As a bonus book from the shelves of Coventry University’s library I found this little gem – Tom Wood – ‘All Zones off Peak’. Well worth a look over the summer break, and much more to look at if you like this one!
“All Zones Off Peak is an extraordinary book. Wood has spent over fifteen years and shot over 3,000 rolls of film photographing Liverpool and its people from a bus. Visually stunning and dramatically revealing it is a body of work of immense power.”
“As good a set of photographs as one sees every five or ten years – if you’re lucky”
– Lee Friedlander
Term is coming to a close at Coventry University but the #fromthelibrary sessions run by the Photo Book Club have been a success with the first year students. We have discussed a whole host of books and many that I had never encountered before were brought along from the library shelves, which was great to see.
I am looking forward to runnig more of these session in conjunction with the Photo Book Club, if anyone is interested – send me an email matt@photobookclub.org
This week we will be discussing Kakulya and Mingard – ‘East of a New Eden’ documenting New Europe’s external borders. If you have would like to comment on the book, get involved in the comment section here, or by using the hashtag #fromthelibrary on twitter.
In last week’s session students brought all brought books from the library as well as looking closely at the ‘Border Film Project’
East of a New Eden
Alban Kakulya and Yann Mingard
Lars Muller Publishers 2010 Amazon UK Link
Dipping in and out of this book will be rewarding for those looking for a beautifully presented selection of euro-style images. But the real reward of this books requires investment in it’s documentation and factual pages that accompany the photographers images – Matt
“Europe’s new eastern borders stretch from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea: 1,600 heavily guarded kilometres between former ‘fraternal countries’. The photographers Yann Mingard and Alban Kakulya spent a long time on the road; one of them travelled down from the North and the other up from the South in an effort to document the places and landscapes that mark the end of the Western world. On their journey they photographed the landscape as well as the border posts with their soldiers and their refugees seized at the frontier, and documented a reality defined in faraway Strasbourg, Brussels, and elsewhere. Explanatory maps and satellite images are juxtaposed in this book with the striking photographs. Articles by political scientists, security experts, sociologists, human rights specialists, and philosophers, as well as literary texts round out this photographic survey of the EU’s Eastern European external borders.”
It was great to find rare, original copies of Graham’s earlier books – ‘A1 The Great North Road’, ‘Beyond Caring’ and ‘Troubled Land’, along with ‘New Europe’, and the Phaidon ‘Contemporary Artists monograph’ offering a look at work between 1981 – 1996.
All books are now back on the library shelves for the students to discover before our visit.
Images Online:http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/a1.html Here, in Graham’s first publication, he documents both the physical landscape and people that inhabit the roadside service stations, rest-stops and motels of the Great North Road in order to ‘weave a picture of England in the 1980’s’. Beyond Caring, 1986
Paul Graham
Images online: http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/beyondcaring.html#a ‘Beyond Caring’ chronicles the state of employment in 80’s Britain through images made in the waiting rooms, corridors and cubicles of the department of social security and department of employment.
Images Online:http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/troubledland.html Troubled Land was Graham’s last book produced in the 80’s and followed the style of the two previous publications via ‘Grey Editions’. This time examining the subtle relationship between the landscape of Northern Ireland and the ‘troubles of its society’.
Images Online:http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/neweurope.html ‘New Europe seeks to dig beneath the utopian dream of a united continent arising to face the 21st century. Paul Graham’s photographs reflect on the inescapable shadow of history that falls over each nation’s conscience, from the dictatorships of Franco and Hitler, to the Holocaust and the Irish conflict.’ (From back cover of ‘New Europe’)
This book features a collection of Graham’s images, along with essays and an interview to provide a solid overview of his work up to 1996. The extensive interview with Gillian Wearing, is alone worth the read and to find a conversation with the great Lewis Baltz at the end of the book is a great treat.
A book from the shelves of the Coventry University Photography library:
Matt Johnston will be discussing this book, among others, with students in a Photo Book Club meeting next week
Border Film Project, Photos by Migrants and Minutemen on the US – Mexico Border
Rudy Adler, Victoria Criado, Brett Huneycutt
Abrams 2007 Amazon UK Link
Not only is this a great example of how a photography book can be powerful, emotive, challenging and important, but all without a trained photographers image present. Often we forget that many times, your subject is the best person to tell the story. – Matt
“We handed out six hundred disposable cameras to two groups on opposite sides of the U.S – Mexico border – undocumented migrants crossing the desert and American Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them” – Border Film Project
The Photo Book Club’s Matt Johnston is currently residing in the Midlands, England, and so making use of the excellent photography section in the Coventry University library. Starting shortly, Matt will be posting some of the books found on the shelves of the library along with a brief synopsis under the headline and hashtag #fromthelibrary. As well as this online post, Matt will be meeting with students and holding informal discussions on these books, and the various books that students will bring to the sessions.
As with everything on the Photo Book Club we would love to get your thoughts and discussion on the books. You can use the hashtag #photobc on Twitter, or use the comments section below this post.
And if you want to see one of the #fromthelibrary books given a thorough look by the Photo Book Club and community, let us know!