Amazon.com

America 24/7 reunites the team that started the popular A Day in the Life series of photography books, Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen. Those books sought to profile a single day in a country or city through pictures. Here, the concept is similar but far more epic in scope: photojournalistic, people-driven snapshots of young and old at work and play throughout the entire United States over a given time period (in this case, one week). Another twist this time is that more than 25,000 amateur and professional photographers snapped all of the pictures with digital cameras. From the million-plus photos submitted, 25,000 were chosen for a total of 53 volumes, one on America, one for each state, and one each for D.C. and New York City. The result is an amazing array of subjects, but all shot with a consistency of tone. Composition, lighting, and camera effects aren't as important as the content. the gener! al sentiment one gets from the images: Muslim high school girls jumping rope in traditional headcovers, Roller Bladers on the Brooklyn Bridge, electrical lineman students learning to climb telephone poles, Eve Fletcher, a 76-year-old California surfer, or Tonto, the "seeing-eye" miniature horse. There are babies, children, rites of passage, monuments, forests, circus performers, movie stars, and cattlemen. The images might be a tad sentimental, but not overly so. In addition, readers can order a custom book jacket at www.america24-7.com/customcover, using their own digital photo as the cover. --Eric Reyes ... Read more

Reviews (36)

wonderful book and custom cover!
The book has beautiful photographs and wonderful captions full of miniature stories. I ordered a cover, and when I had trouble with uploading (I'm not very computer literate) their customer service team got back to me in a day and they helped me through it -- even resizing my picture for me. My custom cover order came in three weeks. I have to say it was really worth the effort seeing the final cover in my hands. I'm surprised they don't charge us more for the whole thing. I've ordered many more as gifts. Their new site is easier to use and I was even able to track my order using the USPS tracking number they gave me. I would expect any company trying out a whole new idea to take a few months to get such a large operation together, but now its June and the site seems so be working great! I would give it another chance if you had problems in the past. I'm a satisfied customer and I hope they get more positive reviews because I know they're really trying their best.

Love It
I am shocked about the prior review in regard to not recommending this book or custom cover. We bought one for ourselves and two for gifts. The books arrived right at two weeks and I had to contact (by e-mail) the company and they promptly responded. The cover of our chidren turned out fabulous and the pictures in the book are fantastic. Everyone one that has seen our book is in awe. I highly recommend this book.

Best Photography book ever! Love the Custom Cover!
I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was the perfect one of a kind gift for my dad, who has everything. The book itself was a perfect visualization of America and the Custom Cover was a wonderful bonus offer. Where else can you get the chance to put your own image on a New York Times best seller?! I've read some reviews complaining about Custom Covers and I have to say that in my case and with most of my friends who have ordered, everything went smoothly -- their site was easy to use, customer service was prompt and helpful, shipment was on time and the cover print was excellent. I'd give them another try...I know I'll be ordering more Custom Covers.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT A CUSTOM COVER!!!
I purchased this book in January with the intention of getting a custom cover for my husband made while he was in Iraq. He wasn't coming home until April so I figured I had plenty of time. I went to their website and it said check back in a week they were updating their website. After two weeks (the "check back" message was still there) I tried to email the company and received no response but an auto-reply. Their message changed two days later to "check back again in another week they were still updating." This happened FIVE times. Then they finally said keep to checking back they didn't have a date when they would have it together. After two more months (it is now May) their website has now vanished!!!!!!!!!!! Again, don't purchase this book if your intention is a custom cover. I wouldn't really recommend spending $50.00 on this book without it either. It is just okay.

Missing Cover Follow-Up
In my previous review I received 1 of 4 covers, looking for contact info. I did receive the additional 3 a week later- how about a note or sticker "1 of 2" when shipping? For anyone else that has a problem; DK publisher 800.788.6262 live voice, no wait, extremely polite and helpful. America 24-7 Custom Cover 415.331.6300 ext. 7#, voice mail box with a greeting that states "we will not return your call". America 24-7 email customcover@america24-7.com did respond to my request in 3 days with something like "gee-wiz I really didn't know we could only ship 3 covers at a time so the last one is on the way" whatever.. The book is great, custom cover is a great idea and personalizes the book. I really think the publisher should have asked if these folks can actually deliver on what they advertise. BTW I just found this book at the store and thought it was nice- never watched Oprah in my life. Also, I would have paid more $$ for the custom cover if they could deliver without a glitch. ... Read more

Book Description

“[New York City subway riders] are members of every race and nation of the earth.
They are of all ages, of all temperaments, of all classes, of almost every imaginable occupation.
. . . Each, also, is an individual existence, as matchless as a thumbprint or a snowflake.”
—James Agee, from the introduction

Between 1936 and 1941 Walker Evans and James Agee collaborated on one of the most provocative books in American literature, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). While at work on this book, the two also conceived another less well-known but equally important book project entitled Many Are Called. This three-year photographic study of subway passengers made with a hidden camera was first published in 1966, with an introduction written by Agee in 1940. Long out of print, Many Are Called is now being reissued with a new foreword and afterword and with exquisitely reproduced images from newly prepared digital scans.

Many Are Called came to fruition at a slow pace. In 1938, Walker Evans began surreptitiously photographing people on the New York City subway. With his camera hidden in his coat—the lens peeking through a buttonhole—he captured the faces of riders hurtling through the dark tunnels, wrapped in their own private thoughts. By 1940-41, Evans had made over six hundred photographs and had begun to edit the series. The book remained unpublished until 1966 when The Museum of Modern Art mounted an exhibition of Evans’s subway portraits.

This beautiful new edition—published in the centenary year of the NYC subway—is an essential book for all admirers of Evans’s unparalleled photographs, Agee’s elegant prose, and the great City of New York.

Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts, is Visiting Professor of Writing and the History of Photography at Bard College; Jeff L. Rosenheim, Associate Curator, Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the editor of Unclassified: A Walker Evans Anthology and Walker Evans: Polaroids and was the main contributor to the Metropolitan’s exhibition catalogue Walker Evans (2000).
... Read more

Book Description

"Crewdson is at the forefront of a movement in contemporary photography that hasabandoned realism in pursuit of pure cinematic fantasy." —The New York TimesMagazine

Twilight: in that zone between the certainty of day and fear of the dark, GregoryCrewdson sets his eerie, enigmatic photographs. A woman floats in her flooded livingroom, a cow appears to have fallen from the sky onto a front lawn, a gang of teenagers,seemingly hypnotized, pile up household objects for a bonfire. Created as elaboratelystaged tableaux, this series of images suggests the bizarre yet beautiful surrealities behinddeceptively familiar suburban facades. Scheduled to accompany three simultaneous gallery exhibitions in Spring 2002 and asubsequent retrospective at Mass MoCA, this book chronicles the completion of theTwilight series, which Crewdson began in 1998. Including both production stills and the40 finished images, all infull color, it also features an essay by Rick Moody, a novelist equally renowned forexposing the underbelly of small-town, middle-class America. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Beautiful and Wonderful Photographs by Crewdson
This exciting collection of photographs by Gregory Crewdson finally arrives! It is so wonderful to have these images together in a gorgeous book to bring home to my own living room. I have always enjoyed Crewdson's brilliantly detailed and beautifully cinematic images that evoke wonder and awe. There are excellent photographs in this collection. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates contemporary art.

fascinating photos and read
This book is an incredible documentation of community-based art. The artist, Gregory Crewdson, worked over years to unite a small town in the hills of Massachusetts to create art.
It's inspiring to find out that the people of the town (Lee) not only donate their houses for photo shoots, but they also block off streets and are subjects of the photographs.
The photos in the book are accompanied by text written by Rick Moody. The text is interesting, touching on the psychological forces compelling Crewdson to create art--but the real treat is in the photographs themselves.
The work is produced far away from the mainstream art world of Chelsea, yet it has made a great impression there.

Elephantine and Shallow
The photographs in this book are big, glossy, cinematic...and ultimately dull and derivative. Yet those who hold this type of photography as an example of what is wrong with all contemporary art perhaps fail to understand that there is a good deal of photography mining the same themes, but with much more verve and far less self-conscious pretension. One can find mystery and surrealistic undercurrents in the most mundane of contemporary settings...one can depict such settings as dystopian...but there are photographers like Philip Lorca di Corcia and Paul Graham who have done so in recent monographs with execution that is ostensibly simpler, yet riskier and far more bracing in its results.

Crewdson is a talented professional whose influence in the contemporary photography world and in academia is significant, but in this book he commits so many sins it's tough to know where to start in pinpointing what makes this book so leaden. Ultimately, it's the sheer overstatement in presentation that seems to turn the images into white elephant art (to borrow a term from film critic Manny Farber)...an overstated style that evokes the dreadful excesses of the film American Beauty and David Lynch's most self-indulgent moments.

And since Crewdson works in the realm of still images and not in film or video, he doesn't have the benefit of motion, nuanced characters or any reasonable narrative (unlike a show like Six Feet Under, for example) to keep the images from landing with a huge thud. Though there are some "Recurring Themes" in the images (which seem to involve pregnancy and mounds of flowers), whatever narrative or mystery these may imply is simply not worth considering while being assaulted with the sheer excess of everything. The expressions on the faces of the many mannequins in the book have all the subtlety of silent movie acting, except silent movies (and silent movie actors) on the whole are far more poetic in their projection than the sorry models Crewdson chooses to present to the viewer. Crewdson's dramatic lighting of his stillborn subjects only accentuates the shallowness of his concepts.

If you have a friend that loves the scene from the film "American Beauty" where Annette Benning listens to self-help tapes at an ear-deafening volume, if they consider this a solid critique of contemporary American life, Crewdson's equally vacuous volume will make the perfect coffee-table gift. To those looking for more craft, more subtlety, more depth, diCorcia's "A Storybook Life" or Paul Graham's "American Night", or even work from Crewdson's female disciples from Yale like Justine Kurland (to name just a few) -- these explore similar themes with far more rewarding results.

Amazing
Crewdson uses elements of documentary photography and cinema to give authority and narrative to intricately and flawlessly constructed, amazingly artificial scenes. To criticize these photographs for being "forced" or lacking sincerity is like criticising a race car driver for driving too fast. The amount of effort and detail that went into constructing these realities is the entire point of this book. A photograph doesn't have to refer to something that is "real" in order to be valuable, compelling, and beautiful in its own right. This is an excellent, highly recomended book.

How disappointing
There are artists whose images evoke a sincerity that is missing from most of these images. These photographs seem forced, overly contrived, pretentious, and redundant.
Look at what the photographer George Tice can do with light and the landscape. A photographer, an idea, and a camera. How simple, how sincere. ... Read more

Book Description

" A breathtaking collection of flowers by celebrated photographer Harold Feinstein, One Hundred Flowers features over a hundred luscious portraits of dahlias, roses, anemones, poppies, pansies, orchids, tulips, azaleas, peonies, and other varieties in exquisite detail. The enormous scale of these flowers allows us to examine and explore their intricacies as never before possible in a book. These botanicals are dazzling in form and appear to, be living, breathing--in all their fragility.In hear delightful introduction to One Hundred Flowers, popular gardening author Sydney Eddison enlightens us on the elaborate structure of flowers and explains the role it plays in their reproduction. Of Feinstein's sumptuous yet quietly contemplative photographs, she writes: "While they obviously are flowers,--they have another kind of life, mystical and imperishable." Horticultural commentaries by expert Greg Piotrowski precede each floral grouping, as well as brief descriptions of the individual species, numbered to correspond to the pictures. These notes include hints about cultivation, cultural and historical facts, and colorful literary references--making the book as useful and informative as it is beautiful. Finally, a passionate essay by acclaimed critic A.D. Coleman offers insight into Harold Feinstein's work and details about his life as a master photographer and teacher. One Hundred Flowers is the perfect gift for gardeners, photographers, and anyone who delights in the beauty of flowers." ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Absolutely beautiful.
The number of photographs in _One Hundred Flowers_ is astounding. The colors contrast beautifully against the black background. It's as breathtaking as the publisher claims, and more. Sydney Eddison's introduction, "A Bee's Eye View," leads readers into the photographs and in the essay, "Engendered is the Flower," A. D. Coleman talks symmetry, comparing Feinstein and Chaucer in the timing of their work.

With each section there is a 3- to 6-page piece about the flowers in the photographs (White Flowers, Roses, Pansies, Poppies, Orchids, Irises, Sunflowers and Dandelions, Cosmos and Daisies, Floral Diversity, A Name for Every Flower). Some of the photos remind me of drawings in pastel oils, such as the doubled-flowered evergreen azalea on page 105, the bouquet of pink evergreen azaleas on page 107, and the large picture of a modern rose on 32-33. I can only imagine the modern rose photo hanging on my office wall. Absolutely beautiful.

This book is huge. Place it on your coffee table and company will naturally gravitate to it. Any cultivator or artist will appreciate its ability to bring the conversation around to nature and art. My first thought was my daughter and her drawing class. This book can inspire many ways of sharing it. Be sure to look up all Feinstein's floral books. They are well worth the effort.

One Hundred Flowers
I have spent years practicing meditation and exploring the Christian and Buddhist concept of living in the moment and appreciating the beauty of the world around you. When I saw Harold's book I understood! Each image is breath taking and you see the extraordinary in the very flowers that go unappreciated and we pass by each day. He captures the meaning of "being in the moment" with each image...perfect in thier imperfection, beauty beyond belief and exquisite treasures...a meditiation and reminder to slow down, and "smell the roses"...and lilacs, and peonies, and dandelions, and iris, and lilies.... I can't wait for his new book on...FOLIAGE!

beautiful book
This is a beatiful book with extreme close-ups of many different types of flowers. The large size also is a plus so that each image looks grand and brilliant.

Vivid colors, perfect pictures.
I use this book in an artistic setting... The art room in my school has this book, and though I have not taken one class, I felt compelled to try and draw some of these magnificient flowers. They've come out pretty good, but it's not about that. This book is spectacular. The colors are so bright and vibrant. I've flipped through it countless times, and am never bored. I feel like I'm walking in a garden, every time I turn the page.

a feast for the eyes, a boost to one's well-being
This book will add to your quality of life - it is just phenomenally beautiful. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Invitation to Joy is an indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand the papacy of John Paul II. It is a straightforward, simple pictorial memoir that collects excerpts from the pope's writings and speeches (including one previously unpublished original prayer), sewn together with Vatican-approved commentary by former Time correspondent Greg Burke. In four chapters (entitled "The Human Family"; "The People of God"; "Human Dignity"; and "A Devotional Life"), John Paul II presents an epigrammatic, rough-cut portrait of his life and religious vision. ("'Life' is one of the most beautiful titles which the Bible attributes to God. He is the living God.") Each chapter contains dozens of color photographs of the pope, in almost every conceivable setting--from his own confessional in the church of St. John Lateran to New York's Central Park. (Many of these photographs sprawl across two full pages, and their emotional impact is difficult to describe in words.)

Archbishop Jorge Maria Mejia, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, has written an exuberant introduction to the book, which is the best possible summary of the message that John Paul II offers in the pages that follow: "Here is a man, known around the world, who proclaims with gestures and words that life is worth living: that it has a meaning, that it is not closed off between two inscrutable abysses, that it is not inside itself, but is open to others; that love is possible and enriching; that all of us, men and women, whatever the hue of our skins, are called to form a family, with God." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wonderful array of photos
This book contains little excerpts from various speeches and works of Pope John Paul II. It also contains a brilliant collection of photos taken of the Pope over the years. It is an inspirational book, and a GREAT collection of photos, if you are looking for pics of our wonderful Pope.

Beautiful and Moving
This book is deeply inspirational. What a great gift Pope John Paul II is to the world! The photograph of the Holy Father and Mother Theresa smiling into each other's eyes is incredible. This book is a personal treasure.

-Very intense,astounding!...A golden light for anyone-
In his most recent account, His Holiness Pope John Paul the II is still representing a truly Christian view of not only Europe but the whole world. John Paul the II gives concrete examples of how you can be happy and live "joyfully" through the "living spirit". The Pope says that you must be humble and completely surrender to GOD. Only then can a "true beleiver" find a bit of peice in "the world of men". He goes on to site many examples, idieas , and even mentions some of the great saints in thr tradition! ... ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

scattered and distant
this book suffers from an excess of professionalism: as a successful fashion photographer, baptiste has adapted too well to the demands of shooting for the editorial, and the models shown here are much too practiced in looking pretty on cue. the result is a variety of photo techniques that don't seem especially keyed to the human themes in the photos, and a variety of models who do not communicate any intimacy because they are all so obviously *posed*. helmut newtson is an obvious yet undigested influence, and any newtson collection completely surpasses the emotional impact of this book.

a moment
Simply put, this book is sexy. Although it is quite different from his first book "Beautiful" he still captures the strength,
femininity and power of being a woman. He has captured very private moments yet his subjects look stunning and not forced. It's a stimulating coffee table book even for the prudish (it may make them blush). Hats off for another great body of work. ... Read more

Book Description

From the hush of an old-growth forest to the skyline of Seattle, WASHINGTON II stimulates all the senses. Lush woodlands and dramatic waterfalls, misty coastlines and snow-dusted mountains, twinkling nightlife and vast yellow wheatfields-all await you in this enticing book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Washington II
This is the best photographic essay of Washington. The pictures are lightyears above the competition. True artwork. I am sending this book to friends in London for a good view of life here. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

One of the best overviews of any artist's life and work
The oft-controversial, but more oft-brilliant Will McBride often gets lumped into the same category as Jock Sturges or Sally Mann. There's some casual linkage there, but McBride has his own distinct territory, and it's examined exuberantly in this gigantic compendium of just about everything he did that's worth looking at. It's far superior to the impossibly skimpy Taschen book "My '60s", and even goes so far as to include the complete set of pages for "Zeig Mal!" (Show Me!), although they are reproduced rather small, probably to avoid too much trouble with small-minded authorities. Anyone even remotely interested in photography or McBride's work in general should not miss this.

Sad text, contrast the luminous photos of his sons & others.
Will Mcbride is as different as a man -saying he was a "bad father"- as one can contrast with his magnetic images.Never spending much time with his sons or his wife, yet creating nude portraits of them and others that transfix your imagination. Images one would swear were taken by a man doting on his subjects. Divorced later he saw little of his family thereafter. Maybe the camera was the only instrument Will McBride knew to communicate his feeling.How fortunate we are he use it. Beautiful, yet controversial to some,this book establishes again why we should all thank our founding fathers for our 1st amendment.

narcissism as engaged art
It is sad to see how a fertile period (the 60s and 70s) ends up being represented by some of its worst features: woodenly articulated ideology, narcissism, pretension, complacency, self pity. It is of course interesting to see, with time, how silly and sometimes downright wrong some of the slogans of the period in fact were. This book helps us see that, and as such is a real document.But its manipulations are deeply objectionable: invoking, for instance, Freud and Reich to justify one's own personal predilections is almost perverse (the reality of a child's sexuality should have nothing to do with the exploitation of that sexuality).
To my mind, the professionalism of the photos does not justify this book's apparent reputation.

Readers digest version of controversial photographer's work
There's a lot to be said for McBride's work and yet in learning about the man himself, I have to say I lost respect for him. It is as if you are watching a family man fall from grace into hedonism and self-involvement as he leaves his wife and family for a homosexual life. I cannot judge someone on their lifestyle, but I do criticize someone for forcing others to be witness to and party to their self-invovlement.

Nice but Photos are Old
McBride did some great original work as presented here. However, it has been surpassed by artists like Mikhail Rusinov, "Holy Nature" (a book a purchased on Amazon) which depicts Russian Nudists of all ages and many other recent art photographers. ... Read more

Book Description

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. Witty, provocative and searching, this lively catalogue of female roles inspired by the movies crystallizes widespread concerns in our culture, examining the ways we shape our personal identities and the role of the mass media in our lives. ~Sherman began making these pictures in 1977 when she was 23 years old. The first six were an experiment: fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blond actress, played by Sherman herself. The photographs look like movie stills--or perhaps publicity pix--purporting to catch the blond bombshell in unguarded moments at home. The protagonist is shown preening in the kitchen and lounging in the bedroom. Onto something big, Sherman tried other characters in other roles: the chic starlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian, the domesticated sex kitten, the hot-blooded woman of the people, the ice-cold sophisticate and a can-can line of other stereotypes. She eventually completed the series in 1980. She stopped, she has explained, when she ran out of clichés.~Other artists had drawn upon popular culture but Sherman's strategy was new. For her the pop-culture image was not a subject (as it had been for Walker Evans) or raw material (as it had been for Andy Warhol) but a whole artistic vocabulary, ready-made. Her film stills look and function just like the real ones--those 8 x 10 glossies designed to lure us into a drama we find all the more compelling because we know it isn't real. In the Untitled Film Stills there are no Cleopatras, no ladies on trains, no women of a certain age. There are, of course, no men. The 69 solitary heroines map a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America--the period of Sherman's youth and the starting point for our contemporary mythology. In finding a form for her own sensibility, Sherman touched a sensitive nerve in the culture at large. Although most of the characters are invented, we sense right away that we already know them. That twinge of instant recognition is what makes the series tick and it arises from Cindy Sherman's uncanny poise. There is no wink at the viewer, no open irony, no camp.~In 1995, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the series from the artist, preserving the work in its entirety. This book marks the first time that the complete series will be published as a unified work, with Sherman herself arranging the pictures in sequence. She's good enough to be a real actress.--Andy Warhol~The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told.--Arthur Danto Essays by Peter Galassi and Cindy Sherman. Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.25 in./164 pgs / 0 color 0 BW69 duotone 0 ~ Item D20150 ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Cindy Sherman: Film Stills
Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. ... Read more

Book Description

Of special note, "Lee Friedlander" is a limited edition of 600 copies. Only 350 are available for sale. Each copy is signed and numbered by the artist. In 1970, Lee Friedlander published a slim volume of photographs entitled simply Self Portraits. In the decades since its original release, the book has become, in the words of critic A.D.Coleman, "a cornerstone in the tradition of photographic self portraiture." In the 1990's, Friedlander returned to the project of self portraiture. "I started again after I did a couple and realized that I'd metamorphosed into something else," he has said "I wasn't the same person any more, and I wanted to document that."When seen in contrast to earlier work, these images offer us a reflection on maturity, on a self become less mutable and now with age more stubbornly real and individual, the self that is Lee Friedlander. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Peculiar Joy
I picked up this book not knowing what to expect.What I found was a collection of surprisingly moving and amusing self-portraits.General themes: Lee pretending to be asleep, taking his own picture; Lee, standingbehind tree branches or bushes.This is my new favorite coffee table book. A few quotes, from Jazz musicians, artists and poets, make up the onlytext in this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (11)

A Beautiful Book, Highly Recommended
I found this book to be a wonderful experience. Sally Mann has shown so many different 12-year-olds in her hometown of Lexington, Va, and she has captured their stories and what makes each girl so unique. I loved this book and found that some of the photographs, especially "Doll House" reminded me of myself "At Twelve".

Wonderful
I give Sally Mann a thumbs up for capturing her beautiful children when they were young, being what they are: beloved children. How fast we grow and turn into adults!
As I studied each page my memory was jogged several times of my childhood in southern Georgia. Humid sunny days and muggy rainy evenings; I couldn't wait to strip what little bit of cloths I wore and play outside in the rain or in the woods. I never gave it a second thought being nude. And apparently neither did my parents. Needless to say Sally Mann and her beloved childern are dear to my heart. Thanks for bring back so many innocent fond memories.
I recommend this book if you have an open mind and love children for what they are.

At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women
At Twelve is Sally Mann's revealing, collective portrait of twelve-year-old girls on the verge of adulthood. The way many of these reviews are written (i.e. like revealing) you think your getting something for the money but you're not. There is no nudity in this book (except for one picture of a 2 or 3 year old). I strongly recommend you stay away from this trash and stick with the David Hamiltion books.

Solidly beautiful pictures
Maybe I missed something. The pictures are beautiful, and they are supposed to be an attempt to capture the essence of young women on the cusp of becoming adults. What I got was pictures of young women-- missed the whole "becoming" thing. I could just be thick, but this one just passed me by devoid of any emotion.

Exploitative!!
This is not new ground. Mann is better than this. She could be a "contender," by taking a different route than she has - the exploitation of her own children in the nude. Not recommended!!! ... Read more

Book Description

In ancient times, older women were the keepers of primal mysteries and were revered for their special wisdom. For this very special book, Joyce Tenneson traveled throughout America to photograph and interview women ages 65 to l00.What she found was a revelation-women who were vital, energetic, and deeply beautiful, inside and out. The80 portraits are of women from all walks of life from the famous, such as Sandra Day O'Connor, Julie Harris, and Angela Lansbury, to the ordinary, such as our mothers and grandmothers. Tenneson's compelling and compassionate portraits, accompanied by short poignant statements from these remarkable women about the experience of aging, will help to reawaken us to the power and wisdom of our elders. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

This is a great coffee table book
When I pick up this book and thumb through it I think of my grandmother who I adore. I can imagine her picture along side the others. Strong, vulnerable and brave!

I was also very pleased to see that Joyce Tenneson was courageous enough to show these women as beautiful and whole-revealing their flaws.

This book is not a book for every woman. I agree with one of the other reviewers that women in their 80's might not appreciate seeing other women their age covered in only a wrap of cloth. Baby Boomers will enjoy this as they get older and see other women, older and wiser being comfortable with their bodies, their lives and their accomplishments. It would also make a good gift for cancer survivors in their 50's, as many of the women are survivors themselves.

There is not a lot of text in this book, which is why I say it would make a great coffee table book. I thumb through it often and find it very comforting to read the short quotes about their faith, their life and aging. It reads like comfort food for the soul.

The photograph is the story
I first came across the photographs of Joyce Tenneson in The Sun Magazine; I was instantly entranced. Here were photographs that spoke volumes, that said here is the spirit of woman that has been hidden by fashion, jewelry, makeup and society's expectations. They are photographs that you can spend hours with. Her work reminds me of that of Imogene Cunningham, though their years are far separated. The book does not need the quotes, the photographs speak on their own.

Not enough substance
This book was a disappointment for me - the title does not live up to my expectations. I mean, these are women who have lived for 70, 80, 90 years and all they have to say is one or two sentences? I wanted pages and pages of their wisdom. And then the wisest thing one of them had to say was "...I live at the Dakota and sometimes I feel like moving, but what would I do with all the things I've collected over the years? I have so many "things", I guess I'll never move." Oh, please! Where exactly is the wisdom here. Most of the photos were great, that's what the 3 stars are for. Also, I was surprised that several women did not reveal their age - I thought it was more interesting knowing their ages and seeing how beautiful they were and was inspired and amazed knowing that. In the introduction the author talks about the women sharing "...their inner lives - the heartaches as well as the triumphs. We talked about our families and the longings of our hearts...we discovered that the journeys we had taken toward our deeper selves, toward acceptance, love, and hopefully compassion for the frailties of the universe were basically the same. I came away from each encounter exhilarated by what I had seen and learned, and with an urgent desire to share these stories." I wish she had truly shared them. I'm sure they would have been great.

I loved this book and gave one to my mother....
This is a book I would be honored to given to me by my daughter...or anyone! Unfortunately, my mother didn't feel the same way. She's in her 70's and thought I was insulting her. The women in the book are my role models...

Real Beauty Revealed
All the while I was writing my own book about the wisdom, joy and power in being an 'Elderwoman' - i.e. a woman who embraces the aging process, instead of shrinking from it - I wished I could illustrate it with pictures. For as we know, a picture is worth a thousand words. And the true Elderwoman is a delight to behold. Her joy, her wisdom, her power, and a thousand stories, are all there, in her face. But I am no photographer. I had to make do with words.
So when I came upon this beautiful book I fell in love with it immediately. Now, everywhere I go to talk about my own books or to do workshops with older women, I take Joyce Tenneson's book with me, and pass it around. Every woman I have shown it to has loved it, as I do.
Compared to these portraits, the bland faces of young models look like clones or Barbie dolls. Here is REAL BEAUTY, revealed. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Since the publication of its first issue in 1992, Ray Gun has set the perimeters of the cutting edge in publishing. Abandoning such conventions as headlines, columns, and even page numbers, the alternative rock-and-roll magazine created a chaotic, abstract style that broke all the rules, clearing the way for a slew of fringe magazines devoted as much to style as to substance. This self-consciously hip, unconventional approach soon emerged on album covers, concert posters, and MTV, signaling the birth of a bona fide movement. The same irreverent approach to production is applied to Ray Gun: Out of Control, forcing you to wade through a maze of random graphics and typefaces to unearth the articles and essays. The search is half the fun, though, as the pieces are enough to capture your interest, even against the backdrop of so much graphic noise. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

ray gun - out of control
this book is a collection of spreads from the early years of raygun and other magazines whose art direction was lead by david carson. there is a lot of controversy surrounding carson's work, and carson as a graphic designer. i find the work visually stimulating and closer to art than most design i've encountered. i personally admire the intuitive beauty of this book and have spent countless hours looking at it. while i do not recomend carson's other books i do recomend this one.

Collection on the shelf
This book is for the Raygun collectors who admires clever typographic layout. A collector's item.

out of gas
As the elite of contemporary typograhpy will tell you, Art Director David Carsons was neither type designer nor graphic designer, but instead adept collector of typefaces and free favors from young talent. This book is an attempt, on the eve of the sellout of the Ray Gun Empire, to solidify the merit of a magazine built on 2 things: hype, and the desire of the design community and its afficionados to find a voice for the explosion of creativity ignited by the early macintosh design pioneers and their disciple, Ed Fella,while, initially at least, disregarding the need for relevant indie music reporting. Don't buy it.

Out of Control pushes the envelope
Use this book for ideas that will stun and amaze your staid audience whether it be in print or on the Web. I look at it as one giant idea book - it pushes the limit of type and design and gives us a new art form

A magazine picture book?
"Out of Control?" I don't get it. Is this a picture book, or a book that is supposed to honor the magazine? Magazines are about content and design, but here all we get is design. Now, I like design, I like it a lot, and hope to one day get into magazine desiggn, but this book seems to undermine what the magazine should be about. Design vs. Content. How well does the design and presentation relate to the article? I have no idea from looking at this. This is a picture book. From looking at this from a distance (which you are apparently supposed to do) Ray Gun is a nicely laid out and designed magazine. But what's it about? I love design, but I don't give a damn about a publication about information (no matter hhow good the design) if I can't have access to that information. As far as I'm concerned, this collection should showcase and celebrate the representation of information. IAs I've said, I enjoy the design and designers, but Ray Gun was started as a great means of maing the aarticles fun to read...lure the reader in with the design and hook 'em with the words. This may or may not have worked, but the intention was there. No matter how much of a design magazine this is, Ray Gun is the bible of mushc ansstyle, not a graphic design monthly. I think that this collection is a slap in the face to the people who wrote the articles in the mag. Buy "Out of Control" if you want a picture book, but if you want to get any idea at all about what the actual magazine is about, bo to the periodicals section and pick it up. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A beautiful book
The photography and the text of this book has been described in other reviews, but I want to add that this is now one of the most beautiful books that I own. The typesetting is flawless, the paper is of a much higher weight than I have seen in other monographs, and, of course, the reproductions are class. These points are magnified by the sheer size of the book-- check the dimensions given in the details above. The book is a work of art.

"The Meaning of the Idea Photography" -- Alfred Stieglitz
This book clearly deserves many more than five stars. It is one of the most remarkable expressions about and by an artist in any genre that I have ever seen.

Before going further, let me caution those who are offended by all forms of nudity that this book contains many female nudes. These are all tastefully done, and will not offend those who look with a desire to see the essence of beauty.

Alfred Stieglitz was a seminal figure in 20th century art. One of the foremost photographers in the century, he also helped other photographers define what the aesthetic means in photography. He also was a champion for many of the best known photographers, and seriously boosted their careers. In painting, he was an early advocate of important 20th century artists like Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe. In addition, he published two influential journals about photography, and exhibited art in his famous gallery in New York. Clearly, though, photography was his first love. "I have all but killed myself for Photography."

This book focuses on his central vision of photography ("search for objective truth and pure form") which increasingly was about "antiphotographs" or images that move beyond simple representation. This concept is examined both in 73 of his best images and through numerous excerpts from his voluminous writings on the subject (over 200 essays).

This book is based on the famous 1983 show of Stieglitz's work, and has been reproduced with amazing care and quality. The images are produced in tritone to give more texture and detail. The paper is of archival quality. Most people's diplomas are not on paper this good or this thick. There is a luxurious feeling to just hold the pages.

The 73 images were selected by Ms. O'Keeffe, Juan Hamilton (her friend and assistant), and curator Sarah Grenough from approximately 1600 images in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Ms. Grenough selected the writings to be used, and wrote the wonderful introduction.

From looking at these remarkable images, I came away with the impression that Stieglitz was at his best (for my taste) when he was doing portraits, abstractions, and cityscapes. Those subjects seemed to allow him to strip away the unessential better than the others he used. My favorite images in the book are:

Sun Rays -- Paula, Berlin, 1889

From the Back-Window -- 291, 1915 Self-Portrait, 1907

Marie Rapp, 1916

Arthur G. Dove, 1911-1912

Charles Demuth, 1915

Hodge Kirnon, 1917

Marcel Duchamp, 1923

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918 (3)

Margaret Treadwell, 1921

Waldo Frank, 1920

Dancing Trees, 1922

Music -- A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, VIII, 1922

Equivalent, 1931

His writings are as rewarding as his photographs. I was particularly interested in his ideas about how humans make progress. "Progress has been accomplished only by reason of the fanatical enthusiasm of the revolutionist . . . ." "Experts . . . are the result of hard work."

After you have finished enjoying this astonishingly revealing volume, I suggest that you think about how you like to express truth and beauty in your life. How can you be more direct and simple in this expression?

Be sure to live a life of "constant experimenting" like Stieglitz did!

Wonderful collection of his writing and photographs
This is far more than a picture book; it contains 73 high-quality plates and its real treasures can be found is the twenty page introduction and the fifty pages of selections from his writings about his work and views on photography. As a full time artist, I found this book to be both rich and inspiring. If you have lost sight of why you shoot pictures, try this as a reminder of clearer moments. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Fantastic. A joy to look at and to read
This book consists of a number of fascinating photos drawn from the world of science. The pictures are works of art in themselves, and include a simple scale indicator to give you a clue whether what you're looking at is microscopic or full sized. The accompanying prose explains in a short description what you're looking at and why it's so interesting. The prose is brilliantly written and easy to read.

This book is not for scientists per se, but for anyone with a fascination for the world around them. A perfect accent to any coffee table.

Great photography book !
This is not a science book ! The photos are really great, but the name fooled me...it is not a book on surface science ! Just a photography book that have some phothos that were taken with the help of scientific media.....

Intriguing pictures and understandable explanations
As a student in Material Science and Engineering, I couldn't resist when I heard of this book, and I was not disappointed. Mrs. Frankel's photography is beautiful and illustrative without losing an artful touch as far as composition is concerned, and Mr. Whitesides' explanations can be easily grasped due to their intuitive approach. For someone who wants to know more about the science behind the effects the explanations may not be detailed enough, which is why I don't rate this book a ten, but whoever desires to gain an overview of surface effects and understand the basics of it, this is the book to read. I sincerely recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Love-ins and sit-ins, the "back to the earth" movement, nude beaches, the "New Age" quest for spirituality, reggae culture and The Grateful Dead, the New York Mets, and life on Martha's Vineyard-from an early age Peter Simon has delighted in documenting the world around him through photography. Here is his life's work thus far, an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of his generation, featuring many of the major figures, both in the mainstream and counter-culture, of the past 40 years. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

If You Remember the '60's...
It's been said that if you remember the '60's you probably weren't really there. It's a good thing Peter had a camera because he probably would have been wondering himself what those days were like. Parts of his world, beautifully recorded, jar our memories. Whether these memories are painful or delightful, they are part of our collective story. Many '60's communes didn't allow photographs, so these may be rarer than one assumes. The book is worth looking at and reading.

Uninspired photographs and more boomer self aggrandizement
I wanted to like this book, I really did, but I couldn't get past the amateurish tone as Simon retreads that well trod path that amounts to the sixties generation stations of the cross--wealthy childhood, discovering drugs and sex at college, dropping out and living off your parents on a commune, plugging into Eastern philosophies and, finally, capitalizing on "the good old days". I found the photographs mundane and the essays almost unbearable as Simon chronicles his constant drug taking and drifting from place to place. As another reviewer wrote, I don't think we would have seen this book printed if not for his name and his celebrity sister.

Makes me wish I was born a few years earlier
Peter Simon is a talented photojournalist, and this book is the story of his life, with a definite emphasis on the 60's and early 70's counterculture years, which he lived to the fullest. It's all here: the protests, living on a commune, the eastern spiritual gurus, flirtations with nudism, the (impressive) series of hippy girlfriends, the rock stars (he's Carly Simon's brother).

I'm sure other members of his generation will find the book very nostalgic. As for me, it's almost enough to make we wish I'd been born 10 or 15 years sooner. I went to college during the early years of the Reagan administration. The 60's obviously weren't a very happy time, but it would be hard to imagine someone of my generation putting out a book like this: who would care?

The later chapters of the book are an odd lot of whatever he was shooting during those years of his life. Therefore we have some baseball coverage, some photos of landscapes and his celebrity friends on Martha's Vineyard and some coverage of Woodstock 1999. I'd judge these chapters as substantially less interesting than the early ones.

One thing this book does illustrate is the importance of connections in getting a book of photography published. I'm not saying it's not a worthy project: it certainly is. But a lot of worthy projects are never published, and it's hard to believe his sister's celebrity and his family's connections in the publishing industry ("Simon" is the "Simon" in "Simon & Schuster") weren't key factors, especially for a virtually unknown photographer.

A Titillating Journey
Ah! From the intricacies of Tree Frog Farm to the open arms of MV's shores, the reader is webbed into every fiber of Peter's life through his descriptive words and vivid photographs - so much so, that he leaves you with a dream of being one of the free spirits on the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.Thank you, Peter, for the journey!

A Great Retrospective from a Well-Timed and Well-Placed Man
In my humble opinion, the baby boomer generation lived through some of the most captivating days our world has seen. In their 57 years (and growing) life, these people have witnessed heroes rise and fall, movements come and go, events take place and gracefully (or not) assume their places in the books of time. Peter Simon seemed to always be at the right place at the right time with his ever-ready camera aimed in history's direction. His eyes, both literally and creatively speaking, have witnessed Jackie Robinson play at Ebbetts Field; they saw student unrest at Boston University in the late 1960s; they watched his generation live simply off the earth in nature-based communes in the 1970s; they traveled with Grateful Dead and Bob Marley; they captured the 1986 Mets' victory over the Red Sox in the World Series; and dearest to my heart, his eyes have seen Martha's Vineyard come of age along with he, himself. If you lived through these days, or if you wish you had, I and Eye is more than a wise choice. It is a chronicle of your greatest memories and imaginations - one that you will want to hold in the deepest space in your mind.
-
A fan,
Craig Sherman ... Read more

Book Description

Over a 7-year period, Tony and Eva Worobiec, two of the greatest photographers of all time, traveled the dusty paths of rural America, particularly in the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. The fruits of their journey are pictures so poignant and evocative of the American West that they are the photographic equivalent of a Steinbeck novel. Each amazing photo vividly reveals the struggle for survival, of a disappearing way of life, in the forgotten countryside and backroads of the U.S. In the often harsh and unforgiving landscape, the Worobiecs shot affecting and beautiful pictures of abandoned farms, schools, gas stations, grain elevators and tractors, diners, and trucks.
Tony's pictures are large format, shot in black and white, and then hand tinted. The results resemble postcards from the 1950s. Eva shoots directly in color for a more starkly modern aspect. Both achieve magnificent, and ultimately emotionally touching, results.
Along with the photographs are the words of the remaining residents, who speak sadly of better times, the friends and neighbors for whom things didn't work out, and of their own, once-flourishing piece of abandoned America.
This remarkable achievement is both an exquisite photography book and a commentary on the American way of life.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

Abandoned but thankfully not forgotten.
Fortunately for a lot of photographers abandoned man-made America seems to be just about everywhere and what a visual treat it produces. This handsome, large (check out the dimensions in the Product Details above) book of photos is a cut above the usual offering though. Rather than shoot the predictable broken and rusty commercialism everywhere the Worobiec's had the great idea of capturing one particular area of the Nation, the northwest. Here the railroads were the catalyst to opening up the landscape with towns created about every ten miles or so to service track and train. Predictably many of these settlements lacked natural resources and decent farmland so it was inevitable that the weather, depression, and technical advances in transport made so many of these towns uneconomic and many folk just left.

What I find amazing is the nature of the leaving. Many photos show inside abandoned houses still with kitchen units, phones, furniture and personal effects. Page sixty-five shows a wall calendar for July 1959 in a house in Wildrose, Nebraska and as the caption explains these were useful indicators to reveal the date of the owner's departure. Sometimes the Worobiec's found small schools abandoned, as the photo on page 117 shows, the floor awash with textbooks. As expected there are many photos of abandoned vehicles (possibly thirty-six was just a bit too many) surrounded by vegetation, rich pickings nowadays for collectors, I bet.

Another reason why I like this book is because 'Ghosts in the Wilderness' is not just a collection of photos but a travelogue as well, six chapters have lively and interesting essays about the social and economic aspects of the area. These words give more meaning to the poignancy of the images.

The printing and design is excellent, the photos are mostly one to a page with generous white, black and light grey backgrounds. I do have a criticism of the production though, the last five pages show all the photos as thumbnails with the relevant technical details, all this information could easily have been accommodated on the page with the photo and so avoid having to keep turning to the back.

I think the Worobiec's have done a wonderful job producing a book of regional photography. Oh yes, thank you Mark and Sarah who gave me this lovely book as a Christmas present. ... Read more

Book Description

Photographs of outer space--produced by earthbound and space telescopes and planet-roving satellites--have captivated a vast audience. And nowhere has this audience found more enthralling views than on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), a website so popular that it draws well over one million hits every week. The Universe: 365 Days presents in unprecedented clarity 365 spectacular images culled from the thousands that have been featured on the site, which has been hailed as one of the best science sites by both Scientific American and Popular Science magazines.

Following the enormously successful format of Abrams' Earth From Above: 365 Days, The Universe: 365 Days has been crafted by the two astrophysicists who in 1995, in collaboration with NASA, created and continue to maintain the APOD website. Accompanying each stunning image is a short explanatory text that greatly expands the reader's appreciation of the wonders of the cosmos. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

beautiful photography
There is a website called "Astronomy Picture of the Day". The website is exactly what it claims to be. Every day the website posts a new picture related to astronomy with a description of that picture written by a professional astronomer. With the first archived photo on that website from June 16, 1995, the editors of "The Universe: 365 Days" had nearly 8 years of photographs to draw on when this volume was published in May 2003. This book can be used like a calendar because that is how this book is laid out: every day of the year has an astronomy photograph, with a description of each picture.

As someone who knows very little about the universe, or astronomy, even with the descriptions next to the pictures I still wasn't always sure what I was looking at and how one picture was truly different from another. I understand that they look different and that they are pictures of very different parts of the universe, but the details are far beyond my comprehension. What is not beyond my comprehension is the fact that these are stunningly beautiful pictures. Even simple pictures that we may have seen many times before, like a picture of our planet from space, is striking and beautiful. Others are of star clusters and galaxies that are so far away and so alien that it boggles the mind to know that there are places like this out there and we really know nothing about what it would be like to travel there.

This book can be read as a calendar, where you flip the page each day and see what new photograph is waiting. It can be read like that, but I couldn't imagine only looking at one of these pictures a day. After seeing one picture, I just had to turn the page to see what wonder was waiting for me, and almost without exception, there was a wonder on every page. Beautiful space photography (though some are on Earth, and others looking out from Earth). If that sounds interesting, this collection is probably for you.

-Joe Sherry

Illuminating !
Ahhh... The beauty of the universe. Do you think it just formed itself? After looking thru the marvelous photos in this book, do yourself a favor and read up on the continuing war between science and religion.
Here is an excerpt from the latest book by Dan Brown...

"Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided an array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but it has left us in a world without wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Science proclaims that Planet Earth and its inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. A cosmic 'accident'. Even the technology that promises to unite us, divids us. Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof ha