This book was published five years ago, and we are shocked that it is still available. It has a series of 18 wonderful landscapes, and a set of double sided pages that can be removed to form two different wall sized photographs. The pieced together image is not a Gursky, but it would make any dentist from the 70’s envious, and have flashbacks of their waiting room. In the current economical climate you probably will hold off on buying that Gursky, but you can afford to purchase this book before it’s out of print. Right now, Wilderness is a steal at $42…add one to your collection. -PIP

In this book, lushly photographed flora isolated in nature alternates with enlarged details from the wilderness compositions that emphasize the four-color separation methods used in commercial printing. The detail pages encourage appreciation for the graphic qualities of the quiet views of undeveloped nature where tree bark ridges and layered flowering branches become organic patterns. The book’s pages are perforated for easy removal as the included images can be assembled to create two wall sized installations, each 1644 x 2082 mm (64.5 x 82.1 inches). -Artimo

Wilderness is available at Ooga Booga

Earlier this year we posted about Farwell’s most recent release Making a Map by Wakaba Noda. Since then we have seen the rest of their books, and we’re thoroughly impressed with all of the books produced by this press. Each book has a unique feel, and the design compliments the photographic work. Thus far they have an interesting lineup. Sign up for their mailing list, and take note of any book released by this press. -PIP

Farewell Books is an independent publisher based in Gothenburg, Sweden. We produce and publish limited edition books with photography as our primary interest. Farewell Books was founded in 2007. -Farewell

Books are available direct from Farewell

This is the first book by Leigh Ledare a recent graduate of Columbia University. It is an intimate look at his mother, and their sometimes oddly close relationship. Included are personal writings by Ledare…interesting, yet sometimes skanky photographs documenting their artistic collaboration. Ledare employs a raw, intimate, “snapshot” aesthetic placing him into the lineage of Nan Goldin and Jim Goldberg. He knows how to manipulate this genre, and does not fall into the trappings, which many young photographers who dabble in this lineage tend to do. Ledare’s work feels indulgent, but more performance based when compared to his peers. The book feels very personal, and you inevitably feel like a creep probing through someone’s dirty undies.

The design of the book has the look and feel of Raised by Wolves, but the spine doesn’t break as soon as it’s opened. It is also housed in a graphic slipcase, which does not give any signs of the intimacy within.

Regardless of your moral compass, this is an interesting book with strong design. Add it to your collection before it is out of print, and out of your price range. -PIP

Composed in its entirety of photographs, written anecdotes and ephemera, Leigh Ledare’s first book, Pretend You’re Actually Alive, is a searingly intimate investigation of the artist’s relationship with his mother, a once-promising prodigy ballerina.

Both a revealing family album, and an unfolding of the relationship between Ledare and his muse/mother, Ledare’s photography and video work involves creating strategies to navigate the themes embodied within this extraordinarily complex relationship. Pretend You’re Actually Alive can be viewed as an archive of a mother and son’s shared, private moments amidst the desperate attempts to renew her identity as a dancer - this ­time working as a stripper in a club beside her parents’ apartment. Pretend You’re Actually Alive is also a mapping of Ledare’s mother’s efforts to commodify herself –initially through her precocious childhood talent, later through her overt sexuality, and eventually through the portrayal of herself as an archetypal victim – in efforts to find companionship, attention, financial security, and a benefactor before her youthful, marketable currencies expire.

Pretend You’re Actually Alive is foundational to Ledare’s continuing investigations around portraiture, issues of authorship, collaboration, performance, authenticity, and an ongoing inquiry into the ways in which personal boundaries complicate subjectivity. -PPP Editions

Pretend You’re Actually Alive is published in an edition of 1000 slipcased copies.

Pretend You’re Actually Alive is available at Dashwood

This small press has hit the nail on the head. Their books are beautiful objects, in which, the design is influenced by the work housed within. They are also very affordable ranging in price from $10 - $20. You should really give this press a look, and pick up a copy of Alpine Star by Ron Jude…an interesting book where Jude appropriates photographs from a local newspaper. More to come about A-Jump books in the near future. -PIP

A-Jump Books is a small publishing house dedicated to producing books that challenge convention through understatement and artistic rigor. Using the “artist’s book” concept as a model, we publish projects that are conceived of and designed as self-contained works. A-Jump

Signed copies of all books are available directly from A-Jump

We love this book…it has been in the collection since it was published in 2007. PIP is looking forward to Odermatt’s follow-up Off Duty, also being published by Steidl in 2009. Keep an eye out for it, and add On Duty to your collection today. -PIP

Arnold Odermatt joined the police force in his native Swiss canton of Nidwalden in 1948, when he was just in his twenties. When he retired more than 40 years later as Vice Commander of the department and Lieutenant Director of Traffic Police, he found sudden, unexpected fame as an artist. His photographs of the vehicle accidents that had been part of his professional life, collected in the book Karambolage, led to international recognition: his work was shown at the 2001 Armory Fair and Venice Biennale, followed by solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 and at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2004.br/>

In addition to his car crash photographs, Odermatt has also used his camera to recreate scenes from his days in law enforcement, spurred on by the fears of the shrinking Nidwalden police force, in hopes of enticing the village youth to join its increasingly unfashionable ranks. On Duty collects these images, which are populated by Odermatt’s colleagues reenacting their daily adventures, in a compelling sequence of colorful tableaux. It is a strange and impressive document offering unexpected insight into a hidden world. -Steidl

On Duty is available at Amazon

It took us forever to get our hands on this book. It was worth the wait because the book is terrific. Cuny Janssen is making some of the most interesting books currently. Pick up any of her books, you will not be disappointed. -PIP

Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen’s landscapes and portraits of children track her travels from Iran to India, Macedonia, France, and back to the Netherlands. Her social concern is evident in the choice of locations and subjects, and even in her timing: she went to Macedonia after ethnic violence had left many families displaced. Although the sitters are not identified by name in her final works, Janssen spends a substantial amount of time with each child and his or her family. What emerges is a highly contemplative body of work, and an ultimately optimistic view of matters of survival and beauty. Janssen cites among her influences Thomas Struth, Robert Adams, eighteenth-century Swiss portrait painter Ferdinand Hodler and Marcel Proust. Accordingly, a commonplace book of quotes from sages including Man Ray, Carl Sandberg and Pipilotti Rist is printed on the tissue paper that is interleaved with the images. Among the quotations appears a motto of sorts for this portfolio: “Let’s be proud and friendly.” - PG

Finding Thoughts is available at Amazon

One, or all three of these new versions should be in your collection. Another amazing Steidl reprint…clearly a classic! -PIP

On May 15, 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank’s The Americans was published in Paris. Les Américains was part of a series of books which presented foreign countries through words and pictures. It contained Frank’s 83 photographs in the same sequence as all subsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page juxtaposed with texts from American social and political history, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year in the first American edition, the French texts were removed and an introduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50 years, The Americans has been republished in many editions, in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs and even in a range of sizes. It is the most famous photobook ever published, and it changed the face of the medium forever.

Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new version using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring the original prints to Göttingen, Germany, where Steidl is based, from New York.

In July, 2007, Frank visited Göttingen. A new format for the book was worked out and new typography selected. A new cover was designed and Frank personally chose the book cloth, foil for embossing and the endpaper. Most significantly, in the process of working out the layout of the photographs on the page, Frank chose to reproduce un-cropped examples of the photographs when available. Two images were changed completely from the original 1958 and 1959 editions. Then, on a sunny day in July of 2007, the presses started rolling and Robert Frank personally supervised the printing of this latest edition of The Americans.

The Americans is available at Amazon

Great production quality for a new small press. Everything about this book is well done. I really like the work, and look forward to seeing what comes next from this cool little press, and Wakaba Noda.

Buy it from Farewell, not PhotoEye! - PIP

Trying to create a perfect place by assembling photographs of small wonders, Noda makes a map of a world not defined by geography, but by the possibilities that photography offers. Making A Map is Wakaba Noda’s first book. -Farewell

Making a Map is available here