Best of 2011

This past year, I've been reviewing photobooks regularly for Photoeye and The Brooklyn Rail, as well as occasional reviews for Ahorn Magazine. Given all this new activity, I thought it appropriate to finally post a 'best of' list this year. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with best of lists. I love reading them and secretly wait for them each year, but they also remind me of the all the books I haven't seen or missed, and generally can't afford, but now desperately want. That said, I was flattered when Photoeye asked me to contribute to their 'Best of 2011' section. My 'best of' lists have always existed solely in my head, so I thought I would finally share.

The following are in no particular order, but contain books I've reviewed and consequently spent more time with, as well as books I've returned to and grown to love over the past year. I've also added a honorable mentions/late additions section below.

Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson (MACK, 2011)
Blood streaked and gritty, Patterson’s book deconstructs a decades old crime and creates a beautiful and smart puzzle about crime, desire, hopelessness and the American landscape. If I had to pick a favorite, this would be near the top.

The Auckland Project by John Gossage and Alec Soth (Radius Books, 2011)

Two books in one by two great photographers and bookmakers. What more could you ask for?


Abendsonne by Misha De Ridder (Schaden, 2011)
Containing a mere eight images, De Ridder’s sumptuous book perfectly encapsulates the ephemeral beauty of nature.


A by Greg Halpern (J&L Books, 2011)
Filled with beauty and a keen eye for poetic details, A is a sobering journey through the back roads of America's forgotten cities.

Towards a Warm Math by Lucas Blalock (Hassla, 2011)
A book of strange photographs that pulls back the digital curtain and teases apart the possibilities of the image in the 21st century.

A New Map of Italy by Guido Guidi (Loosestrife Editions, 2011)
A long overdue US book by a contemporary Italian master. Look harder.

Photographs by Penelope Umbrico (Aperture, 2011)
An artist’s monograph brilliantly reimagined as an artist book.

Oculus by Ken Schles (Nooderlicht, 2011)
A poignant meditation on images and memory, Schles’ book is as evocative as it is beautiful.

One to Nothing by Irina Rozovsky (Kehrer, 2011)
Rozovsky's Israel is a land of modern ruins and ancient mysteries that never offers solutions, only questions and riddles.

Redwood Saw by Richard Rothman (Nazraeli, 2011)
Rothman’s first monograph documents a dying timber town and offers an affecting portrait of America struggling in the face of depletion and worn-down dreams.

Honorable Mentions/Late Additions:

Summertime by Mark Steinmetz (Nazraeli, 2011/12)
This may officially be a 2012 book. Regardless, it is the perfect coda to Steinmetz's amazing trilogy South Central, South East and Greater Atlanta (all Nazraeli). Summer break in all its lazy, boring glory.

Paloma al aire by Ricardo Cases (Photovision, 2011)
Smart but quirky design coupled with great pictures. Painted pigeon racing in all its multicolored glory.

Le Luxe by Roe Etheridge (Mack, 2011)
I can't tell if I love or hate this book. After all, who would have thought of making a book about Goldman Sacks, let alone one so weird and timely? As Beckett wrote, "Fail better."

Idyll by Raymond Meeks and Mark Steinmetz (Orchard/Silas Finch, 2011)
This is another one that may be a 2012 book, but I got a chance to look at it at the New York Editions|Artist's Book Fair this Fall. The third in a series of collaborative books between Meeks and another artist/photographer, Idyll is beautifully made and full of exquisite images.

Tooth for an Eye by Deborah Luster (Twin Palms, 2011)
A strange and haunting archive of crime scenes in NOLA.

Dirk Braeckman by Dirk Braeckman (Roma, 2011)
Although discovered late this year, this dark and brooding book is not to be missed. Tom Sandberg meets Michael Schmidt in a dingy Belgian apartment complex.

Illuminance by Rinko Kawauchi (Aperture, 2011)
More deceptively simple and poetic images by the master of the genre.

Visitor by Ofer Wolberger (Horses Think, 2011)
It is hard to pick one book from Wolberger's ambitious book project, but this one is an especially nice example from 2011.

The Significant Savages by Gregoire Pujade Lauraine (RVB Books, 2011)
Stripped of comments and status updates, Pujade Lauriane's collection of social network profile pictures offers a funny and astute portrait of our virtual selves.

Like any list, this is incomplete and entirely subjective. It is now not possible to see everything being produced - which makes it an overwhelming, but exciting time for photobooks. There are a lot of books I should probably add, but have not seen in person yet - Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada is one example. There are also many I have yet to discover. So little time...

See Photoeye's entire 'Best of 2011' list here.

Oculus by Ken Schles

My review of Ken Schles' new book Oculus (Nooderlicht, 2011) is now online at Photoeye. The book is quite unusual and beautiful.

Blurring the boundaries between a philosophical essay and photobook, Ken Schles’ new
book Oculus is a beautiful meditation on the role of images, memory and perception
in our lives. In many ways, Schles’ work builds upon the questions and concerns of
his last two books. If The Geometry of Innocence (Hatje Cantz, 2001) can be seen as a
deconstruction of photojournalism and documentary practice, and The New History
of Photography (White Press, 2008) a meditation on influence and our relationship to
history and images, Oculus pushes these questions to a deeper level and explores how we
use images to understand and construct meaning from the world around us.

Read the rest here.

The Photobook Review

Image Courtesy Aperture's blog Exposure

Aperture recently launched The Photobook Review at Paris Photo. The first issue was guest edited by Jeffrey Ladd and looks fantastic. You can get the digital version here. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

P.S. Aperture has copies in their gallery space. Get one while you can - they are going fast.

Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson

Christian Patterson's long-awaited book, Redheaded Peckerwood (Mack, 2011), is just out in the US and well worth the wait. My review of the book is now available in the Dec/Jan issue of The Brooklyn Rail. I'm a bit averse to 'best of' lists, but I have to admit this is at the top of my list for 2011.

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In the late 1950s, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate carved a bloody trail of mayhem across the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming. At the end of their three-day killing spree, more than 10 people lay dead, including Fugate’s family. Later immortalized in Terrance Malick’s film Badlands, their crime seems unimaginably horrific and unexplainable—the act of two angry, violent, and bored teenagers that defied reason. These terrible events serve as the launching pad for Christian Patterson’s fantastic new book, Redheaded Peckerwood (MACK, 2011). Moving across various photographic genres, Patterson’s work offers an oblique and mysterious exploration of desire, anger, hopelessness, and despair.

While the story and events surrounding Starkweather and Fugate serve as the spine to Patterson’s book, the work dances around its subject, weaving a complex web of visual clues and allusions. Rather than follow a narrative or documentary trajectory, the work leaps from one synecdochical fragment to the next—a burning house, bloody footprints in the snow, a rusty jack-knife planted in a scarred wall, and a spent shotgun shell are just a few of the images in the book. Each seemingly disparate photograph resonates and points obliquely not only to the tragic events and known, or imagined, facts from the case, but also build upon each other creating a sense of doom and tragedy. Interspersed throughout the book are also white sheets peppered with shotgun shells that seem to mark new chapters or the next victim, and add violent exclamation points as the book progresses.

 © Christian Patterson and Mack Books, 2011

 © Christian Patterson and Mack Books, 2011

One of the most interesting aspects of the work is the fact that Patterson employs a variety of different photographic styles. Forensic imagery, traditional documentary, appropriated and staged photographs are all blended together into a volatile mix—an enigmatic dossier of mixed facts and cryptic clues. Various ephemera recovered from the crimes, victims, or used by law enforcement—including a map, a confession letter, painted signs, archival photos, and personal notes—are included either as facsimiles, inserts, or reproductions throughout the book. Patterson also includes photographs of various artifacts from the crimes in oddly affecting still-lifes. In one particularly poignant example, a soiled teal-colored stuffed poodle, left behind by Fugate, forlornly faces a fuchsia backdrop, its face turned away. Although not immediately obvious, Patterson purposely includes both archival and staged photographs, as well as images of real and fake artifacts. By mixing fact and fiction, the work gains meaning not as we struggle to decipher all the clues, but as we forge associative links between the images and trigger our own emotional and imaginative response to the tragic events and violence.

  © Christian Patterson and Mack Books, 2011

 © Christian Patterson and Mack Books, 2011

Employing a variety of different styles and genres, Patterson has arrived at an approach that fits the project perfectly. Relatively small for a photobook at roughly 8 by 10 inches, Redheaded Peckerwood packs a wallop. Accompanying the work is an afterword by Karen Irvine, the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, who offers excellent insight into the meaning, significance, and context of Patterson’s work. Luc Sante contributes the other essay and is a perfect choice for the book’s dark subject matter. Author of such classics as Low Life, Sante offers an astute reflection not only on Patterson’s work, but on crime, violence, and American culture.

 © Christian Patterson and Mack Books, 2011

How do you make sense of something so horrible, events that have no rhyme or reason? Like any good artist, Patterson makes little attempt to offer reassurance, clarity, or explanation. Like an incomplete crime dossier or the scrapbook of a beleaguered detective, Redheaded Peckerwood leaves the viewer combing through the ashes and bloody snow struggling to piece together the motives of a crime committed long ago. In the end, it is not a matter of solving the crime—Starkweather confessed and was executed, and Fugate was paroled in 1976. Patterson’s work asks deeper questions about our own personal relationship with violence—where it comes from, how it shapes our lives, and the shocking indelible marks it leaves on our lives, imagination, and the landscape around us. Patterson has plumbed the depths of the American psyche and emerged with something dark, brooding, complex, and wholly engaging.

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To read the rest, pick up a copy of the Rail if you are in Brooklyn or read it online here. You can also get a copy of the book here or here.

Please Note: Caril Ann Fugate's name is incorrectly spelled Fulgate in paragraph 3. The correction was made online, but remains in print.