Blog – Page 2 – LITTLE BROWN MUSHROOM

December 15, 2014December 16, 2014

My favorite photobook of 2014

I’m a fan, and defender, of year-end lists. While these lists are subjective and at the mercy of fashion and favor-currying, they generally succeed in bringing deserved attention to quality work. They are also a lot of fun to write. Having put together lists of favorite photobooks in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 – I’ve found the process has helped me clarify my thinking about the medium.

Nevertheless, this year I decided I wouldn’t be making a list. My head is not in the game. I didn’t attend the New York Art Book Fair or Paris Photo and LBM is currently on hiatus from publishing while we explore other avenues (news coming soon). I’m still plenty excited about the possibilities of the photobook, but in truth most of my attention has been focused on the production of my upcoming book published by MACK.

So I’ve simply sat back and enjoyed the lists as they’ve poured in. As in the past, Photolia has put assembled a comprehensive list and QT Luong has put together a statistical meta-list. I was happy to see Max Pinckers book, Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty, in 2^nd place. I’d actually chosen the book months ago as my favorite for Time Magazine. But since then another book has landed on my doorstep and taken my breath away.

DIE MAUER IST WEG! by Mark Power is my favorite book of 2014. The book has an incredible story, brilliant design, excellent printing and killer pictures. I confess that I’m not objective. Mark is a good friend. But I didn’t know about the publication of this book and was flabbergasted by it in every way.

DIE MAUER IST WEG! is the product of an incredibly lucky timing. On November 9^th of 1989, Power made a trip to Berlin to give one last go at being a photographer before giving up to become a carpenter. After arriving in Berlin, he soon learned that the Berlin Wall would be open for free passage for the first time that very same day. The world was changed. So too was Power’s career.

DIE MAUER IST WEG! was published on November 9^th 2014, twenty-five years to the day after its making. While this is a wonderful celebration of Power’s good timing, it is unfortunate timing when it comes to year-end lists. I’m certain very few reviewers had the opportunity to see this book. While I have no doubt the book will sell out (it is self-published in an edition of 1000), I hope it gets the critical celebration it deserves.

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

The best photo MFA program

The year-end lists of photobooks have started to come out and I was thrilled to see that Martin Parr chose Felipe Russo’s book, Centro. Felipe is yet another success story from the amazing Hartford Art School International Limited-Residency Photography MFA Program. Since its inception in 2010, I’ve participated in this program and have been astonished by the success of the students. This success is largely due to the vision of the program’s director, Robert Lyons. By hosting intensive sessions in New York City, San Francisco, Berlin as well as Hartford, Robert has helped give the students a global perspective. Additionally Robert and his team have continually emphasized the importance of the photobook. Upon graduation, each student produces a finished book dummy along with an exhibition. From this have come highly acclaimed published books by J. Carrier (MACK), Bryan Schutmaat (Silas Finch) and others.

Over the years I’ve visited dozens of MFA programs and have yet to find one that rivals Hartford in the quality of its graduates. I’m grateful to be associated with the program and am eager to see who comes on board in the future.

To apply for the program (due January 15), go here: http://www.hartfordphotomfa.org/content/admissions

November 28, 2014November 29, 2014

LBM Holiday Sale

SALE From now until Dec. 1 we’re selling Such Appetite for only $9.

Peeking into the combustible sublime of America’s outer-urban colonies, Such Appetite pairs Charlie White’s intimate study of a teenage girl with poems by Stephanie Ford in a twenty-first century meditation on beauty and banality, adolescence and sprawl. More info HERE.

In the week since it’s been released, we’ve sold nearly half of the copies of Georgia. This is the 7th and final in the Dispatch series and all other issues are sold out. More info HERE.

Shipping now: $18

BLACK-CYBER SPECIAL! After over a year of delays, we finally managed to get some copies of this scarce project made in Japan in 2013. Each copy of The Frank Album comes with an original print by Alec Soth and is significantly more rare than Nazraeli’s ~~One Picture Book. Copies purchased from now through December 1^st will be signed by Soth.~~

“A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about.” – Richard Avedon

Who is Frank? Create your own album of this beguiling westerner traveling in Japan. Each copy of the The Frank Album contains a unique selection of 19 anonymous photographs and 12 texts. In the process of assembling this book, the viewer is asked to question how we piece together our understanding of strangers.

Each copy of The Frank Album includes a separate work by Alec Soth including a unique c-print entitled Frank Is Not My Father.

SOLD OUT

November 24, 2014

The final Dispatch

It has been an incredible journey for our little homegrown newspaper, but the 7th edition of the LBM Dispatch, Georgia, will be our last. From upstate New York to Silicon Valley, we crisscrossed the country collecting a compendium of American faces, voices, and places. “The Dispatch reported the news the way a paper would if Sherwood Anderson were the owner, Raymond Carver the copy chief and Emily Dickinson the sports editor,” wrote the New York Times, ” a vision of 21^st-century life deeply strange and strangely deep.”

No place in our journeys showed greater depth than Georgia. Over two sweltering, bug-swarming weeks in July, the LBM Dispatch covered 2,400 miles in Georgia, exploring the State’s diverse landscapes, histories, and narratives that were alternately harrowing and inspiring. From the Civil War to the last beleaguered Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island, the result is a sort of see-sawing time-lapse portrait of a region that continues to straddle the past and the present, and that seems to exist in a state of conflicted nostalgia and perpetual reconstruction.

Shipping now: $18 (please note that all other editions have sold out and we don’t expect Georgia to last long). More info HERE

Continue reading “The final Dispatch”

November 19, 2014July 17, 2017

LBM Dispatch #7: Georgia (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Georgia Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

November 18, 2014July 17, 2017

LBM Dispatch #6: Texas Triangle (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Texas Triangle Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

November 17, 2014

Surfing in Istanbul

Fishing, like photography, is an art that calls forth intelligence, concentration, and delicacy. – Stephen Shore

If you’re having a bad day, catch a wave. – Frosty Hesson

I’m currently in Istanbul on non-picture-taking business. As often happens when I travel, I’ve been questioning my role as a photographer. Years ago I used to pack a big film camera when I traveled somewhere new. Nowadays I rarely bring anything but an iPhone. But when I’m in Turkey rather than Tampa, something kicks in and I start feeling guilty.

The first thing I saw when I walked out of my hotel in Istanbul was the Galata Bridge at sunset. The scene was as corny as a postcard, but I snapped an iPhone picture anyway. This image is a meaningless document of the place. It is also a pretty useless document of my experience. But like every tourist, the activity scratches some sort of itch.

It occurs to me that making snapshots isn’t that different in spirit from the fishing being done on Galata Bridge. Dozens of fishermen are lined up shoulder to shoulder. Strolling by, I only saw a few small fish in a handful of buckets. It is hard to imagine that this meager bounty is the goal of their effort.

Just as I doubt a professional fly-fisherman would want to drop his line with dozens of others off a bridge, I resisted giving myself over to a platform like Instagram. But after a long period of evasion, I finally began experimenting a year ago. I found Instagram surprisingly pleasurable. It felt good to casually dip my hook in the water with everyone else.

But old habits die hard, and I probably take my Instagram account too seriously. While few people ever look at a post after 24 hours, I’m still aware that these picture-minnows are floating around out there.

This is why I was curious to try the ephemeral platform of Snapchat – a concept entirely antithetical to art photography. Whereas an artist tries to preserve a moment for the future, a Snapchat disappears immediately after being viewed.

After a few weeks of goofing around with Snapchat, I’ve come to find that the fishing analogy doesn’t quite fit. Without the element of preservation, the process is closer to surfing. Some days might provide a better string of pictures, but in the end there is nothing to show for it but the memory of the journey.

November 17, 2014July 17, 2017

LBM Dispatch #5: Colorado (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Colorado Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

November 16, 2014July 17, 2017

LBM Dispatch #4: Three Valleys (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Three Valleys Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

November 15, 2014July 17, 2017

LBM Dispatch #3: Michigan (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Michigan Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.