Along with portraits of the important people of the time, there are many beautiful photographs of revolutionary soldiers, peasants, urban workers and criminals. A quarter of books photographs are of the Revolution. The rest show Mexico as it was entering into the Modern Age. I especially loved his photographs of Mexico's Jazz Age.

This is a high quality publication produced by Aperture. It is hardback book and is 13" by 9.5" in dimension with 155 photographs. All the photographs were made with large format cameras and in turn the photographs are very clear and detailed. This is a great book for both photobook collectors and people interested in the history of Mexico. Highly recommended.

The book & DVD are unbelievable. Soothing and breathtaking at the same time. Truly a treasure.

For many years, my family and I have been vacationing for several weeks on Minnesota's North Shore. Despite its magnificent scenery both on the
Superior Shore and the Superior National Forest from Duluth through the Canadian border,the North Shore remains fairly uncommercial, maintaining a surprising amount of spectacular imagery, in its uncrowded area
Blacklock's photographic book and its contained DVD do adequate justice to this beautiful part of the earth. His eye is perceptive; his
artistry is at a high level in composing his photgraphs. The four seasons
are fully encompassed. I get pleasure from seeing the images, when I am
not in that area.

To put it bluntly, Craig Blacklock's Minnesota's North Shore is the most comprehensive and well photographed book that currently exists of the Minnesota-Superior shoreline. The book is comprised of one hundred and seventy-five color photographs, as well as a three hour DVD of additional video content. The photographs are organized regionally, beginning with images taken in Duluth and ending with the Susie Islands along the Canadian Border. All in all, the print quality is superb, as is the physical construction of the book. Of course, it's the content of the book that is most important. Thankfully, the photographs themselves are stunning; Blacklock's attention to composition, light and detail are a testament to both his refined technical and aesthetic sensibilities. This said, I found Minnesota's North Shore to be a very different book than Blacklock's well known work, The Lake Superior Images.

Compared to his earlier work, Minnesota's North Shore tends to gravitate towards quieter and more intimate compositions. While grand landscape compositions are still present, there seems to be a greater interest in representing the essence of place through the use of small vignettes and understated moments. A parallel to this approach could drawn with Japanese haiku poetry. Blacklock tends to be very successful in eliciting emotional response when working within this vein, resulting in a body of work that contains an element of depth only found in the best of nature photography. The focus of the book's content is on the Superior shoreline itself, though inland images from the North Shore's scenic rivers, prominent viewpoints and natural history are also included. This bias of images towards the shoreline should not come as a great surprise for those who are familiar with Blacklock's previous work.

Additionally, conservation of the shoreline as both a state and national resource is clearly a primary concern for Blacklock. The book ends on a somber note with a photograph of lakeshore development and an essay on the need to immediately act in order to preserve what remains of Minnesota's North Shore. For those who love the lake, this book may prove to be a record of what was lost if action is not taken. Let's hope that this isn't the case, Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior is undoubtedly one of the greatest natural treasures of the state. In order to preserve this place for the enrichment of future generations, it's clear that the responsibility lies in our hands today.

All in all, highly recommended.

This is a fabulous "coffee table" book full of stunning images of Minnesota's North Shore. My jaw drops with each turn of the page.

I haven't even looked at the DVD yet - but the book itself is more than worth purchasing!

I recommend this book for people who love the North Shore, but also for anyone who loves photography in general. Mr. Blacklock's composition skills are AMAZING!

4 1/2 *

This new book of Craig Blacklock features digital photographs, both new and enhanced from previous work. As expected, it is magnificent.

The best part is the inclusion of a 3-hour DVD, which for me is like having a video chronicle of my own excursions to the North Shore. What a treat to be able to experience this wonderful place like this at home.

The DVD is in 5 chapters, each exploring a different segment of the North Shore. While all are wondeful, special attention should be made to Part 3: Tettegouche State Park. Here the photography and music are truly poetic and form an almost symphonic arc that is inspirational.

On the other hand, Chapters 1 and 5 are a bit over long and concentrate too excessively, in my opinion, on repetitive detail.

I think perhaps Blacklock could also have augmented the inland attractions of the shore (waterfalls and canyons).

These are small complaints, however, the entire DVD is very much worth having. The electronically produced music forms an evocative backdrop, or you can turn it off and just listen to the waves and the birds. The inclusion of two wonderful songs by folk singer Pater Mayer are a big plus, as well.

definitely worth the price tag. Book is packed with period medical photographs, which while grotesque are also very artistically framed. All of the pictures are together, a page per picture so you can flip though the images without text interrupting the artistic presentation. The back of the book is devoted to thorough captions for each photo. Some of the photos look staged but this too fits the period represented.

This collection of photographs and plates are some of the most concise findings on the medical world I have ever seen. It has opened my eyes to these people and has given me something new and interesting to learn about. I really enjoy seeing how far we have come in the field of medicine but also the advancement has diminished the frequency of medical oddities that are found in this book. I really recomend this to anyone who has an interest in the medical field and all of its mishaps.

This book of stunning, yet disturbing, photographs of medical anomalies spanning 100 years from the mid-19th c., may not be for everyone. It is a comprehensive visual essay into things that we find fascinating, yet repulsive. Unlike a carnival sideshow, however, the purpose of this wonderful book is not to cynically trivialize the individuals illustrated. Like the Mütter Museum, (Mütter Museum: Philadelphia College of Physicians, 19 South 22nd Street, between Chestnut and Market Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 12-4pm), Stanley Burns' book is a window into the 19th century propensity to gather esoteric information of all types, organize it and, ultimately, to exhibit it as the means to greater knowledge.

Stanley Burns is a physician and a collector of medical history photographs. You may remember his previous book of mortuary photographs entitled "Sleeping Beauty" which is long out of print and fetches incredible sums among used book dealers. (Fortunately, a sequel - "Sleeping Beauty II" is more readily available.) "A Morning's Work" is a collection of 127 vintage medical photographs from 1843 to 1939 along with a helpful narrative explanation of the photographs and their cultural significance. Although some of the pictures are more historically significant than interesting, the bulk of the images are of medical curiosities - and some of them are absolutely head-scratchingly bizarre. Among the images featured are mortuary photographs, images of amputations, surgical procedures, disfigurement, and a wide assortment of congenital and acquired diseases. The title "A Morning's Work" is taken from an image of a pile of amputated limbs taken during the Civil War, when the horrific wounds inflicted by the large leadshots used at the time resulted in amputations for even the most minor of injuries. Many of the photographs take us back to the Dark Days of medicine, before antiseptic procedures were implemented, and when a small wound could result in a deadly infection in a matter of days.

The narrative explanations of the photographs add a special poignance to them. For example, a photograph of a dead man would not be nearly so interesting were it not for Burns' explanation that the man was Dr. James Howe who contracted Cholera while treating patients during the St. Louis epidemic of 1849 and was fatally afflicted. That one sombre portrait seems to symbolize the bravery and sacrifice of physicians the world over during times of pestilence, and if there's anything that you come away with after viewing this book, it's a newfound appreciation for modern medicine. All told, "A Morning's Work" is a fascinating book - and a must for enthusiasts of the bizarre and medical historians alike.

This book is very harsh, unpleasant, but impressive. Not at all for anybody because you need to have the guts to keep your glance at the pictures mirroring the abnormal, the illnesses, the horror of nature, the facts of the old times of surgery. As Bacon's paintings these pictures have a very sui-generis aesthetics, based upon the ugly and the deformity.

I recently bought this book out of curiosity really. My baby was recently born with Transposition of the Great Arteries, VSD and PS. This book allows me to take a look inside the lives, a voyeur if you will, of children growing up with CHD. It is inspiring and gives us "new" parents in the heart community hope of seeing our babies grow and flourish. Max Gerber has put into pictures and words exactly what heart parents are looking for to dream the dream of seeing their children progress and thrive! Thanks MAX!!

Hi, I am "A Mom with a thirst for truth & knowledge"...

This book is a great book of photography and excerpts from each child and family. It highlights children growing up with congenital heart disease (CHD). Their personal accounts reveal their true feelings and by sharing their personal experiences, have inadvertently shown others how they have handled their own lives through extraordinary situations. These children and their families are an inspiration through their bravery and willingness to share their lives with the world.

Max has captured each subject magnificently through his excellent expertise and very revealing photography.

Hopefully this book will help bring about awareness to the many people who do not realize that Congenital Heart Defects are the number 1 birth defect in children. This beautiful book will help get that awareness out there and consequently help others with CHD!

Thanks for putting this book together Max, I appreciate all your hard work and I'm sure, many frustrations, that you have gone through over the past few years in compiling the materials for this book. I know and feel that your book will be a wonderful success and that the ultimate goal for this book will be an instrument of hope that gives other parents and children with CHD an understanding to those who have not experienced it.

My recommendation is that you purchase this elegant book of photography... experience it for yourself, share it with your children and families and enjoy it as much as I have.

Not knowing anyone affected with Heart Disease, I approached this book from a photography standpoint. Taken by the photographs, I sat down and read the book and was immediately drawn in.

Woven into this book is Max's story. He is in the book, in words and pictures, telling his story of being a kid, like the kids in the book, growing up with heart disease. He tells us, his parents tell us, about his childhood with words and pictures and then gets into the stories of the kids in the book.

After reading Gerber's chapter on himself, one can't really look at the images of the kids the same. At it's best it seems like he is channelling the kids, finding aspects of himself in each kid to focus in on, which gives the photographs this kind of psychic power. When Gerber photographs a bunch of boys ripping open a present at a birthday party, it just seems to transcend the subject matter into a picture about wanting to have a normal life with small normal thrills.

The photographer isn't really just connecting with his subjects in this book, it seems like he is trying to figure something out thru them... and we are just here witnessing it all. By the time you get to the end of the book and see the shot of Gerber photographing himself in the mirror with two of the kids, the book kind of hits this emotional crescendo and you see what this is about. MG is using photography to understand his own life, thru these kids. The book was a document of this kind of personal fact-finding mission.

this book is stunningly photographed and full of moving personal stories. it's inspiring and real. an utterly wonderful book.

Wow........I got this book for my almost 10 year old son. He has TOF/DORV, had tons of complications, ending up in PICU for a year and emerging with lots of "accessories" including a trach, ventilator, oxygen, gtube, pacemaker and nurse 24/7. He has been without those lovely things (except the pacer) for many years now, but is starting to come to the realization that his life is different than many of his friends. Not tons different, but different. He has loved Camp Del Corazon, and we got this for him to continue to help him see that there are lots of kids who have had similar experiences.

So last night I grabbed it at 11:30pm and started flipping through it.....I was engrossed. I didn't put it down until 1:30am and I was in tears and very prayerful. Sometimes even with all that we have been through, and all the support he needs, I get caught up in the laundry, bills, shuttling kids to ballet/golf/physical therapy, and don't really remember how complicated and beautiful and terrifying his life is. How varied and amazing these kids are, yet they are tied together with such similar life experiences. This book, in it's beautiful (though solemn) photographs and words of the children and their parents, put on paper what we have known for years. That despite these struggles, these differences, this identity as the "heart kid", that these kids can find their own way in life and are richer and more compassionate for it.

Max Gerber did an amazing job with this book, and gave all of our kids a wonderful gift. It lets them meet other children and see the range of experiences in families dealing with various CHDs. This is a MUST BUY for you and your child. I am buying it as gifts for our Ped Cardiologist, and other families I know who are dealing with this as well. Bravo.

anyone wanting to understand what makes great art great should study this book. this collection includes tasteful and insightful comments about numerous paintings. this book is invaluable to me as an aspiring artist

This is a large book full of pictures of beautiful artworks. While there are some photos of sculpture and some of drawings, the bulk of what is reproduced here is painting. While many pages have multiple artworks, there are also quite a few where the painting is given a full page for more close observation and study.

The quality of the reproductions is quite good, if not quite superb. The captions and text describing the art and artists are very good and most helpful for the general reader. The book opens with several articles on the National Gallery and its history and policies.

The plates are organized chronologically and by the national schools of their times. The earliest artworks are circa the 13th century and concludes with works of the 20th century.

You could spend many days enjoying this glorious selection of art and still find many more days of study before you exhaust all that is offered in this fine book about a great national treasure.

This big, beautiful book should be on any art lover's shelf! A treasury of reproductions of the world's best art is contained here. The reproductions are excellent; colors are preserved in all their glory. Walker's text is informative & interesting. The next best thing to actually visiting the National Gallery is owning this book.

This is a beautiful book! The color plates are very nice and are good representations of the actual paintings. Brief histories are also presented. I bought it after my first visit to the National Gallery of Art and before my second visit. I enjoyed the second visit much more because I felt that I really knew what was going on with the artists and paintings. Get the book and then go to the National Gallery of Art!

This book is one of my favorites, and has been for many years. Its beautiful color illustrations are grouped by the period and country in which they were created. The book presents works (mostly paintings) from many countries (mostly Western) beginning in the Byzantine era, extending up until the early twentieth century. Many of the works are accompanied by art historical abstracts which offer insight for both the inexperienced and learned art enthusiast. This is a great book to have around as an extensive survey of Western painting.

From the equipment used to take the shots in this book to the actual location of the models and light sources in each photo, this book is a perfect place to tap into. It will help you get some good fashion shots and/or spawn some really creative ideas on the readers end. A good buy for the fashion photographer or the aspiring one! Happy reading :)

From the equipment used to take the shots in this book to the actual location of the models and light sources in each photo, this book is a perfect place to tap into. It will help you get some good fashion shots and/or spawn some really creative ideas on the readers end. A good buy for the fashion photographer or the aspiring one! Happy reading :)

Look behind the scenes. From the film used to the thoughts of the photographer. Excellent resource for photographers no mather if you're a pro, you always learn new things.

Fashion Shots is a book that includes many different lighting situations in a clear layout. I like the book for this, because its imformative and fun to read at the same time. If your interested in fashion photography, this is definetely a book to consider.

From the equipment used to take the shots in this book to the actual location of the models and light sources in each photo, this book is a perfect place to tap into. It will help you get some good fashion shots and/or spawn some really creative ideas on the readers end. A good buy for the fashion photographer or the aspiring one! Happy reading :)

If for nothing else, us it for sitting around with your friends accompanied by a few bottles of wine and have a laugh! The scary thing is sooo much of this book is factual on some odd level.

This book really made me laugh, although I am the most ungenerous cynical person.

I defy anyone to not just love this eccentric tongue-in-cheek look at decorating. It takes interior design and skews it with hilarious results. Clever, original, and only slightly obscene. (And I'm talking about the rooms...!) A great urban gift.

This is my book so I'm not unbiased in my giving it 5 stars, but disregard the inaccurate Amazon description above. Here's the deal: It's a collection of real online male personal ad photos with the figures obscured, and then my critique of the room's decor behind them. Fight Club author, Chuck Palahniuk included Obscene Interiors in his list of Top Ten Books of the past 10 years - Yay! And Dave Eggers had this to say, "Obscene Interiors is not only a cruelly brilliant idea, but it's executed with great cunning and even some warmth."

From the back cover: A first of its kind collection of online male personal ad photos featuring shockingly explicit amateur decorating action! Lamps, plants, curtains and couches mix it up in this graphic display of aesthetic perversion!

What a hilarious book. Page after page of men who are simply oblivious. These guys have no shame in exposing themselves with a variety of backdrops, ranging from tacky, scary to out and out gross. This is like a book of favorite cartoons - you just keep picking it up.

Roger Steene's "Oceanic Wilderness" is a fantastic book because the photos are of such high quality. There are amazing photos of many kinds of shrimps, crabs, worms and other invertebrates. I liked it because is was NOT full of endles photos taken while the diver was lying on the bottom looking up at the surface and the passing schools of fish. There are a limited number of such photos that one can look at without becoming bored.
If you've never bought a coral reef book for your library, then you must buy this one - forget the rest this is the best!

This is an outstanding collection of underwater images, mostly macro images from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. The photographic quality of the images is excellent.

It is a fascinating book. Many of the images record extremely rare animals and unusual events: all kinds of mating; anemones capturing and eating starfish; lionfish hunting in packs; fish with strange jaws gaping; nudibranchs hunting each other, etc.

One of the really nice features of this book is the way it lays out 12 or 24 different variants of a theme juxtaposed together on a page: 24 different colour variations of the same nudibranch, or 12 variants of the beautiful patterns on the tails of mantis shrimp. These displays are beautiful and fascinating.

This is a wonderful gift for a scuba diver or for anyone with an interest in the underwater world. The experience is a lot like chatting with an experienced marine biologist and photographer in the bar after a good day's diving. I've done almost a thousand dives, but while reading Steene's book I kept gasping "I didn't even know that fish did that!"

great book. as a scuba diver you see lots of different and strange fish and other creatures.you dont even touch on what all this book shows.its really interesting to know that you might see one of these if you know where to look.the book is put together well and the colors are great.its a good conversation book.great for the coffee table.

This book is filled with the most beautiful and amazing photos of our underwater world. If you love the sea, get this book.

This iconic book features so many incredibly weird and beautiful creatures from Indonesia. Roger's ability to show incredible detail using 35mm film is truly astounding. Most of the marine animals included in this book will soon only exist on paper, sadly. Get out there and buy one!

This is a lovingly executed book that celebrates a diverse group of centenarians. A marvelous tribute.

This book is a gem, as are all of the wonderful people whose stories are told! Congratulations to all of these 100+ year old folks. The stories are told with great humanity and love. It makes you realize how insignificant the little things in life are. The photos and life stories are touching. The author/photographer did a wonderful job representing a cross section of people with varied backgrounds. Go out and talk to one of these inspirations, they have seen a multitude of change in their lives and transcended bias, segregation, wars, poverty, etc. It's a real life history lesson.

(...) when I saw the finished product I was in awe of what she had achieved! The stories are so inspirational they bring me to tears every time I read them, and I'm still (re)reading them. The college professor who reduced his work week to "only five days" when he turned 100. The lady who decided to go help others in South America when she was in her eighties. They're all here. Every character is such a powerful person and it is very clear from their stories what it takes to be a survivor in this world and beat the odds on longevity. The adversities that most of these people would have felled a lesser person. Read this book and learn how to grow "old" with grace and dignity. In a word - stubbornness!

As someone who is sixty-ish, with a mother in her eighties, I am aware of the down-side of the aging process. Liane Ekelis's "On Being 100" filled me with renewed faith that old age can be rich and vital. These are real people. Their moving stories are told in their own words. And the photographs are superb.

Personally, I found this book very inspirational. For Christmas, I gave "On Being 100" to all my friends (and I have many) who've been cringing as they approach the fifty-year mark. I figured that once they saw the wonderful photographs of people more than twice their age and read about how these centenarians had conducted their lives - often in face of extreme adversity -- they would feel inspired rather than defeated. Most did report back to me that the photographs, which exude the joie de vivre and determination of their subjects, deeply moved them. Additionally, they liked the anecdotes and detailed biographical information, which not only tell about the people, but also open a window on history. Several friends said they felt encouraged and inspired, and I couldn't agree more. Really, how could anyone whine about life after fifty when "On Being 100" makes it clear that it's possible not only to live beyond 100, but to embrace all 100 years with gusto.