The Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Research Center
410 Chartres St
New Orleans, LA 70130
Friday, December 9, 2011 :: 5-7pm
A multiple artist book-signing event featuring:
Shannon Brinkman – “Preservation Hall”
Ashley Gilbertson – “Whisky Tango Foxtrot”
Loli Kantor – “There Was a Forest”
Deborah Luster – “Tooth For An Eye”
James A. Reeves – “The Road to Somewhere”
Josephine Sacabo* – “Oyeme Con Los Ojos” + “Pedro Paramo”
Jennifer Shaw – “Hurricane Story”
Mary Virginia Swanson – “Publish Your Photography Book”
This event is presented in partnership with Octavia Books and The Historic New Orleans Collection.
Preservation Hall
By Shannon Brinkman,
Eve Abrams
Paperback: 144 pages, 132 color photographs
Dimensions: 9.50 x 9.50
ISBN: 9780807137260
Louisiana State University Press
March 2011
$24.95
Preservation Hall, located in the French Quarter just three blocks from the Mississippi River, remains an icon of New Orleans and an essential stop for all fans of traditional jazz. Since the early 1960s “The Hall” has served as a sanctuary for the Crescent City’s rich and illustrious jazz heritage, a haven for players, and an incubator for successive generations of jazz musicians. Seven nights a week the venue fills to capacity with die-hard fans and curious tourists eager to hear live New Orleans jazz played by a mix of veteran musicians and up-and-coming players. Preservation Hall dedicates itself to the authentic performance of traditional jazz. The space inside seems simple, and a large portion of the audience must stand in the back, behind a limited number of benches, chairs, and floor cushions. The Hall has no dance floor and serves no food or drink. In Preservation Hall, the music alone fills the space between listener and player.
In their rare behind-the-scenes portrait, New Orleans photographer Shannon Brinkman and audio documentarian Eve Abrams capture the rhythm and cool of this historic club with both a pulsating array of images and the heartfelt words of band members.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
By Ashley Gilbertson
Hardcover: 260 pages
Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.6 x 1
ISBN: 978-0226293257
University Of Chicago Press
$35
“Remarkable. An Australian freelancer in his twenties, [Gilbertson] went to northern Iraq before the war and has been going back ever since, mostly on contract for the Times. His new book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot collects Gilbertson’s four years of work in Iraq, with an introduction by his Times colleague Dexter Filkins, and a colloquial, self-revealing text beautifully written by the photographer himself. The pictures chart the descent of Iraq from the initial post-invasion euphoria into the extreme violence of the battles for Karbala, Samarra, and Falluja. They also show a young photojournalist, who “wasn’t interested in covering combat,” learning his craft, proving his mettle, forcing himself into situations that nearly destroy him morally as well as physically, and finally discovering, amid the inferno of Falluja in November, 2004, the strange tenderness that characterizes the very greatest war photography. Gilbertson’s pictures from the battle of Falluja . . . perform the opposite function of the war pornography that Abu Ghraib and Zarqawi gave the world: they give back their subjects the humanity that the war is taking away.”
George Packer, New Yorker
THERE WAS A FOREST
Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Today
By Loli Kantor
Hardcover: 87 pages with 49 plates
Dimensions: 6.5 x 8.5
Limited Edition Artist’s Book
Numbered and signed by the artist
ISBN: 978-0-615-34192-7
L. Nowlin Gallery, 2010
$45
Loli Kantor traveled to Poland and Ukraine in 2004-2008 to document contemporary Jewish Life. THERE WAS A FOREST: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Today showcases some of her works in color and palladium 2005-2008 and is printed in an edition of 500 numbered copies. The book includes an essay by Anne Helmreich, Ph.D., Director, Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and Assiociate Professor of Art History, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Printed in conjunction with the exhibition: ‘ There was a Forest ‘ at the L. Nowlin Gallery, Austin, Texas, 2010, and in conjunction with The Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. The book was printed by A.R. printers, Tel Aviv, Israel, with the support of L. Nowlin Gallery, Austin, TX
‘Memory and hope are visible in the moving and surprising scenes of daily life among the revived Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. The palladium prints echo the indelible images of Roman Vishniac and others whose recording of the shtetl and its inhabitants in the 1930s proved to be the final snapshots of a doomed life’.
Robert Abzug, Ph.D, Director, The Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies
University of Texas at Austin
Tooth For An Eye
By Deborah Luster
Casebound: 64 Pages, with 30 Duotone Plates
Dimensions: 17 x 14
ISBN: 978-1-931885-96-6
Twin Palms, Spring 2011
$75.00
The city of New Orleans is a topographical/ architectural/material/cultural phenomenon with a diverse population participating in raucously colorful and fascinating pursuits and rituals. Homicide is a cultural fact of the life in the city as well. In her second book, Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish, Deborah Luster explores the city in a new way, creating a compelling portrait in the form of a photographic archive of contemporary and historic homicide sites. Following on from her first book, Prisoners of Louisiana, Tooth for an Eye explores the themes of loss and remembrance in a series of tondo photographs that offer an opportunity for the viewer to enter deeper into the idea of the city, a place where life and death coexist, neither free of the other’s infuence.
The Road to Somewhere
By James A. Reeves
Paperback: 411 pages
Dimensions: 7.6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-393-34005-1
W.W. Norton, August 2011
$25.00
A photo memoir of one man’s travels through America that is as sprawling and chaotic as the country itself.
One day James A. Reeves realized that he no longer understood his country or what he should be doing in it. There was a time when the road to manhood was clear-go to war, find a job with a big company, wear a tie, and start a family -but then the wars got strange and companies changed. He decided to go for a drive to clear his head. What resulted is a scattershot journey spanning five years, forty thousand miles, twelve speeding tickets, and several moments of unexpected kindness through the neon corridors and dark corners of America.
Reeves drove along the back roads taking pictures and looking for answers, kept company by the nervous chatter of talk radio and the ambient drone of twenty-four-hour diners, as he drifted toward a slow reckoning with his own compulsions and unexpected loss.
Óyeme Con Los Ojos
By Josephine Sacabo
Clothbound Hardcover: 86 pages
Dimensions: 10.25 x 11.75
November 2011
$60
Josephine Sacabo’s photographs transfer the viewer into a world of constructed beauty. Built upon a foundation of poetry and literature, her many portfolios are visual manifestations of the written word. Óyeme con los Ojos [Hear Me With Your Eyes] collects imagery spanning Sacabo’s career. The selected photographs and photogravures convey a vision that is dreamlike, surreal, and romantic. The black linen and embossed hardcover catalog was published in conjunction with Sacabo’s retrospective exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
Hurricane Story
By Jennifer Shaw
Clothbound Hardcover: 112 pages
Dimensions: 6.75 x 6.75
ISBN: 978-0-9844576-3-2
BROKEN LEVEE BOOKS
Summer 2011
$18.00
Hurricane Story is a spellbinding odyssey of exile, birth and return told in forty-six photographs and simple, understated prose. This first-person narrative told through dreamlike images of toys and dolls chronicles one couple’s evacuation from New Orleans ahead of the broken levees, the birth of their first child on the day that Katrina made landfall, and their eventual return to the city as a family. Jennifer Shaw’s photographs, at turns humorous and haunting, contrast deftly with the prose. This clothbound hardcover edition includes an introduction by Rob Walker, author of Letters From New Orleans and former “Consumed” columnist for The New York Times Magazine.
Publish Your Photography Book
By Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson
Paperback: 224 pages
Dimensions: 7 x 9 inches
ISBN: 9781568988832
Princeton Architectural Press
Spring 2011
$29.95
We live in the golden age of the photography book. Since the early 1990s, the number of photography book publishers has continued to grow while technological developments have placed more tools for bookmaking directly in the hands of photographers. For the students and working artists who have chosen photography as their primary means of expression, having their own photography book is seen as a passport to the international photography scene. Yet, few have more than a tentative grasp of the component parts of a book, an understanding of what they want to express, or the know-how needed to get a book published. Publish Your Photography Book is the first book to demystify the process of producing and publishing a book of photographs.
Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson survey the current landscape of photography book publishing and point out the many avenues to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. This expert guide is organized in six sections covering the rich history of the photo book; an overview of the publishing industry; an intimate look at the process of making a book; a close review of how to market a photo book; a section on case studies, built around discussions and interviews with published photographers; and a final section presenting a wealth of resources and information to aid in the understanding of the publishing world. Publish Your Photography Book also includes a number of additional interviews and contributions from industry professionals, including artists, publishers, designers, packagers, editors, and other industry experts who openly share their publishing experiences.
*Josephine Sacabo’s keynote lecture presentation will immediately follow the book signing, from 7-9pm. Several of Sacabo’s books will be available for purchase, which the artist will be available to sign following her presentation.
